Well it's starting to get cold here in Minnesota, so it's time for us to get the heck out of dodge! We took our first cruise the week before Thanksgiving and absolutely loved it. We flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico where we boarded our Carnival cruise ship, and then had stops in St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Maarten -- It was a dream come true to visit those places! Every island was beautiful, and they all had their own unique characteristics.
St. Thomas -- Here we did a shopping, site seeing and beach tour. We were fortunate to do our swimming at the famous Magan's Bay, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It definitely did not disappoint!
St. Thomas -- Here we did a shopping, site seeing and beach tour. We were fortunate to do our swimming at the famous Magan's Bay, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It definitely did not disappoint!
Barbados -- After docking at port, we walked 20 minutes to this well-known beach/bar area known as the Boat Yard. Here we snorkeled (found about 10 sand dollars, only 2 made their way back home to MN), made some new friends from Texas who were also on our cruise ship, swung off a dock from a rope swing into the ocean and drank buckets of beer in the water all day long. I kept hoping for a Rihanna siting on the jet skis, but it didn't happen. Next time!
St. Lucia -- BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL! St. Lucia really had it all. We booked a full day tour with a small, family run company called Cosol Tours and I would definitely recommend them to anyone visiting the island. They treated us to local fruits and breads, all the beverages we wanted and somehow managed to show us all there is to do on the island all in one day. We visited an active volcano, took a mud bath, went inside a water fall, took a boat to a private beach right between the Piton mountains and even did some snorkeling. This was our favorite island we visited.
St. Kitts -- Our stop in St. Kitts was the only day we didn't have anything planned ahead of time, and it ended up being one of my favorites. We talked to some friends on the ship who had heard of a resort not far from the port, so we walked there expecting it to be some crowded, all-inclusive resort with tons of people. Nope. We were the only ones there. IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE. I kept saying I felt like a Kardashian to have the entire infinity pool and resort to ourselves, it was absolutely unreal. After a few hours of being spoiled rotten here, we taxied to a beach bar/restaurant called Shipwreck where we had lunch and did some more snorkeling. This area had tons of wild monkeys which were super fun to watch because a lady was feeding them bananas. Totally adorable! :-)
St. Maarten -- It was a no brainer what we'd do on our last day in St. Maarten: a combination of nothing, and watching the airplanes come in on Maho Beach. We snagged a table at the beach bar/restaurant right away in the morning and stayed there all day just watching the airplanes take off and land. Seriously could have spent my entire vacation doing this, it never got old!
The best part was waking up every morning and being on a new island to explore. We were definitely "go go go!" the entire time, so it was more of a "trip" than a "vacation," but that's how we like to travel and I'm so lucky to have such a great travel partner! Where are we going next, hubby?! :-)