St. Thomas

Saint Thomas, for those who, like me, are not up on their Caribbean island geography, is in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Our St. Thomas excursion was a little earlier and a little simpler than The Baths.  Meet-up time was 8:00 am and woe to you if you’re late.  We debarked our ship and boarded similar open-air mini-buses to the ones in BVI.  They took us directly to Sapphire Beach, renowned for snorkeling and coral reefs.

Underwater fish sights were cool, but above-water views were also stunning.

We basically got a lounge chair and two hours to relax.  The big kids lounged, Caleb got right to work digging in the sand, and several of us snorkeled.

They swam right by me but never quite let me touch them.

Meanwhile, while Jason and I were snorkeling, the kids found an iguana chilling out on the beach.

Bus ride back to the port

This guy was in a bush in the parking lot.

We were back on board for lunch and afternoon coffee, including, I’m slightly embarrassed to admit, the obligatory cappuccino snapshot.

After lunch we hung out on the top deck watching the little boats in the bay and waiting for sail away.

I don’t know who owns this but they know how to do it.  That’s a big ol’ hot tub on the back just in front of the flag, and in front of that, lounge seating and a gas grill.  Chillaxin’ no kidding.

We waited a looong time, despite hearing the cutesy all-aboard horn (it plays the opening notes of “When You Wish Upon a Star” and a few other Disney tunes) followed by the scary SERIOUSLY GET ON BOARD NOW blast, all repeated twice.  That, the late hour, and the intercom announcement requesting a certain family to report to somewhere or other, clued us in that somebody either A) was unavoidably detained on a non-Disney-sponsored excursion, B) miscalculated the time change when we crossed time zones, or C) had said, “No, honey, we have plenty of time to get back to the ship from here!”

Ice cream, smoothies, and selfies, and still no sail away.

Finally Caleb, who was watching off the side closest to port (wait…is that why they call it port side??  Do they always dock at port on the same side?  I can’t remember which side even is port…)* came charging back over to where I was lounging, calling out that they had sighted a family running flat out toward our ship. Indeed, in a very few short minutes we were leaving harbor.

We went right past the Norwegian Encore, close enough to wave back and forth at each other, check out their water slides, and spot a couple on their balcony that looked so much like my parents that my siblings accused them of having body doubles when they saw my pics.  I was so confused that I looked up a list of their planned vacations to see if they were actually on a Norwegian cruise at that moment.

After two days in a row of exciting excursions, we were happy to have a sea day to sleep in on Thursday.

* Call my mind blown.  It’s true, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that, at least historically, ships always pull up with the port on their left and that’s why that side of the ship is called port.  Starboard is so called because it’s the “steer-bord” or “steer-side” (“bord” = “side of ship”), ie, the right, because most sailors are right-handed, so they put the steering oar to the right of the rudder.  The steering oar gets in the way so they pull up to dock on the other side, ie, the port side.  And my memory and photo evidence show me that indeed our Disney ship did always embark/debark on the left side, even turning around to back into the parking spot—er, dock.  Pier?  Water driveway?  I was drunk on pirate night so I may have missed a terminology lesson.  But I might remember the difference between port and starboard now.