Full Review
ST THOMAS, Wednesday June 26:We were scheduled for our first port of call from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. It was a beautiful sunshine filled day with an occasional lone cloud blowing by with temperatures to be in the mid 80's. No worries. There are quite a few shops around the cruise pier and the always popular Senor Frogs at the end of the pier. The Carnival Liberty would join us an hour later and Carnival had the only two ships in harbor this day.
I had booked a shopping, sightseeing amd beach excursion with Sunny Liston Tours for approximately $20 less per person than was offered through the excursion desk and we had more time for the excursion. You must be warned about Sunny Liston Tours. If you are somewhat introverted and do not like to sing along and have fun then this is not the tour for you. All the other tours knew when our group was coming down the road. There were plenty of sing alongs with popular party songs lead by Sunny with lots of hooting and cheering which caused many of the stoic participants in other tours to look at the loud, fun group approaching.
We were picked up promptly at 9:00 am as scheduled by Sunny himself, a popular gentleman who seemed to know most everyone around the pier. We were taken the couple miles into downtown and shown the pickup location for the tour continuation at noon time. There were plenty of shops to browse and they all appeared to have special 'deals' for the Carnival passengers. There are quite a few small alleys the run between the two main streets and there are some hidden shops and bars along the way. The time for shopping was just enough and right on time we found Sunny waiting for our group at the designated spot.
We left the downtown area and began the tour of the island with stops at a lookout point above the harbor, Drakes seat and Montain Top all which provided beatiful views of the sea and neighboring islands. Sunny also provided brief histories at each stop about the islands and the pirates back in the day. From the Mountain Top location we had a great view of Megan's Bay. Beautiful.
Next we were on to Coki Beach for two hours. As expected with two large ships in harbor the beach was pretty crowded and you could see many Carnival towels spread around. My son and I brought his snorkel and mask and my googles and we spent most of the two hours off the beach admiring scores of brilliant color fish. There wasn't any coral to be seen but then we were only about 20 feet deep. Toward the left as you look out toward the water is where we found all the fish. There was too much swim activity around mid beach. The water was swimming pool clear and warm. Great day at the beach, thank you Sunny Liston.
The liberty sailed just a couple minutes before we did and it was a very pretty sail away with a light breeze. Once out of the breakwater the Liberty turned northwest while we headed south.
Check out the St Thomas day Fun Times Cover page, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
ANTIGUA, Wednesday June 27:The Valor was the only ship in port on this hot and muggy day(mid 80's with 80% humidity). The plan for Antigua was to walk the town shopping. There is an area immeidately outside the gates of the cruise pier that is well maintained, clean and populated by varous jewelry, souvenir and cigar shops as well as an open air bar/snack bar.
After you leave this two block area and enter the public streets thigs change a bit. Off to the right is a swap meet like covered area where many local vendors are crammed together. There were plenty of souvenirs such as t-shirts, womens beach wraps, sea shells, magnets etc. They were not very receptive to price negotiations for their objects except for a small handful. The vendors were quite aggressive trying to gain the attention of their visitors, so much so that two women got into a heated argument about who's customers we were. I thought they were close to striking each other before others separated them.
Exiting the swap meet area we enter the heart of the city where we criss crossed a couple blocks each direction. The infratructure of the city is not in the best of shape and you need to really watch your step to avoid broken curb or drainage grates or missing slats of wood over the sewer run offs. It is a reasonably compact area an easy to navigate from that standpoint but we really found nothing that got our interest along our shopping trek so we found a shop with some shaded seats that sold beers 2 for $5 so we sat for a while to cool off and to watch the locals for a while. I tried a local Anriguan lager which tasted very similar to a Heineken but without the slight skunky after taste. Not too bad and it was ice cold. The second round er tried Carib lager which was similar to Corona.
After cooling off we started to head back to the cruise pier politely passing a few panhandlers (just like back in a US city) and dodging the swap meet vendors. Other than the aggressive vendors in the swap meet area, we found the locals to be very friendly and we felt safe walking around the town but it was our least favorite of the ports I guess mostly because it felt dirty in many ways with the broken sidewalks, open drains etc. If we were to visit again I would look into an excursion which would pick us up at the cruise pier and take us by boat to a beach or snorkel activity.
Check out the Antigua day Fun Times Cover page, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
Tortola, Thursday June 28:This was my favorite of the four ports that we visited and we were again the only ship in port, another mid 80 degree day. The city is clean and the locals very friendly. We had been to Tortola before so this time we were just going to do the city for shopping and some bar hopping. Interesting though something I found out about the level with which the Carnival Corp controls some of these places. The line offers a Dolphin swim adventure through the excursion desk for $170 per person. The same tour can be had directly from the vendor for $95 per adult and $85 per child under 10 UNLESS YOU ARE A CRUISE PASSENGER with Carnival, Princess and HAL etc. When the website asked which ship you were arriving on I clicked the button and got the message than they were unable to take the reservation for me, that I had to book through the cruise line. I called and spoke to Manuel for the Dolphin adventure vendor ahd he confirmed that they have a contract with Carnvial AND that the cruise line has a representative who come to the site to book any cruise line passengers who walk up. Can you say GREED, COLLUSION. I can't entirely blame Carnival because the dolphin adventure vendor is the only one providing that tour so they did not have to enter into an agreement with Carnival but chose to do so for their benefit. I guess Micky has to gouge extra money wherever he can to pay for the salaries of the players for his Miami Heat. Sure I could have claimed to be a guest at a local hotel and arrive by taxi, leaving anything Carnival (beach towels) behind but the fact the tour vendor plays along with Carnival to that extent turned me off. I am now more determined to never book an excursion through the cruise line.
Before I digressed we were going for a shopping trek in Tortola. It is maybe a mile walk (max) to get from the pier to the edge of town and along the way they do set up a vendor area along the way just outside the secured pieer area. These vendors were very laid back and gladly answered any questions but did not solicit or pitch their ware in any way. It was an easy walk around town, the motorist were all friendly and yielded to the pedestrians at crossings and those on foot mostly said hello. We must have visited every jewelry store and T-shirt store in town and found some good deals but were hot and thirsty so we found a bar just outside the secured cruise pier area that also had beer at 2 for $5. I was disappointed that they did not have a beer that I had not tried before so I settled for a couple Coronas. Once cooled down adequately we made our way back to the ship.
Check out the Tortola day Fun Times Cover page, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
Nassau, Saturday June 30:The Valor arrived in Nassau slightly before noon and the Fascination and the Imagination were already in port. The Monarch of the Seas joined us about 30 minutes later. With four ships in port we had long ago decided to avoid the excursion scene and were content with window shopping along the town streets and checking out the Straw Market. The streets were clean, the locals very friendly and the vendors in the Straw Market were not aggressive in the least. It was a very nice day for a stroll and we got lucky that there was a brief shower that cooled things off for a while and it did nto get too humid after the clouds cleared again.
After four hours of shopping we headed back to the ship for some lemonade and a calzone. The Fascination was scheduled to sail at 6:00pm and the Valor at 7:00pm. It was interesting watching the pier runners for the Fascination, most appeared to be coming from Senor Frogs based on their balloon animal hats and their staggered walk. The captain held the ship for 15 minutes to get the last three women back on board, balloon hats and all. The Valor sailed right on time with no evidence of pier runners. Most likely one of the differences between a three day party cruise and an 8-day family cruise.
Check out the Nassau day Fun Times Cover page, Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
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