The alarm rang, I slowly rolled over trying to will myself out of bed. I'm on vacation so I hit snooze... a few more times then I probably should have, we had an early morning excursion to get to!
I called over to Mom and dad's room to make sure they were awake before tossing on my bathing suit and a pair of shorts. I packed up my cameras and Carmex, and shook my sisters awake one last time. With a quick ruffle of my hair and a shrug in the mirror I headed up for some breakfast.
The food on cruise ships is AMAZING! I loaded up my favorite breakfast meal, french toast with strawberries and whipped cream; after all vacation calories don't count. When my family made it to breakfast I was finished eating, so I filled up our hydroflasks with ice water before we headed off the ship for our first excursion!!
We left so quickly that no one realized that we didn't bring any money!! Whoops. Unfortunately money wasn't the only thing we forgot, the only food we had was two quest bars that I had in my bag as a "back up".
A man was standing with a placard --- errr piece of paper --- with coral world written on it. We walked up to him and followed him to his van... funnily enough his van resembled my van, luckily without the bed.
They drive on the left hand side of the road in St Thomas, except the driver is still on the left hand side of the vehicle, it was an interesting experience! The roads were narrow and bumpy, there was chickens and pedestrians everywhere, and it was cloudy. It was PERFECT, I love tropical places!! The smell of the salt water in the air, the indigenous aromatic plants, the unique people; I just all around love island life. I day dreamed of living on an island while I stared out the window at the beautiful country side of St. Thomas.
When we got to coral world we got to do a ton of fun stuff! We strolled around looking at the little exhibits while waiting for the demonstrations to begin. They had sea turtles, tiny little sharks, stingrays, sealions and tortoises!!
During the beginning exhibit a diver entered into a aquarium to feed the fishes, a particular playful stingray stole the show spinning in circles and flapping its fins to get more food. After the aquarium feeding we went to the "tiny shark" feeding exhibit. During the demonstration we learned about the "catch and release" program that coral world has to help preserve the species.
Next we got to feed sting rays!!! It was so neat, I never realized how soft stingrays really are. We held pieces of cut up fish against the wall while the stingrays would swim along the wall over our hands grabbing the food. As they swam along the wall they would flap their fins splashing the water up onto us! During the demonstration we were told about the decreasing population of stingrays due to the fishing industry. Apparently some companies will catch the stingrays and "hole punch" them to the size of scallops and sell them as scallops.
After feeding the stingrays we went into one of the exhibits to watch the Sea-lion demonstration! The trainer was so charismatic and full of life, and the Sea-Lion was incredibly well trained.
After watching the sea lion show we walked out of coral world and directly onto coki beach. The beach was covered in sun chairs with vendors beckoning you to rent one of their chairs. Since we had no money we picked a spot on the beach that wasn't surrounded by vendors and set up for the day!
Mom and J immediately went into the ocean and only came out when I pestered them to come and drink some water, and more importantly apply sun screen!! T has fairly sensitive skin so she was constantly applying sunscreen to try to avoid getting a sunburn. Dad, T, M and J went snorkeling and found a few sea urchins. I played in the waves with Mom, I adore riding the waves close to the beach. Getting pushed in and pulled out by the strength of the ocean is my favorite vacation past time. It's especially entertaining when a strong wave pushes you so far up the beach that you get stuck. It's sort of like being a beached whale! The only downside is that playing that close to the beach tends to fill your bathing suit with sand stirred up from the waves, many times I have had to swim out to clean out my "sand diaper" as mom calls it.
The vendors on this beach were very persistent in trying to serve us, it was very kind of them but we declined their offers as we didn't have any money. At one point some of the vendors began fighting because one had crossed over into the other territory to talk to us. If only they knew they were fighting over penniless tourists. We broke the quest bars into equal pieces and ate our lunch while the vendors screamed at eachother behind us.
One of my goals for this trip was to get some family photos to capture the memories we were making. As I heckled my family to come out of the water for a photo, Dad had a wardrobe malfunction. He was patiently waiting for his picture to be taken when suddenly his swim trunks dropped to his ankles!!! Luckily he was wearing a second pair of shorts underneath. The beach wouldn't get a look at his "chiclets" today! (Dad disapproves this reference)
Before this trip I bought a vintage Polaroid camera, I also convinced my sisters to get matching bathing suits for us to take a cute pictures in. Using my soliciting picture skills I learned in New York, I was able to get two Polaroid pictures from this day. One of my sisters and I in our matching suits, and a family photo!
They turned out almost perfectly, only minor imperfections in the developing! I absolutely adore them and I cannot wait to take more!
After everyone had their fill of the salt water we went back to watch the second sea lion show before we had to go back to the boat.
Mom and I were exhausted from swimming in the waves, we both couldn't stay awake for the taxi ride home. We fell asleep and both ended up slumping on to Taylor's shoulders.
Dad was so excited about the escape boat on this ship so he had me take a picture of it.
When we got back on the ship we were starving!!! So Mom, Dad, T, J and I went to eat while M took a quick shower. The food was delicious as per usual. I found out they serve strawberry soft serve ice cream!! Never in my life have I seen strawberry flavored soft serve, and I can officially say that it instantly became my favorite desert of all time!
Mom and I went for a dip in the hot tub while the others toured around the ship watching us "take off" from shore.
M and I went to watch the sunset and attempted to take some selfies. They didn't turn out as good as we'd hoped.
When it was time for our dinner, we all went downstairs to our room to get dressed up for our formal dinner.
I used my new "wide curlformers" to curl my hair since M was using her curling iron. The curls turned out okay but they didn't last long, they deflated into a nice beach wave later in the night.
(Featuring Scary Ghost M in the background)
When I was done getting ready I helped Mom with her hair, accidentally burning her already sun-burnt back with the curling iron. :(
Once everyone was dressed in their "Formal" (Sunday) clothes, we went to the restaurant for our 3 course dinner. Supper was tasty as usual! J has kept on the straight and narrow with his "Caesar salad and Beef Sliders". I was so full I could barely move.
After dessert we all went to the theater to watch the show for the night! The performers even called out J and complimented his shirt!! After the show, we walked along the deck warming up after being in the air conditioning. Cruise ships are so relaxing in the evening, we stood along the railing enjoying the warm ocean breeze while watching the waves crash below us.
We all split ways, M, J and I went down to watch the Christmas tree lighting ceremony. When the crowd began to clear away, M and I took some "fancy" staircase photo's in our dresses.
The night still felt young so we changed into our swimsuits and went up to the pool deck. When we walked out of the elevator the pool deck was completely empty, as we walked closer we noticed T and J were in the pool!
The boat was rocking with the waves causing the water in the pool to slosh back and forth. We sat on the edge of the sunken pool letting the water push us into the water. M and I hopped in the hot tub to relax while watching the aquarium scene on the Big Screen. We stayed in the hot tub till our hands started getting wrinkly, then we got out and played a few games of ping pong to dry off.
Once again we collapsed into bed and passed out almost immediately.
