Travel Tips

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From our window at 10 am

Thursday, we were supposed to be in St. Thomas at 10, but the captain made an announcement that due to 'swells' we were behind schedule and would not get in until noon. We did not go up to breakfast until 9:30, and found that the dining room closed at 9 (which takes care of the problem of too many people coming in at 9 o'clock I guess). So we had to go up to the Lido deck to eat. There were a lot of people in line, and many of them were backed up waiting for food to be cooked for them, so I just got oatmeal and a couple pieces of bacon. Bob got pancakes, bacon and some fruit.

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Looking towards the harbor from the ship

They closed one side of the breakfast buffet so that they could open it up early for lunch. We started to see islands out the windows and also on the bow camera. I went out on deck and called Dave of "Glory" - he charters his boat, and he said that he could see us. We agreed that he would take his dinghy in to the dinghy dock and walk around to meet us. Since the Maasdam was late coming in, it would be too much of a problem to try to go sailing in his boat if we wanted to get back in time.

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Pilot boat with pilots preparing to jump on

I went out on deck to call, and got to see the pilot come out in the pilot boat. We had a rain shower about then, but of course since the deck is under the lifeboats, I didn't get wet.

We had to go through immigration because we had been at a foreign port (Half Moon Cay), and they called us alphabetically. When we went up to the processing area there were many people clogging up the area who were not supposed to be there because of having names later in the alphabet. The called A,B, C, and walked in, gave them our room number, got checked off, showed our passports at another station, and were handed a card allowing us to get off.

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Closest boat is Dave's with dinghy back of it

We got off, and walked down to the end of the dock, where I recognized Dave (from his picture, although he's older now than when it was taken). We went to a little sandwich/hamburger place in Havensight called the Delly Deck and had lunch and talked about boats. I had a philly cheese steak ($11), and wanted potato salad, but they gave me fries instead. Bob had a tuna sandwich ($8.50) and fries. Dave had a mahi mahi sub and potato salad ($12.00) and iced tea ($2.00). He insisted on paying for the meal, but he let Bob leave the tip.

I figured out what to do about some of those 4 bottles of wine that they refuse to take back or substitute for us with water. We took 3 of them off the ship and gave them to Dave. Hard liquor is cheap there ($10 for a bottle of vodka), but wine is expensive ($25/bottle). So he was happy to have them, and I was glad to be rid of them.

Then he hailed a cab for us to drive us around the island because although I've been to the Virgin Islands three times, I have never spent much time on St. Thomas. He walked back to his dinghy (which was on the complete other side of the harbor - he said he didn't realize how far it really was)

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Bob's photo

It was one of those cab/bus/tourist vehicles which had space for 27 people but just had the two of us in it. I took 132 photos and Bob took 5. But all of his were good, and I know some of mine are not going to be worth keeping. I missed a beautiful shot of a brown cow with a cattle egret on her back.

We went all around the top of the island looking things from the overlooks - at each place there were places to buy souvenirs, but I didn't get any. We ended up going through Charlotte Amalie, and then he took us right back to the ship. The tour (which was about 2 hours) was $50, and Bob gave him $60. We had to show both our passports and the ship ID, and they had to match to get back on.

I was very hot and sweaty - it was fairly humid and quite warm, especially in the sun.

I decided that since the ship had been late everywhere (I suspect they are still having engine problems), I'd switch the tours on Dominica from a four hour morning tour to a 3 hour afternoon tour which would also be more accessible.

And I again asked about the cabin on the second cruise. They assured me that they would help us move, but the problem seems to be that the people for the second cruise specifically requested the cabin that we are now in. I pleaded pitifully and nicely and they said they would call corporate again. (But I don't think they really did)

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Other people in their chef's hats

Tonight all the dinners are at once instead of being staggered because the chefs and waiters are giving a show. So at each table was a chefs hat for us to wear (which didn't work very well - mine kept coming unstuck and flattening out, or falling down on my nose), and after most of us were seated, they all marched in,and gave us all napkins with a flourish (one at a time), and then gave everyone the same starter (mushroom mousse with an asparagus spear). Then they all marched around again and beating salad bowls and tossing vegetables around, and gave everyone a very nice salad.

After that we ordered a starter and an entree. Bob had the lobster bisque, and I had brie in phylo dough with apple cranberry compote. Then for dinner, he had apricot glazed salmon and I had the tagliatelle (noodles) with chicken and portabello mushrooms.

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Underside of chef's hat

The final show was bringing in the dessert - there was a white chocolate mold in the shape of a chef's hat filled with soft chocolate. Propping it up from underneath was a piece of candy.

Tomorrow we will be in Dominica