9-night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy Day 8 - St. Thomas
Wednesday July 27 St. Thomas
I was excited for our first time in St. Thomas. We had a slightly later start this morning as our excursion was later in the morning. We took our time getting up and ate breakfast outside at Cabana’s. We got off the ship around 9:15 and easily found a taxi. The taxis in St. Thomas are huge open sided buses with benches across. We felt sort of silly just the three of us on this crazy taxi bus. It was about a 15 minute ride from the port to where we needed to meet for our excursion and we found our guide easily once we got there.
Our guide, Patrick, loaded us up into the back of his jeep and we set off, which was sort of sketch and scary, but we all lived. We arrived at our first stop, a beautiful little beach that wasn’t very busy at all. I looked it up on Google Maps when we got home and it’s called Brewer’s Bay Beach. First we walked around and he showed us some of the plant life around the area, both native and non-native. Next, we went fishing. For tarantulas. You take a little piece of grass and you put it inside the hole in the ground, tickle the spider, which attacks the grass, then you pull it out! Our guide got one and I almost got one. I saw the legs, but then it let go.
After spider fishing, we went into the water and snorkled around where we saw multiple rays, an octopus (but he was hiding so I didn’t get a photo) and several sea turtles! They were super cool to watch as they went along nibbling in the grass in the bay. Apparently they like to sleep under the runway at the airport which extends out into the water.
When we were done there, we hopped back into the Jeep and did some MEGA offroading (no way the route is passable with anything but a 4x4) to get down to a super secluded beach where we would go kayaking. First, we ate some sandwiches that they brought for us. They were okay at best. After lunch, we got a quick briefing on operating our kayaks and Emmaline went with our guide and Roger and I went together. I looked up the beach on Google Maps and it’s called Stumpy Bay Beach.
We kayaked around the bay and then out a little bit into the open water. Emmaline was a little scared out in the choppy open water, but it was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the kayaking. Roger and I ended up going over in the bay when a bigger wave hit us. We both got slightly banged and scraped on the rocks and he got sea urchin in his thumb.
Patrick took us back to the hotel we originally met at and helped us get a taxi to go back to the ship. Back on the crazy open air taxi bus thing, we were almost back to the ship when the driver stopped to pick up a whole giant group of people who squished and piled in. They had lanyards on from a Royal Caribbean ship that was also in port that day. St. Thomas has two ports and they are not super near each other (probably 10-15 minute drive apart). After those people piled in, the driver turned around and headed back the other way. Away from the Fantasy! We yelled and called out and the other people looked at us like we had grown two heads. Finally one of them understood what was happening. Some of the people on the taxi said, “we are all on a ship excursion! We don’t want to go the wrong way!” And so the driver just said, “I’m going to the other ship!” He seemed really confused and I’m pretty sure he forgot we were even on the taxi! He let us off there and we asked, “what are we supposed to do now?” He said, “walk or wait for another taxi.” The nerve! We ended up walking back to the ship and thankfully it wasn’t too far and he had dropped us off at a bus stop so there was a bench there that Emmaline could use to put her brace back on for the walk since she had not put it on after being on the beach since we knew she wouldn't be doing any walking. It was probably less than a ten minute walk but still. The whole thing was totally weird and many of the people from the Royal ship were actually pretty rude about it - as if we were imposing on them when really we were on the taxi first! I found a stock photo of the weird taxi since I didn't take one while there.
We stopped and shopped for our fridge magnet, again, not super happy with the choices, but we found something. Then it was time again for us to all cycle through the shower one at a time and I ran up and got some snacks from the pool deck and brought them back. We ate a lot of fruit from up there and I wondered how many watermelons they go through on a cruise.
After Emmaline was cleaned up, she went off to Vibe while Roger and I sort of had a chill rest of the afternoon. We rested and relaxed and I worked a little on my trip report. Then we ventured out and had a look at our photos in Shutters, grabbed a snack up by the pool and then went up to check out the wine list at Meridian. Emmaline ran into a wandering Daisy and snapped a photo on her way back to the room. Again, lots of characters out in the wild on this sailing.
We all regrouped in the room at 6:00 to get ready to head off to the show, which was the acapella group Moonshot, who I was prepared not to like, but actually enjoyed their show. After the show we finished up the scavenger hunt and then Roger and I tried to go to 90’s Music Trivia in O’Gills while Emmaline went to karaoke, but it was packed solid with people so we left. I joined Emmaline in karaoke while Roger went for a walk.
Dinner was in Animator’s Palate and was the animation show night. We all had fun making our characters and watching them come to life. This show is so much better than the Crush show! After dinner we were tired from another day out in the sun so we went back to the room and got ready for bed at a leisurely pace. I think we watched a little TV and rolled out with our travel foam roller (it folds up - it’s so great). We went to bed, noting that from this point forward, it was officially the longest we had ever been on a cruise ship.
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