Britannia, Caribbean, Jan 2019

My Husband and I went on a Caribbean Cruise for our honeymoon 6 years ago…then we have returned every January since for our Wedding Anniversary. Extravagant, but you only live once!

The P&O official itinerary ^

In January 2019 we headed off to Gatwick airport to fly to Barbados to join our 8th cruise aboard Britannia. As always, my life motto came into play, ‘yolo’ life is too short to be packed into a cramp airline seat, so we do treat ourselves to the upgrade available, premium economy. It’s just that little bit more comfortable, and worth the extra pounds.

Mid Atlantic Ocean sunshine ^

We arrived in Barbados airport and head straight onto a bus and are driven to Britannia docked in Bridgetown. A swift embarkation in Barbados and we’re on board and ready to ….. sleep! Well eat first, naturally, you’re on a cruise, then sleep!

A day at sea, to rejuvenate, relax, rest and eat, then ready for our first port of call, Bonaire. Beautiful Bonaire.

Spot the passengers snorkelling right next to the ship ^

We’ve visited most of the Caribbean ports that P&O visit, so we tend to treat ourselves to shore excursions. They are expensive, and you could easily alternatively wander around each port, we just like to treat ourselves and enjoy an organised day out. We are creatures of habit and mostly decant from the ship to a boat….

In Bonaire we went for a boat ride with Blue bay Bonaire ( check them out on Facebook) the trip was booked through a P&O excursion. It was a small tour with only about 8-10 passengers and we were well looked after by the crew on their lovely yacht. You’ve got to be quite good with your mobility to join this trip, it’s a small yacht and they have a small ladder at the back to get in and out of the sea. The Snorkelling was *amazing* like no fish I have ever seen before, I’ll have a GoPro ready for next January’s visit! It’s like you’re on a set of Finding Nemo, spectacular!

On returning from the trip, we opted to spend the rest of the day in the hotel the yacht moored at, The Plaza Resort Bonaire, reasonably priced and a lovely beach or pool to laze by! There was even entertainment, wild Iguanas walking around the pool, stealing people’s apples! They were cute and friendly, so lovely to see them in the wild and roaming free.

Our next port of call was Aruba. Sadly I left my phone in the safe in our cabin, I think to keep it safe whilst playing in the sea, I’m always paranoid it’ll drop in the water or be stolen. Aruba is beautiful, a very built up Caribbean island, but beautiful beaches never the less! I’ve attached a couple of photos from previous trips to Aruba.

Alto Vista Chapel, Aruba (below)

Bugaloe bar, on De Palm Pier, Palm Beach, Aruba – they do the BEST pina coladas ^

Next was a day at sea. We took the opportunity to attend a lesson at the Cookery school , we baked macaroons and other goodies, just what you need on a cruise, more food…. delicious though!

We then sailed on to St Vincent. In St Vincent we always tend to go on a particular trip. It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure… a trip on the St Vincent Schooner…. As someone who doesn’t drink much at all, they’re very generous with the rum punch… it is however a trip were everyone is incredibly cheerful and happy by the end, which is lovely when you’re hearing the stereotypical moans around ship. There are opportunities to see pirates of the Caribbean sights and to have a swim, prior to the rum punch flowing. I also enjoyed diving off the side of the boat into the sea with the crew and on board Sion Hill Steele band members. Great fun!

Then onwards to Grenada.

Again, creatures of habit in Grenada…. we usually go on the Champagne, lobster and Snorkel tour. We always seem to meet lovely people on this tour, 2019 was no different, met a lovely couple, the woman was involved in deciding trips for Iona, a p&o employee. Though it did take her some time to tell us that… enough time to realise we were full of gratitude and praise to P&O and no moans!

The boat sails from a local marina to a peninsular of land called Hog Island. Here the group stops, spends time on the beach whilst the crew start the beach BBQ. Then we sail back to the ship. Definitely recommend this tour!

We then popped back on board Britannia and sailed on to our next Caribbean Island, St Lucia. Another island we visit every year, at first I wasn’t particularly impressed with St Lucia, a few years ago, but it has grown on me, it is very beautiful in its own little way! We treated ourselves to a day at the Luxurious Windjammer landings resort, organised by P&O, a very expensive tour, but definitely worth it.

All inclusive for the day, just what we needed, NOT, but we were on holiday and treated ourselves to all the Diet Cokes and cocktails we desired. A delicious lunch at their beach bar and a lazy day by the beach. Definitely a trip I plan to book again for next year, it was lovely to just chill out for the day , not that any other day wasn’t relaxing and chilled!

Cat playing cat and crab, the St Lucian Version of Cat and mouse… the crab won.^

We then reboarded Britannia and cruised on to St Martin. We love St Martin, another annual visit, usually we can be found on a catamaran trip, or watching the planes at Maho beach. This year, I wanted to visit St Barths. It was a Monday morning , usually I head to St Barts in London for meetings, heading to St Barts in the Caribbean was far more fun… again a trip organised by P&O. A ferry was chartered for the group of us, so there was plenty of free space. The journey over was a little choppy, but having never been affected by seasickness it was an immensely fun journey! We arrived in St Barts and went on a short cab tour of the island with some fellow passengers. They returned to town and walked to a local beach for the rest of the day. We returned to town for some French crepes then had a nose around the posh shops prior to the short ferry ride back. My husband was over the moon on the way back when the captain invited him to sit on the ‘deputy captain’ seat on the Bridge, there he stayed for the whole journey back!

Of course St Barts would have a Range Rover Evoque taxi (below)

The famous Eden Rock hotel, not yet re-opened from the latest storm (below)

Posh boats were the norm…(above & below)

Roman Abramovichs current boat ^

We headed back on board Britannia to set sail for St Kitts. Given that my husband works for a train company in London, it’s a given we must visit the St Kitts scenic railway every year, we love it… we enjoy the trip everytime! A fantastic day out, I recommend if you’re visiting St Kitts.

The Chartered Mechanical Engineer, Head of fleet geekiness coming out ^

Then onwards to Antigua, last but not at all least. We love Antigua.

Another Caribbean island, another boat trip!

Then we sailed onward to our final, (and favourite) port, back to Barbados for two days before the flight home.

This year in Barbados I treated us to a trip on a private yacht with Ocean Daze, a company affiliated somehow with the famous Boatyard. This boat trip was like no other boat trip… we will definitely go again. It was expensive, very expensive, but so incredibly worth it. Nothing was too much for the crew, we were spoilt rotten. Picked up at the dock gate, driven to the catamaran, served breakfast, allowed to sit wherever we wanted on the boat and were served endless food, canapés, treats, cocktails, drinks whatever we desired all day long. We anchored off A beautiful beach, to spend some time relaxing, swimming, using the paddle board and inflatables. Then had lunch served, prior to sailing back to Bridgetown.

Then on our final evening in Barbados we did something we’d never had a chance to do before, we finally, visited Oistins Fish fry! A great evening out, good food, good music, lots of friendly, happy people!

They back to our creature of habit-ness for a final trip, the farewell to Barbados trip. A trip we do every year to make the most of our last day in Barbados prior to the flight back to Gatwick.

The Atlantic coast of Barbados

Beautiful Bathsheba

And of course, I can’t write about a cruise on Britannia without adding a few beautiful photographs of her! Next time I’ll try and group the photographs together ‘layout ap style’ but please bear with me for this entry!