2014 - 6 - St. Thomas

St. Thomas, USVI

INTERESTINGLY, OUR first and last ports of call were in the USVI. On this itinerary, I think the primary reason was that they were both close to our out and back port in San Juan. We started in St. Croix, the largest of them. We finished in St. Thomas, probably about 1/2 the physical size of St. Croix. The populations of the two islands are, however, essentially identical. St. Thomas is - at least in my opinion - the much more popular tourist attraction and more frequent cruise ship stop. The bustling Charlotte Amalie is not only the capitol city of the USVI, but by far the largest city. It houses governmental facilities, including the main building of the Supreme Court of the USVI. It is a crowded, sometimes dirty and sometimes dangerous larger city.

Downtown Charlotte Amalie - St. Thomas, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved

FORTUNATELY, much of the rest of the island is much more rural and tranquil. And beautiful. A vocanic island like a lot of the Caribbean islands, it is mountainous. Although there are numerous seaports around the island - especially on its southern side, the cruise ships dock in one of two harbors in Charlotte Amalie: "Havensight" or Crown Bay. The main piers are at the older, Havensight Port (formerly the West India Company Docks). Of the several times we have stopped there, we normally have docked at Havensight to the east of the city. One time, however, in 2012 on the Ruby Princess, we docked at the Crown Bay port, which is across the Long Bay and to the west of the center city. Crown Bay Marina houses some very large, very expensive pleasure cruisers as well.

Magens Bay - St. Thomas, USVI
Copyright  Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

SINCE THIS was our last stop on the cruise, some of the group wanted to do some shopping. So our plan as we got off the ship was to find an easy mode of transportation to downtown Charlotte Amalie, where we knew we could find anything we wanted to shop for. My wife and I had done this before, and knew that the "golf - cart style" taxis were easy and inexpensive. We walked up to one that was filling up and spoke to the driver. There was apparently a communications problem. There were 6 of us who all very clearly said we wanted to go to Charlotte Amalie. He gave us the thumbs up and we climbed aboard. It wasn't the trip I remembered from back in 2012, where it was a relatively straight shot to town. Instead we got a tour up some curvy, steep switchbacks up a mountain. Eventually, he stopped at a viewpoint looking down on one of St. Thomas' mosts popular tourist beaches: Magens Bay. It was a pretty spectacular view. After we all re-loaded, we eventually ended up at the Magen's Bay public beach. A long way from Charlotte Amalie. But we thought he just decided to take the beachgoers (which turned out to be everybody but us) first. Then he got really angry at us, saying we were trying to scam him into a ride when we told him: "no, we said Charlotte Amalie." Anyway, he grudgingly took us back to town and got paid and we all moved on with our lives. This wasn't really a photo or excursion day. We did some shopping for gifts, etc., and found a nice bar by the water and sat for a while before returning for our last night on the ship.

IT WAS a good trip. One that would be repeated (for some of us) the next year. We would not cruise again until then. We did some "world traveling" but not on a cruise ship.

That wraps up 2024 Cruises - In just a few days, we will board the Celebrity Summit for the shortest cruise I have ever taken (5 days in and out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas and back). It will be our 21st! I will continue to catch up, with 2025 cruises, when I return in December See you then!

Grenada

Celebrity Summit - St. George's, Grenada
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

OUR GROUP was all pretty well- educated and up to date with political current events. We were all approaching middle age (late 50's) at that time, and all remembered the events in 1983 with the "invasion" of Grenada by U.S. troops under then President, Ronald Reagan. As all military actions are, it was controversial, but its ostensible mission was to rescue U.S. students attending St. George's Medical School, in the Grenadian city of St. George's, founded by some wealthy American physicians as a place for students who were unable to get into any of the U.S. medical schools - all of which were at the time extremely competitive and had very limited openings. As a political coup was in the works, there was real concern for the safety of these students and much disagreement among Caribean nations about the "need" for the U.S. operation. It went forward.

We were a very congenial group. But not really cohesive

LOOKING BACK, I am actually surprised, given our backgrounds and political interests, that we didn't do some kind of tour - which maybe involved the University. As I think about it - and it was a pattern at all of our stops - there were a number of contributing factors. First, as I mentioned, this whole group/trip came together rather quickly and - at least in terms of planning - at the last minute. It was one of those things where we found a cruise that fit our time schedules and we just all started jumping into it. I will add to that that the "nature" of the group probably also contributed. We were a very congenial group. But not really cohesive. Part of that is - in my view - size. Having organized and having joined a few golf-outing groups over the years, I can say with some authority that there is a "manageable" number, after which it just gets too hard to try to be "organized." In the last years of our golf trips, it was not unusual for all the guys to show up at the Tee-times, and then for us to go in two or more different directions for dinners. Those factors all conspired together to make this more of a tropical vacation in the sun than a serious cultural trip. And that is o.k. For us, that has become more and more the "norm" for Caribbean cruises.

THE UPSHOT is we didn't. We did find an "island tour" down at the port entrance, in a multi-person golf cart. We were all in, and on the way to board, my wife had a (thankfully minor) "medical issue," which forced us to back out at the last minute. Of course we had to tend to things, but it sounds like they had a nice excursion, and I always was disappointed we ultimately weren't able to join. When we returned to Grenada in February of 2025, we remedied that, signing on with a several hour tour that gave us a great overview of the island. At the end, our driver did a "drive-through" of St. George's (now a full-blown university with undergraduate and other professional schools). The campus is beautiful, and if I get back, I would love to get some time to walk around and make some photographs. Until then, I'll be satisfied with the memories that we did have there.

BECAUSE WE basically stayed behind and only spent just a few minutes off the ship, I didn't see much and I didn't really make any pictures (the ones that I did make, were mostly of the City of St. George's from on the ship. I did make one nice image of the Summit moored at the pier, but for the rest, I liked my "take" in 2025 much better). Fortunately, though, I did make several photographs of our recent visit to Grenada in 2025. By then, I was also writing blogs about my cruises, so we will have been caught up by the time we get to 2025. You can read about Grenada and the St. George's story in much more detail in Another Year; Another Caribbean Cruise, complete with pictures.

Dominica

Roseau, Dominica
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THERE ARE 2 places that are kind of on the "regular" Eastern Caribbean lineup that we have only been to twice: St. Croix, and Dominica. Until this past spring, we could add Grenada to the list, but we finally visited it again in 2025 and got our trip around the Island (more on that in the next post). We will be in Dominica again for only the second time (good lord willing and the creek don't rise - hey that rising creek thing is real here in Florida 😅), in February of 2026. It will be interesting to see the changes that may have ocurred, as at least 2 major hurricane devastated Dominica since our 2014 visit.

Roseau is the capitol and primary city in Domica

WE SPENT the least amount of time here. It was a mostly rainy day. We walked around for about 1/2 hour, and then found a bar in view of the ship, where we had a couple rounds of the local stuff, before concluding that with our drink packages, we were probably better served to find a spot to sit on the ship.

Colorful Cafe and Quirky Sign - Roseau, Dominica
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE ONE thing that - for whatever reason - really stuck with me was the really long pier that stuck out into the water from the shore. Unlike most of the Caribbean Islands that we have ported at, Dominica does not have any large, protected harbor. The cruise ships stop at Roseau, a city on the west side of the island, almost to the southern end. Roseau is the capitol and primary city in Dominica. Over 15,000 of the roughly 65,000 inhabitants of Dominica live in Roseau. As you can see from the view from our ship deck, like most Caribbean Islands these days, they favor the bright, pastel "Caribbean" colors on many of their buildings, making them fun to photograph.

Cruise Pier - Roseau, Dominica
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

THE ROSEAU cruise port seemed more on the rustic side and not nearly as commercial and built-up as many of the more popular stops. They still had their share of shops and street sales points, though. Though we missed it, there is a cobblestone marketplace very near the cruise port that was once a slave trading spot (the French brought slaves from Africa through Dominica to work in their coffee plantations in the Caribbean).

Bright colors in one of Roseau's obligatory, Portside tourist shops
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

DOMINICA's "INDIGENOUS" settlers were the Arawaks (now mostly extinct). In the late 17th century, Dominica was colonized by the French, who controlled it until the end of The Seven Years War when it was taken over by the British in about 1763. The British controlled it until it gained its independence in 1978. English is the official language of the island nation. Although we didn't explore, I later learned that Dominica is noted for its natural wonders, including a boiling lake and the endangered Sisserou Parrot which is only found on Dominica. It is also the youngest of the Lesser Antilles archipelago and is supposedly still undergoing its geological formation (hence the boiling lake). I will try to do more detailed research before our trip next February. But this time, we didn't even venture far from the port.

Double Rainbow over the island of Dominica - off the stern of Celebrity Summit
Copyright Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

STILL, THERE were some distinctly memorable things about that day. First, the long dock is what I always think about when Dominica comes up. It made a great diagonal element for my photograph of the cruise port (such as it is). Perhaps equally (maybe more) memorable, was the most stunning formation of double rainbows I have ever seen, of the coast of the island, just as we departed. I was able to make a few shots off the stern railing at the back of the ship - but really didn't do it justice. But a pretty cool ending to another laid back day of socialization and fun with friends. And a nice "garnish" to our sunset cocktails.