"Is It November Yet?" Magic 11/13-20/04 Day 5 St Thomas

[GrayFal]

Day 5 – Wednesday, November 17, 2004 – St Thomas

I woke up at 5:45 as we were entering St Thomas Harbor. I was able to see and take pictures of the Marriott Frenchmen’s Reef Hotel and the ship approaching the dock, then go back to sleep until my Mickey Mouse wake up call at 6:45. I did not get coffee delivered today as we had to be in the Walt Disney Theatre at 7:15 a.m. to be cleared for immigration. There were some people complaining about the early hour but I would rather do it here then at Port Canaveral. My darling husband was dragging a little so I left without him – he came about 10 minutes after me…I arrived at 7:12 and was finished at 7:35. After HE finished, we went to Lumiere’s for a sit down breakfast, which ended up being the only time we made it there. We went up on deck and took some pictures, returned to the cabin to get our cooler and snorkeling gear and hit the dock! I noticed a lot of nice shopping at the Havensight Mall, no need to go to town. We walked out and attempted to rent a car from Budget; they were all sold out. We then went into Avis and got their last car – this was at about 10:15. There were only 3 cruise ships at the Havensight Dock that day so my advice is to pre-book your rental car before you go. Using a AAA discount, we paid $57 for the day. After being warned repeatedly to stay on the left, we were off. Our first stop was to check out our newly purchased timeshare, Bluebeard’s Beach Club & Villas. Not luxurious but will more then meet our needs the third week in January every year!

After that stop, we continued east toward Red Hook. The roads are in terrible condition, full of potholes and BIG hills! We drove past Red Hook Ferry (saw the entrance to the Ritz-Carlton but did not check it out this trip) and came upon Sapphire Bay and the resort. We were VERY happy to see it as it is beautiful and a ‘sister’ resort to Bluebeard’s Beach Club – we can go there every day if we like when we are staying at BBC. You can also see across to St John. GREAT!!! A little further along we came to the turnoff to Coki Beach. It is a small beach with an even smaller parking area. We lucked out and got one of only 10 spots. We saw that taxis and vans drop of most people that come here - this is a good idea, as we would have had to leave if we didn’t get a spot. Right next to it is Coral World, another tourist destination. The beach is lovely; I did not know at the time but across from Coki Beach is Thatch Island, which shelters the beach and made it ‘swimable’ that day for us. Even so, there were fairly rough waves. I was apprehensive about the snorkeling as the beach was crowded and I felt the water would be cloudy from all the sand being kicked up. The snorkeling was excellent; we saw so many fish near the rocky reef to the extreme right side of the beach. We stayed for about 1 ½ hours and I was in the water most of the time. There was a vendor selling knock-off designer bags (Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, etc) that were a nice quality and a good price; I will buy there in the future. We took an inland route back and the roads were in better condition. The car rental agent had suggested we stop at K-Mart on the way back for Duty Free Liquor but the prices were much higher then the Dock or Ship. We returned to the dock at 2:15 – the rental agent was out to lunch until 2:45. We went to the Havensight Mall and did some shopping, returned the car and then we went back on the ship.

We went up to Deck 9 and met up with KY John and Susan. We had a late lunch from Pluto’s and I went in the Hot Tub at Quiet Cove. We went to our cabin and changed, and then back up on deck for the sail-away at 4:45. It was amazing to see the ship move sideways and backwards away from the dock. There were so many people on deck to see the ship leave the harbor. We ran into KY John and Susan; they were skipping dinner to attend both sessions of “Who wants to be a Mouseketeer ?” in hopes of winning a free cruise ! We stayed on deck until we were out to sea – and DH bumped into Captain Hook! We spied our “C” class friends over at the concierge reception on Deck 10. We then went for our “Couple Massage” at The Vista Spa on Deck 9. This was DH’s first visit to the spa and his first ever massage. We were escorted into the treatment room where they asked us if we wanted a ‘well being’ massage or ‘spa taster’. I chose the well being for both of us, as I didn’t think DH would like a facial. We undressed and got on the tables – DH with his underwear on (smile). He did not want to be too undressed. During the course of the massage, the therapists asked about our future plans and I mentioned I was enjoying my cruise so much that I had re-booked onboard. DH was VERY surprised to hear this confused3 right!) and ribbed me unmercifully afterwards. He got a big kick telling everyone how I had gotten him at a compromising moment! Cjsmom97 was very upset I hadn’t told her about this technique before she had her couples massage! Anyway, he really enjoyed the massage and I think there will be more in his future. After our massage, we went back to our cabin and relaxed before dinner. I did a little pin trading with chichihoney and then we had dinner at Lumiere’s. DH and I, Hannosmom, DH and Dsis all went to the Rockin’ Bar D for the ‘Time Warp, A Celebration of the 80’s’. I thought we were just going to hear music; it turned out to be an hour and a half show …. Lots of fun; feenie’s husband was part of the Bon Jovi Band! We finally gave up and went to bed around Midnight. Sweet Dreams……..

<a href="http://130.94.75.33/showthread.php?p=7014436#post7014436">Click for the last day at sea - Day 6</a>