The maître d ‘ sits guests as they arrive at tables ranging from 2 to 8, so you can choose to eat alone, arrive with friends or make new friends each evening. With only 200 passengers on board there are no strict seating times and no formal table assignments. After figuring out the basic layout of the ship and meeting some equally delighted fellow passengers, we returned to our cabin to get ready for dinner. The sundeck hosts three small pools, loungers and a small bar, the lower deck holds more loungers and seating plus the larger covered Tropical Bar, the entrance to the indoor Piano Bar and the Atrium, the Clippers main dining area. Then, too excited to do anything else, we went exploring, the Royal Clipper is a beauty! After being personally welcomed on board by the Captain, handed a towel for refreshing ourselves and a glass of rum punch, we were shown to our tiny but well equipped cabin. We were then free to stroll across the dock and pose for a few photographs before mounting the gangway. We strolled into the terminal, found the Star Clipper pennant, checked in and handed over our bags. The countdown was on……… this was going to be fun.īoarding started at 4pm and our hostess kindly delivered us to the terminal around 4.30pm. We splurged and booked a week on the Royal Clipper, departing Barbados, January 23, 2016. We ran the numbers again and could not resist as the credit would pretty much eliminate all those nasty charges that add up on traditional cruise lines, like bar bill, excursions and gratuities. Like many cruise lines port fees and taxes are an additional charge, however because it was a late booking the line was making the deal even sweeter by giving two nights accommodation and breakfast at the Accra Beach hotel in Barbados and a cabin credit of US$175 per person. We mulled it over, ran the numbers and mulled it over some more, before phoning Vacations to Go to get the full picture. Further investigation revealed this was the vessel we ‘oohed’ over when we saw it in dry dock in Martinique last year. The second ‘really’ tempting option was with the Star Clipper line, it was well out of our budget but the whole concept of actually sailing not just cruising on a five masted clipper had us intrigued. Cheapest on the list was a 7 night Caribbean cruise with ‘Carnival’ the price was tempting but the cruise lines reputation had us debating whether this would be for us. A short search bought up a number of options all departing from Barbados. This site lists cruise lines and itineraries worldwide, including relocation cruises, last minute deals and is a perfect place to find out what is available. We were already in Barbados and wanted to get off island and explore, therefore I went to one of my favorite ‘dreaming’ sites, Vacations to Go. Which is why we decided to splurge on a recent break between house sits. Even though we travel full time, we don’t consider our life as a full time vacation, we do actually do some work.
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