Travel : Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe

Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe was another interesting port of call via Royal Caribbean “Brilliance of the Seas”.  It was highly recommended by the Cruise Director to book a tour via the cruise, as there wasn’t as much to do near the dock and not many local tours available.  So we decided to book the Hindu Temple/Waterfall tour.  I’m generally not that big of a fan of booking excursions through the cruise, as you’re usually packed into a big air conditioned bus with 40 other people.  Usually if you book a local tour, it’s only 8-10 people and they let you take photos out the window and/or they stop more often at different sites.  And usually the guide has more character and is typically really funny. 

Never-the-less, we tried to make the most of it.  Kind of disappointed, but when our cruise tour bus took us to the Hindu Temple, we were not allowed in because it was closed.  So we could only take photos from the outside.  Our 2nd stop was Carbet Falls, which was really nice.  We trekked through the rainforest until we got to the end of the trail and saw one of the main waterfalls — although there was a big tree in the way…oh well.  A cool thing about Gaudeloupe is the shape of the island — looks like a butterfly.  After our tour, we walked around town to check out some of the local shops.  Surprisingly, pharmacy drug prices were relatively cheap, you can get a 30 pk of ibuprofen for approx $3.50 USD.  I guess we should’ve stocked up!

CREDITS

Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Basseterre, St. Kitts

Basseterre, St. Kitts was another interesting port via Royal Caribbean “Brilliance of the Seas” Cruise.  All the shops are pretty much at the port once you get off the ship.  We were greeted by many locals with monkeys wearing diapers asking if we wanted to take a picture with it — we politely declined. We were tempted to rent a scooter and just ride around the island on our own, but thought it might be too tiring, so we opted to do a local bus tour. 

There was a cool “Rum Tree”, where people could hang their empty rum bottles to the tree.  Close by was an example of Carib Petroglyph Rock Drawings. On a side note : those that are interested in becoming doctors, there are many medical schools in St. Kitts ; people often fly in from India, US, etc to study here.  Continuing with the tour, we stopped off at Romney Manor, where we saw the Saman Tree and Lipstick Plant. There were also demos of batik-making in the shop.  Later we stopped off to see the volcanic black sand beach.  To quench our thirst, we got some fresh coconut juice — which was sooo good!

CREDITS
Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Philipsburg, St. Maarten

Philipsburg, St. Maarten was one of the beautiful ports via Royal Caribbean “Brilliance of the Seas” cruise.  When you get off the ship, it’s a $3 USD pp taxi ride to the town of Philipsburg.  You can opt to walk but it’s about 30 minutes.  So depends how pressed for time you are and how much you’re carrying.  Once you get there, there are a lot of shops.  I find there are A LOT of jewelry stores.  And when I say “a lot” is almost an understatement. There was a nice beach to relax at too. 

We kept wandering around and eventually took a local bus ($2 USD pp) to Marigot (the capital of French St. Martin).  This is where all the luxurious yachts are!  We stopped by a bakery and bought the biggest French macaron we’ve ever seen! Yum!  There were also some nice shops and street vendors.  While heading back, there was a lot of traffic.  You kind of have to be mindful of “Island Time”.  Most people start work around 7:30am and finish early around 3:30pm.  Sometimes tourists don’t realize this and are late getting back to the ship. If you take an excursion through the ship, then they’ll wait for you if you’re late.  But do your own thing and come back late, the ship goes BUH-BYE!

CREDITS
Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Tortola {British Virgin Islands}

Imagine the winter holidays with 28 degree celcius weather…well this was reality in Tortola, British Virgin Islands!  One of the first port stops with Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, we got off the ship to wander the town for a bit.  Because it was a Sunday, many shops weren’t going to be open until noon.  So we opted for a local tour by Captain Friendly! LOL.  His open-air safari bus wasn’t the fanciest, but his price was good and this guy had a lot of character, which made the tour fun.

We saw some dolphins along the way and stopped off at Cane Garden Bay to enjoy the beach.  It was cool to watch the pelicans dive into the water to catch their food.  After we got back, we wandered the town some more to take some photos, to buy some hot sauce souvenirs and enjoy some fresh passion fruit and sour sop juice.  Sour sop is actually known to help fight cancer, an interesting fact I didn’t know.

 

CREDITS

Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Royal Caribbean Cruise "Brilliance of the Seas"

This was my first time cruising.  Glad I was able to find a good deal for Royal Caribbean International — it was for 7 nights and we got a balcony suite.  We decided to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico to take the “Brilliance of the Seas” ship because everyday the ship docked somewhere new except for one day at sea. 

So we got a taste of different nearby islands such as : Tortola {British Virgin Island}, Philipsburg {St. Maarten}, Basseterre {St. Kitts}, Pointe-a-Pitre {Guadeloupe}, Bridgetown {Barbados}, and then back to San Juan {Puerto Rico}, where we stayed for an extra 3 days. “Brilliance of the Seas” was a probably a mid-sized ship, which was kept really clean and everyone was very friendly.  I was worried about sea-sickness, but was ok for the duration of the trip. Every now and then you would feel the ship rock, but it was expected.

Evening entertainment was fun — some of the acts included “Happy Days” singer Bobby Avron, comedians Azeem and Jeff Bradley, “Brilliance of the Seas” singers and dancers, etc.  Activities on the ship that we tried included : rock climbing, billiards, table tennis, etc.  The food; hands down was spectacular — I’m pretty sure I gained a few pounds when I got back. 

Some highlights of the evening dining at Minstrel included lobster tail, escargot, shrimp, cod fish, tiramisu, creme brulee, souffle, etc.  Breakfast and lunch was usually buffet at the Windjammer, but occasionally we’d go to the Seaview Cafe for some yummy chicken fingers or fish and chips.  Overall it was a great experience — it was nice spending part of the winter holidays in warm weather.  You don’t get much time to explore on each island, but at least you get a taste of what each island is like, so if you really enjoyed it, you could go back another time. 

CREDITS
Article + Photography : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]