St. Thomas, USVI

The second port of call on our cruise was St. Thomas, which is one of the four islands that comprise the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Thomas had a land area of about 31 square miles and a population of approximately 50,000 people. The inhabitants of the island are U.S. citizens, though they do not have the same voting rights as U.S. citizens that live in the 50 states. Here is one interesting fact that I did not know prior to our visit: The U.S.V.I. is the only place under U.S. jurisdiction where the rule of the road is to drive on the left. This practice is leftover from when the islands were ruled by the Danish prior to the American acquisition in 1917. The children definitely thought it was neat that our cab driver had to drive on the "wrong side of the road" that day!

We arrived in St. Thomas around 10:00 a.m., so we could see the ship approach the island as we were eating breakfast in the cafe. After being at sea the previous day, it was exciting to see the large land mass in the distance and we went up to the deck to view the docking.

Our initial views of the island are below. Notice the large homes that are perched high on the mountains. The ship in the second photo below is one of the Disney cruise ships that was also in port that day. It was an interesting experience looking at the Disney ship from afar and thinking "wow, that is a large ship!" and then realizing once we were docked next to it that our ship was about the same size.

After disembarking we walked a short distance through the port area to the tram that would take us to Paradise Point. The cabins pictured below took us up the mountain about 800 feet to a look-out point that had very nice views of the harbor and island.

Waiting for the tram. You can see our cruise ship in the background through the trees. Below are photos that show the beautiful view we experienced from Paradise Point. You can see our ship docked in port, as well as the largest town in St. Thomas, Charlotte Amalie.

This photo of Water Island was taken looking out towards the ocean from the point. Water Island is the smallest island of the USVI and has a population is less than 200 people.

At the peak there were a few attractions for visitors. In addition to a restaurant and bar, there were cages of tropical birds (parrots, etc.), a ferris wheel, and a skyjump. Grandmommy, the children, and I enjoyed the ferris wheel and John tried the skyjump.

Amelia and I said, "It's always carnival time at Paradise Point!"

After we took the tram down from the peak we hired a cab driver to take us into town for lunch. St. Thomas is known for its excellent duty-free shopping for jewelry and other luxury items, which was not of interest to anyone in our group. So we bypassed the busy shopping streets and did not spend much time in the town other than enjoying a nice lunch.

We enjoyed delicious food at a Caribbean restaurant called Cuzzin's. I am planning a separate post about  the food we enjoyed during our trip so I'll save further discussion of our experience at Cuzzin's for later.

After lunch we wanted to use our remaining time on the island to visit an attraction called Bluebeard's Castle, but unfortunately it was closed for the day. So we asked the cab driver to take us to Koki Beach instead. I had read that Koki Beach was a kid-friendly beach (meaning lots of sand, few rocks in the water, and currents that were not too strong) and this would give us a chance to see a real Caribbean beach.

A nice surprise was that the drive over to Koki Beach, which was on the other side of the island, was amazing! Our cab driver took us over curvy mountain roads that provided awesome views and showed us the variety of homes that people live in on the island. Our driver was friendly and knowledgeable about the island's history, and he answered all of our questions about the culture and customs of the people of St. Thomas.

Koki Beach was much smaller that I expected and the sand itself was quite crowded with tourists and locals. But we were able to rent lounge chairs for the adults that didn't want to go swimming and we learned from the locals working the stands where to take the kids along the beach for our best chance to view fish. After grabbing the kids' goggles and reinforcing the idea that they would be able to see fish without going too deep in the water, the three of us set off for the rocky reef area close to shore to view fish.

And we each saw a few blue and yellow colorful striped fish in the water. Just before it started to rain. Out of nowhere it seemed the sky went from this:

to a darker and cloudy sky with huge, fat droplets of rain pouring down. And while this didn't bother the kids and I so much since we were swimming in the water, the rain made for a less than desirable experience for the other adults in our group who were hanging out on the beach.

So we packed up and left the beach and drove back to port in what was pretty much a steady downpour. Even though we still had a few hours left before the ship was to sail, we decided to call it a day and get back on the boat. Shopping or touring Charlotte Amalie in the rain with two kids who were whining about being so wet was just not appealing. Getting back on the ship was a challenge due to the crazy rain and wind, but eventually we made it back to our cabins and we all felt refreshed after warm showers and changing into dry clothes. We also enjoyed a few hours on the less-crowded ship while we were docked and many of the passengers remained on the island.