It was formal night tonight so everywhere you turn one can see ladies in long dresses and men in tuxedos! I myself am wearing a burgundy satin blouse and long black skirt.
One of the most festive parts of the day was when many gathered in the ship's piazza for Christmas carols just before our dinner. It was led by the Emerald Princess singers who really know how to sing and a grand piano. Wonderful!
Dinner was lobster and giant shrimp. It was a wonderful substitute for our traditional Ukranian Christmas Eve meal of perogies and cabbage rolls (and I didn't have to cook and clean up! Though J does help!). I did forget to mention I had the best soup of the cruise yesterday - a blackberry merlot cream chilled soup. Think of raspberry ice cream melted and you get the rich, tasty idea!
After supper and before my pot of tea I hauled my family out of their beds ( it was only 8 pm after all) to play a game of Christmas trivia. And with a score of 17 out of 20 we won! Hooray! JG was a lock for naming the titles of all the Christmas carol lyrics! My greatest contribution was naming the saint of the day currently known as Boxing Day - Rev. Brian Pearson you will be pleased to know I listened to your sermons and knew the answer was St. Stephen!
Before all these Christmas festivities began, we spent a day in port at St. Thomas. We joined Canadian cruise critic friends Sandra and son Kyle.
We were held up probably 25 minutes disembarking (they never tell you why!). Our taxi driver was waiting for us as promised to drive us to the other side of the island. We boarded a sailboat called Morningstar with Captain Dave and First Mate Josh. Both were excellent guides. JG had the thrill of steering the boat AND coming about. That was a bit scary for me but he was very capable. P tried steering to a lesser degree just so he could say he captained the boat !
We went across to Caneel Bay, once owned by Rockerfeller. We snorkelled at Honeymoon beach. JG got some great close up photos of a turtle. Saw parrot fish and sargeant majors too. Generally it was colder here than in Bonaire ( Josh said he would describe he winds as nearly robust today) and the water not as clear. We then boarded the sailboat for a lunch of Portabella mushrooms, grilled veggies and corn on the cob. Usually they do a second snorkel stop but the "Christmas winds" were too strong to allow for favourable snorkelling. So we had a leisurely sail back across the bay. The picture attached here is the view of a few of the other six ships in port as we were making our way back to Crown Bay, where the Emerald was docked.
Well I want to attend the Christmas Show in the Princess Theatre at 10:30 pm so I need to sign off. Hope everyone is enjoying Christmas - we are happy to enjoy 29 C offered in St Thomas today! Merry Christmas!
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