2BCruising: Wednesday (01/07): St Thomas

St Thomas (Havensight): 7am-4pm
Temperature: 81 degrees

Formal Night
Princess Patter-Today's Activities: Bible Study/Singles & Solos Get-together/Backgammon Lovers/Knitters & Natters/Crew Emergency Drills (9:45am-alarms will sound and broadcasts will be made as the crew practices their emergency duties. During this practice, limited passenger services will be provided. Be advised that part of the exercise involves checking passenger staterooms to ensure that have been evacuated)...the crew take this seriously/Card & Board games/Quiet Room (Skywalker's)/Morning Trivia/Scattergories challenge/Party Bridge Play/Darts Competition/Golf Chipping challenge/BOGO Happy Hour/Minute to Win It/Afternoon Brainbuster Trivia/Pop Choir rehearsal/Afternoon Tea/ART 101: Life and Art of Thomas Kinkade/Piano Melodies/Water Volleyball/Formal Night portraits/Caribbean Melodies with Sugar Cane/Casino Night-No smoking/Music Trivia/Early Evening Karaoke/Dance til Dawn/Liars Club gameshow/Dance the Night Away/Club 18-20 Dance Party

Note: Sorry for the previous post as it was posted out of sequence. My blogging software had a mind of it's own. I saw that entry was not posted back in December and I went to press "publish" thinking it would go back and publish with December's date. Instead it published with today's date. We'll call that on...operator error.

Back to our current cruise at hand....

Cruise Life: We had a pleasant surprise. We sailed into St Thomas and docked at Havensight instead of Crown Bay. For the last three years, we've docked at Crown Bay which is where Princess has a contract with. One of the "humongous of the Seas" must be docked in Crown Bay which resulted in the pier switch. No worries. In front of us was the new Regal Princess ship. It's HUGE! My camera's lens was not wide enough to get the whole ship in the picture. Behind us is the NCL Getaway ship. Docked out in the water is The NCL Gem. We were very fortunate to be docked here. Unfortunately, the shops were not open early in the morning and we had an all day excursion planned with no time to shop afterwards.

Full moon in the early morning hours

NCL Getaway arriving as the Ruby backs into the port area

Arriving into Havensight

The ship docked around 7am. We walked off around 8am thinking we could do some window shopping before our excursion. We were hoping to visit the local dive shop here. That wasn't the case. We could not find the shop. They may have gone out of business or moved. Who knows. The last time we were at Havensight must have been four years ago. A long time ago and things have changed. There is now a Senior Frogs and several new shops (e.g. surf, grocery/mart, etc). I followed a hen and her chicks around the shopping area hoping to grab a few pictures.

It was noticeably warmer this morning compared the other islands we've been to this week. We eventually had to leave the shade of the shopping area and headed back to our ship's gangway to meet our excursion group. We stopped at the security gate and the guard required a picture ID along with our Princess cruise card. Good thing I brought along our driver's license. This might be the only island that requires a second ID with a picture.

Once our group gathered and signed a waiver, we followed our guide to the end of the pier where the Regal Princess was docked and where the entrance to Yacht Haven (exclusive/expensive shopping) was located. We stood at his pier waiting for our catamaran to arrive and a second excursion group from the Regal to join us. I took advantage of this time to take pictures of the new ship and our new home next year.

We set sail and headed out on a southeastern course to Buck Island where we'd be swimming with the turtles. After 45 minutes, we dropped anchor and were given our normal snorkeling safety rules/guidelines. Hubby jumped into the cool water. As I watched him snorkel away from the boat, I tried to get his attention to no avail. A turtle had surfaced to take a breath of air right behind him. By time I got into the water, there were several other boats anchored and several groups of snorkelers in the water. Hubby and I saw a few turtles and a stingray swimming at the bottom of the ocean floor.

We spent about 45 minutes snorkeling and dodging boats trying to leave this snorkeling site. Yes, we do have to pop our head out of the water every now and then to make sure we don't get in the way of boaters. For me, it's other snorkelers who try to run over me or try to grab me because they're not good swimmers.

With everyone back on the boat, we headed back towards the pier/dock and made a western course towards Water Island where we'll have lunch on Honeymoon Beach. We had two hours to relax, dine, and play in the water. This beach is like a private sanctuary. Peaceful and quiet with rows of palm trees gently moving with the breeze. The sun was out and smiling at us. It was so hot here that the sand almost burned the bottoms of my feet. Yes, I was hopping and running on the beach to get to the water's edge. So much for the peace and quiet....

I had an interesting experience on this tiny island. A fellow cruiser from the Allure (humongous of the seas) stopped me on the beach. He had just arrived with his wife and was wondering if I lived on Water Island. Really? I told him no and thanked him for making me feel like a "native" (because of the tan I was developing nicely). I did assure him that Honeymoon beach was the best choice he made. Gave him some ideas on what to see and do and also chatted with him on the other Caribbean islands we've been to. I do like to chat about cruising and the Caribbean.

After two hours, we headed back to the ship maneuvering around the yachts in Charlotte Amalie. We passed Crown Bay pier to see the RCCL Allure of the Seas and a Carnival shipped docked. We were the last excursion to arrive back into port and a bit late. I know this because I see Carlo, the Princess Excursion Director, waiting for us at the pier. If Carlo is personally waiting for you...you have missed the "time for passengers to be back on the ship". The Princess Excursion ship policy does work. They do wait for you....

The Ruby sailed out of port around 4pm. Way too early in my book. Since we were in US territory, I made a few calls (from my iPhone) to home and to my brother in Texas. Checking my family's pulse to make sure they were okay.