Omg omg omg This was the best day ever, by far! We boarded our tour bus and enjoyed our ride to the beach (first stop beach, second stop segway). And although I forgot my memory card in my laptop and couldn’t take pics of the beach (DOH!), all hope was not lost (see later for details).
The stop at the beach was short but sweet – beautiful turquoise and clear water, soft white sand…very nice relaxing pre-Segway break. 🙂 Back on the bus, and more touring the island – our tour guide Elridge Jones was just hilarious. Then we stopped at a remote location in north-eastern Barbados in the parish of St. Lucy and met up with our team of 3 Segway experts. We got to strap on knee pads, elbow pads and a helmet, then got a quick intro on how to operate our Segway, then we were off! And it was AWESOME!!! Chris and I took to them very quickly – it felt really natural. We got to see the natural side of Barbados and various coves along the northern end of the island…it was gorgeous! We got to zip around paths, up hills, down hills, gliding all over the place – just fantastic! We were given bottles of water at the beginning and a slice of banana bread at the end. Now – about the camera issue. One of the guides (Ray) asked us if we wanted our picture taken and we explained the story of my forgetting the memory card in my laptop…he actually went over to the owner (who happened to be on the tour with us) and he offered to take some pics for us – how awesome is that!!!! We gave him our email address at the end of the tour and he’s supposed to send them to us. Very cool!
EDIT: The pics arrived – see below!
Me, laughing my head off, as usual... 🙂
The whole tour was fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone going to Barbados. On the way back to the boat, we drove by the “touristy” side of the island along the coast and saw all the resorts. We passed by Oprah’s place, Richard Branson’s (the Virgin guy) and Simon Cowell’s – all were huge, not surprisingly. Rihanna also has a home here but it was further inland. Tiger “Cheetah” Woods got married there. The tour bus guide was really funny… The entire tour was awesome. We got back to the ship, showered and got ready for dinner (casual night).
Dinner – we started another bottle of wine (kept the other half for tomorrow). For starters, I had the chicken quesadilla and Chris had the sushi.
My chicken quesadilla - came with salsa, sour cream and guacamole
Chris' sushi: seared tuna, salmon, mussel and marinated seafood
For our entrees, Chris had the jerked pork loin and I had the braised short ribs.
My short ribs with fried rice, garlic crispy green beans and sesame eggplant. Chris dug into his pork loin too quickly so I couldn't take a photo
Dessert was funny – I had the warm melting chocolate cake. Chris was torn between the warm fig, date and cinnamon cake served with rum raisin ice cream and the strawberry cheesecake. The waiter just told him to have both, which he did. 🙂 Decaf cappuccino for me, regular cappuccino for him.
Warm melting chocolate cake
Warm fig, date and cinnamon cake
Strawberry cheesecake
During dinner, we talked about how much we enjoyed the segway tour and how the “active” part of it was a lot of fun. Tomorrow’s excursion is the 4×4 tour and beach getaway in St. Lucia, then ziplining in St Kitts. For St Maarten, we had planned a beach day and village tour but we decided to review the offerings to see if there was something we would prefer doing and guess what – we switched our tour for the America’s Cup Regatta! Here’s the description: Experience the thrill of racing the famous 12-metre race boats Stars & Stripes, Canada II, and True North. You’ll have the opportunity to compete in your own race around a shortened America’s Cup course. The America’s Cup is the world’s oldest continuously contested trophy in sports, and a symbol of excellence and national achievement. You will participate in one of the most exclusive sporting events in the world as you grind the winch, trim the sails or take the helm to help lead your crew to victory. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience where no experience is necessary. How cool does that sound?! 🙂
After dinner, we arranged the excursion swap, then we enjoyed the Marriage show (like a newlywed game), then a really funny juggler (Victor Zuniga), then a comedian (Percy Crews II). Off to bed!
I am a cruising virgin and am due to cruise on Carnival Victory in just over a week. My itinery seems to be the same as the one you did this year.
Having read some of the reviews about noisy and “obnoxious” guests, awful food, and really bad entertainment I am really scared that I have made a massive mistake by choosing this cruise particularly as it has been quite expensive
Your blog seems really positive so making me feel a bit better?
I do so hope that this cruise lives up to my expectations and not the bad reviews?
That was my 4th cruise and my husband’s 3rd and we had a fantastic time. The great thing about a cruise is that there’s something for everyone – for entertainment, there’s a show in the main auditorium every night (varies between comedy, Vegas-style shows, musicals, and the highlight – the guest talent show) but if those types of shows aren’t your thing, there’s still tons to do: karaoke bar, jazz bar, casino, movies on the big screen on the deck by the pool, a dance club, you get the drift.
On any trip, there will be the odd group of rowdy people – we didn’t run into any on trip but I do recall such a group on one of the excursions on our honeymoon cruise. Memorable but definitely didn’t ruin our trip.
We enjoyed the food and looked forward to the dining room every night, where the food is generally better than the Lido restaurant (which is buffet style) – although that’s where we had breakfast every day.
We really enjoyed all the stops on the itinerary. Have you given any thought to what excursions (if any) you’ll be doing in the various ports of call? Feel free to ask me any questions and rest assured – you’ll have a good time. I always like to get my bearings on a ship the first evening – just walking deck to deck seeing where everything is and people-watching is great fun!
Every cruise has its mix of good and bad reviews. And I think a lot of it has to do with the people themselves and just bad luck or special circumstances that made their trip less than awesome. If you go in with an open mind and ready to relax/have fun/explore/whatever, you’ll be fine – this is your trip, so you can make it anything you want it to be. I’m excited for you! 🙂
Thanks for this Val – I am going to just relax and have a good time – my husband and I are celebrating our silver wedding anniversary so want it to be special.
Again, thanks for your words.
Hi Val,
Loved reading your segway review, very funny but helpful. I’m due to go to Barbados as a port of call of RCI’s Serenade of the Seas.
I’ll be travling with my Mum, Step-daddy, Brother (23yrs old) – I’m 28.
This is my 1st time cruising as well as my 1st time to the caribbean! Am very excited as this is my graduation present from the family.
I wanted to do some fun things on the islands, whilst my mum and dad chill – so was thinking about doin the segway tour – but can’t seem to find pricing for it… can you help me out on that.
Kind regards,
Sun x
You’re going to have such a good time!!
We paid approx. $90 USD I believe when we went. I took a look on the RC site and found this: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do;jsessionid=0000wzQtGS-htW5PHpk6l_XiIs2:12hdhua36?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=BB99&DestinationCode=
Pricing seems about the same. We enjoyed the Segway tour a lot – don’t forget to bring sunglasses and a camera (and wear sunscreen as you’re out in the sun the whole time) – the views in Barbados were gorgeous – completely off the beaten path.
Hope this helps! You’ll have a blast!
I know it is probably too late, but if you book directly with Segway of Barbados (providing you are going there) it is only $75.00. I learned that when booking on board the cruiseship, they charge more and they keep most of it and only send a small fraction of it back to the actual business that does the tour.
I’m all for helping out the local businessman rather than the large cruise organizations!!
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[…] came out but never had the opportunity…until our cruise stopped in Barbados where they had a Segway tour. It was fabulous and so easy – Chris and I picked it up very quickly and were soon zipping […]