My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
This was the view from the front Deck in St. Thomas. I must have been IPM that day because that is the only picture I have. IPM stands for In Port Manning– while we are at port, 2 cruise staff have to stay on board in case there is an emergency. We do the on board activities for that day which usually have fewer guests than we would have on a sea day. Those days are actually pretty fun because we get to know people better in the smaller groups. With 5 cruise staff I had to stay on board once every 2 or 3 ports. St. Thomas is a US Virgin Island so my phone works there. I tend to have more time off in St. Thomas so this was my view as I tried to connect with my friends and family in the US.
But in St. Lucia I managed to figure out how to sign up to go on a tour! It only took me a month to figure out.
Our group of 20 was taken to a beach where snorkeling was an option. Of course I opted in, but didn’t see many cool fish. Then we went for a segway tour.
This was a very controversial adventure for me. A few years ago my mom went on a segway tour in Minneapolis/St. Paul and at the very end, she went up a steep hill, the wind was blowing hard, she turned the wrong way and fell and broke her other hip (she had broken a hip in Chile a couple of years before). She said it was really fun before she fell, but has shunned segways ever since.
It was counter intuitive to manage my speed with my feet, but once I got the hang of it, I had a great time. It was a group of couples, so every time we stopped in a picturesque spot I looked pretty lame all by myself.
All the couples cheered when the guides jumped in my picture to make me look less lonely.
The things I do because of peer pressure…
Everyone was speculating about the reaction I would get when I posted these pictures on facebook, but I didn’t have enough internet to post them when it was relevant. So feel free to react– oh the scandal! Who are all these men with Kelly? Are they all her new boyfriends?
On the way back, the tour guide drove us all around the island and we ate some local fruit right off the trees. The whole adventure was really fun and I returned to the ship feeling like I’d been on an adventure — refreshed and renewed.