4 CARIBBEAN ISLANDS IN 4 DAYS | Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Aruba

We love them. We've just come back to Chiang Mai where we went looking for the monk.

It's a happy cry.

Good morning from the beautiful U.S. virgin Islands. Today is our first full day aboard the MSC Magnifica. And if you missed our last video, we are on a round the world cruise kinda that we get to do two weeks of.

Last night we sailed to the island of St. Thomas. We've never been here before, so we're super excited and it's the beginning of a really fun week because we get to visit four different Caribbean islands in four days.

Full tourist mode.

We've just jumped in this open truck and been taken straight to one of the top 10 beaches in the world.

Welcome to Megan's Bay. This really is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Back where the bus dropped everyone off, everybody kind of set up their spot. So there's a bunch of people down there, but we just started walking towards the end and it's probably like a mile long and there's hardly anyone over here, so you can find me here for the next few hours.

One of the really fun projects that we get to work on while we're on this cruise is that in each new destination that we go to, we we get to interview a local and ask them what happiness means to them and how they pursue that happiness in their everyday life. And at the end of this entire around the world cruise, MSC is going to put all of these videos together into one big documentary about happiness around the world. We just met up with our first local and we're super excited to introduce you to him. He is an absolute legend.

This is Julius the Chef, AKA one of the coolest people I've ever met. I'm so happy we had the opportunity to meet you. He is a professional chef, a professional boxer. He's been on TV multiple times. A little bit of modeling.

Yes, yes.

A little bit of acting. I'm a little starstruck right now.

Thank you guys for coming. Smiling. Yeah, thank you guys for being here.

After a very relaxing afternoon on the beach, we drove to the tallest point in St. Thomas, which has a very original name, Mountaintop. Like, that's actually the name.

We just realized that between the two of us, we have nine cameras on.

Us right now, if you count cell phones, which we have three of.

How crazy is that? It's been such a crazy day. Our first day off the ship, juggling all these cameras, trying to figure out our workflow for this, that we did something that I've only done A handful of times my entire life.

We forgot to eat lunch.

It's like four o'. Clock. I never do that.

But thankfully, we are almost back to the ship.

Thank you. And we are making up for it with unlimited gelato. So if I gain like a million pounds on this cruise, fine.

Today is day three of our cruise and I was about to start cleaning up our mess of a room to do this opening, but then I thought, this really helps illustrate why we love cruising so much. Let me show you. We have this, this, this, these, these.

All of this, all of this.

All of this.

Normally all of this stuff has to go into a bag before we're able to move to a new destination. But that's what's so great about cruising. You go to sleep, you wake up the next morning, you don't unpack or pack anything. You just wake up in a new place and you get to go explore. Like we have this morning here in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

And we didn't have to figure out how to get here.

We are starting the day with a walking tour around San Juan with a cute little local lady named Marisa. And Puerto Rico is actually a US territory that I do not know very much about. Apparently I've already learned so much history.

We are currently walking beside the old city wall that was built in 1625 back when the Spanish owned this island and they got tired of being attacked by the French and the Dutch and the Brits and the pirates. So they spent 200 years building this massive three mile wal.

We are currently inside of the largest Spanish fort in all the Americas. And yes, I'm in the restroom, but that is because this is the best view that I've ever seen from the toilet.

Hola. I'm in the bathroom.

Okay, the walking tour is officially over. We are on our own now. But it turns out that our stop in Puerto Rico was timed perfectly because we're here for one of the biggest festivals of the year.

It's called the San Sebastian Street Festival. And it is crazy. All the streets are closed. It feels like one huge party. There's music, dancing, costumes, street food, and.

There'S not like one official parade. There's just random groups parading through the street. Like this one right here.

Thank you. Whoa, baby. We've seen so many people walking around with this that we just had to try it. It's called Bacalao. We attempted to ask three different people what exactly it is. The only thing that we know for sure is that there is codfish or white fish and some Kind of flour, and they fry it and then just pull it right out of the grease and put it on a plate and give you a whole bunch of napkins.

Absolutely delic. Super crunchy. A little bit fishy, but not too much. It's just, like, really salty.

It's like when you order fried fish, all the really crunchy pieces on the end, like, the best part is just one giant crunchy piece. I love that.

Sat.

Everyone is so happy and so nice, and you'll just be walking down the road and all of a sudden this, like, mini breakout session happens in front of you with people on stilts. Everybody's dancing and singing. It's the best.

The fun part is it's not like this is, like, planned by any, like, one group. Nobody's responsible for the party that we can tell. It's like everybody just takes it upon themselves to bring their own instruments out into the street to make their own party. It's just all happening in little pockets around the city, and you're just discovering it as you're walking around.

I even saw someone who had a medicine bottle as their.

Yeah, everybody has shakers drum.

Who knew that this is what we were going to get to experience today? I'm so happy that we got to be here during this festival. It's like five days long. I would totally come back here in a heartbeat and do the whole thing. It is so much fun.

We learned this morning for our tour guide that this festival is actually to celebrate the end of Christmas, apparently. Puerto Rico. Yeah.

Yeah.

Puerto Rico has the longest Christmas season. It starts in November and it ends with this festival.

Good way to end it. Put this on your bucket list, people.

I never thought I would say this, but sadly, it's time to head back to the ship.

Today is already day five. Yesterday we spent the day at sea, where we spent some time at the spa, which included an amazing massage.

Enjoy your massage.

I think I might be getting, like, a scrub. There's plastic going by. It was so good.

This morning. We have just arrived at the island of Curacao, which is part of the ABC islands. Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, all three Dutch islands that sit very close to South America. But instead of going out and exploring in the sun today, like you would expect on a Caribbean island, we're heading underground.

We are currently inside the Hato cave, which is the largest cave in all of the of Curacao.

We are currently in the bat chamber and our guy told us not to look up with our mouth open because if something Warm goes in your mouth. It won't taste like fruit because they're fruit bats and there's 300 of them.

Why is your head so low right now? Stand up straight. I can't stand.

This bridge that we're walking on now is built in 1888 and it's super unique because the entire bridge actually sits on pontoons. And so when a ship needs to come into the harbor, the entire bridge can open up. There's a big motor on one end that opens the entire bridge. The ship can pass through and then it closes back and all the people can walk across.

It was so funny. We got to watch it happen. And this little alarm starts ringing.

It also waves a lot.

All these people are still on the bridge and people were like running, Dwight.

Jump over the end of it.

They were literally jumping over the crack where it was splitting.

So that was just like a small ship that passed through. So it only took like five minutes. But apparently when the big ships come into the harbor, it takes a full 45 minutes for the bridge to open and shut. All the.

We have now made our way down to downtown Williamstad, which is a UNESCO World Heritage city. You can see why, because it's beautiful and also super unique. We've been to several Dutch islands since we've been in the Caribbean. We've been to Ceba, We've been to St. Martin, but this one feels more Dutch than any of them.

Like the buildings, the food, the way everything looks and feels, the language.

It's pretty much like you're in Amsterdam, except instead of canals, you have the ocean.

One of the coolest things that we've seen since we've been here is this floating market. Every two weeks these boats come all the way from Venezuela and bring the island all the fish and the fruits and the vegetables that they need. It's so cool.

Since Curacao is a Dutch island, I was able to track down one of my all time favorite sweets. I just picked up a pack of stroopwafels, which I cannot wait to enjoy in the morning. I'm going to order a room service coffee. Let the stroopwafel just melt over top of it. It's going to be so good.

How are you? We are kicking off day six with some caffeine like usual. If you didn't know, MSC is a European cruise line, which means they have a very European, European coffee culture, which means there are coffee bars on pretty much every floor. And I'm taking full advantage of that.

Today we're in Aruba and it is our last Caribbean island of this trip. But this is not our first time here. We were here last year during Carnival.

There won't be any dancing in the streets this time. At least that's not on the agenda. But there is an open bar so there's a chance that people will be dancing very soon.

We are spending the day on day Palm island, which is basically an all inclusive island that was just totally built for fun.

It's amazing.

So we're going into full vacation mode this afternoon.

Let's go.

That was fun.

Going on our first banana boat ride.

The sea breeze, the best natural hair dryer. He's already time to get back on the boat.

Thank you.

Thanks, you too.

This is the best. Seriously, you come back, you have salt and sunscreen all over your face.

Wow. What a week. We have visited four islands in the last six days and it has been so much fun.

We haven't stayed at any of these places long enough to truly get to know a place. A day just isn't quite long enough. But that's one of the things that we love about cruising. You get to get a taste of a lot of different places and then see which one you want to go back to and spend more time.

For us, this trip that was definitely Puerto Rico. It's an island that we hadn't thought that much about.

It wasn't even on our radar.

Yeah. But I don't know, it's part of the US and so we just didn't feel like it was that different. We like going to new places. But Puerto Rico was awesome and we will definitely go back there one day.

To be fair, they were having their biggest festival of the year. So I think we may have caught it on its best day. But we just like had so much fun that afternoon.

And now our time in the Caribbean is officially over. And tonight we are cruising to a new country.

Our first of two new countries that we're going to be visiting on this cruise. And a new continent. And now a well deserved.

Let's go to st. Thomas.

Okay.

I thought maybe I'd float.

Oh, but I can walk because they float up.

I gotta get out of here.

Suma time.

Excuse me. I love massages. Seriously, I'm so excited about this.

Gonna look so good at dinner tonight.

I thought there was no better way to celebrate Kara's birthday than to let her know the impact that she has had all over the world. And thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Kara.

Happy birthday.

The way you love people. Well, in Texas Happy birthday, Kara.

Show them.

Oh, my gosh. Happy. That's crazy.

Oh, my.

It won't stop coming out.

Thank you so much.

That was the best 26 minutes and 11 seconds of my life. I can't believe how many people. How many people are so nice.