{10th Anniv} Thursday

Thursday was St Thomas day and Halloween (Reformation Day!)

We finally ate breakfast! We had to be in the Royal Theater by 8am for our excursion.

We followed our group off the ship and waited for our driver. We had just one other family with us for this excursion.

The trip over to Coral World was quite a journey over the higher points of the Island. Our driver was a bit cranky, but got us there safely.

We bought the picture package. I will post more when I get home and download them all.

Coral world is a wildlife preserve started 8 years ago. They have dolphins in a natural enclosure in the ocean, sea turtles, and a few other marine wildlife. It was small, but rather impressive.

All of the dolphins are treated very well, never forced to do anything, and “spoiled rotten.” It was a really cool experience; I will make post just on that experience.

This is the experience habitat for the dolphins. They rotate 6 of them, 2 males and 4 females. We got to meet the male Liko.

The cost between what they charge, and the cruise excursion costs, is insane.

Even with the cost of transportation, it was totally overinflated. We spent about $300 on our excursion “on sale.” This means the additional transportation was…$120?! Nope, RC definitely gets their own cut.

The ride back was rather interesting. We were put on an open-car shuttle because the rest of our group didn’t show up.

There were switchbacks and this truck didn’t look like it was going to make it!

We made it back safely, but it was a crazy ride. Shane had to ride in the front cab, I was next to the road with an armrest keeping me in.

I’m going to also do a separate post if “what cruises sell about St Thomas” versus what the everyday St Thomas looks like.

Once back, we jumped back on the ship for lunch and then decided to shop before leaving port.

In case you forget what day it is, these are on the floor in the elevator. Don’t count on them, though, we found a wrong one the next day!

The crew made some fun Halloween cupcakes.

We picked up a few things in port (a shirt for Shane, some things for the girls) and got back on the ship.

We didn’t have time to go far, so we shopped in the immediate tourist district.

There was quite a bit happening for Halloween, so we rescheduled our specialty dining and ate in the Main Dining Room.

We dressed up as Shrek and Fiona. I originally wanted to make a Reformation Day costume, but I ran out of time. These costumes were, at least, just cute and fun.

Honestly, I think we looked silly. I felt silly.

We only had enough face paint for our faces. It looks a little odd.

They had a dance party in Studio B (the ice rink was covered), and at least it wasn’t so hot in there!

My favorite costume was the shrunken head guy from Betelgeuse

This is the couple from the Love and Marriage game. They dressed as a “cruise couple”: she had him by a string, and he had TP hanging out of his shorts. they won the couples.

At some point in the evening we got pizza. We did this a few times. Have I mentioned how tempting it is to always have food? I’m going to have to fast for a week!

We finally got to bed about 1am. Again.

Thanks for reading!

~Dawn