Hey Guys,

Today we are continuing the St. Lucia series; follow along as I take you through all the activities my husband and I got up to on our visit to the island.

What to do:

Climb a Piton (or two) – St. Lucia is known for the Pitons, which are two beautiful mountainous volcanic plugs/spires located near the town of Soufriere and on the southwest side of the island. The large one is known as Gros Piton while the smaller one (you guessed it) is known as Petit Piton. Gros Piton is considered a less strenuous climb and is sanctioned by the government of St. Lucia. The climbing of Petit Piton, however, is not sanctioned and must be done at your own risk! Which Piton do you think my very adventurous husband was interested in?! Yes, you got it, Petit Piton! The manager our hotel arranged a tour guide (Mountain Goat- 758-384-7844) to take Jason up the mountain and back. NOTE: It is a very tedious climb that requires a good level of fitness and it should not be done by persons with health concerns. This is one of the reasons I did not accompany my husband. You can see highlights of his climb here

Go on a Sunset Cruise – This was the BEST sunset cruise I have ever been on. ‘Periodt!’ It took me a bit of research to find a sunset cruise that left out of Soufriere as opposed to the other end of the island. Since we were staying in Soufriere, I really didn’t see the point of driving somewhere else to start a sunset tour which, inevitably, would end up sailing to Soufriere anyway. After a few google searches, I found Mystic Man Tours and they definitely did not disappoint. From the music, to the ambiance, to the food and finally, to the service, everything was on point. They provided endless rum punches and beers; they also served fruit kebobs, cheese sandwiches, rolls, wings and to top it all off, Champagne and cake at sunset. The drinks were flowing, the music was intoxicating, and everyone was having a great time plus, we couldn’t have asked for a better backdrop than the Pitons against the rainbow-colored sky. I will forever recommend this sunset cruise to anyone that plans to visit St. Lucia.

Gros Islet Friday Night Street Party – Ok, I must admit I dropped the ball a little on this one. I never bothered to even look how long it would take us to get to the street party from Soufriere. I still, to this day, don’t know how that happened. It wasn’t until we were ready to head out that we actually decided to look up the directions and realized that it was going to take us almost two hours to get there. I started with all of that because I didn’t have the opportunity to really enjoy the night how I would have wanted. The party itself was a vibe and the rum punch really packs a punch. As for the street food, I am very picky when it comes to where I eat and I just didn’t see anything I was willing to try. We only stayed for an hour as it would take us another two hours to get back to our hotel. It personally wasn’t worth it for me, but only because of the length of the drive and the winding roads.

Cover-up

Hey Guys,

In November, I went on a quick weekend cruise to the Bahamas on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas. My party and I opted to sign up for the Key Program as it boasted several perks. For little more than the cost of high-speed internet (which we would have paid for anyways), the Key gives guests the following:

• Carry-on luggage storage and delivery to their cabins on boarding day
• Boarding day lunch at Chop’s Grille
• VOOM Surf and Stream high-speed internet on one device
• Private hours on the FlowRider, zipline and rock-climbing wall
• Priority disembarkation on select ships, at ports, and on tender service
• VIP seating at shows
• Choice debarkation and an à la carte breakfast in the main dining room on the final day

I was very excited to 1) see how the Key Program would improve my cruising experience and 2) determine whether or not this was something I would be interested in paying for again in the future.
First, let’s start with embarkation perk. Once signed up for the Key Program, we were given an embarkation time of 1pm (keep this in mind for later). We were also encouraged by Royal Caribbean to use their app to check-in, prior to embarkation day. At the Port, the process to board the ship was smooth and easy; it took us no more than 15 minutes, from dropping off our bags, to get onto the ship.

When we got on board our rooms were ready, so there was no need to take advantage of the carry-on luggage storage and delivery perk. We headed straight to our rooms, dropped off our luggage and then immediately went to go grab some lunch. Boarding day lunch, which was supposed to be at Chop’s Grille, was actually served in the Main Dining hall. This is where it started to go downhill. When we got there at 1:15pm (remember the embarkation time mentioned earlier?), we were told that the included lunch ends at 1:30 and the kitchen closes off at 1pm. Based on this there was absolutely no way for them to serve us lunch! I can’t explain how livid I was! I asked the manager and the server if there was anything they could do to resolve the situation and we were told that they could provide the lunch for us the following day. That, unfortunately, was not going to work for us as we had excursions that required us to leave the ship first thing in the morning. So I proceeded to take my complaints to guest services in hopes of getting dinner at Chop’s Grill. After waiting in line for what felt like hours, I came to the realization that I was a little too ambitious. Chop’s Grill was not happening; it was fully booked and there was no way we could eat there. The guest services agent told us he could get us dinner at Jamie’s Italian Restaurant instead and, while I was disappointed that we weren’t going to be eating the steak I had dreamt about, we decided to take him up on his offer given we had no real choice in the matter. Jamie’s Italian it was! We opted for an early dinner because the whole situation took so long to get sorted out that we missed our opportunity to eat lunch.
To start, we had the Cured Meat Plank for the table which included Fennel salami, pistachio mortadella, prosciutto & schiacciata piccante, served on a plank loaded with mozzarella, pecorino & chilli jam, a beautiful selection of pickles, olives & rainbow slaw.
I then ordered the Black Truffle Arancini - Crispy black truffle and mozzarella risotto balls with truffled béchamel for dipping

(no picture, sorry; I ate too quickly)
We also had the opportunity to watch the ice-skating show on board and, sure enough, we had reserved seating. The seating was located in the suite section of the theatre. I loved this perk! We arrived 5mins before our show, without having to worry if there would be seating available.
The only perk we didn’t get to take advantage of was the private hours on the FlowRider, zipline and rock-climbing wall. This was because the private hours were 1) at weird times and 2) not available to us due to the fact that we were not on the ship for most of the day. Maybe we could have utilized the hours if we had a ship day on this particular cruise.

Our à la carte breakfast in the main dining room, on the final day, was a very nice way to end the trip. I had the Royal VIP Steak and Eggs – Petit Filet, Fried Egg, Confit Idaho Potatoes, Roasted Cherry Vine Tomatoes and Sautéed Wild Mushrooms.

(no picture, sorry; I ate too quickly…..again)

Dress