It is 9:30pm as I start to type this post, sitting on a lounger above the Calypso Pool watching the national championship game on MUTS. We had the BEST day ever with Suzan and Greg in St. Thomas, a wonderful dinner with friend Anita in the Michelangelo Dining Room, then attended the Captains Circle party at 7:30pm with all of us squeezed around a table, and now football on MUTS. Do you see what I mean? This really is as good as it gets.
Fortunately, it was as good as it gets in St. Thomas, where we have unlimited AT&T data on our iPhones, so I've uploaded several photos throughout the day that will walk me through this post. I'll just fill in some words around them and call it a night. Easy peasy.
The day started a bit rough, weather-wise, but luckily turned perfect by the time we got on our way this morning. I set an alarm for 6:30am, and by 7am was walking into the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast at a table for two by a window just for me. We were already docked in Crown Bay (there were also two ships at Havensight, so it wasn't really a busy day by St. Thomas standards) and I had a nice view of Water Island and all the sailboats moored in the harbor right from my table.
I noticed a distinct difference in my feelings about accessing the Internet from my iPhone and calling Mom compared to prior years. I used to run outside on St. Thomas days and immediately try to reach Mom, or access the Internet to check for an email from her. No more...I know she is fine, or if she isn't fine, she's well looked after. Our concerns about her in the past never stopped us from traveling, but traveling never stopped us from being concerned. It was always topmost on our minds. It's nice to feel at peace. (I did still talk with her twice today, just because I could, but not first thing in the morning).
I am very spoiled at breakfast by lots of waiters, but didn't dawdle. I returned to the cabin to find G stirring. While he got himself ready for a day at a beach, I did everything else: traded larger bills for smaller at the PSD, got two beach towels from the pool area, picked up some breakfast for G from the Horizon Court Buffet, packed the beverages for the day and got ice in the metal water bottles. Well, Awesome Ambrish got the ice. And screwed the lids back on the metal water bottles. And handed them to me through the cabin door. But I had to put them in our beach bag cooler and zip it up. I do suffer, you know. ;-)
We met Suzan and Greg in the International Cafe about 8:45am, but things were just drying up outside from a rain shower that had moved off just as we were docking. We didn't stress it; it rains nearly every day on these islands, but it is generally short lived. By 9am we were walking off the Emerald Princess, headed for the public bus stop on the main street behind the Pueblo Supermarket. We walked through Crown Bay Marina and crossed the street, walking up the hill to the main street that runs down to and along the waterfront.
Suzan and Greg have stayed in St. Thomas for extended periods of time in the past, and know all the ins and outs of using the public safari buses. We have ridden them a few times in the past, but never to go anywhere as complicated as Coki Beach, our destination of choice for today. We first caught a safari bus to the 'Country' on the eastern side of the island, disembarked at the big KMart, then changed to a bus going to Red Hook. We got off the bus at the sign to Coral World, and walked along the back road leading to it and Coki Beach. We love riding the local buses and today was no exception. They really provide a little local flavor that being mollycoddled on a taxi can't. That's the reason, first and foremost, that we do it, but the savings over a taxi (we paid just $3pp) doesn't hurt either.
By 10am we were settled in loungers with this as our view:
And this:
Coki is known for its snorkeling, and Suzan and I wasted no time at all getting into that gorgeous blue water. We snorkeled along the rocks to the right side and were absolutely thrilled with what we were seeing. Multiple species of fish and some fairly decent coral, including some fans and staghorn and brain coral. There were some fairly large waves today, and we had to be careful along the rocks. We had not taken our fins today, and would have used them if we had them, but we are both strong swimmers and managed just fine.
As soon as we entered the water, there were thousands of these little fish just under the surface.
Checking me out
I love getting as close to the rocks as I dare and watching underwater as the waves hit the rocks and create explosions of bubbles below the surface.
We snorkeled and floated and snorkeled and floated again throughout the day. I drank a Painkiller, the drink for which St. Thomas is known, in between snorkeling sessions. The beach is so narrow that, at high tide as it was today, the waves rush up the entire beach. We had to keep our bags and backpacks containing our iDevices on top the loungers, and tuck sandals and towels up in the trees.
At 2:30pm, we packed our things and walked past the waiting taxis back down the road and over the small hill to where we had gotten off the bus this morning. On the way, however, a taxi driver with an empty taxi drove by, and G made him an offer too good to turn down. But what luck...the driver drove across the top of the island, where we sometimes had panoramic views of both sides of St. Thomas at the same time. It was so beautiful, and we basically had the best part of an island tour in addition to a ride back to the Emerald Princess.
Hassel Island in the foreground with Water Island behind it. The pyramidal shaped island knob on the right is Crown Bay.
We returned to the ship around 3:45om, and I showered first and dressed for dinner, then went down on the Promenade Deck to watch as the Emerald Princess sailed. First, though, I was hearing repeated announcements for one couple to phone the PSD. This generally means that they were not on board the ship, even though it was past the on board time of 4:30 pm. About 4:50pm, the gangway was lifted, though there were still a few lines in place holding the Emerald Princess against the pier. Suddenly I saw a taxi pull into Crown Bay, and thought I saw the two people in it step down from it and pay the driver. They started to slowly walk along the waterfront back to the ship, seemingly without a care in the world.
I knew they had to be the missing couple. Sure enough, we heard the port agent on the pier whistle to someone on the ship. About the time the couple was halfway back to the secured area of the port, I saw the ship suddenly push away from the pier. Apparently the man did too, and finally started to run. The security gate was quickly rolled open and they ran right through it, but to no avail. Captain Forteeze was not going to return to the pier. They had missed the ship.
Even as the Emerald Princess made that U-turn to starboard and sailed out between St. Thomas and Water Island, I expected to see the pilot boat arrive alongside carrying them out to the ship, but, as far as I know, that didn't happen. People do occasionally miss the ship, but this is the first time I've seen them miss it this closely. Of course, they were 30 minutes late returning. Live and learn. And to their credit, I didn't hear any verbal abuse being hurled at them by my fellow passengers. I think we realized that was just going to make a bad situation even worse.
With a story to tell, I went down to the International Cafe to meet up with G and Anita, our guest at our table for four tonight. We had great fun getting caught up and trying to remember each of the cruises we've taken together. We also talked about our plans for next winter. It's a quandary; no one is all that excited about the Princess options in the Caribbean next year. Anita had done Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand by land last year and her travel tales from that area certainly make it sound appealing.
We went from dinner directly to the Captains Circle party and were joined by Suzan and Greg. I promised MTP information...
1st most traveled - 2050 Princess days (3rd highest of all Captains Circle members worldwide and #1 in the US)
2nd most traveled- 1281 Princess days
3rd most traveled- 1236 Princess days
These were all eons ahead of 4th (834 days) and 5th (797 days).
MTP luncheon cutoff was 380 days.
We returned to our cabin to change into shorts and Ts and headed up to MUTS to stake our claim for some loungers. We are under a partly cloudy night sky but at least it isn't raining. It's a perfect night for football...and popcorn...and cookies...and ice cream...and popcorn. And Suzan just left to find hot wings for the guys. Football and food on a cruise...
Life is good :-)
