2014 - 6 - St. Thomas

St. Thomas, USVI

INTERESTINGLY, OUR first and last ports of call were in the USVI. On this itinerary, I think the primary reason was that they were both close to our out and back port in San Juan. We started in St. Croix, the largest of them. We finished in St. Thomas, probably about 1/2 the physical size of St. Croix. The populations of the two islands are, however, essentially identical. St. Thomas is - at least in my opinion - the much more popular tourist attraction and more frequent cruise ship stop. The bustling Charlotte Amalie is not only the capitol city of the USVI, but by far the largest city. It houses governmental facilities, including the main building of the Supreme Court of the USVI. It is a crowded, sometimes dirty and sometimes dangerous larger city.

Downtown Charlotte Amalie - St. Thomas, USVI
Copyright Andy Richards 2012 - All Rights Reserved

FORTUNATELY, much of the rest of the island is much more rural and tranquil. And beautiful. A vocanic island like a lot of the Caribbean islands, it is mountainous. Although there are numerous seaports around the island - especially on its southern side, the cruise ships dock in one of two harbors in Charlotte Amalie: "Havensight" or Crown Bay. The main piers are at the older, Havensight Port (formerly the West India Company Docks). Of the several times we have stopped there, we normally have docked at Havensight to the east of the city. One time, however, in 2012 on the Ruby Princess, we docked at the Crown Bay port, which is across the Long Bay and to the west of the center city. Crown Bay Marina houses some very large, very expensive pleasure cruisers as well.

Magens Bay - St. Thomas, USVI
Copyright  Andy Richards 2014 - All Rights Reserved

SINCE THIS was our last stop on the cruise, some of the group wanted to do some shopping. So our plan as we got off the ship was to find an easy mode of transportation to downtown Charlotte Amalie, where we knew we could find anything we wanted to shop for. My wife and I had done this before, and knew that the "golf - cart style" taxis were easy and inexpensive. We walked up to one that was filling up and spoke to the driver. There was apparently a communications problem. There were 6 of us who all very clearly said we wanted to go to Charlotte Amalie. He gave us the thumbs up and we climbed aboard. It wasn't the trip I remembered from back in 2012, where it was a relatively straight shot to town. Instead we got a tour up some curvy, steep switchbacks up a mountain. Eventually, he stopped at a viewpoint looking down on one of St. Thomas' mosts popular tourist beaches: Magens Bay. It was a pretty spectacular view. After we all re-loaded, we eventually ended up at the Magen's Bay public beach. A long way from Charlotte Amalie. But we thought he just decided to take the beachgoers (which turned out to be everybody but us) first. Then he got really angry at us, saying we were trying to scam him into a ride when we told him: "no, we said Charlotte Amalie." Anyway, he grudgingly took us back to town and got paid and we all moved on with our lives. This wasn't really a photo or excursion day. We did some shopping for gifts, etc., and found a nice bar by the water and sat for a while before returning for our last night on the ship.

IT WAS a good trip. One that would be repeated (for some of us) the next year. We would not cruise again until then. We did some "world traveling" but not on a cruise ship.

That wraps up 2024 Cruises - In just a few days, we will board the Celebrity Summit for the shortest cruise I have ever taken (5 days in and out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas and back). It will be our 21st! I will continue to catch up, with 2025 cruises, when I return in December See you then!