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| View from my balcony of the port in St. Lucia |
Today I was taking my first Royal Caribbean excursion of the trip. Since my friends were not so agenda oriented, I booked this excursion a week before the trip. I like to have a plan in place. Well apparently I had the right idea because my friends ended up joining me. We took "The Best of St. Lucia" excursion, a three and a half hour tour of the island.
There were a lot of people on this tour. We were divided into a few groups on different buses. My group ended up on a bus with "Smiley" as our guide. He was a lot of fun and very personable. After making our way up some very windy roads, the first stop was a college. There were a lot of monuments and a fantastic view. Smiley gave some local history and also information about the local vegetation that was there.
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| The Jewel of the Seas is peeking out on the left of the photo. |
The next stop was Caribelle Batiks. This was one of the reasons I picked this particular tour. I am a quilter and all things fabric interest me. We got a brief lesson on how the batiks got made. We were then led into the store where they were hoping you would purchase some things. The items in there were beautiful and I did indeed make some purchases.
The last stop was a rainforest. We got to sample some local fish and fresh bananas. There were some interesting plants to see. There were also other groups there zip lining.
A drive back on St. Lucia's winding roads ended the excursion. The tour was $59. Was it worth $59? On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate this a 5. I have always found that booking privately versus a ship excursion, the private tours win hands down.
We got back to the ship about 1:30 pm. I did my usual routine, a little shopping, head back to the ship, relax in the solarium until dinner.
We were back in the main dining room tonight at our usual table with Rayfton and Kimber. A little info about these two.
Rayfton hailed from India. He was incredibly passionate about his job. You could see the enthusiasm in his face. He has been with Royal for twelve years and started out as a dishwasher. His work day sometimes went from 4:00 pm until 4:00 am. He always gave us the chef's recommendation and then his own personal recommendation. If we were undecided about something, he would bring us what we ordered but also bring extra entrees "for the table" so we could sample everything. The same went for the desserts. He was into the fifth month of his seven month contract but was leaving the ship early on Saturday to fly back to India (21-hour flight!) where his wife was due to have a baby mid-May.
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| Our waiter Rayfton |
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| Assistant waiter Kimber |
Kimber was the more quiet of the two. He was from St. Lucia where his wife and baby currently live. He would work extra hours the day before the ship docks in St. Lucia so he could be off the ship the entire day and spend it with his family.
Their typical contract is seven months on and then six weeks off. Not an easy life!
We attended the production show after dinner. Again, it was just ok. Then some of us went to bed. The rest of us went to the Name the Lyrics show in the Safari Lounge. A lot of fun!
Tomorrow is our last port stop, Barbados!
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