Cupcrazy

Waiting on the pier for the excursion to begin

DAY 5 - ST. MAARTEN

Dinner Dress Suggestion: Casual

Dinner Theme: Basil

Drink of the Day: Caribbean Tea

The weather today was beautiful. I decided to break away from the rest of my group and do an excursion by myself. I chose to do the ATV Tour. This tour was 4 hours from pick up to drop off at the pier and cost $119. At 8:30am I met the group on the pier. We then boarded a bus which took us about 5 minutes to the company with the ATVs. There we had to fill out waivers and get fitted for helmets. Everyone wears a hairnet under the helmet for their own protection. Once we had our helmets on we went outside and picked an ATV. They gave a really brief explanation of how to start, accelerate & brake the machines. It was now time to go. We drove along the side of streets through the Dutch side of the island and over to the French side. Along the way we made 2 stops at lookout points and 1 at Orient Beach. We stayed at Orient beach for 1 hour before getting back on the ATVs and heading back. I really liked this excursion and thought although a high price it was worth it.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=SMG7&DestinationCode=

Regal Princess was beside us at the pier

Kung Fu Fighting

DISCO INFERNO STREET PARTY

As we were walking out of the restaurant the ship was starting to pull out of port

Playing in the main theatre was headliner Tony Tillman

When I got back to the room there was a little doggy waiting

Enjoying some corn

Today was Gerri's 50th Birthday. They spelled her name wrong. Whoops!

BRING ON THE MEAT!!!

Sides - corn & grilles veggies

RED! The meat sweats have started and I'm going to explode

One of the chefs made a swan out of an apple

SAMBA GRILL MENU

When you sit down they give you an illuminated placard that changes colour to tell them what part of the meal you want to be on.

White - Appetizers / salad bar

Green - Bring on the meat!

Red - I'm full and about to explode

White - Bring on dessert

Salad

That's my cabin with the Canada Flag

Jack needs a new van

Beside Best Western at Emerald Beach is Island Beachcomber

Another $4pp to get back to Crown Bay

The rock wall around the dock was littered with iguanas. They weren't bothering anyone.

Emerald Beach

We got off the ship around 11:30am and walked around the port area for about 30 minutes to check out the stores. With all the ships in port we didn't want to go to Magens Bay or Sapphire Beach because they would be packed. My last time in St. Thomas we went to Emerald Beach and there was nobody there. This time we did the same thing and although there were more people than last time, it definitely wasn't packed. We took a shared taxi ($4 pp) to the Best Western Emerald Beach which is about a 5 minute drive from Crown Bay. I'm currently drawing a blank, but I believe beach loungers were $7 each. There is no charge to put your towel down on the beach and just lay there. The water is crystal, or I guess I should say emerald, clear and there are no rocks on the beach or in the water. The water is also very calm with no big waves.

Hopefully everyone is ok. I wonder if anyone who was on the Conquest will see this and knows what happened.

There were 6 ships in St. Thomas which made for A LOT of people. Allure & Carnival Conquest were at Crown Bay while Ruby Princess, Regal Princess & Norwegian Getaway were at West Indian Company Dock (Havensight). There were so many ships in port that there wasn't any dock space available for HAL Westerdam. They had to drop anchor & tender to West Indian Co.

NO MORE RAIN!!! Thankfully it only lasted about 5 minutes and the rest of the day was gorgeous

Art on the pier

This boat has been beached for a couple years. I first noticed it back in 2012 and was surprised to see that it's still there. It's looks clean so you would think it was from a recent hurricane or similar.

2012

2014

Carnival Conquest had been following us all the way from Nassau

DAY 4 - ST. THOMAS

I was on the November 9 sailing of Allure and we got the following notice when we checked in. There was a small propulsion/speed issue. I don't think it would be the cause of vibrations but you never know?

Teen skating was going on in Studio B. I really wanted to go skating at some point but the times never worked out for me.

Down the hall from our cabin, a couple had a dry erase board on their door. It usually had things like "at bingo' or "meet at the beach pool at noon". This night it said something different. I noticed for the next couple days the board wasn't on the door anymore. On the last day it returned and said "my wife is sexy".

There were a few married couples (10 - 20 years) who wanted to participate. In order to pick which couple went on stage, they had to make out one at a time and the audience would choose.

It was too much for this couple, so they gave up and went back to their seats.

Instead of going crazy with the kissing, this couple just had a nice kiss

The newlywed couple won - we also found out they waited until the cruise to... well you know.....

Comedy Time! The 2 comedians on the ship were Phil Palisoul & Jim David. Phil was funny but Jim was funnier.

Steamed Shrimp Shu Mai (comes with 4).

Box Salmon & Crab

Spider Roll, Tuna Nigiri, Salmon Nigiri, Rainbow Roll, Salmon Lovers Roll

Sushi Nigiri Combo, Orange Dragon

Mixed Seafood Rock