Gorgeous views and fantastic snorkeling in St. Thomas
Our First Cruise, Day 4: St. Thomas
We were super excited about our first port day, especially me. I’ve been wanting to visit St. Thomas for 17 years — ever since my mother visited it when I was a teen. St. Thomas is beautiful to look at as a whole. The water is bright and clear, and the buildings and homes dotting the mountainsides are lovely. There are restaurants and shops almost as soon as you get off the ship but they’re all super touristy. I was disappointed to see so many of the same shops we see at home, but I imagine Charlotte Amalie is probably where we would of found more unique shops. Karl and I thoroughly enjoyed taking the Skyride to Paradise Point, a restaurant and shopping area with gorgeous views of St. Thomas and the sea. Afterwards we took a taxi to Coki Beach on the northeast side of the island and had the most amazing time snorkeling. We picked up a few trinkets, including a St. Thomas themed Christmas ornament before returning to the ship. It was a really lovely day.
Havensight, St. Thomas
Upon boarding the ship we were given a SeaPass card that served as our room key, personal identification, and passport. Our SeaPasses were each scanned when we got off the ship and then we were allowed to walk through a gate on the dock and go about our island adventures.
Beautiful Island Views at Paradise Point
Paradise Point was really neat. The views were phenomenal. Up close St. Thomas isn’t all that pretty but the overall view is amazing. There were shops and a restaurant at the top of Paradise Point, including a large display of Parrots that were super cute. We ate some tasty, but really messy, nachos covered with lettuce, and tried the signature Bailey’s Bushwacker: a blend of Baileys, Kahlua, Amaretto, Dark Creme De Cacao Smirnoff Vodka, Paradise Rum, and Coco Lopez topped with Whipped Cream, nutmeg, and a cherry.
Snorkeling at Coki Beach
We took at taxi from Paradise Point to Coki Beach, which was recommended by the taxi driver. $20 for a 15 minute ride. The ride to the beach wasn’t very pretty. We passed lots of shops we can find at home like Payless, K-Mart, and various fast food chains. The areas we drove through appeared weathered and unkempt.
Coki Beach was really nice. We rented chairs under a pretty tree and snorkel gear and spent almost two hours in the water watching dozens of different types of fish. We were given milk bones to feed to the fish and had the best time watching them swarm around us for food. Surprisingly, only a few nibbled on us.
Return to Port
We headed back to Havensight around 4:30, our cab driver took a beautiful scenic route that I kept wishing we could stop on to take pictures. All three groups in the van kept passing cameras back and forth to try to capture pictures as we zoomed around the mountainside. Taxi Ride $10 each.
We did a little souvenir shopping when we got back before heading to the ship. Most of the shops at the port are jewelry stores. Jewelry is shopping seems to be the main sales push both on the ship and the island. There were a few typical souvenir shops, and one really cool Turkish pottery shop. So far the shopping seems to cater to the very rich.
Returning to the ship.
Farewell St. Thomas
Back on the ship we showered and went to Windjammer for a very late lunch at 6:30 pm. We got to enjoy the evening views of St. Thomas but it was too dark to get good pictures by the time we finished eating. We walked around the deck and enjoyed the night views of St. Thomas before returning to the room to get ready for dinner.
Dinner at Leonardo’s
I had another yummy fruit soup: Chilled Mango and Pineapple, Chicken Gyoza, and Warm Chocolate Cake. Karl ordered Seared Beef Carpaccio, Roasted Rack of Lamb, and Warm Chocolate Cake. The servers were all in Hawaiian shirts this evening and danced for us at the end of the night. I recorded a video of Wu, our assistant waiter, who is super sweet and fun.
After dinner Karl and I wandered around the Promenade looking in Jewelry shops. We talked to two nice girls in one shop, one from the Ukraine, the other from Russia, who gave us tips on Saint Martin, and told us about life working on a cruise ship. What a fun day!
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