Wednesday bright and early the Island of St Thomas come into full view.  The ocean was still calm and the day was still hot.  

Again we docked right up to the pier.  From our balcony we could see the parking lot and at the far end you can see the port shops and the beginning of the shopping area.  We were well recovered from the long walk at Road Town but agreed not to over do it here in St Thomas, and besides we had gotten all the little gifts we needed the day before.  We had even gotten Patty’s gift on the ship so there was no need to over do this day.  After breakfast we went ashore and got a new charm for Gina and Dyhana and then went looking for a watch for me and a small gift for Prem.  In Little Switzerland I found just what I needed for a watch.  It is called a swatch, it has a long plastic band so I can wrap it around my wrist twice and put the watch on top of the band to keep the battery off my skin.  I can’t have any metal on my skin or I break out.  It is a pretty watch and the price was right, just $30 for a good watch and I was given a very cute ring for Prem as a gift for getting the watch.   After we got the charms I looked in on Effy’s again.  There are the same stores at each port of all and I had liked that one in Road Town.  There I got a pirates coin showing the Islands, not an old one but nice so we got two and put them on the charm brackets.  We then found one more new store and of course it was another jewelry store and they had a very cute ceramic turtle on a chain for free if you bought something else and there was nothing I wanted except the necklace and I found if I bought one of those for $20 I got the two so that is what I got = one for Prem and one for her sister Dyhana.  Now I was all set and we were hot and tired so we went back to the ship for a later lunch and shower.

Again these bays are small so as we were pulling out another ship was right on our tail moving into our spot.

It was the Princess Line.  Oh, I forgot to mention those orange things you see on the side of the ships are the life boats.  They must have a seat in a life boat for every person on board as well as the staff and crew.  Our ship held almost 5 thousand passengers and over 17 hundred crew and staff.  So that is a lot of life boat room.  

With a last long look at St Thomas we again head out to sea for a day of rest at sea.  It was on this day that we had our only bad weather but the bad weather ended mid morning with a beautiful rainbow.  

You can see a few white caps on the waves this day and there was some movement in the ship but not much.  I didn’t hear of anyone getting sea such.  The most beautiful thing about this rain bow was the fact that ii went right down and into the water. So we had to get a picture of both sides of it. 

You could see the rainbow down into the water.  Norman was in the navy for 4 years and never seen a rainbow like this before.    As you can see it was too close to us to get the the whole thing in one picture. 

When we took this side we noticed there was another rainbow over that one and as we watched it the double rainbow become clearer and brighter and as quickly as it came it was gone.  I am so glad Norman got these picture of it.  We went to see Pricilla of the Desert the night before and liked it so much we went again Thursday night.   And of course spent the afternoon in playing the slots.  When the ships are in port the casino is closed but as soon as you get out to sea about 3 miles they open again and stay open most of the night.  We don’t stay up that late.  Our last day was spent at their private Island.  For that you have to take the tender in as there is no pier and there is no deep bay.  I don’t care to sit out in the sun and Norman was ready to do a little reading so we stayed on board and just walked around the ship, joining in on the games and talking to people.  That night we went to see the comedy show which was very good also, and turned in early – until we were called down to get the flash drive.  Which now holds all our pictures from the cruise.  OH, yes – on that last day we booked the next two cruises and that got us  free money to pay for most of the things we got on the ship.  We have not decided when we will go again but am sure we will go more than twice in the next four years, which is how long we have to book them or give them to some one else.  We had to put up the deposit of $500 dollars which we get back at a rate of $250 when we book each of the next two cruises.  That is what you have to put down as a deposit  when you book a cruise so that $500 is all given back to us and in addition we were given $250 to pay for things we got on board and the $13.50 we each have to pay each day for tips.  There is no tipping required on board anymore but you are taxed for it at the end of the cruise.  Also we each got a lanyard for our credit card.  We had seen those but didn’t want to pay $12.50 for one before, so that was nice.  There are so many things like that they give you on board that you don’t get booking at home.  Now if we don’t have to baby sit in Jan.  we many try to get a last minute deal for a cruise.  They tell me you can get those at half price if you can go on a 24 hour notice, which we can do.

We pulled into Port Canaveral at 6:00 the next morning and because we packed very carefully and had only one suit case that we could handle easily we had breakfast and were in the car coming home by 7:30.  We like walking off the ship because there is no long line that way, even at customs it is right through with no delay.  If you wait for them to unload you luggage they don’t even start letting people off until 9 and those are the ones that have planes to catch.  We have done that before and really like avoiding the crowds.  All in all it was a wonderful cruise and we are almost ready to go again.  Norman has to get rid of his cold first.

Have a great day.