Our 4th Anniversary Cruise: Ports of Call

We arrived in St. Thomas, Sunday morning. I did a little research about St. Thomas before our trip and read a lot of great reviews on Sapphire Beach, so we got a cab and she took us to this beach. 

We were told and also I read that Magen's Bay was the most beautiful beaches there is on the island. But we also learned that it was extremely crowded and Jaime isn't a fan of crowds so opted out. I kind of wished we would have gone anyways. 

Sapphire Beach was pretty and the water was mostly clear. There was a lot of seaweed and rocks on the ground. It was super quiet and not very crowded. There was a restaurant and a place to rent kayaks, snorkel gear, and chairs. We were just happy to be on the beach and on vacation! We stayed for maybe 3 hours and then decided to get back on the ship to eat lunch and lay by the pool. The drive to and from the beach wasn't so pretty. Lots of junked up homes on top of each other and trash everywhere. It's very possible we just didn't get to see the pretty parts of St. Thomas but it's our least favorite of the islands. 

Now don't think I'm being a snob, we were on an island and on vacation. I'm super thankful for this opportunity. Just giving you my opinions.

He was chucking rocks.

St. Kitts

Monday morning we arrived in St. Kitts. It was overcast and raining. Thankfully, we prepaid for an excursion where we'd be under water the whole time.

It's called Snuba diving, no, that isn't a typo. It's the combination of snorkeling and scuba diving. The contraptions in our mouths are attached to a long cord that is connected to oxygen up on a raft over head of us. We went out in groups of 6 and swam along a bay, not even sure what the beach was called. I couldn't master getting the pressure out of my ears when I'd get close to the bottom of the ocean. So I mainly just swam overhead and took pictures. I also took videos but accidentally deleted them...ALL. Grrr. 

We were hiding from the rain while the next set of 6 went out to snuba dive, when this man appeared out of no where with a monkey in a diaper. My cousin told me to make sure I took pictures with a monkey in St. Kitts but I had no idea one would be on this beach. 

I was like a giddy school girl when we walked up to him and he just like, handed me the monkey! He was making the monkey crawl around me and giving him food so he would pose for pictures. I was in heaven! And then the guy goes, "that'll be $5 each for the pictures with the monkey." HA! I guess the locals have to make money somehow. But seriously, it was a fun experience and worth it!

Still so happy even when his tail slapped me in the face.

Jaime is using my beach blanket as a towel because I forgot to grab some when we got off the boat. #wifefail

haha! My favorite picture! Flying monkey! Wizard of Oz, is that you?

You may be wondering what's so special about this picture? Well, the west side of the island borders the Caribbean sea and the east side faces the Atlantic ocean. Pretty neat!

I don't remember what was so great about what was behind us but it's a pretty view!

Short story about this picture: As we were leaving the shopping area, our driver who took us to go Snuba diving spotted us and ran up to us with a fellow snuba diver's Seapass card (how you get on and off the boat, get in your room, pay for things on the boat, etc.). So we were like oh no! This guy! How's he gonna get back on the boat?! Jaime felt like it was divine intervention that we were given this guy's card and to find him. So we spent 30 minutes waiting by the gate for him and then Jaime took off to find him in all the little shops. We finally just asked a Royal Caribbean personnel what we should do and how this guy was going to get back on the boat. Apparently, security would bring him to the gate, they'd look him up and then print him a new card. Easy peasy. So we never did find him but we tried. 

Fast forward to that night on the ship, we went to 80's Music Trivia and guess who we ran into?! That guy! After that, we just kept running into him and his friends. We played lots of couples and trivia games with them. They were super fun to hang out with, even if they were like 15 years older than us. 

Curacao

We had a sailing day in between St. Kitts and Curacao. 

I hadn't done much research about Curacao so I didn't really know what we were gonna do on this island but it turned out to be our second favorite island! I read in the daily newsletter on ship that Curacao was known for Hato Caves which had waterfalls, hiking trails, etc. So we took a cab to tour it.

There were no waterfalls. There's only a tiny one in the cave IF it's been raining for days. Which is funny since it's very desert-y. The hike is just up the hill to the caves. And the whole tour lasted maybe 20 minutes. haha. We did see lots of bats. So that was a bust. Don't waste your money ($30 cab fare + $16 for the tour) going here. Unless you're into that kind of thing.

Top of the cave, which used to be in the ocean before the Flood, hence the green algae on the cave walls.

Then our cab driver said she knew a small beach that was kind of nice and close by. We were a little skeptical but really wanted to be on the beach that day. She really talked it down and I was starting to get nervous.

Until we pulled up! Oh my word! It looks like paradise!

The water was so so so clear! The clearest and bluest water I've ever been in until we went to Aruba! There were all kinds of fish swimming all around us and the farther we snorkeled out, the more there were! We rented snorkel gear for the day for $30. We spent 5 hours there and got our moneys worth, hence all the pictures you are about to see. 

Remember the book, 'The Rainbow Fish'? That's what this guy reminded me of! You can't really tell in this picture but he was all different colors and beautiful! 

Aruba

Last port. Womp Womp Womp. But they definitely saved the best for last! I love love love love Aruba and I only went to one tiny section of it. I had read many blogs and reviews about Renaissance Hotel and its private island with flamingos. I saw the pictures and I was sold! We rented day passes for the island, which included lunch, a cocktail, and free 1 hr sessions on all their non-motorized water sport items. It was kind of expensive but it was our anniversary so we splurged. It was $98 a person, which if you add all the toys we got to play with plus the lunch, we would have spent close to that anyways. It was about a 15-20 minute walk from the ship to the hotel. Then you got on a boat IN the hotel that took you to the island which was about a 10 minute ride. So cool. Also, the boat comes every 15 minutes. Nice, right? And the boat dock in the hotel was next to a Starbucks-FREE INTERNET! I got on wifi, while we waited, to text our parents real quick and then signed off. I almost posted a picture from the island upon our return but if you read yesterday's post, we had to haul butt to get to the ship in time for our massages. 

Enough of my rambling! 

 Where we camped out for the day. We needed shade by that Thursday! We had gotten so much sun!

This was the Family Friendly side called Iguana Beach. Flamingo Beach was Adults Exclusive which we didn't realize until a woman's top came off. In case you go there, I warned you.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to this island! So worth it! Live flamingos, just walking around!

Lots of iguana's on this island!

There were fish swimming all around me because I was dropping flamingo food.

I love love love paddle boarding! I could have paddled all afternoon.

Oh yeah, the island is next to an airport. So there were planes coming in and leaving ever so often. It didn't bother us, but that's one thing you might want to know before going.

We sailed passed the island that we spent the day on!

So that's that! All the islands that we got to visit and explore. The other 3 cruises I have been on didn't go this far south, so all of these were new to me-which I loved! I highly recommend this cruise, mainly for these great islands that you get to go to! It costs a little more than leaving from FL and going on those cruises but I think traveling and seeing more of this beautiful world that we live in, is worth it! I hoped you guys enjoyed my bajillion pictures! 

Feel free to email me (faithnallthings(at)yahoo(dot)com) for advice or any questions that you may have. I booked our flights, excursion, and massage with Thomas Travel Inc. / Travel Leaders in Danville, KY. I used to work for them and I love their expertise!

Happy Travels Friends! Can't wait to see where we end up in the years to come!