Day 5 - St Thomas

The Virgin Islands

We pulled into St Thomas at 9am.  When these ships say they sail/dock at a certain time, they mean it!    Anyway, we were eating breakfast in the Red Sail restaurant, with a window seat, so had a lovely scenery show as the ship sailed in.  The Royal Caribbean “Freedom of the Seas” was already in.  Huge ship, with deck after deck of private balconies.  Looks like nearly all outside staterooms have them.  I am actually familiar with this ship, as it is one of the ones that frequents the port at home.  (And, as a total side comment, in a couple of weeks, this ship, the Carnival Glory, will change her home port from Miami to New York, and will start sailing the New England/Atlantic Canada routes.  So I may be seeing her again sooner than I expected!)

Anyway, back to St Thomas….  A hilly island, with huge homes dotting the heavily treed hillside.  I think that’s where the “rich and famous” live!  And it was pouring rain.  Both Davie and Leslie said that in all the times they have cruised the Caribbean (and they both worked on cruise ships, remember!), they have never seen as much rain or as rough seas as on this trip.  Uh huh.  Suuuuuuuuuure.   You could tell by the sky that it would be a fast rain, so we weren’t worried, and sure enough, by the time we finished our meal and were heading off the ship, the sun was out and the ground was steaming.   The other 4 were off to spend a few hours swimming at Magen’s Bay, but I opted out and had bought tickets for the skyride to the top of the hill, and a ticket for the butterfly farm. The rest of the time, I was browsing great little shops at the “Havensight Mall”.  The new cruise dock is called Havensight, and there are gazillions of fabulous shops there.  Lots of high end jewelry places.  I guess St Thomas is THE place to buy diamonds and tanzanite.  Sorry, guys.   Then the cable car ride to the top of the hill…. Very, very nice view from there.  Apparently you can see Puerto Rico from the top when it’s not as hazy.  Took a few dozen photos, watched some parrots, browsed some shops… took frequent shade breaks.   The humidity is like we get for 2 weeks each summer, but even hotter.  Saps your energy very easily.  Then back down for a leisurely walk back to the dock.  The others passed by in an open-side bus at the same time, so we all met up to see what we wanted to do.  

Rayna decided to stay with me, and the others headed back to the ship for a nap.  We browsed more great shops (saw the nicest stuff, but pricey), and then off to the butterfly farm.  We loved it!!!   It’s a small enclosed tropical garden, filled with gorgeous exotic butterflies.  None of the butterflies are native to St Thomas, so they are extremely careful about not letting them escape into the local ecosystem.  The butterflies actually don’t breed there - they mate, but they deliberately don’t have the one type of plant that each particular breed of caterpillar needs to eat, so no new babies!  Lots of pretty shots of gorgeous flutterbyes and a few geckos…  and then the hot walk back to the ship.  I was baking from the soles up.  Cool shower and a nap.   Up in time for the departure from St. Thomas - very pretty sunset.

Supper tonight :  wilted spinach and grilled marinated Portobello mushroom salad, shrimp cocktail, and seafood newburg.  Leslie had the beef tenderloin slices with noodles and spicy peanut sauce and was in raptures.    I skipped dessert, but there was melting chocolate cake for David, fresh fruit for David, and tiramisu for Leslie and Davie.




A magic/illusion show was the evening’s entertainment.  “Justin Illusion” was his name.  Lots of pounding drum rock music, great dancing and some pretty darn impressive illusions.  It was really great!   Relatively early to bed … we dock early in San Juan.  It’s so close to St. Thomas that we are only moving at 7 knots …. the gentlest and quietest ride so far!

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Email says cats are all well and being very lazy.  Astrophe’s ears and nose are still cool, and she is behaving “normally” (for her!). 

G’night from somewhere between St Thomas and Puerto Rico!