Travel Destination #5: Puerto Rico, St-Thomas, Dominica, Barbados, St-Lucia, Antigua & St-Kitts
So we decided to try and cruise with the kiddos. Anabelle was 3 years old at this point and Amellya was now 21 months. Having booked an interior room to save some money we knew we couldn't bring too much! We didn't mind the lack of space since we'd be off the boat everyday and were only going to be showering and sleeping there :) I crammed all of our clothes (me and the girls) in one large suitcase and once again I over-packed....will I ever get it right??? Probably not! We had our stroller, the ergo baby carrier and this time we had another VERY USEFUL purchase that tagged along, a Kelty Kids backpack carrier which had the portable potty at all times :), we also stuffed the beach tent in my suitcase! How wonderful, we had enough room for our water and our portable potty. We did bring along my favorite stroller for the airport and on the ship. Love that it folds into this neat little package :) Best stroller to travel with by far!!!
This stroller folds into this...
and...
We did so much on this trip with the girls and we loved every second of it :) We flew into Puerto Rico where we boarded the ship. The ship itself was awesome, the girls loved the pool and miniature golf. We're not ones to send our children to childcare on a boat so I can't really comment on that. The food was out of this world and the service even better! All in all we had an awesome experience on Carnival Victory :)
St-Thomas: There didn't seem to be a ton to do here but we ended up having a wonderful time. We went to Coral World Marine Park and then spent a few hours a Coki Point beach. The Marine park wasn't all I thought it would be but the girls really enjoyed it. We were hoping we could do the semi-submarine tour but unfortunately it wasn't available the day we were there. The stroller was all we brought off the ship and it was perfect. Coki Point beach was amazing!!! We fed the beautiful fish right there on the edge of the water...the girls were super excited :) Here are a few pictures...
Dominica: This island had a ton of ecotourism and beautiful sights. Not many beaches from what we were told. I don't think we'd book a room for a week here, but a day trip was nice. We did a lot of hiking and oh were we happy to have the two carriers! The waterfalls were beautiful! The girls were so impressed with all the vegetation and water around us. They were champs! On our way back to the boat, us girls got some pretty braids :)
Barbados: Barbados was awesome. We didn't stay on land. We took the catamaran tour where you could snorkel and swim with giant sea turtles. The girls had so much fun dancing on the way there. The food and drinks were amazing and the crew was equally amazing! Anabelle actually went into the water with daddy, but she wasn't quite sure if she liked it or not :) Amellya and I hung out on the catamaran with the friendly crew!
Some serious dancing was happening!
St-Lucia: Another great island! We chose to rent a taxi for the day so that we could see as much as possible. We really like doing our sight seeing on our own. No waiting for other people! Especially with two young ones :) So we got to do quite a bit during our time here. We had our carriers and we were off! We drove around the island, saw Magen's Bay, visited the Diamond Botanical Garden and waterfall, stopped to see the Pitons mountains, the Soufriere volcano and ended our day with a little fun at the beach and some grown up drinks for us :)
Magen's Bay
Fishing Village
A friendly wanderer on the side of the road!
The "Pitons"
Antigua: B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L! That's all I can say. We're not the type to lounge on the beach for a full week...but man o man this is the one place I would! We took a trip to devil's bridge and then we were off to the beach. Such a good time we had! We all spent the entire day in the water playing. I just love those stress free days when I can enjoy some quality family time :) We had our carriers and the beach tent. The girls were so burned out by the end of the day from all the fun!
St-Kitts: Once again we rented a taxi {van} for the day and tried to do as much as possible. We got off the boat with our two carriers, some towels and that was about it. We did some hiking through the rainforest and were a little disappointed we didn't see any monkeys!!! We then visited the Brimstone Hill Fortress (I think we enjoyed this a little more than the kids}. Then as usual we ended our day with a few hours at the beach!
Puerto Rico: We scheduled a late day flight on our arrival date. We figured we'd visit Puerto Rico a little. Again, we took a taxi for the day and got to see a little of what this island had to offer. We visited the state house where Jose our driver gave us a ton of interesting information. The inside was beautiful :) We then visited yet another fort: Castillo San Cristobal and then we drove around for a bit. No beach time here for lack of time!
So here you have it...our 7 day cruise on which we had such a blast. We probably wouldn't do a cruise if we had to spend the entire day on the boat with our young children but this worked out great for our little family... Here are a few bonus pictures of the boat and others from my top pics :) I hope you've enjoyed this summary of what was an amazing vacation!
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