Lucky for us, the water taxi was almost full, and they were able to squeeze in the 6 of us. I much prefer being the last to board a water taxi so I don't have to sit on the boat bobbing in the water for a long time.



Because they had to squeeze the 6 of us on, we had to separate. I definitely lucked out with the best seat.





It was about a 15 minute boat ride. Short and scenic.




St. Vincent is a volcanic island, comprised of partially submerged volcanic mountains.


Unlike many of the neighboring tourism-dependent island nations, St. Vincent's economy is primarily agriculture. In April 2021, La Soufriere volcano in north St. Vincent erupted, damaging St. Vincent's most productive agriculture lands.



They told us that from Villa Beach, we could take another water taxi to Young Island Resort. But from what they were saying, you can't really do anything at Young Island unless you are a resort guest, so I wasn't sold on making the trip.






When we got to Villa Beach, Aaron was approached by a man asking us if he could get us beach chairs, so we followed him. As we walked the beach, he explained that St. Vincent had been a victim of the "sand mafias" - groups that illegally mine sand. Sand mining has increased erosion and harmed the ecosystem.

Villa Beach is a black sand beach, due to the volcanoes. It's one of the only islands in the Grenadines with black sand. With the beach rapidly eroding, the Government plans to inject the beach with white sand (as to avoid mining more black sand in the region), so the appearance of the beach may change in the near future.

Our beach guy set us up with six lounge chairs. Rachel asked if we could get umbrellas, so he brought over a shovel to dig a spot for one!

Gorgeous view!





Bar service was great, and the drinks were cheap! Love $2 beer.




It was really warm, so we were able to go swimming. I really enjoyed this little beach!



Unfortunately, it was time to head back to the ship.

This really gives you a good idea of the erosion. We walked through (ankle deep) water to go between the dock and the beach.





We lucked out with boarding the water taxi last again!




Back to the Jewel!


Such a cute shot, the SeaPass in Aaron's hand is perfect -



This was our view from our balcony -

By the way, Stove kept complaining that someone had thrown their dirty underwear over on the awning over the lifeboats, in front of his balcony. He wasn't making it up!



Before sailaway, we spotted a rainbow!











There's the other side of the rainbow -





We headed back to our rooms to get ready for formal night. I snagged a balcony sunset photo before getting ready.

Another Royal "new menu" change - second formal night was "lobster night." If you're sailing a shorter itinerary (3/4/5 night), then you won't get lobster in the main dining room. Not a deal-breaker for me, but I know a lot of Loyal Royals were upset with the change.

To start, I had the Baked French Onion Soup which was pretty good, but difficult to eat with all of the melty cheese congealed together on the top.... really had to break it up to make it bite-size.

Aaron had the Avocado and Melon Salad. Isn't that a pretty dish?

Instead of getting lobster, I went with the Spicy Shrimp Jalfrezi, because the Indian food is seriously the best food in the main dining room.

Rachel got the Lobster Tail.

She said the lobster was alright, but it really needed the butter.

For dessert, I ordered the Red Velvet Cake. It was weird... kind of tangy tasting. It wasn't too dry, though.


They still serve Baked Alaska on lobster night, but they don't torch it in front of you in the dining room anymore.... they haven't done that in over a decade, though (because, you know safety).

After dinner, we went to the Safari Club to watch The Quest. Also, I wanted to get Judy her Christmas gift - a bottle of Moet Ice, poured over ice and fruit. Judy learned about Moet Ice at the Champagne Tasting on our Disney Fantasy New Year's Cruise, and it became her favorite go-to drink. Unfortunately, Royal Caribbean would not sell Moet Ice by the glass, only by the bottle, so we knew we wanted to get a bottle before the end of our cruise.

The bartender wasn't familiar with how to serve Moet Ice, so we had to explain that we'd like it poured over ice with fruit... the only fruit he had was cherries (on Disney, they'd serve it with raspberries and strawberries), but whatever, it worked.

For Quest, the designated different areas of the room as teams (rather than having people make their own teams). In the Quest for the oldest man, we offered up Stove. "HE'S 69!! 69!!" Our team had some 40-something guy that they ditched for Stove. They took him to the floor, and I thought it would just be a who's-the-oldest kind of thing, but no..... it was a dance off. Stove with our guy team captain. We didn't know Stove would have to dance, but he really went for it.




After The Quest, they were doing a Silent Disco, so we left and went upstairs to Vortex. When Aaron and I were in Vortex with Landon the other night, we saw that the bar can actually spin! So we asked the bartenders if they'd spin the bar. I guess they don't like to do it because it traps them in - when the bar is spinning, they have to wait for their opening to align to be able to leave the bar. They told us they'd spin it for one loop, but then they kept it on for several loops. It was fun!






NEXT: [Day 7] St. Maarten