There were three days of being docked on our cruise. The cruise left port on Sunday and on Monday we docked in Nassau, Bahamas. Since our family has already been to Nassau on the Disney cruise, we didn't even get off the boat. It was wonderful to practically have this massive ship to ourselves! We had a great day playing on board instead.
We cruised on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we docked in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. It was a lovely day as we left the boat, got on a open air bus and headed to the other side of the island to a small marina. Here we boarded a catamaran and sailed to nearby St. John. Ryan and I were so excited to go snorkeling in the beautiful Caribbean water.
The girls were a little more hesitant. I wrote in the previous post how they both learned to snorkel well; it was after this adventure so at this point they were a little nervous. Ryan had jumped in the water from the side of the boat while I led them down the stairs off the boat. Ryan took this picture while I was floating in front of them trying to coax them in.
Finally, they came in, and to be honest, they were terrified. The water was a lot deeper than any of us expected. Thankfully, one of the deckhands could tell how nervous they were, so she threw down a couple of noodles so us for them to hold on to (in addition to their life vest); that helped them a lot.
Ryan was loving this!
We had about an hour and a half to snorkel, so for the first little while Lily and I stayed together while Ryan and Mia were together. The water was unbelievably clear. We saw lots of beautiful fish, stingrays and coral. We were told there were sea turtles nearby but it was a little too far away for the girls. The underwater camera doesn't take the best pictures, but here are a couple.
Eventually we ended up on the beach at St. John and took a little family selfie.
The girls and I played on the beach for a few minutes while Ryan snorkeled farther down. Soon though we heard the conch shell blast to let us know it was time to head back to the catamaran. Ryan got back before we did, but I love this picture he snapped from the catamaran as the girls and I got closer.
This excursion was lots of fun, but it wears you out! We relaxed on the ride back to the marina and enjoyed the snacks provided on the catamaran. Though we all enjoyed the bread, cheese, fruit and meat that was laid out, the girls were very excited to see a big bowl of Hershey Kisses. They probably had 5 or 6 each!
After we got back to the marina, we boarded the open air bus and headed back to the port where we found our souvenir Christmas ornament and got back on the cruise ship.
On Thursday, the Allure docked in Philipsburg which is on the Dutch side of St. Maarten. This was the view from our balcony when we woke up that morning. Beautiful right? I could have sat and stared at this view all day, but we had another day of fun planned.
We got off the boat, and this was the view from the port; still beautiful.
Welcome!
Excited to be on the dock.
From the port, we boarded a tour bus and drove all around the island and entered the French side of the island. We were given all sorts of interesting and fun facts about this beautiful island as we traveled. When we reached our destination, we boarded a very small boat with about 15 other people. This boat is actually a semi-submersible submarine, so after we set sail, we all headed downstairs into the submarine area. You sit two by two and there are windows all around. They explained that the window are made of magnifying glass so it appears we are just above the sea floor when in fact we're about 12 feet above. We stopped at one reef where a diver got out to feed the fish and brought them all around the boat. After watching that for awhile, we continued on where we saw a lot more fish, sea turtles, coral and sea grass. It was a pretty interesting trip.
While that's not our boat in the picture, this was right by where the tour boat left.
The dock we left from. Everything about this island fits right into my idea of what the Caribbean is really like.
Our bus tour continued on for a little bit longer. We stopped for about 45 minutes to let individuals do a little shopping, or in our case, enjoy an ice cream break by the water.
After the shopping/ice cream break, we headed back to port for the Allure, stopping for just a few minutes at this beautiful vista.
When we arrived back to the port, we had two shops to visit. One was a souvenir shop where we bought our Christmas ornament. Two was a chocolate shop. The Dutch make wonderful chocolate, and we wanted to try it out; we were not disappointed. We had finished a very full day at this point so boarded the Allure to get ready for dinner and then enjoy two more days at sea before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday morning. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Caribbean!
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