St. Thomas

Since we are docking around 7 I am awaken by the thrusters but that is okay since today we need an early start as Water Island is calling and since we are leaving early today (4 pm) as we are heading to Grand Turk we need to take the early ferry at 8 am so we get a full day on the island and catch the 2:15 ferry back.

But I feel like crap!  Maybe I have a cold?  My achy voice is deep and raspy, sinuses are blocked.  Oh no!  Bernie serves me a Neo Citron (hot lemon cold drink with medicine in it) and doze and don’t feel like eating the cereal that we ordered. 

I come to terms and realize I need to rest today, Water Island will not be any fun today for me with me feeling like this.  And not fun for the others if I go.  Big key to Bernie enjoying the day today is me staying here and resting, he will have the others to go with and he will love the snorkeling so I encourage him to head out on his own.

One thing we are missing is time together so we both agree we are going to focus on having some one on one time together for the rest of the trip.  And I can’t wait!

Bernie is gone I am relaxing in the room watching “Midnight in Paris” on the tv in the cabin and I will soon dress so Efren can clean the cabin (love not having to do housework!) and get a latte and maybe a bit of reading.

I end up throwing on my swimsuit, layering the sunscreen and head up to the Sun Deck near the Lotus Spa pool.   It is quiet on board but there a few who have decided to stay on board too.  I pull a lounge chair to the edge so I can look out at the view and get settled.  When it gets too hot I take a quick plunge in the Lotus Spa Pool.  Very refreshing, very quiet, very nice!  I spend two and a half hours up here, I read, I doze, I cool off in the pool and even though I still feel achy I do feel better.

After a quick shower I figure a nice bowl of soup and some salad should help so I head up to the Horizon Court and I am happy to see chicken soup with Matzo Ball soup on the menu, just what I need.  I grab a bowl with some salad (I love the salad bar in the HC) and head aft towards the Café Caribe seating.  I prefer to sit back here when the Café Caribe is closed as it is quieter and for the most part it is quiet until two couples arrive and sit right behind me.  I can’t help overhearing their conversation as they talk so loudly but I giggle as I hear some of the comments the man is saying to his wife “if you want food get your fat ass up and get some” all I can think, oh man you are not getting lucky tonight!

The staff are so attentive I am asked if there is anything I need, and my plate is cleared as soon as I finish… I am being spoiled.  But I am in need of my latte as I never got it this morning so I wander down to deck five to get one to go and run into Mike (he too stayed on board today) and Alice (who went to Emerald beach) I chat with them and Beethoven makes my latte and I inform him that a few people commented on my blog post with his picture, on how they know him, he is flattered and comments how the Paparazzi follow him everywhere.  He is so cute.

ferry to water island

You can see Bernie and Cathy at the back

Back in the cabin but it is just after two and I know the others will be catching the 2:15 ferry back and I thought I should head out to the Promenade Deck to get a picture of the ferry as they come in.  The ferry is very reliable and very quick, maybe 15 minutes.  I spot Bernie and Cathy at the back and take a few shots.

When Bernie comes back he fills me in on the day he had at Water Island, he tells me since they took the 8 am ferry it was very very quiet there in the beginning, he loved it!  A lot of locals came down to the beach today but he said that was nice too, they all had a laugh when a little local girl of about 2 or 3 stripped off her bathing suit and ran around the beach naked with her Mother following her trying to cover her up.  He also mentioned that they didn’t have use of the benches at the beach today either as today was “paint the benches day” where the locals got together and volunteered to paint them.  Sounds like he had a great day.

We relax in the room and plan out our evening, it is formal night and I really don’t want to dress for formal night,  this is our fourth one and I dressed up for two of them so far and I don’t really care for the meal in the dining room, plus I am still not that hungry.  So we head up to the Café Caribe tonight that is featuring a seafood buffet, not as good as they use to have but still not bad and they served shrimp, crab legs, lots of fish and beef wellington.  But for me I am happy with a bowl of tomato soup and a roll and some fruit. 

We grab a tea and head to the aft pool and take a seat and look out at the water and enjoy the quiet and the time together.  This is ideal, this is important, this is cruising. 

Tonight is also the Captain Circle Party, our invite is for 7:30 and since Johan will be there and he called to see if I was going and I said no, I felt bad and I do want to see him so we decide to dress (not really formally but still nice) and we head down to the Promenade and oh my goodness they are lined up already and it is only 7 pm.  We take a seat outside the Explorers and the lineup stretches past us all the way to end the of Explorers Lounge!  Really people why line up.  They opened the door around 7:15 and when the line ends we enter and we see Johan right away and grab a seat near him.  I comment about the lines and I am told by one of the officers that they line up very early, that they open the doors 15 min early but that it makes no sense to open it earlier as people would just line up earlier – so true I think.  I personally think if people could they would sleep overnight in the line if they could – just like lining up for the newest Ipad.    

I am tired of the Captain Circle Party personally, they are too crowded (even with the Golds having their own party) the drinks are so so and we never eat the appetizers.  I don’t like that they show the Royal Video, I feel like they are advertising to us and plus we have all seen this video.  I do like Captain Draper’s speech though; he is very personable and very funny.  I feel the same about Captain Perrin and Captain McBain they make it fun for us.

But when I try to think of what they could do differently for the Captain Circle Members I just don’t know what.  So I guess I will leave it up to Princess to figure out what will happen and I will just decide to attend or not attend in the future.  But my final comment is Princess has the best loyalty program afloat and it is one reason we keep sailing with them, so thanks Princess.

We are not sure what we want to do now…. And decide to head to the dining room to see our friends.  Elda is surprised to see us and we have a seat and she pours us some of our wine that we had leftover.  We catch up with our friends and we end up enjoying dessert with them.  I had the cheesecake which is always so good and Bernie had the Banana Cream Pie and he liked that too. 

Tomorrow is Grand Turk but we don’t arrive until 1 pm and it is also Super Bowl and the ship has some special events planned for it but we are not into the American Football so we will enjoy some of the other events happening around the ship.