Disappointment in St Tomas

Although most people on the cruise were perfectly friendly, only a few long conversations were had with the Turtles’ cruise mates.  That was, until a little girl ran up to Tiny a couple of days ago at the swimming pool.  Her mom came along and struck up a conversation.  She is a Romanian, married to a Dutchman and they live in Rotterdam.  After about 30 minutes the Romanian started to share her opinions of the other passengers – loudly.  The Turtles were stunned to silence by her statements:  “We don’t like going to the Lido deck – I don’t like the smell of old people!”  “These Americans on board are so unfriendly and arrogant!”  “Germans always expect you to speak German, even if you would rather speak English.”  And so on and so forth. 

Their daughter was also a little bully and Myrtle had to tell her not to push Tiny as her mother didn’t do anything.  Luckily there was a whole contingent of little girls on the cruise – all older than Tiny.  They took her under their wings and Tiny had a lot of fun.  Being the “baby” in the group she raked in the attention and was carried around, played with and helped with her painting and puzzles.  Quite relaxing for the older Turtles – they could sit back and watch from a distance while catching up.

The next stop was the U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas being the capital city.  They ventured into town but it was a bit of a nightmare.  There were tourists everywhere.  The biggest cruise ship in the world (Oasis of the Seas - with, allegedly, 7,000 passengers) docked the same time as the Turtles’ ship and two others.  This meant that thousands of people descended on St Thomas.  It was busy, it was hot and not very pleasant.  If you like shopping for souvenirs, jewelry and Hawaiian-style shirts this is the place for you.  If not, like us, you hang your head in shame for taking a cruise as the cruise ships carting the millions of passengers to St Thomas on a daily basis, has ruined the place. It is a pity but we've heard that, if governments refuse a request from cruise ship companies, ships mysteriously miss those islands on their cruises and the tourist dollars dry up.  So the governments, whose annual budgets are probably less than some of the cruise ship companies', give in.

Enough cruise ship criticism - it is too late now and the Turtles are planning on enjoying the remainder of their holiday.  The next day was a day at sea and was that sea rough!  Passengers drunkely stumbled across the ship and kids apparently puked through the night.  Luckily Tiny has sea legs so she had a good night's sleep, the rocking actually made for a better night!  Tiny had a great day with the little posse of girls and she is, of course, a favourite of the crew.  The cabin attendant (his name is Made and he is from Bali) makes a towel-animal every evening and perches it on Tiny's bed when the Turtles have dinner.  Tiny can't wait to finish dinner and then proceeds to run across the ship, wondering aloud: "I wonder what Made made for me".  As soon as the cabin door opens she runs inside and then stops about three paces from her bed.  "What is that, Mamma?", she asks, half-afraid, half excited.  Made has made an octopus, a dog, an elephant, a gorilla and a jelly fish.  These towel animals are carried around and they have to sit next to her bed and wait for the next morning.  They are then played until they are, once again, three small towels.

The next day was spent on a beach in the Bahamas (Half Moon Cay) and a lot of swimming, sliding and playing in the sand was had by all.  The water was quite cold but Tiny refused to get out, even when she could hardly get any words out as she was shivering non-stop! 

Today the Turtles are in Fort Lauderdale in Florida.  They have run around buying a few necessities (like nappies for Tiny) and will board the ship soon.  Tiny noticed a Volkswagen Beetle in the parking lot and said: "Hallo, little turtle car!"  Now we know what we should get, if the need for wheels arise again - a Turtle Mobile!  She went with Tony to the ATM and when Tony took the money, she said: "Thank you for the dollars, machine!"  Tony and Myrtle thought it was very cute!

Anyway, time to go.  Once again the internet access is not great on the ship so the postings will be intermittent.  Miss you all!