It has been a hot, sunny day here in St. Thomas. We met the Captain last evening and he promised to get us from island to island but we were responsible for the weather. We did a great job today! We are the smallest ship in the Princess fleet and across the dock to our port side is the largest in the fleet, the Royal Princess.
We sailed the outer route from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Thomas so we were actually in the Atlantic rather than the Caribbean. The weather was pleasantly warm and fresh with no real humidity. As we sailed into the Caribbean both the temperature and humidity rose considerably, just what we came for.
We had our first formal evening on Sunday and the ship has more decorations daily. There is a display of gingerbread houses in the atrium and every public room has a decorated tree. There are a few, very few, children on board so it will probably be a relatively quiet Christmas morning. The food has been more than acceptable and restaurant service is pretty normal based on our experience. The entertainment has been quite good. We had a comedian for the first couple of days and he did a fine job. The vocalist last evening was a fellow from Montreal and he represented Canada well. We have a retired CSI on board and he is sharing his experiences through a lecture series—with photos! Yum!
The stage shows on a small ship such as the Ocean Princess (30,000 tons and 652 guests) are a bit different. Firstly, the theatre is quite intimate with the performers only inches away from the first row of seats. Secondly, the performers (singers and dancers) also serve as assistants to the Cruise Director on a daily basis. On larger ships performers may be almost invisible between shows. There are more than 25 nationalities represented on the ship. About half of the guests are from the USA, there are about half as many Canadians as Americans and a fair representation from the UK.
We have been in St. Thomas many times but we went ashore briefly this morning and explored the port of Crown Bay. I have been intrigued by the GoPro camera and I apparently one will be returning home with me. More on this later but I did resist buying the surfboard mount.
Here are some friends at the port. They are pan handlers too!
