St Croix, Virgin Islands

The passing through immigration of this US territory went quite smoothly. We figure it was just meant to be an inconvenience, as the US citizens of St Croix must go through a similar immigration process when they come to the states. Oh well, tit for tat as we say. Everyone on board was so pleased and we got off the ship just a few minutes after the posted time. Then it took over half hour for the buses to show. Since we were just going to spend the day at the beach it was no issue with us but many were upset… there are very many type A people on board…

We were greeted on the pier by a youth steel band from a local church and they were wonderful. Photo on webshots. This is truly a lovely island and nice to have English spoken and no exchange rate of the money. Strange to see American cars with left hand drive but yet the cars all drive the European way on the left side of the road so the driver is on the parked car side. This would take a lot of getting used to. US Citizens of St Croix do not have the right to vote for US politicians. The President is considered the Head of State but the Governor is their highest office. We could not find a Post Office but it is part of the US postal system. This lack of postage on board ship is quite a handicap and many are upset about it as we have post cards that we are mailing from other islands. The ones we have waiting now will probably be mailed from the mainland when we arrive home even though they are for St Kitts. The beach was so nice, small but with lots of shade. We were entitled to lounge chairs and a free drink but there were so few of us that the drink boy just kept filling our glasses with fruit juice or a very weak rum punch. Jack did his snorkeling and figures he saw at least 15 varieties of fish. I waded in quite cool water and then became a “sun bather” such hard work! Can you see the sign of the beach snack bar in back if us in the photo? Rose’s Road Kill! We all got a kick out of that. We had a hot dog with sauerkraut… now why am I telling you something so simple? Well, it tasted sooooooo good after all the “fancy” food on the ship LOL

3:00 was the bewitching hour to return to the ship and as I write this at 5:00 the ship is preparing to head to Dominican Republic, our last stop before the mainland and Ft Lauderdale. This had to be the fastest 3 weeks ever. I cannot even tell you how often we had no idea what day of the week it was. Good vacation!!!