Our first stop was new - Tortola in the BVI. I used RCL for my tour there - scuba diving on the very popular, to scuba divers, Rhone wreck. I only used ship's tours at two ports this cruise. The other tours I arranged on my own. This tour was excellent, great equipment, dive boat and more checklists and safety than I have ever seen on a dive boat. As expected it pricey at $155 for a 2 tank tour and I knew other islands on our trip were around $100 for a 2 tank tour. Sure enough, there was an independent traveler with us and he got the dives for $110. I like reefs, coral and marine life the most, but the dives on the Rhone wreck were excellent and not to be missed by a diver. My other ship's tour was mediocre, especially for the cost - see my St Kitts comments below. My wife, not a diver, was going to make do with walk off shopping, browsing, but it was Sunday and Tortola shops are all closed, except for some tent vendors as you exit the port secure area. Not a very interesting port for her but she got to explore the ship that day and liked doing that afer checking out the skimpy offerings on shore. 


Tortola

Our next port of call was St. Maarten where I had arranged a dive trip on my own. The dive shop Scuba Fun Dive Center, was in some of the first businesses/marina off the ship and I could kind of envision where it was from a previous cruises stop at St Maarten. I walked off the ship soon after passengers were released and got there in about 15 minutes and early. The 2 tank dive with equipment was $110. The weather was sunny but windy. The reef they wanted to dive we couldn't get that day. We ended up diving on the Gregory, a sunken barge type ship that was upside down and presented some good photos ops around the propellers, and a narrow swim through underneath, plus some flat areas with a little corals and fish. The second dive at Bridges was 3 small wrecks - looked like sail boats and some dumped cement bridge debris. Okay diving, but I was getting tired of nothing but wrecks. The dive boat also lost one engine so we were slow getting back and I was about 20-30 minutes later than expected to meet my wife, as we planned on the beach closest to the cruises ships. During our first and previous cruise stop to St Maarten we discovered the beach nearby was perfect for a do it yourself beach day. You can easily walk there in about 15 minutes - no need for the over hyped ferry - it saves you very little walking and doesn't seem worth the money unless you like paying for short ferry taxi rides. After I went diving our plan was for my wife, at her leisure, to shop and walk to the beach and rent us loungers and an umbrella for the best price she could find - usually the prices get better the farther from the ship you get. After diving I hit the beach and walked down to where she was. She talked a beach vendor down from $20 to $10 for two chairs and a shade umbrella. An ice bucket of 5 beers I got for under $10 when I got there and we also ordered a tasty lunch from their menu at reasonable price, staying to enjoy the beach as long as possible until making it back about 40 minutes before last call for the ship. Another great time on the main beach at St Maarten. We want to fly back to that island some time and investigate some of the other many things to do and beaches to visit. Making your own beach day there is a hit with us. 


St. Maarten

My second ship's tour was the next day at St Kitts. For the price it was a bit of a let down. It was advertised as a 7 hour snorkel, beach, lunch and booze cruise, for $108 per person - a little steep. The only parts that were great - the catamaran was very nice and a great day for sailing - they put up full sail and got the boat up to some of the fastest speed I have ever been on a sailing vessel, while still being very comfortable even for novices. The other detail they got very right was a friendly, helpful crew and plenty of booze and beer after the first thing snorkeling stop. The stop for snorkeling, although it seemed popular as a place to take cruise customers was mediocre - beautiful cliffs rising up off rocks and boulders, but unfortunately that was the main thing to see underwater - rocks and boulders and some nice fish, but not abundant and very very few corals, sponges, etc. I only found one little 5 foot bump of coral, maybe 15 feet long and 6 feet high, and I covered most of the area they allowed us, several times. After that the booze was flowing and nice party music and a good sail to the beach for lunch, across the maybe 1-2 miles channel between St. Kitts to Nevis island - also a wind tunnel where the boat reached maximum speed. The beach at Nevis was rather plain - no water toys, no loungers or shade umbrellas - a picnic area with enough picnic tables, but the food was poor. My wife really disliked it - some chicken and shriveled up hot dogs were the main course and several rather tasteless salads, and conglomerations, probably our worst food of the trip, but I filled up on it. People did enjoy the nice wide, but dark and fairly coarse sand beach or hanging out in the water with plenty of beer and rum punch served up to everyone. I think almost everyone drank more than they were used to - I did. When I got off the tour I knew I was drunk, but not sick or staggering. So they got the booze part of the tour right. We had to be back to the ship at a time that cut the tour to more like 6 hours. This tour was also crowded - we jumped on among the first so I could get a place where my less water and sun loving wife could get shade and spray shelter at a table, but people did fan out over the boat, mostly on the nets up front or sides - enough to be tolerable. The ship sold so many tickets to this tour there was a second similar catamaran taking another full load from our ship - same itinerary as us. We had a fun mock race on the return - we seemed faster for a while - they tried to get around us on the up wind side and some of the guys on the other catamaran mooned us - pretty funny and entertaining exchanges. Later the other boat slipped around us on the downwind side and beat us back to port. So half or more of the components were underwhelming, especially considering the price - the food, the beach and amenities there, and the snorkeling were all a bit sub standard in my opinion. I would recommend, if you pick this tour, to pick it for the booze, party atmosphere, nice catamaran sail boat, and a good crew and service. I expect you could arrange similar on shore before hand or after disembarking for nearly half the price and a lot less people - I noticed one boat following our itinerary for the day, at a distance, had maybe 6-12 people. Our single catamaran had 60 people. 


St. Kitts (Port Zante)

Dominica was the next stop and similar to our previous and first cruise ship stop there - rain squalls occurred off and on, mostly after noon and dampened activity of people checking out the shops, etc by the ship. I arranged my own 2 tank dive tour, with an independent company for $100 before the cruise - Al Dive. They set up easy to follow instructions to meet me and drove me to their shop a few miles away. I wasn't quite feeling up to it that day, but very glad I went - it was the most amazing diving of the entire trip. Dominica is full of huge basket sponges, corals, and a big variety and abundance of fish - my favorite for diving. I would highly recommend Dominica and Al Dive. to divers who like to see interesting features and marine life. The first dive was at the somewhat famous Champagne, good for both snorkels and divers where underground thermal gas vents release “champagne” bubbles and warm water into the ocean. The second dive at Solomon was also full of intrigue including passing pilings for a large commercial operation's docks. My wife managed to get in some shopping next to the ship between rain squalls while I was gone, but due to the frequent rain we stayed on the ship the rest of the day, enjoying Dominica’s waterfront scenery from our balcony and enjoying ships' amenities. 


Dominica

Barbados was our last port of call, on day 6. The day before, at Dominica, Samantha, part owner of the dive shop, who had lived a lot of years on Barbados, told me to check out the Barbados beach, near by, within walking distance of the ship - just keep left to get to it she told me. When we docked, from our balcony, I could see portions of what looked like a nice big beach behind the ship, left of the port. That turned out to be Brandon beach. A tourist info booth inside marked it on the map for us and I notice there is also a popular nearby beach, they also marked for us, called Brown’s Beach, to the right of the cruise port and also within walking distance. The weather was absolutely perfect - blue, sunny all day and light to moderate wind from behind us. The walk over to the beach wasn't too complicated - staying along the water front, it took about 30 minutes from the cruise terminal and it was easy to carry towels, magazines, sun block, glasses, etc in a pack we brought along and a beach bag. The beach was a beautiful crescent of white sand, a lot of it a public park, but there were also two places with beach chairs and umbrellas, restrooms, drinks etc for $5 for each item - $15 total for chairs, umbrella and 2 rum punch thrown in at the first one, which we used. The shallow watere of the bay were perfect Caribbean blues. Locals and cruisers drifted in and out. Even though other cruisers also found and used the beach, it was never crowded like St Maarten or Cabo San Lucas beaches and there were no people selling goods on the beach. It looks good for snorkeling. The UV index was 10 plus, extreme, so we enjoyed the warmth and also the shade of the umbrella, playing in the water and lunching at the restaurant that sponsored our beach loungers. Beers for the beach were $2 US, but on the restaurant menu they were $5 Bajan dollars. Keep in mind if you eat at the restaurant and use your credit card you will automatically be given the exchange rate. Our $25 Bajan lunch and tip was converted to less than $18 US. A jet ski and a small Hobie Cat sail boat made passes along the beach, asking people on shore if they wanted to rent a ride. There was a light to moderate wind all day and I asked the Hobie Cat guy for a short $10 ride. That was fun. We went downwind for a few miles, then back. I had not been on a Hobie before and he really knew how to sail it. We had just enough wind to raise the pontoon out of the water a little bit, once or twice. Fun ride. The walk over was easy enough so we walked back late afternoon. A great, inexpensive, self made tour. 


Barbados

A fine cruise state room - nothing exceptional or unexceptional. See comments above about being on deck 7, above the life boats - a canopy extends out 5 or 6 feet from the bottom of your balcony, obstructing views of the ocean, socks, etc for several yards away from the side of the ship.

Not having as many passengers as some ships we have been on the past 10 years, and making even worse use of the space and dance floors the have - such as the Safari lounge and lounge on top of the ship, until very late at night we felt the on board entertainment ad dancing opportunities were the worst ever, especially for dancing in the early evening - good thing we had low expectations anyway.ENTERTAINMENT AND DANCING



We cruise for the ports, food and good accommodations and service and although we like to swing dance plus slow dance and some line dance, we have found all cruises, in recent years, to be lacking in entertainment during sea days and early evening.

Serenade of the Seas Review

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Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony

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