Two Days At Sea

March 5 and March 6, 2010

Friday and Saturday we spent at sea.

Friday we sent to several lectures but found time to play air hockey in the ship's game room, it is the best game ever! We also went to the 7:00pm evening show called "Once Upon A Time". It was pretty cold and windy up on the deck so we didn't spend much time outside.

Saturday we attened several more lectures. It was our last day to see Sylvia. It was a little nicer up on deck so we attempted to play mini golf which was OK but the wind kept pushing our balls around so it wasn't really a fair game. We also tried climbing the rock wall and even though I used to teach rock climbing as a class I still have a slight fear of heights. This has developed as I've gotten older for some reason and I didn't make it up the wall very far but at least I tried. We went to the 7:00pm evening "Farewell Show Spectacular". It featured aerial artistry of Agnes and Peter which means they did acrobats hanging from a large cloth type rope. All I kept thinking was why are they up there doing that...especially on a moving boat but they did a good job and didn't get hurt. It was a pretty good show. We also took a behind the scenes tour of the theater. We went back stage and learned about what it takes to put on a show. I learned that the cruise ship has stabilizers to help keep it from rocking so much which the captain can use when a show is going on. It is a pretty small space but they pull off some pretty great shows. After dinner we decided to sit in the hot tub one last time.

St Maarten, VI

March 4, 2010
Today we spent at St Maarten. We were told the walk to town was pretty far from the port so they suggested to take a water taxi for $6.00. As it turns out the walk really wasn't any longer than the walk we had in St. Thomas but who knew so we had to spend the $6.00...live and learn.

We walked around the main shopping street and walked along a beach. We went back to the ship for lunch then met our group for our island excursion. We ended up going to a zoo and then drove to the French side of the island. The French side was really pretty and I was surprised to see cacti! Who knew you could find a cactus growing right by a beach! After our excursion we got back to the boat and stayed on deck to watch the boat leave the port. At 8:00pm we sat in one of the ships hot tubs.

St Thomas, VI

March 3, 2010
Today was a day spent at St Thomas, US Virgin Islands. In the morning we took a walking tour of the area so we could get away from the port and see some of the town. The streets were very, very narrow and there were no sidewalks. The tour guide told us some history of the island...Christopher Columbus is given credit for discovering the island even though there were natives already living there. We also discussed sugar crops, lots of drinking, slave trading, pirates, blue bit rock used to build houses and more. We visited a synagogue and a reformed church. I took a panormaic photo posted above and if you look on the right side you can see 3 cruise ships. Our ship is the middle ship.

Back on the boat around 6:00pm the kids did a pirate parade and then we attended an ice show at 7:00pm. Yes, our boat had an ice rink. I'm not sure how those skaters do it when the boat is rocking!

The cleaning staff on the ship left us a towel animal on our bed. It is pretty cute.

Day at Sea

March 2, 2010
Today was a day at sea. We ate breakfast at the buffet and we are still trying to get used to the boat rocking all of the time. We went to a lecture at 10:00am and left a bit early to attend the shopping show. It was a show about shopping in St. Thomas and St. Maarten. We then ate lunch and attended another lecture. After dinner we went to see a show called "A Tribute to the Temptations". Below is a photo of part of the formal dinning room on the ship. We only at their once because our scheduled time was 8:30pm...too late for us. We usually at at the Windjammer Cafe buffet.The TV shows some information about the ship and at 3:00pm this was the info being reported 18.8kts (travel speed), apparent wind 48mph.

Sylvia had a meet and greet where we got to have our photo taken with her! What a great photo!
Oh, we also heard a pipe burst on the 2nd floor! I guess it was a pretty big mess and the maintenance crew was changing out carpet in people's rooms. Luckily we had a room on the 6th floor!

Coco Cay, Bahamas

March 1, 2010
This morning we had our breakfast delivered to our room. It was pretty basic food but it was good. We arrived at Coco Cay which is a Royal Caribbean owned island in the Bahamas. We tendered (took a smaller boat) to the island shore. We walked around the beach and enjoyed the view. We took and Eco Adventure boat tour. We saw an airplane that crashed in the water in 1978 that was carrying marijuana (as the story was told). We also saw an abandoned residential community and a small island for sale that only costs 2.9 million. On the way back to Coco Cay our boat got stuck because of the low tide, people on the boat had to move to the front to shift the weight...we made it back safe. After the boat tour we ate lunch on the island. We went back to the boat and made a spa appointment for 3:00pm. The lady told me many, many times...you have so many knots (in my shoulders). I said "I know" and it hurt when she was getting them out but I felt so much better when it was over. We then met with Sylvia's group at 6:00pm, ate dinner, and went to the 9:00pm opening show! What a day! There are so many things to do!

Oh, the beached whale we saw yesterday was on CNN and they said it died...sad.