Cruise Day 4 - St Maarten - 9/14

We weren't scheduled to dock until 10:00am. Marty went for his early morning work-out at the spa. When he returned to the cabin, we decided to find out how to get to the viewing area above the bridge for docking. We headed to the Diamond Lounge for coffee, fruit and cheese first. It took us a while to figure out how to get to the viewing area (it's deck 14 forward and you have to walk through some cabin hallways to get there) so by the time we got there the ship had already docked. There was no shade, no breeze and it was HOT! We had planned to maybe head to Maho Beach to watch the planes land but decided with the schedule change and the heat we would just stay on the ship.

More time for exploring and it's even better when everyone else is off the ship! We wanted to find out how to get to the very back of the ship so off to the Boardwalk and Aqua Theater we head. We discovered that on deck 5 (one deck below the Boardwalk) where the jogging trail goes all the way around the ship (only deck where you can do that) we could get directly behind the Aqua Theater stage. We need to get back there while we are at sea. I'm sure the view is awesome!

Very back of the ship - deck 5 - watching people depart in St Maarten

behind him - Aqua Theater, stage level

Mom wanted a picture of Marty at the rock climbing wall for her scrapbook so I obliged:

Marty "rock climbing"

And then back to the Royal Promenade where we discovered the full water show going on under the Rising Tide Bar. This is the first time we saw the column of water in the middle:

We met up with Mom and Dad back a the cabin. They were headed for a late breakfast at Park Cafe. Not long after, Marty and I headed for an early lunch at Windjammer. 

After breakfast/lunch, Marty decided to head on shore for a brief visit, Mom and Dad decided on a nap and I got caught up on some blogging since with everyone off the ship the internet seemed to be back up.

Marty was back to the cabin in less than an hour. Not much to do near the ship and it was too hot. So he decided to cool off by taking a dip in the pool. When he returned to the cabin, he had a wristband on indicating he had signed a waver to do the Flowrider. And he had given it a try without me there with my camera! He said he feels brave enough for the camera now so we plan to go watch him tomorrow while we're docked in St Thomas.

Mom and Dad decided on the main dining room for dinner. Marty and I weren't very hungry and decided to try tapas at Vintages in Central Park. We all decided to meet back in the cabins for sail away at 7:00.

Tapas at Vintages

guacamole w/cheese breadsticks, potato omelette wedges, ham sandwiches

The tapas was very good. The service, not so much. Plus there is really no comfortable seating available to sit and eat. But we wanted to try it and we did.

Mom and Dad beat us back to the cabin as they apparently had much better service in the dining room than we had at Vintages. When Randal (the waiter) saw Dad, he said, "I go cook your chicken." When Dad ordered sherbet for dessert, he said, "I go cook your sherbet."

We got to watch some stragglers running to the ship as they were about to pull up the gangway. They got lots of hoops and hollers from people out on their balconies. We enjoyed sail away from the comfort of our own balconies.

Tonight was the Headliner Show at 8:30. It was Finis Henderson, an impersonator/comedian. We all went and found him to be highly entertaining. In the pre-show, our cruise director indicated that the captain made the right choice in reversing the ports. My understanding is that if we had tried to go to St Thomas today we would not have been allowed to dock. He said, "When the choice is sunshine or vomit, I choose sunshine every time!" LOL!

Tomorrow, St Thomas...