February 04, 2020

Feb 3, St Thomas

The seas remained calm through the night, there was little motion to the ship. We arrive in St Thomas and share the pier with Royal's Vision Of The Seas. At the other pier, closer to town, there is a Carnival ship. Too far away to read her name.

The Vision looks good. In October during our passage thru the Panama Canal, the sides were left with lots of missing paint. Face it, it is a tight fit, and any slight touch between concrete walls and a 100 thousand ton ship is going to leave a mark. most likely on the ship. The Vision will be doing 10 and 11 day Caribbean cruises next year, and I will probably be on her for a few of those.

The weather remains perfect. The current temperature is 79 and it is expected to reach a high of only 82 or 83 today. No rain, sunny skies. What more could one ask for.

I elect to stay on the ship and use the pool. At first the water is a little cool, but I soon adjust. The hot tub temperature is cool enough that it takes a long time before it begins to feel too hot.

Unfortunately the pool depth is too much for me to reach bottom, so walking in the pool is out of the question, but the  salt water makes floating and swimming easy.

The crew practices righting an inflatable life raft in the main pool, an activity that  is repeated for different crew members each week.

Pann and Terry have never been here before so they take a tour around the island. Steve and Adrienne meet a friend for diving. It is the first time for Steve, he is talking about getting his certification. He loved it. As always Adrienne returned with several areas of skin rash, but fortunately no serious injuries.

Even though prime rib is on the menu, I elect to go to the Windjammer. Two slices of Island pizza. Ham, cheese, pineapple and BBQ sauce. Yummy!

Yesterday I had the first issue with room keys in a long time. OK it was all my fault, I left the stateroom and left the key on the counter. Not being able to get back in my room, I go to the front desk to get a new key. No problem, and my replacement is gold as it should be instead of blue. Returning to the cabin, it doesn't work. 

Fortunately the cabin steward is nearby and lets me in. I think the problem is bigger. I now have one key that will open the door, and a second that must be used for any charges etc. Not acceptable. Back to the front desk. They are surprised that the key just printed didn't work, but they have a machine to check them and sure enough it is not readable. Key #3 works fine. 

It could be worse. A few years ago I went thru about 10 keys on one trip because they stoped working. 

After dinner, 30 minues of Perry is enough and it is time for sleep. Sleep that has lasted over 10 hours every night.