Paradise Islands & A Taste of the Tropics Tui Marella Voyager
Boxing Day 2024 we woke up at a super early 3am and made our way to Gatwick airport ready for our cruise. After a 9 hour flight to Barbados (with a very well behaved but lack of sleeping baby) we disembarked the plane, jumped straight onto a coach and was transported to the cruise terminal where we checked into the Marella Voyager and boarded. It was about a 3 hour wait for our hold luggage but it was a very smooth process and a lot easier than waiting for baggage.
The first evening was a right off after a long journey and a very tired baby, we grabbed some food in the food hall and headed to bed for some much needed sleep!
Our first full day was a day at sea, to soak in the sunshine and enjoy some time around the pool. We dipped Amelia into a very shallow kids pool where she splashed around, although we did have to be a bit careful as it was a salt water pool. Whilst I enjoyed some time in the sun reading a book, Lee took Amelia down to the kids club baby room for a crawl around. It was a great space with lots for her to play with! The first evening was dress to impress night so we got dressed up, headed to latitude for dinner. We then got Amelia to sleep in the pram, watched the Gatsby themed show then went to the squid and anchor for drinks, a game show and to listen to the band ‘Dem Boyz’. I must mention the ‘Bandou’ headphones were a life saver, we played white noise and she slept through the whole thing, paired with the snoozeshade it made our evening so much easier!
Our first land day was in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. We had a little wander around the town whilst Amelia napped, stopped at a bar for a drink and some wifi and then Mum, Dad and I got a taxi down to the beach. We pitched up at the Paradise beach shack where we rented loungers for $5 each. The drinks were reasonable here at $5 a beer and 2 for $7 cocktails. We had some jerk chicken and bbq ribs for lunch, splashed in the sea and then I rented a jet ski for myself and dad and we went and bounced over the waves which was so much fun! We booked a return taxi so he was waiting for us at 3.45 and got us back to the boat with loads of time to spare. In the evening we went to Latitude 53 for dinner, went to see the show and then headed to the squid and anchor for the band, but it was quite choppy on the sea and so I just went to bed to lay down.
Our next stop was St Maarten where we took a 20 minute taxi journey to Maho beach to watch the planes land. When we got there we found sunset beach where we hired sun loungers around a pool for €20 each ($5 pp to just use the pool) which was perfect for the baby! We could then just walk on and off the beach to watch the planes land as there wasn’t really much sun bathing space on the beach and the waves would come up quite high with the plane blasts so people on the beach laying on towels kept getting flooded and sand blasted. This was such a cool experience and something I’m really glad we got to see! The wind from landing was absolutely fine but if you’re on the beach when the big planes are taking off the wind is crazy and it blows sand at you at high speeds which feels like little pellets shooting at you! After we arrived back to port we had a look around the shops (it’s really cheap here for duty free cigarettes paying around $29 for 200) and then headed back to the boat for the evening! We tried the Italian at Lattitude 53 and the food was lovely although there was quite a wait so we ended up missing the first show and trying to catch the second one which didn’t go down well with a tired screaming baby.
After a rough night with Amelia we arrived in St Kitts. A couple had told us that there was a free pool in the port that we could take baby too but we found out that had closed a couple of years ago. We then got chatting to a stool holder who recommended palm court gardens. This was a 20 minute walk or quick 5 minute drive away from the port and a great recommendation. You walk through the pretty gardens until you reach a pool and jacuzzi with sun loungers and a bar/restaurant. The loungers were $20 to hire and beers $5 which we thought was reasonable. The main pool water was freezing but we took Amelia into the warm jacuzzi and she loved it! There was a lovely breeze there and it was a beautiful warm day so we got Amelia to have her naps in the pram and stayed there until around 3pm when it was time to head back to the boat. That evening she was overtired and grumpy and was a bit of a pain through dinner so I just bought her back to the cabin and put her to bed for the night.
Our next morning we woke up in the beautiful Antigua and decided to visit the beach for the day. We sat in front of the sandals hotel at Dickinsons Bay on the beach and got 3 loungers, a chair and an umbrella for $35 and a bucket of 6 local beers for $25. The beach was beautiful but the sea was quite choppy so our beds kept getting flooded, we tried to build a sand fort but it still managed to get round the sides and behind our beds and we had to be careful of the waves when we took the baby in the sea. We chilled here for a few hours and got some wifi before heading back to port ready for New Year’s Eve. New years on the boat was brilliant. They went to a big effort in the restaurants to make it feel special, then put on a brilliant pool deck party for the countdown to the new year! We saw in the new year (whilst Amelia slept through the noise in the pram) and then went to bed.
After a bit of a lay in the next morning we woke up and headed ashore to the beautiful Dominica. We wanted to see the island so we hired a driver who took us to the viewpoint, botanical gardens, Trafalgar falls waterfall and then the hot sulphur spring. We had such a fun day and it was so lovely to explore and see the island and there was even a short spell of ‘liquid sunshine’ to cool us down at the waterfalls! We found this such cheaper was to do it than the Tui excursions - paying just $25 per person.
Our next morning we woke up at the place I was most excited to visit - Barbados! We walked 30 minutes to the boatyard, Carlisle bay where you paid $35 per person to enter and you got a bed, umbrella, welcome drink, free boat trip to snorkel with the turtles, stingray and fish over the shipwreck, sea inflatables and a shuttle back to the port after! The beach was beautiful with white sand that stayed cool to walk on and the sea was very calm. The only thing that let this day down for us was the 2.5 hour wait for our lunch due to a very disorganised kitchen and lack of staff, prioritising locals, on a very busy day. But we had a lovely time with Amelia experiencing crawling in the sand and walking in the sea. It was very busy when we got back to the ship as the next passengers were all embarking but we didn’t have an issue getting a dinner reservation.
The first port of our second week’s itinerary was Scarborough Trinidad. We arrived and was the only ship in the port so you do get hounded by the locals for taxis and excursions as you walk through the port. We went for a walk but it didn’t feel that safe so we just got a taxi to the pigeon point beach instead. Upon talking to our taxi driver she explained there’s only around 1 ship a week arriving at the moment with Marella being the biggest so they don’t get as much work as they’d like. We arrived at the beach and it was very well organised. You pay $3.50 each to enter and then once on the beach it’s $5 for a lounger. The sand was not as soft and white as Barbados it was a little rougher with lots of little shells and the sea was a little rougher but still a pretty beach. The weather was really hot and muggy with not a lot of breeze and then we had a huge downpour of rain but it only lasted 5 minutes and was back to being muggy.
Saturday morning we woke up on the island of Grenada (St George’s) and got a water taxi over to the beach. This was not the easiest with a baby and a pram and they pack you onto the boats like sardines! When we reached the beach (5-10 mins away) it was $35 for 2 beds and an umbrella with free wifi, but we should have gone left from the water taxi dock and walked down further as they had cheaper loungers, with a restaurant you could sit inside, free toilets etc whereas where we sat it was $1 every time you needed a wee. The sand was soft and the sea clear so it was a lovely beach and we had a nice day.
The next morning we arrived in St Vincent and the Grenadines. We got off the boat to see what was about but we couldn’t do the volcanos as it was a 2hr drive each way and 3 hour hike or it was going to cost $70 to get to the local beach and it didn’t seem worth it so we went back onto the ship for a pool day before heading out to dinner in the evening and catching the evening show.
For our penultimate island we arrived in Castries St Lucia where we was greeted off of the boat by the Caribbean Excursions team (booked through the Facebook page) and driven 40 minutes across the island to go horse riding on the North side of the island. This was a bumpy journey but very fun and we loved being on the horses, there wasn’t really an opportunity to canter or gallop but we enjoyed it nethertheless - just watch out for broken tree branches sticking out as a few people ended up with injured legs and watch for the branches and vines hanging down overhead! We took a stop mid way where the guides climbed trees and cut fresh coconuts for us to drink. We were meant to take the horses bareback into the sea but we were on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island and the sea was too choppy to go in so we skipped that part. When we arrived back to the stables we were greeted with freshly grown bananas and local beer! The second part of the excursions was a climb down to see the waterfalls. It was slippery in parts but a very mild climb and was fun! The waterfall at the bottom wasn’t huge but it was so pretty and peaceful and we got a bit of time to paddle in the fresh water! Overall we had such a fun day and I would recommend this tour to anyone visiting St Lucia!
Our final stop on the holiday fell on my baby girls first birthday! We wanted to do something special for her so we booked the Tui Guadeloupe - The butterfly trip which took us to Fort Fleur d'Epée to see beautiful views of the sea and other islands, Crayfish Waterfall - a small but easy to get to waterfall with a footpath, and Valombreuse Botanical Gardens which were stunning. We saw parrots, flamingos, other wildlife and plenty of tropical flowers/plants. We loved this trip seeing some lovely places and driving through the island. The island port was really reasonable for souvenirs/gifts and we found this much better than any of the other islands we had visited for prices.
Our final full day was a day at sea so we just made the most of the sunshine and spent the day around the pool and then to the kids club for a bit. The pool deck is always very busy on sea days so getting a lounger is a challenge but we managed to get some.
We had the best holiday and it was so fun and great to have bonding time with Lee & Amelia. Cruising is definitely our favourite kind of holiday and we can’t wait for the next one!
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