St Kitts - and Pirates in the Caribbean

Please note that this post is referring to the 24th Septmber.

Today we headed to St Kitts, a beautiful little island, never-before visited by Disney Cruises. It is an island that my wife and I had visited numerous times before, and it was one of our favourites. In the past we had rented a car to get around, as it is reasonably inexpensive, and the island is small enough and the roads simple enough, that you can self-drive without too much difficulty. The one additional thing about this option is that you have to buy a temporary drivers licence (around $25US) which for one day is a bit silly. I was still favouring this option, as the prices for Disney's tours seemed quite a bit higher than I thought we should pay. But we decided to wait until we got there to see if the locals were offering anything that sounded better.

Side note: thank you travel insurance. I have been nursing a sore throat which got bad enough by today that I wanted to get it looked at. So I sent Maritala off the the ship to find a phone to call RBC insurance to find out whether I should see a doctor on the island or onboard, while I lay groaning in my sick bed... Minutes later she was back. As they had no contracts with anyone on the island, I was told I could visit the ship's doctor and they would open a claim for me. Very simple. Just as well that we had the coverage, as the doctor's bill was $100 US and the prescription of anti-biotics another $83. Yikes! So, be smart and make sure you have medical insurance!

Anyway, back to St Kitts. Having done 3 beach trips in 3 days, I really thought we should see some of the other attractions of the island and take the girls to the Brimstone Hill fort, and perhaps the gardens at Romney Manor. We compromised by saying that we would try to spend some time on a beach afterwards (where the girls were really hoping to see some of the thousands of monkeys that populate the South-East end of the island). To make a long story short, we found a local (legitimate) tour company (operating right out of the cruise terminal) that would put both attractions together for us, plus the trip to a scenic lookout, and drop us at a beach for $25 US each adult and kids would go for free. The trip back from the beach when ready, would be an additional $16. Deal! (Actually we had to pay admission to the fort too ($8 per adult, $4 for Gabriella and Kiara was free) $20 total.

Having said in an earlier post that we had found some of Disney's tours fairly reasonably priced, their tour offering only the Brimstone Hill fortress and Romney Manor went for a staggering $45 US per adult and $35 US per child - more than twice the price that we paid. So it is hard to know exactly how to suggest that you proceed when it comes to shore excursions... some are way better value than others.

Romney Manor has beautiful gardens and is home to Caribelle Batiks, one of the best-known batik makers in the Caribbean. Both their batiks and the grounds were stunning to look at. On the way there, we did in fact see a monkey. It was a pet, and the girls were mightily amused to see that it was wearing an infant diaper. A very memorable monkey... they didn't stop remarking about it all day!

Equally memorable are the breathtaking views from the Brimstone Hill fort. The girls thought that this place was really cool - as they got to explore the rooms inside, the small museum and pose for photos sitting on real cannons.

We actually all felt that we didn't really need to go to the beach, so planned to go straight back to the ship after the photo-stop on Timothy Hill.

From here you can see two seas - the Atlantic on one side of the island, and a mere few hundred feet away at its narrowest point, the Caribbean. A unique vantage point. It was at this end of the island that Maritala and I noticed the biggest difference since we last visited 8 or 9 years ago. It has really started developing. The hotels in the area are new, large and very attractive. There are a whole lot of rich-looking houses springing up, and they are extending the airport to be able to accept larger jets. 10 years ago St Kitts was one of the very small number of Caribbean nations still making more money from sugar than tourism. As we found out from our guide, only two years ago the sugar business was shut down for good, as it had been running at a bigger and bigger loss each year. St Kitts is now relying on tourism as its main industry. The cruise terminal will be quite attractive when completed (it is perhaps 75% complete now...)

We shared our tour with a couple on their 11th Disney cruise, and it was interesting to speak with them about their experiences. They, like a lot of die-hard Disney cruisers, book way in advance, and are always on the look out for new or unusual Disney cruises. For example, when Disney moved one of their ships to sail from California for the summer last year, there were two Panama Canal re-positioning cruises. Both sold out within 2 days, such is the interest from the true Disney Cruise fans. This couple were on one of those cruises and they had a lot of interesting stories to tell us. They had booked the cruise that we are sailing on now, more than a year back... as we tell our clients, for many reasons, it is a very good idea to book your Disney Cruise well in advance.

This evening was one of the most fun of the cruise as it was Pirates in the Caribbean Night. Future cruisers should be aware that there will be a Pirate Night on every 7 night Caribbean cruise, (maybe the 3 and 4 nights too) and you would be well advised to pack some pirate gear. There is lots of Disney pirate paraphernalia available on the ship of course, at a cost. We did a bit of improvising. Mine mostly consisted of ridiculous amounts of smudgy black make-up (as if a cannon just blew up in my face), bizarre facial hair and some comedy scars. Maritala had the bandana, braids and blouse, and Gabriella had spent some time in the kids club getting prepared - and getting her face painted with a mustache and eye patch. Kiara sensibly refused the face paint and stuck with just her Goofy bandana...

The meals were pirate-themed, all the waiters were in costume, we even got souvenir pirate menus and extra bandanas if needed... impressive.

As you may have gathered by now, lots of people on this cruise take their Disney very seriously. I have never seen so many pirates on one ship's deck (even including the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). The deck party was a lot of fun, lots of music and dancing - a "battle" (a dance-off of sorts) between the bad pirates and Mickey and the good pirates. Mickey even came flying into the action on a zip-wire strung between the funnels on the ship. It was impressive.

The show ended with a full-on fireworks show - unheard of on a cruise ship as far as I know. Disney had to get special permission from the coast-guard, as usually flaming thingies being flung high into the air at sea is invariably a sign of distress. Anyway, the fireworks were also impressive.

Two days at sea are next, after which, our last day (already?!) is on Disney's own island, Castaway Cay, which we are looking forward to greatly.

I am aware that I am a day behind. I hope to catch up tomorrow. This may or may not be possible - sea days require more organisation of who will be where when, and so I seem to have even less time... I am also still feeling pretty ill, which doesn't help much. I'll do my best.

 

On to... Day at sea - 25th September

[Back to... Antigua - island of 365 beaches and we saw every one of them, except 364...]