P&O's MS Azura would be our home for two weeks as we toured the Caribbean.
The ship was built by Fincantieri at their shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy. At 115,055 tonnes, MS Azura is the second largest of seven ships currently in service with P&O Cruises. She is also the sister ship of MS Ventura. She officially entered service with the company in April 2010 and was named by Darcey Bussell.
The ship caters for some 3,000 passengers and has over 1,600 staff on board. There were a total of 17 decks on the ship - 5 of which were almost entirely cabins. We had an inside cabin, which was perfectly comfortable and spacious, - but it lacked natural light. For any future cruises we would pay the extra for a cabin with a balcony.
The food on board was excellent. We breakfasted in one of the buffet restaurants. If we were on board at lunch time, we would also have a buffet lunch - there was the option to have a waiter served meal in some of the other restaurants. For evening meal there was a dress code for the night - sometimes "casual"; sometimes "smart casual" (ie men to wear a jacket); and on four occasions "Black tie" - so my Dinner suit had a fairly regular airing.
For our evening meal we were allocated what they called "Freedom dining" - which meant that we could turn up any time between 6pm-9.30pm to eat. The other "freedom" aspect was that you didn't know who you would be sitting with at the table - we found this great; meeting 4 or 6 new people each night. The other dining areas had two designated sittings and you would sit with the same people each night.
For more photos of life on board click On board Azura
We flew from Manchester to Bridgetown, Barbados where we embarked on our first ever cruise and our first ever visit to the Caribbean.
Our itinerary would take us from Barbados, to St Vincent, Dominica, St Lucia, St Kitts, Antigua, Grand Turk, Tortola, and St Maarten, before returning to Barbados.
After our first night at sea we arrived by sunrise the following morning on St Vincent
St Vincent is a volcanic island 18 miles long and
11 miles wide and is located 100 miles west of Barbados. It is the largest
island of the Windward group of islands. It is composed of partially
submerged volcanic mountains. Its largest volcano and the country's highest
peak, La Soufrière, (4,048 ft) is active; it last erupted in 1979.
We docked at the capital, Kingstown
In
1763, St. Vincent was ceded to Britain. Restored to French rule in 1779, St.
Vincent was regained by the British under the Treaty of Paris (1783). From then until independence, St. Vincent passed through various stages
of colonial status under the British. A Crown Colony government installed in 1877, a legislative council
created in 1925, and universal adult suffrage granted in 1951.
Approximately 100,000 people live on the island. Kingstown (population 25,418) is the chief town. The rest of the population is dispersed along the coastal strip, which includes the other five main towns of Layou, Barrouallie, Chateaubelair, Georgetown, and Calliaqua.
We visited Kingstown's Botanical Gardens
We were told that this was the oldest Botanical Gardens in the Western Hemisphere
The Gardens were established in the 1760's as a commercial cultivation centre for plants collected from all over the world.
Captain Bligh was sailing to these Gardens when the famous mutiny on the Bounty took place in 1787. He eventually completed a second voyage and brought breadfruit and other plants from Tahiti.
This is a Candle Tree - so called for obvious reasons!
For some more photos of our time on the island click St Vincent
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