Among the feath­ers, jew­els, and oth­er or­na­ments adorn­ing rev­ellers on the road, an­oth­er jew­el — al­though, gi­gan­tic in size — ar­rived just in time for the fes­tiv­i­ties of Car­ni­val Tues­day. Bring­ing thou­sands of tourists, the Jew­el of the Seas docked at the Port of Port-of-Spain. Some hail­ing from the Unit­ed States were ea­ger to ex­pe­ri­ence Car­ni­val, and by ex­ten­sion, Trinidad and To­ba­go for the first time.

Op­er­at­ed by Roy­al Caribbean, as part of their sev­en-night South­ern Caribbean Cruise, the cruise ship will then vis­it oth­er souther­ly is­lands, in­clud­ing To­ba­go, Do­mini­ca, and St Maarten be­fore re­turn­ing to San Juan, Puer­to Ri­co.

Flood­ing the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade in their num­bers, tourists ar­rived with sun­screen, sun­glass­es, straw hats, and base­ball caps – it was clear that the mid­day sun was al­so en­joy­ing giv­ing them a per­for­mance. When a cou­ple from Seat­tle was asked by Guardian Me­dia what they were told to ex­pect be­fore dis­em­bark­ing, they said the crew told them to “ex­pect a par­ty.”

The cou­ple ad­mit­ted that this was their first time vis­it­ing Trinidad.

How­ev­er, an­oth­er tourist hail­ing from Penn­syl­va­nia, sim­ply said he was told one thing about Car­ni­val: “Fun!”