It was a sunny morning when we awoke as the ship was already being tied up at the Pier in St. Thomas. Last night we had decided to try and visit Meagan’s Bay, a popular beach on St. Thomas. We were not in a hurry, so we slept in a little, starting to move around about 8:30 AM. We had apparently slept through the announcement given at 8:00 AM that signified the ship was ready to disembark passengers. We were thinking that there must have been a delay, but when we looked outside from the balcony, passengers were already going ashore.
We got ready and headed to breakfast in the buffet. It was quite crowded, apparently a lot of passengers had not gotten up early to go ashore today, just like us. St. Thomas is probably one of the most frequented stops for cruises, so a lot of the passengers have likely been here before, and not in a big hurry to get off of the ship.
After breakfast, we headed back to the room to put on sunscreen and our bathing suits. We gathered up our gear and headed off of the ship to get a taxi to Meagan’s Bay. They use a lot of vans and open air trucks for taxi’s here, so we had to wait until there was enough people to fill a van that was the next taxi in line at the exit of the port terminal. It was not a pleasant experience, some of the drivers were not happy with the dispatcher that was directing passengers where to wait and what taxi to get into, almost to the point of getting into arguments. We finally had ten passengers for our van, enough for a full load, so off we went.
We have never been to Meagan’s Bay, and the drive was interesting, since the beach is on the other side of the island. We went up and up on a steep, winding road, and when we got to the top, we went down and down, also on a very steep and winding road. We finally got to the beach, and paid the $4.00 per person entry fee to the park.
We headed to the beach and although it was nice, it was not as spectacular as all of the write-ups and reviews had suggested. It was possibly due to the windy, rainy weather that had been in St. Thomas yesterday. And although today was sunny, there was still a lot of clouds, and a the sky was hazy with moisture.
We sat on our beach towels for a while, and then decided to walk to the other end of the long beach. It was more peaceful at the other end, so we put down our towels and stayed there and took some photos.
After a while, we headed back to the middle of the beach area to sit on a picnic table and dry off. We took this opportunity to call home and get an update on all of the rain and flooding. We did not know it was so bad, but luckily, both of our mom’s were safe, and everything was OK at the house.
We had also been getting some information via text messaging, which is free through Verizon on St. Thomas. Unfortunately, we had to purchase a special plan to be able to make calls through Verizon since they do not provide cell service in St. Thomas for calls.
We headed back to the taxi dispatch area and after a short wait, boarded a taxi heading to downtown Charlotte Amalie, the port city. We got off in the downtown area and walked to the Trident Jewelry Store to visit with them. I had them resize a watch band I had purchased before the trip, but did not have the special pin removal tool for taking out some links for sizing. We talked with our buddy Mash that we had met on the previous stop in St. Thomas, and he got us a Bushwhacker drink to sip on while we visited. We had told him we would be back today, and he was happy we had come by. Since the Royal Princess was the only ship in port today, there were not a lot of shoppers, so I think the staff in the store was a little bored.
After a short visit, we left and headed for the Green House, a local eatery and bar. We had a couple of Presidente Beers and a Macho Nacho platter. It was really good, and we used their free WiFi on our phones to catch up on email and Facebook. There were a lot of pictures on Facebook showing the flooding at home, which was so much worse than we had imagined.
After the late lunch, we took a taxi back to the ship. We stopped along the rocks of the harbor because there were several large Iguanas that hang out there, and Stephanie wanted to see them. She did not have any food, so she was teasing them with a piece of paper to get them to come nearer for some photos.
We boarded the ship and headed up to the room for some refreshments while we waited for the ship to leave. We watched the ship’s departure from the balcony, and enjoyed the nice breeze as we cleared the main channel and headed south.
We showered and got dressed for dinner, we were opting for the Mongolian Bar-B-Que that was being served in the buffet. We had really enjoyed it on the previous cruise, and it was just as good tonight.
After dinner, we walked around some of the shops in the Atrium. There was not a lot going on tonight for entertainment, so we headed back to the room to watch a movie on the TV from the large listing of free On Demand movies.
We also prepared or snorkel gear for tomorrow’s stop in Dominica, where we are doing an all day island tour through an independent tour company.
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