Sunday 25 January 2026 – Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas USVI: Roger
We arrived at St Thomas, the capital of the US Virgin Islands, at around 0630. With a population of about 51,000, the island was originally settled around 1500BC and later occupied by various tribes from the America’s. It was sighted by Columbus in 1493. The Dutch West Indies Company established a trading post here in 1657. It then ended up in the hands of Denmark until the British invaded in 1801, then gave it back to the Danes in 1802. Sugar was the main industry during the slavery period. It was eventually purchased by the US in 1917 as a port to control the Panama Canal and the Caribbean.
The reason these were called the West Indies is because Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1942, he mistakenly believed he’d reached the Indies. To distinguish these islands from the East Indies (Indonesia, Asia) they were labelled the West Indies.
Around 0900 we disembarked from the ship, strolled a short distance down the wharf and boarded a taxi, which took more of a resemblance to a truck, with a double cab and four rows of bench seats on the deck behind the cab. The driver told us as we climbed aboard to make sure we had the right change as this was his first run of the day. A 15-minute drive took us to the Emerald Beach resort, where we dismounted and waited for Sven, our guide, who turned up in a beat up Toyota with bench seats on the back and kayaks on racks on top. He drove us a short distance around the airport to Brewers Bay Beach where we dismounted. Just taking our snorkel gear, we strolled the short distance to the beach. Along the way he gave us a rundown on some of the various trees growing on the island. This included the Gumbo Limbo or turpentine tree that has large spikes on its branches to stop monkeys and other animals climbing it.
Arriving at the beach, Sven pulled out snorkel and masks for those that did not have them and we wandered down to the other end of the beach and entered the water following Sven. The first thing he pointed out was an octopus, which had buried itself into a little hole and apparently often hangs out there. As we swim over it we could basically see an eye looking at us. Next find was a green sea turtle, which was feeding on the sea grass on the floor of the ocean. We watched it until it came up for air and then disappeared. Next we swam over a stingray, which was lying gracefully on the bottom, not worried at all by us. We saw several other species of small fish as we swam away back along the beach to where we had entered. At one stage Sven called out to Sylvia that she had had a large dogfish swimming alongside her, which she had failed to notice.
Back on the beach, we packed up our gear and headed back to the Toyota. The drive took us over a hill from the Caribbean side of the island to Hull Bay Beach on the Atlantic side of the island. St Thomas island being part of the richest and most powerful country in the world (or so we are constantly told) has pretty poor quality roads with lots of potholes and very narrow stretches, where vehicles have to pull over and stop to let oncoming vehicles pass.
Arriving at the beach, Sven produced some beach chairs and insisted we sit, relax and eat a sandwich while he got the kit sorted. Lunch over we piled into our two-person sea kayaks and paddled out past the boats moored in the bay, soon passing a young couple in a tinny doing a spot of fishing. At a little cove a few hundred meters from the beach, and under a number of houses perched on the hillside, some with stairs leading down to the water, Sven tethered the kayaks to a rock a few feet below us. We put on flippers, masks and snorkels, and slid into the water, following Sven as he took us around the cove pointing out different species of fish. At one stage he dived down and held onto some rocks to film the fish in a little cave. Dave, who wisely left his life vest on the boat, also took a look followed by Sylvia who took her vest off to dive.
We swam back to the kayaks where Sven gave us a lesson on how to get back in. Basically this meant holding onto the side of the kayak with our body lying on the water outstretched, then pulling our body down into a vertical position kicking hard, bending our knees and pushing down with our arms. This sort of propelled us into the boat, although in all our cases not very gracefully. Back in the kayaks we paddled a bit further out to where some rocks protruded into the edge of the bay. Sylvia, Dave and I took another plunge as the water surged back and forward between the rocks. We spotted a few more fish before it was time to clamber back aboard and follow Sven in his one man kayak, which he handled with ease, back to the beach.
The two-plus hours we had been at that beach had gone really quickly. Having packed up the Toyota we headed back up the hill, taking a left turn at the top and a different route back to the pick up point. We stopped at one point where Sven pointed out a few landmarks, including Water Island, which was still owned by the British up until the end of WWII. Also Hassle Island which contains significant marine ruins from the British and Danish days, including old barracks, forts and the oldest marine railway in the western hemisphere. It was separated from the mainland in 1860 to improve circulation in the harbour.
We asked Sven to stop at a place where we could see and photograph the aircraft carrier we had seen moored off-shore on the way up the hill. He stopped a little further down the hill where we got our distant picture. After Sven dropped us off we got a taxi back to the wharf. This time there were 10 people on board, two dropped off at another cruise ship along the way. When I went to pay, the price had suddenly gone up to $10.00 each. When I disputed this the driver pulled out a huge wad of cash and peeled off the change. I am convinced that there must be an international training school for taxi drivers as everywhere I have been they will take every opportunity to rip one off.
As we left the port we headed east along the coast. I headed up to deck 14 with my camera hoping we would pass the carrier we had seen today. After about 40-minutes it came into view. Although it was a couple of kilometres away it still looked impressive, especially through the 400mm lens on the Nikon camera. At a total cost of around 12.8 billion plus 4.7 billion in development costs the Gerald Ford does look impressive. With a displacement weight of around 100,000 tons it is 337m long 41m wide. The crew, including air crew for the 78 aircraft, is around 4,500. Apparently it is here for a few days R&R for the crew and to get some supplies. It has a strict 200m no-go area around it. It has been in the Carribean for a few months as part of the US mission to invite Mr Maduro to spend some time in New York.
In the evening we enjoyed a lovely meal at Toscana, with its Italian flavours before retiring for the night.
Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 January – At Sea: Sylvia
We spent our last two days at sea relaxing, walking around the deck, attending gym classes and eating. We enjoyed a last dinner at the Polo Grill on Monday evening and our last afternoon tea in the Horizons Lounge on Tuesday afternoon. Debbie and I managed to beat Dave and Roger at a game of Euchre. It has been a long time since I’ve played cards (other than the bridge lessons on our last cruise) and we really enjoyed the game. We also attended the highly energetic and entertaining Our World show in the Allura lounge. It is always sad when these holidays end, even though we are always happy to get home.
Wednesday 28 January 2026 – Miami: Sylvia
We had done all our last minute laundry, packed our bags and left them outside our suite yesterday evening. After meeting Debbie and Dave for a last breakfast aboard in the Grand Dining Room, we departed the ship at 8:30am. We walked the short distance into the terminal to collect our luggage. Oh dear! My suitcase was nowhere to be found. I could see another suitcase, same brand and colour but larger, and with a big red ribbon tied to the handle. Surely they hadn’t mistakenly taken mine instead. After lots of interactions with the not particularly helpful ground staff, and walking the entire building to see if my suitcase was anywhere else, we finally managed to call the person on the name tag of the other suitcase. She assured us she was all good and had her three bags with her. It took quite some convincing to get her to check the labels and admit that actually, she had my suitcase. I will admit that I had reached the end of my tether by this stage and was feeling fed up with the whole thing. She had already exited the building through US immigration. I wanted to leave her suitcase inside and let her deal with the situation but Dave took pity and took her suitcase through immigration. We met outside and she was very apologetic. I reminded her quite sternly to be more careful next time and we moved on.
A short taxi ride later, we arrived at the luggage storage depot I had found and booked on line. It was nice to be met by a very friendly, helpful man who was happy to store our bags for the day. Customer Service is thankfully not dead everywhere.
We had originally booked a private boat tour around Miami to fill our day but the weather had turned and was unseasonably cold. Based on the forecast I had cancelled this booking so we were left with several hours to fill. The museum we had decided on didn’t open until 11am so we wandered to a nearby Starbucks, where we enjoyed some hot chocolates while Dave and Roger thrashed Debbie and I in a retribution Euchre match.
A short Uber ride took us to Superblue, billed as an interactive art installation museum. A huge photographic mural covered the outside walls, showcasing the people of Miami. We were warmly welcomed by the enthusiastic staff and after buying tickets headed inside. Our first stop was to get prepared for the cloud room. We were given masks, goggles, shoe covers and long white gowns to wear. We then entered a room filled with sort of soap bubble couds. It was all a bit bizarre and surreal but we had a bit of fun in the seven minutes we were allowed to wander in the clouds.
The next exhibit was probably our favourite. Different floral scenes were projected onto the walls and floor of a large room. When we touched the walls, it changed the scene. Sometimes it made flowers appear in what had been rain, other times it made the petals blow off the flowers. It is very hard to describe but we spent quite a bit of time playing with the different effects.
In another room, if you placed your hand an inch or so below a sensor, it would pick up your heart beat and 3,000 lights would pulse in time. Again, very hard to describe but quite an incredible sensation.
There were a few other exhibits including a not particularly inspiring laser/water interaction, a mildly entertaining mirror maze and a few others. All in all it was a good way to kill time. We headed back to the luggage storage place, picked up our bags and headed to the airport.
With only a few minor challenges with check in, we all settled in for the long journey home. We were all on the same flights from Miami to Houston and then on to Auckland. From there we separated. I flew on to Queenstown and drove home to Wanaka. Roger stayed in Auckland, where he will get new knees in the next few weeks. Dave and Debbie caught a flight home to Adelaide.
Overall we had a very enjoyable holiday, despite a few glitches along the way. Debbie and Dave were fantastic travel companions and we enjoyed a lot of laughter along the way.