Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 4 - September 28 2011 - St. Thomas US Virgin Islands

Wednesday 9/27 we dock at St. Thomas at 11 AM. We have until 6:30 PM on shore. First picture is our pilot boat that leads the ship in to each port.

A view of Charlotte Amelie from our balcony.

Below is our ship in the process of "parallel" parking between 2 other large ships. This was Amazing to watch. It basically pull into place, then moved Sideways in between the other ships with barely Inches to spare! Quite a Job!

I agonized over RC excursions for this stop. And finally, after talking to my brother who has been here several times, took his advice to just take a cab to wherever I wanted to go. My main direction.......getting a Jetski! LOL So I got a cab to Sapphire Beach where I had read that I could rent a jetski. Quite a Beautiful beach with clear turquoise water.

I found the marina and the guy who rents jetskis!!! The cost was Ridiculously high! $120 for an hour! OUCH! It was only $65 per hour in Cabo on the Mexico cruise 2 years ago. But this was what I was heading to do, so I did it!

I went out by myself, but the guy went out of the marina with me to show me the boundries of where I could go. That was a disappointment. I planned to head over to St. John and all around the island of St. Thomas. But I had a well defined triangle where I could go. It was a large area however & Off I Went, 50 mph over waves, current and had the Time of my Life! :-)

THEN, when an hour was up, the guy came out & waved me in. He waited for me to Race up to him, then we both took off. I'm feeling Pretty Cocky now, Flying over waves at top speed. He hits the wake of a boat, which of Course, I do too. Most Air I ever caught!!! FUN!!!! Then we were back over turquoise water, nearly at the entry to the marina...........next thing I know, I'm Off the jetski and In the Water!!! First time Ever I have ended up off a jetski! I hit the water Hard, right on my right rib cage. I was hobbling around holding my side for the next coup days! It still hurts, but I wouldn't have missed that time for the World!

Afterwards, I went in the water for awhile, then grabbed a cab to Magens Beach which I have heard is one of the top 10 beaches in the world to see. I actually thought Sapphire beach was prettier, but I Had to see Magens. :-)

Below are pictures of me in the water with all of my waterproof Stuff. I had a camera stolen in Mexico a few years back, so I now leave Nothing alone on the beach other than maybe a towel! I have waterproof boxes & pouches & as silly as it probably looks......I just take everything in the water with me. I was by myself so had noone to watch my stuff. This worked Perfectly however. :-)

Downtown Charlotte Amelie is basically all duty free shops. Jewelry, alcohol, cigars, table linens.........I never did find a quaint little local art shop. They did have an open air flea market however, but I ran out of time to get to see that.

This was just a window I thought was cool.

There were no classes today. We had some time to just relax on the balcony.

Or on the bed with the monkey! ;-)

I had been to St. Thomas probably 20+ years ago when my husband had a conference in Puerto Rico. We got flights for a Great price IF we spent at least 2 nights in 3 locations. So we spend 3 days in New Orleans, then on to the conference, then spent a week on Tortola which was Wonderful. We stayed one night in Charlotte Amelie before heading to Tortola and one night when we returned. We didn't see too much, but I remembered all of the duty free shopping. If I stayed on St. Thomas sometime, I'd really want to adventure more around the island, not spend time in the downtown area.

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 3 - September 27 2011 At Sea

Tuesday 9/27 we were at sea. Today is our first big project. I was in Group A and our class was from 9 - 12. The project was a Bifold journal. Pictures of mine are below.

I Swore that on this cruise, I was Not going to bring home a ton of heavy brochures I picked up along the way for a journal. Best laid plans. :-( I didn't add Anything to the journal...............I Do hope to work on it this weekend though.

The rest of the day was lounging around here & there on the ship. And lunch in the Windjammer of course. How I miss all of that food already prepared! Breakfast brought to our cabin, lunch at the buffet, dinner served in the dining room. It is Nice to be pampered. :-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise September 26 2011 - First Class Monday evening

As with the past 2 cruises, we had the classroom, the store and a workroom on the 2nd floor.


Our first class was the first evening, after Coco Cay. It was 1 1/2 hours and here is Richele showing us the project. We decorated inserts for the insulated mugs. I really Enjoyed this & bought a couple more of the mugs to do a couple for Christmas gifts.

Below is my finished mug. Bev mentioned I should put Jetski on it. She was the one who saw my Elation when I returned from the jetski tour! ;-)

A few pictures of class.

Lonnie & Marilyn

I Love just listening to and watching the water as the ship moves through. Loved the turquoise color that came through in this picture.

Relaxing on the balcony. :-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise Day 2, September 26 2011 - Coco Cay, Bahamas

Our first port was Coco Cay in the Bahamas. This is a small island owned by Royal Caribbean. I read a couple of negative reviews of this island from tour books. However I read More positive reviews by people who had been here. Yes, it doesn't have a port city. Which to me, made it Perfect for just relaxing in paradise rather than running all over a larger island. So I liked it. :-)

Each port had these open air "flea markets". Unfortunately for this one on Coco Cay, I couldn't buy anything as I didn't bring any cash. I had read (apparently incorrectly) that Anything we wanted on Coco Cay, we could use our Sea Pass card. Not true. These people take only cash. Guess it saved me some money. LOL

So, for Me, My relaxing started with a kayak tour. I wish I could learn the fine art of relaxing! But I just need to go, go, go. :-) This was a large group. I have kayaked quite a lot. All but 1 time I've been in a sea kayak where you slip down in. These were sit upon kayaks. I had signed up by myself and they had only double kayaks, so I paddled a double by myself, which was fine. I'm a fairly strong paddler. :-) However, there were basically no backs, so this Killed my Back! It was Fun, but we didn't go far and my back just hurt more & more. I would probably not kayak in this type of kayak again. Just too uncomfortable. But I'm glad I did it. :-)

Ahhhhh, then my Goal on this trip........Jetskis in Every Port!!! I LOVE to jetski! I wasn't fond of having to do it in an organized group. I figured we would putt putt around & not have much fun. I was WRONG!!! There were 7 jetskis and 4 guides in our group. He asked who had experience with jetskis.......there were 2 younger couples and me. They gave us a number and we always took off in that order & followed each other. I got to be #3 behind the young buff guys & their girlfriends. LOL Well our guide took off SO FAST that even the Guys couldn't keep up with him. However, I, old lady that I am, kept Up with the other 2 skis!!!! It was Rough & Choppy out there. I've caught a lot of air before, but in lakes when the wind comes up. Nothing like This! It was a THRILL!!! I Loved Every Minute of it! I had read some comments on cruise critic about this tour, and did see quite often that it was Fast & Rough out there. The other 4 jetskis behind me were always WAY behind. They had 3 guides with them however and None of them had ever been on a jetski before. I would have to say, if Any of them wanted to jetski again, I'd be surprised! This was NOT a beginner jetski tour! Fortunately they had enough guides that people could stick with a group at their own pace. I was just thrilled to be in the first fast group & was easily able to keep up. :-) I'd better Stop on this post as I could talk about jetskis Forever. The Elation I feel with the power of the jetski, out in the ocean. It's a definate high for me! :-)

Above is our guide & my #1 & #2 friends. :-)

Me in Jetski Heaven. :-)

We got to go out & around the ship where it was anchored. This was a tender port (you get to shore on a smaller boat, not off on a dock) I was in the last jetski excursion of the day, and they had to have golf carts to get us Quickly back to the last tender to get on the ship before it set sail. Ahhh, what a Treat this was!!! :-)