Breakfast once again at Chops - simple this time with scrambled eggs and sausage:
Attended the 10AM morning trivia and ran into Cori and Allan who'd opted to bail on their privately booked ATV tour after a rough night.
One of the nice perks for suites and pinnacle is using Carlington to bypass the crowd and escort you directly to the gangway. Only drawback is that the 2 elevators that get you from your cabin to the concierge lounge are locked while Carlington is using his key to run people down. You'd have to get up to the lounge well in advance of docking or use the stairs. You come out of the elevator right where everyone else comes down off the steps so it's still a bit of a crowd to work through at the end. This notice was left in our cabin last night:
Once out on the pier, we ran into the usual guys offering tours, taxi rides, and info in general. I had read in my research that one of the simplest things to do here is grab a taxi shuttle to take you back and forth to Christiansted.
The requisite outside view of the ship from the pier:
We chatted with the main guy who seemed to be directing everyone and he offered an island tour for $25 per person. We asked about how many people would be with us on this tour and he said 4 people per van. Dad asked about getting a private tour but didn't like that the guy wanted to charge more. We decided to go ahead with this small group tour and were directed to a booth to get tickets. Once we paid, the ladies at the booth directed us to a van that was about to leave. Once the door opened, we saw that the van already had 4 others and the company shoved in another 4 more after us. When Dad protested, they said "4? No no, each tour gets 14 people!" Dad asked if I wanted to back out but by then I had already climbed over a large wheel well and through a hanging seatbelt past a narrow bench seat just to get into the back corner of the van. I was in no mood to have to push past the new people who had joined filling out the back seats and climb over everything again. Dad at least got to sit in the front seat next to the driver. Thank goodness we were able to convince the tour operator not to try and fit anymore people in our van. As one of the original people commented, "they don't make these vans for people our size."
The roads were pretty rocky and rundown so if you thought being back on dry land would ease your sea sickness, think again! We might as well have been at a theme park riding some jungle adventure themed roller coaster with all the feeling of being knocked around. The driver did try to offer some information and commentary as we drove but a lot of the time only Dad could hear him and the rest of us had to repeat questions like the old telephone game until someone said it close enough to where our driver could hear it. Unfortunately, my hope of being able to touch the Point Udall monument wasn't to be because the driver said it was another 20 miles away from where we'd driven onto Christiansted. Shortly into the drive to our first stop, our driver spotted a hidden visitor watching us from the bushes:
Our first stop was one I'm surprised no one else in our van had heard of. Guess they aren't research nerds and planners like myself.
From surprise baby deer to beer drinking pigs - non alcoholic beer of course as some of those pigs are underage! No one else in our makeshift group seemed interested in being here at all. Several of the ladies looked bored and basically hung out by the van smoking or checking their phones. The guys headed down with our guide into the little bar and enjoyed some Red Stripe beer. Dad and I were the only ones who wanted to go feed a beer to the pigs. I'm not sure how the woman dishing out the drinks does math because the prices she rattled off for buying the beer and seeing the pigs suddenly raised up to $5 total when we said we wanted to buy 1 beer for the two of us to go feed the pigs. If we had been videotaping, that would have been an extra charge as well but we were allowed and encouraged to take as many pictures as we wanted for free.
The "building" housing the pigs in their stables was completely enclosed around the sides and latched so you wouldn't have been able to tell where they were until this woman led us over to the door. Then she instructed us to shake the can of beer but not open it. She also told us that we could feed it to any pig we liked but only if they hop up their front hooves on the stall door as "they had to work for it." We got a brief introduction to the varied ages of the pigs in residence but only the two youngest hopped up to get our attention. I handed the beer can to Dad so I could take pictures. Dad put the beer in front of the taller pig's mouth and the pig crushed his teeth down on it relishing in the beer fizz running down his chin. I thought at first that his stall mate was nuzzling up against him out of love but then the second pig craned his neck under the first pig desperately trying to catch the beer drippings.
To add to the ambience of the bar this magnet was affixed to the cooler:
Once back at the bar, Dad paid another $1 to get a water bottle for us to share. Soon we were back on the road.
Our next stop was driving through the Buccaneer Hotel Cane Bay and some local scenery before being let off for an hour to explore on our own in Christiansted. Most of our group headed for the shops along the boardwalk but Dad and I walked around the national park site. Just before arriving at this site, our driver had pointed out a building with several flags out front. Dad insisted we first head back up a couple blocks to get a picture of those flags.
This effort would come in handy soon.
In the back parking lot, we found what must be the inspiration behind the toughest level in "Frogger":
And on the other side of the parking lot, I discovered the anomaly known as a "women's restroom with no line." Our guide asked someone upon parking the van if restrooms were open and they said no so this was our only option.
We came back to the van well before everyone else so our guide suggested we walk along the boardwalk. Dad proposed stopping to get lunch but it was mostly packed bars as we walked along. After a while I suggested turning around and walking back the way we came but Dad was sure that if we just looped around, the boardwalk would become one big circle leading us back to the van. So we walked, and walked, and walked and magically Dad starts questioning this path he was so sure about taking. We stopped someone in a work uniform to ask directions but they claimed to not know their way around here either. Next person we came across was a young couple and they directed us to head all the way down the street and then turn left. We walked in the hot sun for what felt like ages and once again Dad is questioning the path. I tried suggesting heading for the water because we could find our way once back on the boardwalk. Nope, that was too intelligent of an idea. So we walked some more. I had finally had enough and took the very next left to start walking toward the water. Dad protested after me but once I reached the first corner, I look up the next road and see a familiar sight - the building with all the flags! I pointed it out to Dad and only then did he finally let me take the lead. We walked the long road we'd last driven down until it dead ended into the national park site. By now, we were the last to return and everyone was just waiting on our guide to come back. This must have been the main taxi shuttle pick up place because when they were ready to board another van, the lady there insisted on seeing everyone's tickets. Dad went into our unlocked van to get our tickets but once our driver returned, no one cared about our tickets.
At this point everyone in our group was hot and tired. Our driver had just been told that our next planned stop of the Cruzan Rum Factory was going to close soon so if anyone still wanted to go, we'd have to head straight there. No one cared anymore about seeing the factory. Instead we took more of a scenic drive back to Frederiksted enjoying the views from the van. Our 3 1/2 hour tour dropped us off back in between the two security checkpoints at the pier. Glad not to be in a cramped van anymore, we headed back out to the closed off street lined with vendor booths and shops. We walked up one side and down the other not finding anything worth buying. Earlier in the cruise we had been chatting with a couple who'd brought tons of diving equipment with them because they'd booked all the diving ship tours. Upon getting to the cabin on the first day, they found notice that all of their tours had been cancelled due to lack of participation. I hope they were able to get off the ship today and book a dive with the tons of private companies we saw lining this street and the boardwalk in Christiansted. This is definitely a port for either a beach day or resort pass if you're not into snorkeling or diving.
On the way back into the port area, we spotted an interesting new character.
The first security gate we walked through to get back into the parking lot where the vans sat lined up required us to show our cruise cards. Walked past the vans and encountered another security manned gate that insisted on seeing our cruise cards. We obliged and were let through to head back to the glorious air conditioning but it left me shaking my head. What was the point of checking a second time when we could only reach the second checkpoint by showing our cards at the first gate?
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