On Feb 22, 2020 we took a cruise to the Southern Caribbean on the Celebrity Silhouette. Our 12 day cruise took us to St. Croix, Virgin Islands, St. Johns, Antigua, Castries, St. Lucia, St. George's, Barbados, Kingstown, St. Vincent and Basseterre, St. Kitts.
We had two sea days sailing to our first port and two sea days on the return to Fort Lauderdale.
We booked our flights to and from Ft. Lauderdale on Jet Blue and were pleased with the service and amenities on board.
The flights left and arrived at both cities on time.
Due to past experience with long waiting times for the hotel shuttle we took a taxi to the Fairfield Inn hotel in Dania Beach.
This trip we had 5 people from our area with us who also are taking the cruise.
In past visits to Dania beach area we would go to the Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Dania Beach for dinner. Everyone met in the lobby and we took two taxis to the restaurant. Since it was about 8:15 PM it was not too crowded and we were seated at a large round table. All of our party was amazed at the different traditional Greek food on the menu and the reasonable prices.
Everybody ordered different appetizers and entrees and were happily surprised at the delicious taste of the food as well as the size of the portions. We all had a wonderful dinner. I had the Galaktoboureko for dessert and Greek coffee. The others were too full for dessert.
We took taxis back to the hotel to go to bed early and be ready for tomorrow.
The complimentary hotel breakfast was very good and the dining room good sized compared to the Sheraton Four Points where we stayed last year.
Only problem was the bus transfer to the cruise port was miserable. The driver tried to take a short cut which made the trip longer and then he stopped at four ships before we got to the Silhouette- a trip that should have taken only 20 mins.
There was a new boarding process that was faster than the past and faster access to our cabins- now the keys were on the mail holder at the cabin. This meant we could drop our carryons in the cabin and go to lunch.
We had two days to relax before the first port. The weather was a bit cool and windy so not many cruisers were around the pool.
On Feb. 26 we arrived at St. Croix, a small port with few excursions except for a beach one and some snorkeling and sailing.
This cruise the group we had dinner with decided to go to a beach in every port and we decided to do it.
The group said to go to Rainbow beach and we took a minivan taxi. When we arrived all the chairs and umbrellas were taken so we decided to go back to town leaving the rest of the group there.
There was not much to the port. This was our first visit here and I probably would not want to come back.
Later we we met for dinner we were told the storms last year washed away a lot of the sand and the beach and sea bottom was very rocky- not so good beach day.
Thursday we arrived in St. Johns and planned to go to Jolly Beach. The beach was nice and sandy with chairs and umbrellas. There were a lot of us from our group and we all had a great day enjoying the swimming and basking in the sun.
Jolly Beach Antigua
Feb. 28 we arrived in Castries, St. Lucia. Today we decided not to go to the beach and just go to the pier and visit the shops .
Afterwards we went back on the ship had lunch and went to the hot tub and basked in the sun to dry off. Weather was just right- sunny and not too hot.
Feb 29, we docked in St.George's, Grenada. our group wanted to go to the beach. Grande Anse was our destination and we had to take a water taxi to go there. The ride on the boat was about 20 mins. Lots of chairs and umbrellas. We picked spots and went swimming. This was the best beach on our trip. The water was warm, shallow waist high water without a lot of waves.
After two hours some of us wanted to go back to the ship so we got on the water taxi and left the beach. Small port so we decided to head on board ship for lunch.
Mar. 1 port was Bridgetown, Barbados and another beach day.
When we arrived at the cruise terminal the weather was cloudy and then it started pouring rain. We decided to wait 20 mins to see if the rain would stop. It did and we hired a van to take us to Harbor lights resort. After a short ride we arrived at the Harbor Lights resort.
We got our chairs and umbrella and headed for the water.
The beach was really nice- fine sand, warm gentle water and had chairs and umbrellas. We stayed about 3 hours and took a van back to the port.
The Bridgetown terminal is quite large and full of interesting shops and we spend time looking around before going on board ship.
March 3 we arrived at our last port- Basseterre, St. Kitts for our last beach day. Unfortunately the van driver talked us into going to Cock;eshell beach even though the ship's staff told us to go to Carambola Beach. The beach was about a 10 min ride. On the way the driver stopped at a view point where we could see both the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.
When we arrived at Cockleshell Beach I was shocked. No bathroom, poor beach, worn out beach chairs and old umbrellas.
Posts on the web said this was a great beach but maybe the storms last year ruined it.
We decided to pass and go back to the ship since the van was still there and going to take some folks to Carambola Beach for parasailing. We stopped at Carambola beach to let them off and got to see that is was a much better beach resort and resolved that if we ever get back to St. Kitts to come here for a beach day.
The port was nice and had lots of shops and handicrafts and restaurants.
We had lunch and then enjoyed the hot tub and pool and the sun.
We boarded ship for the last time as we now sail for Fort Lauderdale.
March 4 we were invited to a second sailaway on the heliport. This one was from St. Kitts and the weather was just perfect. We had fun drinking mimosas and taking photos of the shore and our friends.
We relaxed on our two sea days, going to the hot tub and pool, listening to lectures and attending a Captain's elegant tea.
On our last day 6 of us had lunch at a specialty restaurant-the Porch. It was on Deck 15 and we had a beautiful view of the ship's deck and the sea. Great way to spend our last sea day.
Seafood tower at the Porch with our beach group and dinner table mates
Here are some photos--
Friday Mar 6 we arrived at Fort Lauderdale as scheduled. Our group of seven had a 7pm flight to San Francisco so we all signed up for a hop off hop on tour of Miami. We got off the ship boarded the Miami bound bus and 30 mins were were at the Hop off Hop on terminal outside the Bayside Mall. We rode the one loop for 90 mins and then we got off. My wife and I headed to the Hard Rock for lunch and the others walked around the mall and had lunch.
We regrouped at 2:30 to claim our bags and load them on the bus to the Fort Lauderdale airport.
We got there around 3-3:15 and headed for the desk to check our bags and then went through security and to the gate. Unfortunately we were in a part of the terminal with few restaurants. The adjoining terminal where we arrive had a lot more and more variety.
Word of warning- Service at the Burger King was terrible and very slow. Allow 15 mins minimum to get your food.
I chose to eat at the Kafe Kalike and the ribs were very good. Warning- service is slow.
Boarded plane and we were on our way home. Due to the late flight we arrived at SFO at 10:30PM.
We had a great time. We just beat all the lockdowns and stay in place orders due to Corvid 19.
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