In mid December 1999 my wife Denise & I gave ourselves an early celebration for our 20th anniversary (which is actually in January 2000): a cruise on the Sea Goddess I. It's not often that one can sail 2 cruise lines at once, but we did. In December the Sea Goddess I had nearly completed its transition from Cunard to Seabourn, which let us sample the policies of both cruise lines. Moreover this was the first time we actually stayed on St. Thomas for a few days, although we had visited it twice before as a cruise port. This gave us time to see some attractions we had missed before. Denise & I traveled with our friends Robert & Nancy.
Cruises are great vacations, and the Seabourn Sea Goddess I was our 16th cruise. Our standing joke is that we can't decide whether or not we enjoy cruises, or which cruise lines we prefer, so by golly we'll cruise again and again until we make up our minds. This may take the rest of our lives. We have cruised once in Hawaii, twice in Alaska, 4 times on the Caribbean Sea, once via the Panamá Canal, and once from New York to Nova Scotia. We especially love the Mississippi Queen and have cruised 5 times on it and once on the Delta Queen, on practically the entire Mississippi River from New Orleans, Louisiana to St. Paul, Minnesota, plus the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio. Our most ambitious cruise was a Royal Princess voyage around Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the Falkland Islands in December 1998 and January 1999 via Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan. Santiago, Buenos Aires and Montevideo were great cities. 18 hours of daylight last Christmas in the far south was fun too.
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Thursday, 16 December 1999: Chicago, Illinois - San Juan, Puerto Rico - St. Thomas
By coincidence we chose a good time to visit the tropics, because we left home just as the first snow of the season rolled into Chicago. Unfortunately our 6:30 AM Central Standard Time American Airlines flight stood on the runway at O'Hare Airport for almost an hour. It took that long for 3 tons of holiday mail to be loaded, and then for our plane to be de-iced. As a result, we arrived late in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and therefore we and about 20 other passengers missed our 1:40 PM Atlantic Standard Time connection to St. Thomas. American Airlines hustled us over to another gate for the next available flight at 2:15 PM, the gate attendant took our tickets, and we boarded a shuttle bus. Unfortunately, due to the general confusion we missed that flight too. Moreover, the confusion was so great that several passengers originally scheduled for that flight also missed it.
The ticket agents then directed us to a service counter to book everyone on the next available flights to St. Thomas. Robert and I stood in the long slow queue to hold our place, while Denise and Nancy independently got the idea to phone the American Airlines toll-free number to book us on another flight to St. Thomas. Great minds must think alike. Rather than scramble for the next available flight at 4:30 PM on standby, they reserved seats for us on an American Eagle commuter flight scheduled for 5:05 PM. This was just like the planes I sometimes take between Chicago and Toledo, Ohio. Then we proceeded to the main terminal for our reissued tickets, not an easy feat without our original tickets, which the gate attendant had taken. Ahead of us were another couple in the same situation, who argued with the ticket agent and his supervisor for nearly half an hour before their tickets were reissued. Naturally their difficulty made us very uneasy, but luckily their efforts helped us sail through the ticket reissue process in minutes when our turn came. Then we settled down for a late lunch at San Juan airport and relaxed. The wait might have been a blessing in disguise, because meanwhile a thunderstorm rolled into Puerto Rico for the next few hours, but it ended just before we boarded our flight.
This missed connection simply should not have happened. We had booked our flights 6 months in advance, and the only scheduled connection from San Juan to St. Thomas gave us less than an hour between flights. In early December several more flights from San Juan to St. Thomas were added to accommodate the start of the tourist season. We had tried to rebook a later connection to give ourselves more time, but American Airlines would have charged us a fee to change the flight. Therefore we retained our original flight schedule, missed the connection in San Juan and ended up on a later flight anyway. At least then we were not charged an extra fee, but we paid for it in aggravation. However, apart from these snags, we were well pleased with the overall level of service and friendliness offered by American Airlines. In any case, it is a welcome change from my years of business travel on United Airlines.
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Thursday-Saturday, 16-18 December 1999: St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands
St. Thomas Harbor, Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
St. Thomas, along with St. John, St. Croix and numerous small islands, make up the United States Virgin Islands. St. Thomas was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493, but not formally colonized until Danish settlers arrived in 1671. Apart from 2 short periods of British occupation, St. Thomas remained in Danish control for nearly 2½ centuries. In 1870 the United States Senate rejected an offer from Denmark to sell the Danish Virgin Islands for $7.5 million, and in 1902 the Danish Parliament rejected an offer from the United States to buy the islands for $5 million. Finally in 1917, due to fear of German occupation in World War I, the United States agreed to buy the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million. St. Thomas with an area of 32 square miles (83 square kilometers) is the 2nd-largest (after St. Croix) of the United States Virgin Islands, and the most populous with 48,000 people. It lies 1100 miles (1770 kilometers) east southeast of Miami, Florida and 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Puerto Rico. St. Thomas is also the busiest cruise ship port in the Caribbean Sea, due primarily to its duty-free shopping.
Renaissance Grand Beach Resort, St. Thomas
We spent 3 days at the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort on the East End of St. Thomas. It had a beautiful white sandy beach along Pillsbury Sound and a fabulous view of St. John. Check-in was a bit muddled because we had reserved a room with a king-size bed, and they tried to give us twin beds, but eventually we resolved the problem. Our lovely 2nd-floor suite overlooked the pool and also had a terrific view of the sea and islands beyond. Dinner at their casual Baywinds restaurant was delicious, although the menu was limited. We timed our stay perfectly because it was just before the official tourist season began, and before most hotels doubled their rates.
This was a superb resort in almost every way, with one glaring exception. One evening they had a loud loud loud private poolside party with a Caribbean band, and our suite was next to the pool, so we bore the full brunt of the drumbeats. After 10:00 PM we phoned the front desk several times to ask when the party was scheduled to end, but no one seemed to know. They promised to find out and call back, but no one did. (The next day we noticed in the hotel guide that 11:00 PM begins their designated quiet time, but nobody at the front desk thought to tell us.) The party ended shortly after 11:00 PM, and we went to sleep. Then in their infinite whiz-dumb, the staff tore down the party tents between 1:00 and 3:00 AM. Kling klang klung! Was there any tent pole they did not drop? Repeatedly? It was the St. Thomas Olympic Pole Dropping Team! This sort of noise is inexcusable at a fine resort such as this. Parties are fine, but we also like to sleep on vacation. Thank goodness we left Saturday morning, because 2 or 3 more parties were scheduled for that evening. However, apart from this major incident, we were well pleased with the overall level of amenities, service and friendliness offered by Renaissance Grand Beach Resort.
Coral World, St. Thomas
Friday morning we strolled to nearby Coral World Marine Park, an excellent aquarium complex which let us see and actually touch some of the marine life from the Caribbean Sea. Caribbean Reef Encounter features colorful fish, stingrays and Caribbean lobsters. Shark Shallows is the home of baby and juvenile sharks and other fish. In addition to the many tanks and displays, they also have an 3-story underwater Observatory Tower to see the reef and marine life in Coki Bay. In all we spent 2 or 3 hours at Coral World, which is the most popular single attraction on St. Thomas. Coral World underwent a major renovation after the damage caused by Hurricane Margaret in 1995. We had snorkeled in Coki Bay in January 1996 and seen some of the damage then.
Next we boarded a taxi van to visit the duty-free jewelry stores on Main Street in Charlotte Amalie. Denise had great fun as she shopped for her own Christmas, birthday and anniversary gifts. We discovered that many stores lowered their prices in the late afternoon after the cruise ship passengers depart. This may be when the locals shop for themselves. We also enjoyed part of the Miracle on Main Street Christmas Festival, and felt almost like locals ourselves. The next day we also shopped at Havensight Mall, a dockside shopping district which deals primarily with cruise ship passengers. Good deals abound, but only if one knows the merchandise and can bargain well. We are glad that we traveled via taxis rather than rent a car. The roads can be very narrow, winding and confusing.
Amusing musical notes: Some friends in Illinois have asked how we can possibly enjoy Christmas without snow, but it's surprisingly easy. After all, the Three Wise Men never needed to shovel snow. During the past few years I have also become quite fond of Christmas in the summer, as in southeast Australia and far southern Chile. We love Christmas, but all the hype in the United States can be counterproductive. Our trip to the Caribbean Sea bombarded us with even more musical delights: Christmas carols in reggae, calypso and steel drum band versions. Thank goodness we were nowhere near a Mexican mariachi band, ha ha. It seemed downright silly that they repeatedly played some carols which technically have nothing to do with Christmas. Sleigh Ride and Let It Snow in the tropical climate are just plain goofy. The pièce de résistance was a work which had even less to do with the holidays. It was Adagio in G Minor for Organ and String Orchestra by Italian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1759), but in a funky calypso band arrangement. Résistance is right, mon (chuckle).
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