Wednesday - St. Thomas - We were dreading the immigration after reading these boards, but it really wasn't a big deal. They do give you a note in your cabin the night before with instructions re: immigration. Everyone must report between 7-9am...before anyone is allowed off the ship in St. Thomas(so the note said). We wanted to do another excursion on our own that day...so we planned on being one of the 1st ones in line...get it over with...go have breakfast...and wait for the announcement saying it was ok to get off. We were down there a little before 7am...no line...we showed our photo id and birth certificate and we were out of there in under 1 min. We then went up to Parrot Cay and had a great buffet breakfast. We had been eating breakfast at the Topsiders Buffet for the past few days...Parrot Cay is so much better. We later found out that all the food is prepared in Parrot Cay and then transported up the Topsiders...we found Topsiders to be just ok...we were pretty disappointed in it...very rubbery, soggy bacon...they do have an omlet station which was popular. The food in Parrot Cay was much fresher (crisp bacon), more varieties of fresh fruit (blueberries, mango) compared to Topsiders, plus they also have a omlet station. Anyway...right as we were finishing eating...they made the announcement that those who have been thru immigration were cleared to get of the ship...it was around 8:15...much earlier than the note said.
We were off the ship and headed to Coki Beach by 8:25. We chose Coki because of the recommendations on this board. Again, our cab driver wanted to know how we knew about Coki...he said most tourists choose Megans Bay (which is gorgeous...we've been before). We loved Coki better though. It is also run by locals, so you can rent a chair and umbrella. There are several restaurants on the Beach, plus waiters walk around taking drink orders...women were also there braiding hair. This beach is amazing. It is near Coral World, which is one of DCL excursions (an aquarium), so it has lots of reefs with great snorkeling...especially to the Right, near the rocks, going toward Coral World...pretty good on the far left near the rocks too. The surrounding area is gorgeous...mountainous. The water was smooth, no waves, totally clear blue, gorgeous fish swimming all around. We actually didn't care for Castaway Cay as much as everyone raves about it because this beach is sooo much prettier with much better snorkeling. We stayed til 2:30 and didn't want to leave then. It is smaller than Dawn Beach, but was plenty big...seems everyone there was either from DCL or Carnival. It was a 10min cab ride @ $7 per person each way.
We had the cab driver (they hang out at the beach waiting to get cruisers back to the ships) drop us off near the shops by the ship...I bought a nice pair of earrings (good prices compared to USA), DH bought Tshirts.
We chose to do Palo tonight because it was our Animators Palate night and that was our least favorite menu. We made early ressies, 6pm, because we still wanted to go to our AP 8:30 seating in order to see the Light Show they do during dinner. Palo is as wonderful as everyone says...top notch service and food...you can't beat it for just $5 per person (plus tip). We split Calamari...excellent, each had the fresh mozzarella and tomato salad which was so good... could eat it everyday. I had the fish special which was Mahi-Mahi...great, DH had the pumpkin stuffed ravioli with shrimp sauce (he wanted to try something different...it was very good). We both had a cappucino and the famous Chocolate Souffle for dessert...it was amazing...they pour Vanilla and Chocolate sauce into it after they bring it to the table. (We found the Grand Marnier Souffle in Lumieres and the Chocolate Lava cake at the Capt. Gala to be very similar).
We were done there by about 7:50. Went to our normal AP seating at 8:30 and both only got an appetizer...Lobster and shrimp wrapper...this was great. The light show was neat to see and we are glad we decided not to skip out on it because of Palo.
Part 4 later...
We were off the ship and headed to Coki Beach by 8:25. We chose Coki because of the recommendations on this board. Again, our cab driver wanted to know how we knew about Coki...he said most tourists choose Megans Bay (which is gorgeous...we've been before). We loved Coki better though. It is also run by locals, so you can rent a chair and umbrella. There are several restaurants on the Beach, plus waiters walk around taking drink orders...women were also there braiding hair. This beach is amazing. It is near Coral World, which is one of DCL excursions (an aquarium), so it has lots of reefs with great snorkeling...especially to the Right, near the rocks, going toward Coral World...pretty good on the far left near the rocks too. The surrounding area is gorgeous...mountainous. The water was smooth, no waves, totally clear blue, gorgeous fish swimming all around. We actually didn't care for Castaway Cay as much as everyone raves about it because this beach is sooo much prettier with much better snorkeling. We stayed til 2:30 and didn't want to leave then. It is smaller than Dawn Beach, but was plenty big...seems everyone there was either from DCL or Carnival. It was a 10min cab ride @ $7 per person each way.
We had the cab driver (they hang out at the beach waiting to get cruisers back to the ships) drop us off near the shops by the ship...I bought a nice pair of earrings (good prices compared to USA), DH bought Tshirts.
We chose to do Palo tonight because it was our Animators Palate night and that was our least favorite menu. We made early ressies, 6pm, because we still wanted to go to our AP 8:30 seating in order to see the Light Show they do during dinner. Palo is as wonderful as everyone says...top notch service and food...you can't beat it for just $5 per person (plus tip). We split Calamari...excellent, each had the fresh mozzarella and tomato salad which was so good... could eat it everyday. I had the fish special which was Mahi-Mahi...great, DH had the pumpkin stuffed ravioli with shrimp sauce (he wanted to try something different...it was very good). We both had a cappucino and the famous Chocolate Souffle for dessert...it was amazing...they pour Vanilla and Chocolate sauce into it after they bring it to the table. (We found the Grand Marnier Souffle in Lumieres and the Chocolate Lava cake at the Capt. Gala to be very similar).
We were done there by about 7:50. Went to our normal AP seating at 8:30 and both only got an appetizer...Lobster and shrimp wrapper...this was great. The light show was neat to see and we are glad we decided not to skip out on it because of Palo.
Part 4 later...
