Aboard the Queen Mary 2 -- What to do in January? Go to St. John in the Virgin Islands -- Our holiday, or vacation from retirement life, Part Five

[This is a part of a work in progress, more will follow (I hope). Click here to read what else I have posted about our Holiday at Sea.]

This was a nice thing to do. Our ship was to be in the port at St. Thomas for about six hours. Follow me:



First, turn the volume up and you can hear the little waves. What you see is 'Beach Bum Jim' of Jim1Jim1 walking the beach in front of the Westin Hotel. Then he picks up the camera and pans up and down the beach.

Not much excitement but you can see and hear the action at the Westin Hotel Beach. (link to Jim1Jim1 YouTube) .

St. John's Island is mainly a tourist place. For the geography buffs, more than half of the island is a park. (link) With an area of 19.61 sq mi, it is smaller than our Galveston Island here in Texas. The population is only 4,197 permanent residents.

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(Click on any picture for larger size)

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We took this taxi to the Red Island Ferry. The views were nice, it rained on us a little all the way so the pictures weren't so hot.

The Red Island Ferry ride was uneventful except that we got to ride free.

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We didn't know the beaches. Two other couples said they were going to the Westin Hotel Beach and that it was free. So we did that. On the left is the Westin stuff we had to walk through to get to the beach.

Their pool was very inviting but we were headed for the beach. Besides we didn't bring our bathing suits.



Where to sit, where to sit. "First walk around."
"No, lets get us our chairs first." As if they might run out.



The beach was nice, the water was warm, and we wished we had our swim suits.

Views are to the east on the left, to the west on the right.



We didn't have much time to look around before catching our ferry back. We rode one that got us to the port this time. Red Island Ferry which we took first was on the other side and end of the island. It was cheaper and somehow we rode for free.

We did ride the second one for half price at the senior rate. They only wanted to give that rate to the locals but we said we were U.S. citizens too. And that we sure didn't discriminate like that in Texas. The young lady got tired of fooling with us and the ferry was waiting for us, the last passengers. So she let us ride as seniors. Our fare was $five and change each.



This time since the ride was short, our 'taxi' fare was $2.00 each Here is a view down a side street.

We were happy to be at our ship almost an hour early. Three people were running late and the ship waited for them. Wasn't it nice that Queen Mary 2 would do that for them!

We decided to stop at the Internet cafe across the street to catch our e-mail and peek at my blog. This was all day for $4.00 or $1.50 an hour. We had used all of our package on the ship and were now paying 75¢ a minute.



We headed back to our cabin to change for our meal. The view is from our deck. Ladies don't miss much with their phones, Mrs. Jim discovered that our cell phone worked here at the St. Thomas port. She had missed a whole day of being on the phone except for this half hour or so.