Grenadines Trip Report

[JeanKC]

Hello all

We arrived back on Saturday from our two week sailing/Barbados adventure. The Royal Clipper part was Week 1 so it does seem like a quite a while ago now but let's see what I remember!!

 

We boarded the ship on February 25th - Smooth process although, it did take a bit of time. Word of warning - When you arrive at the cruise terminal in Barbados, there are luggage porters - We ignored them as we thought they just wanted a tip for carrying our bags but actually, they simply just direct you where to bring your bag - So don't ignore them!!! 

 

Our Cabin - We were in a Category 5 cabin so one of the smallest. It was, however, almost perfectly designed and had plenty of storage space and hangers. The cases/bags fit under the bed, the bed was very comfortable. The only thing we didn't like, was that there was no floor space at the end of the bed meaning that whoever was on the inside, had to climb over the other person if they wanted to get out of bed while the other person was sleeping, but that's a small thing. The cabin was at the front of the boat so you felt the movement of the ship, but it really didn't bother us. It was like being in a cot being rocked to sleep every night!! 

 

The food - The food was amazing.

Breakfast: Buffet style and probably the least inspiring!!! It was a typical hotel buffet breakfast with an omelette station. Good enough selection but got repetititive

Lunch: Buffet style and with tended to be themed - meditteranean, italian, seafood extravaganza etc. They also had a carving station at lunch which we didn't notice until day 3 - Definitely worth a visit - Had the most delicious roast ham one day, and pork another day. The dessert table at lunch was also amazing. 

Afternoon snack: Served from 5- 6 and consisted of something hot - during our week we had chicken skewers, tacos, fried chicken, spring-rolls, pancakes (supposed to be waffles but the waffle iron was malfunctioning so they did a quick switch), and sandwiches aswell as something sweet like biscuits/cookies and cake. 

Dinner:  Dinner was a sit-down affair with starters, soups, sorbet, main and dessert courses so very fancy!! Some of the dinner food was not what I would usually eat, but I was not disappointed by anything I tried. Also, for those who prefer plainer food, you can ask for steak and chips or a pasta dish instead of choosing from some of the fancier items on the menu (this is mentioned in small print down the bottom of the menu). There were only a couple of tables for 2, so you will end up sitting with people every night which actually turned out to be great. You tend to be seated based on when you arrive in the dining room so that everyone at the table is ordering at the same time. We had some very entertaining dinner conversations. 

Late night snack -  Served from 11.45/12 to 1am. This was usually just one hot item and fruit - We never actually took advantage of this as we were already gone to bed or it didn't appeal. 

 

 

Entertainment - Like others, we did not go on the ship for the entertainment options but it feels appropriate to mention them. There was not a lot of entertainment. Every night, there was a singer and keyboardist who played in the Tropical Bar, after dinner, which was pleasant.  One night, we did have steel drummers on which were really entertaining. There was also a pirate night - Some people dressed up and it was quite fun to watch other passengers take part in the various games but you were never made to feel like you had to take part. There was also a staff/passenger talent show. We did not stay up for that, but from other guest reports, it was a late night with the talent getting better as the night went on (how much of that was to do with increased alcohol consumption, I cannot say!!). We did however, get a taster on the final night, when one the passengers who had sang on talent night, sang again in the bar and he was phenomenal so I think we may have missed out by making talent night the one night we weren't among that last in the bar! There was also a fashion show where all the clothes/items from the sloop shop were showcased. They had some passenger volunteers and it was a bit of fun. On the sloop shop, the clothes are super-expensive and on our second last day, they had an 80% sale on some items so if you do want to buy, wait until then!!

 

Themed nights: Just a short note on this - There were two themed nights - Pirate night and a white party night - We didn't dress up for either and neither did the majority of passengers from what I could see (many people threw on white if they had it......we didn't have anything white!). The white party was nothing really - We were told to dress up in white but there was nothing mentioned about it. The Pirate night was more of a thing - as mentioned above. But, neither were a big deal and no fuss was made about dressing up or not. 

 

General Info on Daily Stops - In the cabin on day 1, we were provided with a handy one-page summary, showing all daily stops (with a brief summary for each), times, activities and marine platform times. This was super useful. Every day you also then get a more detailed newletter type thing, but I kept referring back to the one-pager. The Cruise director also did a briefing each afternoon/evening (time varied) talking about the stops the next day (To be honest, I think we only went to one of these, as it usually interfered with our pre-dinner nap!!!) but he also prepared a one pager for each stop with a map and any particular points of interest. 

 

Day by Day

Day 1 - Barbados - Boarding 

Day 2 - Captain's Best, The Grenadines. This was a beach stop and we stopped on Union Island (I think). It was a lovely beach with a few beach bars. There was no real shade though so it was very hot. Some nice snorkelling. 

Day 3 - St George's, Grenada - This was a town stop. A nice little town to wander around. We somehow ended up with a walking tour guide - We stupidly responded to his "Hello, how are you?" and that was that. In the end, we did learn more than we would have done on our own, but if you want to just walk around on your own, practice your "leave me alone face". 

Day 4 - Tobago Cays - Beach Barbeque Day. This was an all day beach stop where the crew prepared a delicious BBQ on the beach. The beach had plenty of trees for shade and it was a lovely day. 

Day 5 (morning) - Kingstown, St Vincent: The summary provided about this town was that it was "not the prettiest" but to us, that simply meant it was a working town and it was pleasant to wander around. Not much to see, but nice to see at the same time.

Day 5 (afternoon) - Admirality Bay, Bequia: This was our favourite stop of the trip. It is a beautiful little bay with restaurants and bars along a waterside walkway, and some lovely beaches. We would have happily spent a couple of days here. We spent most of our afternoon in one of the bars along the bay. It was just beautiful

Day 6 (morning) - Fort de France, Martinique - The capital of Martinique and the only place we were actually moored along side the dock (every other stop we were on anchor and had to be tendered back and forth). My main memory of Martinique was that it was a really, really sticky and humid morning! The town itself was okay - We had a wander around, visited the cathedral. Nothing really to say about this. 

Day 6 (afternoon) - Grand Anse, Martinique - This was a beach stop. It was a nice beach, had a few bars/restaurants, but we mainly just did a bit of snorkelling and swimming before heading back to the boat.

Day 7 (morning) - Marigot Bay, St Lucia. We did an excursion at this stop so didn't have much opportunity to see the stop location itself. What we did see though was a lot of fancy motor yachts!! But it looked like a pretty little bay. The excursion we did was a 4x4 safari which we really enjoyed. We saw a bit of St Lucia, learned some facts (did you know that they don't really have addresses and all post is collected from the post-office is one such fact). saw the waterfall, and had some rum-punch. 

Day 7 (afternoon) - Soufriere Bay, St Lucia. This is the only stop that we did not get off the boat, so I can't really say anything about it. 

 

Other info

The Marine Platform - This was open most days for swimming and we took advantage of it most days. It was one of my highlights. They had floats attached to the back to the boat and you could just swim (or use the rope) to make your way out to one of these, and just chill out. 

The Crows Nest - There were two opportunities to climb to this during the week. I chickened out but my husband did it and enjoyed it (once he got up there!!), so if you're not a chicken like me, I recommend you give it a go. 

Currency - USD is accepted everywhere except Martinique which is Euro.

 

Top 3 highlights: 

In summary, our highlights would be:

1. Swimming from the marine platform

2. The stop at Bequia

3. Simply the feeling of travelling through the Caribbean using wind-power. 

 

As on another note, we did have 6 nights in Barbados after the Clipper, and our highlight from that was to see the racehorses being brought down to Pebbles Beach to swim in the Caribbean so if your holiday on the Clipper involves a few days in Barbados which includes a Sunday or a Thursday morning, I definitely recommend checking that out. It's a sight to see. 

 

Overall, we had an absolutely fantastic time, and can completely understand why so many people return to the Royal Clipper, which I hope we can also do one day. 

 

 

 

 

 

[elklemi]

Enjoyed your report and brings back memories of my trip in 2019 and Bequia is also now my favorite stop especially as I had never heard of it before my trip.  thank you.