Day 5: The Shark, The Subway, and The Obsession
St. Thomas day! It dawned bright and beautiful just like every other day on this voyage! The weather was completely and spectacularly wondrous. I was up at 6:00 am, went up top to watch our approach into St. Thomas, and took lots of pictures.
I let my friend borrow my yacht and meet us for the day in St. Thomas.
Actually, I don't have any way of verifying this, but more than one person told us that was Tiger Woods' yacht.
At 7:45 am I went back to check on my wife who was still asleep (sleepy head) so I left her be and went back out again. My morning travels brought me by the Future Cruise desk on Deck 4 where I became mesmerized by the flyers there advertising special rates on select sailings next Summer during the Magic Med cruises. The seed became firmly
actually, more fused, in my brain at that moment.
So I just took this time to wander and enjoy the emptiness of the ship at this time of morning. At 8:45 am I went back to the room to check on the girls and they were up and getting ready for the day. My wife and I went up to Topsiders to do our usual, while our daughter stayed in the room to finish getting ready. I cant recall why exactly, but I decided to eat a different type of breakfast this morning. Maybe here at the beginning of day 5 I was starting to feel the grease of days and days worth of sausage and bacon and French toast and waffles coursing through my bloodstream making it thick and gelatinous and difficult to travel from tip of toe to brain. Maybe my innards were telling my brain that if one more ounce of sludge slid down my gullet a gallon of sludge was gonna shoot back up it. Whatever the case, breakfast this morning was Raisin Bran and fruit.
Over breakfast I told my wife about the special offer on the Med cruises and the seed transferred to her. This turned into an obsession over the course of the day. It was as if the brilliant St. Thomas sun warmed and nurtured the Med sailing seeds firmly embedded in our craniums and caused them to grow and bud into something enticing and titillating!
We found ourselves at nearly 10 minute intervals throughout our time in this port saying something about the Med cruise. We wondered what things we could sacrifice to make it happen? Could we live on gruel and rice for a year? Could we deal with licking the floor underneath our stove for a snack? Never see a movie again? All good questions! Italy, Rome, Florence, Venice
its our dream vacation. Top of the list dream vacation, so the thought of cruising with
DCL over there for 10 or 11 nights is just
well
dreamy! So the seed was planted. Wed just let it bake in the nutrients of our brains for a bit.
Unlike Tortola day, we had absolutely no plans for St. Thomas. Two years ago on our previous cruise, we had taken a Disney excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John which we dearly loved, but due to the penny-pinching theme of this cruise we decided that The Baths of Tortola would be our big port splurge and St. Thomas day would be just a wander and shop day.
And the view from our stateroom window once we were all pulled in.
So by 9:45 am we were all set to get off the ship. It was great because two years ago in this port we had to tender in, but this time we were pulled right up to the dock at Havensight Mall. This is where we started. We just wandered and looked around poking our head in shop after shop, most of them jewelry. We werent in the market for any jewelry this trip so we focused on the other stores and more gift shop type places.
We found this little treasure!
What in the world? I mean
really? What is it about the psychology of the human brain that made me not even want to touch this thing? I suppose Ive seen too many scary movies, but the thought of the shark starting to thrash around right there in the bottle and biting through the glass seemed a possibility to me. Formaldehyde-soaked Zombie Shark! ON THE LOOSE!!
So anyway
after our fill of the Havensight Mall we hopped a taxi to downtown! Acquiring a taxi is so easy on these Caribbean islands. At least the ones that Ive been to. There was a gaggle of open air taxis clumped right there next to the mall with a gentleman sorting the approaching masses into taxis depending on your desired destination. So we were sorted into the downtown Charlotte Amalie taxi and away we went. We were dropped at the beginning of a looooooong strip of shopping down that main street there right at the waterfront. We wandered and popped in and out of shops, and we headed back a ways from the main strip there to go deeper into that downtown area. I was immediately taken by this area.
There are so many small, narrow alleyways that are enticingly picturesque in architecture and ambiance.
And then
there it was. Rising out of the downtown streetscape like a golden orb of honey. Sandwich euphoria.
You dont understand. Subway is my daughters life force. It is her sustenance of choice. It is the food that she could eat three times a day for the remainder of her days and she would never utter a single complaint. So to see it beckoning from across the way caused a glee and a giddiness within her that, sad to say, nothing on the ship could bring out in her. Turkey and cheese on Italian herb and cheese bread, lightly toasted, with mayo and pickles. It made her week.
The place was a little rough around the edges, but certainly not a pit either. The food tasted good, the inside was clean
the Subway was a pleasant surprise. Yes folks, we were in a Caribbean island, on beautiful St. Thomas surrounded by culture, and cuisine, and local flare
and we ate at a Subway. Its true.
After Subway our wandering commenced. We ended up in Del Sol playing with the sunlight boxes making things change color. I was sure to stand a good bit back from them though because I hadnt caked the sunscreen on today as I did on Tortola. By about 12:30 we were starting to grow weary and hot so we hopped the taxi back to ship, and we were back on board by 1:00 pm.
Up Next: A U-Turn and Pool Scoop