| Because of my worsening cold, I decided not to go to see Perry Grant's show in the theatre because I didn't want to keep coughing throughout. Instead I took my laptop to the Rendezvous to go online. One thing I'll say about Celebrity is, unlike other ships, no matter what time of day, it's always fairly fast. This is rare considering, as I said pages ago, it's the same company which provides the other ships where it's a slow pain. And so dinner. Barbara and Cheryl gave me a card. Bill said if he'd known it was my birthday he would have. Carmel turned up almost half an hour late and gave me a postcard, which she felt bad about and said she'd looked for birthday cards at each port. Bill then started to be an obnoxious twat and wound her up. It was obvious both had a few. Everyone on Leather Woman's table kept looking over at ours. Whether it was because of my birthday or my cleavage, I have no idea but if they disapprove of the latter they're hypocrites considering they've been sat with someone for ten nights dressed as a prostitute. No, scrub that. Prostitutes have more style! She was wearing the white halter-neck mini dress again, boobs showing so a fine one to sneer. I got sung at, as I thought, and a cake, which Loreto brought back and relit so I could take a photo before it was cut up. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Bill buggered off at 10.30pm again and later, Loreto told us about the Dessert Extravaganza in Reflections he was serving at, so we decided to go to that. We popped onto the warm Prom deck first and up ahead was Celebrity Eclipse, going from St. Thomas to St. Maarten but, unlike on Carnival brands, we weren't told she was near so I missed her passing. I only know it was her because my friend Howard Paulman sent me a text about half an hour later saying she was close but I read it too late. Carmel just wandered off as soon as she saw the food while I waited by the door for Barbara and Cheryl. She never noticed we weren't there and at one point, walked right by us! We found somewhere to sit and saw her and eventually I went over and she said she'd saved the seats for us, so we joined her. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| After the food had gone, which is one way of clearing a room, Carmel came to look at the flowers Ken sent, as well as my cabin. She was quite impressed with it, especially the three mirrors in the bathroom which were better than hers in the suite. After seeing her to the lift to stop her getting lost, I went to bed. |
 |
 |
| Morning was St. Thomas and another busy day ahead. this cold was beginning to take its toll and the room was so cold I was sleeping in the robe provided and still shivering. With my flight in three days, I was beginning to worry about shifting it. I got up at 6.30am and when I went on deck, we were almost docked, Epic was coming and Eurodam was heading to the Crown Bay dock. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Allure of the Seas was due for 9am but I was feeling so ill and tired I went back to bed for an hour. Carmel was coming with us today, since she'd never been to St. Thomas (visited the others with her late husband on business trips) so I went up at 9.20am. I was glad my begging paid off because I didn't want to be alone with Ken again. She mentioned having her passport with her. I hadn't read that so had to go back and get mine. It was the only time we'd been told to take photo ID for inspection. From her balcony you could see Allure docked. |
 |
| We'd arranged to meet Ken at 9.30am but were fifteen minutes late. The original plan was to take a taxi to a couple of places but the bastards wanted to charge $300 though would have 'generously' brought it down to $250! Isn't it funny how on the other islands during the trip, you could do this for basically peanuts yet on an American one they ripped you off? The things we wanted to see wouldn't have cost that, unless the meter was £10 a minute. So basically everyone is left with a choice of a tour or doing their own thing. We went on the tour - what a mistake THAT was! Nice Scottish ex-pat called Hugh who used to play piano at Ronnie Scott's during the sixties and now lives in Vancouver. But a couple of other people..... The guide was as boring as hell, barely saying anything and often when he did, what he was referring to was hidden behind trees. "That school was where people sheltered during the hurricane" or, "People park their cars here and walk to work". Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. So, since he was quiet mostly and we were seeing sod all at all, Carmel, Hugh, Ken and I started a conversation and this bloody woman in front of Ken in a Red Hat started telling Carmel to shut up because she can't hear what he's saying. Excuse me??? He wasn't most of the time, so are we meant to sit there in stony silence? Then a foreign woman next to Ken said to Carmel, "Yes, you are talking a lot of drivel" and then her husband piped up. It was funny that not one of the moaners said anything to Ken, who had the loudest voice and was closest to them. Hugh also talked far more than Carmel did and only the foreign man had a small go at him, saying he was surprised at him. Get over yourself! They got off at a beach, so were sooooooooooooo interested in the tour, and he was SUCH a gentleman, he walked off rather than help his wife get out of the bus, which had no proper steps by the middle row. I'd sat in the row behind because I couldn't manage those with my back. We found it ironic that someone who would abuse complete strangers left his own wife to struggle. Unfortunately we were still left with Red Hat and her disinterested husband. We made a stop - woo! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The bloke with the donkey expected you to pay to take photos of it. He knows what he can do. Well everyone was back on the bus except one person - red hat! Her hubby, meanwhile, was hitting the beer as we waited and it was still morning. She eventually turned up, no apology, wetting herself over a $10 piece of crap. When I said to Ken, Carmel and Hugh about those who complain are those who keep you waiting and they're always Americans, she retorted, "I am NOT American" to which I replied, "Someone who gives Canadians a bad name then." Talk about uptight and massive chip. Her husband had bought her a can of MTN Dew and she moaned about it being a can, how she could spill it and other things. No wonder he was driven to drink! As the boring tour continued, the driver was quiet even more than before and three guesses who started to yak away? Our next stop for an hour was somewhere or other, where you could have a rip off banana daiquiri for about $12. Carmel had a Margarita for about $10. Big mistake! I saw birthday cards and just had to point them out to her for the irony of being a day late. It was Ken who kept us waiting this time but Red Hat never said a word. Hopefully her hubby gagged her. The rest of the tour was trees, trees and more trees as we occasionally glimpsed something between. Red Hat wet her knickers over the posh houses. "They must be private homes," she squealed to disinterested hubby in excitement. Earlier in the tour she was getting her thrills over a ruddy hill we drove down, occasionally leaning out going, "Ooh". Was it cruel to hope she'd fall out? I think Carmel was right and she doesn't get out much. But then by now Carmel was obviously drunk and when the driver deigned to open his gob, she would shush everyone and say we must listen to what he was saying before proceeding to repeat it. I liked Carmel but could kill those rip off taxi drivers! I wish I knew which ship Red Hat was from. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Carmel wanted to show me black diamonds in a jewellery shop and was shocked they were charging hundreds more than the other islands for the same items. We waited outside for Ken, then she went back in for a while. The Carmel stirring spoon was in overdrive as she was saying Ken was doing, "a bit of business" and how, "He's very much in love with you". When he emerged, she was more mysterious, saying she would leave us alone because we have a lot to talk about. We agreed to meet there once she'd finished going down one side then back up the other. Ken showed me the earrings he'd bought for his future daughter-in-law but the way Carmel Cupid was banging on, you'd think he was about to propose! Mind you, he was pretty obsessed so nothing would surprise me. Since she was obviously going to be some time, we popped the the pharmacy so I could get some aspirin to help fight this awful cold and other stuff. But by 2pm, there was no sign of her so we went looking and thought she may have forgotten the meeting point so returned to the ship after getting some dock photos. It was the first time I'd noticed you could still see Connie's original name underneath the stupid prefixed one. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I asked the security guard onboard and she wasn't so, after doing the scanner, was out again. We went everywhere and couldn't find her. It was now 2.45pm. My back was killing me and Ken's legs were about to conk out (but his is self-inflicted from stuffing his face with diabetes) so we decided to reboard our respective ships. If Carmel had been a relative, she'd have been given hell when found. Funnily enough, despite going through twice, the photo ID wasn't asked for but take it just in case. I left a message on her phone asking her to ring when she got back then had a siesta to rest my back. By the time I woke up, it was ten minutes from Epic's sailing. She was going at 4pm with us an hour later. There had been nothing from Carmel so I asked at Guest Relations and told she was onboard. Nice of her to let me know! When I went on deck, I grabbed a lounger because my back hurt too much to stand and wait. Epic took ten minutes to suck in all her ropes then didn't move for a further six. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |