Woke up early to get ready for our excursion. We met with Worlds of Marvel and it was a little confusing we were just sent to find a seat without lots of direction. There were people who had to arrive at 7:30 and we seated and people constantly coming through to find seats. We sat in one area and realized everyone had their sticker, so we saw our table mates (who we knew were also doing this excursion) head father back so we got up and went farther back. It was just really weird and not Disney organized like normal. We managed to find a seat and got finally our stickers (with plenty of time before we had to leave).

We boarded a boat and headed over to St John’s Island. Once we arrived in St. John’s we then boarded an open air truck for a tour of the island. At first we were put on one truck where my left leg was hanging over the step on the truck. Luckily the last truck wasn’t full so we got to move over to that one. We ended up with an entire row to ourselves which was perfect. This tour focused on St. John which is an island that is mostly occupied for the U.S National Park System. There are less than 5,000 people that live on St. John Island. St. John has one school on the Island. When kids enter high school they have to take a ferry over to St. Thomas and the High School is about a block from the ferry. The government gives kids a ferry pass, so they can travel to school daily.

The tour stopped at several over looks to view the different beaches. Our guide would provide us some information about the area. Caneel Bay Resort was owned by the Rockefellers. It was destroyed in 2017 in Hurricane Irma. The hotel was not rebuilt because the lease on the land was set to end in 2023 and go back to the National Park. The company that owned the resort in 2017 determined the time it would cost to rebuild and the cost would not be recovered before 2023, so they decided not to rebuild. There was an issue with the Island residents and the National Park. Since the National Park owns 60% of the island jobs are limited. So rebuilding of the resort would have been beneficial for residents to have a job, but it has a large impact on the environment to rebuild and have tourists constantly coming and going from the island. I did find some information about the legal battle and information about the Rockefeller on St. John.

From what I read about Denis Bay it is a really pretty beach, but requires a short hike to get there so not a lot of people go to the beach. The top of the hill after leaving this area you could see Kenny Chesney’s house way up on the hill. Either the truck driver or someone on the boat said it was very common to see Kenny Chesney on St. John and St. Thomas.

We did get a chance to stop at Cinnamon Bay and walk to the water. We didn’t put our feet in just looked at it and headed back to the shop. Kenny Chesney has a song Old Blue Chair that has a line about Cinnamon Bay, which of course got stuck in my head once we arrive here. As we were heading back towards the bus we saw a deer coming out of the bushes. Evidently they were introduced for hunting back in the 1700s and are an invasive species.

Next stop was to Maho Bay. This area has built up and not has some beach rentals, food trucks, bars, everything a person needs while relaxing at the beach. There were cars parked everywhere they was an open spot to park in the parking lots, on the side of the road.

While we drove around the Island we saw some donkeys just chilling on the side of the road. We saw some crazy driveways that make mine look like an easy drive. We had about 30 minutes until we had to catch the ferry back to St. Thomas, so 2e headed over to the National Park visitor center. 

The ferry ride back was nice saw more of the islands. Lots of people out snorkeling in the different coves. Once back at the port we headed back to the ship to grab lunch. Where we were sitting it was hard to hear what they were saying about the islands. I would catch pieces. They pointed out a boat in the cove that belonged to retired math teachers. The guy said the teachers realized how expensive it was to live on a boat in the Islands that they had to figure out a way to earn money. So they started a pizza store on their boat. People can call on the phone or over the radio to order a pizza. The guy says it costs about $40 and you drive your boat up and they hand you your pizza. It is called Pizza Pi.

We went to 1923 for lunch. We were craving a cheese burger, so we stopped there since the sit down lunch has a good burger. Evidently I was so hungry I didn’t even take a picture! I had the classic burger and Mom got the Souther burger with Pimento Cheese. Both were really good.

After lunch it was time to shower and relax for a little while. After a short rest we went to Jumbeaux’s sweets. It is the paid dessert spot on the ship. I had an espresso gelato with shaved chocolate. It was really yummy after eating we walked the deck and the line for the free ice cream was crazy long!!! There had to be at least 30 people in line waiting for soft serve.

I told mom we might need to stop cruising in February there were so many people and kids on this cruise!  The pools were packed with people, so many people at the deck looking for food.

It was close to sail away time so we headed back downstairs to watch the ship leave port. We were sad they didn’t play any of the cool horns while leaving port. 

Dinner tonight was back in Worlds of Marvel. They had trivia questions on the screens and you would press one of the buttons on the quantum core to answer the questions. It was a fun way to pass the time until we got our food. 

After dinner we headed back to the room and sadly it was not made up for bed. We finished watching Captain America and the Winter Solider. A little before 8pm we went downstairs to do drone people watching. We saw chip and dale walking around saying hi to people. Then Pluto and goofy walked past to go down to the atrium and do a little magic show for the kids.

We decided to go back into Periscope Pub and have a drink while we waited on our room to get done. I decided on getting the Narwhal again and mom went for a White Russian. While we were hanging out in the bar of course we were listening to other people’s conversations (some people just talk loud). The people sitting near us said they were from Atlanta, so I had to ask where (since I knew they were most likely from metro ATL). Turn out they live less than an hour from me.