Our previous day was the only sea day on the cruise. We just spent the day relaxing, reading and chatting with some fellow passengers we met. I had a migraine hit later in the day so I spent the evening in bed, drugged up with a bag of ice on my head. Fortunately, it didn't hit with full force and was gone when I woke up the next morning.
We started our day with a good breakfast at the buffet and got off the ship around 9:45am. Depending on where your ship is berthed, you may have to take a bus to get to the cruise terminal but we were the only ship in port that day and we docked within walking distance of the terminal. We made our way through the terminal on a rather round-a-bout route since they make sure you have to walk by each and every store before you can get to the exit.
As usual, the cab/taxi area was crazy! Everyone is yelling at you….and at each other. You have to stand up for yourself or they herd you around like you are livestock!! We usually walk to the bus terminal and take a bus up the west coast as we really enjoy the beaches along that coast however, neither of us was able to sit for very long so we decided to take a short cab ride to Harbour Lights, a beach bar/restaurant located on Carlisle Bay about 5 minutes from the pier. We got in the cab and proceeded to wait over 10 minutes while the cabbie tried to find other people to pack into the van. Our fellow passengers were getting quite vocal and hollering at him to hurry up as he was wasting good beach time. They might as well have saved their breath as he paid little attention. Finally we were on our way to the beach. All of the other passengers got off at the Shipyard, a very popular beach club and we went about another half mile down the road to reach Harbour Lights.
We got dropped off in the parking lot and walked through the building and out the back onto the patio that led to the beach. There were all sorts of vendor tables set up selling jewelry, beach wear, hats, etc. but we just kept walking to the beach. Before we even got there, an attendant asked if we wanted chairs and an umbrella and we paid him $15 dollars for two wrist bands that would give us run of the facilities and lounge chairs for the day.
We found a couple of chairs and an umbrella down the beach away from the more crowded area and parked our bags. The beach is absolutely beautiful! A long crescent of very white sand and the water is the Caribbean blue that a picture just cannot capture, no matter how hard you may try. We spent a few hours relaxing, walking the beach and swimming…well, more floating. The water was warm and clear but the waves were quite rough so we stayed out beyond the break area of the waves.
There are a lot of beach vendors walking the beach and you can start to feel pestered after a while. On the good side, they will leave you alone with a simple “No, thanks”. If you are interested in snorkeling with the sea turtles, there are tons of boats that will take you a few hundred yards off shore to a shipwreck where all of the ship’s excursions go to snorkel. They were charging $20 a person when we were there and that is a half decent price. If you are a strong swimmer, you could actually swim out to the spot. Just look for the crowd of people and boats/catamarans and head in that direction.
Relaxed and a little crispy, we made our way back to the bar area and asked if they had internet. They had wireless but we hadn’t brought our tablet with us so the owner offered to let us use his office computer to check our email. Very accommodating staff!
A cabbie was waiting for us to take us back to the ship. We grabbed some lunch and I decided it was a good time to do a load of laundry. It is always nice when there is a passenger laundry on the ship as you don’t have to pack quite so much. One load mid-week gets us through the cruise!
We finally met our tablemates at supper…an older couple from Pennsylvania that we enjoyed getting to know throughout the rest of the week. We hit the comedy/juggling show and then bedtime. Another beautiful island stop!
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