Wednesday, March 6, 2019. St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Wednesday, March 6, 2019.  St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

The Regal Princess arrived in St. Thomas mid morning, so there was plenty of time to have a sit-down breakfast, but we went to the buffet instead so that we could pick up some pool towels for use during our excursion.  We signed up for an introduction to scuba course, which look us to a shipwreck in 35 feet of water, about 25 minutes from the cruise port by power catamaran.  The weather was beautiful with scattered puffy clouds and a temperature of just under 80 degrees with 56% humidity.  

There was time after breakfast to do a trivia game.  We teamed up with a couple from Georgia, and managed to do OK, but didn’t win because we didn’t know CNBC stands for Consumer News and Business Channel.  That question was worth 4 points (1 for each letter correctly associated with the right word).  

We grabbed some Rueben sandwiches from the buffet for a quick lunch, and then headed off the ship for our scuba lesson.  We walked a short distance to the scuba boats and boarded.  The breeze on the boat was welcome.  We had a very brief didactic lecture on the way out about basic dive physiology and how scuba equipment works.  The 24 passengers were divided into two groups. We were group two and would get trained later. Almost 2.5 hours later, we got to start. We were then fitted with weight belts, scuba gear, masks, snorkels and fins.  We then jumped in and had an equally brief didactic session in the water to prove that we could clear our masks, descend, recover and clear our regulators. Then we were off to swim through a ship wreck of a freighter that had been used by some drug smugglers after WWII.  It had been abandoned, and then wrecked by two hurricanes.  It was very interesting eerie to swim through the wreck, coupled with the novelty of using the scuba gear for the first time.  The hardest part was keeping our ears equalized as we descended.  Just about the time we were comfortable with the scuba gear and enjoying the exploration, it was time to head back up to the surface.  Again, group 1 got a lot more time in the water. 

After returning to the ship, we had dinner in the main dining room, which featured Surf and Turf with Filet Mignon and Tiger Prawns.  It was very good, but there was no Chocolate Journey dessert tonight.  We had to settle for rhubarb Napoleon and cheese cake. 

Janet went to watch the comedian, Steve Caouette, who she said was very funny.  He joked about how Princess had to charter a small plane to get him to this booking, and how they nearly dived into the water to get him on board- funny since we had just fished two plane crash victims out of the water and made the national news.  

Since the ship was not going to cast off until 9:00PM, and we hadn’t really had a chance to walk around the town, Ben went for a walk, but found that most of the shops in the large tourist mall were closed, aside from one gift shop and a few bars and restaurants. He did end up walking out a nearby supermarket following quite a few crew members from the Regal Princess.  The crew members like to stock up on things like snacks when they can go into ports of call.  There were also a few in a nearby Wendy’s.  

We rendezvoused in the stateroom and then went to the 1980’s music trivia.  We teamed up with a couple from Georgia and a gal who came in at the last moment from St. Louis.  We managed a win- actually a 2 way tie out of 12 or so teams, and the host was feeling generous so there was no tie breaker question.  We all won Princess wine bottle stoppers. 

The Princess singers and dancers did a little number on the Lido Deck for a Caribbean sail away party, which was nice.  The dancers and singers on the Regal Princess are a step up from the entertainment on even other Princess ships.  Janet noticed that it seemed like all of them had custom fitted costumes that were all in top condition, while on prior cruises, you could notice some ill fitting, or tattered bits and pieces if you looked closely.

Tomorrow we arrive at St. Maarten, a port that we have been to before.