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!