Malibu Beach in Barbados??

After an entire day at sea after leaving San Juan late at night we awoke in Bridgetown, Barbados.

That's the neat thing about cruising.....you normally sail at night and wake up in a new port every day.

I got up early and went on deck to look around and could see that we were docked next to a Club Med ship. I could also see another cruise ship arriving in port. It looked to be a big one so out came the camera.




A small crowd had gathered with me and I soon figured out why. We were watching the Queen Mary 2 arrive. I think it's supposed to be one of the grandest ships in the world. Sure looked nice to me! Our crews used to layover on the original Queen Mary in Long Beach, Ca. I have stayed there several times and I was truly impressed with the ship. I'm sure the new one is even nicer.



Our days activities included a short ride into Bridgetown for some sightseeing. But there wasn't really much to see there. It wasn't much of a cruise ship port as you would imagine. It was a little dirty and not the safest looking place to be hanging around. We didn't stay too long.


Next we went on a Princess organized shore excursion to the Malibu Rum distillery and Malibu Beach.

As I mentioned earlier, we had always had good luck with Princess Cruises so we expected a well organized and fun excursion. Not this time.....The distillery was only a five minute drive from the ship and man was it ever a nasty place! I used to work for a big beer company and I've toured several breweries so I know how important cleanliness is to the brewing process. Malibu Rum clearly does not follow any health practices. The distillery was old, dark, very dirty, smelled of garbage and sewage, and was just a disgusting place to visit. All of us on the tour were commenting on how we will never buy Malibu Rum again.

Then they pointed to the beach and said "go enjoy Malibu Beach and be back on the bus in two hours". The beach was decent but the view wasn't too special. The freight docks were on one side and the distillery on the other. In reality it was called Brandons Beach but Malibu decided to call it Malibu Beach to promote their rum products......Strike one for Princess.

So back to the ship and off we sailed at 6:00 PM. The Queen Mary was getting ready to set sail as well but we beat them by a couple of minutes. Their decks were pretty full of people either watching us leave or watching themselves leave Barbados. In any case, I'll bet a lot of photos were taken of both massive ships leaving port that evening. The sunset made for some great shots.



Next stop.....St Lucia.



For a look at some more of my photos, please aviate over to Plane & Simple