Cast: Me (40), DH (47), DD (12 1/2), and DS (11 1/2) 3rd DCL cruise
Today was St. Lucia day. I had done some on-line research well before we left, and we had reserved 4 spots with the International Pony Club in St. Lucia for a 2 hour horseback ride to the beach. The going rate was $50 per person, but the website said they gave family discounts. Via email, Ms. Phillips said $170 for our family of 4, and pay when we arrived.
As I mentioned in the day 5 report, the Captain had told us there would be a photo op for the sunrise, so I actually set the travel alarm. Looking at our navigator, it's listed as a 6:27 sunrise. I know I was up before the alarm went off. I took some okay pictures, but it was pretty overcast so they weren't spectacular. I do have to say that watching the rays of the sun breaking through the mountains was a glorious site even though it wasn't really award winning photo quality. I met several DISers taking pictures too. I think I remember Sue (dobelover) and Leslie and her DH (DisneyPinDiva). I headed down to roust out DD for the pirate encounter. We were back on deck by a little after 7, and I couldn't see any ship in sight that looked like a pirate ship. DH joined us shortly after that, and we finally realized we were on the wrong side of the ship. Navigator says that the "encounter" was 7:40, but I think it was much closer to 8:00, because I remember they were late. It was lots of fun, and I got pictures and video of it. DH headed down to wake up DS, and DD and I went into breakfast at Topsiders. At that moment, I couldn't remember what time our riding session was, and I couldn't find the email I had printed about it. I finally remembered that it was 10 am, and I figured we'd just ask someone where to go. We got off the ship around 9:30, and there was a nice choir of school children singing Christmas songs. We were also given gift bags by other school children. DH and I got some prints of the island, DD got a doll that flips over between a married lady and a single lady (the hair covering changes, and she looks much more carefree in the single one!), and DS got a pencil with a rastafarian type guy on the top. This was the first time the Magic docked in St. Lucia, and they went all out welcoming us. We were also the only ship in port that day.
At the information desk, the lady there pointed out the person meeting us from the pony club. She was a little frazzled, because the traffic control had changed their normal rules, but the first van pulled up, and she put my family and another group of 7 on board. It was about a 20-25 minute ride to the stable. When we got there, they gave us helmets for everyone, and I found the owner to pay for our ride. She looked through her papers and had a copy of the same email, so the price was as agreed. They asked us what level of riding experience we had, then started calling out horses names. There were a bunch of pre-teen boys running around bringing the horses out. My DH was on Blackie, I had Flecks (he was gray with lots of flecks in it!), DD had Smokey, and DS had Tobacco. They had asked if we wanted Western or English saddles, but they all looked Western to me. We went with about 15 other guests and 3 guides out the back side of the farm, and down an alley past a number of other houses. It had rained overnight, so the path was pretty muddy. At one point, the horses were sloshing through water up to their knees, and some splashed up to us. After about 10-15 minutes of riding, we came out to the water. The view was truly beautiful! We rode along that beach for another 15 minutes or so, past a group of shacks, and came to a beautiful overlook. They grouped everyone together, and said "Kodak moment", but they used our cameras, so it wasn't a pitch for selling pictures. During the ride, the guides were chatting with people about their vacations, always saying "Why did it take you so long to come to our island? Don't you want to stay?" They also taught us a little bit of patois (local language), including Merry Christmas, etc. It was a mixture of French and English, since they said the island had swapped ownership about 16 times between the two countries.
After the pictures, we backtracked to the beach area that had the shacks on it. That was the barbeque spot (another option was a 4 hour ride which included a BBQ), and the place where the horses were unsaddled for a swim. There was also a large hunk of metal on the beach with a hand painted sign saying "This is a rocket booster". It sure looked like one! We got off the horses, and took off our outer clothes down to our swimsuits. There was a bathroom there, and they were selling sodas and beer. I know the soda was $3, so I was glad I had brought two water bottles with me. The kids and I swam a little bit. Meanwhile the guides were unsaddling some of the horses. The kids climbed on bareback, and a local boy who was about 9 led them out to swim with the horses. I could see the grins on my kids faces from 200 yards away. That was absolutely the highlight of the trip so far, at least according to them! They probably spent about 20-25 minutes in the water with the horses, then swam a little more. The guide started gathering up all the 2 hour people. Some confusion set in here, because they had taken some of the horses back to the stables to bring down people who had shown up without a booking, so DH and I ended up with different horses for the ride back. I think we had some of the 4 hour people's horses, while they had BBQ. Once we were back at the stable, the guide took them back down to the beach.
Comments on this excursion:
Pros: 1) Lots cheaper than the Disney one
2) easy booking through the web site and they honored their price
3) convenient (picked up at the port, dropped off there)
4) the kids LOVED it.
Cons: 1) A bit disorganized (didn't have the right number of horses, etc for their requirements)
2) the beach although beautiful wasn't really clean. There was debris washed up on it like bottles and coconuts.
3) The high $ of the drinks, and the touristy feel of the stand they set up at the beach
Overall, I would probably do it again. DH was really put off by the beach part though.
We made it back to the ship around 1:00. The return van trip went fine until we were almost in sight of the ship. The area by the ship was REALLY congested, with lots of people going down a street, only to be stopped by security at the port, which meant they had to turn around, but there wasn't any room to do that, etc. Lots of horn honking, finger waving, etc. At one point, someone suggested just letting us walk from their, but the driver wouldn't hear of it. It cleared out once we got past the security point, and they dropped us right outside the ship.
Once aboard, we got lunch, then DH and I headed back into town. Me looking for my magnet, and DD still looking for pirate attire for pirate night. There was a water taxi here too, but it wasn't nearly as organized. The sign said "$2 for round trip per person". We got on board, paid $2 per person, and were dropped off at the market across the harbor. It was a typical tourist market with tropical shirts, T-shirts, postcards, etc. DD and I walked through there, and came out on the locals market. After about 50 feet, I started smelling really strong marijuana, and started feeling very uncomfortable, so we headed back to the tourist market. I found a magnet, but no one could help DD. We went back to the water taxi site, and nothing was there. A local guy started talking to me, and said he was the taxi manager and it would be a while, because the pilot had to take a break. He talked about our horseback riding trip, and mentioned that he had a herd of cows, and that he was also security manager for the market. We probably talked for 15-20 minutes, and DD was definitely uncomfortable with the whole discussion. The taxi came then, and since I didn't see any way for them to know we had already paid, I just paid again. The guy didn't ask me, but for $4, it just seemed easier to me. On the boat, DD asked me "Mom, why did that guy talk to you so much?" I said that he was just being friendly, but she said "He made me nervous". I told her that since it was broad daylight, and we were in a public place, it was probably fine, but reminded her that I had been nervous in the local market, and reminded her that we left there quickly. Overall, I think this port is a beautiful place, but it's probably not really set up for tourist convenience as much as a St. Martin or St. Thomas is.
Back to the ship again, I ran into Mark and Mary (wdwlvr) on deck 4, saw her bad bug bite, and mentioned that DD hadn't found any pirate stuff. Mary told me that Linda (seaulater) still had pirate pins, so I ran down to call her stateroom, just before they left for early seating. I was a hit with the kids when I came in with 4 flashing pirate pins! DS figured out how to wear his as an earring, and DD was working out how to make a pirate hairdo when we left.
DH and I went to Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? Christy Romano was supposed to guest host, so I though DD would want to go, but she decided not to. I think DS went to a movie or the lab, and DD stayed in the room. DH is not a big Disney fan, and he kept saying "What if my seat gets called?" I told him the first bunch of questions were really easy, but after the first contestant, he finally believed me! A DISer (herc10) got in the hotseat once, and I didn't know all of his questions either! No one got to the million point question, but they did give away a 3 day cruise based on your seat number. Wasn't us though
No cabaret that night, and DH and I had Palo reservations. We convinced the kids to go to dinner by themselves, since they were doing special things for pirate night. The servers had really insisted that we send them to dinner without us. They went, and according to reports, they ate even though it was really quickly.
Palo was absolutely wonderful. We had an 8:30 reservation, so we headed the kids to Parrot Cay, then took the elevator up to deck 10. As we entered the restaurant, a CM in the white uniform of ships officer came up, and took our room number, then disappeared. A bit of confusion ensued. Another couple walked in, and he started introducing himself to everyone in the waiting area. It was Mac Alpin, the DCL vice president, and they were having dinner with all the ships officers in the private dining room, so things were a bit mixed up. The guy who took our name was just one of the ships officers, so when a server walked up, we had to do it again. MacAlpin and his group went to the private dining room, and we were finally seated about 10 minutes later. We had Sasha from Croatia as our server, and he was excellent. He was very knowledgeable about the food, and encouraged us to try different things. I don't remember everything we had, but I know I had the filet and DH had lamb and the filet and said they were both great. We shared the souffle and we both had something else for dessert. The souffle was good, but whatever I had was better. We finished about 10:30 and went out to the pirate party. It was really windy that night, so we were kind of blown about. I looked for DD and didn't see her, so we got a few things from the dessert buffet to take back to the room, and both kids were there. DD said she had gone to the party, but she had a headache so she wanted to go to bed. All the buffet food went to waste since the kids weren't hungry, and we were stuffed.
A full, enjoyable day!
Today was St. Lucia day. I had done some on-line research well before we left, and we had reserved 4 spots with the International Pony Club in St. Lucia for a 2 hour horseback ride to the beach. The going rate was $50 per person, but the website said they gave family discounts. Via email, Ms. Phillips said $170 for our family of 4, and pay when we arrived.
As I mentioned in the day 5 report, the Captain had told us there would be a photo op for the sunrise, so I actually set the travel alarm. Looking at our navigator, it's listed as a 6:27 sunrise. I know I was up before the alarm went off. I took some okay pictures, but it was pretty overcast so they weren't spectacular. I do have to say that watching the rays of the sun breaking through the mountains was a glorious site even though it wasn't really award winning photo quality. I met several DISers taking pictures too. I think I remember Sue (dobelover) and Leslie and her DH (DisneyPinDiva). I headed down to roust out DD for the pirate encounter. We were back on deck by a little after 7, and I couldn't see any ship in sight that looked like a pirate ship. DH joined us shortly after that, and we finally realized we were on the wrong side of the ship. Navigator says that the "encounter" was 7:40, but I think it was much closer to 8:00, because I remember they were late. It was lots of fun, and I got pictures and video of it. DH headed down to wake up DS, and DD and I went into breakfast at Topsiders. At that moment, I couldn't remember what time our riding session was, and I couldn't find the email I had printed about it. I finally remembered that it was 10 am, and I figured we'd just ask someone where to go. We got off the ship around 9:30, and there was a nice choir of school children singing Christmas songs. We were also given gift bags by other school children. DH and I got some prints of the island, DD got a doll that flips over between a married lady and a single lady (the hair covering changes, and she looks much more carefree in the single one!), and DS got a pencil with a rastafarian type guy on the top. This was the first time the Magic docked in St. Lucia, and they went all out welcoming us. We were also the only ship in port that day.
At the information desk, the lady there pointed out the person meeting us from the pony club. She was a little frazzled, because the traffic control had changed their normal rules, but the first van pulled up, and she put my family and another group of 7 on board. It was about a 20-25 minute ride to the stable. When we got there, they gave us helmets for everyone, and I found the owner to pay for our ride. She looked through her papers and had a copy of the same email, so the price was as agreed. They asked us what level of riding experience we had, then started calling out horses names. There were a bunch of pre-teen boys running around bringing the horses out. My DH was on Blackie, I had Flecks (he was gray with lots of flecks in it!), DD had Smokey, and DS had Tobacco. They had asked if we wanted Western or English saddles, but they all looked Western to me. We went with about 15 other guests and 3 guides out the back side of the farm, and down an alley past a number of other houses. It had rained overnight, so the path was pretty muddy. At one point, the horses were sloshing through water up to their knees, and some splashed up to us. After about 10-15 minutes of riding, we came out to the water. The view was truly beautiful! We rode along that beach for another 15 minutes or so, past a group of shacks, and came to a beautiful overlook. They grouped everyone together, and said "Kodak moment", but they used our cameras, so it wasn't a pitch for selling pictures. During the ride, the guides were chatting with people about their vacations, always saying "Why did it take you so long to come to our island? Don't you want to stay?" They also taught us a little bit of patois (local language), including Merry Christmas, etc. It was a mixture of French and English, since they said the island had swapped ownership about 16 times between the two countries.
After the pictures, we backtracked to the beach area that had the shacks on it. That was the barbeque spot (another option was a 4 hour ride which included a BBQ), and the place where the horses were unsaddled for a swim. There was also a large hunk of metal on the beach with a hand painted sign saying "This is a rocket booster". It sure looked like one! We got off the horses, and took off our outer clothes down to our swimsuits. There was a bathroom there, and they were selling sodas and beer. I know the soda was $3, so I was glad I had brought two water bottles with me. The kids and I swam a little bit. Meanwhile the guides were unsaddling some of the horses. The kids climbed on bareback, and a local boy who was about 9 led them out to swim with the horses. I could see the grins on my kids faces from 200 yards away. That was absolutely the highlight of the trip so far, at least according to them! They probably spent about 20-25 minutes in the water with the horses, then swam a little more. The guide started gathering up all the 2 hour people. Some confusion set in here, because they had taken some of the horses back to the stables to bring down people who had shown up without a booking, so DH and I ended up with different horses for the ride back. I think we had some of the 4 hour people's horses, while they had BBQ. Once we were back at the stable, the guide took them back down to the beach.
Comments on this excursion:
Pros: 1) Lots cheaper than the Disney one
2) easy booking through the web site and they honored their price
3) convenient (picked up at the port, dropped off there)
4) the kids LOVED it.
Cons: 1) A bit disorganized (didn't have the right number of horses, etc for their requirements)
2) the beach although beautiful wasn't really clean. There was debris washed up on it like bottles and coconuts.
3) The high $ of the drinks, and the touristy feel of the stand they set up at the beach
Overall, I would probably do it again. DH was really put off by the beach part though.
We made it back to the ship around 1:00. The return van trip went fine until we were almost in sight of the ship. The area by the ship was REALLY congested, with lots of people going down a street, only to be stopped by security at the port, which meant they had to turn around, but there wasn't any room to do that, etc. Lots of horn honking, finger waving, etc. At one point, someone suggested just letting us walk from their, but the driver wouldn't hear of it. It cleared out once we got past the security point, and they dropped us right outside the ship.
Once aboard, we got lunch, then DH and I headed back into town. Me looking for my magnet, and DD still looking for pirate attire for pirate night. There was a water taxi here too, but it wasn't nearly as organized. The sign said "$2 for round trip per person". We got on board, paid $2 per person, and were dropped off at the market across the harbor. It was a typical tourist market with tropical shirts, T-shirts, postcards, etc. DD and I walked through there, and came out on the locals market. After about 50 feet, I started smelling really strong marijuana, and started feeling very uncomfortable, so we headed back to the tourist market. I found a magnet, but no one could help DD. We went back to the water taxi site, and nothing was there. A local guy started talking to me, and said he was the taxi manager and it would be a while, because the pilot had to take a break. He talked about our horseback riding trip, and mentioned that he had a herd of cows, and that he was also security manager for the market. We probably talked for 15-20 minutes, and DD was definitely uncomfortable with the whole discussion. The taxi came then, and since I didn't see any way for them to know we had already paid, I just paid again. The guy didn't ask me, but for $4, it just seemed easier to me. On the boat, DD asked me "Mom, why did that guy talk to you so much?" I said that he was just being friendly, but she said "He made me nervous". I told her that since it was broad daylight, and we were in a public place, it was probably fine, but reminded her that I had been nervous in the local market, and reminded her that we left there quickly. Overall, I think this port is a beautiful place, but it's probably not really set up for tourist convenience as much as a St. Martin or St. Thomas is.
Back to the ship again, I ran into Mark and Mary (wdwlvr) on deck 4, saw her bad bug bite, and mentioned that DD hadn't found any pirate stuff. Mary told me that Linda (seaulater) still had pirate pins, so I ran down to call her stateroom, just before they left for early seating. I was a hit with the kids when I came in with 4 flashing pirate pins! DS figured out how to wear his as an earring, and DD was working out how to make a pirate hairdo when we left.
DH and I went to Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? Christy Romano was supposed to guest host, so I though DD would want to go, but she decided not to. I think DS went to a movie or the lab, and DD stayed in the room. DH is not a big Disney fan, and he kept saying "What if my seat gets called?" I told him the first bunch of questions were really easy, but after the first contestant, he finally believed me! A DISer (herc10) got in the hotseat once, and I didn't know all of his questions either! No one got to the million point question, but they did give away a 3 day cruise based on your seat number. Wasn't us though
No cabaret that night, and DH and I had Palo reservations. We convinced the kids to go to dinner by themselves, since they were doing special things for pirate night. The servers had really insisted that we send them to dinner without us. They went, and according to reports, they ate even though it was really quickly.
Palo was absolutely wonderful. We had an 8:30 reservation, so we headed the kids to Parrot Cay, then took the elevator up to deck 10. As we entered the restaurant, a CM in the white uniform of ships officer came up, and took our room number, then disappeared. A bit of confusion ensued. Another couple walked in, and he started introducing himself to everyone in the waiting area. It was Mac Alpin, the DCL vice president, and they were having dinner with all the ships officers in the private dining room, so things were a bit mixed up. The guy who took our name was just one of the ships officers, so when a server walked up, we had to do it again. MacAlpin and his group went to the private dining room, and we were finally seated about 10 minutes later. We had Sasha from Croatia as our server, and he was excellent. He was very knowledgeable about the food, and encouraged us to try different things. I don't remember everything we had, but I know I had the filet and DH had lamb and the filet and said they were both great. We shared the souffle and we both had something else for dessert. The souffle was good, but whatever I had was better. We finished about 10:30 and went out to the pirate party. It was really windy that night, so we were kind of blown about. I looked for DD and didn't see her, so we got a few things from the dessert buffet to take back to the room, and both kids were there. DD said she had gone to the party, but she had a headache so she wanted to go to bed. All the buffet food went to waste since the kids weren't hungry, and we were stuffed.
A full, enjoyable day!
