St Thomas - US Virgin Islands

Thank you for all your comments yesterday. I spent a while answering, earlier, and you should be able to see my reply under the comments for yesterday's post. Please, if you are posting anonymously, do please at least "sign" the post, so I know who's following along...

Today should not take so long to write, so maybe I will throw in a couple of extra pictures, as I took so many beautiful ones of this gorgeous island today.

I say it will not take too long to write, mainly because we decided to take it pretty easy and not try to do too much. Essentially, the one thing that we did do took a good part of the day and was perfect in every way (except for the fact that we didn't re-apply sunscreen so got a bit sunburnt - yes, all of us). So what did we do?

Well, after breakfast of tropical fruit and Mickey-head-shaped waffles (I have never understood why Disney encourages people to eat its star...) we got off the ship by around 9.30, only an hour after our aim point - which is pretty good for us, especially as we are on vacation...

Unfortunately, no-one had pointed out to us that beach towels were only available up on deck 9, instead of at the gangplank as we expected, and it was only half way towards the port shopping complex that we noticed that we didn't have any towels. Uh-oh... So while Maritala took the girls in search of some postage stamps and a phone card (carrying our giant backpack stuffed with snorkel gear and beach toys) I had an excellent unexpected workout of a run to and from the ship in 35 degree heat. Two security checks, one x-ray and 1 additional security check later, I was running back to the post office WITH towels and ready to go.

We had decided to head back to one of our old haunting grounds, a wonderful little beach on the far side of the island, at Coki point. This was a favourite of the crew (especially divers) back in our cruise-staff days. We were very happy to see that it was essentially unchanged in the 10 years since we had last been there. The reason we chose this is because of the beach's suitability for little kids. It is small, and extremely pretty, with gorgeous aqua-coloured water, but more than that it is calm, shelves gently, and it has masses of tropical fish that you can see only 8-10 feet from shore in places. In every way it was a perfect location for our family, and I would heartily recommend it to families with young children especially. It is not offered on any organised tours from the Disney cruise, so entails hailing a taxi, waiting for a while while the taxi-driver attempts to find another 8 people to go in his cab, (hoping to make his trip more worthwhile!), paying $9 a head each-way (the rates are fixed, not metered), and saying "take me to Coki beach please". We arranged with our driver Emanuel to meet us about an hour and forty-five minutes before "all-abord" time, which we felt would give us plenty of time to get a different taxi if Emanuel failed to show, but he was there for us - early, in fact - and this has always been our experience in St Thomas. When we arranged a return trip with a taxi-driver in the "olden days", he/she always arrived for us. No guarantees - hence building in the extra time - but it is a fairly safe bet, especially as there were at least 10 more taxis at the beach when we needed to leave.

While $76 for the taxi may sound a little steep, bear in mind that Coki beach is a full 25-30 minute trip on winding, hilly terrain, roads that take their toll of the vehicles and the gas mileage, and that there are really no beaches in St Thomas that you can walk to. So you have to pay to get anywhere, and most of the organised tours were MUCH more than 76 bucks! Once at the beach you get to pay for your chair and umbrella if you want one, but from there on in, it is all pleasure. The water is totally inviting, both in colour and temperature, and the sand is a soft and white as any I have ever seen. We browbeat Gabriella into actually wearing the child-size mask and snorkel that we had bought in Ottawa for her, and once she had tried it, successfully, once - "Mummy, I snorkeled - by myself!" - she didn't take it off for the next hour. She really took to it well, and Gabriella and I snorkeled together for a long time, out really deep at times (she had her floaties on for buoyancy so I wasn't worried about that) and in amongst the fish that swarmed around as we fed them bits of dog biscuits... She did really well, and loved every minute. If you snorkel yourself and are not intimidated by the concept, I would recommend trying to teach your 5 year old too. There is so much going on below the surface that you miss without a swim-mask...

For Kiara, we had bought a gadget, also at our local dive-shop, which was a kind of viewing window enclosed in a blow-up flotation device. With this you can swim along, and look very clearly into the water below, without any need for mask or snorkel. It worked really well and Kiara, who LOVES being in the water (any water) just had a great time using it. I took a number of pictures underwater, of both girls (and Maritala) using their gadgets, but obviously I wasn't going to take my fancy digital camera under the sea in a Ziploc bag, so used a cheap and cheerful FILM (remember that! ha ha...) underwater camera. So I don't have those pictures to share with you at this time.

When you are snorkeling, your back and shoulders are very vulnerable to the hot Caribbean sun, and if you don't re-apply sunscreen, even if you use a high-factor, you will burn. We did. I have a hot and burny sensation in my shoulders as I sit here in an ice-filled bath with my laptop... the trouble is what I really need is an ice filled bathtub with my head and shoulders in it, and that makes it hard to type (and breathe...)

But I digress...

Once we were back on the ship, we enjoyed some live music from the house band "Ntwine", a group of Ntimidatingly talented youngsters from the Philippines who seem to be able to play from memory every popular song written in the last four decades. The girls got autographs from and photos with, not one but two princesses - Aurora (that's Sleeping Beauty to you and I) and Cinderella. To my count there may only be three more to collect - Jasmine, Ariel, and Snow White... come on Disney-fans, did I miss any?

One hour-only in the kids club today, just before dinner, had Kiara making green slime this time, and Gabriella outsmarting Captain Hook and stealing his treasure - good wholesome family values!!! My wife and I had enough time for a cappuccino and a Kahlua (guess who had what), while we decided whether or not to sign up for shore excursions in St Lucia and Barbados. The verdict - no for St Lucia, "Feathers and Swim" for Barbados. Watch this space...

We were back in Tritons - the undersea-themed restaurant - this evening and were treated some some quite excellent French cuisine this evening - 4 courses no less - as well as a couple of delightful song and dance numbers from Sebastian the Crab and Ariel, the Little Mermaid... as the pictures didn't come out too well, I am leaving you with a shot from near the bow as we left St Thomas.

The girls are now in the land of nod, and I hope to join them as soon as I have uploaded this and added a few pictures.

'Til tomorrow. Parting is such sweet sorrow....

 

On to... St Lucia - and kids club comments...

[Back to... Another beautiful day at sea]