Enchanted Princess in Antigua
On our Caribbean cruise on the Enchanted Princess we docked in Antigua with nothing planned to do. The dock our ship was on exited directly into a port shopping area called Heritage Quay, though that was not the case for people we talked to from a Carnival ship whose dock went straight into town. The two docks are right next to each other with just a bit of water between the two ships so nothing is far away from one to the other. There’s also a third dock at that port and a bridge from where the Carnival ship was to the port shops.
bird and nest by the port shops
The port shopping area had a live local band playing for tips which was one of the first things we came to after leaving the secure area on the pier itself. One scrawny little tree had a nest and a loudly chirping little yellow bird who probably lived in it. There were some of the usual shops found at most every cruise ship port in addition to other shops as well as bars and eateries. In the middle of it all there was a little booth with photos of places an island tour goes and of various beaches you can get a ride to. Lots of people with island tour signs milled about that area waiting to find enough people to fill up their van for a tour.
Devil’s Bridge – internet photo – something we didn’t get to see on the tour even though it was in the tour photos on the signs that say where the tours go
It’s a pretty short walk through the port shops and out into town, but that was just more shops. If you don’t know the area and want to do something on your own it would be best to look that up ahead of time so you know where you want to go and how to get there. We should have done that since we had no actual plans, but since we didn’t and didn’t notice anything straight off that looked interesting we went back into the port area where all the people with the island tours were.
ornamental palm tree
The photo on the booth and what the tour guides show on their maps apparently has things from more than one tour. There were places we wanted to see where we thought our tour would go as the driver had specifically pointed them out when saying which things cost extra and which did not while telling us about the tour. It turned out not all of those places were actually on the tour we took. Some went to a different tour if the guide had gone out in the other direction. So when booking one of those last-minute tours if there’s a specific place on their photo where you want to go make sure they are clear about whether or not that is part of your tour and not just a place where some tours go. He had pointed to one specific place and said they didn’t go there because it was closed, but he made it look like the tour would go to all of the other places shown so when he said we were going back to the ship before we had seen them all we were surprised. It wasn’t until then that he said it was a different tour that went to those places.
cricket stadium
The first stop on the tour was a cricket stadium that also holds international soccer games. It was empty at the time other than a few people who worked there, though they will still charge admission if they see people go inside. Outside of the stadium were some palm trees with a different sort of palm fronds than what we used to always see. The guide said that all of the coconut palms that used to populate the island died of a disease and these new ones were some sort of ornamental palm planted to take their place. They also mentioned a major die-off of the coconut palms on Saint Kitts so apparently the palm plague spread to more than one island.
donkey and egrets
A herd of feral donkeys grazed in a field near the stadium so we stopped to take some photos of them. There is a donkey sanctuary on the island, but you have to pay to go in there and these donkeys were free to see. There were quite a few egrets hanging out with them. Probably cattle egrets since those like to hang out with livestock and keep them vermin free.
view of Nelson’s Dockyard
We passed a whole field of solar panels, which the guide said were not yet operational as whoever had negotiated for the panels forgot to include any batteries in the plans for them.
sign at the entrance to Nelson’s Dockyard
Next we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking Nelson’s Dockyard, which is one of the major tourist attractions of the island. It costs $15 to go in and sounded like mainly a shopping area so only a couple people paid to go inside. In the 18th century British naval ships docked there. Now the docks are full of fancy yachts. There is a museum and art galleries there as well as shops, a hotel, and restaurants. There is a park and trails outside of the dockyard.
Pigeon Beach
Meanwhile the driver took the rest of the people to a nearby beach. It was called Pigeon Beach. It looked like a nice beach and there was a sign there about a snorkel trail. The guide said it also had a hiking trail which went about 6 miles uphill to Shirley Heights, another of the places where a lot of the cruise ship tours go. It’s a former 17th century military lookout which is now a tourist site with food and entertainment and a cost to get in.
snorkel trail sign at Pigeon Beach
It costs $1 USD to use the restroom at that beach. I have to take other people’s word for it being nice and clean because I took photos of the beach instead of going into the bathroom.
yachts
Next we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking multi-million dollar yachts. One the driver said was for sale, having been confiscated from a Russian Oligarch the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
church made from naturally green stone
We made a brief photo stop at a small old church called Saint Barnabas Anglican Church made from naturally green stones local to just that one area of the island. It wasn’t actually on the tour, but after everyone wishing we had stopped at one of the stone churches on St. Kitts this time I asked and everyone in the van got out to take photos. There were some people working on the building, but they didn’t seem to mind us taking pictures of it. Besides the unusual colored stone walls it also had some lovely stained-glass windows.
stained glass window at the church
Next the driver/guide made a quick stop at a tiny stand in front of a little house and bought some fresh local pineapple for everyone to try. It was supposed to be the best pineapple ever, but I thought it just tasted like pineapple. It was good because pineapple is good, but it tasted the same as any other pineapple. The little shop had a variety of other things besides fruit.
little local shop
All along the way we passed through different areas and neighborhoods. Like anywhere some areas definitely looked nicer than others, but in a lot of places there appeared to be a mix of everything from really tiny houses – some no bigger than an average sized bathroom – to giant mansions. Most of the houses were somewhat on the smaller side. Some looked new and nice, some had seen better days, some were under construction, and others abandoned and on the verge of falling down.
view of a beach
We made a view stop overlooking a beach, then went down the hill and stopped on that beach. One end was crowded with a cruise ship excursion, but the other end where we went was quiet. To me that would be the better end of the beach, not only for the lack of a crowd, but also because that side had a coral reef which the driver said was good for snorkeling where the end where all the people were was just sand. He did not say what the name of that beach was.
on the beach
After that we went back to the ship, not having seen any sugar mill ruins or the rock formation called Devil’s Bridge. Those were some of the things in the photos that we thought were part of the tour where we didn’t get to go.
Cruise Stories 