EXCURSION TO BAMBOO BEACH, JAMAICA

We were very excited to finally visit Jamaica on our recent cruise on Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas. Despite this being our 13th cruise, we had never visited this island. Unfortunately our previously-booked excursion to the Blue Hole was canceled (literally the day we boarded the ship), so we had to choose another excursion for our port stop in Falmouth, Jamaica.

We chose the excursion to Bamboo Beach because it gave us the opportunity to visit a beach and samples of Jamaican food would be served as part of the excursion. It also wasn't an all-day excursion so we would have some time (not enough!) to walk around the cruise port terminal and do some shopping.

It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from Falmouth to Bamboo Beach. This allowed us to see some of the beautiful countryside scenery of Jamaica...

Bamboo Beach is a really nice beach with lots of sugary sand and turquoise water.

Comfortable beach loungers were available for us under swaying coconut palm and almond trees just steps from the water.

We laid out our beach towels on our loungers and immediately headed into the water. I'm not much of a swimmer, and I am very cautious about burning in the Caribbean sun so I wear a t-shirt over my swimsuit along with a hat and sunglasses. But I absolutely love just wading out in the cool Caribbean water as far as I can. My husband loves laying in the sand and having the waves pummel him. We had so much fun.

I wanted to taste some real Jamaican food and part of this excursion included tapas-size portions of different types of the local dishes. The young women who worked at the beach club served us the food and drinks right at our beach chairs. We were able to sample several different dishes including jerk chicken, cole slaw, spicy sausage, flavorful fried dough, rice and vegetables in a spicy sauce. All were delicious.

We were entertained with some Jamaican dancing by young men and women in traditional costumes.

We really enjoyed our time at the Bamboo Beach Club. It has a really nice beach...

Jamaican reggae music playing under the shade trees...

Souvenirs for sale...

A walk-up bar...

Plenty of beach chairs with great views...

And friendly people...

We would highly recommend it for anyone sailing to Jamaica. 

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to Jamaica in November, 2017. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

OUR VISIT TO ANGUILLA

We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas back in June. One of the port stops was St. Maarten, my favorite Caribbean island, and the one we have cruised to the most. Since we had visited the island five previous times, we decided to be adventurous, visit a new country and take the ferry over to the island of Anguilla.

From the cruise port terminal it took several legs of transportation to arrive in Anguilla: 

Water Taxi from cruise pier to Philipsburg ($7 roundtrip);

Taxi from Philipsburg to Marigot ($25);

Ferry from Marigot to Anguilla ($53 each roundtrip);

Taxi from Anguilla cruise pier to Rendezvous Bay Beach ($34 roundtrip).

Taxi from Marigot back to Philipsburg ($25).

But it was so worth it!

Anguilla has so many beautiful beaches to choose from. I had researched a couple of them, but as we went through customs, I asked the official which beach she recommended since we only wanted to stay for a couple of hours. She recommended Rendezvous Bay Beach: it was close by and tended to be less crowded. So we took her advice (thank you Ms. Customs Official for the perfect choice!) and hired a taxi driver for the round trip to and from the beach.

Rendezvous Bay Beach is located in front of the Anguilla Great House Beach Resort. Note: if you are interested in actually visiting Anguilla instead of a day-trip, their accommodations are these cute West Indian style cottages.

After the taxi dropped us off we just had to walk directly through the main office building and straight down the sidewalk to the beach. No fees or charges to visit the beach.

WOW!  Here is our first view...can it be any more perfect?

Since it was low season (mid-June) the beach was nearly empty!  A look to our left...

 







































To the right there were just a handful of tourists. The catamaran sailed into that spot about a half-hour after we arrived but the passengers stayed near the boat to snorkel.

This was definitely the highlight of our cruise. When have you ever been nearly the only people on a spectacular white-sand beach?

 

If you want to research ferry schedules from St. Martin to Anguilla, you can click here and here.

All photos were taken by my husband and me during our visit to Anguilla in June, 2017. Unauthorized use is prohibited.

CARNIVAL VISTA IN PHOTOS

We planned our 10th cruise onboard the new Vista because we wanted to see the newest, biggest member of the Carnival fleet. The itinerary wasn't my favorite: we had already been to each island more than once, but for this one time we would cruise based solely on the ship, not the itinerary. We did have a wonderful time and the ship is beautiful. Here are some photos...

Carnival Vista is a huge ship: it's 1,055 feet long. Over 1,450 hardworking crew members take care of over 3,950 passengers. Here the ship is docked in Grand Turk.

The beautiful atrium on the Carnival Vista: The 3-story center sculpture sits above the bar and reaches to the ceiling above.

The scenes on the vortex are animated, with the fish, stingrays and seas turtles swimming around as if you were in a large aquarium.

Of course like any cruise ship there are numerous places to drink:
Alchemy Bar...

Piano Bar 88...

Skybox Sports Bar...

Havana Bar...(I love the décor in here!)

Red Frog Rum Bar...they brew their own beer.

There are so many places to relax on the ship...

So many fun things to do...

Soak up that Caribbean sunshine...

Swim in the pools, relax in the whirlpools...

For the kids there's the Waterworks fun area...

 

For the adventurous there's the Skyride...

or the Skycourse obstacle climb...

For the less adventurous there's mini golf and shuffleboard...

Overall Carnival Vista is a wonderful cruise ship.  There is so much to do, so much to eat, so many memories to make and so many new friends to meet.

For more information on Carnival cruises, click on its website here.

Thank you for visiting.

A Great Europe Trip Planner

All photos were taken by me during our cruise in November, 2016. Unauthorized use is prohibited.