March 28 St. Croix/ St. Thomas

[kcashner]

I may or may not post a real trip report later, but wanted to post a few details that I hadn't seen elsewhere.

DD wanted internet access and I didn't want to pay the ship prices. We asked at Guest Services, but they weren't aware of any on St. Croix (they are now!). On Strand Street across the street from where the ship docks, there is a dark yellow building. It holds a rum store, gift shop, art gallery, Budget car rental, and internet cafe. Yeah...interesting combination....very nice people. Internet was $5 for 15 minutes or free with any purchase. DD bought a $15 t-shirt and was on line for about 35 minutes. They never say how long you get free with purchase, but they didn't ask her to get off either. They also had international cell phones available--I think they were $3 for 30 minutes.

St. Croix also has a public beach within 5 minutes walk from the pier. It was rocky, but otherwise very nice. The snorkeling was interesting--not terrible "rich," but I saw things I'd never seen before. You will want water shoes if planning to swim. There are beach chairs, etc. to rent (nice ones), but we got a couple free from people who were leaving. They said someone else had passed them on to them....

We found St. Croix to be a very friendly port--no one was shoving merchandise or hair braiding at you. They were welcoming, but not pushy. The tourist agency was even giving away free t-shirts and postcards as we got off the ship!

At St. Thomas, there is an internet cafe at the end of the dock (large sign painted on the building). The cost was $2 for up to 5 hours if you have your own laptop, $2 for 15 minutes if you use one of their computers. The building also has a restaurant, pool tables, etc. It's a hang out for the crew.

 

[skohrs]

I think that was me who passed the beach chairs on to you (that had been given to us earlier). That was a very pretty little section of beach there on St. Croix. I'm glad we could pass the seats along to another DISer.

I think you were also there with your DD and my family (DW, DS15, DD13, DD6, DS6) in the gym at the spa the first day waiting for the drawing for the free spa service. We were not at all surprised when the lady that didn't even know there was a drawing but just happened to be passing through won the free spa treatment (she was asked at the last minute if she wanted to enter the drawing, then her entry went right on top). It always happens that way. Sorry if it bothered you that my kids were in the spa with us. When we were going into the spa to put our entries in for the drawing, we were telling our older teenagers to take the 6-year-olds out for a walk around the deck because they were not allowed in the spa, but all of the spa CMs told us that kids were allowed in on the first day for the tours and that we should bring them. It made us uncomfortable because of everything I read on these boards about kids in adult areas, but what could we do once our kids heard the CMs telling them that they could come in? Anyway, they were never in another adult area for the rest of the cruise.