St. Kitts: A Delightful Tour of the Island But a Poor Guide & Continual Appalling Service Aboard

March 27, 2019

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts & Nevis – Thanks for a fantastic afternoon and a beautiful sunset St. Kitts! I went on a four-hour sightseeing tour around the island today. Unfortunately the guide wasn’t that great, and I continue to experience abysmal customer service aboard Costa Pacifica on the third day of my cruise.

Got up at 11:27 a.m. aboard Costa Pacifica as we sailed from Catalina Island, Dominican Republic, to Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis. I’ve had horrible customer-service experiences thus far on my 17-night Caribbean and trans-Atlantic cruise, and now more fails: There was no cruise newsletter in my mail slot; had to retrieve one from reception. Then when I obtained one, the meeting times and places for excursions weren’t listed. (Not shown on my ticket either.)

I visited the tour desk, only to find it was closed. Bumped into a ship’s officer in the hallway, who rallied to get me the vital info. I’m in total disbelief at how awful this cruise has been thus far. A new low for sure.

Ate lunch at the buffet shortly after noon as we arrived into Basseterre, St. Kitts Island, a little before 1 p.m. It’s my second visit to this small Caribbean two-island nation, with a population of only 52,000. We came in at the bad industrial port; Carnival Horizon and another Costa vessel were already docked at the cruise port.

Disembarked at 1:57 p.m. for my shore excursion, “The Best of St. Kitts & the Fairview Estate.” My tour departed at 2:05 with guide Curtis. He’s another overly chatty tour leader, pointing out things tourists don’t care about such as car dealerships and various stores.

Our first stop was at 2:38 at the Fairview Estate. No explanation was provided.

We left there at 3:07 and reached Caribelle Batik 21 minutes later. Once again, there was no commentary about what the place is.

Onward at 4:03 to Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which preserves the British Fort George constructed during the 1600s and 1700s on St. Kitts. This was the highlight of today’s excursion.

“Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is an outstanding, well-preserved example of 17th- and 18th-century military architecture in a Caribbean context,” according to UNESCO. “Designed by the British and built by African slave labor, the fortress is testimony to European colonial expansion, the African slave trade and the emergence of new societies in the Caribbean.”

We had 42 minutes at the fortress, then continued to the southern part of the island, stopping at 5:51 at St. Timothy’s Hill for a panoramic overlook. Near St. Timothy’s Hill is my namesake village of Lucas.

Returned to port at 6:12 and reboarded Costa Pacifica. I went up to Deck 12 to watch sunset while sorting and posting today’s photos to Facebook.

Dinner buffet, back to Deck 12 to finish posting today’s pics, then returned to my cabin. Found a letter informing me my shore excursion tomorrow in Martinique Island, France, was canceled due to lack of participants. Ugh. To make it worse, Costa Pacifica did not deliver with this letter a list of other Martinique tours still available for me to make an alternate selection! Awful customer service yet again! I had to visit the tours desk to get it.

Got ready for bed early at 9:10. Read tomorrow’s cruise newsletter and the list of Martinique tours (we’ll be there the day after tomorrow). Watched TiVo on my phone before bed at 10:16 p.m.

Next we’ve got a short overnight voyage of about 60 miles to St. John’s, Antigua & Barbuda, our third port of call.