Royal Clipper Cruise- Grenadines, Martinique, St. Lucia and Barbados

Barbados- cruise ship port

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Brown's Beach in Barbados Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Barbados- Our flight was not until 4:30, so we had a lot of time in Barbados and didn’t want to just sit around the airport. We hired a private taxi to give us a 4 and a half hour tour. We made a few stops in Bridgetown, viewed sugar plantations, took in views from a watch tower and explored beautiful, wild Bathsheba on the east coast of the island before being dropped off at the airport. I’d highly recommend doing this. We really enjoyed our taxi driver too.

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St. Lucia Cruise Ship Port

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view of Marigot in St. Lucia Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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St. Lucia- We wanted to see as much of St. Lucia as we could so we opted to do our own thing in the morning. We arrived at Marigot Bay at 7:30 am and were on the first tender to shore. We caught a private taxi and arranged a tour with him for the next four hours. We had thought about doing one of the ship’s tours, but they were all in the afternoon and would mean that we would miss the snorkeling trip. There wasn’t too much to do in Marigot and most of the attractions we wanted to visit were closer to Soufriere, where the ship was arriving at 1:30 pm, so we decided to make the most of our morning. St. Lucia is VERY mountainous and lush, and gorgeous views abound. We stopped for a nice view of t...Read More

St. Lucia- We wanted to see as much of St. Lucia as we could so we opted to do our own thing in the morning. We arrived at Marigot Bay at 7:30 am and were on the first tender to shore. We caught a private taxi and arranged a tour with him for the next four hours. We had thought about doing one of the ship’s tours, but they were all in the afternoon and would mean that we would miss the snorkeling trip. There wasn’t too much to do in Marigot and most of the attractions we wanted to visit were closer to Soufriere, where the ship was arriving at 1:30 pm, so we decided to make the most of our morning. St. Lucia is VERY mountainous and lush, and gorgeous views abound. We stopped for a nice view of the ship and Marigot. Then we stopped for another ship view and Rosseau Beach. We stopped for some fishing village views, a banana plantation and a couple of amazing Piton views. (I had wanted to get views of the Pitons from both the water and from the mountains. I’m so glad we got to see them from such different perspectives.) We visited a small waterfall and the volcano. Then we took the rough road to Anse Chastanet where I had hoped to do some snorkeling. The black sand beach here was beautiful. Unfortunately, the water was very churned up. We could see that there was plenty of coral and fish—we just couldn’t see it very well because the water was murky. We ended up just relaxing on the beach for a while then had lunch at the hotel. It was good, but a bit pricey. We then took a boat back to Soufriere (that is definitely preferred to taking the rough road!) and waited for the tender to arrive so we could get back on the ship for the snorkeling trip. We then boarded the tender with about 30 other passengers. We snorkeled at the base of a mountain and also had a great view of the Pitons from the water here. The water was calm and clear (unlike the water at Anse Chastanet!). There was quite a bit of coral and some other interesting things. We saw a centipede looking thing on a rock in the ocean—I had never seen anything like that before. Also saw lots of fish. We had about 45 minutes to snorkel which was ample. We made it back to the ship with just enough time to shower and be ready for the photo tender where I photographed the ship under sail. This was our favorite day of the cruise and I would love to come back to St. Lucia for a vacation. Read Less

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Martinique cruise ship port

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library in Martinique Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Martinique- We arrived the city around 8 am (I am missing our itinerary for that day, so I may be a bit off on the timing). We docked here which made it more convenient getting on and off the ship. We took the ship’s tour where we walked around the city—saw a beautiful library, spent some time at the market, then drove up to the Church of Balata and went to some gorgeous botanical gardens (these were my favorite botanical gardens of the trip.). We went back to the ship around noon and moved on to the beach, Anse d’Arlet. We were on the first tender over. The beach was nice, somewhat darker sand, and calm, clear water. We made our way down to a hotel where we rented chairs for $5 each. There we...Read More

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Bequia cruise ship port

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view of Bequia Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Bequia- We arrived at 2 pm and departed at 7 pm. This was one of my favorite islands, and I could definitely see myself coming back here for a vacation. We opted to do the ship’s 4x4 tour of the island. After the tour we walked around town and found it very charming. We made it back to the jetty for the last tender. While we were waiting for the tender, we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets of the trip.

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St. Vincent Cruise Ship Port

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view from fort Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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St. Vincent- We arrived at 8 am and departed at noon. We took the first tender over to the island and hired a private taxi. We visited the fort and the botanical gardens. We then went back to town and walked around a bit before going back to the ship. We did not have much time here, so I hope to come back one day!

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Tobago Cays- cruise ship port

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Tobago Cays Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Tobago Cays- We arrived at 9:30 am and departed at 5 pm. We were on the first tender to the island—and the only passengers on that tender! I didn’t mind that one bit because I was able to get some pictures of the beach without too many people on them. We hired a boat man to take us to the neighboring island so we could snorkel with the turtles. We arranged for him to pick us up two and a half hours later. This island was even more beautiful than the one where we first landed. The beach was a sand spit that jutted out from the island. Because we got there early, there were not too many people on the island or too many people snorkeling. Although there were lots of boats moored, I think most pe...Read More

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Carriacou Cruise Ship Port

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view of ship and Sandy Island from Carriacou Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Carriacou, Captain’s Best- Originally on the "Captain’s Best" day we were going to Union Island. But they changed it at the last minute and we went to Carriacou instead. We arrived at 10 am and departed at 6 pm. We took a private taxi tour of the island. The driver gave us some interesting commentary, we stopped at some gorgeous overlooks, saw a boat being built, and then he dropped us off at Paradise Beach. I was not that impressed with the beach, but we had a great Caribbean lunch at the Hardwood Bar. Then we hired a guy to take us on his boat to Sandy Island for beaching it and snorkeling. The beach here was beautiful! We arranged for him to pick us up two hours later. When we arrived we w...Read More

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Grenada Cruise Ship Port

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Concord Waterfall Grenada Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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Grenada- This was our first day in port and it was a very rainy day. (Luckily that was our only rainy day of the trip) We were glad we had booked an excursion instead of going to the beach like we originally planned. (Although, I would have liked to have checked out some of the beaches!) We arrived at 1 pm and departed at 11:45 pm. We took the ship’s excursion, nutmeg and falls. We were in a minibus and the guide gave a lot of great information. We drove up through the mountains and I was surprised at how lush the island was. Just beautiful. We first stopped at an area where the guide showed us a lot of different spices and fruits that are available on the island. Then we toured a nutmeg facto...Read More

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The ship- the Royal Clipper

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Sails at night Photo, Grenadines, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

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ShipWe had been on a cruise with Star Clippers before, so we knew what to expect. The ship holds about 220 passengers, but there were only about 160 on our cruise. I don’t think the ship would have felt crowded if it were full, but it was definitely nice that it wasn’t full. The bars and restaurants were never crowded and we never had to wait for a table at dinner or even wait in much of a line at the buffet breakfasts and lunches. The dining room was beautiful—more ornate than on the Star Flyer. There were plenty of lounge chairs on deck—even plenty in the shade and lots of areas on deck to get away from it all if you wanted. There were three pools. We really enjoyed the sail away each ni...Read More

Ship
We had been on a cruise with Star Clippers before, so we knew what to expect. The ship holds about 220 passengers, but there were only about 160 on our cruise. I don’t think the ship would have felt crowded if it were full, but it was definitely nice that it wasn’t full. The bars and restaurants were never crowded and we never had to wait for a table at dinner or even wait in much of a line at the buffet breakfasts and lunches. The dining room was beautiful—more ornate than on the Star Flyer. There were plenty of lounge chairs on deck—even plenty in the shade and lots of areas on deck to get away from it all if you wanted. There were three pools. We really enjoyed the sail away each night—watching them hoist the sails to some dramatic music. We did not get the opportunity to do any of the watersports off of the platform, but people we spoke with who did enjoyed it. Sunsets from the ship were gorgeous!

Cabin
We were in a category 3 room. The bed was comfortable (two twins pushed together), and larger than I remembered. Toiletries were provided, except for hair conditioner, so make sure to bring your own. (I needed lots of conditioner after all the tangles from snorkeling!)

Food
Overall we enjoyed the food on the ship. Breakfast and lunch were buffet. Breakfasts were my favorite meal. The omelets were great! The omelet chef actually remembered me from our Star Flyer trip two and a half years ago. What a great memory! Lunch buffets were usually themed, for instance there were Italian, Seafood and Creole days. The quality of the food was good for lunch. The dinner menu changed each night, and they always offered a steak and pasta dish if you didn’t like the other offerings. Probably my favorite thing that I ate was the swordfish. When they had filet mignon, that was of good quality too. One day at lunch they had a chocolate cheesecake, which was really more like a warm mousse and it was my favorite dessert of the trip. My husband’s favorite was the veal dish. One night they did not have any desserts that I liked, so I asked if they had any of the straciatella ice cream left over from the previous night that I could have. And they did! I thought that was great service. They also had afternoon and midnight snacks. We were never out for the midnight snack, but did go to the afternoon snack a few times. I’d usually just have a cookie or two, but my husband enjoyed things like tacos, meatballs and wings.

Service
Our cabin steward was great! The room was always spotless when we returned to it. He also made a cute towel monkey and turtle. He knew our names and always greeted us when we would see him around the ship. Service in the dining room and bars was good, one night they got me the dessert that was offered the previous night. The cruise director was very nice and always tried to answer our questions.

Passengers
We were some of the youngest passengers on the ship (30’s), but we met some very interesting people of all ages. There was a good mix of nationalities- many British and some other Europeans as well as Americans and Canadians. We really enjoyed socializing with everyone on the ship and listening to some great travel stories!

Some things to consider-

This cruise is very different from a big ship cruise—and we liked that. There is not as much waiting and herding. It goes to some great ports, many of which the bigger ships just cannot get into. In some ports it offers a tender both to town and the beach which was really convenient. They also had a great snorkeling trip in St. Lucia from the tender, which only cost 1 Euro per person (because it was a marine park)—and that ended up being some of the best snorkeling of the trip!

Activities- They do have some evening entertainment- talent show, fashion show, pirate dress up competition. There was a singer on board and also one night they had a steel drum band which I enjoyed. We were usually pretty tired from all our day time on shore activities that we didn’t stay up too late.

We hope we can do another Star Clipper cruise!

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