We were up early this morning, well before our scheduled arrival into St. Thomas at 11am. G was out and about even earlier than I was, and managed to get himself into the Concierge Lounge (for Diamond Plus and higher and Suite passengers) where they get made to order omelets. And so he had one there, and then had a second breakfast with me in the Solarium Bistro just above our cabin. Sweetheart that he is, he stopped by the Diamond Club to get me a decaf latte, because the Seattle's Best coffee is even worse than Princess', which is saying something. Even half and half can't improved the taste. For breakfast this morning I had papaya and a grilled tomato and a mango yogurt parfait (yummy). By getting an early start, we found plenty of places to sit, so it was all good.
We sat in wicker loungers in the Solarium listening to the water features as we approached St. Thomas and- joy of joys- our AT&T coverage started. I was able to publish the blog posts I've been preparing (we each get 30 free minutes of Internet on the ship, but it's not going to last so I'm using mine sparingly). As we got closer to the smaller islands around St. Thomas, we went down to the Top Deck area, an outdoor deck just over the navigational bridge and watched in amazement as this behemoth moved between St. Thomas and Water Island and then made a U-turn and docked bow first at Crown Bay. This ship is so huge that at least 1/3 of it extends beyond the pier here.
We had finally discovered just last night the walking/jogging track on Deck 5, and it is huge a wonderful and, though the life boats block the view of the water from most of it, there are areas between the lifeboats where passengers can stand at the railing and see the ocean, and then there are several teak chairs along the back railing overlooking the wake. Okay, now we feel like we're on a ship! Anyway, we headed down that way to watch the docking process and were impressed by how quickly two double gangways plus a third one for crew were set up and passengers began to disembark. Still, with the Norwegian Sun on the othe side of the dock, the pier was quickly packed with people getting off the two ships.
G decided he wanted to take a couple of rolls off the ship to feed the iguanas that hang out at Crown Bay, and so we parted company while I went back to the cabin to get ready to disembark, and he went in search of them. When I got to the cabin and looked at today's Compass, I immediately knew he was going to run into trouble. Every breakfast restaurant had just closed at 10:30am or 11am, and it was just after 11am. Sure enough, a full 20 minutes later he came back to the cabin, worn out from running from one place to another in search of bread. Finally, he talked someone at the Windjammer buffet into letting him in to grab two rolls, but not before he had covered the ship from top to bottom. And that's a major drawback of the Allure: food is not easily available all the time as it is on Princess. In fact, it is that feature on Princess (that the buffets are open from early early to late late) that drew us to the cruise line to begin with.
So, anyway, with two rolls in G's pockets, we walked of the ship so he could do the obligatory "feeding of the iguanas", which always draws a crowd. I wonder how many vacation photos G appears in feeding bread to an iguana standing up on his hind legs to snatch it out of his hand!
We had no real plans for today- we might be in St. Thomas once or twice more this winter ;-)- and it was stinking hot and sticky. We walked through the Crown Bay Marina looking at the yachts (not too many this early in the season) and then decided to get G his fix: a 12-pack of Mountain Dew from the Pueblo Supermarket. Anyone who cruises on Crown Bay will be happy to know that the sidewalk between the marina and the Pueblo supermarket has been rebuilt and hugely improved. No longer do we feel like we're taking our lives in our hands to walk into Charlotte Amalie, especially in that area where the car rental agency is. Big contentment here on that one!
Laden with G's Mt. Dew and with a cold bottle in his hand, we walked back to the ship and were wet with sweat by the time we arrived even that short distance. We had thought about walking down to Havensight to see the Royal Princess leave 3 hours before we're scheduled to, but the heat zapped our energy and instead, after a nice lunch in the empty Windjammer buffet, we settled- me in a lounger in the Solarium to type this, and G in a nearby hot tub. Drinks start at 5pm, and our plan is to be cleaned up and there, drinking and hors doerving until tonight's reserved entertainment, vocalist Kenny James (who we talked to while he was boarding the ship this morning and we were leaving it). Another option is the Dreamworks ice skating show at 8pm. We have reservations for another, different ice show later in the cruise, but this one might be fun too. No dinner reservations for tonight...we'll be foraging again about 9:30pm. My bet is on pizza in
Photo 1: the walking/jogging track on Deck 5
Photo 2: we can it figure out these "seats" in the 370 passenger lifeboats. G is totally stumped, and that's a rare thing!
Photos 3 and 4: the DOUBLE evacuation slides on each sides of the ship. Now that would be an experience!
Photo 5: chairs overlooking the wake