St Thomas is a beautiful island. There's plenty of shops around and we rented a scooter which is really fun but as I stated earlier, they drive on the left hand side so be careful. Maybe we will rent a car next time. This island is not really a good swimming place. There's simply not very many beaches around. 
If one is comparing the Eastern Caribbean to the Western Caribbean islands, generally the Eastern is better known for the big shopping places and the Western Caribbean is better suited for the more active (a lot of outdoor activities: bicycling, snorkeling and scuba ) although there's always plenty to shop for on all these islands as well. 
 

St. Thomas

In February and March the island of Dominica Republic has the whale watching tours. These are humpback whales from the north Atlantic where they live. After the whale tour, the little boat took us to a very quaint beach just a very little island off Samana. There, we enjoyed a cool swim, ah. 
This is an island which runs west and east and is really quite big. It's the same land mass but opposite side of Haiti, which is located on the westside of the island, this is on the eastside. 
Those are nice which we did do. Do bring a hat and suntan lotion, it gets pretty hot out there sitting in a open boat. We did they tour through RCL that's Royal Caribbean's letters for those who don't know. 
 

Dominica

Puerto Rico, 
We waited until nightfall since our ship was departing late at 11:00pm, this way we could avoid the hot sun due to the fact I already got a sunburn on my face from a previous trip. We just walked around town at night and finally found a small pizzaria and had dinner. It was nice. This island is not known for it's beaches for swimming or snorkeling but has tons of store for shoppers! 
 

San Juan

Barbados, 
We swam here. It was OK, a bigger swimming area than the ships pool, Ha ha, joke. There were plenty of gift shops. I liked their port, not to big. 
Just where you get off the ship and walk down the big dock, there sits the port's building. They had many little kiosks in the big building and the merchants were not high pressure. They were quite pleasant. They simply waited until you made up your mind at what you wanted and it was nice, clean and convenient, proximity to the ship, clean and easy to use kind of like many Hawaian island ports. These types of ports I like to hop on and off the ship several times to shop at the port. It's easy to do because the ship is really close by! And my husband doesn't worry about me getting lost out there. 
 

Barbados

We liked the cabin and the bed. The laundry bag is a bit small. Everthing else was fine.Disembarkation was smooth as usual and we appreciate that!

This is the second voyager class ship we've taken, so this time it didn't seem as big or crowded as the first one back in 2006, which I'm sure it was but, I think you get used to it.Generally speaking when we cruise, we like to get off the ship and just romp around, shop a little and sight see a little.

Explorer of the Seas Review

Winter sunburns and wonderful foods? Uh...OK, I'll take it!

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