Cruise

Written 7am, Monday, 3 September on Crown Princess at 20°52.31′N, 69°36.01′ W

As planned, we went to see Rocky Horror playing on the MUTS (”Movies Under the Stars”) screen last night.

It was only a small group of folks who went up to see the show, and of that group, about half left fairly shortly into the movie (thankfully including one obnoxiously loud teen who started to freak when he saw what was under Frank’s lab coat).

The spacing of the seats (lounge chairs scattered around three decks) would be nice for watching a normal movie, but the layout combined with sounds from the party just aft of us and the lack of a live cast pretty much precluded audience partici….pation.

Or, to phrase it another way, Rocky audience participation is strange when you’re the only one attempting to do it.

I’m glad that our first encounter with the MUTS screen was with a movie my wife and I know so well. It would have been a little bit frustrating attempting to watch a movie we were wanting to see for the first time, given the plexiglass safety barriers obstructing the view, and party noises interfereing with the audio.

Despite that, the experience of sitting outside with a movie playing and a few stars and a moon being visible despite all the light pollution was nice.

It would be cool if, at some point in time, a Rocky live cast got together and did a cruise, along with a critical mass of audience to get participation going.

Written 8pm, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess at 19° 2.04′ N, 66° 2.88′ W

Written 8pm, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess at 19° 2.04′ N, 66° 2.88′ W

So, does anyone see anything wrong with the following picture?

It was just so bizarre (in a way that only a roadgeek would likely notice) to see traffic driving on the left in the Virgin Islands on roads with U.S. standard signage and pavement markings.

I mean, even over on Anguilla, which inherited left-hand drive from Britain, signage and pavement markings follow British standards, which help alleviate the feelings of weirdness. (Well, that plus the roads are so narrow that left/right side driving almost seems irrelevant.)

At least all the signs in the MUTCD which seemed backwards now make some intuitive sense—the backwards no U-Turn signs, the “keep left” signage, etc.

Written 8pm, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess at 19° 2.04′ N, 66° 2.88′ W

Written at 330pm, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess, preparing to depart Crown Bay

When doing my pre-cruise research, I encountered some seemingly conflicting information on the cellular situation. Aside from the admonition that one of the nice things about taking a cruise has been being mostly unplugged, I thought I’d share the following bits of information for other future cruisers:

I use Sprint for both my cell phone and wireless broadband (EVDO) service.

From our starboard-side cabin, we had strong signals, both phone and EVDO Rev A, at port in Brooklyn and in San Juan.

My wife was able to make phone calls for a surprising length of time after we left San Juan.

In St. Martin / Sint Maarten, my wife remembered that she had forgotten to turn off her cell phone, and reported getting a strong digital (CDMA) roaming signal. We didn’t try it out, and I have no idea of what the roaming charges would be.

In St. Thomas, at Crown Bay, I had one bar of digital roaming signal, and one bar of non-EVDO roaming service in my starboard side cabin, and one bar non-roaming / EVDO Rev A signal on the balcony. However, on the port side of the ship and on the dock, I was getting a full five bars of Sprint signal.

We’ve been told to expect no CDMA signal at Grand Turk; it’s apparently GSM-only there.

Written at 330pm, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess, preparing to depart Crown Bay

Worn out from yesterday’s adventure, the plan for today was to take it easy. My wife stayed onboard after the immigration inspection, to recover from two days of far more activity than she’s used to, and I was sent off the ship to collect souvenirs and run errands.

Princess uses the pier at Crown Bay on St. Thomas. It’s a former military installation that’s been converted to a second cruise ship facility, to ease the burdens at the older Havensight pier. Havensight is far more developed for the tourist trade, although some stores are starting to open at Crown Bay.

I had my sights on Havensight for another reason—my smushed EVDO modem, which I was hoping to replace at the Sprint store at Havensight Mall, to save an errand back in Hartford, not to mention hopefully get a break on taxes.

Unfortunately, I found out something the hard way. Stores at the Havensight Mall are pretty much closed on Sundays unless a cruise ship has docked there. (The gondola ride is a notable exception to this.)

And with all the stores being closed, it’s a little challenging to catch a taxi back to downtown. So, I had a nice little mile and a half stroll back to downtown along the waterfront, an experience that later in the day lead me to realize that it’s hard to effectively apply spray-on sunblock to your years, or your face for that matter when you’re perspiring prolifically.

Fortunately, downtown a kind jewelry store salesperson was kind enough to offer me a large glass of water while I was shopping for a birthday present for my wife.

Catching a taxi in St. Thomas is an experience. The taxis that seem to be primarily used for shuttling cruise ship passengers around are these open-aired vehicles, with 5 or 6 benches seating five folks each. I’m glad my wife wasn’t along for the taxi experience, as she would have had a problem climbing in or out of one of those vehicles.

Beautiful scenery abounds here, but I do have to say that Anguilla and St Martin are my favorite islands so far this trip.

Tonight, we’re planning to catch Rocky Horror on the MUTS screen (outdoor screen overlooking one of the Lido Deck pools), and tomorrow afternoon will have us in Grand Turk.

Written 315pm, Sunday 2 September, on Crown Princess at Crown Bay

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been struck by how many folks on the cruise love to complain.

This morning we got to see a bit more of that phenomenon.

As I reported in a prior post, we were ordered to appear for a mandatory immigration inspection this morning, upon docking at St. Thomas.

This was quite clearly not something folks wanted to do early on a Sunday morning, especially since a lot of folks apparently had a very good time on Sint Maarten.

The Princess folks were pretty good about it, apologetic, despite the verbal abuse they received from a couple of passengers. (Although, I did hear one crew member quip, “Don’t blame me; I’m Canadian. It’s your President who says we have to do this”—a comment that got a chuckle from several of us who appreciated the sentiment, but which, strictly speaking, isn’t exactly professional. I won’t report her if you won’t.)

The process was quick and relatively painless—the queue moved quickly, we handed over our “order to report letters”, immigration officers quickly looked at our passports, and we were given landing cards.

A lady and a small boy cut in front of us in the line, and complained the entire way into the lounge where the formalities were taking place. She tried to argue with one of the immigration officers who, perhaps because of dealing with grumpy passengers, or perhaps because of having been given professionalism lessons at the DMV, responded in kind. As we left, that particular officer was trying to over-talk the lady suggesting, “if you have a problem with this, write George Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC”.

I can understand why the feds have become paranoid about who is setting foot on the soil of the homeland or its possessions. I can even understand why they did the inspection first thing in the morning (i.e., immediately upon arrival), rather than at sea last night (when we weren’t in U.S. territory) as several passengers wished.

However, I do think this would have made a bit more sense if they simply set up passport control on the pier, rather than making everyone get up early and join the conga line, regardless of whether they were actually going ashore.

Written at 815am, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess at Crown Bay

Well, that’s a first.

I was able to eke out an EVDO signal finally by sitting out on the balcony.

I was able to transmit my queued up blog posts and most of my queued email before the seagulls noticed someone eating breakfast a couple of decks above. I lost signal when I had to run back into the cabin, to avoid the computer being, um, “bombed”.

Written at 7am on Sunday, 2 September, on Crown Princess, docking at Crown Bay, St. Thomas

Hmmmm….barely any signal on the EVDO card or the cell phone. So much for my idea to reconnect this morning.

Written at 630am, Sunday, 2 September on Crown Princess at 18° 19.61′ N 64° 57.21′ W

Once upon a time, we welcomed folks to our country with open arms.

Now, for folks on cruising, our beloved federal government requires folks to do an immigration check every time they touch U.S. soil, if they’ve touched foreign soil previously.

Our itinerary this cruise is New York, San Juan, Sint Maarten, St Thomas, Grand Turk, New York. So, we were spared the immigration check at San Juan, but we get to go through it at St. Thomas this morning, starting when we dock at 7am.

We got our notes requiring us to appear at 815am.

I don’t know whether to be more afraid for the immigration officer, or for my wife, considering she’s not a morning person.