So Ill be honest. I was a little concerned about St. Croix. Before our cruise, I read bad publicity about the island. Apparently, the
Disney cruise before us had a rough time, and Disney might have put the island on notice since so many people asked for their money back on excursions. The news story was a little vague, because Disney wouldnt talk to the newspaper (which was the St. Croix paper) but it was clear that the tourism folks took the warnings seriously. They had a lot of training before our visit, according to the paper.
So I didnt go into it with high expectations. We started our morning with room service (I recognized the voice on the other line almost the minute she picked up. She was a riot.) We got English Muffins and cereal to serve as a real breakfast, since we werent planning to go to a dining room. And then DH dropped DD off at the club before I got my bathing suit on. I just couldnt put it on in front of her, and tell her she couldnt come with us. But the excursion was for kids older than her, so I didnt have the option of bringing her. The club opened early on days when your in port early. It was open at 7:30 this day. (9 a.m. usually.) We actually had to take her to the lab, where they had all of the kids that morning. A short time later, they moved the little ones to the club.
At 8:15, we had to meet at Diversions. The time was listed on tickets left in our room. It was also listed on the front of the navigator for the day. After everyone arrived, we followed a guide off the ship. She took us to a guy named Brook, who was with Island Networks. I cant say nice enough things about him or the excursion. We really love the water, and this was the first day on this cruise where it was nice enough to really enjoy the water. So this excursion was a highlight for us.
OK, So I didnt take pictures on the excursion. We should have gotten a waterproof camera. But we didnt. So the pictures Im posting we took later in the afternoon, after the guide took his second group out. We also got a few from our window.
This is the one from our verandah. No idea who is on the boats.
And these are from when we went back out later in the day. The guy in the pic is Brook.
So, we followed Brook to the other end of the pier, where the boats were docked. He gave us a little primer on the safety gear (we all had to wear safety vests on the boat.) They had us each pick up our snorkeling gear. Now my hubby has large feet and he said the fins he picked up were a bit snug. They fit, but he thought they were snug. I picked up a smaller pair, and was just fine. They had masks and snorkels for us all, and water vests. Brook said all of the gear was cleaned in a bleach wash between uses. It all seemed clean.
We all got on the boats (now Im a little freakish about climbing into a boat from a pier. Theres no good reason for this, Im just crazy and worried Im going to make a fool of myself and possibly hurt myself in front of a bunch of people.
Im actually more concerned about making a fool of myself more than hurting myself, but we all have our priorities.)
But there was nothing to worry about no falling in the water. No making a fool of myself. All was fine.
Brook then told the drivers (who in our case was my hubby) how to operate the boats. My hubby has been on many boats, so this wasnt an issue. But I dont think everyone with us had operated a boat before, and it seemed like clear direction to someone like me. (None of us had any difficulty with out boats or equipment, that I heard about. And since we were all close, I think I would have heard if there was a problem.)
So a group of maybe eight boats (most of us had two people in a boat, but one person had his own boat) followed Brook and another guide. Actually, the other guide was in his own boat initially, but had technical difficulties, so he ended up with Brook. Brook took us to our first snorkeling area. It was pretty murky, because of a front that had just come through. Nothing the folks at St. Croix could do about that.
But the water was nice, the equipment was easy to use and on this first stop, we had about 45 minutes in the water.
The only downside for this for me was when I felt a stinging sensation (like a bee sting) on my left hand and then on my right thigh. I was certain this was what people were talking about when they mentioned sea lice in trip report.
It kind of hurt but the sensation passed enough that I was able to continue swimming (and I really am a wimp about pain, so I can assure you if it was really bad I would have been crying or something close to it.)
After a while, I decided to get back in the boat. (Little bit of a struggle to get back in. My hubby got up first and helped pull me up. Fortunately, everyone was doing their own thing, so I dont think I made much a fool of myself. I asked Brook if I had been stung by sea lice. He said he doubted it. Instead, he said it was likely a really small jellyfish. Well, now I didnt feel so silly about thinking the stinging hurt. By this point, I could see little red dots where I was stung, but the stinging was about gone. (I never felt it later, and the red marks were gone that afternoon. So if was a jelly fish, it was a baby one that did very little harm. I'm assuming it wasn't sea lice, because it only got me on those two areas - and that doesn't sound like sea lice.)
We then rode around on the boats a little, stopping on occasion so we could get photos of the ship. We then went to a beach area for more snorkeling.
The water was clearer in the second location. We swam a little, then went to shore to sit on the beach. First thing to note here is the sand was really coarse. When it was on you, it was hard to get off. I found sand for days (I do realize that was Too Much Information, but its the truth.) And the water was very rocky near the shore. So if you go to the beach on St. Croix, please be careful of the rocks. The waves were pretty rough, so a few times I got pulled back on the rocks. It wasnt really dangerous, but you could get hurt if youre not a strong swimmer. There may be other beach areas with less rocks, and Im sure plenty of days when the waves arent very strong. But just something to warn people about.
OK, now for a little more Too Much Information. We hit the shore and I just have to go to the bathroom. Like RIGHT THEN.
I heard one of the guides tell another person on our excursion that there were bathrooms where we were going, but I didnt pay close enough attention to where. And the beach area was decently steep. Im not even close to in shape. (Exercise seems like a waste of time when theres all that relaxing, reading, eating and watching tv to do. I would love to say Im joking, but that would be a lie.) So I was just exhausted by the time I got to the area where there were bathrooms. But I made it in time. YIPPEE.
But the thought of walking back to where we left our fins, masks and vests just seemed too much when I returned. So my hubby walked back to get them and I met him half way. Then we walked out in the water backwards with our fins on. This took a little navigating, first not to lose our fins before we actually got them completely on the waves almost took them away. And then to get over the rocks. But as soon as we did, we just swam out. Fortunately, we werent the last to get to the boat. This time I slipped when getting on the boat, but my hubby helped pull me up.
The bottom line on this trip was it was great. I really had a wonderful time. In retrospect, I would say I wouldnt have gone to the beach area, but I would have had to anyway to go to the bathroom. So not much I could have done differently there. The cost was $79 a person through Disney, which I thought was pretty reasonable.
We then took the boats back to the pier and climbed out no problems there either. We were back by 12:30ish, I think. Now we didnt bring any money to tip our guide, which I never thought about. So my husband had it in his mind that he would try to tip him later, if we saw him. Turns out we did.
We headed straight back to the boat didnt look around the island yet at all. We decided we would grab lunch (since our DD would have already eaten at the club) and then get our DD. I think we ran by topsiders, but didnt love what they were having. I think it was Asian day. Just nothing appetizing. I ended up getting a burger at Plutos. The fries were fabulous. Really very good. Then we went back to the room. But my burger would have to get a little cold, because I had to get a shower to get all of the sand off of me or most of it.
Up next: Afternoon on St. Croix, Twice Charmed and Topsiders for dinner
Hell be less amused with that comment than me, but its true!) But no great pics this night - it was like a day before we realized the code to getting our little to smile for real and not her cheesy smile. 
She did talk a ton, but just asking a lot of questions about the characters. I will say the place was packed, and we had to sit quite a ways back. But we still had a great view, no problems there. 
