christopherfar

To those faithfully following along, allow me to apologize. It seems my phone may have met at least a partial demise in Josh Van Dyke yesterday, wading back to the boat from Soggy Dollar. The backpack I was carrying over my head ended up getting a partial saltwater bath, and the only true victim seems to be my phone's ability to charge.

I'm still taking photos and will update when I can, but it's hard to be live when it takes my phone two days to get to a 60% charge. I'm hoping another day of drying out helps...

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Wondering why you did the BVI's from St. Thomas instead of waiting til the next day in Tortola (b/c of customs costs/issues) - is it because you had more time in St. T's? Trying to decide if we do a boat excursion from St T's or Tortola - how much did you pay approx for boat (was it a private rental?) and what is the cost for customs to enter BVI from St T's?

 

Thanks. Looks like a picture perfect kind of day.

Good questions.

Mostly about time. The stop in Tortola is so short. It did cost $45 per person in customs to do it from St. Thomas, but we had a ten hour day in St. Thomas compared to 8 in Tortola tomorrow (starting at 7 am at that -- hard to maximize your time with an arrival that early).

Lion in da Sun's pricing is on their website. Worth every penny.

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How was the lamb in La Cucina? Not on board until October but already anticipating my menu choices ;) Very much enjoyed the lamb in Cagneys last time around!

It was so good.

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Captain Craig hooked us up with a far less terrifying private taxi back to the ship.

Snapped a few great photos from the balcony as we left St Thomas:

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The bar:

Couple of the view from the bar:

View from the water:

Meg and me:

And we found a stingray right in the water:

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Next up, we headed to "Corona Island," aka Sandy Spit. Didn't spend much time there, mostly just a photo opp, but wow beautiful:

Next up was BeeLiners. This was little more than a tent on a a beach with drinks. But oh what a beach!

Little glimpse of Captain Craig in that photo too!

Whole day was a little hazy, so the pictures don't totally do the beaches justice. They were heaven on earth.

Captain Craig alerted us to a little known fact (at least we didn't know): While the beach town in the Shawshank Redemption (Zihuatanejo) is actually in Mexico as portrayed in the movie, the scene was actually filmed in the Caribbean on a small island called Sandy Point, pictured below (from a distance):

On to the main event. Soggy Dollar Bar. The stories and even photos of this place hardly do it justice. What an incredible beach. The bar is what it is (which isn't much though we did have lunch which was great). But the beach, the water, the sand... Words come up short. I'll let photos speak.

The approach:

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What a day...

What an amazing day in St Thomas. Well, sort of.

Started off a little poorly. Took a shared, open air taxi to Sapphire Marina for our privately booked charter. On more than one occasion we feared for our lives. Miguel was... how should I put this... aggressive? People were joking about it being more intense than a roller coaster. I'd read rumors of these taxis. If you're like me and think everyone is just being overly dramatic, think again. It was terrifying. Not the "Best Taxi" as the name suggests.

Nonetheless, we survived and arrived. Lion in Da Sun and Captain Craig awaited:

Craig whisked us away to BVI with history and facts along the way. I'll do a dump of photos later with a few captions. Far too many to talk about them all right now.

First stop was customs in Jost and Foxy's. Customs was very backed up, so we were stuck on the boat for a bit, but we made it. I had a BBC (proper with real bananas unlike the boat) and Meg a Banana Whacker. Both were excellent, but I didn't get photos. Here's a few photos of the bar and scenery, however:

Will continue below. I think there is a six photo limit.

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Meg + cruises + bingo-like games have always worked well together. Her Deal or No Deal card won us $50 tonight. Winning is fun even if you spent more on the cards than you won back [emoji3].

Early to bed tonight for us. We've chartered a boat out of St. Thomas tomorrow to do some island hopping in BVI. Lion in Da Sun is the name of the boat for anyone interested -- very much looking forward to this one!

I'll leave you for the night with our new friend:

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Do they have yuengling or yuengling light in bottles or on draft anyway? Boarding Saturday!!!!!!!!

 

 

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Pretty confident they have it in bottles in District. I will double check next time I'm there (and post the draft/bottle list).

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Trying something different tonight: water. Grabbed some Deal or No Deal cards also. Waiting for that to begin. Seems to be a popular choice.

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Dinner tonight in La Cucina was amazing.

I forgot to take pictures of the salad and appetizer courses. I had the Caesar and the Rigatoni. Both were great. Meg had the risotto and Caprese. The caprese was really, reaaaaally great.

I had the lamb entree (remember when I said am impressed when I manage to take the photo before I take a bite? I failed this time) and Meg has the shrimp scampi.

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Loving your review. We sail on her June 3. I also love the food porn. Any chance you can tell us what the dish is along with the picture? Thanks for taking us along for the ride!

 

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I'll try to do a better job of that. I'm pretty amazed with myself when I manage to take a picture before devouring. [emoji3]

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Great "Live" review so far... Have you checked out the 5 O'clock Somewhere on the Waterfront Bar? Hoping Clarense the Chocolate Cowboy is still there. I'm on the 5 day countdown!

I have seen him there but haven't stopped by for an intro. His reputation precedes him.

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Could you tell us the bartenders in the "Vibe" who is up there these days and if they plan on being there for a while ?

 

 

 

 

 

THANKS!!!

Someone else said it, but I can confirm Rommel.

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Calm day. Partly on purpose as we have a big day planned in St. Thomas tomorrow. Partly because I may have stopped posting pictures of alcohol, but I didn't stop drinking. Last night was... special. Let's put it this way, after they shut down karaoke for the night, we remained in 5:00 Somewhere for another half hour with a group of 10-12 others. We all refused to allow the microphone to be turned off and continued singing a cappella. That happened BEFORE we went to Skyline....

As such, I don't have much to share about my day so far. I'm going to scroll through and try to answer some of the questions I have not addressed.

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Hey Friends! This is Meg. Chris is leaving out some very important details. He sang Piano Man at karaoke tonight he killed it!! #proudwifemoment

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Karaoke is on a different level tonight. A man 20 years my senior just took his shirt off while singing "Twist and Shout."

Sadly, I did not capture photographic evidence.

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Karaoke in the 5:00 is definitely happening again.

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Manhattan for dinner tonight. Incredible food. Incredible service. Incredible live music and entertainment.

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you prefer your covered area to the Vibe? Windy and no umbrellas up in the Vibe? We encountered that on several sea days - and I'm a no-sun kind of girl myself!

Vibe was very windy, but tolerable. No umbrellas though so there was no reprieve. Honestly, since our traveling companions didn't get Vibe passes, we're having to carve out time to spend there while remaining good friends otherwise [emoji3]. Going to try to get a good hour or two in each day then mingle in the main areas the rest of the day.

If the wind is better tomorrow, we may turn into bad friends.

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If you're not a sun person, or you are an "hour a day only" kind of sun person like me, we've found a great spot on the boat. Near the action by the main pool but forward by the lobby doors there are lounge chairs that seem to always be empty. They're in the shade so the sun worshippers steer clear, but they're by the windows overlooking the sea so it's a great view! Meg and I have been posted up here reading for the last couple hours. And every time the lobby doors open (which is frequent) you get a blast of A/C. It's great!

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Forgot to post Meg's chicken fajitas from O'Sheehans. They were great!

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And the Rueben. Oh the Rueben.

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