This post was reprinted from the WeChat public account of a reader in our WeChat group, Laziness 33's Food, Drinks, and Fun. Original article.

Recap

Picking up from Christmas Trip: 10 Days, 9 Nights on a Southern Caribbean Cruise (Part 1), in this second half we stopped at three small Caribbean islands, spent two days at sea, and finally returned to Port Canaveral.

First, let’s look back at our itinerary and the tours we booked.

Cruise Day 4 — Puerto Rico

One thing I forgot to write in the first post: on Christmas Day, Santa on the ship gave every child a gift based on their age, and the little ones got sand toys. My kid kept asking why it wasn’t what he had asked Santa for.

We found the letter Santa wrote to him, apparently picked up at the kids club on Christmas Eve?

Cruise Day 5 — St. Maarten

Starting this day, every stop was a tour we had booked on Viator/Tripadvisor, and because they were all small group or even private, the experience was excellent.

This was also our first time in St. Maarten. One of the island’s most famous experiences is that the airport is right next to the beach, so you can watch planes take off and land from the sand. The men in our group said, “That’s so cool! It’s worth coming to this island just for that!” While the woman who couldn’t quite get the appeal said, “That’s it? What’s so great about this?” Of course gender isn’t absolute; it really just depends on personal taste.

The weather was really bad that day. The tour we booked required walking out of the port area and then another 10-15 minutes or so. There were also passing showers that day, and Emma’s family left just a few minutes after we did, getting completely soaked on the way.

This was another one of my favorite snorkeling tours, but the weather had already lowered my expectations for snorkeling conditions quite a bit. There were only a dozen or so people on the boat, and our two families made up seven of them. We were the only ones with kids. The captain talked a lot and was very nice, chatting nonstop. He even let the two little kids sit beside him and be captain.

Along the way we passed all kinds of celebrities’ and tycoons’ yachts, and the captain introduced each one. Finally we reached the snorkeling spot. There wasn’t much coral there, and with the bad weather, the variety and number of fish were sparse. The GoPro footage was hard to edit into anything worth showing, and since I’m a lazy person, I won’t bother editing it for you.

After that, the weather still wasn’t cooperating. We were supposed to have 2-3 snorkeling spots, but in the end we only made it to this one. Then they took us to swim near a beach offshore and served lunch, which was also sandwiches. On the way back, we went to the offshore area by the plane-spotting beach and got to watch planes take off and land from very close up. Honestly, it was pretty stunning. For adults and kids who love transportation, it really may be worth making a special trip.

On the way back, the captain probably felt we still had energy to burn and gave us a speed-boat ride to bounce us around a bit. Those of us sitting in the back were screaming while using towels to shield ourselves from the water — it was about as thrilling as a white-water ride.

That’s what snorkeling tours are like. Personally, I thought this tour was still pretty good, and the captain really did his best. https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g147346-d15646838-Captain_Bob_Speed_Boat_Snorkeling_Beach_Tour_Including_Lunch_in_St_Maarten-St_Mart.html

Back on land, they handed everyone ice cream to eat on the walk back to the ship. The timing was pretty tight, and by the time we got back to the pier, it was almost time to board.

Before boarding, the wind between the cruise ships was very strong, so you absolutely had to hold on to your hat. I watched mine get blown straight into the sea...

Dinner had crab cake, which was pretty good. The usual steady performance.

Cruise Day 6 — St. Lucia

That day we arrived in familiar St. Lucia. Seven years ago, when we came here, we booked a rainforest zipline tour, and it was our first time ziplining — a very memorable experience.

This time, after carefully choosing, we booked a mud bath tour. It was a local guide driving a minivan, and it was only our family and Emma’s family, so it counted as a private tour.

St. Lucia is a very distinctive island, with lots of mountains, so everywhere you go is mountain roads. It has mountains, sea, and tropical rainforest.

Photo Credit: Emma for the pictures above⬆️

There were lots of banana trees along the roadside, all wrapped in plastic bags. Bananas are one of the major local industries here. The next two photos are from Emma’s camera:

The next few photos are of St Lucia street art captured by Emma~

I was afraid of motion sickness, so I sat in the front row and felt fine. But the kid, who had never gotten carsick before, was crawling around in the back seat and tragically got carsick, vomiting all over my travel companion. My trauma came rushing back again... Luckily, Emma’s husband was incredibly helpful and came to the rescue—he was practically my lifesaver! We stopped to clean everything up and then got back on the road. This time the kid learned his lesson, took motion sickness medicine, and sat quietly.

First we arrived at the mud bath. There were several pools, with the upstream ones warmer than the downstream ones, and each gave off a strong muddy smell. The guide brought over a bucket of mud, and after soaking, we rubbed mud all over our bodies for a full mineral treatment.

The downside was that after soaking, I had to wash my swimsuit several times before I could barely get rid of the muddy smell and grayish stains...

The next stop was the tropical botanical garden. I was once again reminded that whether it’s a temperate rainforest or a tropical rainforest, I just love them so much. That bright, tender green color. It would be even better if there were no mosquitoes or bugs.

Cocoa beans, coffee beans~

The botanical garden also has a hot spring, turned into a small pool, but we didn’t go in because we were worried there wouldn’t be enough time. In fact, we still had plenty of time later and could have soaked a bit.

After that, we went to eat. The guide took us to a restaurant in the middle of a deserted rainforest. The huge dining room had only our table of guests, and we ate under the rainforest trees with a little lizard for company. But the food was actually pretty good! It was a buffet. Especially a chili sauce that was very similar to Hainan yellow lantern chili sauce—put it on anything and it tasted great! There should be a photo here, but there isn’t...

The final stop was the waterfall. The water was still very, very cold, not something people like us could handle, so we could only dip our feet in...

This photo is credited to Emma.

The Americans who don’t mind the cold bravely stood under the waterfall—it looked freezing just watching them.

The ride back was a little smoother. We also wandered around the pier a bit and bought a new hat. Happily headed back to the ship for dinner.

That night, we listened to music on the ship. I first heard this song when Zhang Liangying sang it on "I Am a Singer."

Cruise Day 7 — St. Kitts

This was a fun Private ATV Tour. The ATV Tour had a pretty high age requirement, and the little kids had just barely met it.

PC: Emma⬆️

It took about 15 minutes by shuttle to get to the tour site. The company we booked with had really good safety measures; both adults and kids were given helmets and goggles. Another tour we ran into later didn’t have goggles, which felt pretty dangerous, because ATVs kick up all sorts of debris.

At first everyone rode around the "base camp" to get used to the ATVs, and then the actual ride began. After riding an ATV, you really understand why the age requirement is so high—it was definitely intense. It was extremely bumpy, and there were so many moments when I felt like I was about to fly off the vehicle. I held the handlebars the whole time, and by the end my hands were sore and weak. Of course, I’m also just not very strong. Overall, though, it was a really exciting activity! Along the way, we passed fields, forests, mountain foothills, and temples, so the scenery was very varied. The guide was very thoughtful, and his tricks were really cool. Friendly reminder: don’t stay too close to the guide, or he’ll suddenly start showing off. I almost couldn’t keep up, so I could only maintain a polite smile while internally screaming…

We stopped here and there along the way to take photos, rest, and drink water, and we also changed formation from time to time so everyone could have a good experience. They were really thoughtful. Now let’s enjoy Emma’s masterpiece photography:

Photo credit: Emma — ATV Tour

Everyone was super pumped when it ended, so we quickly asked the driver to take us to the nearest beach for lunch, and then we played on the beach. The ATV owner also very thoughtfully arranged a ride back to the ship for us. Ten thousand thumbs up.

The restaurant by the beach wasn’t bad at all. We ordered pina coladas, and one of the kids accidentally took a sip. Luckily, it didn’t seem very alcoholic.

It also wasn’t expensive. The four adults, one older child, and two younger kids ate for a little over $110.

After eating, the kids happily played on the beach. The sand was pretty nice, and you could walk on it barefoot. One kid picked up a really big conch shell.

The following three are still courtesy of Emma~

The kids’ happy time at the beach passed quickly, and we took the car the ATV owner had arranged to head back to the pier. The St. Kitts pier is also a shopping area, where you can browse local souvenirs and the like.

Another thing St. Kitts is known for is the monkeys. At the pier, there are people who let you take photos with baby monkeys. The first time we came here, we took photos with monkeys, and it left a deep impression. This time, with our ship departure approaching, we searched for a long time before finally finding them. We hurriedly had the kid take a photo with the monkey. The kid did pretty well—very nervous on the inside but trying hard to look calm.

A few random shots on the way back to the ship.

Dinner that night tasted especially good, and there were lots of seafood options, so we ordered a few extra dishes.

Cruise Day 8 & 9 — Sea Day

The last two days on the ship were both Sea Days, so I’m writing about them together~

As mentioned before, booking through the travel agent also came with a specialty dining voucher, so we chose to use it for lunch on a sea day at the ship’s Japanese restaurant. The Japanese restaurant was really, really mediocre—about the level of a Japanese restaurant in the U.S. where you’d pay $30-$40 per person. It wasn’t as good as the free main dining room, and it might not even be as good as the buffet.

You can see that the sashimi and sushi use exactly the same ingredients...

And the poke uses the same ingredients too... but when you're floating out at sea, I guess you can't ask for too much.

Then it was pool time. The ship had a kids' pool, with waves coming and going and very shallow water, which my kid oddly loved. There was only one water slide, not very fancy, but it was plenty fun, and there weren't many people. I went down it seven or eight times myself. There was also a little kids' slide, just within my kid's bravery range.

Both afternoons were spent lounging by the pool, and the adults had a very easy, happy time.

There was also a very nice adult pool on the ship, with pretty big waves and warm water; it was semi-indoor.

The ship's giant screen at night.

On the evening of Day 6, it was Formal Night again, which meant lobster night. I never get tired of cruise lobster, and this ship's version was especially good. Our stomachs thought it was much better than Vancouver's lobster sticky rice and the like. The kid loved it too. The three of us put away six lobsters.

I took a photo of the hallway; you can really tell the ship isn't exactly young anymore.

The elevators on the ships I've ridden before all seemed to face the atrium, but this one faces the ocean, so I took a photo to remember it.

We also went to the arcade and spent the rest of our money.

And on the last night, after we kept urging them, the chocolate strawberries finally arrived late, and for some reason they were a big hit with everyone.

And dinner was still as good as ever.

Thanks to the last two days both being sea days, we were able to relax on the ship and pack all our luggage at the same time.

The buffet breakfast was also worth photographing for posterity.

Last time on the Alaska cruise, my kid didn't really like going to the kids' club. This time, they volunteered to go almost every day—I have no idea what kind of magic spell was cast on them.

The hat they made at the kids' club on the second-to-last night was super cute, with two little balloons hanging in front that swayed back and forth when they walked.

My kid also loved the cupcake class I signed them up for. They got to make and eat as they went, and the frosting they provided was pretty good—fresh whipped cream and not too sweet.

Meanwhile, I split some discounted shipboard sale items with my girlfriends and bought hats, fanny packs, cover-ups, and more, all for dirt-cheap prices.

Other than that, we took every chance we could to get photos, and in the end we successfully got 100 shots—totally worth it! All the ship's photographers knew the two of us by then. My partner and I, who usually don't like taking photos, ended up with our thickest stack of pictures since our wedding portraits.

Day 10 Disembarkation

On disembarkation day, we chose a time shortly after breakfast. Unlike Carnival, Royal's JR Suite doesn't get priority for boarding or disembarkation; it's the same as everyone else.

This time we checked some of our luggage so we wouldn't have to haul so much ourselves. Disembarkation went very smoothly. The elevators were packed, but since we were on a higher deck, we could still get on. There was no wait for luggage, and customs was just a quick face scan. We walked straight out and got on the rental company's shuttle, kicking off the final leg of our Christmas trip.