We woke up to a nice partly sunny low to mid 80's day. Almost as good as yesterday in St Marteen. Unfortunately we did wake up with another wake up call from our worker friends upstairs at 6:30am. Lucky Mary and I were able to fall back to sleep and get up about an hour later. The kids were still sleeping as they were tired from the POTC party and movie last night
We ordered some room service and this time they came down with the right croissants (chocolate). We also had some bagels, hot chocolate, and milk. They kids really didn't eat much. I guess they were still full from last night also.
We walked down to the Promenade Lounge and signed in around 8:15am. We were doing the Land and Sea Adventure at Coral World today. This was a little stop at Coral World, whcih is an outdoor (mostly) squarium of sorts with a quick run in a semi submersible sub. What was funny is that they started telling us to get some towels and everyone looked reall confused. Of course we all knew that we were not supposed to get wet on this excursion but someone did not tell the person in charge of the sign ups. Luckily another cast member came over and filled her in and everything was taken care of.
We walked outside and we were met by some reps from Coral World who gave out wristbands. We hoped in some open air buses and headed out into St Thomas. It took a 20 minute ride to get to Coral World. We past such great site seeing stops such as McDonald's, Hooters, and Wendy's. The other areas were really rough, kind of third worldish but not that bad, just rough.
When we arrived at Coral World we were met by another representative who told us what time we should be back for the sub part of our excursion and then we were off on our own to explore. It is a small place and our first stop was at the Coral Reef Encounter. We stayed for a lecture and watched a feeding done by a diver who goes in the tank.
We then hit the area called Shark Shallows. this is a small area where some nurse and black tip sharks are. They are all very young and they are kept here until the get a little older and then they are tagged and released. What was really cool is the lecturer took out a nurse shark and let us pet it. Cool feeling, to pet a shark, even if it is a baby. In case you don't know...Discovery Channel moment by me here because I do know...we were able to pet this shark as you see below because a nurse shark is able to lie on the ocean's bottom, they do not have to constantly swim to survive like other sharks do.
We then saw the really big Sea Turtles being feed. This is a rehab pool and these to Turtles are rehabbing and will eventually be sent on there way.
There is a big bird cage with Lorikeets which is a walk through and a Sting Ray observation. There is an Observation tower where you can look at under the water and watch people to the Sea Trek. They walk under the water and interact with the fishies.
On top of the Observation deck
After about an 1 1/2hrs we went over and met the group for the sub tour.We were going to board the Nautilus IV. We saw a lot of fish, a shipwreck (although tough to see as it was on the other side of the sub), an airplane (it was dumped here as an artificial reef) and a diver went out and fed the fish.
Diver holding a sea cucumber and a sea urchin
Feeding the fishies
It was all finished up by 11:45 and we were on our way back to the ship. The driver asked if anyone was going to go into town and only us and another family said so. So, after he dropped off everyone else he took us into town.
We walked a little around but we were hungry so we asked a local and we were told to try Glady's Cafe. It is down a little alley. They did not have a kid's menu per se but the waitress was nice enough to have the cook make grilled cheese and fries for the kids. Mary had a Swiss cheesebuger with fries and I had a grilled mahi mahi on a bun. I added some hot sauce to it (they had three different kinds). The food was very good.
We saw another Rolex place. As usual I had to go in. This time it would be different. They showed me a different watch almost the same as the other one but nicer but for some reason this was the same price as the one I saw in St Thomas. The one I saw in St Thomas was $400 less. I broke down after Mary kept nagging me to buy it. So I am now a proud owner of a Rolex. We also got a $50 gift certificate to use in thier store, which included other jewelry, perfume or liqour. Mary didnt want anything so we bought a bottle of wine and 2 bottles of Bailey's.
We decided to head back as it was starting to get cloudy. The taxi ride was $4pp. We walked over to the ship and it seemed like the boarding was taking forever. Just as we were getting into the ship it started to drizzle and just as I handed my KTTW cards in the weather outside turned nasty. It started to POUR. Man I felt bad for the folks on line behind me, but hey we were dry...oh well. We walked upstairs to the room and by the time we got there, the rain was over and done with.
We realxed in the room a little (kids and I) and Mary went to the gym. I ordered room service for the kids because I think I forgot to tell you, it was Palo Dinner night for Mommy and Daddy. Plus I get to show the Rolex off right away
Moira just wanted a Caesar salad and James ended up ordering Steak and Scallops. They both got the Double Fudge Chocolate Cake. The food was off the Lumiere's menu and the dessert was from Animator's.
The kids and Mary then went souvenir shopping while I got ready for Palo. When it was time for our reservation, 8pm, the kids went to the Club. We walked up and were seated promptly by Petro, the Matre D' and our server was Fernando again. This was great. He obviously remembered us from the Brunch and what was great is Petro remembered us also. We talked to Fernando at length and found out that he has worked for
DCL for 7 years and this was his second contract as a Palo server. He also lives in Peru but is from Chile (or vice versa). We couldn't believe how tough it is for him to be away from his wife and kids for 6 months at a time. He is a great guy and a great server.
To the food. We started our night off with a nice glass of Asti Spumate champagne and then had some clamari, tuna capaccio, prosciutto pizza (excellent), rack of lamb, scallops, lobster ravioli and of course, shocolate souffles for dessert. Fernando came with some lime sorbet after the appetizers and vanilla flambe for an extra dessert. He also treated us to a lime sorbet, champagne and vodka after dinner drink. It was fabulous. Obviously we were stuffed. Ask for Fernando if you are going he was great.
Our plan was to go to Sessions to have a drink or two but we were two pooped so we headed back to the room and relaxed a little while before we picked up the kids around 10:30pm. They did some pillow cases that night at the club but it seemed they lost theirs or misplaced them. The counselors gave them new ones and told them they could come back Friday night and make it up.
Next up Thursday: at sea Day
Just another animal hanging around in our room
. But I tried it anyway and held it down the best I could.
You're report is helping me get through till this coming Saturday when we finally get to board the Magic! 
Thanks again! 
