Yesterday on our way to the breakfast buffet we met up with another Cruise Critic friend (AnnarborJC), Shelly and Jeff from Michigan. We ended up eating breakfast together due to lack of table space and then sat and talked for quite a while. We will see them on our ship tour tomorrow.
Yesterday was our day in Grand Turk which did not start out very good; severe thunderstorms and lightening and rain. Considering we are only in Grand Turk for 6 hours this was not good. All excursions that were water related were cancelled. We decided to go have some pizza for lunch and then met up with Pat and Bill. We sat out under the deck to wait out the rain. Then Kate and Glen showed up and they joined us. About an hour or so later we all decided to just head to Margaritaville in the rain. I wish we were in Grand Turk longer as the stores, pool, and beach were all right off the ship. We browsed through the stores and headed for some drinks and nachos. Great time had by all even though service sucked.

After drinks we split up and some headed to the beach and others went shopping. By now the weather had cleared. We ended up in Diamonds International where I got a beautiful diamond anniversary band. Then we headed back on board the ship.
We decided to meet up with Pat and Bill for dinner again. We went to the Island dining room and luckily got Desmond the Dragon as our server. He is fantastic and we hope to get him again tonight to take a picture. This menu was by far the best so far… rack of lamb, scallops, sea bass, pork tenderloin…. We tried it all and all very good.
After dinner we had a cocktail at Crooners, played the movie quote trivia game and then headed to the very popular hypnotist show. I just don’t believe all that hypnotist stuff. Everyone thought it was very funny and I just thought they were all faking. All in all a good day.

This morning we had our champagne balcony breakfast. We were a little nervous after seeing in our room guide that the menu included salmon and quiche. Not our favorites so when we called to schedule we asked for French toast and bacon instead. They showed up promptly at 9am this morning with our breakfast. We had our French toast and bacon, fresh fruit, pastries, coffee, champagne, juice, rolls, and the salmon and quiche. Way more food than we had asked for. We were embarrassed asking our room steward Ronnie to dispose of all 10 platters. It was nice though.
Mexican buffet for lunch today and we played a game of Bingo. Beautiful day at sea but pools are extremely crowded so we are just hanging out on our balcony. Tonight is the second formal night and more pictures to take. Lobster for dinner…YUM.

Some pictures from around the ship

The Piazza - great place to sit and listen to musicians.

The International Cafe - great place for coffee drinks and snacks....

Once onboard after our snorkel adventure yesterday we took part in the afternoon snack buffet. I had a salad and baked potato and Chris had some chips and salsa. We decided that we would eat in the regular dining room again last night since it was Italian night. We sat at a table for 10 with a couple from PA, MA, NY, and an interesting out of place couple from Oklahoma. She was a character that should definitely be cruising on Carnival. Our meal was very good. One of the reasons we left Disney and decided to do a Princess cruise is because we have seen the same entertainers on Disney for years and felt they needed to change it up a bit. Guess who was the performer last night.... Gary Delana...the same performer we have seen twice already on Disney. What are the odds. We skipped the show and waited for the Who wants to be a Millionaire show. We ended up meeting Bill and Pat who said they tried to find us to eat dinner with. After the show I went to the 10pm MUTS "Dear John". It was just an OK movie... the book was better.

Yesterday we explored both forts in San Juan, first San Cristobal and then El Morro. They were neat and had some great views. Bill and Chris were interested in the history of the forts and often stopped to read the exhibit panels. The rain held off until we were done but then we ducked in to get a pina colada in the place that invented them and it really started raining. We split up at this point and Chris and I stopped by a few stores before heading back to the ship.
Once again the dinner menu didn’t entice us enough and we were extremely tired from the heat and walking. We decided to just have pizza for dinner. We watched the hula hoop street performer and then we went to the Juan Carlos show. It was really good. I guess he has performed for 16 years aboard Princess Cruise line and just does the two shows while we are docked in San Juan.
After going to bed early we woke up in St Thomas. Our excursion had to meet at 8:05am so we had to get up early. It was raining a bit when we arrived which kind of took our spirits down a bit. We had signed up for the full day sail/snorkel at Turtle Cove. Once aboard the catamaran we headed to the spot where the turtles are. We put on our snorkel gear and headed off the boat into the deep water. I was a little nervous as I have not snorkeled much but once in the water I was ok. We saw turtles right away but not many fish. Then the guide had us follow him over to the reef. That is where all the fish were. It was really cool. We saw turtles, stingrays, a barracuda, and even a “Dori” fish. I enjoyed it. Of course Chris missed the barracuda because he did not stay with the group. We snorkeled for about an hour and then we went back on board and sailed to Honeymoon Beach. At this point the crew opened up the rum and drinks started flowing. At the beach the catamaran pulled right up to shore and we went on the beach and had a barbeque lunch. We met a nice couple from Germany on this excursion and spent most of the afternoon talking with them. We stayed for about two hours on the beach and then headed back to the ship. Overall the excursion was very good and the weather turned out to be ok. We even got sunburned.