Our first port on this 7-day Caribbean Cruise on the Celebrity Edge was Nassau, but we didn’t do anything in port that day. That made our first real port of call St. Thomas. We were also the first cruise ship to visit St. Thomas since the return of cruising and they were as excited to see us as we were to see them! On today’s agenda: ship excursion of snorkeling in Turtle Bay!
Missed the first days of this trip review? Check out the first day here: Embarkation on Celebrity Edge in 2021
Arrival in St. Thomas – First Ship of 2021!
We ordered room service for the morning in St. Thomas. We had a 1:00 excursion and so we didn’t want a giant breakfast because we knew we would need to eat lunch promptly at noon. Plus we wanted to experience room service. The free room service breakfast on Celebrity Cruises includes hot food like eggs and bacon so we were interested to see how that went.
The eggs were super runny, powdered and not to our taste. But the bacon, fruit and coffee were good.
It is always nice to have that slow start to your day where you just relax on the balcony with a cup of coffee and a pastry.
We were just finishing our breakfast as we were approaching the port of St. Thomas. Since we were the first ship back in St. Thomas we got jet skis zooming around us making a heart in the water and yelling welcome back and a ship spraying us down with water.
Once we got to port, there were dancers and a steel drum band playing. It was really nice.
Our First Excursion of 2021: Snorkeling at Turtle Bay
After we docked, we packed our bag to take snorkeling and headed up to the buffet for lunch. We both had some pizza and then we took a Bonine sea-sickness medicine before we headed to the gangway. Supposedly greasy food (and dark beer) help with sea-sickness. I can’t promise that it works, but neither of us felt sick on the catamaran.
Anyway, with greasy lunch and sea-sickness tablets consumed, we headed down to the gangway. There were no lines and no congestion getting off the ship, but we were on a later excursion. We checked in and they gave us a laminated ticket to hand in at the boat.
Masks were required indoors in St. Thomas and recommended outdoors and most everybody from the ship was wearing them as we walked around. We were close to the last people to get on the catamaran for the excursion (we weren’t late!) and so we didn’t really get a choice of seat. The only choices left were on the very back of the boat. This turned out to be a very good thing as there was a hurricane going on in a different part of the Caribbean. The winds were out in force and it was very choppy getting to our snorkeling spot. I was grateful we had taken precautions and that we had an unencumbered view of the horizon.
Two people did get sea-sick and throw up – one on the way to snorkeling and one on the way back. I assume people getting sea-sick on catamarans like that is not that uncommon, but we were glad we had prepped ourselves for rough seas!
We rode through rough waves for about 45 min before we got to a sheltered little cove. There was a strong pull in the water, but no real waves.
Emily brought her full face mask and we have a second regular snorkel and mask, but we forgot it so I had to use the mask/snorkel provided by the excursion company.
We paddled around in the water for about an hour and then were among the last people to head back onto the ship. The crew gave us a little clear plastic cup of snacks (like a check mix) and there was free flowing rum punch and sodas if you preferred. They came around multiple times with the pitcher of rum punch offering refills.
The waves were calmer than on the ride out, the snack and punch were tasty and it was a nice ride back.
The captain of the boat shared with some of us about how it had been a hard couple of years. They had lost their house in a hurricane and then COVID hit and there were no tourists. I felt bad for the guy and glad that we did an excursion and spent some money.
After we got off the catamaran, we popped into one of the little souvenir shops at the port and bought a Christmas ornament and then headed back to the ship.
Again, no line, no waiting.
They had a tent outside with some fruit-infused water, but it seemed silly to stop in the heat for some refreshing water so we went on in.
Quiet Evening Back on Board
Once we got to our cabin, I ran up and got us some fries to snack on (the grill was the only thing open) since we still had a lot of time before our 8:00 dinner and snorkeling is hungry work.
After the snack, I hung out on the balcony watching our departure. Emily got ready and headed to the casino.
Tonight’s dinner was in the Cosmopolitan main dining room, but we actually didn’t get anything off that menu. We ordered off the regular Celebrity menu. Some of the items change daily on the Celebrity menu change daily. We didn’t want to miss something we wanted just because we were in a particular dining room.
They actually sat at close tables this time. Some of the hostesses were trying to social distance people and some of them weren’t. The people next to us also seemed like frequent cruisers. Apparently one of them (they were cousins) was on a Panama Canal cruise in March and so that was interesting. She didn’t know anything was going on until she got off the ship!
This day, more than any other than the first, reminded us how important cruising is to the people who live and work on the islands that we visit. Throughout the cruise the crew always seemed very happy to see us and very happy to be back, but we also really felt that in St. Thomas as well. The crew of the Catamaran seemed so glad to be back and the woman working in the store where we bought our souvenir didn’t stop thanking us the entire time she was ringing up and wrapping up our purchase. Later when I looked at the ornament we purchased, I realized it was wrapped in newspaper from March of 2020.
What to read next:
Cruising After Covid: What It’s Like to Cruise in 2021
