Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Caribbean Cruise (2006)--Day 6
4/27/2006
St. Thomas
What an island! Our first views of this magnificent place gave the initial impression that this would be a special stop on our tour, and we weren't disappointed. A slight delay due to my lack of planning and reading wouldn't mar this day one bit.
This is what happened; since we were heading back into U.S. territory (St. Thomas is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands), we were required to pass through an "immigration inspection". Inspection? This consisted of simply making sure that every passenger had a Sea Pass Card and either a passport or a picture I.D. and a birth certificate.
So here we were, bright and early with only about 20 people in front of us. A crew member told us in line what the requirements were and I realized that we probably had improper identification, only having our drivers' licenses. Our passports were securely locked up...back in our stateroom! Sure enough, the immigration officer verified such, and was nice enough about it, but back to the end of the line went Patty while I raced back to our room to get our passports. Even with this delay, we completed the immigration process in less than half and hour and were off the ship and joining our tour group for The Best Of St. Thomas.
Today's tour took place in an open-air bus, nice if you're taking pictures while the bus in en route. Up into the mountains we went with four stops at wonderful vantage points. The roads here (especially up in the hills) can be narrow, and if one isn't careful, you can end up with the kind of "incident" we experienced when a passing car came too close to our bus as it crowded (out of necessity) the center-line. We heard the shattering of glass and glanced back to see we'd taken the side mirror completely off the passing car! We kept going and the car kept going and I was somewhat surprised that nobody bothered to stop.
The movement of the bus and the elevation kept the temps in the bus fairly comfortable until we got back into the town of Charlotte Amalie. It was packed with pedestrians and traffic with a carnival going on, so the inside of the bus was fairly cooking by the time our driver dropped us off a couple of blocks from the ship. Once again, t-shirts, hats and the like were incredibly cheap here and I managed to pick up a decent t-shirt for just $2.99!
St. Thomas rating: 9
Tonight was a special treat for both of us as we went to Chops Grille to celebrate (albeit one day early) Patty's birthday. Here we experienced as nice a dining experience as we'd ever encountered. This was a true five-course meal and by the time we rolled out of the place, we
were completely stuffed. Before we ordered, our head waiter, Oscar, rolled out a tray with displays of the different meats and fishes they had available, and it was quite the array; Alaskan Halibut, Petite Filet, 10-oz Filet, Grilled Lamb Loin, and so on. Being primarily steak lovers, we both ordered the 10-oz filet, and it arrived cooked to perfection.
At one point, Patty left to go to the restroom and here was the true test; would a waiter come along and refold her napkin? Sure enough, he did! It reminded us of our experience at Emeril's Restaurant in Orlando and was good for a giggle. Service of this type is seldom afforded us, and never in Duluth.
For the price ($20/person), you couldn't beat Chops. Compliments to Oscar and the entire staff at this top-notch restaurant! Rating: 10
Arrival in St. Thomas
St. Thomas tour
St. Thomas tour
St. Thomas tour
Departure from St. Thomas
Previous: 4/26/2006--Our Caribbean Cruise (2006)--Day 5
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