Day in St. Thomas

Well, here's the fact: I never got off the ship in St. Thomas. Our AT&T iPhones work in St. Thomas which means we can make phone calls and use the Internet for no extra charge. When I turned my phone on this morning, the first thing I discovered was that Joe Paterno was fired (WHAT happened since we sailed?) as several news alerts immediately popped up. And then I found several business emails I needed to deal with. By the time that was done, just after noon, it was very hot and muggy, and the ship's pools held more appeal. And so I spent a couple of hours floating and sunning, and then answered more emails. The dining room is not open for lunch on port days, so I brought shrimp and a plate of Greek salad up from the International Cafe on Deck 5 and enjoyed it outside on the Terrace Deck (just outside our cabin). G wandered on and off the ship throughout the day. He was quite intrigued by the US Navy ship docked on the other side of our pier. We don't often see that.

The ship made a point of honoring Veterans Day throughout the day, first by playing taps and observing 2 minutes of silence at 11am, and then a 30 minute memorial program in the Princess Theater at 4:30pm.

All aboard time was 4:30pm, and we were supposed to sail at 5, but we ended up sailing almost an hour late for some unexplained reason. So we changed for dinner and headed up to Skywalkers for drinks before dinner (grilled calamari and fennel starter, shrimp kabob, cheese plate for dessert).

What we consider to be one of the best shows we've ever seen on a cruise ship was tonight: Beatle Maniacs. We saw them several times last year and loved it every time. These four guys can really entertain, and the audience is on its feet for the last 15 minutes of the show, and dancing in the aisles. We're not allowed to video the shows, but here's a photo.

I was disappointed to miss St. Thomas, but it's part of the program. If I'm going to cruise for three months, I do have to work, more on some days (like today) and less on others. We've been to St. Thomas at least 15 times and will be here 8 9 more times this winter. I'll spend the day on a beach here next time.