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St. Thomas is a beautiful island, but the downtown area where we got off the tenders was just a bit too touristy for us. Jeremy described it as “a cross between New Orleans and the gray market down in the Bronx”. Unless you were in the mood to shop for jewelry, jewelry, more jewelry, or liquor, there wasn’t alot to do. Given my tendency to crowd anxiety, all the hustle and bustle was a bit overwhelming. We did find a nice little museum, built in an old fort, with some interesting facts about the island. We were able to go up on the roof and Jeremy took some great panoramic shots of the island. You can really see everything from up there. After the museum we decided to head back to the ship. We grabbed some lemonade from the stand on the pier and hopped on the tender. We sat near the door (for the breeze; it was quite hot) and got a bit splashed at one point when the tender crossed between the wakes of two ships. Once we were back on the Maasdam, we stopped for an afternoon snack of some ice cream and then found a table out on the Lido Terrace, where we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and early evening sitting in the breeze and reading. Jeremy took advantage of the “$3 Margarita” special. It was a very nice way to end the day, and one of the nicest parts of the trip for me so far. As night fell and the ship pulled away from the harbor, we headed for dinner at the Lido Restaurant. In line at dinner, we ran into a guy that remembered 3GI (go figure). We ended the evening relaxing in our stateroom and resting up for our next port. Tomorrow, Dominica!

We are due to put into port in St. Thomas today, but have been delayed by a malfunctioning engine. Apparently one of the ship’s five engines cut out night before last, so we can’t go quite as fast on the remaining engines. We should be in port around noon and, once we go through the immigration procedures, will board the tenders to head ashore. Jeremy is off taking pictures while I rest on the Lower Promenade in a deck chair and watch our fellow travelers “promenade” by on the quarter mile walking path that circles the ship.

Today was another day at sea. I seem to have some issues with days at sea. Although the meclizine is a great help with the queasiness, it leaves me feeling kind of dizzy (or drunk?) when the ship rocks and rolls. That in turn makes me just want to nap. So I slept for a good bit of the morning, and then again after lunch (the BLT and fries were good though). Then Jeremy went to a science lecture at 2:00 PM. When he came back, we went or some ice cream and tried sitting out on one of the open decks. That seemed to be working so I came back to the room to change and put on suunscreen. We sat on the deck, Jeremy reading and me listening to my iPod, for a while. Then we went to the on-board movie theater for the 5:00 PM showing of “Bourne Supremacy”. The movie was good, and it was easier to ignore the rocking. But when it was over, my legs felt like Jello. It seems we’ve entered some rougher waters this afternoon. We had a nice dinner in the Lido Restaurant, and then came back to the room to rest, read, and relax. Now I’m just trying to finish writing this before the ocean rocks me to sleep…

Our first port of call. We got on tender #9 to Half Moon Cay (which is apparently pronounced “key”). The water was gorgeous and clear, kind of a deep teal blue. The “tender” boats are also some of the life boats, and supposedly hold 90 people as a tender (but 150 as life boats). Comfort is clearly not a priority when life saving, but hey, I’d rather us all get off safely anyway. Half Moon Cay is actually the resort on the island and not the whole island like I had originally thought. The tender dropped us off at the Welcome Center and we headed toward the beach. Jeremy wanted to get a two person kayak, so first we looked for where we could rent those. We had some trouble being understood; the “Water Sports” place didn’t have kayaks, and the only kayaks the Information Booth knew about was the excursion with a guide. So we rented a locker to leave the backpack in and wandered down the beach. Oddly enough, we wandered right to the area where they were renting kayaks and other water crafts. They didn’t have any two-man kayaks after all, so Jeremy took one by himself for an hour, while I found a lounge chair and basked in the sun, watching all the other tourists wander by. I’m not big on sunbathing, but it did at least occur to me to flip over when I noticed I was starting to get a line down the side of my leg. And that’s with SPF 15 on. After Jeremy returned from his kayaking, we headed over to the BBQ area for hamburgers and hot dogs. Then we grabbed our bag out of the locker and wandered down the full length of the beach (probably 1.5 to 2 miles by Jeremy’s estimate) to an area where Jeremy said he had kayaked past some fish and coral. We tried to get some pictures of the fish with the disposable underwater camera I picked up, and hopefully they turned out ok. After that we were pretty tired, so we made the trek back down the beach to the Welcome Center. Jeremy had an ice cream while I visited the gift shop and took pictures of a bird that wandered into the bar area. I guess the wildlife get pretty used to the tourists in an area like that. Then we headed back to board the tenders - stopping briefly to be sure we got one going to the Maasdam and not one bound for her sister ship, the Oosterdam, which was also in port. It was a good day in Half Moon Cay, but I was also glad to get back to the boat and shower and rest before dinner. We watched as they pulled the tenders back on board and waved goodbye to our first Carribean destination. Here’s hoping the others are as fun.

Much better sleep last night and a much *much* more pleasant morning thanks to our new best friend Meclizine. I still feel the boat moving but the seas are much calmer and the “wooshy” is all but gone. We went to the breakfast buffet in the Lido Restaurant around 8:30 AM and had a nice full breakfast (eggs, sausage, hash browns, cereal, juice). Then we went to the Rembrandt Lounge to pick up our tender tickets to let us on the little boat that would take us from the ship to the island and Half Moon Cay. We packed up the backpack and lounged on the deck in the sun, waiting for the ship to anchor and the call to board the tender.

Ugh. Now I wish we’d taken the advice to start taking Dramamine before the trip. Both Jeremy and I were quite “wooshy” for a good bit of the morning after we woke up. Jeremy finally braved the walk to the front desk to claim some Meclizine (which, along with Tylenol, is free upon request from the front desk or the infirmary) around 7:30 AM. That helped some, but I still slept most of the morning. Jeremy was feeling better faster than me (as usual) and went out to walk the promenade a bit and sit and read. Guess ordering breakfast from room service was a waste (cold eggs aren’t so tasty, although the dry toast was good on the queasy tummy). At least it was free. Once I woke up, I wandered out to find Jeremy and we found some cushioned seats on the aft of the Verandah Deck to rest outside. It was still pretty chilly and windy, so we stayed bundled up. After a while, we headed inside for a change of scenery and ran across the lunch buffet. We stopped for some food, but neither of us ate much. When we’d picked as much off our plates as we felt up to, we went back outside for a bit until it got too chilly to be comfortable. Then we went back to the room, and I ended up sleeping most of the rest of the afternoon. I really didn’t mean to sleep so much, but it was so much easier to ignore the rocking of the boat when you aren’t awake for it. Jeremy wandered around the decks in the meantime, being very sweet to check on me now and then. Around 5:30 PM, I finally woke up and we pondered dinner. We decided on the Lido Restaurant, because the main dining room (where we ate the previous night) was on a Formal dress code, which neither of us was up for. We called it an early night again, opting to skip the Cast Show in the Rembrandt Lounge in lieu of another dose of our new friend Meclizine and a comfy bed.

We got a ride from Braz and Emma to get to Norfolk, so that we didn’t have to leave a car at the port for the whole trip. We arrived at the port and dropped off our luggage with the porters. Once we made it past the check-in desk and security check, we headed up the gangway. After we checked out our room, we went to explore the ship. We found all the shops and restaurants and took some pictures of things. Then there was an official tour of the ship, so we joined up with our Assitant Cruise Director Candisse and toured around the decks in more detail. We left the tour a little early to go back to our room and get ready for the lifeboat drill. We put on our life vests and went to our lifeboat station (Station 6, which was conveniently almost right outside our room). Seven short blasts and one long blast of the ship’s horn signaled the beginning of the drill. The boat captains had bright red ponchos over their life vests, so they were easy to spot. They were going around correcting the people who had put on their life vests inside out or backwards (Jeremy and I fortunately had watched the video on the room TV, so we got ours on correctly). The boat captains called out all the room numbers that were supposed to be at their station to take a roll call, as this was a mandatory drill. Once the drill was over (no, we didn’t actually get to go in the lifeboats), we went back to the room to get rid of our life vests. Then we headed out onto the deck to watch and take pictures as the ship pulled out of port. Our dinner time was at 6:15 PM so we went to the dining room around 6:00 PM to get there a little early. We had a table for two so no socializing with strangers was required. We had our choice of appetizers, salad/soup, and entree (and dessert of course). We both started with Italian Proscutto Ham with Honeydew Melon as our appetizer. Then salads; Jeremy had Caesar, and I tried the Baby Spinach with White Mushrooms. For my entree I went for the steak, a Black Pepper Crusted New York Strip Sirloin with yellow and green squash and a twice-baked potato (Jeremy had the Mahi Mahi). For dessert, Chocolate Cake for me and an Apple Strudel for Jeremy. While at dinner, we started to be able to tell the ship was moving in the water. Not too bad, but it started to be noticeable. After dinner, we went back to the room to relax and watched the third Harry Potter movie on the movie channel. Towards the end of the movie, I was starting to feel a bit more “wooshy”, but we both fell asleep with no problem.