On the second day of our cruise, we docked in Antigua. Like Saint Maarten, I first visited Antigua during a winter holiday in late December 2008. Yet, I remember and wrote more in my journal of Antigua. My 40-minute interisland flight from St. Maarten was delayed four hours. My luggage didn’t make it on my flight and I spent three of my five days there without it; I guess I just wore the same clothes day after day. I did a zipline there, the most dangerous I have ever done–we were given heavy-duty gloves and told to stop ourselves, and the wire burned straight through my glove and hurt my hand. I had Christmas dinner with the guesthouse owner and her family. I walked about their village and toured the island using either the island’s mini buses or got rides with Chippy, the husband of the guesthouse owner. I looked forward to visiting again with my daughter, C.

Our shore excursion was not until the afternoon, so I planned for us to walk around the small capital of St. John’s and visit the church in the morning. What I remember from 2008 is that the capital was not much to write home about — for some reason I remember a lot of loud techno music, even at midday — but I enjoyed visiting the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Divine and spent a long time there.

From the cruise ship, I could easily spy the church’s twin towers set against a backdrop of green hills and blue sky. C and I walked through the crowds of cruise passengers (three ships were in port) and the gauntlet of touts in the noisy and somewhat garish cruise terminal, to the quieter streets of St. John’s. It was Sunday and the capital, outside the port, seemed to be only just waking up.

We walked a few blocks to the cathedral and paid the entrance fee. In 2008, I think I spent most of my visit poking about the graveyard. This time, C and I explored in and around the church. It has quite a history. A wooden church was first consecrated in the location in 1683 and was replaced by a brick one in 1789, destroyed by an earthquake in 1843. The present-day stone cathedral dates from 1847. Subsequent natural events and time have worn it down and its in desperate need of reconstruction. Still, I found both the exterior and interior beautiful and I hope it can be saved. C, who loves geography and has memorized the flags of nearly every country and territory, immediately noticed those of several Caribbean islands in stained glass on the wall behind the pulpit. And thus we learned the cathedral serves as the Diocese of the North East Caribbean and Aruba.

After exploring the church, we returned to the ship for an early lunch, then met our group for the afternoon shore excursion to Nelson’s Dockyard.

In 2008, I also visited Nelson’s Dockyard and what I recall from then is that 1. it was blazing hot the day I was there and 2. I loved it. Probably because I really love historic places like that. Once Britain’s Royal Navy Dockyard in Antigua, where the famous Admiral Horatio Nelson, for which the dockyard is now named, served from 1784 to 1787, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s the only continuously working Georgian-era dockyard in the world, and it is quite phenomenal. On my previous visit, I spent a few hours there, so I hoped I would be satisfied with our shortened cruise visit. After the less than awesome cruise excursion in St. Maarten, I was not feeling all that confident about it.

Like in St. Maarten, we were herded from the ship to the pier and then through the terminal to a minibus. We drove from the port through the heart of Antigua, south to the dockyard with no stops. I was disappointed we did not stop at Betty’s Hope, old stone windmills left over from a former British sugar plantation. It wasn’t exactly on the way, but Antigua isn’t exactly a big place. No worries though, I visited in 2008 and I doubt my pre-teen would have been all that impressed.

What we did get in Antigua though was one of the best tour guides ever; seriously, she should be considered an Antiguan National Treasure. No pre-recorded commentary on this tour and she was both informative and hilarious. And, though our cruise excursion listed only a walking tour, we also got a 30-minute boat tour of the harbor! We had three guides in all — the wonderful woman on the bus, a young man at the dockyard, and a third guy on the boat. My estimation of Antigua and cruise excursions rose.

I was excited about our third destination, a new destination for me: Saint Lucia! Many years ago I was checking in at Dulles Airport, heading off on another adventure, when I met a woman moving to Saint Lucia. All I remember is she had a massive crate-like cardboard box with her address written in bold letters in black marker and the words “Saint Lucia” underlined, and that she was breathlessly excited to tell me about it. Since then I have associated the island nation with that kind of excitement. I wanted to feel that way.

To really see Saint Lucia, I had signed us up for the longest of our shore excursions, a six-hour “Island’s Delights” small group bus tour with a tour of an estate, a waterfall, and a creole buffet lunch at a spot advertised with a view of the two pitons, Gros Piton and Petit Piton, two formerly volcanic spires. Having been disappointed in Sint Maarten but pleased in Antigua, I was no longer sure it was the right tour for us but could not find another that interested me and still had space.

From the cruise terminal, we headed south along the western coast. That sounds far easier said than done. Saint Lucia is a volcanic island and one of the hilliest in the Caribbean. The main area of Castries, the capital, is a small grid of flat streets; but not five minutes from the cruise port, the road begins to steeply climb. I soon realized that despite the island’s small size, much of the six-hour tour might be spent in the bus negotiating the narrow, serpentine roads. I hoped I would be wrong. (I was not) In addition, it began to rain heavily, the first such weather of the trip. Our first stop overlooking the reportedly beautiful bay of Marigot was obscured by the downpour.

We drove through a rainforest and here the rain made total sense, adding to the lushness of the thick green canopy. Unfortunately, the guide for this tour lacked a lot of charm. I likened her commentary to a tour by Captain Obvious. She pointed out plants like hibiscus flowers and bamboo as if this was everyone’s first time seeing such plants. C and I joked about this woman for the remainder of our vacation.

After an hour or so, the rain finally stopped, just in time for us to have a short stop at a roadside viewpoint above the town of Soufriere with a gorgeous view of the two pitons. We were given only five minutes here, barely enough time to shuffle off the bus and onto the decked platform for a photo. I figured this would be okay since we had that lunch with a view on the schedule.

We stopped next at the 18th-century Morne Coubaril Estate for a guided tour. I love taking tours of historic places, including houses and estates and was looking forward to this and thought this visit could turn this tour around. It did not. I should have done a bit more research online as I would have known it would be only 30 minutes long. However, that would still not have told me that timeframe would be spent largely at the restrooms and sipping our “free” fruit punch. We did get approximately 2 minutes looking at a replica stick hut village (when I tried to linger and look longer, I was reprimanded by the guide), maybe 5 minutes learning about cacao production, and 10 minutes watching a guy husk and crack open coconuts (though we did get to drink the water). In all, we walked maybe 200 feet from the parking area, and in my book that does not a tour make. I reluctantly dragged myself back on to the bus.

Our next stop at the Toraille waterfall was brief and forgetful. Then it was lunchtime! Though I was unsure what to expect from the food, C and I were hungry, and I looked forward to staring out at the Pitons during the repast. We both found the plantain curry unexpectedly scrumptious and went back for seconds. Unfortunately, there was not a view to be found, and after lunch, we were just loaded back into the bus and driven back to the cruise terminal, which took about two hours!

Back in Castries, I tried to salvage the day with a walk through the capital. I wanted to feel like we had seen a bit more of the country and the culture. We spent maybe 45 minutes exploring, looking for the local market. But I got turned around, and hot and disappointed we decided to throw in the towel and return to the ship. Saint Lucia is one place I think I need a do-over.