"The Dapplebeans Rejuvenation at Sea" June 20, 2009 *TORTOLA/TONS OF PICS*

[Timon]

Absolutely fantabulous report RV!!

I am enjoying your cruise adventures and I am loving all your photos!

You sure know how to write a trippie

 

[TiggersPal]

Thanks again RV - love the trip report - as usual and now I'm REALLY getting excited for our trip to Tortola! 9/12 HERE WE COME!

 

[lunsusie]

Great trip report, RV! Now I want to go to Tortola - it looks beautiful there. Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[RoyalVizier]

Great TR! Thanks for sharing

You are so very welcome!!

guilty Enjoying the trip report keep them coming. I have the same sickness.....cruise fever

Jazzy!

I'm very glad to know that you are out there reading. Are you eating Milk Duds as you read about my adventures? Hmmm... maybe I could get Hershey's to sponsor my trippie?

Hey RV, I like seeing you answer each and everyone how responds to your trip report, sure sign of a true southern gentleman.

I've been called a lot of things, and "true southern gentleman" isn't one of them. I'll have to add that to the list!

I figure no one likes to be ignored, right?

You sure know how to write a trippie

Thanks! Luckily I've had a bit of practice, but I think I need some more. Unfortunately the only way to practice writing cruise trip reports is to go on a cruise to write a trip report about! How awful!

Thanks again RV - love the trip report - as usual and now I'm REALLY getting excited for our trip to Tortola! 9/12 HERE WE COME!

Gosh, September will be here before you know it! I promise to be done by then! Okay, well... I hope to be done by then!

Great trip report, RV! Now I want to go to Tortola - it looks beautiful there. Looking forward to your next installment!

It was beautiful, and I highly recommend The Baths if you ever end up there needing something to do.

 

[firstmickey]

Finally, got all caught up! Those were the most gorgeous pictures! Adding that to my list of places to go someday!

 

[MagicMe]

Just curious, we will be stopping at Tortola on the WB and I was wondering if we did the baths on our own, what was the total cost per person? (i.e. water taxi, fee, etc)?

Thanks

 

[RoyalVizier]

Those were the most gorgeous pictures! Adding that to my list of places to go someday!

Yea, Virgin Gorda and The Baths were beautiful, and we'd very much like to revisit someday and do some more exploring.

Just curious, we will be stopping at Tortola on the WB and I was wondering if we did the baths on our own, what was the total cost per person? (i.e. water taxi, fee, etc)?

Thanks

Well let's see here... if you go with Speedy's (which we had absolutely no issue with) you get the ferry ride over to Virgin Gorda and the taxi to The Baths as a package deal. We paid $114 total for the three of us so about $38 a person which again included the open air taxi ride the rest of the way once we arrived on Virgin Gorda. You can check out Speedy's website for all of the exact amounts and their times schedule is posted there as well. Although I have heard from others that the prices on their website and the prices at the actual window don't always match, which after a quick glance at the website may be the case.

Then, there is an admission to The Baths which for us was $3 a person. There are different prices for different age groups, and I'm sorry I don't know what those were. $3 was the most.

So all in all to get there and get into the park it was $123 total. Not too Shabby. I believe the Disney excursion was much higher than that and included lunch at the Top of the Baths bar area.

Hope that helps!!

 

[MagicMe]

thanks for the info RV!!! Yes I'm sure it will help alot.

 

[Disney Nana 4]

RV I can't wait to hear the rest of your trip report! Hope you're not ill!

 

[RoyalVizier]

thanks for the info RV!!! Yes I'm sure it will help alot.

Well be sure to check back with us in about 1 year and 1 month to let us know what you landed on for Tortola day!

RV I can't wait to hear the rest of your trip report! Hope you're not ill!

No, I'm not ill. Just behind! So sorry! But you're in luck... I have not one but TWO installments in the oven as we speak. They are rising nicely and I expect they will be done, cooled, and ready for serving this evening... hungry?

 

[TiggersPal]

Well be sure to check back with us in about 1 year and 1 month to let us know what you landed on for Tortola day!



No, I'm not ill. Just behind! So sorry! But you're in luck... I have not one but TWO installments in the oven as we speak. They are rising nicely and I expect they will be done, cooled, and ready for serving this evening... hungry?

Tonight, really???

 

[RoyalVizier]

Day 4: Midnight Gorging

We were dead. Dead dog tired from our adventure in The Baths. What is it about beaches and fresh Caribbean air and sea water that just sucks the energy right out of you? Is it just me? We collapsed in the room, and just lay there silent and still. I was conscious of the scrape on my leg, but was secretly pleased with my battle scar with the rocks and crevasses of The Baths. Eventually we got up and got showers (much needed showers), my daughter left us for the Stack, and we headed up top to appease our ravenous tummy’s.

This is where we made a tremendous discovery! I can’t believe that after three previous cruises (and three days of this one) I never realized that in my immediate vicinity… right there at Goofy’s… were the most delectable… tasty… and awesome… PANINI’S! I knew of Goofy’s Wraps, but of the Panini I knew nothing! So my wife and I loaded up on tomato/mozzarella panini’s, ice cream, pineapple (we were starving) and went to our spot to dine. After our outing that morning we knew we wanted to have a pretty low key and tame afternoon so we were going to go to see The Proposal in the Buena Vista Theater. Having seen the previews on television for weeks, we always knew this was one that we wanted to see, and we were thrilled to find out it was going to be playing on our trip. The movie, as expected, was thoroughly enjoyable. Total “chick flick” but I gotta admit… I love a good chick flick, and I love Sandra Bullock.

Night four of the cruise begins the dining rotation all over again, so this evening we were back in Parrot Cay, this time without our daughter. She decided to forgo dinner this evening and stay up in the Stack for whatever activities they were doing up there.

Here’s our food.

The lovely Gabriella was ever so kind and removed my little shrimpies from their skins, or shells or whatever shrimpies have wrapped around them. At first I didn't know what she was doing. She just appeared at the side of the table with a knife and a fork and appeared that she was going to pull up a chair and help herself to my entree!

Helpless person that I am, I needed help with my pirate bandana. Yolande to the rescue.

After dinner we went back to the room to change out of our dinner clothes. We had decided earlier in the day that we were going to make an effort to have a later night tonight so that we could enjoy Pirate Night instead of turning in right after dinner at 10:00 pm. We figured the way to do that was to get out of the room and out of the vicinity of that comfy bed and up on deck, so we were going to get in the pool and hang there for awhile. We didn’t need to be smack in the middle of the pirate deck party. To us, the pirate deck party is one of those things that we’ve seen once so we don’t need to be immersed in again. We don’t dance, and we don’t really enjoy blaring music, so we didn’t want to be standing around taking up precious space. So we changed into our bathing suites and went up to 9 to the Cove pool. There was no one in the pool, and we had it all to ourselves! Granted, everyone was on the other side of the stack at the Goofy pool swashbuckling to the music. I think I mentioned it in a previous installment, but again… Disney is amazing with sound control. For all of the dancing and partying and loud music I knew was going on just across the way, we could hardly hear anything. Just the faintest of music. Eventually we ended up in the hot tub (just the two of us!) and that’s when the fireworks began! I hesitated to include this because I didn’t know if I wanted word to get out and spread through the planet like plague, but the Cove pool hot tub is the PRIME location to see the fireworks. Amazing, spectacular view, all while the bubbles are popping and erupting around you tingling and loosening all of those sore Tortola muscles.

After the fireworks we went to check out the Pirate Night buffet we knew was happening at the Goofy Pool, because you know we’d had dinner a whole hour ago and I wasn’t miserable enough. What a spread! There were turkey legs, fajitas, stir fry, there was a crepe station and ice cream sundae stations and about a ba-zillion cakes. We loaded up with goodies and went back to the room. It was at this time about 11:30pm. So really I mis-titled this installment… it was more like 11:30 gorging.

Take a look at my wife's plates! She wouldn't let me have a single bite, and when I tried she kicked me right on my Bath scrape! KIDDING! I'm going to go hide now!

Up Next: The Shark, The Subway, and The Obsession

 

[RoyalVizier]

Day 5: The Shark, The Subway, and The Obsession

St. Thomas day! It dawned bright and beautiful just like every other day on this voyage! The weather was completely and spectacularly wondrous. I was up at 6:00 am, went up top to watch our approach into St. Thomas, and took lots of pictures.

I let my friend borrow my yacht and meet us for the day in St. Thomas.

Actually, I don't have any way of verifying this, but more than one person told us that was Tiger Woods' yacht.

At 7:45 am I went back to check on my wife who was still asleep (sleepy head) so I left her be and went back out again. My morning travels brought me by the Future Cruise desk on Deck 4 where I became mesmerized by the flyers there advertising special rates on select sailings next Summer during the Magic Med cruises. The seed became firmly… actually, more fused, in my brain at that moment.

So I just took this time to wander and enjoy the emptiness of the ship at this time of morning. At 8:45 am I went back to the room to check on the girls and they were up and getting ready for the day. My wife and I went up to Topsiders to do our usual, while our daughter stayed in the room to finish getting ready. I can’t recall why exactly, but I decided to eat a different type of breakfast this morning. Maybe here at the beginning of day 5 I was starting to feel the grease of days and days worth of sausage and bacon and French toast and waffles coursing through my bloodstream making it thick and gelatinous and difficult to travel from tip of toe to brain. Maybe my innards were telling my brain that if one more ounce of sludge slid down my gullet a gallon of sludge was gonna shoot back up it. Whatever the case, breakfast this morning was Raisin Bran and fruit.

Over breakfast I told my wife about the special offer on the Med cruises and the seed transferred to her. This turned into an obsession over the course of the day. It was as if the brilliant St. Thomas sun warmed and nurtured the Med sailing seeds firmly embedded in our craniums and caused them to grow and bud into something enticing and titillating! We found ourselves at nearly 10 minute intervals throughout our time in this port saying something about the Med cruise. We wondered what things we could sacrifice to make it happen? Could we live on gruel and rice for a year? Could we deal with licking the floor underneath our stove for a snack? Never see a movie again? All good questions! Italy, Rome, Florence, Venice… it’s our dream vacation. Top of the list dream vacation, so the thought of cruising with DCL over there for 10 or 11 nights is just… well… dreamy! So the seed was planted. We’d just let it bake in the nutrients of our brains for a bit.

Unlike Tortola day, we had absolutely no plans for St. Thomas. Two years ago on our previous cruise, we had taken a Disney excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John which we dearly loved, but due to the penny-pinching theme of this cruise we decided that The Baths of Tortola would be our big port splurge and St. Thomas day would be just a wander and shop day.

And the view from our stateroom window once we were all pulled in.

So by 9:45 am we were all set to get off the ship. It was great because two years ago in this port we had to tender in, but this time we were pulled right up to the dock at Havensight Mall. This is where we started. We just wandered and looked around poking our head in shop after shop, most of them jewelry. We weren’t in the market for any jewelry this trip so we focused on the other stores and more gift shop type places.

We found this little treasure!

What in the world? I mean… really? What is it about the psychology of the human brain that made me not even want to touch this thing? I suppose I’ve seen too many scary movies, but the thought of the shark starting to thrash around right there in the bottle and biting through the glass seemed a possibility to me. Formaldehyde-soaked Zombie Shark! ON THE LOOSE!!

So anyway… after our fill of the Havensight Mall we hopped a taxi to downtown! Acquiring a taxi is so easy on these Caribbean islands. At least the ones that I’ve been to. There was a gaggle of open air taxis clumped right there next to the mall with a gentleman sorting the approaching masses into taxis depending on your desired destination. So we were sorted into the downtown Charlotte Amalie taxi and away we went. We were dropped at the beginning of a looooooong strip of shopping down that main street there right at the waterfront. We wandered and popped in and out of shops, and we headed back a ways from the main strip there to go deeper into that downtown area. I was immediately taken by this area.

There are so many small, narrow alleyways that are enticingly picturesque in architecture and ambiance.

And then… there it was. Rising out of the downtown streetscape like a golden orb of honey. Sandwich euphoria.

You don’t understand. Subway is my daughter’s life force. It is her sustenance of choice. It is the food that she could eat three times a day for the remainder of her days and she would never utter a single complaint. So to see it beckoning from across the way caused a glee and a giddiness within her that, sad to say, nothing on the ship could bring out in her. Turkey and cheese on Italian herb and cheese bread, lightly toasted, with mayo and pickles. It made her week.

The place was a little rough around the edges, but certainly not a pit either. The food tasted good, the inside was clean… the Subway was a pleasant surprise. Yes folks, we were in a Caribbean island, on beautiful St. Thomas surrounded by culture, and cuisine, and local flare… and we ate at a Subway. It’s true.

After Subway our wandering commenced. We ended up in Del Sol playing with the sunlight boxes making things change color. I was sure to stand a good bit back from them though because I hadn’t caked the sunscreen on today as I did on Tortola. By about 12:30 we were starting to grow weary and hot so we hopped the taxi back to ship, and we were back on board by 1:00 pm.

Up Next: A U-Turn and Pool Scoop

 

[TiggersPal]

Love the idea of being in the hot tub for fireworks! P.S. I love Sandra Bullock too! Thanks for the report RV!

 

[jazzykirl]

I think you're also smelling those brownies that are cooking in the oven

 

[Smileneyes]

Day 5: The Shark, The Subway, and The Obsession


I let my friend borrow my yacht and meet us for the day in St. Thomas.

Actually, I don't have any way of verifying this, but more than one person told us that was Tiger Woods' yacht.

I think I can verify it...as much as the Internet is to be believed, anyway. Here is the picture I took of the same yacht from our verandah:

If you zoom in closely, you can see the name of the yacht, "Privacy", above an oval window...near the center of the yacht.

Use Google Image and search for "Tiger Woods" and "Privacy", and any number of different pics of this same yacht appear in your search results.

Elementary, my dear RV...

 

[ilovepumba]

It's Joanne from Texas! You've forced me out of lurking land! We so enjoyed meeting you and your family! The Ollie button started it all. What a cute doggie! I can't say what I enjoyed most: seeing your now famous flip flops or seeing you smear yourself with sunscreen that made you look like Caspar the ghost! We too really enjoyed The Baths. It was easy to do on your own and the water was spectacular!!! Say hello to your wife and beautiful daughter from us. Of course, give Ollie a hug............

 

[ArmandXG]

Another lurker stepping out of the darkness
Awesome TR. Love the photo's! I think I have convinced my DH to do a Tortola cruise in the future.
Here are a couple of videos you may be interested in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN6OuzU0lGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf4J3YQZrWQ&feature=related
Gotta love that horn!

 

[RoyalVizier]

Love the idea of being in the hot tub for fireworks!

Shhhhhh... don't mention it anymore. Maybe no one else read that part.

I think I can verify it...as much as the Internet is to be believed, anyway. Here is the picture I took of the same yacht from our verandah:

If you zoom in closely, you can see the name of the yacht, "Privacy", above an oval window...near the center of the yacht.

Use Google Image and search for "Tiger Woods" and "Privacy", and any number of different pics of this same yacht appear in your search results.

Elementary, my dear RV...

Well how do you like that?! I'm impressed. Very perceptive. Now I know who to call when I misplace my car keys or my sunglasses or heck... even my flip flops. You could dust for prints and deduce from hair samples or dust balls on the molecular level the exact location of any lost item.

Can you zoom in any further and see if Tiger is waving at us from one of the yacht's windows?

It's Joanne from Texas! You've forced me out of lurking land!

Joanne from Texas!!!

It's about time you made an appearance and checked in with us! Sooooooo glad to know that you are out there! It was fantastic meeting you as well as well as adventuring though The Baths together! It was a truely stunning day for sure... one that I would much like to repeat someday.

And I'll have you know that I didn't get sunburnt or even tan in the least. Guess I used enough sun screen after all.

And... here's an official to the DIS!

Another lurker stepping out of the darkness
Awesome TR. Love the photo's!

Hi ArmandXG!

Thanks for reading. Glad you are enjoying it! Thanks for the links... I'll have to check them out a bit later on a different computer!

 

[MagicMe]

Loved the two new updates!!