After our shore excursions the past two days on Barbados and St. Lucia, my family and I were planning to have a quieter day today as we visited St. Kitts. Though this is another location that doesn’t have beaches easily accessible by walking from the port (though shopping is, of course), they are relatively nearby.
Unfortunately, today was a migraine day for me, and I wasn’t up to heading out in the sun and water. I encouraged my family to go anyway, as there were two beaches recommended to us. The first is a $4 per person cab ride away and the second is a little further on the end of the island and $7 per person each way, but it has better snorkeling and frequently has sea turtles visible. Both are still away from the Atlantic side of the island where the seas are rougher, and I encouraged my family to go without me while I rested instead, but they decided they were also exhausted from the two previous very busy days and stayed on the ship.
Once again, the wee ones enjoyed room service on our balcony. This has become a daily favorite for them, as they fill out the card each night with their cereals and bagels and croissants, plus juice and fruit plates. As soon as they hear the knock on our door around 7:10 each morning, they race to open it and explore their food before they carefully carry it outside. It’s going to be hard to break it to them that room service isn’t the norm after Sunday.
Apparently the wee ones have done so much swimming both in the pool aboard the ship and on our boat rides with the swimming and snorkeling in the ocean that they weren’t interested in visiting the pool aboard the Carnival Valor, a first for them ever. They were far from bored, however.
They had a hoot playing miniature golf again, and by the sixth round, Little Miss had even convinced my mom to play mini golf rather than just watching. And yes, both of them scored a hole in one, making Little Miss’s day yet again.
On the 12th deck, the highest aboard the Valor, there is a serenity deck on one side for those 21 and over with super comfy chairs and couches, while the other side has a variety of games. The wee ones spent plenty of time up there before and after lunch, starting with playing a giant game of chess. Both wee ones are part of the chess club at home and love chess, so they thought it was the neatest trick ever that they could play such a huge game. Mister Man beat one child in his first game before losing to my husband in his second.
Little Miss tried her hand at ping pong, with a modicum of success. She hasn’t played previously and definitely could use a few lessons, but she loved it anyway – and that’s all that matters, right? It was easy to check out the paddles and balls on the Lido deck near the pool an easy walk from the games area, and yes, this is another complimentary activity on the Carnival Valor.
After lunch at Rosie’s Café, where I love seeing Mister Man try and eat all the vegetables as part of the Mongolian Wok, the wee ones played a few more games waiting for 2pm to roll around. Starting at 2, they couldn’t wait to get to Camp Carnival. They had their whole afternoon planned out, starting with making Goop and doing Sand Art, plus assorted games and finishing with an hour of dodgeball before we had to get ready for dinner. To say that they love Camp Carnival and the activities there is to put it mildly.
While they had fun with their creations and games, my mom and I sat on the serenity deck on Deck 12 just outside Camp Carnival in the comfy couches and read our books while enjoying the view of the St. Kitts harbor.
It turns out that it was a good thing we chose the seats we did. Just as it did on St. Thomas, rain rolled in and soaked the deck. It was a true tropical rainstorm where it came heavy then departed quickly, but for a good twenty plus minutes, it was awfully wet and we were glad to be in a sheltered place where we could simply watch the rain instead. We could see the rain coming, and it’s impressive to watch it roll in. Interestingly the promised rainbow showed up before the actual rain this time around.
Dinner was once again a treat, and I am truly going to miss Pedro the assistant Maitre D’, Servana the hostess, and our waitress Marites who have taken such great care of us for the last week in the Lincoln dining room. Little Miss’s dairy free dinner has been so easy and delicious, and she’s absolutely loved it. The rest of us have been spoiled with the service and the food, not to mention Elton the table artist who once again came to do magic tricks – and of course remembered the wee ones’ names.
We finally all made it to a show tonight, too. All six of us – slightly late because we had dinner before going to the early show – got to see the magician perform tonight in the Ivanhoe Theater that is directly below our stateroom. He performed some pretty cool illusions and had great audience participation, making some children’s nights. Little Miss leaned over to me partway through the show to ask if this was a magic show or a comedy show because it was so funny, too. And that’s part of what makes the shows so good – they incorporate not just one form of entertainment but make it truly an all around entertainment.
Sad as we were today to not even make it off the ship, it was the right decision for us. We did talk to some other cruise passengers who did venture out and had nothing but great things to say about their experiences. The zip line shore excursion was incredible, the ATV trips were a blast, and the wildlife to be seen was absolutely gorgeous, as was the entire island. I think I’ll just have to come back another time to explore it all!
Tomorrow we have our last port of call, although some of us in my family are already threatening to stow away for another week on the Carnival Valor. We head to St. Maarten, which is one of my favorite islands. I can only imagine how it has changed since I was last here, but I’m looking forward to exploring it both via walking and taking the water taxi.
Miss out on previous installments of Cruising 101? Check them out here:
Why cruise
Before you go
What to pack
Dining with allergies
Day 1 St Thomas
Day 2 At Sea
Day 3 Barbados
Day 4 St. Lucia
It sounds like a total blast for your whole family..what fun! I’m sorry to hear you had a migraine on one of the days. Room service is great when you have a balcony, and even when you don’t, it’s really convenient for the last morning on the day you disembark. Camp Carnival sounded like kid heaven. The Carnival line does a great job catering to families with kids.
I particularly liked the photo of the misty mountains and the soft pastel rainbow…pretty cool that it showed up before the rain.