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As this would be our fifth time stopping at St Thomas, we opted to go to Trunk Bay beach on the nearby island of St John. Our excursion began about an hour late as the ship had to clear US Customs and there was a medical emergency as well. They did give us more time at the beach to make up for the delay.

Trunk Bay is just gorgeous. Depending on who was speaking, we were told the beach ranged from top ten in the world to number one. 😉 It rained for about four minutes when we arrived at the beach, but as you can see the weather cleared up nicely.

Trunk Bay has a great underwater snorkel trail and a snack bar and changing facilities. At $4 per adult, it is well worth a visit. Of course getting to St John would cost a bit more than that!

After a quick lunch on the Pearl, we went to Senior Frog’s which was located just opposite our ship.

We were visiting on Good Friday, which meant they were only able to serve beer and wine until 4:00pm. I don’t know why they don’t restrict all alcohol sales, or why the bars can serve everything after 4:00pm.  At four o’clock sharp, the DJ announced the time and the entire bar let out a loud cheer. 🙂 We quickly ordered a round of margaritas and then dashed to the ship for the 4:30 boarding time.

A beautiful sailaway begins the journey home.

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So, based on my research, I had concluded that Nevis was the place to be on our stop at St Kitts. Naturally, this was not meant to be. The day we boarded the Pearl, we were informed that the tour we had booked  had been canceled due to a mechanical issue. Seriously? We had a week to go until St Kitts, but the catamaran couldn’t be fixed? 

We looked at other tours (not interested or we would have booked them to begin with), and thought about just booking a local island tour, especially as the weather was fantastic upon our arrival.  However the agressiveness of the vendors really turned us off. A police officer actually had to intervene to get them to stop following us!

Ultimately, we just shopped at the many venues near the pier. I am so not a shopper, but we picked up a couple of prints that we liked.  The rest of the morning was consumed by a very important quest for fridge magnets and the perfect t-shirt. 😉

We thought about stopping at the Rum Barrel for a quick libation:

But being dead center of the main  walkway, it was packed each time we walked by. We ended up at the Twylight bar (toward the left once off of the ship) for cheap beer and free WiFi. 😉

Once you were free of the vendors selling tours, and the guys trying to make you pay for pictures with their little monkeys, the port area wasn’t bad. If we ever end up in St Kitts again I will try for Nevis again.

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Apparently there was a shower as we approached St Lucia…but it was at 6:30 in the morning so I missed it. 😉

Our tour was scheduled for the morning, so we just wandered around the port area for a bit in the morning looking for a magnet. I thought it interesting that I had to produce my key card and give my room number to avoid duty on my $4 magnet. Overkill much?

But doesn’t the Pearl look at home in St Lucia?

Our Between the Pitons cruise began on a bad foot when the boat kept us waiting an half an hour beyond our scheduled time, in the hot sun, because the “captain” needed to get lunch. Seriously? They have never heard of “brown bagging it”? Or eating some of the sandwiches provided? And where was the NCL shore ex department coordinating this?  Needless to say, they rushed through our tour (shortened swim time, shortened time at the Pitons, etc) because of the unnecessary delay.  I have to wonder if they would have been more timely if they hadn’t been a ship tour? They knew the ship would wait if we were late…which we were.

Regardless of the issues, I enjoyed the tour and was glad that I got to see the Pitons close up.

Overall I did enjoy our day in St Lucia, and wouldn’t mind visiting here again.