Thursday, January 16, 2025

December 16, 2024 – Basseterre, St. Kitts – Sunny – 81F

A quiet and smooth night.

Slept a little better – got up around 5 AM but didn’t really get up until 6:30 AM.  From the cabin window, I could see two ships in the Caribbean either anchored or waiting to dock. 

Azamara Onward proceeded directly to docking.

It was too wet to eat on the Sunset Veranda so I got a window seat on the starboard side of the ship and watched the Marella Explorer 2 (aka Celebrity Century) and the Marella Voyager (aka Celebrity Mercury) docked next to us and side by side.  These were the two ships out in the bay that I saw at dawn.

While I was still up there, the MSC Explora II, a brand new midsized boutique ship, backed in as well.  This ship had a capacity of 922 passengers even though it looked bigger.  It was neat watching the crew members executing the steps involved in getting the ship alongside.

Today I had a single pancake with cottage cheese and sour cream – today they had a bowl of cottage cheese under the fruit  The sour cream came from the tombs.  There are some strange jams on this ship – strawberry (which sometimes you have to ask for) and something yellow, which is either Orange Marmalade (not sure about that) or apricot jam.  I'm going with the latter because I'm very familiar with marmalade.  The scrambled eggs continue to be a work in progress.  The coffee was very good this morning.  I have started using the To-Go cups and filling them myself with coffee and hot water (1:1) instead of waiting for servers to come by.  They hold more coffee and keep it warmer longer.  DIY refills are quick and easy.

I went back to the room and finally met Lee, my new room steward.  I gave him my laundry bag #1 and he said it would be back tomorrow afternoon. We need to keep that in mind when he do our last laundry before disembarking in January.

I am on my first and only tour today – “St Kitts Scenic Railway and Island Drive”.  I chose this tour because I had taken it before and it was interesting and it also had a meeting time of 1:30 PM so no early morning and rushed breakfasts involved.

I spent the morning on Deck 5 reading my book 

and staring at the MSC Explora II.  I still can’t see this as a new ship and can’t picture her as part of the MSC Fleet.  MSC has been building huge ships – like "MSC Seaview” – which carry thousands of passengers.  This must be an interesting ship to sail on.  

I did more than just admire the new MSC Ship.  I did get some nice shots of Basseterre and St Kitts including the long pier leading to Port Zante.








I had lunch on the Sunset Veranda.  Lunch today was simple – a scoop of tuna and egg salad, a cup of Tomato Florentine Bisque soup (very good), and some good bread to go with those items.  Coke Zero today because I was not sure of the facilities situation on the excursion.  Better to be conservative. 

I was in the Cabaret Theater on time at 1:30 PM – got my #15 sticker – and waited for my group to be called.  The busses were a little late because the traffic around the port area is messy (as I saw later).  We got called and our group disembarked and walked about a ship and half’s length (that’s how it was described to us) to the bus area.  Bus #5 and the other busses were actually vans with 2X3 seating and holding about 25 people.  I got one of the cramped single seats so I could take pictures, which turned out to be a Fool’s Errand since the windows weren’t very clean.  In addition, the bus moved fast, and you could not see anything above the windows of the bus.  On the plus side, Destiny, our driver/guide was easy to understand and the mic system was very good.  The A/C on the bus was also good but it did get pretty cold.

The ride through the city was brief as Basseterre is not that big; the bus hugged the beach for a while. Some of the beaches were “black sand beaches” due the volcanic nature of the sand. 

As you got further away from the volcano; Mt. Liamuiga, the sand became more like standard sand.

The bus exited the city and we were in the country side taking Wellington Road (thanks Google Maps).  

This two lane road filled with super crazy St Kitts drivers and trucks, took us through two Colonial villages, the grave of Samuel Jefferson, the great great grandfather of US President Thomas Jefferson.  We passed the University of Medicine and Health Sciences, home to med students from the US and Canada. I looked up the tuition and it costs about $16,000 a semester to go here. We also drove by the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine – also a place of study for US and Canadian future vets. It is more expensive to get a DVM than an MD with per semester costs running near $25.000.

We passed by the river called “Bloody River” where, in 1626, French and English settlers massacred 2000 Kalinago Indians. The river flowed red for several days.

The final historical site was the church where John Newton, a sea captain and slave trader, who became an Anglican curate, wrote and performed the iconic, “Amazing Grace” (1772).  Destiny broke into song at that point and did a pretty good job on this song.  Not shy at all.

The bus pulled into a grassy parking lot about 45 minutes later and we waited for a few minutes – chance to use the facilities (manned by a woman who made sure you shut off the water – peeing is not a private act in these parts) - for the train to arrive. 


 











Seemed like a good time to take a pseudo-selfie.

When I did this tour a few trips ago, the train was a cute little train that rode along on narrow gauge tracks though the jungles and rainforests of St Kitts.  The train today- “The St Kitts Scenic Railway” was a double decker (top level was open) and bottom level was air conditioned with dirty windows.  We had on own train member handling drinks (included).  I opted for a bottle of water (their own brand) and then a strawberry daiquiri (prepared on the upper deck at some bar, I guess).  Big straw small drink.  I remember it being the opposite on my last time through - in fact, the bartender- a nice lady - gave me two daiquiris.

The tour was narrated by a very enthusiastic but unintelligible guy so I was not really able to figure out where we were going and where we had been.  Again, the dirty windows made it impossible to take photos.  When the train started up, I knew we were in for quite a ride. We were the last car, #5, it swayed from side to side as it made its way down the tracks. The tracks must have joints that emitted a loud bang when the trains passed over them.  If this were a plane, the flight attendants would sit down, and the seat belt sign would be on.  I was seated backwards and it took a lot of hanging on to get around to the other side of the table.  I was anticipating motion sickness but fortunately I had been able to deal with that over the years of cruising.  We were told that the train ride would be an hour and 15 minutes.  There were facilities on board but I hate to think what they were like.

I sipped some water and drank about half of my daiquiri (not really sure about the making of this drink and there's a lot of cruise left to go).  The train passed through some think vegetation – some of it looked like Kudzu and some looked like wild sugar cane.

I did see an old Sugar Cane Plantation that I recognized from my previous excursion on St Kitts. There were goats and cows along the way and fleeting images of the Caribbean Sea. 

The car got very cold and the crew couldn’t regulate the temp – our train attendant brought a French Canadian passenger a towel to keep her warm.  The ride was very jarring and uncomfortable and much too long.  It took all of the stated time to get back to the station.  About 20 minutes from the terminus, it started raining.  On the plus side, that cleaned off the windows and I got a few pictures of the trip – 

The ride was finally over and everyone dashed for the washrooms.  I managed to deal with the long ride but I was still happy to see the men’s room sign.

We all got back on Bus #5.  The ride back was only about 10 minutes as the route was on a larger highway – “Kim Collins Highway” – and soon we were back at the port as the Sun was setting. I gave Destiny at $10 tip because a) I didn’t have change; b) I was so happy to be back; c) she did a good job on both “Amazing Grace” and “I Wish You a Merry Christmas”; and d) I could understand her. Supporting local economies.

The ships looked great as the sun started to set.

It seemed like all the tours got back at the same time and I joined a long line climbing the stairs to the ship.  

Scanning in went quickly and I hustled to the room.  It was 5:45 PM and Dinner in the Discoveries Restaurant ran from 6-9 PM. Tonight was the “White Nights Party” and I was too tired to deal with the mongo buffet. I shaved and showered (I had that homeless look) and went to Discoveries.  They had a special “White Nights Menu” along with their standard offerings.  I ordered a Mojito and it was perfectly prepared.

For dinner, I had a green salad with Thousand Island and Ranch dressing (regular lettuce intermingled with lawn clippings), gazpacho (not the best but good) and the baked salmon (good – especially the sides of mashed potatoes and spinach.  I took off before the dessert menu showed up. I had a Decaf Café Americano and a chocolate cookie and rum ball at the Mosaic Café – a perfect dessert.

At 8:30 PM, I went up to Deck 10 for the White Night’s Extravaganza.  

I found a place to stand near the stage which game me a chance to see the performers.  I found out that Lee could sing 

and Darren did a great job on “You Look Wonderful Tonight”.  

The Signature Singers and Dancers were in the front encouraging people to dance.  

This was a dancing crowd as evidenced by the “Electric Slide” done to “Feel Like a Woman”.  I stayed for about an hour (tired from the shaky breaky train ride) and then went to the room.










I called Ellen and then settled down.  The ship pushed at around 9:30 PM (about 90 minutes late but who’s counting).

Lights out at 11:15 PM.  The ride is smooth.

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