The Phoenix Family: Antigua

While eating breakfast that morning, we were really excited to finally experience some Caribbean culture. We noticed the weather, but agreed (after working in the tourism industry) we wouldn't be like everyone else and let this ruin our day. Regardless of chances of rain, we would still go ahead with our pre-booked excursion, and by golly, we were going to enjoy every minute of it. To me, what is vacation without a little adventure! So bring on the rain, (if it's supposed to) we come prepared!

There was two ships in port this morning. Our ship was much larger

Brad waiting in line for our catamaran, snorkel and beach tour.

While we waited, we listened to a local steel-drum band play

The Emerald Princess is on the left, look how much larger it is!

The catamaran we would take and enjoy for our tour


Brad and I excited to go snorkeling!

So excited! (PS. this has to be the most classic photo of our trip - and I'm not even embarrassed about it.)

The crew got us all geared up, but due to the weather the waters were a bit rough. They warned that although we were all anxious to get out there and enjoy the fish, and sea turtles, that if were fighting the water and not having a relaxing time, to come back to the boat. Brad and I jumped in, and swam over to the 5 mile long coral. It was beautiful, and a lot of fish! Brad's snorkel was leaking, and everyone kept swimming into us because of the waves. It was quite miserable conditions for a good snorkel. We could still enjoy the views, but it was tough because our snorkel equipment wasn't all that great. We made the most of it, and enjoyed our time in the water. When we got back to the boat, they were serving water, punch and rum punch, as well as cheese or tuna sandwiches. We were able to get a couple slices of tuna sandwiches, some water and punch and enjoy the beautiful ocean. We leisurely made our way over to a secluded beach for about 45 minutes of swimming and/or exploration. It was a beautiful trip over to the beach, and being that the beach was quiet and secluded, it really added to the pleasures of the tour.

Enjoying the ride to the beach

The clouds really began to close in, and we knew we were in for some rain, soon!

So we got off the boat and walked the beach!

There were some abandoned fortresses on the hilltop above Brad's head

And when it rained, it poured!

& poured some more!

As we went to the boat to await the passing of the rain, we noticed a jelly fish swimming in the water below. We mentioned it to the guide, and he went out and picked it up. I grabbed my camera and Brad and I then went off the boat to see what he was talking about while holding the jellyfish. He explained to us that little jellyfish (babies and teens) don't sting. They don't sting until they are a little larger. He then encouraged us to touch the jellyfish and feel it. It was slimy, and gooey.

Then it was back to the catamaran to prepare for take-off.

Brad waiting to leave, while escaping the rainfall

Storm clouds above the two ships at port

While we headed back to port, like any great tour guide, it was time to get passengers all hyped up and excited. This is a common way to leave everyone on a good note, and excited for the rest of their day ashore. It also allows them to leave the people happy, hoping to get decent tips out of them...Common tour guide tactic. So one of the crew members started a Congo line. Of course, Brad pushed me to join in on all the fun as they passed by... I thought, Hey! Why not? Might as well have a good time and create some great photos while I'm at it, it's not like I'll likely see any of these folks again:)

Dancing in the Congo line

The face of "my husband put me up to this!"

Following our tour, we decided to walk around downtown Antigua to see if we could find any good deals. We happened to go through this little market, where individual people had booths set up. Most all the booths (as usual) were almost identical. One thing we noticed at this port (that we didn't particularly like) was that all the women were so pushy to get you to buy something. Most likely out of desperation. They would literally track you down, and touch you or pull you into their stand, and if you went to leave, they would block you or move you back in until you agreed to buy something. If you went next door and bought something, they would bad-mouth you the entire time. I found, just my personal opinion, I was more likely to buy from a quieter more humble lady, then I was the pushy young ones. We didn't buy much at the market. We did buy Brad a custom made, on the spot tee that said something about the tropical island of Antigua. We bought me 4 matching doilies for the house. They were embroidered by the lady who sold them to us, and she used real sea shell particles in the design. They were beautiful, and this lady was really talented. While we went to walk away, Brad noticed some conch shells underneath some of her work. He asked how much she was selling the shells for and she said $20...Since we had just purchased something from her, and knowing we were not going to give her $20, she then said she would give it to us for $10 (which would be the best deal we found at any port we visited for the quality of the shell). We ended up buying it too, and leaving the market. We had big plans for the conch shell, it truly is in really good condition. It's polished, but not too much - so it still looks natural. We planned to put it in our spare bathroom on our new counter:)

Before leaving town, we noticed some local taking a photo of a couple in front of their welcome sign. Before walking away, we asked him to quickly snap our photo too, because it was still pouring rain! He gladly did:)

After an eventful day of being pushed around by waves and people, it was time to get back to the ship to change clothes. As we boarded, we noticed the sun was coming soon though, and we had wanted to rinse off anyways, so we headed to the top deck to see if there were any pool side chairs open! To our surprise (or should we be surprised because it had been raining off and on) there were some right up front next to the pool open for us! We put down our stuff, and hopped into the hot tub enjoy. As we made our way back to the chair, the sun was out in full force! We noticed the storm had passed, so we would stick around the decks for awhile. We ended up taking a little nap before being awoken by our friends Marcia and Jim. They wanted to invite us to their mini-suite in a couple days for hour-devours before dinner hour. We gladly accepted the invite, and packed up our beach towels and headed for our room for showers before our dinner time. Since it was sunny out, we chose to be a little late to dinner, to enjoy the view of the ship leaving port. We headed back to the same spot we enjoyed the embarkation from Ft. Lauderdale, and stood and waited for the ships horn to blast!

From the top deck, there was a beautiful view of the island

Restaurant right in front of the ship

Antigua was kind of dirty. Here is an old ship yard right next to our cruise ship. I'm not sure any of these boats run, or would be safe to take out of the port.