Today was our stop at St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands.  We’ve been to St Thomas twice before, both on sailings on the Disney Fantasy.  The first time we were here, we went zip lining.  The second time, we had plans to go to St. John’s, but canceled our plans at the last minute and went for lunch instead.  This time, we had booked the “Secret Sands Beach Getaway“.  This included transportation to a local beach along with beach chairs! 

It was a bright sunny day in St. Thomas when we arrived.

We were able to sleep in late today because our meetup time for the excursions wasn’t until 10:45 AM. We went up to Cabanas for a quick breakfast since our excursion didn’t include lunch.  After eating, we headed to D-Lounge for the excursion. 

Once in the lounge, we got checked in, assigned to a group, and then waited for our group to get called.  We also collected beach towels to take with us since there are no towels available at the beach.  This is important to remember.  You are allowed to take these towels with you (and you should return them to the ship).  Once our group was called, we were led off the ship and lined up next to the ship against a fence while we waited for our taxis.

After the tour operator also checked their list, we were led to a series of open air taxi buses. 

Since we had a party of six, we all just found seats inside the taxi.  This can sometimes be a bit chaotic, but people were willing to shuffle around so that parents could sit with smaller children.  If it doesn’t work initially, make sure that you speak up.

We then headed off for a twenty minute drive from the port area to the beach.  We got to see a good amount of St. Thomas, which looks to be recovering from the hurricanes of last fall (2017).

We eventually arrived at Smith Bay Park, home of Lindquist Beach.  The taxi driver paid the entrance fee (which was included for us as part of the excursion fee).

As we departed the buses, our local guide appeared.  His name was Kareem and he said his job was to make sure we had a great time.  He showed us where the bathrooms were (in a nearby concrete building), setup chairs for us, and told us he had water, sodas, snacks, beer and various adult mixed drinks available.  He said everything was included but said we could tip him if he made our day at the beach better.  (We definitely gave him a great tip, the service and mixed drinks were fantastic).

The beach itself was beautiful.  We were the only excursions there during our entire time, so it was really limited to the 40 or so people that came on the two taxis.  There was a slight drop off out in the water, but it didn’t go over my head out to at least 50 feet from the shore.

The beach is shaped in a half moon and you can easily walk from one end of the beach to the other.  There are more shells the farther you get away from the middle.

As you get further away, you can see the seaweed was coming up on the shore.  The reason the middle of the beach wasn’t covered is because there are people raking it from the shore.  They must have gotten the middle of the beach before we arrived for the day. 

We even got to see some of the local wildlife near the beach.

After a few hours at the beach, everybody got a 15 minute warning to get ready to head back.  We then took the scenic tour back to the ship. 

We stopped at an overlook on the way back where we could get pictures of the ship!

We also got the option to get dropped off in the town if we want to.  Unfortunately, the trip back was a bit longer with all the included stops.  As soon as we got back to the port area, we had to find a restroom.  Luckily, there are a number right near the ship. 

Nancy wanted to go check out a local restaurant that we ate at during our previous stop at St. Thomas.  The rest of us were hungry, so we headed back to the ship to get some quick service lunch from the pool deck.  Nancy was able to find the Fresh Bistro and it was back up and operating!

After lunch, everybody headed to the room to cleanup and then the girls went off to their clubs.  Nancy eventually returned as well.  We watched sail away from St. Thomas together from the verandah.

We headed off together to pickup a coffee from Cove Cafe, then went by Guest Services.  We wanted to increase our gratuities for a few of the cast members we had interacted with and didn’t want to wait till the last night when Guest Services gets busy.  We had already prepaid our gratuities, so we were just allocating additional amount.  We then headed to the shops to look over the merchandise again.  We didn’t end up buying anything on this cruise though, that I can remember

Before dinner, we also met up with our friends again for 80’s music trivia in O’Gills.  The other husband and I were equally successful in “helping” again, so this was the last night we were allowed to participate.  After this night, we sat by ourselves while the wives found people who actually knew song titles and artists.

Nancy was again taking advantage of the beer mug during this trip.  If you pay an additional $14.95, you get a Disney Cruise Line beer mug.  When you get a refill, you can pay for a 16 ounce beer but you get a 22 ounce pour.  If you don’t want to carry the mug around with you, you return the mug to the bartender and they will give you a mug card to carry around that you can exchange for the mug.  You can take either the mug home (a clean one) at the end of the cruise or the card if you have a full collection of mugs at home already.

Our master of ceremony was Teesa again.  Teesa was the same adult entertainment coordinator that we had on the Magic during our Spring Break cruise.

Dinner tonight was in Enchanted Garden featuring the Prince and Princess Menu.  After dinner, everybody was really tired.  We headed back to the stateroom to call it a night.  As always, our room attendant did a great job with his towel wizardry.

Tomorrow would be our last sea day.

Boarding | Exploring | Sea Day 1 | Sea Day 2 | St. Maarten | St. Thomas | Sea Day 3 | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation

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