4/25/09 Magic - First Visit To Tortola!

[lsutigger2]

I'm sorry if this is a double post. I just finished one and it disappeared Sometimes technology gets the best of me


Welcome to hoosiercruiser and family. It will be great to have you on board with us.

And congrats to nascar8820 on the wedding!!

The 3:30 meet sounds great. Does that give us time to go to the sail away party? On the last cruise, the DIS gang got together on Deck 10 at the beginning of the sailaway party. That worked out well also.

Blue bracelets sound like a good idea to me. We really enjoy visiting with our cyberspace friends!

Here is a pic of us. I always squint in the sun no matter how hard I try to keep my eyes open!

 

[aznaphrodite]

I've been inspired to post our pics as my avatar now! It's from our honeymoon at WDW (which we followed with the 4-night cruise). We'll be celebrating our 3rd anniversay on this cruise!

 

[DVC Mary]

Hi!

I'm from the June 20th Tortola cruise, but I wanted to stop by & say Hi and see if I can pick your brains for excursions.

We have 2 very active 8 & 12 yr old boys.

Which excursions would you suggest for us?

Thanks for any responses!

P.S.

I can't wait to read your thread when you return to see how your trip went.

 

[BubblesNH]

I saw on main board that shutters has gone to a card?? Is it photopass? If it is I saw on the budget board a way to split a photopass by eight different families and was very reasonable $20 per family, everyone got a CD of everyones pictures. Thought that might work here.

I'm good with blue bracelets.

 

[sunburnin]

I'm a newbie and this will be our first Disney Cruise. We are very excited to find this message board. Not sure if we'll be able to do all the extras stuff you guys are talking about (I'm already a little overwhelmed, this being our first cruise), but it sure sounds fun.

Me, DH and DD(4)

Nicole

Hey Nicole! It's our first cruise too... me, DW, DS(6) and DD(4). I'm sure our kids will be partying it up in the clubs.

I'd say that instead of "planning" just make sure you read up on the cruise. I've got the Passporter Cruise book last year, and then just found the DIS boards a month or so ago. It's fantastic here to supplement what you read in the book with live cruisers.... I highly highly recommend you check this site out from a 7 day Eastern a few weeks ago. She did a fabulous job with her website and has a 5 year old girl so you can see what they did. Plus she has the Navigator's from the ship which shouldn't change dramatically between now and April.

My wife and I aren't huge planners, but it helps to know what to expect. We're not going to do Palo or any of the Spas, we'd just rather go with the flow and let the kids have fun!

 

[sunburnin]

Hi!

I'm from the June 20th Tortola cruise, but I wanted to stop by & say Hi and see if I can pick your brains for excursions.

We have 2 very active 8 & 12 yr old boys.

Which excursions would you suggest for us?

Thanks for any responses!

P.S.

I can't wait to read your thread when you return to see how your trip went.

8 and 12 year old boys? The BATHS!!!!!!

My wife and I were on Tortola 7 years ago and loved the whole BVI, but thought the Baths were just one of the most unique places we've been to in the Caribbean. Walk down a hill to a nice beach, then walk over, under, around a bunch of boulders the size of a house to get to another prettier beach! How fun!!!! Here's a link to really good pics someone took on a different trip. LINK Scroll down about half way.

 

[hoosiercruiser]

I also don't want new people to the cruise to think that you are then obligated to get together with everyone throughout the cruise. We all want our alone time and family time - - but it is fun to get together with someone if you want to or to recognize the person sitting next to you by the pool or to just wave and say hi passing by.

hoosiercruiser, don't fret about planning other than getting yourself to the port and excursions and alas, home again. There is a planner/newsletter delivered each morning available with the itineraries (spelled wrong?) for the ship activites.

Welcome to hoosiercruiser and family. It will be great to have you on board with us.

Hey Nicole! It's our first cruise too... me, DW, DS(6) and DD(4). I'm sure our kids will be partying it up in the clubs.

Thanks for your advice and welcomes. I'll check into that book and that thread. And I'll try to calm down. LOL!

 

[Phyllisi]

Hi, my family found a day long snorkel/catamaran sail out of Tortorla. Adults are $110 and children are half price. Lunch and open bar are included. The tour was recommend on a web site. I contacted the tour company and they said that we could book a tour from 9-4. There is 3 snorkel stops. There is about a 20 minute taxi ride each way and that is not included in the above price.

The only problem is this is a private tour and we have to book a minimum of 4 adults. Please PM me if you are interested in taking this trip with us. Google Kurala BUI for more information.

I really hope I can book this tour. So far, it is only my spouse, 11-year-old daughter, and myself. I prefer to book shore excursion myself because the cruise ship tour tends to overload trips with people. I enjoy smaller groups.

 

[dvc2themax]

I am not a shutter bug, but here are some pictures from our cruise on the Magic APril 2007. Thre are 2 pictures of the disboard group, one of the kids and one of the adults.

http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t99/pauladegen/Magic Cruise April 2007/

 

[BubblesNH]

I found a link from http://mousesavers.com for about 1/2 price on tickets for Universal Studios. We are going before the cruise. We love coasters and DD is tall enough for everything at Island of Adventures. I also won a free ticket to Universal on the Superbowl offer. Thought I would pass on the tip. See you soon. Going to try for Palo ressie tonight at midnight. Wish me luck.

 

[Bracy]

DCL newbies here. After a lot of lurking thought we would join in on the fun. A little background info.: 6th cruise with DH and second with DS9 & DS5. First time on DCL and despite reading a lot about it, still don't know what to expect. A ship's atmosphere is hard to relate in words. Our favorite line is Celebrity which i would imagine is quite different from DCL. However, we love Disney and have always wanted to take the kids on a disney cruise. Plus, you can't beat the stops. I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone might have about Disney or Orlando, as we're locals. 75 days tomorrow woohoo

 

[trings]

hey Diane,
I think of you every time Casey mentions talking to Josh.
I do not think they talked about anything of tours etc.

We made reservations for:
Changed from Main seating to Late seating for dinner
Totola - Jeed Padventure 8:45
St Thomas - Atlnatis Submarie - 10:40 -1:10
Someone said about another ship being there and leaving at 1. So this will be only Disney Cruise people and then the streets will be less crowded to go shopping.

castaway - the stingrays.
On our first Cruise with Royal Carribean, we did a stingray out to the ocean and took like 25 munutes on rough waters that did not help me enjoy it at all and seeing the stingrays with SO MANY other boats was not fun. So being able to stand near the shore and see there creatures will be fun.

I was going to ask about the different policies on why some people could book earlier than others. So I went on and found that I could book under the Conceriege. Still have no idea what the difference is.

I wanted to book Palo High Tea, but they were gone, so I will have to ask on board about it. And I did not know when a good time was as I did not want to miss out on the dinners and special events.

You and John want to see if we can go to a brunch or dinner at Palo's together when we board the ship?

Other than that just counting down. We are going a few days early to go to Universal as we only were there once way back when they had SLIME time. And I will go next year for one day on our Disney trip for their Harry Potter/Hogwarts portion of the park that opens sometime this year.

Hope to talk to you more before the trip.

Hi Paula,

Sorry for the delay. We made our final payment and were finally able to book our excursions. So far, We made a reservation at Palo's for Monday at 7:30pm and we booked the day at the Bath's on Tortola. I also booked some time at the spa on Sunday Morning. I am looking forward to Yoga in the am on deck 7.. John was laughing because I've never been up before 9am! But, 7am yoga is my goal!

The kids will probably want to do something on Castaway so they will all need to put their heads together and decide. We will probably find our favorite spot next to Heads Up Bar! You are more than welcome to hook up with us at Palo's. We can leave the kids to fend for themselves just like last time.

Let me know your thoughts..

 

[dadlvsdisney]

Just checking in. Its been so ong since I have been on that I feel like Tom Hanks from Castaway. I have missed so much.

It will take me awhile to read through all the pages.

My MIL has joined us on this cruise, so we are a total of 5.

Up here in NH it reached the high 40s today.

I was getting sick of hearing my furnace kick on all the time.

I can not wait to get to warm weather.

 

[LocustPoint]

I'm so excited. I was able to get Palo reservations! I can't wait to try it. 75 days and counting!

 

[hoosiercruiser]

I'm so excited. I was able to get Palo reservations! I can't wait to try it. 75 days and counting!

We also got our Palo dinner reservation. I can't wait either. I really wanted brunch, but I knew from previous poster there were none to get. Maybe next time cruise. Oh, did I really say that. We haven't even been on our first cruise, and I'm already saying the next one.

 

[CKCruising]

I went with Palo Monday night, but there seemed to be alot of options left.

I was going to go with the High Tea, but figured with the early dinner, an extra meal at 3:00 was a bit too much

 

[CKCruising]

Note that for anyone wait listed for the Main Dinner Seating, there was space available this morning. It might be better if you phone Disney or your TA and get your reservations changed.
Good Luck.

 

[TiszBear]

Well I got the excursions i wanted but the only reservations I couldn't get were for the brunch and the tea at Palo's. Now it seams real that I am going on a cruise.

 

[aznaphrodite]

Well I got the excursions i wanted but the only reservations I couldn't get were for the brunch and the tea at Palo's. Now it seams real that I am going on a cruise.

I was able to book early as a Castway Club member and I couldn't get tea or brunch reservations at Palo either.

Welcome to all the new folks!!

 

[LocustPoint]

You can try for a brunch reservation once you get on the ship. They don't release all spots early, but hold some back. I'm just happy for the Palo reservation.