Photography Blog
Photography Blog
A 2nd CARIBBEAN CRUISE AND STAY
15/12/2025
The Marella Explorer in Castries, St. Lucia
Again this was not really a photographic trip but I did take my camera and a couple of lenses with me so I've prepared an abridged summary of the trip and added a few images to The Caribbean Gallery.
30th November 2025 and we fly from Birmingham to Barbados to board the Marella Explorer cruise ship. We visit St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent before returning to Barbados where we stayed for a week in The Waves Hotel.
The logistics all ran smoothly. We went ashore on all of the islands and on organised excursions on St Lucia, Guadeloupe and Tobago, Our excursion on St Lucia included a tour of the St Lucia Distillers rum distillery; whilst the tour was uninspiring the unlimited rum samples certainly were not and they must have had their desired effect as we came away armed with two bottles of St. Lucia's finest! On Guadeloupe we visited the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies (a rather disappointingly short visit) and then moved on to the setting for much of the Death In Paradise TV series, Deshaies. On Tobago we went on a glass bottomed boat trip at Buccoo Reef which included some snorkeling but in rather choppy seas. A learning point for any future cruises; to see the best places you need to do excursions at most if not all ports of call.
Whilst on Barbados we hired the same taxi as in 2024 (Adrian) for a guided tour of the south of the island. Highlights included The National Heroes Square in Bridgetown, The Slavery Wall in Golden Square Freedom Park again in Bridgetown and of course a return, possibly for the last time, to Bethsheba. We also went on a snorkeling trip organised by the hotel. My first proper attempt at snorkeling and it was AMAZING despite copious amounts of "liquid sunshine" with sightings of turtles, stingrays and literally thousands of fish (no doubt lured by the bread being fed to them by our amazing guide)..We also visited a couple of other hotels in our chain by water taxi.
In my blog recording our first cruise i recorded that I'd like to do another cruise but without putting on any weight....I failed!
30th November 2025 and we fly from Birmingham to Barbados to board the Marella Explorer cruise ship. We visit St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent before returning to Barbados where we stayed for a week in The Waves Hotel.
The logistics all ran smoothly. We went ashore on all of the islands and on organised excursions on St Lucia, Guadeloupe and Tobago, Our excursion on St Lucia included a tour of the St Lucia Distillers rum distillery; whilst the tour was uninspiring the unlimited rum samples certainly were not and they must have had their desired effect as we came away armed with two bottles of St. Lucia's finest! On Guadeloupe we visited the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies (a rather disappointingly short visit) and then moved on to the setting for much of the Death In Paradise TV series, Deshaies. On Tobago we went on a glass bottomed boat trip at Buccoo Reef which included some snorkeling but in rather choppy seas. A learning point for any future cruises; to see the best places you need to do excursions at most if not all ports of call.
Whilst on Barbados we hired the same taxi as in 2024 (Adrian) for a guided tour of the south of the island. Highlights included The National Heroes Square in Bridgetown, The Slavery Wall in Golden Square Freedom Park again in Bridgetown and of course a return, possibly for the last time, to Bethsheba. We also went on a snorkeling trip organised by the hotel. My first proper attempt at snorkeling and it was AMAZING despite copious amounts of "liquid sunshine" with sightings of turtles, stingrays and literally thousands of fish (no doubt lured by the bread being fed to them by our amazing guide)..We also visited a couple of other hotels in our chain by water taxi.
In my blog recording our first cruise i recorded that I'd like to do another cruise but without putting on any weight....I failed!
