We awoke today to see a ship docked in front of us on the "front of the ship" channel (the same view as the webcam link I provided before we left home). We learned, after we had dressed and left the cabin, that it was the Disney Fantasy. We could see the Maasdam at anchor and tendering in Charlotte Amalie harbor, and soon after, the Carnival Dream sailed in and docked at the third berth at Havensight. That left the Noordam and the Oasis of the Seas docked at Crown Bay (and we could even see the tops of them, the Oasis looming over Hassel Island, from the upper decks of our ship).
The day was sunny and beautiful- hot, of course, but gorgeous. However, with SIX ships in port, and in the interest of continued recuperation, we decided to set the bar for the day mind-numbingly low: mail the Christmas and December birthday cards we'd brought with us from home. That we were docked at Havensight instead of Crown Bay simplified this process ten-fold, as there is a full service U S Post Office branch located right in the shopping complex. If it seems early to be mailing Christmas cards...we didn't have a great deal of flexibility in the matter. Turnaround day in Fort Lauderdale on December 7th is going to find us moving to the Noordam. The Noordam's itinerary doesn't include St. Thomas. Turnaround day in Fort Lauderdale on December 17th will have us busy moving back to the Emerald. And we're not back in St. Thomas again until December 24th...a bit late to be mailing Christmas cards. So it was now or never.
After breakfast in the dining room, we gathered up our outgoing mail and headed to the post office, just a five minute walk from the ship. What greeted us there was a line out the door and only two clerks. Oh my. G soon lost interest and I encouraged (begged) him to go and walk around a bit; with our phones, we were within easy contact. It seemed everyone in line had boxes to be mailed. I couldn't figure out if these were passengers and/or crew from the three cruise ships at Havensight mailing things home, or locals mailing things "off island" (as they call it) in preparation for Christmas. Either way, every transaction seemed to be taking forever. I didn't have a box to be mailed, but I did have a padded envelope and a Priority Mail envelope in addition to the cards, so I had no alternative but to wait.
When I finally made it to the front of the line, it became immediately obvious what was taking so long: every package (and my padded envelope and Priority Mail envelope qualified) being mailed, even back to the US, had to have a customs form completed. It seemed I was encountering the Post Office Nazi when I was instructed to cross out the return address I'd written in the corner of the Priority Mail envelope and re-write it in full, two inches to the right. These sorts of things make me crazy...WHAT is the value in that? When I wrote on the customs form that the Priority envelope contained "documents", I had to start all over on a new form..."What KIND of documents does it contain?"
Heaven help me.
So, I wrote exactly what it contained: 18 Princess Patters, Eastern Caribbean shore excursion forms and an Emerald Princess ship map for a friend who is soon sailing on the Emerald. Now, really, does the US Government need to know that?
Apparently it does. I must have done more than just think the question, because I was strongly assured by the Post Office Nazi that it was her way or no way. Strongly assured.
Now I know why it took the 35 people ahead of me in line so long to complete their transactions. They were all writing down every item their bathtub-sized boxes contained, all in the interest of US revenue and security.
I hope you'll sleep better tonight. I know I will.
At any rate, after what seemed like a lifetime, this inane exercise was finally over and the mission was complete. I phoned G and we re-connected and both decided we were hot and hungry...it was time for lunch. Getting back on the ship, walking up the gangway, that blast of AC from the ship hit us and I think, at that moment, we abandoned any thoughts of getting off the ship again today.
After lunch, we spent most of the afternoon making business and personal calls, paying bills and surfing the net. G did make it to a hot tub late in the afternoon while I got ready for dinner, and he had some very interesting information for me when we met up in Skywalkers for drinks and hors doerves during sailaway at 5pm. He had just been in the hot tub with a man who had spent three days this cruise being quarantined in his cabin, not for Norovirus, but for Influenza A. Apparently, the medical center on board has the ability to do cultures, and when his came back as Influenza A, he was quarantined to his cabin (his wife was not), his key card was deactivated and his meals were brought to his cabin and his cabin cleaned by special "hazmat" crew members.
We knew we had been hearing a LOT of coughing and sneezing on board. I'll give my flu shot the credit for keeping me at a cold and not anything worse. Then tonight when we questioned why the dining room had so many empty tables for two, we were told that several passengers were quarantined. Since Influenza A is largely an airborne illness, there shouldn't be any lingering germs awaiting the contractors and crew on board for the dry dock, and the cruise departing on December 17th should be fine.
Other interesting nuggets of knowledge: Some contractors for the dry dock came on board today in St. Thomas, but most are boarding Friday in Fort Lauderdale. They are staying in passenger cabins on Decks 5 and 8 Forward. Over 200 crew members are going home on December 7th, which means an equal number will be coming onboard the same day or on December 17th. And most crew members we've talked with don't know for certain yet what they'll be doing during the dry dock, but feeding the contractors and intense cleaning seem to be the most likely responsibilities for those in the hotel department. It's going to be a busy time, 24/7.
After dinner, we attended the 7:15pm performance of a comedian, Rodney Johnson. I'm not certain we've seen him before- some of his act seemed remotely familiar, but much of it didn't- but we're harsh critics when it comes to comedians and Rodney is one funny guy. The 7:15pm show was packed, much more crowded than usual; I think people are tired and want to make it an early evening after five port days in a row. On the contrary, we're feeling more energetic every day...because we've certainly had a relaxing cruise.
While we were sitting in the dining room in Deck 5 for dinner, I looked out and was surprised at the size of the waves outside our window. At almost the exact same time, we heard the stabilizers deploy. I don't remember hearing them at all so far on these three cruises; it's been fairly smooth sailing except for part of one evening. Well, tonight is definitely not smooth, and it's rocking and rolling up here on the back of Deck 14. It's a "tuck in the sheet to keep from rolling out of bed" kind of night. Love it!
We're going to begin packing tomorrow so we can more fully enjoy Princess Cays on Thursday. We'll look like bag people moving to the Noordam; we're carrying a lot of things in our beach bag, backpack and Princess tote bags to make unpacking easier and faster. And G has to get those two 18-packs of Mountain Dew moved too. I can't think about it...it's going to be a tough day. But despite all that, we're looking forward to it too. It's always good to try something new...not that we had a lot of choice in the matter. I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time. It will be like going on vacation, and then returning to the Emerald on December 17th will be like coming home again.
Life is good!
Photo 1: the Maasdam at anchor and tendering in Charlotte Amalie harbor, St. Thomas. We spent 24 nights on the Maasdam in 2010, and loved this "little" 1250 passenger ship.
Photo 2: look closely beyond the Maasdam and Hassel Island and you'll see the behemoth Oasis of the Seas and the much smaller Noordam at the Crown Bay dock
Photo 3: Havensight shopping area
Photo 4: sailboats moored in beautiful Charlotte Amalie harbor
Photo 5: the Maasdam turned to leave as the Emerald Princess pushed away from the dock
Photo 6: the Carnival Dream and Disney Fantasy remained docked at Havensight as we sailed tonight
