Port 27 Kingstown, St. Vincent

by Ed · Published March 5, 2022 · Updated March 5, 2022

Welcome to St. Vincent & the Grenadines!

We weren’t supposed to arrive in St Vincent until noon on Mar 3rd, 2022. I was in a 10 AM gathering for veterans. We had about 24 vets in the Martini Lounge. They served us mimosas and champagne, and we each were asked to introduce ourselves and tell a little about our service. It was nice, as we had many Vietnam-era vets, two doctors, and one corpman who informed all of the Navy folks on the ships he served that he saved their life by not being on the ship when they were! That’s Ray, the cruise director who hosted this event on the right. He’s not a vet, but was originally trying to go to the Air Force Academy to become a fighter pilot. The woman in the middle is Vanessa, the only female in the room. She was an Army truck mechanic. Our little event only lasted about 25 minutes.

I came out of that little gathering to find we were already at dock and the dock lines were being laid out. Nextdoor, on our port side, sharing the pier, was the behemoth P&O Brittania! She can carry over 3,600 passengers! Even at half capacity that is 1,800 passengers, compared to our 277!

And on our starboard side we have spectacular cliffside scenes of St Vincent!

To the front the cliffs give way to the edge of Kingstown, and the pier leads to the terminal building.

From our veranda we watched the mooring lines being placed on the same bollard that the Britannia was using. I watched as they threaded our mooring lines through the loops of Britannia’s loops. This is brilliant! Either ship can leave without having to undo the other’s lines!

We were delayed in being able to go ashore. St Vincent decided only passengers with sanctioned shore tours could leave the terminal building. The ship submitted a waiver and it was declined. People were allowed to go ashore and hang out on the pier or in the terminal building. Our tour was at 3:30 PM. The terminal building was packed! Social distancing was limited to 6 inches, not feet.

Welcome to St Vincent!

We were directed to our immediate left out of the terminal building and onto our awaiting catamaran. The rain started pouring and people were having trouble negotiating the two steps onto the boat. We all laughed! We’re going on a snorkeling tour and we’re trying to stay dry?

On board we are with 39 or our closest non-mask wearers. Oh well. At least they are all from our ship. Kind of our bubble.

We are going on the “Pirates of the Caribbean & Snorkeling” tour. On our journey up the coast we spied this angry monster coming out of the bluff! Can you see it?

We looked at this cave that kayakers like to row through. I love the roof – the way the rock shattered is menacing! This end is big. The entrance is a slot – not worth showing.

We had a beautiful rainbow following us, moving from bay to bay, town to town.

And we passed this lovely beach roofed with palms and highlighted by a little red boat!

We had escorts flying just above us! I believe this is a brown booby.

And then we get into the Pirates of the Caribbean part of this tour! Here is our first stop. This is the site of the entrance to the pirates cave in “The Curse of the Black Pearl”. Remember the two pirates wearing dresses in the rowboat? Remember the pirates “taking a walk” on the bottom of the sea? This is the location.

This is Elephant Rock and is the location that three pirates were hanging, with a sign over them “Pirates be Warned!”

This structure in the water is the location the British ship was moored that Jack Sparrow and Will Turner were on board trying to “steal a ship” in “The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

This small bay has a few buildings that Disney built as sets for the movie. I need to do more homework to figure this out.

Now the funky stuff starts. The bar has this great statue of Jack Sparrow, but his right hand is gone, and it appears the hand holding the pistol is actually a right hand stuck on the left wrist.

This guy is in the middle of the room, climbing a mast to nowhere. He’s better preserved than poor Jack.

They have an eclectic collection of furniture…

…and an affinity for skeletons!

This is one of the sets! I don’t recall the coffins in the movie… or the building for that matter… more homework to do!

This is Queen’s Beach according to our tour guide, named for a visit by Queen Elizabeth a long time ago. This is the site in “Dead Man’s Chest” (I think) where Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and ex-Commodore James Norrington were fighting on a spinning water wheel across the island. This is also the site of our snorkeling tour, so we watched fish and coral for the next hour.