Inky Marina!

That's right- my next adventure with Brooke was our third Disney cruise together! This time, we were cruising the Caribbean aboard the Disney Wonder.  The day after we played on the beach in Condado, we were up and ready to board the Wonder.  We spent the first half day on board exploring the ship. It was pretty familiar since it is the same class of ship as the Disney Magic, which we sailed on a few months earlier.  We unpacked our bags, cheered and laughed a lot, and went to bed after our first night aboard the Wonder.

The next morning we docked in our first port- Tortola, one of the  British Virgin Islands! The water was so blue and the island was so green.  Since it was our first day and we didn't see any excursions that called out to us, our families decided to keep it pretty casual and stay in the cruise port.


Cruise ports can start to look similar after a while, but since this was my first one in the Caribbean, it was new to me! This sign is the logo of the port, so of course Brooke and I had to have my Mama snap a photo of us with it! We were so excited to be wearing summer clothes after being in the NYC winter. It was pretty warm in Tortola and I was feeling great.


There was a giant lawn in the port that Brooke and I happily ran through.  You can see how beautiful the palm trees are in Tortola; they're so big! People were milling about shopping for casual clothing, jewelry, and swim suits.  We didn't have anything we were looking for, so we were free to stretch our legs. The British Virgin Islands use American currency, since they are so close to Puerto Rico and the United States in general.  According to local legend, it was Christopher Columbus himself who named the island of Tortola, which means "turtle dove," but apparently he actually named it Santa Ana. It was later renamed to Tortola.

Tortola was a port in the British part of the Atlantic slavery system. British plantation owners bought and sold enslaved persons of African descent to work on their sugarcane plantations.  Slavery is very, very wrong and I am relieved that the practice was outlawed by the British government in the 19th century.  No one should ever be the property of another person!


Of course, what cruise port stop would be complete without a treat? Brooke and I were delighted to find this little ice cream and candy shop after we'd tired ourselves out running around.  We both loved how so many of the buildings were painted such bright and pretty colors. While we enjoyed our treats, my Mama wrote more postcards.  It's a family tradition to send mail from ports of call!


It was really hot and sunny in Tortola! Since it was our first day, our families decided to head back to the Wonder to take a nap before dinner and evening entertainment.  Still, we found a little shop that sold flags. Brooke and I took photos with the flag to keep for our scrapbooks.  All in all, our little stop to the Tortola cruise port was pretty fun!

Have you ever been to the Virgin Islands? What did you think?