Rainy Cold St Thomas

19 June 2013

Unfortunately I have no way of knowing the weather as none of the stations that I can get on the TV have any weather on them. And the weather on the ship information is worse than useless. So today in St. Thomas it was cold and it rained all day. All the ship information said was cloudy and the tour director said showers. That was what they said yesterday too and it was bright and sunny all day.

Mickey's head pancake

We ate breakfast and got dressed to go to Coral World but I didn't put on my suit - just took it with me because I was still pretty tired from St. Martin. It has been a long time since I was out and about anyplace for that long.

Originally I thought we'd do the Butterfly World one first, but I decided because of traffic that I needed to do Coral World first and Butterfly World afterward.

So we went off the ship and there were no towels at the entrance and my granddaughter had to get back on and go all the way up to the pool to get towels. It was after 10 when she got back. It wasn't raining yet but it looked like it was going to.

I went to get a taxi and the taxi was one of those old ones with bench seats in the back and I did not have sense enough to say that yes I needed a van with a lift. So we took the scooter apart and the back end and the seat and the basket fitted in the seat section but the front end with the battery would not fit. So he tied it onto the back with a piece of twine. Then we went over the mountain to Coral World and surprisingly got the scooter back together. The fare was $9.00 each and I gave him a $20.00 bill It was raining a little bit now, and it was by now 11:00.

When I wanted to book the Sea Trek, (the helmet dive), they said my granddaughter had to be 13 to go by herself without me. But to go in and ask. So we went in and first we went to Caribbean Reef Encounter building - hoping that it would clear up while we were in there. This was nice and we saw some nice fish and took some photos. But when we came out it was still raining lightly.

I went to the touch pool, and then past the shark tank and I tried to get in the Lorikeet Garden, but the scooter was on rabbit and got completely stuck in the door sideways. When we got it unstuck it was really raining and the basket had gotten twisted around sideways. I couldn't figure out how to get it undone. All the lorikeets were up in the trees because of the rain, so we went on past the stingray lagoon and to where they booked the tours. Apparently I would be required to do the helmet dive with her and anyway the next one was 1400. All aboard time was 1530. I thought that would be cutting too close. So I paid for both of us to do the Sea Lions Swim where I could just be there and not actually do the swimming. The time for that was 12:45. They did not tell me (like Disney did) that I had to be a superb health with no issues ever. So probably we could have done the helmet dive if we had gotten there earlier and if I had my suit on.

While we were waiting we did the Marine Gardens (individual tanks of fish).


I wanted to do the Observatory Tower and Deep Reef tank which would also have been inside, but it was closed for renovation. So we had lunch.

There were chips and I asked my granddaughter if she could eat them and she said she thought so, and she also thought she could do a chicken Caesar salad. I asked her to hand me the chip bag, and right at the top it said "Gluten Free".

So that's what she had - chips and a chicken Caesar salad. I had a hot dog which was so juicy that it squirted me in the face a couple of times as I was taking a bite.

We went back to the Sea Lions and I left my scooter in the back under cover and just walked to do the Sea Lions.

Granddaughter in the yellow vest

They wouldn't let me take either camera in with me. They had a photographer lady there who was taking pictures. This was because they wanted to sell us the photos - the photos on a flash drive were $39.00
First they had the little one (only 360 lbs) and he did all kinds of tricks on the deck. Then we walked up to the pool and some people got in the water - my granddaughter and I were working with the big sea lion who gave us each kisses


and we each got to feed him and signal him to do some tricks. My granddaughter got in the water too and 'danced' with him.

both sticking out their tongues

By now it was 1400 and really raining HARD with no sign of let up. I went down and asked if I could get a van back to the ship - thinking that I could swing by and get a photo of the gate of that first Moravian Cemetery. They asked if I needed a lift van and I said yes so they directed me to a man who was eating lunch. He said he could take me back to the ship but he had to be back to take his people that he brought in an hour. So we waited while he finished his lunch.

It was still raining, and having sat on the wet scooter seat, I was soaked through to my underpants. We had two towels which were also very wet, and the only dry things were my bathing suit, and my granddaughter's clothes which were in her bag. My camera was semi-dry also and my phone which was in the fanny pack was OK.

I thought that the rate would be about $25 each to take us from Coral World at the west end all the way to the east end, and I asked him if he would take a traveler's check but he said not. I counted my money (which was all wet) and found I had $53.00. He loaded me into the van and we started out to find that Moravian cemetery. It was cold (for St. Thomas) and my granddaughter was cold because she was wet so she took one of the wet towels to put around herself.

The Moravian cemetery he took us to was the one that already had a gate shot, and by now with traffic it was 14:50. So we went back to the ship and I gave him $40.00 for his trouble. He let us off right at the gate. We did not get to the Butterfly Garden which I had paid for.

I could not get the scooter to go up the ramp because it was slippery, so I put it in free wheel and one of the ramp guys and another lady pushed it up and I walked up. After I got through the security check, they gave me a towel to dry off with. My granddaughter had already run up to the room. I got the scooter up to the room and dried it off. Then my granddaughter (wearing her mom's coat) came and parked it. She then got a nice hot shower. She said her bathing suit was dry but her cover-up was wet.

view from our window

She didn't even want to go out on deck and take photos of when the ship left because it was so foggy and rainy and messy

If we had known that it would be raining, we could have brought the ponchos and rain gear that we had with us. But since the cruise director just said showers, and previously when they said showers, that was all it was - a brief shower - we were not prepared. If I had known that my granddaughter had to go all the way up to the pool for towels because they didn't have them at the gangway as usual, I would have asked her to get the ponchos too. But I didn't know.
We had dinner at Animator's Palate.


This time I think I did a better job with the drawing.

Unfortunately from our table I had no possible unobstructed view of any of the screens. The one that was best had a column hiding part of it and some woman from the table in front of us stood by the column which meant that half the screen was hidden. So I did not get to see what my drawing looked like when animated

20 June 2013

This was a sea day. So we did breakfast late. Actually my granddaughter went up to Cabanas without me, and I went by myself a little later.
I got toast and put spinach on it and then they had what they called fried eggs but were REALLY poached eggs and I put that on top to make most of an eggs Florentine sandwich. They had Hollandaise sauce too, but I didn't get any.

My granddaughter had an appointment at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for 11:15, so I went up there. I was a little late but I had not realized that "for liability reasons" I had to be there too. So my granddaughter had gone and I was not there and she didn't know where I was (since I don't carry the WAV phone). Anyway she came back up and had her appointment.

I really feel this is a COMPLETE rip-off. They don't actually give them a manicure - just put nail polish on their nails. They don't wash and style the hair - just put a ton of gel in it and gather it all up on the top of the head and put a false hair piece in and then spray it with sparkle.

This is topped off with a glitter cheek patch and a bunch of barrettes. If you want the princess dress and shoes (which many of the little girls were wearing) you buy those extra. It was pulled so tight that it hurt her head and she took it all off fairly quickly

I went down to the cabin and did some packing, and then was on the computer - skipping lunch entirely. My granddaughter went to Cabanas. I got all my clothes in the suitcase, and zipped the gusset shut. So I decided I could put some other stuff in there too. My granddaughter packed too.

It was semi-formal night, and we had lobster for dinner

There was going to be a Monster University movie premiere at midnight and my granddaughter asked if she could go. I said she could. So she didn't get back to the cabin until almost 2.

Tomorrow is Castaway Cay.