Cruise 2025, Day 5: Christmas in St. Thomas

 

Christmas morning, and we woke up to a stunning view.

Welcome to the US Virgin Islands! This is St. Thomas. We had a quick breakfast with a friendly octogenarian couple from Chile who knew about as much English as I know Spanish, meaning we were able to converse a bit. Then Travalon and I disembarked and caught a taxi to the Cathedral for Christmas Mass.

This one was also celebrated by a bishop, who gave a lively homily in which he broke into a Christmas carol at least twice. The Gloria was easy to pick up and had a bouncy island rhythm, and the hymns were all Christmas carols. I really enjoyed this Mass. It’s delightful to see how different cultures celebrate Christmas. Here’s the outside of the church.

And here’s an impressive staircase nearby.

We were not in the tourist area and couldn’t find a real taxi. Some sketchy guy in a Jeep drove us through the mountains to Magens Bay Beach and totally overcharged us, but you know what? It was worth it. The waves were crazy, and we could only play in them for about twenty minutes before becoming exhausted. My sunglasses got knocked off, but fortunately they float so I could rescue them. Look how beautiful the beach is!

We found a beach restaurant where I had a super tasty shrimp wrap, then we found the tourist buses that take you back to the cruise ships for a reasonable price. There was a very entertaining guy and an adorable baby on our bus, and the ride through the mountains didn’t seem quite as scary. Then we shopped a bit before returning to the ship for good coffee. I spaced out and missed my 3:00 move hours after being so careful to get them during Mass by discretely fanning myself. Oops!

We found a new outdoor deck with fabulous views.

From up there we saw frigate birds flying very fast, and a glorious sunset over St. John, another Virgin Island.

We went to a special Christmas seafood dinner at the Asian restaurant onboard. Travalon had lobster pad Thai and I had yellowtail sashimi and ramen, and we both had dumplings. For dessert I had a chocolate sphere melted with hot caramel, while Travalon had a white chocolate, coconut, and lime creation. They were both so good! To drink I had warm sake, and he had a lychee cocktail and a yuzu cocktail, and then we both had rooibos chai. The very bubbly waitress had asked if it was our birthday or anniversary, so we said Travalon had a birthday at the beginning of the month, and mine is next week, so to our surprise she brought us another dessert! We took it to go.

When we got back to the room, we found a towel Christmas tree!

In case you were wondering what I did with the eye stickers from the towel Santa last night, I put them on my diary Mariah.

Here’s a video of the waitress melting my chocolate sphere with the hot caramel.

There is sand everywhere in our stateroom at the moment, although I think the crew cleaned up our bathroom. Niko was in my complementary Holland America beach bag, and now he’s full of sand. Poor guy! But he’s having a fantastic time.

Famous Hat