July 3, 2017
Today is a sea day as we leave Curaçao to head towards the island of St. Kitts (the country is comprised of 2 islands and is called St. Kitts & Nevis).Without any need to get up early, we order our room service breakfast for the latest time slot possible (9:00-9:30) and take it slow and easy this morning. After two days in two ports, it's nice to have a relaxing day ahead of us.
Once breakfast is done, a trip to the Rainforest Room is in order. Knowing it will get crowded later in the day since everyone is on the ship, it's still relatively unpopulated and getting hot tub space and a lounge is not a problem this morning.
Lunch today is very informal as we simply head to the pool deck and get our lunch from the Cars themed stations there - followed, of course, by an ice cream cone just around the corner. As I did all this trip (and last year's) my ice cream of choice is chocolate-banana swirl. (It's not quite a frozen banana that I would get in the park - but it'll do.)
This afternoon I get to see a movie that I had been looking forward to seeing, but never got to see it in the theaters. I enjoy all of the Disney Nature films, and on this cruise, Born in China was one of the movies that was showing throughout the week. I grab my refillable popcorn bucket and get settle in to see the movie.
Tonight we are in Animator's Palette for dinner again, and once again Brooke is spending time and having her dinner in the Nursery. This time, the first of two animation shows takes place in the restaurant. An interactive Crush (from Finding Nemo) is the main character participant, although many of the inhabitants of Nemo's world find their way onto the screens that are around the entire dining room.
Tomorrow we put into St. Kitts and all of us (except Jason) have a very early excursion, so it'll be an early night as we get ready for tomorrow.
July 4, 2017
This morning, right on schedule, we pull into port on the island of St. Kitts. It's actually quite cool (though humid) for this south in the Caribbean during the summer, and we see rain off in the distance.
Shortly after 8:00 AM we make our way to the Walt Disney Theater where our excursion is to gather and shortly thereafter we are heading off the ship to meet our tour bus and guide.
Today we are taking a scenic railway tour through the old sugar cane fields on St. Kitts. For most of its history sugar cane (and slaves) was the main source of income here. The first part of our time on the island we will be on a two level train through the former plantations - which eventually became property of the government before sugar cane production ceased completely in 2005. The railway itself was built from 1916-1927 and was used to transport product from the fields, to the processing plants to the ships which were used to export the refined sugar. The trip will use about one third of the entire system of tracks, at which point we will meet our bus again, which will give us a tour through the residential areas on our way back to the ship.
The enclosed and air conditioned lower level of the train.
Off in the distance we could see the sister island of Nevis ... birthplace of the U.S.'s first Secretary of the Treasury - Alexander Hamilton.
On the open air upper level of the train.
Intently taking in the sights!
Former sugar cane processing plant ... one of many along the route. In fact, even though cane is no longer harvested, it is still growing any place that hasn't be redeveloped.
As we rode along, a choir sang island songs for us ... and ended with their national anthem.
As we passed, often people would wave at us as we went by. All the children in this school came out to wave.
This bothered me ... why chain her to a post ... especially this close to the train tracks?
After about an hour and a half we reached the end point of our train trip and it was time to transfer back to the bus. While we did this, another Disney Fantasy group who had done the bus tour portion first was leaving the bus to board the train as it headed back to where we started.
Our driver pointed out many local spots of interest - including his house and his neighborhood. At one location he pointed out the grave of Thomas Jefferson's grandfather.
Before long we were back on the pier and headed back to the ship.
Tonight will be our Fourth of July Celebration ... and a second night of fireworks aboard ship! Our dining rotation takes us to Enchanted Garden again ... and tonight Brooke is with us ... in a decidedly silly mood.
Once again we have back to back days in port - and our next one is Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. This is the first repeat port for us this cruise, though I have something rather different from last year planned.
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