St. Thomas February 19, 2014

Our first port and we are docked at Crown Bay and it looks like it will be a lovely day.  We can see a Celebrity and a Carnival Ship docked at Havensight.  Today is a beach day and our plans are Water Island and Honeymoon Bay Beach.

Breakfast is in the dining room and we sit with our friends B/C and sadly service once again was lacking.  Food would be served but no spoon for the oatmeal, asked for two pancakes got one, he brought two more and then only after we had started eating he brought the whipped butter for the pancakes.  Coffee cards were not returned and only half way thru the meal did Craig remember and asked for them back.

View from Water Island to Crown Bay

Although we are still glad we don’t have to cook and clean so really no major complaint but I am concerned about the ship’s running of the dining room and now really see how lucky we have been on other ships.

Back to the cabin to change into bathing suits, lather on the sun screen (we are wearing 60 SPF – nothing worse than ruining a vacation with a sun burn).  The Water Taxi is at 10 and we are there just prior and looks like we are the only ones from our ship on the Taxi.  There is one couple from the Celebrity ship.  Cost is still $5 per person each way.

When we arrive at the beach we rent two chairs from Heidi ($5 each plus a $5 deposit).  I really like the availability of the chair rentals now.  The beach is changing, I can see that the bar at the far end is now owned by a new guy and they are nice lounge chairs and music/food and even shuttle service to the ferry is included in the costs for the day.  But we don’t need all that and we are happy just relaxing the day away. 

\

As the day progresses we see so many tours using this beach for a drop off for a while.  In the end there was a catamaran, two pirate ships, one large catamaran and Kon Tiki party boat.  This cause the beach to swell with people and all of our sudden our tranquil beach with about 50 people tripled.  We have never seen it so busy, now I know it could be worse, it could be crazy busy like Magen’s Bay or Coki Beach but we are just not use to this.  I am not sure if this is now a normal thing for so many tours to come in here but if it is I may have to rethink visiting Water Island.  But it still was a lovely day here and just what we needed.

I should add for lunch Bernie and I shared the blackened catfish sandwich with salad.  Bernie had two beers ($4 each, and I had water $1 each) sorry can’t recall the price of the sandwich but make sure to visit Heidi’s Honeymoon Barbecue.

We caught the 2:30 ferry back and I am glad we did cause while we were on the taxi a cloud came over and the skies opened up and it poured….. ahh the Caribbean.  We waited it out a bit till it died down and then made our way back to the ship.   

St. Thomas

January 26, 2009

Now St. Thomas might be a highlight for many but for us it is just too too busy. We had read about the fourth Virgin Island called Water Island. http://www.vinow.com/waterisland/ Since we were docked at Crown Bay and the ferry is right beside the pier we arranged to head over there for the day for some tranquility.

We went and picked up a six pack and caught the ferry. The ferry was $5 each one way.

Bill and Cathy from the Emerald met up with us at the pier and came with us.

It was a short ferry ride over. Colin was good sport as I leaned on him.

Bernie and Gwenda - after we got off the ferry it is a hike up the hill and then down the hill to the right to Honeymoon Bay.

The beach is beautiful and not crowded at all. There was a washroom and a local woman came out and set up a barbecue and served the largest hamburgers I've seen. Bernie and I shared one and we were stuffed.

The locals were wonderful and even offerred assistance to someone in our group who needed a ride back to the ferry.

We reluctently left around 3 to catch the ferry back.
This is a shot of the beach that we were at all day, taken from the ship.

We had arranged to meet up on deck for sailaway to enjoy some "Hot Sex" -- now it isn't what you think. A friend had bought this drink, tasted kind of like Baileys and milk. So we all went up on deck to have some.