DAY 5: ST THOMAS

I had set my alarm for 6:45am and immediately opened the curtains to go out on the balcony. There were absolutely no waves and the ocean was as calm as ever.

We were pulling up. Beautiful St Thomas, oh how I've missed you. We were to arrive in St Thomas at 8am. We arrived at 7am and were cleared to go ashore by 7:30am.

We headed to the breakfast buffet. Of course I knew that Flamingo grill was not open. After trying to get a fast breakfast there yesterday, I had checked the dailies to see the hours of operation and found that they don't open until 8am (of course after docking and going ashore). So, this wouldn't work.

Since yesterdays fiasco of not being able to find the family and not having a "meeting" place. The night before we made plans of where to meet. Kendra, naturally running late, met us there and we didn't get off the ship until 8:30am. Of course I scolded her while telling her that we could have actually been off the ship 1 hour ago and we were wasting time in one of the most beautiful ports with awesome snorkeling.

The day I had been waiting for now for about 3 1/2 years. The last time we were here we went to Sapphire Beach and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We had the best day there. The scenery was so beautiful and the snorkeling was excellent. We couldn't have ask for a better place to go. However, over the years, things at Sapphire has changed (with closing the snorkel shack & food and pretty much the condo association wanting to stop tourist traffic to the area IMO). So we decided even though you can still go to Sapphire, it wasn't worth the hassle. It was time to try somewhere else.

Coki beach comes highly recommended for an excellent place to snorkel and a pretty nice beach. It has had it's bad publicity over the years with drugs, shootings, and just a shady place to go. After the shooting in 2010 of a cruiser (by accident due to a gang related activity going on during a funeral), the efforts of St Thomas to clean the place up, make it more presentable and tourist friendly seems to have worked.

So we headed off the ship and toward the gates to catch a cab to Coki.

We were immediately put into a VERY nice van (again, another with huge rims....I'm seeing a pattern here lol). We had 3 others going to Coki and a couple that was going to the Marina. We dropped the couple off first and then on to Coki we went. Our driver was seriously driving like a mad man. There are some pretty scary turns on the roads and some very close calls. At one point there was a huge industrial truck working on the side of the road, which forced our side of the road to go around it onto the opposite side of the road. Our driver went ahead and crossed over WITH ONCOMING TRAFFIC and the car coming our way hit the side of the van. It wasn't a bad hit, but you felt it and you knew someone lost a mirror with that as well. Neither of them stopped, but I can guarantee our driver was furious (by the look on his face) because he seriously had a nice van. However, IMO it was his fault. Just a thought...maybe slow down a little and give right away???

We were passing the cemetery and I immediately knew that we must be close to Coki. We pulled up at 9am and got out to discuss with the driver what time he would be back to pick us up for the return drive back to the port.

To read my full review of our day of Coki Point, click the tab below:

We got in the van and the driver did a head count but kept waiting saying that he was missing 2 people he was waiting on. When we figured out that he was waiting on the "original" group he came with, we informed him that the other 2 people got off at the marina...remember? Oh yea. So off we went. Driving like a crazed person of course. We made it back without incidence this time and intact. Guess what...he was from Jamaica as well. Does everyone migrate to the Virgin Islands from Jamaica or what?

We arrived in port and did a little shopping right there across the street in port. I managed to find me a St Thomas tee shirt and Sakari a Lobster magnet.

We were back on the ship by 2:30pm.

I plugged in my Olympus to charge it and was completely afraid of what results I would have with the SD card. Can you believe I waited until I got home to find out that I didn't lose any of my pictures? YEP, I was so thankful. All the great pictures you have seen so far of St Maarten and St Thomas are from that SD card. woo hoo. I got really lucky!!!

I was completely beat. I took a cold shower and didn't even wait until we pulled out of port and fell asleep while the hubby and Sakari were watching t.v. I was out quick.

I woke up at 7:30pm and knew that I was very hungry. For some reason I had thought I was dreaming about Courtney, but later found that she had came to the room to borrow my shoes to go do the ropes course with Kolin again.

We met Courtney and Kolin up there after they were done with the ropes course and decided to grab a bite to eat at the buffet. Darnit, I keep missing my apple crapes (Courtney had it twice already and every time I go, they never have the apple.)

Now one thing we have always noticed is that NCL doesn't do deserts well. This would be no exception (well, other than the crapes). However, he looked really excited about the 3 deserts he had picked out.

A face only a mother can love.

Yep, this was no exception, they were not that good. 

After eating we dropped Sakari off at the kids club. Tonight's theme was...I can't even remember and by looking at the decorations, it doesn't ring a bell with me either. Hmmm

I do know that they were practicing their circus skills for the show. Sakari decided she wanted to do the balancing act with the peacock feather. How appropriate for her since she loves animals.

I headed down to customer service because this will be the SECOND cruise in a row I have been on that I did NOT receive my ship pins. Can you believe that Kendra got hers? She sails once a year with them and I sail twice a year...go figure. Last time (on the Jewel) they forgot them in my room and I completely forgot to go down and ask for them...forcing me to beg and cry on here for someone to let me have one of their extra ones. Thank goodness for the lovely people of cc. But, this time I walked down, told them I didn't get my pins and they quickly handed over 3 of them. woo hoo.

We headed up to the photo lab to see if we could find our pictures from today and also look for ziplining pictures. Kendra and my hubby are the only ones that have been able to find theirs so far. Everything was printed out up until the 19th and nothing beyond. So we ask a representative there and they assured us they were printing them all out and we would be able to find them tomorrow.

I did have a problem locating our picture from St Thomas today. I guess I will have to look again tomorrow. It wasn't in our folder.

We headed off to the shops to see if there was anything that interest me. I found a few things but decided I would make tomorrow my official shopping day since it was a sea day. I also didn't feel like carrying everything around since we had planned on going to the casino later. I have had my eye on this ring since day 1. It was beautiful and with a very hefty price tag on it. I just love rings with begets and this was perfect. I joked with the hubby about going down to hit the jackpot on the slots so he could buy it for me. He owes me one. On the Epic, I won the jackpot on a slot and we raced down to the jewelers to buy a black diamond ring he had been eyeballing the entire cruise. It was now my turn. Go win me some money honey!!!! Momma wants a new blingy ring!!! 

We headed to the casino and the place was hoping. I did pretty well this night. I did hit the jackpot, but it was the lowest jackpot with matching 5 of the big wins (9 is the big jackpot and of course only if you are playing the max bid). It was a progressive slot machine (so the money keeps going up the more that people are putting into the machines that are hooked up to the same system). The lowest it starts out for matching 5 is $30. I won $36.50. Whew wee oh boy. Well, that wasn't even a fraction of what my ring cost, so I had to keep playing. Kolin found a machine that he did pretty well on and it kept him playing for a good hour on $20. Of course in the end he lost it all. I however, walked away with a win of $147 out of $20. So I was good for the night.

The hubby was over with a big crowd watching a high roller play with $500 chips. YIKES!!! He watched him loose thousands at a time and then win thousands back. My heart just dropped standing there the little bit of time I was there.

We picked up Sakari from the kids club and she was so excited to tell her how well she did with her Peacock feather. But, she said "I can't balance it on my chin or my elbow like they want me to" Insert the saddest face here now. I told her balancing it on her chin should be the easiest thing ever for her since she has a dimple "butt" chin like her mommy. Just stick it in the hole and it should stay. hehe It made her laugh and then feel better. No more sad face.

I stopped on the way back to the room and took some pictures of their frozen drinks menu. I just wanted to know what kind of booze goes in what so I can make them at home.

We were out on the pool deck of course and they had the colored lights in full force. I took a picture of the hubby and Sakari on the lounge chairs without a flash. Then I teased him about getting a "little too much sun today honey". What do you think? He was glowing red.

We arrived back at our room to find this little guy was the animal of the night.

We watched t.v. for awhile and I was completely freezing at this point from the burn we got the other day. Sakari had developed a cough as well. It kept me up half the night. Good thing tomorrow is a sea day and I can sleep in.

The hubby watched a movie with Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs. Toward the end of the movie I guess it stopped playing. He had to start it over and there was absolutely no way to skip scenes like you can with a dvd. He was forced to put it on FF until it made it to the part that it had cut off. He got a little more in, but it ended up cutting out again. I guess at this point he was fed up and decided it was time for some sleep. I was already fast asleep at this point and exhausted from the day even though I had already had a nap. 

The following day I was able to locate our St Thomas picture...someone had put it on the shelf and I just happened to see it there. Hmmm. It was not in my folder, which is linked to your room...you know 9180? I was giving that number to every photographer as they took our picture. OH NO!!! That was the problem. We're not in 9180, we are in 9188!!!!! Problem solved.

So here was our picture from the day.