DAY 3: TUESDAY ANTIGUA 8-5PM

This would be the first time we have ever been here. So, I had no idea what to do. After searching the boards, I knew that St Johns (across from St Thomas) had some awesome snorkeling and everyone always talked about taking the ferry over there for the day. I was always too chicken to try it and make it back in time for the ship to leave so I immediately got super excited about coming here and docking here. I posted on the St Thomas board and patiently waited for a reply. Too my surprise, people were talking out of their minds about it and it just didn't add up. They continued to talk about using the ferry to get there. I proudly exclaimed that I would be lucky enough to not have to use a ferry like they did. Then confusion really sat in...I was informed that there's no dock at St Johns. Well surely they must not realize that RC docks at St Johns right? After awhile, I was set straight. I found that "St Johns" did not mean the St Johns across the way from St Thomas like I had thought. Oopsy! St Johns meant Antigua. I hung my head in shame and put my tail between my legs and headed over to the Antigua boards to start my search over. 🤪

The search started again..."Hello, I'm Mitsugirly and I'm here because I have a cruise addiction. I would like some suggestions on a nice beach to go to and I promise you I did not mistake St John Antigua for St Johns". Boom! Everyone responded informing me that Antigua supposed to have the prettiest beaches in the Caribbean (I swear everyone claims this no matter where we go). But I was informed that they have 365 beaches!!! Wait, what? How is this even possible? For every 20' you walk do they count it as a new beach? I can't imagine. But, at least I was in luck because to the beach it was for us!

Lawrence Leston came highly recommended (i.e. Lawrence of Antigua). He had excellent communication and answered all my millions of questions. He offered the following: 

"You can have a combination of beaches around the island which includes Long Bay in the eastern section of the island. 

Then we will drive through the Rain Forest to get to the beaches on the south western section of the island. Which includes Turners beach, Darkwood beach, Ffryes bay, Valley church beach and Jolly beach. You are free to stay as long as you wish on each beach also at the last beach you can relax until you are ready to go back to the cruise ship. 

Drinks is served on this beach tour. Also free Wi-Fi will be available on board.  

You pay cash at the end of the day. If your group is 4 or more person it will be  $50.US each." 

Additional information also stated: 

The choice will be yours as to how long you spend on each beach. The last beach that we will be visiting is call Jolly beach, you are free to stay as long as you wish before heading back to the crise ship. It can be a private tour if you so desire

I will be using a bus that can take all 10 person from your group. In fact it can take more if the group gets larger the bus can take up to 22 person, so there will be a lot of space for 10 person, everyone will be comfortable all along the way while driving in the bus.

To meet will be very simple. I will be standing on the dock, I will be holding my Lawrence of  Antigua sign. 

Well I mean...how could you go wrong with going to a new port, a port with 365 beaches, a port that claims to have the prettiest beach in the Caribbean and we were going to get to see several of them on a private tour. Ok...booked for 11 people.

I couldn't wait and only $50 a person? Pssshhh, that made me think about the $95 I paid the day before. 

So here we are. Tuesday and ready for our first NEW port and I couldn't wait!!! 

We headed to the buffet for breakfast and it was yummy as usual. 

Kia decided not to go on this tour so now we were down to 8 people instead of 11. We were going to have lots a room on this 22 person bus private tour. 

I contacted Kendra and they were up and moving. We made plans to meet her at her room and get off the ship as soon as it was docked. However, we couldn't find her. We waited and waited and ....typical Kendra fashion...she was no where to be found. Now normally I would wait until we found her but this time...I remembered there was ONCE...and ONLY ONCE, that she couldn't find me and she decided to get off the ship and went to the port entrance to wait on us. Well, I had envisioned this in my mind and made the choice to go ahead and get off. Wrong choice, she wasn't out there.

Now usually you have to exit the cruise compound and out some gates to get to any outside vendors. Well not this time. Lawrence was standing on the pier waiting for us with his sign. 

We waited and waited and FINALLY she came off the ship (Billy and his scooter was spotted). 

Then we were off and running for our tour. Well, at least in my mind I was because I was so excited. Lawrence wasn't running...he was an older gentleman and I don't think he would appreciate it if we made him run. 

To read my complete review of all the places we visited, click the tab below:

Back at the port, we did a little shopping and then headed to the ship around 4pm.

We started hearing a battle of the horns and knew someone was pulling out...

The other RC ship was pulling out and it revealed.....X was with us too. (I knew this but the rest of the family didn't realize there was another ship there with us. 

Back to the room to shower and we had this magnificent view from our overly sized room. 

I always find the hours the buffet is open on port days. Like why can't they adjust these so that those coming back on the ship, after a long day in port, have someplace to eat, other than the 24/7 venues? I just don't get it!

So, pizza it is.

After eating and relaxing for a bit, Sakari was getting the itch for water again. This child would live in water if she could.

She changed into a bathing suit, morphed into a mermaid, then back to the pool we went.

As we were relaxing and watching a bit of the movie Homes & Watson, I heard this flapping of a tail and here she came to us (mermaid tail still on).

She informed us that the lifeguards told her that she couldn't wear her mermaid tail in the pool and that it was "too dangerous". Say what? Dangerous for who? Those around her? Because there were maybe 3 people in the pool. Dangerous for her? Seriously...it's a monofin and she can swim better with it on than without. They didn't have any problem with it the night before and she has not had one issue with any other cruise or ship. She was a little upset but took it off as instructed. She swam for a little bit and then decided she'd rather go back to the room and draw on her ipad. 

We headed to the casino for a bit and I did "ok" and was still playing with the same $20 I started out with from the first time I went.

They were having an 80's party tonight and I knew I wanted to see a bit of it. Up to deck 5 to check it out. My favorite era is the 80's and I just love the music and dancing.

We didn't stay the whole time and knew that I still needed to get back to the room and pack for our day in St Lucia tomorrow. 

This was our towel animal for the night. I thought i looked like a big but Sakari insisted that it was Dumbo (we had just went to the movies and watch Dumbo prior to the cruise and she said it was tiny like Dumbo and he was trying to flap his ears). I'm thinking Angry Bird myself. 

Ok, so only one other thing that happened this day that I want to bring up. This is my b*tch session so sorry in advance. 

We had went to the photography studio to take a look at our pictures taken so far. I know from past experiences that collecting your pictures during the week and putting them together never seems to end good for us. People will spread them out, take them-never to be seen again and so on. So, we have started gathering them nightly and taking them to the desk and having them hold on to them until the end of the cruise and then we'll pick what we want. (They have folders and cabinets they will put them in with your room number on them). 

Well, after gathering the pictures, we went up to the counter, and a guy helped us out. 

Then our conversation went like this.... 

Him:  "Are you interested in our special? Tonight's the last night for it and it's only $69.95 for the package". 

He continued to tell me "For $69.95 you can have ALL of your pictures taken throughout the week...all of them!". 

Me: "Wait, what? ALL of them for $69.95?"

Him: "Yes, only if you do it tonight"

Me: "So there's got to be a catch to this. Is it only the port pictures?"

Him: "Nope, it's everything. Everything the photographers take of you during the cruise for only $69.95. But only tonight."

Me: "So what about the photographers that set up around the ship with props? Are those included in the $69.95 price?"

Him: "Yep...EVERYTHING! Even the pictures taken around the ship like in the MDR or by the pool and even embarkation"

Me: "So if it's only $69.95, why wouldn't EVERYONE on the ship do that then? That makes no sense."

Him: "I'm not sure. It's a great deal."

Me: "So when we see the photographers set up around the ship with a back drop, we can go to each one of them with no limit every night?"

Him: "Yes"

Me: "So there's no limit?"

Him: "No. You can go to each set up every single night of the cruise. The only "limit" is you can only do 6 pictures at each setup. How many are in your cabin?"

~me now thinking~ "Well, there are 4 booked in our cabin but 1 of those people belong to my older daughters fiance in another cabin and since she's his relative, she's in most of the pictures with them."

Him: "Well, since she's booked in your cabin, any pictures that include her are free with the package as well, even if you are not in them."

~Um ok. That meant that most of Kendra's pictures were going to be free too because Shawna was in most of them. The weird thing was, he never once asked me to prove she was in my cabin or anything. He just asked me to show him a picture of her in all the other pictures and they'd be included.  

Him: "So would you like to do the package for $69.95?"

Me: "Absolutely! Here's my card and I'm going over to get the other pictures as well"  

Then I ran off to grab Kendra's pictures with Shawna in them.  

When I returned, he gave me the slip to sign and ..... it said $269.95. "WAIT WHAT? You said $69.95 and you just charged me $269.95!!!" He started back tracking...well it's $269.95. I said over and over...NO! "You said $69.95 four times and I repeated it back to you several times and you assured me on the price." His reply was "Well, it was the $299.95 and now it's $269.95 and I was just saying the $69.95 is the changed part" WHAT THE HELL-O ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT????? You don't just "cut off" the first two hundred dollars of the price and quote the $69.95? At this point I'm pissed and I don't get pissed...like seriously, pissed often. My husband said..."ahhhh, the bait and switch program at it's finest!" I was livid. 

He said "No problem mam, I can remove it". 

Me: "Ok, remove it and charge me the $69.95 you quoted me!"

Him: "No, I can remove the charge all together and we won't do the package"

After going back and forth a bit...he knew I was pissed, the hubby and I talked it over and decided that we usually pay about $150 in pictures each cruise just buying them individually and Kendra usually spends about the same (or has been known to do the professional pictures and dress up and spend over $500). So, I said "I'll just go ahead and take it but this is BS that you did this to us!" I figured I could split the cost with Kendra and still pay less than I normally do.

I remembered that there were a few pictures of us that I wasn't going to originally buy and went back over to grab them as well and when I returned and handed them to him, he handed me yet another receipt.

I said "What's this?"

He said "I credited your account and took it off". I'm totally confused now.

Me: "What do you mean you took it off? We are still getting the package right?"

Him: "No, I removed the package and charges"

Me: "OH MY GOSH!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS? After I just told you we would take it. What type of salesman are you? I can't deal anymore...get me someone else. I'm done with you!"

He went over and grabbed a lady...I explained the entire situation to her and all she had to say was "Do you want the package or not?" Like no sympathy, no getting the supervisor, no discount, no nothing! She just charged my card and then told me that they still had to take my pictures from me and they would not release them until the last day of the cruise. 

This whole situation put the worse taste in my mouth and I'm totally convinced they hired incompetent people in the photography studio. We had been there for well over an hour and I was so done with the situation and had it not been so late, I would have insisted on a manager or someone else to speak to. 

Or course, I would continue the week taking as many pictures as I could get our bodies in whether or not we were dressed up. It didn't matter. 

But, I wanted to let everyone out there know what kind of crap they pulled on me. It was NOT a misunderstanding. I did NOT hear him wrong because it was repeated, by him and myself, over and over during the long conversation. This is some BS!!!!