LisaPisa
Word hard, play harder!
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2006
- Messages
- 159
We woke at 8:45 and opened the curtains to bright sunshine, although I could tell it had rained a little. There was a huge mountain out there with houses that looked like they were going to slide right off the edge. Obviously, we’d arrived in St. Maarten. We had previously booked the See & Sea Submarine excursion for 1:15pm but since being switched to early dinner had to cancel. Our whims were going to take us. DH and I joked, wondering how our TMs were feeling since they’d been up late drinking mojitos with us and had to be up early for a catamaran snorkel excursion at 7:30am (FYI, their review of that was that it was okay, but they did get rained on and there was no protection...and the snorkel excursion they did the following day in St. John, which they said was less expensive, they liked 10x better). I finally got my wish to breakfast in Lumiere’s. The eggs benedict is out of this world!!
Disembarked ship by probably 10am. We didn’t stop at any of the port shops and headed to the water taxi where it was $10 for the whole family (kids under 12 are free). It was a 5-min ride that took us to the downtown shopping district where there was also a nice, uncrowded beach lined by sort of a boardwalk with restaurants and more shops. Everywhere we looked there were locals holding signs for excursions, scenic rides, transport to Marigot, etc. We couldn’t decide exactly what we wanted to do, so when a man approached us asking if we wanted to rent a car for the day for $60. Sure, why not (as long as DH is driving, that is). Nazim, what genuinely nice guy! While we waited for his coworker to come pick us up to drive us to the rental place, Nazim gave us the low down on the island, highlighted some stuff on a map we shouldn’t miss, and recommended shopping sites. We were at the “business” after a 10 min drive, and I had to stifle a giggle. Hertz this place was not. More like a garage on the first floor of a neighborhood house with about five very used looking vehicles parked in the driveway under a sign that said ‘Nasa Car Rental’ (don’t get excited like I did - no Jimmie Johnson or Kasey Kahne in sight). We opted for a Jeep type vehicle. I’ve heard lots of people go ‘topless’ on St. Maarten after all.
I was nervous at first since we were obviously flying by the seat of our pants, but it was all good.
Driving in St. Maarten was an experience! The roads are krazy kaflookey with no rhyme or reason and not well-marked. What good is a map with street names if there are no street signs to guide you? Heading northeast first (after a stop at the first gas station since the tank was on E), we got lost at least a dozen times. Some of those off the beaten path streets, though, wound up holding some of the most beautiful homes and breathtaking views we saw that day. It was neat to see the culture in action too. Boys and girls in plaid uniforms, waiting to catch the afternoon school bus. (I assumed the St. Maarten French side follows the same midday break school schedule as France itself?) The supermarkets were funny, small buildings with maybe four aisles of product. Tiny little one-room buildings painted bright yellow and red with “Robbie’s lottery” signs seemed to be on every other block. Made me curious how their lottery system works, and who the heck Robbie is? (Hm, perhaps he owned one of the spectacular homes we saw!) We passed Oyster Beach and Dawn Beach and Orient Beach. Just gorgeous!!
Our initial intent was to drive all the way around the island, but after an hour of driving just to look at scenery the girls were bored so we turned around and backtracked until we got to Cole Bay and Simpson Bay. The view on that drive was just as gorgeous, but strangely different with more boat docks and upscale shops. We got out and browsed a shopping area and I’m embarrassed to say we had lunch at KFC. I know. Not very daring for such adventurous people, but what can I say? The kids were clamoring for nuggets and I once had a bad taco experience in Mexico....long story for another day. We had hoped to make it to Marigot but we still had shopping and the beach to do and by this time it was nearing 1pm so we headed back in the direction of Nasa Car.
I had DH drop me and the girls at the place Nazim had recommended. It was called Rima. And it was a bargain shoppers dream! All the stuff I’d seen in the open air markets and downtown shops -- it was all here, sold separately or in bulk bags for much, much lower prices. I could tell it was a wholesale type place b/c locals were in and out buying big lot bags of trinkets, obviously to take back to their booths to mark up and sell to unwitting tourists. I dropped $100 in that place but you should see all the stuff I got! If you’re interested in finding this Rima place it’s clearly marked on the free maps locals hand you as soon as you get off the ship. It’s a big yellow building with flags on top, from the water taxi pier two blocks straight ahead then five blocks to the left.
This is the beach at the pier a water taxi drive from the ship. Any of you who were on the same cruise see themselves?
We walked back toward the clean, white sandy beach at the water taxi drop-off pier (I think the area’s called Great Bay). We sat down in some cushioned lounge chairs and were told they were only sold in pairs for $10. DH bargained and got him down to one chair for $5. We really only needed the chair to put our packages on to keep them from getting sandy. DH went up to the Barefoot Restaurant right at the pier and got us a couple mudslides and some appetizers, some sort of shrimp roll and spicy peanut butter chicken satays (one of my all time favorites). Both were really good!!
We spent about 1 1/2 hours on the beach which had soft, gentle waves. It was perfect, save for the fact of the roving salespeople (at least 5 within the hour) who kept coming up to us to try to sell us marked up jewelry we’d already bought at Rima. We walked the boardwalk a little and popped into a shop called Pirate something. DH found a t-shirt to wear to the pirate party that had a skull and crossbones on it for $5!! Good quality too! They had women’s stuff as well but I didn’t buy anything since my pirate night costume was ready to go. We were back on ship by 3:45pm.
For pirate night I’d created some outfits for me and the girls, having snagged some eyepatches and swords and hook arms from the $1 bin at Target). We felt very in-theme and DH was ultimately glad he’d gotten into character with his red t-shirt.
Me, DD8, DH, DD6, and DD11:
** DINNER REVIEW ** My and DHs appy choice were the same and one we remembered loving our first cruise: banana rolled in toasted coconut. It sounds so simple, but being two of my favorite flavors I’d actually dreamed about this delight since the last cruise (see, Jeff Probst, I could be a Survivor!). My salad was jerk chicken w/greens. It was good -- but again with the lack of spices! I was really frustrated with this dish b/c I could understand making some dishes bland to appeal to more palates, but jerk chicken is SUPPOSED to have kick and people who don’t like spice wouldn’t order it in the first place, so why not just go for it? Waaah! D said the same thing about the gumbo soup he got. DH and I both opted for the macadamia encrusted mahi (dishes including that word ‘encrusted’ get me every time) and smashed potatoes. Very good!! DD11 opted for the adult menu tonight and her spicey spaghetti w/shrimp and scallops was the best dish on the table. They were very nice size shrimp and actually did have the spice it promised. Dessert was bananas flambe, which just can’t be missed. Deliciouso! DD6 had finally diverted from her standby Mickey bar for the first time and got the rum raisin ice cream sundae. She loved it so much she tilted the glass up like it was a sippy cup, trying to savor the last remanants of melted ice cream in the bottom. (She does have some semblance of table manners, I promise.)
So we’re munching away at our delicious desserts and as I’m midsentence with TMW about the scrumptious flambe when who appears at my table but the one and only, polite front desk girl.
All right already! What, is she going to stalk me now? She apologized for interrupting our dinner but she hadn’t had time to call me earlier in the day (gee, what a bummer). She wanted to let me know that an engineer had visited our room that afternoon and hadn’t heard anything. Was I still hearing the beeps? Well, yes, I was and DH was now too, but really, really, it’s OKAY. She continued and said she’d checked into it and there’s wasn’t a single room she could move us to that was big enough to accommodate our whole family. I hadn’t asked for another room. At this point I was on the verge of being agitated, so I said, “I truly appreciate your concern and all your efforts to get to the bottom of the beeping, but I wouldn’t really want to move all our stuff to another stateroom anyhow (unless you’re offering me the Roy O. Disney Suite, in that case I’m up for anything), and I swear that the earplugs have solved the problem just fine. How about if we hear the beeps and they really, really bug us, WE will call YOU.” Catching my drift, she apologized again and wished us a good trip and left the table.
After dinner we went to Preludes to catch Jack Sparrow, who was BY FAR the best character appearance ever! He had the mannerisms down pat! Freaky fingers and crazy eyeball movements! He was so believable that DD6 swore up and down he was not just ‘in costume’, but an actual pirate! Then DH graciously took all the girls to see the big screen version of High School Musical (you’d think these kids would eventually tire of that flick!).
I tried without success (sorry!) to enlarge this photo so you could really see his googly eyes. Freaky!
I headed to Shutters. Not my first visit. As a matter of fact, my nightly stop in Shutters was one of my favorite moments each day. At some point earlier I’d ordered the 10 package of 6x8's (which are actually 5x7's with borders). I think it was $85. Pictures of us as a family are rare b/c DH or I are always one of the photo takers. Boy was it difficult to choose cuz there were so many good shots. I’ll tell you, though, by the time I left Shutters this particular night I was just steaming mad. Here’s why.
The 6x8 photos on the racks all had these cutsey little borders (a colorful theme relating to whatever character is in the photo, the name of the restaurant you’d dined in, and always a date stamp) -- but I didn’t want every last one of my 10 photos to be so themed. I wanted at least a couple simple pix of us as a family without, say, orange swirly colored border with writing that says “Lumiere’s, Disney Cruise, February 3-10, 2007". So I ask the Shutters guy if I can get some of these photos printed without the border and dates. “Nope. They come out of the camera like that. There’s no way to change them.” Heavy sigh!
So then I get to the section from formal night where we’d had our photo taken with the ship silhouette in the background. Yes! Fantastic pictures of us with NO borders. I want to buy them. But every last one is an 8x10 and I’ve already paid for the 10 package of 6x8's. So I go over to Shutters guy again and ask if we can have the photos resized to 6x8 or even 5x7. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We can’t do that. Photos come as they are.” Argh!! An 8x10 by itself is $20. Okay, not terribly outrageous, but to me it’s more a principle kind of thing. I probably would have bought more photos had they come in a better variety of size and with less frilly borders and words written on them.
After the Shutters experience I headed up to Deck 9 in order to get a nice limey mojito to help cool my jets. Around 8:15 I met up with TMH/TMW to try to score good seats for the pirate party (a full hour and a half before it was to start, mind you). Man, were the stars looking down on us! Just as we were passing the best two tables in the house a group stood up and vacated one of the tables, leaving it prime for us. You know, one of those tables right in the center of the square made by Pinocchio’s bar/pizza, the two hot tubs, and Goofy’s pool with a great view of the Dumbotron, dance floor, stage, AND the black space in the sky where the fireworks go off. We were toasting ourselves to our own good fortune. Alas, some bad news was coming....
I walked around the corner to take a look see if buffets were up yet. Yup, there they was, in all their splendor. The pirate buffet setup is my favorite cuz it just looks so cool and almost borders on scary (good scary, though).
Good Lord what the DCL chefs can do with watermelon!
I was snapping away with my camera, wanting to get closeups of everything when I realized that I couldn’t get close. Then I realized the reason I couldn’t (dum, dum, dum, dramatic music)...was because there were rope barricades around the buffet and the soda bar too. That could mean one thing and one thing only, sickness had struck the ship. Dangit all to hell!! This had been a fear of mine. Dare I say that following the initial pit in the stomach feeling, all’s I could think was, “Better those poor souls than me!” (C’mon now, ya’ll would have thought the same thing! I’m just being honest. Hold onto your horses though, cuz karma’s a beeach. There’s payback.)
As the official party start neared, Deck 9 started filling up, which lead to a near smackdown between TMH and another family. This group of people, totally ignoring that we were sitting there enjoying our view, came and climbed up onto the half-wall that separates the deck from the dance floor area, which completely blocked our view of anything except the sky. TMH and a guy at the table right next to us (who’d been sitting there even longer than us) were pretty peeved and TMH went up to the group and said, “We’ve not been patiently waiting here for over an hour just to catch a view of your butts and backs.” I’m pretty reserved and felt a little bit bad for the family that he was coming on so strong, but TMH was right, and justified I think! After a few minutes and some further choice words from TMH and the guy next to us, the butting family did finally move elsewhere. The girls got back back from their movie just in time for the festivies to begin. The fireworks were the topper to a perfectly perfect day!
Tomorrow, Day 4 - St. Thomas, people miss the boat, and a puker...
Stay tuned!
Disembarked ship by probably 10am. We didn’t stop at any of the port shops and headed to the water taxi where it was $10 for the whole family (kids under 12 are free). It was a 5-min ride that took us to the downtown shopping district where there was also a nice, uncrowded beach lined by sort of a boardwalk with restaurants and more shops. Everywhere we looked there were locals holding signs for excursions, scenic rides, transport to Marigot, etc. We couldn’t decide exactly what we wanted to do, so when a man approached us asking if we wanted to rent a car for the day for $60. Sure, why not (as long as DH is driving, that is). Nazim, what genuinely nice guy! While we waited for his coworker to come pick us up to drive us to the rental place, Nazim gave us the low down on the island, highlighted some stuff on a map we shouldn’t miss, and recommended shopping sites. We were at the “business” after a 10 min drive, and I had to stifle a giggle. Hertz this place was not. More like a garage on the first floor of a neighborhood house with about five very used looking vehicles parked in the driveway under a sign that said ‘Nasa Car Rental’ (don’t get excited like I did - no Jimmie Johnson or Kasey Kahne in sight). We opted for a Jeep type vehicle. I’ve heard lots of people go ‘topless’ on St. Maarten after all.
I was nervous at first since we were obviously flying by the seat of our pants, but it was all good. Driving in St. Maarten was an experience! The roads are krazy kaflookey with no rhyme or reason and not well-marked. What good is a map with street names if there are no street signs to guide you? Heading northeast first (after a stop at the first gas station since the tank was on E), we got lost at least a dozen times. Some of those off the beaten path streets, though, wound up holding some of the most beautiful homes and breathtaking views we saw that day. It was neat to see the culture in action too. Boys and girls in plaid uniforms, waiting to catch the afternoon school bus. (I assumed the St. Maarten French side follows the same midday break school schedule as France itself?) The supermarkets were funny, small buildings with maybe four aisles of product. Tiny little one-room buildings painted bright yellow and red with “Robbie’s lottery” signs seemed to be on every other block. Made me curious how their lottery system works, and who the heck Robbie is? (Hm, perhaps he owned one of the spectacular homes we saw!) We passed Oyster Beach and Dawn Beach and Orient Beach. Just gorgeous!!Our initial intent was to drive all the way around the island, but after an hour of driving just to look at scenery the girls were bored so we turned around and backtracked until we got to Cole Bay and Simpson Bay. The view on that drive was just as gorgeous, but strangely different with more boat docks and upscale shops. We got out and browsed a shopping area and I’m embarrassed to say we had lunch at KFC. I know. Not very daring for such adventurous people, but what can I say? The kids were clamoring for nuggets and I once had a bad taco experience in Mexico....long story for another day. We had hoped to make it to Marigot but we still had shopping and the beach to do and by this time it was nearing 1pm so we headed back in the direction of Nasa Car.
I had DH drop me and the girls at the place Nazim had recommended. It was called Rima. And it was a bargain shoppers dream! All the stuff I’d seen in the open air markets and downtown shops -- it was all here, sold separately or in bulk bags for much, much lower prices. I could tell it was a wholesale type place b/c locals were in and out buying big lot bags of trinkets, obviously to take back to their booths to mark up and sell to unwitting tourists. I dropped $100 in that place but you should see all the stuff I got! If you’re interested in finding this Rima place it’s clearly marked on the free maps locals hand you as soon as you get off the ship. It’s a big yellow building with flags on top, from the water taxi pier two blocks straight ahead then five blocks to the left.
This is the beach at the pier a water taxi drive from the ship. Any of you who were on the same cruise see themselves?
We walked back toward the clean, white sandy beach at the water taxi drop-off pier (I think the area’s called Great Bay). We sat down in some cushioned lounge chairs and were told they were only sold in pairs for $10. DH bargained and got him down to one chair for $5. We really only needed the chair to put our packages on to keep them from getting sandy. DH went up to the Barefoot Restaurant right at the pier and got us a couple mudslides and some appetizers, some sort of shrimp roll and spicy peanut butter chicken satays (one of my all time favorites). Both were really good!!
We spent about 1 1/2 hours on the beach which had soft, gentle waves. It was perfect, save for the fact of the roving salespeople (at least 5 within the hour) who kept coming up to us to try to sell us marked up jewelry we’d already bought at Rima. We walked the boardwalk a little and popped into a shop called Pirate something. DH found a t-shirt to wear to the pirate party that had a skull and crossbones on it for $5!! Good quality too! They had women’s stuff as well but I didn’t buy anything since my pirate night costume was ready to go. We were back on ship by 3:45pm.
For pirate night I’d created some outfits for me and the girls, having snagged some eyepatches and swords and hook arms from the $1 bin at Target). We felt very in-theme and DH was ultimately glad he’d gotten into character with his red t-shirt.
Me, DD8, DH, DD6, and DD11:
** DINNER REVIEW ** My and DHs appy choice were the same and one we remembered loving our first cruise: banana rolled in toasted coconut. It sounds so simple, but being two of my favorite flavors I’d actually dreamed about this delight since the last cruise (see, Jeff Probst, I could be a Survivor!). My salad was jerk chicken w/greens. It was good -- but again with the lack of spices! I was really frustrated with this dish b/c I could understand making some dishes bland to appeal to more palates, but jerk chicken is SUPPOSED to have kick and people who don’t like spice wouldn’t order it in the first place, so why not just go for it? Waaah! D said the same thing about the gumbo soup he got. DH and I both opted for the macadamia encrusted mahi (dishes including that word ‘encrusted’ get me every time) and smashed potatoes. Very good!! DD11 opted for the adult menu tonight and her spicey spaghetti w/shrimp and scallops was the best dish on the table. They were very nice size shrimp and actually did have the spice it promised. Dessert was bananas flambe, which just can’t be missed. Deliciouso! DD6 had finally diverted from her standby Mickey bar for the first time and got the rum raisin ice cream sundae. She loved it so much she tilted the glass up like it was a sippy cup, trying to savor the last remanants of melted ice cream in the bottom. (She does have some semblance of table manners, I promise.)
So we’re munching away at our delicious desserts and as I’m midsentence with TMW about the scrumptious flambe when who appears at my table but the one and only, polite front desk girl.
All right already! What, is she going to stalk me now? She apologized for interrupting our dinner but she hadn’t had time to call me earlier in the day (gee, what a bummer). She wanted to let me know that an engineer had visited our room that afternoon and hadn’t heard anything. Was I still hearing the beeps? Well, yes, I was and DH was now too, but really, really, it’s OKAY. She continued and said she’d checked into it and there’s wasn’t a single room she could move us to that was big enough to accommodate our whole family. I hadn’t asked for another room. At this point I was on the verge of being agitated, so I said, “I truly appreciate your concern and all your efforts to get to the bottom of the beeping, but I wouldn’t really want to move all our stuff to another stateroom anyhow (unless you’re offering me the Roy O. Disney Suite, in that case I’m up for anything), and I swear that the earplugs have solved the problem just fine. How about if we hear the beeps and they really, really bug us, WE will call YOU.” Catching my drift, she apologized again and wished us a good trip and left the table. After dinner we went to Preludes to catch Jack Sparrow, who was BY FAR the best character appearance ever! He had the mannerisms down pat! Freaky fingers and crazy eyeball movements! He was so believable that DD6 swore up and down he was not just ‘in costume’, but an actual pirate! Then DH graciously took all the girls to see the big screen version of High School Musical (you’d think these kids would eventually tire of that flick!).
I tried without success (sorry!) to enlarge this photo so you could really see his googly eyes. Freaky!
I headed to Shutters. Not my first visit. As a matter of fact, my nightly stop in Shutters was one of my favorite moments each day. At some point earlier I’d ordered the 10 package of 6x8's (which are actually 5x7's with borders). I think it was $85. Pictures of us as a family are rare b/c DH or I are always one of the photo takers. Boy was it difficult to choose cuz there were so many good shots. I’ll tell you, though, by the time I left Shutters this particular night I was just steaming mad. Here’s why.
The 6x8 photos on the racks all had these cutsey little borders (a colorful theme relating to whatever character is in the photo, the name of the restaurant you’d dined in, and always a date stamp) -- but I didn’t want every last one of my 10 photos to be so themed. I wanted at least a couple simple pix of us as a family without, say, orange swirly colored border with writing that says “Lumiere’s, Disney Cruise, February 3-10, 2007". So I ask the Shutters guy if I can get some of these photos printed without the border and dates. “Nope. They come out of the camera like that. There’s no way to change them.” Heavy sigh!
So then I get to the section from formal night where we’d had our photo taken with the ship silhouette in the background. Yes! Fantastic pictures of us with NO borders. I want to buy them. But every last one is an 8x10 and I’ve already paid for the 10 package of 6x8's. So I go over to Shutters guy again and ask if we can have the photos resized to 6x8 or even 5x7. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We can’t do that. Photos come as they are.” Argh!! An 8x10 by itself is $20. Okay, not terribly outrageous, but to me it’s more a principle kind of thing. I probably would have bought more photos had they come in a better variety of size and with less frilly borders and words written on them.
After the Shutters experience I headed up to Deck 9 in order to get a nice limey mojito to help cool my jets. Around 8:15 I met up with TMH/TMW to try to score good seats for the pirate party (a full hour and a half before it was to start, mind you). Man, were the stars looking down on us! Just as we were passing the best two tables in the house a group stood up and vacated one of the tables, leaving it prime for us. You know, one of those tables right in the center of the square made by Pinocchio’s bar/pizza, the two hot tubs, and Goofy’s pool with a great view of the Dumbotron, dance floor, stage, AND the black space in the sky where the fireworks go off. We were toasting ourselves to our own good fortune. Alas, some bad news was coming....
I walked around the corner to take a look see if buffets were up yet. Yup, there they was, in all their splendor. The pirate buffet setup is my favorite cuz it just looks so cool and almost borders on scary (good scary, though).
Good Lord what the DCL chefs can do with watermelon!
I was snapping away with my camera, wanting to get closeups of everything when I realized that I couldn’t get close. Then I realized the reason I couldn’t (dum, dum, dum, dramatic music)...was because there were rope barricades around the buffet and the soda bar too. That could mean one thing and one thing only, sickness had struck the ship. Dangit all to hell!! This had been a fear of mine. Dare I say that following the initial pit in the stomach feeling, all’s I could think was, “Better those poor souls than me!” (C’mon now, ya’ll would have thought the same thing! I’m just being honest. Hold onto your horses though, cuz karma’s a beeach. There’s payback.)
As the official party start neared, Deck 9 started filling up, which lead to a near smackdown between TMH and another family. This group of people, totally ignoring that we were sitting there enjoying our view, came and climbed up onto the half-wall that separates the deck from the dance floor area, which completely blocked our view of anything except the sky. TMH and a guy at the table right next to us (who’d been sitting there even longer than us) were pretty peeved and TMH went up to the group and said, “We’ve not been patiently waiting here for over an hour just to catch a view of your butts and backs.” I’m pretty reserved and felt a little bit bad for the family that he was coming on so strong, but TMH was right, and justified I think! After a few minutes and some further choice words from TMH and the guy next to us, the butting family did finally move elsewhere. The girls got back back from their movie just in time for the festivies to begin. The fireworks were the topper to a perfectly perfect day!
Tomorrow, Day 4 - St. Thomas, people miss the boat, and a puker...
Stay tuned!
Hopefully, we'll soon find out.
Ive always wondered if the ship is really hopping at that hour or empty or what? Write a trip report! Im really enjoying reading what the other 02/03 cruisers have to say about the same trip I was on.
I had flashbacks to all those precruise days when my girls got home from school and I marched them straight to the sink and the antibacterial soap. And apparently all the ‘fun wipes’ we’d rubbed between our fingers upon entry to any ship restaurant hadn’t done the trick. It was especially ironic that DD6 was the one driving the porcelain bus b/c she was the only one who never protested when I nagged her to wash up. It was DD11 and DD8 who kept referring to me as the germ police.
