Cruisin’ together – Day 5

I apologize for the delay in writing this post. At first I was too hesitant to write it because I was in denial that it’s been almost two weeks since we were there. Then we were in Atlanta for the weekend for my nephew’s first birthday party and I didn’t have time to finish it.

But I am ridiculously excited to recap this port, because I LOVED St. Thomas.

I think you can see why…

 

We got off the boat around 10 AM and walked directly to the bank. At this point, we didn’t realize there was an ATM on board so we went to the Nova Scotia bank ATM that is in the town square. The bank is also conveniently located next to the taxi/bus pick up spot. There was a woman calling out the names of different places and you would just tell her which one you were going to. She then lead us to the bus that was going to our desired destination, Magen’s Bay Beach. I had heard about Magen’s Bay while scouring the Cruise Critic boards and knew that we had to go there as it’s considered to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The bus ride was $8 per person each way ($32 total) so cash was necessary.

The drive to Magen’s Bay was incredible. We seemed to be driving straight up the mountainside. And while St. Thomas technically is the United States, the way we were driving made me feel like we were in a foreign country. The steep hillside did make for some breathtaking views though. The driver even stopped so that we could get some pictures. The cars behind us were not too happy, but we were!

When we got to the beach, I knew that it was going to be crowded. I had heard that when there are more than two boats docked at the port the beach would be very busy. This was definitely true as there were tons of buses pulling in at the same time. Had I known this, I may have considered going to Sapphire Beach, but I don’t regret going to Magen’s Bay one bit!

As soon as we saw the beach, we were in paradise. White sand, turqouise water, surrounded by lush green mountains. It looked like a postcard. Not to mention there were wild iguanas roaming around, tons of pelicans diving for fish and palm trees lining the beach…it was perfection. We laid on the beach for a few hours, fell asleep under the trees and swam in the warm water. I think this was the most relaxed I had ever been in my life.

A few hours went by and we decided it was time to go back to the ship. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and didn’t feel like spending money at a restaurant instead of eating on the ship. The bus ride back took a lot longer than on the way there because of the afternoon traffic. This is important to remember if you go to Magen’s Bay and need to be back to the boat by a certain time! Luckily, we gave ourselves a few hours. We spent a few hours on the top deck reading and watching a beautiful sunset over St Thomas. We were also lucky enough to watch a Christmas parade on the street down below. I wish I had picture of it! If you ever have the opportunity to vacation in the Virgin Islands, I would strongly suggest you do! I want to go back so badly.

As usual, the rest of the night was spent mostly reading and playing cards. We wanted to sleep so we could get up early for when we arrived tomorrow in San Juan, Puerto Rico!