Mark

Since we were back in the US, immigration is necessary before leaving the ship. You are given an appointment time to show up in one of the lounges where you march by an immigration officer and hand him your passport. Once they OK you, you get a little card allowing you to leave the ship. You don’t have to honor your appointment time, and are welcome to go earlier, which is especially important if you have an early morning excursion, like we did.

So off to scuba diving. Again an excursion representative was there to collect us and others from different ships. We boarded another boat which took us out to an island off the St. Thomas coast. It was a fabulous dive day – calm conditions and 15-20 foot visibility. We did two dives, one on a wreck called the Castanza, the other over a typical coral reef.

We were back at the cruise ship by Noon so we washed down our equipment, showered, and changed. Of course, there’s nothing better than a giant burger after diving, and as we returned we had asked one of the dive boat folks for a good recommendation. Just down the street from the port there was a great dive bar called Shipwreck Tavern which served huge burgers and Red Stripe beer – a winning combination.

After lunch we grabbed an open-bed taxi over to Charolette Amalie ($3.50/person fixed) to the main shopping district. Lo and Behold, it was the same thing as St. Maarten – the exact same stores. Yawn. So we walked around, purchased a couple of knick-knacks for those relatives we don’t see very often, and headed back to the ship.

We did look in the Passman Black Coral Store – watch out for these guys. If you don’t like a hard sell, don’t go in. They will stick to you like flies on **** until you buy something – and they’ll act really disappointed when you don’t. No haggling here, by the way, unlike other stores in both ports where haggling is expected.

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