Day 5

St. Thomas as we docked

Today we were docked in St. Thomas when we woke up. Our cabin was on the bay side so we saw all the sailboats and yachts that were docked in the harbor. There was only one other big ship docked with us so we knew that the streets of St. Thomas would not be crowed.



Barb's new ring

St. Thomas is the shopping paradise of the Caribbean and on Barb’s birthday she made out just fine. The first thing that we purchased was a bottle of Kahlua that we had never seen. Instead of the regular 20% alcohol by volume, this bottle was 35% making it 70 proof and was it every good!!!

Anyway, after spending a couple of hours going to most of the stores, we then went to our favorite store in St. Thomas and Barb bought a beautiful ring. The center stone is Blue Topaz, surrounded by diamonds and black opals – it is really pretty. We also bought her a couple of bangles for her wrist – she needed them.

We were back on ship at 3:30 for a 5:00 departure and on our way to Dominica.

At dinner we were the only ones at our table – the other people must have been eating elsewhere.



Ed with his winning trophy and other goodies in the bag

After the show, Barb played slots and won $330 and Ed won the blackjack tournament and won another “ship on a stick” trophy and $500!!! That puts us up for the trip so far – wish us luck.
It is now tomorrow so we better get to bed.

Day 4



Our ship from our hotel balcony



We got up early (8am) and did most of our packing and then went to the beach from 9:30 until 12:30. By this time, Ed had a red forehead and Barb was also a little red. The hotel and casino took care of the entire bill – what a nice treat!

At 1:30pm we left the room and took a cab to the ship. Since we had VIP check-in, we were in our cabin within 15 minutes of reaching the dock. What service.





Barb from our room on the 19th floor

 In our room were two liter bottles of water, a liter bottle of Kahlua and some other items, gifts from the casino. They also said that a fresh fruit basket would be delivered tomorrow when they receive their fresh fruit in St. Thomas.

Waiting for a taxi

The ship sails at 10:00 pm so after walking around and finding everything, we took a Jacuzzi and then went to dinner. The Carnival Victory is a nice ship. It is a little smaller than the last two cruises that we were on, but we like the layout of this class of ship.

We didn’t have assigned seating tonight since the ship sails late so we ate with people we probably will never see again and just had fun.



Barb in our cabin with gifts

The ship sailed at 10 and then we visited the shops which are not open when the ship is in port. Then it was on to the casino to meet our hosts and the manager. We just spent a little time in the casino because it was already late and we have a big day shopping in St. Thomas tomorrow.
Night for now

Day 3 - January 3, 2009

The day started out with a lot of sun but by noon the clouds rolled in and so did the rain. For the rest of the day it rained off and on we cleaned up and off we went.

The pictures are:
. . . Drinks at the market
. . . People we met at the market
. . . Old San Juan

We first went to the biggest local market and it was fun. At night they close down the market and open up lots of bars all around this square that the market is in. We ate some food that we have no idea what it was except one item was called soup, but we don’t really know what was in it. Everybody behind the counter spoke Spanish – no English!

We sat with a couple from San Juan who were in the service and that was fun.

Then we took a cab to Old San Juan which is the big shopping area. Just picked up some little items. There were four cruise ships in port, so the city was full.

We had read about a little Puerto Rican restaurant in town so we found it and ate dinner outside on the street – the food was very good.

Back to the hotel and on to the casino where Ed finally won and Barb only lost a little and she is still on the plus side for the trip.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow and if it does, we will leave for the ship early, if not, we will stay on the beach till about 3pm, pack and go to the ship.

Night for now.

Day 2 – January 2, 2009

Well the day started out early without us – we slept in and did we need it.

The pictures are:

. . Barb getting ready for the first day at the beach.

. . Barb with some white skin and tan lines.

. . The casino host sent Barb a bottle of Kahlua and I got the cookies!

. . This was a plate of the food we ate - who knows what it was

While Ed went for breakfast, Barb slept to get extra sleep and we both left the room for the beach at 10:00am and it was wonderful to relax like that.

The beach was perfect and we stayed out until a little after 1. It was a good thing that we came in when we did because we were close to burning and Barb might have!!

We made our first trip to the casino and met our host who invited us to a dinner and a comedy show tonight – free food, why not.

The Governor was sworn into and a lot of stars are on the island, including Jay Lo and Marc Anthony but they weren’t at our hotel. Lots of police on the street and we saw some escorted limos whizzing by us.

The evening started by our attending a VIP casino party in the ballroom. Catered food for about 600 people and we were taken to a front table. The only trouble was that everything was in Spanish!! When we finished eating and the music stopped, that’s when the comedian came on and we snuck out.

The casino staff and Senior Management Host, Jose Luis Soto and his staff do an outstanding job. We wish we could stay here more ofter because this casino staff is THE BEST and this Marriott is the best resort hotel we have every stayed at.

We then went to the casino where Barb did fine and Ed didn’t – oh well, it happens.

We went for a walk outside before gong to bed – another nice day in the warm sunshine.

Day 1 - January 1, 2009

Well we were up at 4:15 am on New Year’s Day and on the plane heading for San Juan at 6:30 am.

The pictures are:
. . Barb clothes as she was packing last night.
. . The pool from our room.
. . The beach from our room.
. . Just on of our two outside patios.

Nice flight to Atlanta and then right on our plane for 3 more hours to San Juan.

When we arrived the weather was 85 degrees and beautiful. We checked right in and they upgraded us to the exact same room we had last March. Room 1909, a huge corner room with two patios. One looking east down the beach and the other looking out at the Atlantic.

We did not gamble at the casino because we were so tired so we walked up and down the beach and the stores on the street.

We had a great Pizza at a local restaurant that we had been to before and are back to the room at 9pm, ready to go to sleep.

The next two and one-half days are just going to be relaxing, sun and the casino. Barb really deserves the time off after the past three months.

Bye for now.

Our Next Trip - New Years - 2009

We leave on January 1 at 6:30 am to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We will stay at the San Juan Marriott until January 4 when we will board the Carnival Victory for our week-long cruise.

The cruise will take us to:

Day 1 - Sunday, Jan 4 San Juan, Puerto Rico - Depart 10:00 PM

Day 2 - Monday, Jan 5 St. Thomas, Usvi - Arrive 7:00 AM, Depart 5:00 PM

Day 3 - Tuesday, Jan 6 Dominica - Arrive 10:00 AM, Depart 6:00 PM

Day 4 - Wednesday, Jan 7 Barbados - Arrive 8:00 AM, Depart 5:00 PM

Day 5 - Thursday, Jan 8 St. Lucia - Arrive 8:00 AM, Depart 5:00 PM

Day 6 - Fri, Jan 9 Antigua - Arrive 8:00 AM, Depart 6:00 PM

Day 7 - Sat, Jan 10 St Kitts, Wi - Arrive 7:00 AM, Depart 4:00 PM

Day 8 - Sun, Jan 11 San Juan, Puerto Rico - Arrive 7:00 AM

We depart San Juan on AirTran flight 6 at 3:00 pm and arrive in Atlanta at 6:05 pm.

We then depart Atlanta on AirTran flight 564 at 9:50 pm, arriving in Bloomington at 10:35 pm.

Home

3700 miles later, we are home!!

Bloomington Gold Tours is awesome, a first class operation.

The pictures are:

Barb at 11,000 feet

A double rainbow over the Rockies