St. Thomas and Grand Turk: Our last two ports

St. Thomas and Grand Turk:  Our last two ports

The Ruby Princess sailed into the US Virgin Island of St. Thomas on Thursday.  We decided to check out Paradise Point for the spectacular views and Megan’s Bay, described by national Geographic as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  We disembarked from the ship and walked to transportation area outside the port.  We really were not interested in a tour so we got for a taxi thinking he was taking us all the way up to Paradise Point.  Instead he let us off at the bottom where for an additional $21 we were to take a chair lift to the top.  I opted out mainly because I was there last time and then my occasional back pain problem was back so I said a temporary goodbye to MA and our friends and headed towards the shopping area and the ship. 

  

The three “musketeers”, MA, Michel and Chantal rode up the steep mountainside and because it was a gorgeous day, they enjoyed a beautiful view of St. Thomas and surrounding islands, took pictures as well as advantage of free Wi-Fi, had a cool drink and rode back down.  From there another taxi took them to Megan Bay, but not to the beach itself, instead to a scenic overlook for pictures. 

From there they too went to the shopping areas and I was comfortably lounging on our balcony, watching their return.  One shop did their very best to sell Chantal a $55,000 diamond ring, offering a 50% “discount”, and then following them to the door offering to call someone who could authorize another $3,000 discount.  Imagine spending that kind of money at an Island jewelry shop!  The ship offered a Zirconium “look alike” for $24.99.  Neither ring was purchased! 

We have also noticed that all the Island souvenirs, and I do mean all, w*ell 99%, are “made in China”.  MA and Chantal had a lively conversation in French at dinner but the upshot was “Buy French and American made goods” and support our respective countries.

Thursday night was the second of two formal nights and the ship’s photographers were set up all over the place for formal portraits.  The photography department aboard ship is a money maker for Princess but MA and I usually take our own. This time we let the ship’s photographer do her best but we haven’t seen the results yet.

Friday afternoon we docked at Grand Turk for about six hours.  Grand Turk is famous for the location of the landing Mercury 7 and John Glenn’s suborbital trip into space in 1960’s and they have an exhibit commemorating the event.  We went to the nearby beach and enjoyed the sun, sand and water. 

Today (Saturday) is our last full day on board as we pack our bags, sail north to Ft. Lauderdale and return to reality.  This has been a really fun time for us as we shared the adventures with our friends from Paris.  They fly home directly from Miami on Sunday and we have a two-day drive ahead of us from Ft. Lauderdale to home. And to all of you, thanks for sharing our adventures too!