Gamer Cruise, part 3
by Dan Repperger

I ended the last post just as we were about to head to Trunk Bay, which is a beach on St. John, USVI.  It’s a nature reserve operated by the US Parks Service, donated mostly by the Rockefeller family.  It takes several steps to get there.  You arrive at St. Thomas, take a water taxi to St. John, and then ride a regular taxi through several miles of winding, mountain roads.

Despite being US territory — and the driver seat being located on the left of the car — everyone drives on the left side of the road.  Our guide explained this practice is done because of the mountain roads.  The driver is always on the same side as the ledge, giving them the best view of where the danger begins.

Getting back to Trunk Bay, words do not exist to express the beauty of this place.  If you’ve ever owned a calendar of the world’s best beaches, I can almost guarantee it was in there.   Warm, turquoise water, white sand, and a lot of exotic marine life to see while snorkeling.  It’s the sort of place that can make a bad trip good and a good trip better.  Of all the places I’ve been on Caribbean cruises (this is my fifth) there’s no stop I recommend more than St. John.

I don’t have an underwater camera, but I’ll post a few pictures to give you some idea of what the above-water scenery looks like.  I’m not sure they do it any justice, but lacking the millions it would take to fly you all there, it’s the best I can do.

Dinner was excellent as always, and it raised another example of the quirky behavior that arises on a cruise: most people will aspire to the level of everyone else’s bravery.  When there’s a food item or cocktail on the menu no one has heard of before, if at least one person orders it, usually a second will follow.  For example, last night Don ordered Remy brandy — which none of us had tasted before — so I did the same.  Pat ordered some extremely masculine drink called “Kiss on the Lips” and at least one other person (can’t recall whom) did the same.

After dinner we caught a magic show in the ship’s theater.  While the show itself isn’t worth a whole lot of commentary, it did get me thinking about the nature of onboard entertainment.  During a cruise, you will encounter a host of magicians, singers, musicians, dancers, and comedians.  Cruise entertainers have a reputation of being a real mixed bag, and this reputation is well deserved.  I’ve enjoyed some of the most outstanding performances I’ve ever seen in my life and cringed as someone embarrassed themselves from stage.

The nicety that offsets this truth is the sheer number of performers on the ship at any given time.  If someone isn’t living up to your expectations, simply relocate to another lounge and you’ll likely get something much better.

The previous Gamer Cruise I took had two performers that serve as great case studies in this juxtaposition.  There was a pianist that could put Billy Joel to shame and play any number of songs from memory.  He was comedic and talented, and across two different performances I was able to get him to play November Rain and one of Chopin’s Nocturnes with equal skill.  Then there was some poor woman that sang beneath the level of drunken karaoke.  John G. nicknamed her “Wing” after an episode of South Park which I had to track down out of curiosity after the cruise was over.

We’re in San Juan, Puerto Rico right now, but I’ll get to that in my next entry.  The cruise director is on the intercom talking about options for debarkation when we get back to Miami.  That’s still several days away, and I’m not sure most people want to be thinking about the end of their vacation right now.  It’s a bit of a killjoy.