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.
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.
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...