Royal Clipper Trip Report -- Day 4

Day 4 -- Rodney Bay, St. Lucia
Low 80s, mostly sunny, with brief rain in the afternoon

Breakfast buffet is served in the main dining room and is an actual self-serve buffet. The catch is that you have to be masked in the buffet line AND you have to wear a disposable plastic glove before touching any of the serving utensils or food containers. The glove was a pretty big pain, simply because they were really hard to get open. Well, I had a hard time getting them open, anyway. But that was a very small price to pay. The breakfast buffet was mostly the same every day. There was usually some kind of cured meat, lots of bread options, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, cold cereal, yogurt, jams and jellies. There were other things that were subbed in -- like creamy herring, corned beef hash or baked beans -- but weren't available every day. There was also an omelet station every day, where you could also get eggs in styles other than scrambled. It was a nice buffet, with enough variety for everybody to find something that they wanted. Down-side was the potatoes were always disappointing, whether they were hash browns or tater tots, they were soggy and luke-warm.

Right after breakfast, the captain introduced us to the officers and some of the bar and spa staffs. Our Executive Chef was apparently a former winner of "Master Chef". Also told us that we were sailing with only 116 passengers. In non-Covid times, the ship carries just over 200 passengers, so we were just above 50% capacity. Additionally, only 3 nationalities were represented among the passengers: American, German, and British. I guess this is also pretty unusual, but not all that surprising, given the lower number of people on board.

Meeting the crew:

We weren't scheduled to reach our first destination until just after lunch, so I decided to wander the ship a little bit and learn my way around. So I started all the way on the bottom deck to see the gym and the spa. The gym is pretty sparse. There are a couple of treadmills, some dumbbells, a couple Nautilus machines, and an elliptical. I tried the elliptical just for fun, and every time I took a step, my head hit the ceiling. I am NOT a tall person.

The spa wasn't open when I visited, so I don't have a lot to report about it. But it's also a very small space (as you would imagine on a very small ship), with only a couple treatment rooms.

A look at the gym equipment:

Spa reception desk:

And a treatment room:

Buffet lunch is essentially the same as breakfast. You have to be masked and gloved in order to serve yourself. Lunch typically has cold cuts, some cold salads, hot options like chicken or beef, and some form of side veggie. This day also had fried shrimp, which was good. There's also a dessert table (at dinner, too).

First tender to shore was at 12:30pm. We got there slightly later at 12:45. We tendered at each stop, except for our initial embarkation and then debarkation in Barbados. Every other stop, we tendered in to shore. It's obviously more convenient to be at the pier, but honestly, the tendering was not ever a problem. The Royal Clipper carries its own tender boat, and we also used the lifeboat a couple of times.

Tender boat:

We didn't have an excursion planned, so we had a choice of tendering to the town marina/market or to a local beach. We wanted to see some of the town if possible, so we tendered into the Rodney Bay marketplace. Lots of little shops, a few waterfront bars/restaurants; but because it was Sunday, many of the shops were closed. So we walked through a couple of the shops that were open (took us maybe an hour and a half) and then sat by the water and had a drink while we waited for a tender to take us to the nearby beach. I had thought that we'd be going to a somewhat secluded area, but it was just a public beach. It was a bit of a long walk from where the tender left us, and the locals were very aggressive in trying to sell us beach chairs and towels. They had parked their cars at the public entrance to the beach and were playing loud music. It was not my favorite spot of the week.

Rodney Bay marina, with mountain in the background:

Our ship, with sails stowed, taken from the Rodney Bay public beach:

Just a dorky shot of us on the beach  :

We decided to head back to the ship a little early, since we didn't love the beach. We got back aboard at 4:30, which was convenient, because every day at 5pm, the Afternoon Snack is served in the Tropical Bar. The Afternoon Snack is important because dinner isn't served until 7:30 and we could obviously starve by then. So today's snack was chicken wings with a sweet chili sauce, and it was really yummy. We found a couple of other people from our small group and talked for a bit while we snacked.

After our afternoon snack, we went down to the Marina Deck. That's where the water sports activities are centered. The Marina Deck is at the aft of the ship and actually opens so that you can walk out onto the deck from the ship and jump into the water.

You can see that the back of the ship actually opens and makes a platform at water level. It's very cool and we'll come back to talk about more later. But on this day we went down there because the ship provides everybody with a set of snorkel equipment for the week, and we wanted to pick up our gear. The sports staff was terrific all week.

After getting our snorkel equipment, we headed back to the room to get showered and dressed, even though dinner was still a little bit later. We took our time, and just relaxed (and caught up on my trip notes  ) in the room until it was time to head down to the restaurant. And they let you know that it's time to come to dinner by ringing an actual bell in the restaurant. It's not some cute chime that gets broadcast over the intercom. No, they literally ring the dinner bell.

For appetizers this night, Kath had the beef terrine, served cold, which was just ok. Not a lot of flavor to it. I had a dish of seafood in filo dough, which was good and I liked the flavor. But in the filo dough, the seafood was mixed with some kind of breading, almost like a Thanksgiving stuffing. It was a little odd and it made the texture more doughy than meaty, if that makes sense. But I liked it and enjoyed it.

Kathryn had the apple/carrot sorbet. Yes, it seems like a very strange concoction, but I couldn't detect any carrot flavor and overall, it was more sweet than I would have expected from that combination. We both liked it.

For our entrees, Kathryn got pork medallions in a gorgonzola sauce. I liked the dish more than Kath did. It was overdone for Kathryn's liking, but I didn't mind it. The gorgonzola was pretty mild, which I think was disappointing for Kath. (She likes a good stinky cheese more than I do.) My entree was the Rasta Steak, a tender, thin sirloin in a a jerk-spiced sauce, cooked perfectly medium-rare. I liked this very much. The chopped vegetables were way too spicy for me, but they didn't ruin the meal.

Both of us got the chocolate gateaux "Marquis" for dessert. This was a very dense chocolate mousse, sliced and served cold -- almost like a slice of ice cream cake. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, my pics of the steak and dessert got corrupted. Sorry 

We stayed at the table talking to our dinner companions until about 10pm. Then we went upstairs to the Piano Bar where coffee is always available (and complimentary). This is also where the Continental Breakfast is served, if you want a croissant or something small without doing the whole buffet.

The view from the Piano Bar down to the main dining room:

Then we walked the deck, and stood outside the Bridge, looking at the sea and stars. They keep the deck mostly dark, so you do have to be a little bit careful while walking, but it makes the view so amazing. It was just gorgeous. I didn't bother checking out the midnight snack after being so disappointed the previous night and ended up back in our stateroom around 11:30.