St. Thomas day

Because everyone was keen to have a go on the aqua duck again (Paige had only been twice, and Rose had only been once!), we thought it would be a great idea to have breakfast and go for a swim before going onto the island.  So that is what we did...although because it was a port day they didn't open the aqua duck until 12:00! Now we know! That aqua duck is super hard to fit in when both girls need an adult to ride with, but Henry can't go on at all.  That means we had to go separately and it was always a half hour wait at least. So, we had to wait until the next day! The 2 times I rode it, it was a blast! So fun.  Anyway, it was really nice to leisurely eat and go to the pool without worrying about rushing off the ship.  

Our "port adventure" was a sky ride (gondola) to "Paradise Point".  All of us were kind of scared on the way up. At the top we had some yummy nachos, and everyone had a frozen beverage of some type or another.  A great view.  Afterwords we shopped for some souvenirs as the girls still had some money they were itching to spend.  

Although Mike and I had pigged out on the nachos, the kids had only picked away at the dry pieces and still needed lunch, which we got back on the ship.  Can't beat these views!

In the evening it was time to bust out Rose and my matching ensemble! This night's dinner was at the animator's palate again--and was the night where our drawings came to life on the screen.  So fun.  

I had to take a picture of this kids appetizer, as well as a half eaten plate of food.  The reason for that one is the mickey face ketchup that Henry and Rose had every night with their meals.

After the main course it was a decorate your own (3) cupcakes! Yikes! So much sugar.

And it was on this night that Henry had a super long dance with Tiana to "Shake it Off".  What a little guy.  He was ecstatic! I think she picked him because she could see he was just staring at her in awe.

About the spa....

During all of my research I heard of a 1 day spa pass.  It was for part of the spa called the Rainforest Room, which sounded really amazing.  I was super set on getting my hands on one of these so I made sure to get to the spa ASAP to sign up.  Well, it turned out that they didn't offer one day passes, just 1 week passes.  I had my heart set on this place so much that I decided to spring for it anyway, even though that was a bit expensive.  Oh well.  

The Rainforest room had 2 main sections, a sort of self-guided spa, and a relaxation room.

I first checked out the different showers.  Each one had different lights, temperatures, and scents.  Within each one you could also choose one of three options.  For example, you could choose "southern storm" in the "tropical thunder" shower.  In that there were lightening flashes and some red lights.  In the rainforest shower I could smell a distinct eucalyptus scent.  Very cool.

After the showers, I tried the "hamam", which was a steamroom where you could also apply a body scrub and rinse it off with a big wooden ladle.   In the subsequent visits I did this first before the showers, so I could rinse off the oils better.  There was also a hotter steam room, as well as a dry sauna.  

After the spa portion of the room you could visit this other room which had these unique tiled loungers that didn't feel hot, but were just the perfect temperature to relax.  just outside the room were 2 small hot tubs, but also a superb view of the ocean, or a port if you happened to be at one! In this room I read my book, or just lay there and enjoyed the fact that I didn't have any chores to do.

An unexpected bonus of the spa were the shower facilities.  Although our room was fine in terms of space, there were several times where I went to the spa later in the day, and showered there and fully dried my hair in the change room.  Plus the change room had higher end shampoos and soaps, as well as an extremely amazing smelling body lotion.  Oh, and a massive shower! I would leave the spa feeling like a million bucks and pretty much ready for dinner.  I would definitely do this whole thing again.  Mike either ran or went to the gym every day, but I didn't feel like doing that on the cruise, and going to sit somewhere with a book would have been ok, but this was better!

Cruise day 4:Tortola

On the night before our day 4 Tortola port adventure we made sure to sign up for breakfast room service! I think we had to meet our tour group before 9:00, so breakfast in the room was a must.  Henry ate a normal breakfast and was back to his old self.  PHEW!!

Our excursion in Tortola was an open air bus tour and beach break.  We had to carry all of our own waters from the ship as well as 5 heavy towels.  We were sweltering.  The tour ended up being super long, and was made longer by the fact that our bus broke down.  We ended up boarding an air conditioned bus with another group of people, but by then it was overcrowded and people were sharing seats.  

But here is where we started off:

We finally finally made it to this beach and luckily there was a bit of food (chips) to buy because the kids were starving.

It definitely feels good to go in a nice cool ocean after sweating for hours!

Henry was wiped after the morning and needed a sleep!!

We were able to have some lunch and make sure Henry slept before pirate night!! So fun to all dress up as pirates, and head out for dinner and partying!

After a pirate themed menu at the restaurant, including a smoothie for Henry in a flashing skull cup (we wanted him to eat or drink anything at this point as he still wasn't back to his full appetite!), we headed up to the first pirate party that was abruptly rained out.  The characters were dancing around on stage when suddenly it started to pour and all of the crowd started running away screaming.  Since that was a no go, we headed in to get good seats for the main show which was a hypnosis show.  The show had us in hysterics.  The girls were laughing so hard, particularly Paige, who laughed several times on this trip like nothing I had ever seen.

 Then there was the much anticipated pirate party.  The rain had cleared up, although it was a bit windy.  Luckily all fireworks still ran as scheduled! When the dance party started though, we had to get the kids in bed.  The show started sometime after 10:00.