Today was our first stop at the French Island of Martinique.   We had been warned prior to the cruise that Martinique wasn’t allowing cruise passengers to enter unless they had passports.  Since we always cruise with our passports this wasn’t a problem for us.  Turns out, we never needed our passports.

Nancy and I woke up early and decided to go to Triton’s for breakfast.  Once we arrived, we asked to be seated with Shane, who was our server for the cruise.  He was off doing something else, so we were seated with another server.  We did get to talk with our assistant server while we selected our breakfast items.

We placed our order, and the next thing we knew, Shane was bringing our food out.  He had heard we were there, so he dropped what he was doing and came out to talk with us.  Nancy had ordered a Yogurt Parfait and I ordered an omelet with hash browns.

We didn’t have any concrete plans for the day.  We were going to leave the ship and walk around the immediate port area.  After finishing breakfast, we went outside on Deck 4 to see what the port looked like.  We got temporarily fixated on the testing of a an inflatable life raft for a few minutes.

Once we turned away from the life raft, we got a good look at the port.  The island of Martinique isn’t dependent on tourism for its economy, therefore there isn’t the plethora of usual tourist shops that you see in most ports.  The only thing set up right near the ship was a few small tents for merchants to advertise to the cruise ship passengers. 

We returned to the room to wake the girls up around 9:30.  Once they were dressed, we went to Cabanas so they could get a quick bite to eat before we left the ship.  We headed off the Wonder around 11 am and walked down the pier towards the town.  The pier had sidewalks, which were painted blue while the road portion of the pier was green.

Once we got off the pier, we did look in the tents briefly, but then headed farther down the waterfront.  There is a small beach right next to a large colonial era fort, Fort Saint Louis.  I wish we had figured out a good time to tour the fort because I’m sure it would have been amazing.   We decided to go through a nearby park, La Savane Park.  The park had a large playground, which would be good for families looking to burn off extra energy.

 

The actual town we were in was called Fort-de-France, which is the capital of Martinique.  We explored various shops and walked around for about 30 minutes, just taking in the sights.  On one of the streets (apparently near the City Hall), we turned the corner and stumbled on a protest.  Not quite understanding what was going on, we decided to head in a different direction.

After leaving the area of the protest,  we walked past the Espace Camille Darsière, which is the former Palace of Justice.   The building was not in the best shape, but it was very ornate and interesting to look at. 

We went to view the St. Louis Cathedral.  It is located a few blocks away from the Espace Camille Darsière. 

You could go into the interior of the cathedral as well.  We stayed in the back of the cathedral and enjoyed the stained glass.

After taking in the cathedral for a few minutes, we headed back out to continue our tour.  We happened upon a street with lots of restaurants and shops that was blocked off to vehicular traffic.  We decided to take a break to get a drink.  The owner of the shop only spoke French, but he was able to figure out what we wanted and we were able to pay with a credit card.  We sat down at some tables he had outside the shop and watched the local scenery.  

After finishing our beverages, we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to.  We decided not to take the most direct path back to the ship, just so we could see some of the city.  As we neared the ship, we walked past a small supermarket.  We decided to head inside to see if we could pick up some unique beers for Nancy.  It was a great experience for all of us.  We got to see some of the islands various fruits and vegetables that we normally might not see, as well as different products we can’t find back home.  The cashier was super friendly as well.

The supermarket was our last stop of the trip and we headed back to the Wonder.   Nancy decided a nap was in order, while the girls and I went to sit on Deck 10 to read and people watch.  We stayed in the sun for a while, then grabbed a quick bite to eat before returning to the room for a shower.  My younger daughter went off to hang out in the Vibe, while my older daughter and I headed to the French Quarter Lounge.   It was 3D craft time and the object was a Disney cruise ship.

I decided to just watch while she made the boat.  The cruise staff hadn’t anticipated the popularity of the activity and ran out of the activity sheets.  Every participant got an activity sheet, scissors, and some adhesive dots.  The dots where used to hold some sections of the boat together.

Once fully assembled, you had a quasi replica of the Disney Cruise ship.  It must be the Wonder, because there was no water slide of any sort.

After building the 3D boat, we went up to Deck 9 for more ice cream and to watch Monsters Inc on funnel vision.  Eventually the entire family joined us and had some light snacks.  We went back to the room to change once the movie was over, because we wanted to see the Frozen Stage show!  This was the only show on all the ships we hadn’t seen before!  We all really enjoyed the show, especially the puppets! 

Since we only had 30 minutes or so between the show and dinner, we went into the D Lounge to watch “Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer?”  We really like the family oriented shows on the ship.  We had a good laugh, and then we were off to Triton’s for dinner. 

After dinner, Nancy and I headed back to the room for bed.  The girls went off to their respective clubs (Vibe and 1820) for late night fun. 

Tomorrow, we would be stopping at another new destination for us, Barbados!

Planning | Travel | Boarding | Ship Exploration | St Maarten | Antigua | Martinique | Barbados | St. Lucia | Sea Day | Travel Back

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