St. Croix, USVI

We did not buy a shore excursion for this island so we just got off of the ship and explored the cruise terminal area and walked around the park area and the waterfront and boardwalk area. Our boat docked at Willemstad and I think that maybe the other dock would have been better; well it could not have been worse anyways. St. Croix is a tiny little island that is pretty to look at from the boat and that is about it. This port is not yet set up for tourism. The stores were closed and there were not too many people around. It was Sunday but if 2500 people are coming to your town, don’t you think that you would be ready for them? It does have a little bit of charm but the buildings are all in disrepair and the island appears to be extremely poverty-stricken. Many buildings are heritage buildings but there is obviously no money to put into them. Many have lovely ironwork banisters and they are in an array of colors and they have an old plantation-type styling to them. There is lovely brickwork on a few too. We found our way to a Catholic Church and it was Sunday and we could hear that a mass was going on so we walked in and caught the tail end of it. Kitty Corner to the church was the market square and many locals were already drunk, drinking beer and this was only just after 11 am in the morning. We walked back down the hill and went through the market area with all of the handicrafts. I bought several little hand-twisted anklets in beautiful colors for friends. They are easy to transport at least. I would love to buy many people in my life presents but where do I put them?




We went back on the boat very early and we were only on the island for 1 ½ hours of exploring. I almost felt guilty but there was not a lot to see. We could have done a tour but we did not have a burning desire to do any of them. We could see that there were some nice beaches from the boat’s vantage point, but once again we are going to see many pretty beaches in Aruba, St. Kitt’s and St. Thomas this month so the beaches could wait. Dax did not even want to come off of the boat with us; he chose to stay with the kids.





So we were childless and went back on the boat. It felt weird because Dax has not been out of our sight for 6 solid months and all of sudden we had all of this time to ourselves and what to do with it?? I chose to read Star Phoenix and my book on my Kindle. Darren went and worked on his paper and did the corrections to get it sent back for the 6th attempt to his wretched advisors, the poor bastard. I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of my day in the sun, which was eventually too hot and I ended up going into the shade of the smoke stack on the top deck. We later got ready for our Formal night and went to collect Dax and he looked at us and told us he did not want to come, he wanted to stay at the Fun Factory and our complex grew. Our supper was fabulous as always and we came back to our room which had already been turned down for the night with chocolate provided. It is such a nice touch, even though I don’t ever eat them. Darren snarfs them down quicker than I can; this Celebrity cruise has a different flavoured chocolate every night. Tonight it was Chamomile and Raspberry.