Tinbergs on Tour: December 16, 2023 – St. John, USVI – Partly Cloudy

A beautiful day in the US Virgin Islands. Up early as usual and caught the beautiful sunrise from our cabin. The seas seem to be calmer as least for now.

No tours today and we are tendering so we opted to stay on board in comfortable loungers on the open deck.

This screenshot shows where Azamara Onward is anchored in the islands.

Another perfect breakfast on the Sunset Veranda. A bonus at breakfast was a striking rainbow that seemed to originate just a few feet off the aft section of the ship.

Most of the shady side of Deck 5 is roped off because of the tender operations – we still found two free loungers near the door in the forward section of the ship. I am still working on the Robert Crais book I have on my phone and hope to finish it before the cruise is over.

Lunch was on the Sunset Veranda (the weather was perfect) and the brew of the day was Grolsch.

When we got back to our loungers, Ellen's jacket, which was used to indicate that the seats were occupied, was gone (picked up later at Guest Relations). The seats were both there and I had a new towel on mine – no harm no foul. We stayed out there until it was dinner time.

I was delighted to see that the pasta station was available tonight in the Windows Café. The spaghetti with marinara sauce, tomatoes, and garlic was the BEST dish of the cruise so far. Perfectly prepared in a new meat free pan.

I had a salad along with that and some delicious focaccia bread, which by the way, is always fresh and tasty. Wonderful dinner.

We went to the theater a little earlier to get our favorite seats (at the bar on the left side near the spot operator). There is a special Showtime tonight. Astrid, the ACD, will be debuting in her own show at 8:15 PM in the Theater – her show, “Maiden India”, had her singing in six languages. She did “Somewhere Beyond the Sea”. She sounded very good – she is a trained dancer and started singing later in her career. It was a good show.

Eric De Gray's Show started at 9:30 PM and was a full house (as expected).

For Eric's Show, the crew usually brings in extra chairs - that was not the case this time (the place was still full) which also supported the idea that the ship was not sailing full.

It was a different show than what we had seen previously. He also included several singers and dancers in his numbers.

He started off with a dance segment with specialty dancer, Elise.

He did “Suddenly Seymour” with Annie (a great number). It was all about a passenger who didn't get her luggage and had to wear logo wear during the cruise.

Eric put together a medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber hits including, “Any Dream Will Do”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, and “Unexpected Song” (did an amazing job on this song).

He teamed up with Antonio to do “You’re Nothing Without Me” from City of Angels (we have seen this number before – also, there is at least a foot height difference between the two of them).

Amanda and Eric performed a great version of “That’s All I Ask of You” from Phantom.

Eric did a solo from the Broadway version of “Beauty and the Beast”

and “This is the Moment” from “Jekyll and Hyde” (a super loud song with lots of wild tracks). It included the transformation scene from the play - lots of gyrations and screaming.