Our first stop and our first excursion. We milled around with all the other tour passengers before being divided up into bus loads and heading out of the port area.

We were heading towards the Vermont Nature Trails, the map not really reflecting the altitude and ruggedness of the roads.

Our guide stopped off periodically while we were in the open to discuss the different produce being grown along our way. Corn, taro, spices, bananas, breadfruit… the climate certainly makes it easy to grow!

And then the jungle began and the talking stopped. It was steps. Soo many steps. We were at altitude (well, 1200 feet/400 metres) and it was hard going. Maybe not “Monastery at Petra” hard going, but not far off. One of our party couldn’t make it. We left his body where it had fallen on the side of the track.

But we did it. The seats at the top were very welcome and we were happy for the rest. Our guide was a retired Ranger who had been involved with the project putting in the trail. When I found this out I turned to him and said “So we’ve got you to thank for all those stairs?” He saw the funny side.

We took the opportunity to talk to some of the other people on the cruise. It was an interesting cross section. Some, like us, were from the UK. Others were American or Canadian who were escaping the snow and cold.

I chatted with one guy who was a Canadian doctor who had spent some time out in the wilderness of Alaska tending to the local villages up there. Interesting guy – super into wildlife. He’d been to every continent and raved about New Zealand.

We kept an eye out for the native parrot of St Vincent, but didn’t have any luck. Our guide got super excited at one point, recognising the parrot’s call. We all laughed as he hadn’t realised that my new doctor friend was actually playing the call on his phone in an attempt to attract the real parrots to our spot.

Going back was sooo easy. It took maybe a quarter of the energy that going up did and it was soo much more enjoyable! On the way down someone saw some freshwater crayfish.

And the best part – free rum punch at the end!

Saying goodbye to St Vincent and the Grenadines, we headed to Basseterre on St Kitts.

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As the world began to get back to normal after Covid, we decided to have a look at some of the islands of the Caribbean, leaving the port of Bridgetown in Barbados on the Grandeur of the Seas.

Checking in required us to travel 200m by bus from the terminal to the testing facility where we had to do a lateral flow Covid test and then wait for the results.

There was supposed to be Wi-Fi so that we could get the email regarding the test results, but it was a little patchy so we ended up going up to the desk after 25 minutes and they pulled up our results, allowing us to proceed.

The Grandeur of the Seas was just outside the testing station, tantalisingly close while we were waiting for the results…

And then we were allowed on board. Our room cards were in an envelope on the door. Our cabin was the cheapest they had: on the second floor, with no windows. The mirrors were partly to make the room appear larger!

Having said that, the room did have a couch. Which was the perfect size for Ange.

My favourite was Channel 3 which featured a feed from the camera on the bridge looking out over the front right of the ship. Handy for figuring out whether we’d docked yet. The feed rotated through maps of where we were including such data as our depth, course, speed, time of sunrise and sunset etc.

There was a compulsory safety briefing which meant we had to go up to our muster station and check in.

But that was it – time to explore the ship! The top level featured a running track.

A big screen TV for watching movies. Sounds great. But the soundtrack for the movies would cut out randomly for 30-60 seconds every 5-10 minutes, replaced with random music. Nothing ruins immersion quicker!

The view down to the Windjammer buffet restaurant.

The Solarium was an adults only area under glass with a deep pool (and lifeguard) and two Jacuzzis.

The main restaurant was Art Deco’s finest Great Gatsby.

The Centrum was a central atrium with live music at the base of the elevators. Which was a terrible design as the Customer Service desk, Next Cruise desk and Excursions desks were all on the fifth floor, so the music drowned out any attempts at communications.

A climbing wall was at the stern of the ship. Looking down from the top would be 200ft from the water’s surface.

There was a slight shifting of our destinations due to Covid but we ended up going to:

Kingstown in St Vincent and the Grenadines

Basseterre in St Kitts and Nevis

Philipsburg in Sint Maarten

St John’s in Antigua

St George’s in Grenada

before returning to Bridgetown in Barbados.

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