Today was a busy day! We had room service for breakfast again (they left out my pastry and coffee, the scoundrels!), and waited for the announcement that we were cleared for disembarkation at St. Maarten. When we saw people walking along the pier, we figured we’d missed the announcement and left on our own for the tour. We were on a tour bus again, but I didn’t feel as much like a tourist as I had in Charleston. I did feel a little bit like I was being driven around (well, I was), but it wasn’t as bad, and our driver was informative.

The butterfly farm was beautiful, and the guide, Willy, was very knowledgable but spoke awfully fast. I breezed through the exhibits, perhaps guided by a sixth sense, and made it into the gift shop mere moments before the skies opened up. A came inside a few minutes later, utterly soaked, and produced a reasonably dry camera from underneath her purse. Everyone waited under the carport while it rained, and we had free rum punch. Two cats turned up out of the rain; one of them was in pretty scruffy shape (evidence of ear mites, fresh cuts on his back) but when I lifted him onto my lap he seemed well-fed and immediately began tenderizing my leg and purring madly. He rebuffed the advances of two very young children, but they were happy to pick on the calico instead, who was much more docile - she just lay there and took it! After the rain stopped we all piled back into the bus and set off for Marigot, the capital of the French side. We were only given 45 minutes to look around, but it was raining again anyway so we didn’t care to spend much time outside. We headed straight for a very tiny mall, and when we had exhausted its few possibilities and when we had exhausted its few possibilities we decided to check out the flea market the driver had mentioned. It turned out to be an open-air market, and many of the shops were closed, but a few were toughing out the rain and I was able to buy a few things.

The ride back to the ship was pleasant, but I think we caught a midday rush hour. We boarded the ship again and had lunch, grabbed our umbrellas from the room (and agreed Celebrity really should inform guests of the latest weather forecats), and went back out to the ultra-touristy shopping area just off the pier. I bought a few things, but avoiced purchasing a t-shirt for $15 that would benefit the St. Maarten Animal Welfare Society. I dropped 50 cents in the donation box, but I may send them more after we get home.

We had a little bit of time before dinner, so I wrote a bunch of postcards. After eating our main course but before dessert, our waiter told us there would be a parade of Baked Alaska - and sure enough, there was! Once the parade was over, he served us our portions, proudly giving A the “end cut” - which was bigger than her hand! I helped the best I could after finishing my own, but we ended up leaving some on the plate.

We watched Gothika in the cinema and got ourselves scared (well, startled) and then returned to the room. It’s now 11:40pm as I write this, and I will be going upstairs shortly to view “Le Grand Buffet,” which is so spectacular they invite you to take pictures half an hour before the midnight buffet actually starts!