Barbados, Tortola, St. Kitts, Antigua, Amber Cove, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Granada and St. Vincent was the final itinerary, it had been changed 3 times between booking and actually getting on the boat.

All the islands are lovely, just some more than others, apart from St Vincent, it’s filthy and not worth the walk into town, if getting off the boat just stay in port.

We didn’t do any organised trips through P&O much preferring to use local taxis or guides, it differed on each island but on average it cost $25 per person depending on the length of trip.

Favourite island was probably Tortola, it’s still recovering from hurricane Irma in 2017 and the devastation is still visible, the cruise boats are just starting to visit again and the locals are welcoming and friendly. We did an open sided bus tour of part of the island, following the coast before cutting inland to a rum factory? (4 shots for a $) then heading back towards town over the hills. Lovely views and well worth the money.

St. Kitts wasn’t the nicest looking island but it is tax free with lots of tourist shops and the locals weren’t falling over themselves to be nice. We’ve been to Antigua a few times so decided to  take a taxi over to Nelsons Dockyard, the coast road it really nice but the middle of the island isn’t, it’s a much better island viewed from the sea.

Amber Cove is a man made terminal built by the cruise companies, we were the only boat in port. It’s set up for tourists with swimming pools, boats for hire, zip lines and plenty of sun beds. A short but steep climb gets you to the Sky Bar, as you can imagine the prices are a bit more expensive than most other islands. It’s a 15 min walk from the pier in St. Maarten into town or take the water taxi for $5. this was the most touristy place, a long sandy beach with bars and shops facing. Two sun beds and a brolly for $25, sometimes with a few beers or soft drinks thrown in. Its an island split in two with the Dutch on one side and the French on the other, the French side took a battering in the hurricane a few years ago and is still recovering.

Really liked St Lucia, again we did our own thing, while everyone was going on tours we walked through the town and a couple of hotels onto a beautiful secluded beach. We walked from one end to the other where there was a couple of beach shacks, just the right place to rehydrate.

Granada was a bit scruffy and needs a coat of paint but warm friendly people who were very proud of their island and their independence. A Little road train ran trough town to the Castle upto the prison!! and back along the coast. This was the only place drug use was evident with a few locals lying in the gutters. Unless you were doing an organised trip I wouldn’t bother getting off the boat in St Vincent.

All in it was an excellent trip, shared food with the most unlikely people, found out in the quiz my general knowledge isn’t quite up to scratch, but my music is and sang my heart out on the sail away deck parties. Brilliant.

If you’ve got this far I’ll share another P&O ism, 7 days into the cruise they ran out of hotdogs (so I’m told) the day after that they ran out of ice cream, now both of these I can just about live without but when they ran out of Pinot Grigio……..