St. Lucia--Tuesday September 23 2014

Today we are visiting the Island of St. Lucia.  Sunrise is at 5:53 a.m. and the ship arrives shortly thereafter.  All ashore time is 7:15 a.m.  

St. Lucia is a volcanic island located in the Eastern Caribbean chain of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.  Originally settled by the Arawak Indians in 200 A.D. and then hundreds of years later by the Caribs.  

In the 17^th century, the British attempted to colonize the island, but it wasn’t until 1746 that the French proved successful in forming a pact with the Caribs and creating the first European settlement.  In 1814, the British gained ownership of the island.

In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the economy thrived on sugar plantations and later banana plantations, and in 1979 the island became a country unto itself under the British Commonwealth.

Part of our group is going on the Segway Tour today.  Our meeting time is 8:15 a.m. and we meet in the Promenade Lounge.  There are about 14 of us and we are all adults.  We meet our guide Chad outside the ship and we are on the way to our bus to get our Segways.  We take about a 20 minute bus ride before arriving to the Segway location.  Chad tells us about the island on the way over and is very knowledgeable about the island.

We get to the Segways and go through our short training session so those that haven’t ridden before get the hang on it.  Having been on the Segway numerous times I feel like it is just like getting back on a bicycle.  Comes back pretty fast.

Pete and Faith

Linda

Training on our Segways

We are on all terrain Segways and our going to be on dirt paths and climbing up the mountain.

We see the ocean and Pidgeon Island along the way

The island was home to the U.S. Army Base and there are bunkers in the mountain which we climbed.

Olaf came along for the ride today and had a great time.

Faith on her Segway

We stopped at Stone Face Pond and took a picture with Bob, Dale, Pete, Faith and myself

Had a nice walk at the end to the top and back down the mountain to our Segways

Our tour guides had some fresh papaya, coconut, watermelon and bananas for us.  I am trying the coconut meat inside the coconut with our host “Little Man”

Pictures with our Segway

We then head back down the mountain to continue our Segway ride ending up at the beach.

We then head back to our starting point and continue our journey back to the ship.  The Segway tour (through DCL) was about 3 ½ hours long.  Just the right amount of time.  We all had a great time.  I would highly recommend it.  The guys that were our tour guides were awesome.  Very knowledgeable and friendly.  

After arriving back at the ship, we grabbed some lunch then went back out and did some shopping.  Bought some banana ketchup and banana bbq sauce which the island is famous for.

After shopping, came back to the ship and took a little nap then headed off to Bingo (didn’t win) and then it was time for the ship to leave St. Lucia.  We left about 5 p.m.

Tonight is Pirate Night.  The Walt Disney Theater is having movie night tonight, showing Guardians of the Galaxy.  We saw the movie last month, so we skipped the movie.  We dressed up for pirate night and had a great time at dinner and later at the fireworks

Linda, Natalie our cruise director and Captain Jack Sparrow

Linda and Natalie

Linda and Sheree

After the fireworks, we spent some time up on deck 10 talking to the cruise staff and then headed down to the room.

It is now midnight and I have finished typing the day’s activities and just need to post to the blog.

Tomorrow we have an all day excursion planned in Grenada.  It is the first time a Disney ship has sailed to Grenada so we might have some festivities at the port in the morning.

Tonight we received a nice wall thermometer to commemorate the inaugural voyage to Grenada.  I forgot to mention, last night we received a commemorative lithograph by Don Ducky Williams for the inaugural voyage from San Juan.

That about does it.  Goodnight from the Disney Magic!