St.Maarten, :-)

St Maarten,

Another surprising morning. We did not order room service or a wake up call for this morning. The ship is due to dock at seven, we have no excursion planned and that meant a relaxing morning.

We woke up around 6:30 and noted how slowly the ship was moving. Before we knew it we were back to sleep.

At around 7:30 I opened my eyes and much to my surprise there was a ship and lots of balcony just opposite the balcony doors. We sleep with the drapes open and so while we were sleeping the ship docked and directly across from us was the Celebrity ship. I got up and closed the sheers and then got my robe and went out to have a peek. Well there were 2 ships across from us.

 The celebrity ship was there but the Norwegian Gem was there also. I had a big smile when I looked and saw that there was a Canadian flag on one of the opposite balconies. We have been putting a flag on our balcony when we are in port for a long time. But we have always put it on the outside and we are forever fighting with it because the breeze blows it to the inside. Well these smart people mount their flag on the inside of their plexi glass balcony. We have moved ours. The problem of a blowing flag has been solved. Why didn’t I think of that before???

Suddenly there was one of those famous tropical downpours. We were surprised that the rain did not fall on our balcony. All stayed dry.

We dressed and went to breakfast. To our surprise we sat with a couple we had met before. Christine from our dinner table was also seated there, so it was like old home week.

 Again I was surprised to look out the window of the dining room and see The Royal Caribbean, Journey of the seas. So I guess there are 4 very large ships in this port today. That means about 20 thousand people!! Yikes. There is a small shopping area at the end of the dock and I’ll bet it will be crazy!!

After breakfast we checked out the internet café because I wanted to know how to set up Ken’s account. I have used most of my minutes so now I need to open the second account

Back in the room I set up the new account, answered a couple of e-mails and wrote and posted the Blog for St.Thomas.

People watching from the balcony is very interesting. Hundreds of people of all ages and sizes are on the move. It is blazing hot, we don’t have an excursion, we have been here before and the Star Wars movie is showing in the Vista lounge. Guess what I choose to do.

We decided to go to Horizon Court for lunch. I had taco chips and salsa and Ken had a vegetable salad.

While topside we discovered that there are 5 large ships in port, not 4. The Royal Caribbean has the Nagivator and the Journey in port, We also learned that it is the Celebrity Summit. So that will add another 5 thousand people to the number of visitors.

I went to the Vista and Ken went to work on his tan. I really enjoyed Star wars. There were only a couple of dozen people there. It was almost a private screening.

After the movie I stopper at Crooners. Because it is happy hour from 3 till 4 I got 2 Ultimate Mai Tais and brought them back to the room.

Ken was watching the Masters. We sat out on the balcony and people watched and enjoyed our first cocktail of the cruise. We discovered much to our surprise that 4 of the suites on this side of the Celebrity Summit have hot tubs. I had no idea that there were cruise suites with hot tubs. But I guess why not? Imagine sitting in your own hot tub under a tropical moon. Now that is being spoiled.

I took 2 of Ken’s shirts down to the laundry area and ironed them. Just a few wrinkles from the packing.

We dressed for dinner and headed down to the dining room. Tonight there were only 4 of us at dinner. We have no idea what happened to Christine and Roy.

After dinner we roamed a little. We found the pictures that have been taken so far. We didn’t buy any . We have so many pictures that we certainly don’t need more.

Then we came back to the room because I needed to change my shoes and Ken wanted to ditch the tie.

Then we headed to the Princess Theatre to catch the 8:45 show.

Tonight’s show featured Nathan Foley and he was just as good if not better than he had been 2 nights ago. He has the audience eating out of his hand, singing and applauding every step of the way. At one point he invited one of the ladies to come on stage and he sang a love song to her.

 The hearing impaired people were at the show. They sat off to the left side of the theatre and their signer was seated at the base of the stage and a light was on them. There are 2 different ladies accompanying this group. They are truly amazing. I really hope I get to see them and tell them how much I admire what they do.

Before the show we visited with the people seated next to us. They are a very well travelled couple and they have done more than one world cruise. They are staying on the Regal and travelling on to Copenhagen. I was surprised by their travels because they look younger than Ken and I . I guess they travelled early.

At the end of the show we debated about what we should do next. There was a Love Boat Disco Deck Party taking place on deck 16 midship at the Fountain Pool. But we heard the music coming from the Piazza and we decided to do that. Colin Salter had a good crowd dancing and singing and enjoying his talent. We had our usual special coffee with the addition of our Courvoisier.

By the time we finished our beverage it was already 11:30 so we decided to end our day and head back to our cabin.

Tomorrow is a sea day and a formal night with the Captain Circle cocktail party.