Again, because St. Thomas belongs to the United States, we are escorted into the harbor. The sail boat to the left is still our favorite thing to see when we arrive in St. Thomas. The boat belongs to Captain "Z" who took us out on a sail boat trip during the Paradise Cruise. We always enjoy seeing him when we return to St. Thomas. Check out the Captain "Z" story, in which there is a twist, by clicking here. St. Thomas has been a hub for all our cruises. The only time we haven't been to St. Thomas is when we cruised the Western Caribbean. The landscape was a little more brown this year due to a lack of rainfall in the Caribbean, however, it has changed dramatically from when we first came here on the Sensation soon after St. Thomas' largest hurricane past through. All we saw then were trees laying horizontally and houses with blue tarps covering their roofs which were torn away. Despite the landscape, the water was beautiful and all the sail boats made it look wonderful.

However, this time there was a snag. Because of the new security issues, Greg had to run back up stairs and return with all of our travel documents such as birth certificates and etc. The U.S. Immigration really wants to know who's getting off into US territory.

Of course, being in the U.S. gives Greg an opportunity to call the office and make sure everything is alright. The kids are use to this and wait patiently for dad to get off the phone and head for the beach.

The drive to any of the beaches is a windy drive over the mountain and provides the novice photographer many opportunities to take photographs of the ship. The taxi driver always knows where to stop for the best shots. The island people don't like this and always honk their horn to tell the driver to move on.

Saaphire Beach was excellent. The views of the other islands made it seem panoramic.

As Preston and Brooklyn made new friends, Greg and Susan just laid around and kept the sun screen on. Susan, who should have known better, decided we would wait an hour before putting sun screen on at Salt Cay so that we would start off with a tan. Needless to say, in the first 10 minutes we were all crisp. Susan made sure we used suncreen every day after that.

When the shuttle driver drops you off, you make a deal with him to return and pick you up at a certain time. You are always scared that they won't return, but they always do and are always on time..

This was a cool palm tree. The frawns look like a Japanese fan. We thought it was unique until we saw a few more at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Our ship was waiting for Susan to finish her shopping as it peeked through the trees. Susan loves to get back early from the beach and do a little shopping. Susan has a true heart and loves to buy little nick nack things for people back home. The kids love to follow her and also have an eye for shopping. However, Greg hates it and sits around and watches the people--and girls--and takes pictures.

Returning to the ship early gave us about three hours before leaving around 8:00 p.m. This time we decided to eat dinner outside on the public deck by the slide and pools.

Preston started to crave turkey sandwiches. He must have had a sandwich at least five times a day.

The departure at night was new for us. It was absolutely magnificent to see the other ships still in dock with the entire mountain side lit up from the island houses.

Of course, after eating, there was still time to eat more stuff. While there is a formal breakfast, lunch and dinner schedule, most people just eat when they have the urge.