2023 Eastern Caribbean Cruise

NOTE: The purpose and intent of this post is NOT aimed at providing a review of the cruise ship.

We recently returned from a 7 night eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean Wonder Of The Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, to date. The three locations the ship visited were: Sint Martin; Saint Thomas; CocoCay Bahamas. If you read our prior post, you already know the personal challenges associated with this trip for me (Stella). We took this cruise in an effort to overcome my extreme fear of being on and in the ocean. 

I did not experience any of the tumultuous things that have haunted my mind, i.e. rogue waves thundering again the ship, being attacked by a shark while snorkeling, stepping on a stingray or jellyfish, whale turning over my kayak, etc. However, this does not mean that those fears have been completely erased…they have just been dampened. I was so distracted by having fun that I think I just forgot about them altogether. Our experience on this cruise can be summed up in three words: Too Much Fun.

We had perfect weather the entire trip, with three excursion days and four sailing days. On the sailing days, we were always occupied doing something. Every morning after breakfast, we played Othello for about an hour, and after which we walked five to six miles on the outdoor walking/jogging track, dedicated exclusively for this purpose. For me, this was the most wonderful part of the entire trip! There was something euphoric about walking around the length of the ship with the view of the blue ocean right next to me. Yes, it was very hot. But there was always a spectacular sea breeze to keep it comfortable. (12 laps = 5 miles)  

Once our exercise for the day was completed, we were then free to enjoy the numerous activities onboard the ship. In the evenings, we enjoyed spectacular shows and outdoor movies at the Aqua Theater. Or, we found a hidden cove and played more Othello! Each sailing day was relaxing and fun-filled. We did not, however, go in any of the pools. There were too many other things to do. 

The focal point of this post is to discuss our experiences with the excursions that we had selected, NOT to “critique” every aspect of the excursion itself (i.e. the tour guides, organization, equipment, etc.). Please see below to read about our thoughts and experiences associated with each of them. 

Sint Maarten ~ Bike and Beach: Sint Maarten is an island close to the equator, which made it the hottest of the three islands that we visited. It is a constituent country of the Netherlands and is split between the French and Dutch, with over 120 different languages spoken on the island. The people there were very friendly and appeared to have a great deal of pride for their island.

The tour takes guests through the Dutch side of the island, biking in some residential areas and onto the boardwalk, which runs parallel to the beach, shops, and restaurants. Throughout the tour, there are many stops where the guides point out areas of interest and talk about the rich history of the island. One of the stops is a dwelling place for iguanas, which come out of the bushes alongside the road, with anticipation of being fed fruit. A woman on the tour with us had neon orange shoes and the iguanas kept licking them because they resembled an orange.

The bike ride was very easy, with only one moderately steep hill. It was only a few miles in length, but allowed us to see a lot of this particular side of the island, which is the smaller of the two. Once we had finished the tour, we had a few hours to walk around the area and/or hang out on the beach. Instead of grabbing a beach chair, we chose to walk to both ends of the boardwalk, while trying to decide which local restaurant to try. There are many to choose from, many of which are tiny hole-in-the-wall, open-faced to the beach. While I do not recall the name of the one we chose, I can say it had the most delicious, memorable jerk chicken I’ve ever had.

Overall, the tour was a great combination of getting fun exercise while learning about the history of the island, in addition to enjoying the beach and/or local shopping and cuisine. However, we wished that we could’ve biked a great deal more on the tour. A lot more!

Saint Thomas ~ Kayak, Hike, and Snorkel: Saint Thomas is one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, which Larry had been interested in visiting. The Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917 and then reorganized in 1954. There are three main islands: Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix. You do not need a passport to visit them.

The shuttle ride from the ship to the start of the tour is about half hour. Once everyone was loaded onto the tandem kayaks, we paddled through two mangroves areas before crossing over a bay where we then beached the kayaks on a small cay. From there, we walked on a nature trail where we learned about the importance of the mangroves for the islands. Afterward, it was time to snorkel! For reasons unknown to me, any and all fear that I had possessed about doing this was entirely non-existent. I just face-planted in the water and took off, floating atop of it like a starfish, gazing at the spectacles below.

While snorkeling, we saw a variety of different fish, one of which I thought was a shark. I panicked, frantically pointing it out to Larry, who said it was not a shark. Someone else had found a huge starfish. We were not in an area with reefs, although a string of seaweed wrapped around my ankle and gave me quite a scare. 

Overall, the tour was a lot fun because it combined three active activities, although we would’ve liked a longer kayaking session. We are long-distance kayakers, so only paddling for a few miles left us hungry for more. But we also realize that there is only so much time allotted for the excursions before guests are due back on the ship.

Bahamas, CoCo Cay ~ Snorkel and Beach: CoCo Cay is Royal Caribbean’s private island, located in the Bahamas. There are many things to do here, including a waterpark. I found the most fun thing to do was to walk around and see all of the different beach areas and nature trails. On one of the trails, a huge peacock had leapt out of the trees a few feet in front of us before disappearing once again. Naturally, lizards are everywhere. Unfortunately, we did not see any turtles on any of the islands.

There are several areas to hang out: hammocks and cabanas in various locations; a beach club; a large pool; three beach areas. We settled at Cove Beach, located a short walk past South Beach. Cove Beach is the quietest section of the island, where I somehow fell asleep without intending to do so. When I woke up, I was a bit confused because I hadn’t even realized that I had fallen asleep. Hhhmm…

Before that, however, we ventured over to the largest beach area, Chill Island, where we had a blast snorkeling. We saw many different types of fish, and Larry saw two stingrays. Naturally, I missed seeing both of them. Eventually, the winds kicked in, which significantly decreased underwater visibility. We then played catch in the water with a squishy ball that I brought. We had full intentions of renting a kayak and doing our own paddle tour (instead of with a guide) but it was a touch too windy. 

Overall, we had a Perfect Day at CoCo Cay! We walked off the ship at 9:30 that morning and re-boarded at 4:30 that afternoon. Those seven hours just disappeared within the blink of an eye. The island is immaculate, and each beach spot has beach loungers with an umbrella. We did not go to the pool area because we were on a gorgeous island to be at the beach, not at a pool.

NOTE: If you are going on a snorkel tour, we highly recommend doing your research and bringing your own snorkel mask. We are very glad that we had done this for a few reasons. First, the thought of having our mouth on something that thousands of other people have had their mouth on is very unappealing to us, regardless of the sanitation process that the snorkels go through between each person. The second reason is that we didn’t want a generic mask. We wanted to pick our own, based on our individual preferences, so that we could use them on future trips.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: This was my first cruise, and Larry’s second. And again, we had Too Much Fun. We already have ideas in mind for other cruise destinations, as well as different cruise lines to try, since they are all different. With cruising, you can be as active and involved with what the ship has to offer – or not. For us, we do not like sitting around for extended periods of time. Another benefit is that you have the ability to visit multiple places on one trip as well as choose from multiple excursions at each port. However, there is only time to choose one excursion per port, and you don’t get to spend much time doing the activity. Cruising can also be a haven for mega foodies like us, but unfortunately, the food scene on this ship fell below expectations.

On another note, this cruise was the most carefree vacation that I have ever had. We did not purchase the onboard Internet package, thus we had no access to the outside world. This was the first time – ever – that I didn’t have access to work email for a full week, so I had no idea what was going on, and frankly, I didn’t care. This applies to both of us. With that being said, the sheer nature of this vacation made it that much harder to return to the burdens of the working world… This vacation epitomized what retirement must be like. 

FUTURE PLANS: We would like to go on more cruises in the future, but I think our next Caribbean trip will be to a resort. As of right now, our sights are set on Hamanasi Adventure & Dive Resort, located at the southern tip of Belize. For our Caribbean trips, we will stick with the months of April and May, which are not only quite temperate but also less busy since they are considered the ‘shoulder season.’

WHERE IS BASECAMP @ GRAND LAKE HEADED NEXT?

• May 26 – 30: Custer State Park, SD
• June 24 – July 2: Stanley and Sun Valley, ID
• July 20 – 24: Flaming Gorge, UT
• August 5 – 13: South Lake Tahoe, CA