Day 139: St. Thomas

I could write tonight about all the ways we considered spending our day today in St. Thomas, and they would all be more exciting than what we actually did (which was nothing). We had thought, until yesterday afternoon, that, since we were going to be docked at Havensight, we would take a safari bus down to Red Hook on the eastern side of St. Thomas and take a ferry over to Cruz Bay on the island of St. John. After over 6 hours on a boat yesterday, we re-thought that idea. 

Over dinner last night, we talked about taking a safari bus to Coki Beach, since we had enjoyed that so much with Suzan and Greg earlier in the season. This morning, that idea also went by the wayside. I thought that simply walking into downtown Charlotte Amalie and taking photos of the tiny alleyways and courtyards where so many of the shops are located (we've never done that) was a fine idea. However, G apparently abandoned his religion altogether today, and decided he'd rather just stay on the ship. 

Did you sense the earth tilting on its axis this morning?

In our defense, yesterday really was a tiring day. I also awoke with bumps and bruises and abrasions from my knees to my ankles. A couple, I think, came from my fall in our cabin when it was so rocky a few nights ago, but the rest were solely attributable to repeatedly climbing the ladder onto the boat yesterday. A down day on the ship, using our AT&T Internet, making phone calls and using the pool and hot tub sounded perfect.  And that's all we did. 

Charlotte Amalie is one of the prettiest harbors in the Caribbean

The Regal Princess and the HAL Westerdam were at Crown Bay. I was surprised to see the Westerdam could fit on the north side of that pier.

The Celebrity Reflection was docked in front of us at Havensight, and the Freedom OTS arrived about 11am and took the third berth. 

Freedom OTS lifeboats doing drills

Freedom OTS docked behind us at Havensight

We were showered and dressed formally for the evening by 4pm, and went up to Skywalkers to watch sailaway without getting wind blown. It was very interesting to watch as the Emerald Princess moved sideways away from the pier and then backed up and swing bow to starboard, narrowly avoiding the Freedom OTS in the third berth. 

Backing out around the Freedom OTS

We went to dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room (escargot, lobster and mandarin sorbet for dessert) and then arrived at 7pm for the Captains Circle party. We were honored to be the #3 Most Traveled Passengers again this cruise, but didn't dawdle afterwards; we wanted to get seats for the 8:15pm performance in the Explorers Lounge. Singers Matthew Tyler and Erik Bryan from the production show cast (Erik is the magician in Magic To Do) and dancer James Walters performed a tribute to the Rat Pack, and, accompanied by the Emerald Princess orchestra, it was a fantastic show. Deputy cruise Director Frenchie told me they'll be doing it again next cruise, and we'll be certain to see it again. They received a standing ovation and came back out for an encore. I love to see that kind of talent!!

The ship is stable again tonight (yay) and we don't arrive in Grand Turk until 1pm tomorrow. We can look forward to a good night's sleep AND an easy morning. At this point in our winter, both are just what we need. 

Day 118: St. Thomas

It is very late in the evening after a full and fun day and perhaps a little too much celebrating at this cruise's Captains Circle parties (CCP). Luckily. I was able to upload a few photos to this blog post throughout the day today, and they will hopefully step me through a quick recount of our day.  

We had heard from Captain Forteeze at the MTP luncheon two days ago that the Emerald Princess would be docked at Havensight today, on the east side of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas. This is generally great news for everyone except those passengers wishing to go to Honeymoon Beach on Water Island. We had other plans for the day, and Havensight was a much better location to start from. 

We arrived early, at 7am, and despite the lure of AT&T cell phone service and unlimited data, we didn't leave the cabin until shortly before 8am. Our absence yesterday at breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room was noted and commented on by hostesses Valeria and Laura, which is really remarkable considering how many passengers they see for multiple meals a day. 

After my usual fruit and egg white omelet, I adjourned to the Adagio Lounge to make some phone calls and use the Internet. By shortly after 10am we were walking off the ship. We were lucky that the Emerald Princess was in the very first berth at Havensight; the day was hot and we had some walking to do, much of it uphill. We had arranged to check out some condos on the hillside overlooking the Charlotte Amalie harbor with a potential future stay in mind. 

A great view of the Emerald Princess; the Disney Magic. the Regal Princess and the HAL Westerdam (at anchor). The Allure OTS and possibly a Carnival ship was docked at Crown Bay.  

A view of the Charlotte Amalie harbor looking toward the west. You can just make out the top of the Allure OTS docked at Crown Bay.

I love the historic architecture in Charlotte Amalie.

We had lunch and spent much of the early afternoon around the resort's pool; enjoying the great views of the harbor. It wasn't far to walk back to Yacht Haven Grande, but the narrow streets with sheer drop offs on one side and concrete walls on the other made it a bit of a caution. Also, the day had, by then, turned pretty warm. Walking through the shopping area at Yacht Haven Grande, the occasional air conditioning escaping from a store door kept us going, and the blast of AC as we reboarded the Emerald Princess was heavenly. 

Check out the painters on the front of the Regal Princess

It was fun to see the bridge officers on the Regal watch as the Emerald Princess passed by so closely. 

We had a quick snack in the Horizon Court Buffet, then for cleaned up for the evening and watched from the buffet as the Emerald Princess backed out past the Regal Princess. Captain Forteeze had warned us about the expected horn blowing party and it went on for quite awhile, with the Emerald Princess and the Westerdam blowing their single tone horns and the Regal blowing the first bar from the Love Boat theme song. I know most people find that very cute, but I think it would grow old pretty quickly. Like by the third time I heard it today. ;-) I guess there have just been a lot of Love Boat reruns in my life recently. 

We were skipping our early dinner tonight to attend both Captains Circle parties at 5:15pm and 7:15pm. Friends Bob and Candy joined us as our guests for the early party and after the second party, we joined Phyllis and Andy for dinner in the DaVinci Dining Room. The whole evening was a really fun time with friends we've known for years. As it turned out, we missed all entertainment tonight, not leaving the dining room until nearly 10pm. Fortunately, our arrival in Grand Turk tomorrow is not until 1pm; unfortunately, I have been semi-committed to a 7am stretch class in the Fitness Center. The important word there is "semi". ;-)

If I happen to naturally awaken around 6:30am, I'll be sure to be there. 

Right...

Day 95: St. Thomas

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. 

I love seeing quirky little signs like this!

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

Coki Dive Center offers dives and scuba introductory classes right from the beach.

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. 

Coral World as seen from Coki Beach. Admission to Coral World is $20pp.

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. 

Two cruise ships docked at Havensight with Hassel Island on the right.

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. 

You can see how close we still were to the pier when they were standing there, pointing at the ship (just this side of the the silver/white SUV).

Here they started to walk down the pier. The line handlers and half the people on the Promenade Deck were pointing them in the direction of the port agent on the pier.

Here the port agent starts heading their way.

The wife catches up, as the man tries to figure out what to do next.

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 :-)

I was asked to post this schedule and menu offerings for the PES Lounge in Skywalkers

Day 118: St. Thomas

I woke this morning determined to do...something today. First order of business was, of course, to get the blog post written for yesterday. I simply can't let myself get behind on those!  It was nice to have unlimited internet today to post it, and also the ability to phone Mom, who is doing remarkably well despite the fact that she is living in an untenable climate. After a quick...late breakfast?  Early lunch? we walked off the ship into the hustle and bustle of Havensight with two mega ships (the Regal Princess and the Norwegian Getaway), and a big ship (the Caribbean Princess). 

We walked up the street to the Pueblo Supermarket and, right across the street from it caught a local bus (which looks amazingly like an open air taxi but is filled with locals instead of tourists and costs about 1/4 as much). We could have gone all the way to Red Hook for $2, but our goal was to get to the almost-new KMart to get some more guafinisin (I've been eating them like candy) and also to check for those darn Swimways floats that we can't find anywhere but that won't be in the stores at home until June. Once again we had no luck with those, but we still enjoyed the ride to the eastern part of the island and back. 

We were dropped off along the waterfront in downtown Charlotte Amalie where we watched the float planes landing and taking off, then stopped by the souvenir stands on our way back to the ship. The walk through Yacht Haven Grande is always pretty, but I think that the day was hotter than the forecasted 79 degrees. Much hotter. Thankfully, the Caribbean Princess was at the first berth on the pier, which reduced our walk by at least ten minutes. 

I thought this photo of the Charlotte Amalie harbor on Princess@Sea today was very pretty.

Float plane taking off in Charlotte Amalie harbor with Caribbean Princess, Norwegian Getaway and Regal Princess docked at Havensight.

Once back on the ship, we didn't have much time before we had to start getting cleaned up for tonight's Captains Circle party. We invited the couple we closed out last night's MTP party with to sit with us, and had a fun time. Band Fresh Power played, and they are definitely growing on me. They're just so different than Epithanie that it took me a few days to adjust. 

Dinner was a quick couple of courses; Captains Circle host Yuki asked if we would mind coming to the second Captains Circle party tonight also. It was funny...we accepted our glass "major award" and our bottle of champagne at the first party for the photo and then gave them back to her to present to us again at the second party.

We received a generic "Princess" major award, as we already have the Caribbean one. 

Party obligations tonight prevented us from seeing either of comedian Mike Moreni's two shows, and there was no third one tonight because of the Love Boat Disco Deck party around the Calypso Pool. Last cruise's party had been rained out and relocated to the Piazza, and it lost a lot in the move. It's definitely a production- video on the MUTS screen, the singers and dancers, the Caribbean Princess orchestra AND party band Fresh Power. It has to be seen on the pool deck to really get the full impact. This was the third time we've seen it (once on the Grand Princess and twice on the Caribbean Princess) and this was definitely the most enjoyable. 

We then went down to the Wheelhouse Bar to listen to the Massina Duo. It is after 1am, and I feel like we are living in a party on this ship and the ports are just an afterthought. We're partying like it's 1999...or, tonight, the height of disco in 1978. Unfortunately, we're 15 and 36 years (OMG) older now, and it's catching up with us. I was feeling better tonight, and hope that bodes well for a better night's sleep. 

Day 111: St. Thomas

Being on the 8am ferry to Water Island...ha ha ha ha ha

Being on the 10am ferry to Water Island...ha ha ha

Getting to Water Island at all...ha

I guess that was kinda silly, to think we'd actually get over there. We haven't been up before 9am all cruise (11am most days), and have been skipping breakfasts to go directly to lunch. I used to watch those previews of the Reflections videos, the video that is professionally filmed of each cruise, and wonder "How do those people have the energy to get to every party on board?", because we'd see the same faces over and over again on the video. Now we know. They slept until noon and were up until 2am. 

Hey, we can do that too!

Still, we had a couple of tasks to attend to today. G needed to make a deposit to his account at a local bank, to keep his account there active, and he wanted to buy Carnation coffee creamer at the Pueblo supermarket near Crown Bay. We used to poke fun at Pueblo as a supermarket until we saw Champion Supermarché in French Polynesia. Now we know.  Most of the world does not shop at Kroger. 

We had brunch in the Horizon Court Buffet, internetting away as we ate. OMG, this is sooooo easy, to have unlimited internet and phone calls every five days, at least. We truly missed this in French Polynesia. After we had checked accounts and paid a couple of bills, we walked off the ship to run our errands. 

Our first stop, of course, was for G to feed brioche to the iguanas. I suspect they have really missed him this winter. While this was our first trip to St. Thomas this season, by this time last winter we would have been here at least nine times. Would G have lost his nerve when it comes to feeding them out of his hand?  No way!

Far more amusing to me at this point than watching G feed brioche to the iguanas is watching our fellow passengers gather around him to gawk and squeal and take photos. 

This little guy seemed to remember it was safe to crawl up G's leg.

I didn't get too much further than this, and was on the far end of that brick sidewalk along the waterfront, when I caught a toe of my sandal on an uneven brick and tripped and fell. Hard. Oy ve. I was immediately certain I had killed myself. I rolled over onto my back and, assured that I was still alive, was next certain I had punctured a lung. I could not catch my breath. Of course, G and two others came rushing to assist me, but I just needed to lie there for a minute. Finally, I could breathe again, and then figured I had simply knocked the wind out of myself, but when I tried to get up, I felt severe pain in my right ribs. Okay, it was a cracked rib. I could handle that. I was going to live. 

What I wasn't going to do was follow G on his errands. I encouraged him to go on, and went to sit down on a seat in the shade. Luckily, I had picked up a wet chilled cloth when I had walked off the ship (hey...why aren't they using those as washcloths on board??) and used it to dab at the abrasion on my knee. G returned in less than an hour and I limped my way back on the ship. 

Well, after an Ibuprofen, things are looking (and feeling) better. It's possible I just have a bruised rib; I can breathe deeply, though coughing hurts (thank God this didn't happen three weeks ago!). We watched our St. Thomas sailaway from the Terrace Deck. then headed in to shower for dinner. 

You can see the top of a Royal Caribbean ship leaving Havensight in the distance

We're back to the land of port pilots and pilot boats after three months in French Polynesia

Our original destination for the day, Honeymoon Beach on Water Island.  Sadly, it looks even more developed than ever.

We ate quickly in order to get to the Captains Circle party held at 7:15pm in Club Fusion. It was nice to sit there and drink my fav Breeza Marinas. Captain Georgio Pomata had been late to last night's MTP party (with five ships in St. Martin, someone needed to be the last to leave, and the Caribbean Princess was the chosen one), but he was able to be at tonight's party. 

We are heading back out to first listen to the Massina Duo and then to the 50th Anniversary Love Boat Disco Deck Party. We can party like it's 1999 tonight; we don't arrive in Grand Turk until 1pm tomorrow, PLUS we move clocks back an hour tonight. 

We might even make it to breakfast!  ;-)

Day 143: St. Thomas

I have to make another confession tonight. Mom called me on it when I was talking with her today...she wanted to know what was wrong with me yesterday; last night's post sounded "off". Well, here's the truth:  I've had a bit of a cold in my lungs, I'm getting better but was left with a cough, G picked up dextramathorphan (anti-cough) tablets at Walgreens in Fort Lauderdale, they make me sleep for hours. I wasn't saying anything because I wanted to hide it from Mom; so much for that. I slept for almost 20 hours yesterday and am fine today.

So, moving on...

After coffee from the Internetional Cafe and breakfast with Luis Gabriel from Mexico in the DaVinci Dining Room, we packed for one last beach day on Water Island. Once again, the 10am ferry from Crown Bay to Water Island was filled to capacity (get there early; stand in line!), and G then ran up the hill from the ferry dock on Water Island as I schlepped the backpack and the beach bag up the hill. I walked with Norm and Maggie and Mike and Cindy, two Cruise Critic couples G had met at yesterday's Meet and Greet, and by the time we arrived on Honeymoon Beach, G had claimed a palapa for a bit of shade for our group. All six of us rented loungers from Heidi's Honeymoon Grill ($10 each; get $5 each back when they're returned) and settled in for the day. Unfortunately, it was a busy day on Honeymoon Beach, being a weekend, and there were lots of residents and excursion boats on the beach. Still, for a weekend, it was probably one of the least crowded beaches in the US Virgin Islands. The day was sunny and hot and quite breezy. By the afternoon, the sand was getting too hot to walk on, and I remember that on our final visit there last winter we had encountered the same thing. 

For nearly four hours, we basked in the sun and used our floats in the water and chatted. Oh, and we might have had a few beers (G) and Sprite Zeros and Gin (me). Darko had had a plate of cookies sent to the cabin last night when I didn't show up for dinner, and we had packed them up for the beach, and they were pretty delish about noon today. 

Shortly after 2pm, I faced a decision:  either do another swimsuit pull down/up in the tiny bathroom on the beach, or return to the ship on the 2:30pm ferry. I'm still easily winded after that cold, and didn't think I had the strength to manhandle a wet swimsuit off and back on, and so decided to call it a day, as did Mike and Cindy and eventually G. But walking back to the ferry dock, I took a second to take this photo for the last time this winter. Sigh. 

We decided to shower and dress for dinner as soon as we returned to the ship, and then sit in Skywalkers using Internet and making phone calls until the ship sailed. It was Breeza Marina night in the Elite Lounge...but it was also Most Traveled Passengers (MTP) party night, and so I was abstemious in Skywalkers, and enjoyed just a fuzzy water with some of the delicious hors doerves that Jefferson sets up every night. 

We were struck, as we sailed away past Water Island and Honeymoon Beach, that, not only was that the last time doing that this winter, but it was our last time viewing sailaway from St. Thomas from Skywalkers on the Emerald Princess. After 41 sailaways from St. Thomas on this ship, it was the end of an era. Sailaways on the Royal Princess will be quite different, and not in a good way. 

We kept it simple at Dinner with Darko; G had a burger and I had salmon, broccoli and rice. As I've said before, the longer we stay, the more we eat like we do at home. We enjoyed chatting with Captain Stenzel at the MTP party (cutoff was 340 days or so), and told him how much we've learned from his maritime history lessons during his noon updates. He recommended a book written by a Cunard captain that was full of such nautical nuggets of knowledge, and one that we will certainly buy. We love this sort of thing!

With a Pinch of Salt by Captain Nick Bates

The featured entertainment for this evening was the Frankie Valli tribute act known as The Unexpected Boys. We had seen them perform on Christmas, but had been told that former production show singer Kurt Robbins, whom we'd gotten to know this winter, was coming back to perform as one of the four singers. Unfortunately, he had thought they were coming on board in Aruba, but instead they came on board today in St. Thomas. As G said, The Unexpected Boys unexpectedly arrived. We missed the first two shows due to the MTP Party, and will not make the 10:15pm show. At least G won't. ;-)  I might sneak back out after I publish this post to watch the show. But I learned my lesson on Christmas Day, and won't be sitting in the front row again!

Day 137: St. Thomas/ St. John

It was another of the best days of the winter, but before I get into what made it so, I'll provide what little additional information I have on the thruster control mechanism issue. 

Captain Stenzel announced that the technical department had worked on it all day, and that they believed that they had two of the six thrusters working. As the Emerald Princess was leaving St. Thomas, we would notice more tests being performed (we did). There was no announcement following that. 

As we'd been told to expect, we tendered into downtown Charlotte Amalie today (When was the last time we did something for the first time?  Today, tendering in St. Thomas.) Unlike yesterday, when tendering in St. Kitts stymied our plans for the day, tendering today actually made our day easier. For the first time in several years. we were planning to take a ferry to the neighboring US Virgin Island of St. John (Singular, non-possessive. St. John's is the town in Antigua where cruise ships dock).  We had originally thought we'd walk into downtown Charlotte Amalie (pronounced a-MAL-ya) from Crown Bay, in time to catch the 10am ferry. As it turned out, we tendered from the Emerald Princess to within a very short distance of the ferry dock, arriving at 9:45am 

We were surprised at how far out of the harbor the Emerald Princess was anchored. We have seen smaller ships, such as the Maasdam, anchor right in the middle of the harbor. Not so today. We were all the way on the other side of Hassel Island. It felt a bit like being in the naughty corner, and made for a fairly long tender ride, but it was a scenic one, with lots of sailboats and yachts and even seaplanes taking off and landing. 

The ferry from downtown Charlotte Amalie is $13 per adult, and takes 45 minutes to get to Cruz Bay on St. John. It doesn't run nearly as frequently as the ferry from Red Hook, on the eastern side of St. Thomas, to Cruz Bay (20 minutes, $7), but we've always liked to try to go at least one direction on the longer ferry. It offers spectacular views, and, today, spectacular waves. It was certainly a rush, a bit akin to a shotover jet boat ride, and we were covered with sea spray several times. G had found me a ginger ale to sip, and I intermittently popped Altoids mints, and I was fine. 

Once at Cruz Bay on St. John, we were immediately reminded of how beautiful that island is. The views in either direction simply from the ferry dock are picturesque. 

The little park at the end of the ferry dock offers a good place to sit on a bench in the shade and watch the roosters and chickens and peeps. I recalled the first time we had ever seen roosters on an island (Kauai in 1995) and how tickled we were by that. Almost 20 years later, we're used to goats, pigs, monkeys, you name it, roaming freely on the islands we visit, 

There are several restaurants with outdoor seating in the immediate area, and we took advantage of the bathrooms at one of them (The Landings) before continuing in our way, which led us to another great sign in the Caribbean:

We had not brought snorkel gear, and, in fact, weren't even wearing swimsuits. Our previous visits to St. John had focused primarily on the water:  snorkeling at Trunk Bay, and renting a dinghy and taking it up the northwest coast of the island, stopping at every single beach as far as Waterlemon Cay. We'd also done some hiking in the Virgin Island National Park in previous visits, but we'd never taken an island tour. That was our intention today, and we couldn't have found a better way to do it. 

While we saw one after another open air safari taxis leave, taking people to beaches, we talked to the dispatcher about setting us up with a driver who could provide a tour. He pointed us in the direction of Charlo (340-642-0337), who told us that, if he could get a few more people, he'd give us a two hour island tour for $25 per person, or we could do a private tour for $160. We didn't have $160, and so waited just a short time before three ladies showed up wanting to do the same, and then get dropped at Trunk Bay beach. Charlo outlined the tour for us on a map of St. John, and, since there are just two main roads on this 18-square mile island, we truly were going to see the entire island. It sounded good, but we could never have anticipated what a great tour guide Charlo would be. He pulled off the road several times, not just for photo stops, but to provide an explanation of what we were seeing. With four bench seats and five people, we almost had a seat per person, and that was perfect for sliding from side to side to take photos in both directions. 

Our first photo stop was Great Cruz Bay (not Cruz Bay where the ferry dock is), where the new Westin Resort is located. 

We continued down Centerline road to enter the national park. Most of St. John is part of the Virgin Island National Park, which limits all new development to a few areas on the western and southern coasts. 

The island in the distance is British Virgin Island Jost Van Dyke. 

From left to right- Mary Point, Great Thatch Island, Jost Van Dyke:

We stopped for about 20 minutes at the Annaburg Sugar Mill Ruins near Waterlemon Cay.  These were extremely interesting, with excellent signage along the 7-10 minute walk. 

We returned to the taxi and continued on along the western coast of the island, where most of the beaches are located. There is one beautiful bay after another, all the way back to Cruz Bay. 

Cinnamon Bay:

Trunk Bay:

Caneel Bay:

I can't recommend Charlo and his taxi strongly enough. He made the day for us, taking the time to show us local flowers and fruits, and telling us about the history of the island. On our tour, we happened to spot a tiny deer bounding through the national park, and a mongoose, which was brought over from Europe to kill the rats that were eating the sugar cane crops, but instead killed all the snakes (I personally don't consider this to be a bad thing). 

Shortly after 1:30pm, we returned to the ferry dock at Cruz Bay. We had to take a ferry back to Red Hook, on the western end of St. Thomas, as these run more frequently (roughly every hour). The ferry into Charlotte Amalie wouldn't have returned us  in time. This ferry was two decks high, and the ride was not nearly as rough as the longer ride had been. Almost immediately, we were thrilled to see a large hawksbill turtle just under the surface of the water. We didn't know, until we talked with the other passengers in the ferry, that all snorkeling at Trunk Bay had been cancelled due to the rough water (and we later learned that people booked on Emerald Princess snorkel excursions at Trunk Bay were told this and were allowed to cancel their excursions without penalty or take them just for the beach experience for half price). 

We hadn't been in Red Hook since the new ferry terminal was built. That's a huge improvement over what used to be there, which was a tiny ticket booth. We caught a taxi for $10 per person back to downtown Charlotte Amalie, and, since traffic was very light today- at least going westbound- it took only 25 minutes. Our driver deposited us right at the tender dock, where we were pleased to see a large local ferry had been pressed into service to tender passengers back to the ship. It held between 250 and 300 people on two levels. 

To find the Emerald Princess, look in the middle of this photo. Just its bow is shown jutting out from behind Hassel Island. In addition, a seaplane taking off can be seen just above it. 

Unloading the tender took a long time. The waves were rough, and disembarkation had to be stopped a couple of times while the tender rose and fell against the Emerald Princess pontoon. The entire process: tender loading and unloading and the ride took an hour, but most people were happy to have been deposited in town for free, instead of for the $5 taxi fare from Crown Bay. 

G headed to a hot tub, but I showered and dressed for formal night as I charged my iPhone. I then went up to Skywalkers to call Mom, and upload these photos while I still had 4G Internet. Mom is better, but I think full recovery is going to take awhile. She remains hospitalized, which is a bit of a relief. I know she's getting good care there. 

While I was sitting in Skywalkers, I could see the tug boat that had remained off the Emerald Princess's starboard side all day. 

Sailaway as seen from Skywalkers, with Water Island in the distance:

Looking back toward Charlotte Amalie, with Hassel Island in the foreground:

G soon joined me, and we went to Dinner with Darko. We were hungry, having skipped lunch, but I think that, after four ferry/tender rides today and an island tour, we were even more tired. We ate lightly, went to the 7:15pm performance of production show Disco:  Blame it on the Boogie, and started back toward our cabin. Fuzzy water, but not even popcorn later, we'll be asleep in a few minutes.