We awoke to blinding sun coming into our cabin. Our weather luck this cruise continued! We went up to breakfast in the Panorama Buffet, and, sitting on the Panorama Terrace we could see several islands of the USVI and BVI and at least 50 sailboats. The Virgin Islands are a sailing Mecca. On a hunch, we took our iPhones off Airplane Mode to see if we could get an AT&T signal from the island of St. John, which we could see in the distance. It didn't come up automatically, but by doing a carrier search, we were able to choose it. We sat there texting and emailing Happy New Year greetings to friends at home and I was even able to phone Mom. That was a surprise!
Eventually, though, it was time to move on. We were anxious to get to a beach called The Baths for which Virgin Gorda is famous. We had been to Virgin Gorda once before, on a Speedy (that's the company name) ferry from the island of Tortola, another BVI, which had been a port on a past cruise. But to be able to tender directly from the Pacific Princess to Virgin Gorda was much easier and quicker. In no time at all we were climbing aboard a safari taxi ($4 per person each way) for the 15-minute or so ride to The Baths, on the island's far southeastern corner. It's a very small island, about 7 sq. miles, so travel distances are short though roads are narrow and winding.
Once at The Baths, we paid the $3 per person entrance fee and walked down the rocky trail to the beach (about 5-10 minutes down and 5 minutes up). Although we'd been there before, The Baths never fail to amaze. There are huge boulders, some the sizes of cars and others as big as houses that have tumbled down into the sea. The beach itself has beautiful soft sand, and an easy entry into the ocean. We settled in under the shade of a tree (no chair or umbrella rentals here), and passenger Tony, whom I had met early in the cruise but not seen since, came by with his wife Jenny so we could meet. Tony and Jenny are from Ottawa and have been following my blog on our recent Pacific Princess travel.
Tony and Jenny were on their way to do the walk through the boulders to the beach on the other side. This involves walking through hip deep ocean water in places and crawling on hands and knees in others as the trail navigates between the jumbled boulders on the edge of the water and there is no way to do it carrying backpacks and bags and towels. We did this walk when we visited the The Baths before but I don't recall how we handled carrying our gear. G was anxious to go too, and so I watched our things and Tony's and Jenny's while I settled in, listening to an audiobook. It was great to see all the crew members and officers with some time off to enjoy the beach. Occasionally I'd enter the water just to cool off, but didn't want to be too far from our gear.
Eventually G returned and I wasted no time in diving into the water myself, and swam all around the huge boulders which was a bit tricky at times. It involved constantly looking ahead to plan a path through the rocks and sometimes I'd enter a space between two house-sized rocks and battle the waves to work my way out the other side, and occasionally I'd discover that my path was closed off and I had to fight against the waves to swim back out. It reminded me a lot of all the tree climbing I did as a kid, figuring a way to climb up with an eye toward climbing back down. I swam for over an hour and remember thinking that this was exactly what I had wanted not to do this afternoon. I knew I'd need a good nap to allow me to stay up until midnight and instead I was swimming hard. But it was so darn much fun that I didn't want to stop.
I came out of the water about 3pm to give myself a chance to dry off a little before packing up. We walked back up the hill to the taxi area; we didn't see any other Princess passengers but there was a young couple returning to the same area as our tender boats to catch a Speedy ferry back to Tortola where they were staying. Once again, $4 per person paid for a shared ride back to the harbor. We wasted no time getting in a tender boat and walked back on the ship just after 4pm. It had been an incredibly fun yet inexpensive day ($22 total).
Tonight, being New Year's Eve, was a formal night so we raced through showers and dressing and were on the port side of the Promenade Deck, watching as we cruised past one tiny BVI island after another, most of which are uninhabited. Finally, the Pacific Princess changed course to the northwest and we left the Virgin Islands behind us. We went to the Club Restaurant for dinner and it was an incredible feast. I had lobster bisque, salad, pink champagne sorbet as an intermezzo and lobster three ways, which is an entree from the specialty restaurant Sabatinis, so weren't we lucky to have it on tonight's menu? G had a filet mignon (the same as those served in the specialty steakhouse) and we had a bottle of champagne with dinner. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was starved by dinner but in no time at all was stuffed. Still, I made room for dessert, a warm chocolate pudding cake served with vanilla ice cream. It was decadent accompanied by the champagne. Best New Year's Eve dinner ever!
Our tables had been set with New Year's Eve cardboard top hats for the men and headbands for the women and horns and the Club Restaurant was decorated with balloons and ribbons and there was a display in the Club Bar and it was all very special. We left the Club Restaurant and walked through the Casino Lounge en route to the Cabaret Lounge and both of these were similarly decorated with balloons and ribbons. Tonight's production show was What the World Needs Now, which is really the vocalists' show because the dancers don't do much, and then went directly to the Casino Lounge to listen to Jere Ring, who was in rare form tonight (and that's saying something!). I recorded him performing his version of Hallelujah that I mentioned a day or two ago and will eventually post it here if I get his permission. He went into detail about how he conspired to meet Liberace in the early 1980s and Lee was so impressed by him that he opened for Liberace for several months, which really kick started his career. He's a wonderful guy and deserves all the good fortune he's had in show business.
We are currently napping in our cabin for an hour or so before going up on the pool Deck 9 for the main New Year's Eve party. It is starting with a DJ right now but beginning in earnest about 10:45pm. There is a second party going on in the Pacific Lounge and Jere Ring will continue to play in the Casino Lounge until the ball drops. We'll probably hit all three parties and end up at the big one on Deck 9 at midnight. But first...I must sleep a little to survive all the fun.
Wishing all of you and your families a wonderfully happy and healthy and safe 2017. It's time for a quick nap...talk to you again next year! ;-)
