Sunday, December 07, 2008

Emerald Princess, December 2008, Day 7

St. Thomas

The harbor at Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas has two separate docks for cruise ships. The original one, West Indian Company Dock, is next to the duty-free shopper's paradise -- Havensight Mall. The newer Crown Bay Cruise Ship Dock is on the other side out town to the west.

West_Indian_Company Dock, St. Thomas USVIWe didn't know which one we would land on. It turned out the Emerald Princess went to the West Indian Dock. The photo on the left shows the dock, the nose of the Emerald Princess and Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas. We have docked there on our other two visits to St. Thomas. It is very convenient to the shopping centers and there are trams to help get you back to the ship on a hot afternoon. Our driver was Mel Brooks.

Your driver is Mel Brooks.
We hoped to see Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 but she either didn't get to St. Thomas that day or she was at the Crown Bay Cruise Ship Dock.

We took most of our Christmas cards with us and mailed them from St. Thomas -- it's a U.S. territory. Also cell phones work there without international charges, so I called my parents in Maine.

After our room service breakfast we had to go, along with all the other passengers, to show our identification and passports to U.S. Immigration officers on board before we could leave the ship.

Charlotte Amalie Harbor, St. Thomas USVI

Lunch was pizza and burgers on deck and dinner was crab legs in the Michalangelo.

During the afternoon everybody on the starboard side got a free, live reggae concert from the pool area of a dockside bar and grill, Paradise Gate. Very good. After dinner we went to a show, "I Got the Music," but we weren't in the mood and left mid-way through.

It never got really sunny all day, but that was OK because it kept the heat down a bit.

Distances Sailed
Fort Lauderdale to Aruba
1137 nautical miles = 1308 statute miles = 2103 kilometers

Aruba to Bonaire
120 nautical miles = 138 statute miles = 222 kilometers

Bonaire to Grenada
395 nautical miles = 454 statute miles = 731 kilometers

Grenada to Dominica
199 nautical miles = 229 statute miles = 368 kilometers

Dominica to St. Thomas
274 nautical miles = 315 statute miles = 507 kilometers

Total distance so far
2125 nautical miles = 2444 statute miles = 3931 kilometers

NOTE: 1 nautical mile = 1.15 land miles = 1.85 kilometers

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