An Unexpected Sea Day

We arrived at St Thomas in the US Virgin Island at the crack of dawn. We were only here for 5 hours and we were keen to make the most of it. Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances (I won't go into details...) our tour was cancelled. To be perfectly honest, no one was too sad as we were all secretly happy to be on the ship. There were many things to go! Water slides to go on, corn hole and ping pong tournaments to win, trivia quizzes to dominate, cookies and cocktails to be consumed and ducks to be found!

We later discovered that our wonderful waiter Shaan is being promoted to being supervisor at Windjammer! As a joke, we all ordered spaghetti bolognese from the kids menu. He cottoned on after the 3rd person ordered it. Congratulations Shaan! Absolutely well deserved.

Hello St Thomas!

It really is hard to appreciate how big the ship is!

Goodbye St Thomas!

Today was a day of wins. Collecting Royal Caribbean plastic products that no one really needed!

When this is free, you collect

The stomach needed a rest

Thank you facebook for reminding that we were here exactly 4 years ago!

Jonah's daily afternoon cookie run

Enjoying the sunset while duck hunting

Anything the kids could do, we could do better!

This pianists pops up in different lifts every day. He is very good!!!

The spaghetti bolognese from the kids menu that the adults coveted

How could a day end better when dessert was tres leches cake

Sint Maarten

One island, two countries. Today was our first port day, and our stop was Saint Martin (the part belonging to France) or Sint Maarten (the part belonging to the Netherlands). We had booked a private tour and our guide Juliana was there waiting for us with her clean a/c van. It was a lovely tour with just enough of everything. Juliana gave us the interesting facts and stories about the island, and made stops at beaches, viewpoints as well as pointing out important landmarks. She was good natured and friendly but will not hesitate to say what she thinks! Our last stop was a lovely swimming spot which was surprisingly quiet given that 7000 passengers were onboard the ship! There was a restaurant right at the beach which was convenient as well as a freshwater shower/foot tap.

Tonight's show was Aqua Action, billed as a water spectacular held in the Aqua Dome. The start was promising with an exciting act on the wheel of death. The 2 acrobats were mesmerising. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there onwards. The music was fun and upbeat with a great arrangement but was WAY too loud. The remaining acts felt rudderless with no cohesive thread. Everything felt random. The acts themselves were also subpar. We appreciated the diver's skills but it didn't make captivating entertainment. Plus...the seats were so uncomfortable!

First views of St Martin

Ship docked!

Forced photo lol

One of the first off the ship. Good job team!

We're off!

Oyster Bay. Unfortunately there were still many parts of the island that has yet to recover from the 2017 hurricane

Jonah enjoyed looking for things on the beach

Iguana everywhere

Friar's Beach

Oma would be impressed with Julian. Excellent de-sanding tools for the car!!

One of 4 border crossings! One foot in France and one in Holland!

The sign says it all

And we're in France

Crazily busy Maho Beach, where people come to see planes fly low over the beach as they approach to land. 2 people were killed last year from the jet blast

Plane!

Drink and swim time!

Water was cool but not cold

Back on the ship!

Tonight's towelgami

Still At Sea

We do love our sea days but there was absolutely no structure as we dispersed to do our own things. So here are some photos around the ship!

I know it may sound weird...I dislike the beach but I love the ocean!

We were up early enough to wander around empty public areas

The early bird gets the duck!

Finding healthy options was reasonably easy. Our snack to trivia along with

Our first win! Although we should be ashamed for not being able to pick out a river in the ACT from a set list

Surfside one of the neighbourhoods

I love the Grove Suite Sundeck. My lunch of grilled prawn salad and watermelon & feta salad

The snack plate to sustain me over the afternoon

My office for the day

A highlight! Meeting Rover the ship dog

Dinner was again superb. Short rib gnocchi

Chocolate ganache cake and lemon curd méringue pie

Entertainment this evening was Wizard of Oz, a full length production. Very good quality but it did drag towards the end. Enjoyable nonetheless

Our First Sea Day

The theme for today was that the food onboard has taken us by surprise. It was good! The drinks though (cocktails and mocktails) were all too sweet. Not complaining though because they were free!

Otherwise it was a day of fails...We didn't finish the sudoku challenge, we didn't complete the mystery puzzle (escape room-ish activity), we didn't any of the trivia that we tried and we didn't win any of the raffles (I had my eye on the $1000 jewelry voucher)!!

Unexpected fun came in the form of "Search for Nations", a cruise long game where you had to get as many crew members as you can from the various countries to sign your sheet. The team that gets the most countries signed off at the end of the cruise wins! 

I hate the beach but LOVE the ocean. One of my favourite things to do onboard, having breakfast looking out over the ocean

It took great will power to walk past this

Some of the Pearl Cafe's health breakfast options

Checking out Windjammer. Dulce de leche croissant

Avocado on toast!

Waffles on toast anyone?!

Some random ship photos

Aquadome

We discovered that Coastal kitchen had a small buffet selection as well as a full sit down table service

Probably the same food but presented more beautifully

Some of the savoury options

This pretty much summed up today's effort of failed puzzle and trivia challenges!

Crown & Anchor top tier event. A snippet of the aquadome show and free drinks

We discovered more food options!

Crepery

Mac & cheese station. This one was pepperoni pizza

5pm = cocktail time! Red sangria tonight

A very good beef tartare

Cappuccino and chocolate cake. Our waiter very astutely prepared my coffee in a takeaway cup so I could take it to the show

Starburst elemental. Interesting concept but dragged in sections

Juggler was the highlight for me, very cirque du soleil-esque

Foosball before bed

Towelgami for tonight