JoCo Cruise Crazy 3: Day 4

Busy day!  We docked in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, but not until 11 AM or so, which means there was a morning to pack full of stuff, and boy was it ever!

We decided to do room service breakfast because our day was packed from 8 AM on.  It was a little tricky to figure out how the menu worked.  Apparently "1 toast" literally meant one slice of toast gingerly wrapped in a napkin on a plate, under a plate cover, which probably has a name.  On the other hand, "1 pastry plate" meant 4 pastries.  I ordered eggs, which turned out to be smart, for it would be a while before we would see food again. [FORESHADOWING]

First we had the group photo up on the pool deck.  One of my least favorite features of the ship was the giant blaring TV behind the pool that prevented us from being able to hear anything the photographer said.  This is why I tended to prefer the adults-only Solarium pool and hot tubs-- no obnoxious TV to get in the way of swimming in a pool on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.  I was never even cognizant of what was actually on the TV; it had the same aural effect as late-night infomercials. 

So yes, the photo.  It was taken.  At 8 AM.  I'm kind of surprised that so many people showed up, but it certainly wasn't all 700mumblemumble of us. 

At 9 AM, we had the entertainer Q&A, which is always a lot of fun.  And by "always" I mean "both times I've gone."  It basically extrapolates to always.  The Q&A started off with Wil Wheaton being almost-eaten by a horse. 

It was vicious. And nobody could stop it. 

David Rees led the Q&A by moderately ridiculing the question-askers and sometimes his fellow performers. There was a grumpy cat, which is about how anybody feels about being up at 8 AM on vacation. 

David Rees, suspiciously chipper at 9 AM.

Kevin Murphy, John Hodgman, John Roderick, Paul Sabourin, Jonathan Coulton, Storm DiCostanzo,
Bill Corbett, Joseph Scrimshaw, Wil Wheaton, Mike Phriman, Angela & Aubrey Webber  

Immediately after the Q&A, we stood in line to get off the ship in St. Thomas.  The line was ridiculous, and we had an excursion scheduled for 15 minutes after the ship was cleared to let people off.  I couldn't remember the ID requirements for the USVI, so I packed my passport card, but I'd forgotten to tell Jay to do the same, which I still feel bad about.   He went back for his ID, and it probably took him about 45 minutes (which is the amount of time that I use for something that is indeterminately long-ish).  Meanwhile, I had retrieved our wristbands from the person in charge of herding us to our excursion and received instructions that I may need to run.  When Jay finally got off the boat, it was about 5 minutes after everybody else had gone to the little boat that was going to ferry us to St. John.  I had a back-up plan (using the municipal ferry), but didn't particularly want to resort to that because we'd already paid for this! Fortunately, we made it onto the boat, slightly sweaty and grumpy, but we made it!

It was about a 40-minute ferry ride over to St. John, during which I'm sure the driver was telling us many fascinating things about the islands that we could not hear at all.  When we arrived at the island, the people who were on the Shopping/History tours left the boat and we were able to move up to the top to enjoy actual fresh air for our cruise up the coast.  The guide pointed out all the major beaches up the coast of St. John, which was handy in deciding what to do later. We also learned about some hiking trails, which sounded wonderful if I was inclined to go hiking in mountains in 80 degree heat.  Which I was not.  

After the coastal tour, we were let off next to the National Parks visitor center for about 3 hours of free time.  So, yes, this was my ulterior motive in the excursion to St. John.  In my quest to visit ALL the national parks, I can now cross the Virgin Islands National Park off my list.  :^)

Oh, did I mention that we hadn't eaten a single morsel of food since breakfast at 7 AM and it was now about 1 PM?  We walked a few blocks and found a nice deli-type place with some nice drinkie-type things. 

Worst best pun ever.  Also, the root beer was tasty. 

Ah.  Much improved.  :^)  We started looking for a cab to Trunk Bay after lunch, and apparently had the lost look of people with money in need of transportation to exchange it for, so that took all of about 15 seconds.  We were assured that not only was she a taxi, but she was the best taxi on the whole island!  Taxis in St. John appeared to be universally pick-up trucks with the beds modified to have three benches and a canopy.  Shortly after we left, she picked up three women who spent the entire ride complaining about how she was going too fast and was too close to the center line and was too close to the edge of the road and they felt like they were going to die and wanted to get out.  We were glad to be rid of them when we exited the taxi in Trunk Bay. 

I was really excited to go to Trunk Bay because I'd read about their snorkel trail with underwater signage and beautiful coral and tons of pretty fish.  Unfortunately, the snorkel trail was closed that day due to rough surf.  Considering the ouchiness of rocks and coral, I wasn't too inclined to ignore the closure.  I was a little bummed, but we were assured by some men leaving that the beach and water were still fantastic and worth the $4 admission fee. 

Oh, and it was. 

There couldn't have been more than 15 people on the beach.  It was fabulous.  We spent an hour frolicking in the waves, ingesting more than a little salt water, and generally having a good time.  Definitely worth it; St. John is a place I would love to spend more time exploring.  But alas, it was time to get a taxi back to our boat that would take us back to St. Thomas to our bigger boat before said bigger boat left without us. 

The sun was setting as we approached St. Thomas.  A beautiful end to a beautiful day. 

Our dinner seating was at 5:30 and I think we got back to the ship around 5 or so.  Not terribly inclined to get cleaned up for dinner, so we headed straight to the Windjammer buffet for food.  We caught the last glimpses of St. Thomas at night before we sailed away. 

I promise he's just tired, not grumpy.