Anthem of the Seas FlyCruise - Day 6: St. Johns, Antigua | Journeys
Visiting a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Antigua
Alongside at St. Johns, Antigua PHOTO: SINGAPORE CRUISE SOCIETY
After a bumpy night sailing through the Caribbean Sea, we arrived at sunny St. Johns early in the morning. St. Johns is filled with yachts in their marinas at the coast, but past them, the island is filled with boutiques for your shopping needs, forest trails for the adventurous and busy agricultural fields.
Amazing Antigua
We decided to go on a short excursion to explore the islands naval heritage - including the Nelson’s Dockyard - which is now an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Similar to our excursion yesterday, our meeting point was on the pier, and we made our way to assemble for our excursions.
Antigua is slightly more cautious with health and safety, and requires all guests disembarking the ship to sanitize their hands while the local health staff check our temperatures. This was mandatory for you to leave the port area.
We took a ride around town with several other guests on the bus, visiting scenic spots around the island, including the Shirley Heights Lookout and Blockhouse Ruins. These spots are great for your photography check-ins on social media, offering amazing views out towards the Atlantic Ocean.
Then, our guide brought us over to one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Nelson’s Dockyard. This dockyard used to be a naval station for the UK Royal Navy fleet base, before being abandoned in 1889. Today, it is a marina filled with luxury private yachts from around the world. We spent 45 minutes there taking more photos, but there was no chance for a quick bite on this tour.
We arrived back on the port at 12pm, and continued to stroll through the shopping area right in front of the pier. This shopping complex offers a huge variety of goods, from jeans to cosmetics, apart from the very standard alcohol & duty free items. These shops are less than 5 minutes of a walking distance from the gangway.
In Antigua, almost every shop we entered required us to wear a mask and sanitize our hands upon entry. We were ‘passionately asked’ to sanitize every single time we entered a shop by the locals. Though slightly troublesome, it is nice to see the locals taking every precaution to ensure they keep the virus at bay, while still welcoming tourists to their best ability.
Royal Treatment at Pier
After an excursion on the island in the tropical heat, it is ‘heart-warming’ to see that Royal Caribbean has once again set out towels and drinks stations for guests who just returned from a day ashore. Ice cold face towels and a quick lemonade goes a long way in this heat.
From here, mask up and prepare your SeaPass cards to show the security staff at the gangway. Do remember that alcohol and spirits purchased in port will be collected by security and returned to you only on the last day of the sailing.
Dinner At Jamie’s Italian
Today is our third time trying out the specialty dining on the Anthem, and we will be at Jamie’s Italian for the evening. Our wonderful waiter, who is also named Jamie, helped us through the menu and suggested his favorites for us to try. We went with classics such as the calamari, garlic bread, seafood linguine and some mains.
As the servings here can be quite large, do remember to tell your waiter to reduce the portion size for the pasta if you wish to eat more (or still be able) to eat your mains.
Departing St. Johns
It was a quiet departure as we slipped out from the pier, saying goodbye to Marella Discovery which was in port with us. Though soon after, the winds picked up and we were again facing the roughs of the Caribbean Sea. We must admit, it can be fun sometimes.
Tomorrow is Day 7 and the Anthem of the Seas will arrive in Bridgetown, Barbados in the morning.
Preamble: Anthem of the Seas 12 Night Southern Caribbean FlyCruise
Day 1: Embarkation at Cape Liberty
Day 5: Philipsburg, St Maarten
Day 6: St. Johns, Antigua
A Note on Pandemic Travel
All international travels conducted by the Singapore Cruise Society will be done in accordance with prevailing health and border control measures of our home & the destination country. Our admins and staff have been advised and will follow a strict set of health guidelines set out based on current measures published by the cruise lines and local authorities.
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