Vacation Day #6 (Tuesday 3/21/06)

As much as we were enjoying the ocean and its solitary beauty, it was very exciting to wake up at 6 AM Tuesday morning and see land. The sunrise over Charlotte Amalie was breathtaking. We showered, dressed and enjoyed a quick breakfast at the Horizon Buffet at 7:45 AM. That morning, two other ships were in St. Thomas with us - Voyager of the Seas (docked behind us) and the Sun Princess (tendering). We disembarked at 8:20 AM and met our almost-private tour guide at the end of the gangway. The four of us and another (adorable) couple climbed into an air-conditioned van and headed out for a Princess-arranged tour of the island. Our guide was good and we learned a lot from him. He made two stops for us to visit local vendors and take pictures before taking us to the Coral World Aquarium where we spent about 90 minutes exploring. The bus ride back afforded us the opportunity to see the rest of the island - so diverse with some (many) areas with evidence of extreme poverty and others with the whitest sand and bluest waters I've ever seen - postcard beautiful! We did a bit of shopping at Havensight before getting back on the ship for lunch at Caribe.

The kids "missed their friends" from Kids' Camp so we let them go there after lunch while we walked the Promenade and enjoyed the sights of the port. We ordered drinks (Rum Punch!) by the pool and watched Moulin Rouge and a bit of Bob Marley in Concert on M.U.T.S. before retrieving the kids. They wanted to swim so we changed them and went back to the pool. This was the only day they were able to swim in "the big pool" and they loved it. We quickly discovered that the pools were very available during the afternoons of port days - unlike the days at sea. We grabbed drinks (a Lava Flow for me (a Hawaiian favorite) and Bud Light in a metal bottle (never seen anything like it before!) for T) and headed up to our cabin to enjoy Sail Away on our balcony. A light rain started just as we were pulling away but it didn't put a damper on our excitement. We had a great day in St. Thomas and look forward to going again (and to nearby St. John as well) someday. The people were very friendly and there was so much to see and do. This was the only place during our cruise where cell service was good so we telephoned my Mother and ran up to the upper deck just as the sun was setting so that she could see us waving on the webcam. We had dinner at Caribe, made a quick visit to the aft pool (so I could see the wake one last time that day) and were in bed by 9 PM - eager to experience St. Maarten the next day.