Honneymoon on the Serenade- S.Caribbean 04/30/11- My first Trip Report w/ pictures

[WeLove2CruiseRCI]

I have problems attaching pictures like you have with scooters! lol I'm trying. Sorry

[Venusleo1]

We spent about 30 minutes here and they served us a local rum punch. We all got back on the boat and headed back to the port

 

Goodbye rendezvous beach we will be back!

 

Maybe we'll buy one of these and can visit rendezvous beach whenever we want

 

Coming back into port we got to see the aft sides of both Caribbean Princess and Serenade.

 

So once we arrived back at the pier we still had some time and we decided to go walk around and try to pick up some souveniers. The shopping area was almost like a flea market and as we were coming down the road we were approached by a man who wanted very badly to sell my husband some drugs. Shane is new to traveling and I knew he was uncomfortable. He kept telling the guy no thank you and walking away but the man followed. I went to pull Shane away and the man told me "I aint gonna steal him Maam" okay great Im glad but just GO AWAY! We're not in the market for drugs we would like to buy my dad a tank top. We did find my dad a tank top for $7 they would NOT bargain here at all. I offered $5 to one lady she said no and let me walk right away I tried $6 elsewhere and they let me go to so I paid $7.

 

We then boarded the ship and headed up to the Sea View Cafe. Make sure you try this place it really is great. Hot made to order food fast. I had a cuban one and some fish and chips another time and I dont know what Shane had we went a few different times but each time it was very good.

 

After our snack I honestly have no clue. I know we went to dinner in the Main Dinning room maybe caught the show which was a singing impersonator which we enjoyed. Every night after dinner we would maybe walk around stop at the Pit Stop and go to bed.

 

Tomorrow morning is our very early morning 8:30 meet up for Cosol tours in St. Lucia!

[Venusleo1]

I have problems attaching pictures like you have with scooters! lol I'm trying. Sorry

Thank you, and dont worry about it, it's fine! I would love to see it though if you want to e-mail it to me Venusleo1@Yahoo.com

Mauricio was great he always stoped to talk to us and was so friendly!

[Venusleo1]

Okay well thats all for me today folks. Thanks to everyone who is tunning in. Tomorrow I will finish up with St. Lucia, a sleep-a-thon, Grenanda, and our night in Puerto Rico!

 

Feel free to chime in and if anyone has any questions I will do my best to give you an answer.

 

Again, my appologies that I dont have alot of ship pictures and or activities. These ports had us beat at the end of the day and we were up so early every morning. Also two hour dinners were our cryptonite. By the time we got out of there with our bellies full and since we had been sitting relaxing for so long it was hard to catch our 3rd wind. But let me say there was always PLENTY to do at night Rickie really loaded up the evening activities so dont think it was a snoze fest.

[Caleo]

Congrats, Stephanie! Looks like you two had a wonderful time. Thanks also for the pics of Antigua, I'm so excited for our cruise in November! :)

[SuchAVirgo]

Awww, you're going to have an amazing time! Congrats to you both! I'm glad that you enjoyed the Pearl, we're really looking forward to it. We're having a mini-roll-call reunion. A bunch of us CCers that were on the Epic with me have booked it, theres 9 of us! I loved NCL when I sailed the Epic and Shane's never sailed them, I think it fits us a bit better then RCI so I'm excited for him to try it, and the ship looks beautiful. Have a great time on the Serenade!!!

 

I loved NCL too but where we live now it is a whole lot easier to go on RC. Your story is SO much like ours, its too funny. I took my fiance on his 1st cruise and he too is now addicted. We also have a dog who is our child, an English Bulldog, Brutus.

 

We are going to Aruba, Curacao, St Thomas & St kitts so its slightly different but I am still loving your review. We have only been on shorter cruises and only out of Miami or Port Canaveral. We are so excited to go to San Juan and try some new places and a different ship.

[Venusleo1]

Congrats, Stephanie! Looks like you two had a wonderful time. Thanks also for the pics of Antigua, I'm so excited for our cruise in November! :)

 

Thanks! And you're welcome, Antigua was amazing! Enjoy your cruise!

 

SuchAVirgo- I love English bulldogs!!! We were thinking about getting one, but we had to find a non-shedding dog so we could leave him with my dad when we went away on trips. We were looking at poodles and bichones and then I found out that Boston's are considered hypoallergenic. We think he's the closes we could come to a bull dog. Frenchies are super cute too but again they shed too much.

 

Your itinierary sounds awesome! Shane and I really want to get down to the ABC islands one day!!!

[SuchAVirgo]

Yeah, looking forward to hearing about San Juan. We are flying in a day early and staying at a resort.

[granddutchess]

Congratulations on your wedding and honeymoon. Your review is excellent. Very informative. We will be going on Serenade of the Seas this July. First time on the smaller class of ship with RCCL. Looking forward to it. P.S. Your dog is adorable.

[rubrrick]

Okay well thats all for me today folks. Thanks to everyone who is tunning in. Tomorrow I will finish up with St. Lucia, a sleep-a-thon, Grenanda, and our night in Puerto Rico!

 

Feel free to chime in and if anyone has any questions I will do my best to give you an answer.

 

Again, my appologies that I dont have alot of ship pictures and or activities. These ports had us beat at the end of the day and we were up so early every morning. Also two hour dinners were our cryptonite. By the time we got out of there with our bellies full and since we had been sitting relaxing for so long it was hard to catch our 3rd wind. But let me say there was always PLENTY to do at night Rickie really loaded up the evening activities so dont think it was a snoze fest.

 

 

Stephanie, congratulations on finding your soul mate!! Nothing is better than cruising with a soulmate that loves to cruise!

 

I also love your pictures, and am wondering what you are using to attach your photos to your posts.

 

Hope you can help me with this. Thanks!;)

 

Rick

[Venusleo1]

Congratulations on your wedding and honeymoon. Your review is excellent. Very informative. We will be going on Serenade of the Seas this July. First time on the smaller class of ship with RCCL. Looking forward to it. P.S. Your dog is adorable.

 

Thank you! To be honest with you I think I much prefer this class over Voyager class. Maybe all the extras on a Freedom or Oasis class would win me over but Navigator is the biggest Ive sailed. I loved the Serenade there is just one thing we'd change, we wished there was a 2nd pool on the pool deck. There was a 2nd pool in the solarium but we prefer the liveliness and activity of the main pool. Anyways I am sure you will just love her!

 

Stephanie, congratulations on finding your soul mate!! Nothing is better than cruising with a soulmate that loves to cruise!

 

I also love your pictures, and am wondering what you are using to attach your photos to your posts.

 

Hope you can help me with this. Thanks!;)

 

Rick

 

Hey Rick, thanks! For a while there I was sure I'd be cruising through life and cruising solo forever, you never know when you're gonna meet the one.

I'm using Photobucket which is pretty easy. Just upload whatever pictures I want into their site and then they give me an immage link I just copy and paste into my post.

[catrip1024]

We are doing the Southern Caribbean in July so all of your information is so helpful! Thanks! The pictures are great. And I really appreciate the links to the local excursion companies. I'll definitely put those to good use. I look forward to the rest of the trip.

 

And congrats on your marriage and your new "baby". He is too cute!

[Venusleo1]

So today we are touring with Cosol tours. I had heard so many good things about them here on cruise critic and we were really looking forward to today. Also Shane just was facinated with looking at pictures on-line of the Pitons and he couldnt wait to see them for real.

 

Cosol is a land/sea tour. We all met up at 8:30am.. another early morning for us and we had breakfast in the windjammer again. To be honest by this point I was getting a little tired of the windjammer. Just the same things every morning. Everything was good but I wanted some Eggs Benedict!

 

Okay so back to Cosol tours. Its a group tour but there are seperate vans that seat about 10 people in them. You go with your guide to certain locations which included a banana plantation, a local womans house with amazing views for a breakfast "buffet", they had samples of lots of local eats here, a volcano, a water taxi ride to a beach between the Pitons, and at every stop there is the BLUE BUS filled with rum punch, local beer, water, sodas ect. They told us that we had to empty that van by the time we got back or they would charge us extra. lol.

Our guide was Baptist and he was awesome! A few of us from my roll call all had booked this seperatly so I suggested we all just meet up in the morning and go in the same van. This worked out great!

 

So onto the pictures!

 

Our first stop was for some scenic views. The Blue Bus was there and the party started. The litteraly just pulled off on the side of the road.

 

After about 5-10 minutes enough time for everyone to get a drink and take their pictures we loaded back into the bus and headed down the road. The roads are steep and narrow and they drive on the wrong side of the road and their steerling wheels are also on the wrong side of the car.

We made it to the banana plantation.

 

This is what baby bananas look like

 

we all got to have a banana and they also had other fruits there to taste, mangos, star fruit, papaya. Yummy stuff! Don't forget the blue bus was there too!

 

Back on the bus we started through a little town. The rivers were all muddy they said that they had rain all week and we brought the sunshine. We saw lots of locals washing their clothes in the rivers.

 

The town of Soufriere

 

[Venusleo1]

As you can see from the previous pictures there is lots of muddy run off into the ocean/beach. We heard that this happens alot here. When we get to the beach we stop at you'll see the waters are kinda yucky. Also its a volcanic island so the sand isnt white powdered sand its more a dark color and when wet it almost looks black.

 

On our way to the local house for some tasty treats we saw a few guys on the side of the road with snakes. We passed up the first guy and Baptist told us that he didnt like that guy, he apparantly started getting gready and so another guy came down the road and we stopped to get some pictures. I believe it was $1 to hold and take a picture with the snake.

 

My dad had 5 snakes at one time so I'm not scared of them, but they don't excite me either. I've held plenty of snakes so I opted not to spend the $ to take a picture but Shane I dont think has ever held a snake and he was into it!

 

We stoped to eat at this woman's property. They had a bunch of tables spread out with all types of food. Chicken and fish and pastries and fruit and candies ect. I totally forgot to take a picture here. Also don't forget the BLUE BUS! There was a bathroom here but you had to pay $1-$2 to use it.

 

 

We headed back into the van and drove by The Pitons. We would come back here later for some better pictures.

 

[Venusleo1]

We are doing the Southern Caribbean in July so all of your information is so helpful! Thanks! The pictures are great. And I really appreciate the links to the local excursion companies. I'll definitely put those to good use. I look forward to the rest of the trip.

 

And congrats on your marriage and your new "baby". He is too cute!

 

 

Thanks! And thanks for reminding me! Here is the site for Cosol tours. http://www.cosol-tours.com/

 

Enjoy your trip! You're going to love the S. Caribbean!

[Venusleo1]

Okay so now that we've been touring w/ Cosol for a while the rum punch and Piton beers have kicked in. I'm rellying on the pictures to remind me what we did.

 

We stoped at the Volcano. Now this is not your typical volcano its a drive-through volcano.

 

This place was STINKY STINKY STINKY! Phhhewwwwyyyy! Sulfer, rotten eggs like you just couldnt believe.

 

They also have hot mineral springs here

 

and a pretty waterfall

 

There was a free bathroom here. I waited till we got to the beach to use the bathroom cause I was worried that once I broke the seal well I'd have to go all the time and I was right. We arrived at our water taxi landing site to go over the beach.

 

Shane enjoying some locat Piton beer. We liked this stuff better then the Carib in St. Croix

 

Gros Piton the larger of the two pitons

[Venusleo1]

Some of these pictures look fake to me, but I assure you it really is this beautiful

 

We arrived at Jalousie Beach. Here's some important info folks, Info I got on C.C. and it really helped here...

Jalousie Beach is a beach between the two pitons Petite and Gros Piton. There is a hotel on this beach. When you pull up in your water taxies as you are facing the land from the water there is a very small rockie area over to the left that they "allow" non-hotel guests to stay. This area was very crowded and not very big. There was some cheap beach loungers here. This makes up maybe 1/8 of the entire beach area and everywhere to the white is sand and beautiful hotel grounds. Well guess what?? Beaches in St. Lucia are public! They can not tell you to leave the beach. So Shane and I saw many people crowded in the "allowed non-guest area" and we walked right over to the nice part anyways. You can not use their chairs ect but the sand is fair game and we found a nice spot under some grapeleaf treed to lay our towels down in the shade.

 

 

You can see the water isnt very clear, lots of seaweed too but this stuff was more like sea rods and it didnt bother me as much as the slimy green algea like stuff at Magen's Bay

 

Okay so if you study this picture look to the far left on the other side of that dock there is the "allowed" area, remember your allowed anywhere on the beach so dont let them tell you otherwise. Just dont use their furniture.

 

 

[Venusleo1]

Also there is some decent snorkeling here over by Petit Piton and the water taxi will rent you snorkeling gear for $10. Ohh the water taxi leaves you there and comes back in about an hour to pick you up.

 

So after a nice refreshing cool down we headed up to the hotel bar to see if we could purchase some drinks from them. You could but make sure to bring cash. Beers were about $6 a piece. If you bought a drink from them you could hang out in the bar area

 

 

 

This was also in the bar area

 

 

The water taxi picked us back up and we headed back to the water taxi site where Baptist was waiting for us. When we got back the Blue Bus was waiting there for us and Baptist had a special drink. Its spiced rum locally made taken as a shot, it was very tasty afterwards but when your drinking it it burns going down! We loaded into the bus and on our way to the ship we stoped at a locals house for HOT fresh baked bread and cheese! These were big baquets and they were sliced down the middle so you could choose to stuff as much cheese in there as you wanted or none at all. It was a very quiet ride back to the bus as everyone was stuffing that yummy bread in their mouths. There was 1 exception. One of the girls on the bus who apparantly had a little to much fun with the Blue Bus was practically proposing to Baptist trying to get him to move to Texas with her. She was also singing When I think about you i touch myself... funny stuff!

 

One more stop before we get back to Castries where we're docked.

[Venusleo1]

One last photo stop before we get back

 

So when we get back to the port its time to pay for the tour. They have you pay afterwards. I royally messed up!!! I guess it was too many early mornings or my brain just wasn't functioning that morning but I didnt bring enough cash with me! I had a total brain fart and thought the tour was a total of $60 but it was $60 each. Now I knew this , but I guess I was just not thinking when I did the math. I told Baptist to keep my husband as collateral and I gave him all the cash I had and I ran and I dont run but I ran to the ship ran to my room got more cash out of the safe and ran to save my husband from becoming and identured servant!

And that was my excersize for the trip!

 

When we got back on board Shane was pretty toasted and we decided to go to the room shower and lay down to relax and watch some tv. We ended up falling asleep and sleept till 12:30am! When we woke up we were both kinda bummed as we missed dinner and Quest, which we had also missed on our last cruise and Shane had never been so he was looking forward to it. Ohh well. Thank goodness for the SeaView Cafe! We headed up there for a quick bite to eat and then we went back to our room and slept for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we had a river tubbing adventure in Grenada but it wasnt till 11:30 so we were looking forward to sleeping in!

[Venusleo1]

Well that's it for me tonight. I have to go back to work tomorrow :(

 

When I get home from work tomorrow night I will hopefully be able to finish up with Grenada, our sea day (no pics... we have to remember to take more on board pictures) and our last night in San Juan.

[rubrrick]

 

Hey Rick, thanks! For a while there I was sure I'd be cruising through life and cruising solo forever, you never know when you're gonna meet the one.

I'm using Photobucket which is pretty easy. Just upload whatever pictures I want into their site and then they give me an immage link I just copy and paste into my post.

 

 

Stephanie.......thanks for the tip on using photobucket. I have been using tinypic.com and the sizing is not as good as what you have used.......photobucket.

 

So......just a quick thought.......going along with what you had going for you, for awhile.....remaining solo.

 

My story has been told on CC on more occasions than I want to admit, I was single for 17 years.....when one summer, in 1996, my best friend lost his wife to cancer. He did not want to have to spend Christmas at home, in the home of his lost loved one. I was, and still am, his best friend.

 

So, I digress......George says to me........."Rick, I cannot be in my home this Christmas, there are too many memories, and I want to go away for the holiday season. Will you come with me?" I ask him where......Sun Valley.......skiing, Hawaii, where I lived for 14 years, and have many friends, and he elects sunshine over snow.

 

Then one day......when he calls, his voice is a bit different, like he has found something, and he asks me.........what do I think about a cruise?

 

Never having been truly cruising (I have a Masters card for a small tonnage, inland waters, Puget Sound, etc) he asked if I wanted to try a cruise?

 

The rest is history.

 

Rick

[rubrrick]

Oh, the history.......I met and proposed to my new love ........on the old Pacific Princess......the original Love Boat. George introduced me to Bobbie.......my love, after a morning being with a lady of wonderful character, and a beautiful body.........that George claimed!

 

We are both married to our respective loves, and although, George and his bride sail much more than we do........it's about a half a year for them, we still do a bit of cruising each year..........and LOVE IT!!:D

 

Rick

[Ruby71]

Thanks for the wonderful review. Your pictures are beautiful! Would love to do these ports someday. We were just on the Serenade last month with a different itinerary.

Sharon

[Tiki_Man]

Stephanie

 

This is a fantastic review. We are sailing on the Serenade in July. The pictures and stories are wonderful. Glad you had a fun cruise.

 

Tiki

[LovesCruising]

I'm enjoying your review so much - can't wait to read the rest. Thank you!