Day 13 – Tuesday, March 11, 2025 – Bridgetown, Barbados – JFK, NY – Raleigh, NC
John and I were up about 6:30 am knowing we needed to finish packing, eat breakfast and be ready for our pickup at 10:30 am. I had my coffee on the balcony and John went for a quick work out. After his shower, we headed to breakfast about 8:30 and then back to the room to finish the last-minute packing.
Ryan, our driver who’s transported us before, was there right on time and we said goodbye to The Savannah Club Hotel. While it is a nice hotel, it needs a little love. We were there 17 years ago, and I have fond memories of it. We would love to come back to the island and stay somewhere different. Ryan’s family has a farm where they grow their own crops and have farm animals, and he extended a trip to his place when we come back.
A quick trip to the airport, only 8 miles away and after all the rush hour traffic, and we easily checked in and waited for our flight. John hit the Duty-Free store and bought some of the rum, Doorly’s, he tried at the hotel.
We boarded our flight to JFK, which was a 4 ½ hour flight and unfortunately, I had two Asian gentlemen in front of me that talked NON-STOP the ENTIRE flight. They did not talk quietly either……I’d had enough by the time we landed. We went through customs, which was a piece of cake since we have Global Entry, and then had to go get our bags and recheck in again. Our flight to Raleigh was 2 hours and we ended up arriving 30 minutes earlier than expected. Eugene, our driver, picked us up and we headed home sweet home. We arrived home about 11:45 pm, took showers, brushed our teeth and then hit the bed. Even though the beds on the ship and the hotel were great, there is nothing like being in your own bed!
Takeaways/notes from this trip:
Don’t book an excursion every day – sometimes it’s best to just do your own thing and that way you are not committed.
If the boat has laundry service, which the Royal Clipper did, pack less stuff.
If knowing snorkeling is involved, I need earplugs. We tried to find them while in Barbados and the other islands and had no luck. We even went to a surf shop in Barbados, and they didn’t carry them, which I found strange.
Make sure we have enough currency in the places we will be. We ended up running out of the local currency and it was hard finding ATM’s.
