11/24/07 We are Better Than Leftovers!!! Nana Head reunion

[woogal]

Bill (DH) is now a walking advertisement for Disney Cruise Line. When he went back to work, he couldn't stop raving about the trip. He has about four or five people seriously considering a DCL cruise next year. They say word of mouth is the best advertisement.

Ruh roh! Another BILL??? Cheri, we're in so much trouble on this one!!!

 

[woogal]

St. Thomas customs wasn't as bad as I thought....but then again we had an afternoon excursion. We didn't have to do our customs thing until 7:15am <yawn>....just part of the experience. The tendering was more of a pain than customs....anyone remember that fiasco?

Great day to all.....

Honey? We didn't have an afternoon excursion! We met Sunny at 10 a.m.! Geez, the he says/she says thing starts already ...

 

[cruisemutt]

10 AM is afternoon to me......was I right about the 715 thing?

 

[woogal]

That part I don't remember, so we'll pretend like you know what you're talking about this time. See? I'm a giver! That's me ... Compromising Shell!

 

[favoriteslave]

We had a 6:30 AM customs time. You show up, show your passport, they smile, you smile, you are lead out a side door and your free to eat breakfast. We had an early excursion time of 7:45, it wasn't too bad. It would have helped if they had not had the Pirates Night before and we had not gone to the Rockn D bar and Diversions afterwards. I think I got to bed at 2 the night before St Thomas. But it was vacation time, and like DH says it was sometime on Wednesday morning. He He.

Shell, Trey has his christmas party tomorrow night. I don't know what to expect, our office's party always consists of lunch and presents. So pray for me.

Miss ya all.

 

[cruisemutt]

We're going to work on that Tonya....put Mickey in a half nelson if we have to....make him change it to Thursday night, maybe....we miss you guys too

 

[jd99]

10 AM is afternoon to me......was I right about the 715 thing?

The tender fiasco merely made it FEEL like afternoon!

 

[woogal]

You said it, Jeff.

 

[woogal]

Shell, Trey has his christmas party tomorrow night. I don't know what to expect, our office's party always consists of lunch and presents. So pray for me.

I'm sure there will be some great stories from that party! Make sure you share, and don't leave out any of the embarrassing details! Make Trey take his banana!

 

[cruisemutt]

The tender fiasco merely made it FEEL like afternoon!

Thank you, my friend....for coming to my aid. The whole trip is a blur to me now---I believe I need to go back to refresh that short term memory (they say mutts have a hard time with short term memory).

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

oh boy, I am going to sit back and wait to hear all the details from everyones parties!!! This should be really good!!
I just hope you can remember what happens?
We missed Gregs office party because we were on the cruise, so I need all the gossip from yours to make up for mssing ours.

Kathy

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

Thank you for the information regarding customs in St. Thomas. Is it that difficult to get back on the ship? I guess we had it easier with the Wonder ports, just slide the card and walk off. Do you have to tender at both St. Maarten and St. Thomas? With children it does take us extra time to get ready and out the door. We probably won't get the children off at both St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Which port/excursion would you suggest for the children (they will be 7, 5 and 2 when we cruise)? So far I've had the following suggestions: St. Maarten - Little Divi Bay, St. Thomas - Sapphire Beach or take a ferry to St. John - Cinnamon Bay. Also, I believe Kathy you mentioned a butterfly museum. My children's heads perked up when I mentioned that. So, we may do that too. We had a hard time getting Will (DS6) out of the Oceaneer's Club and Lab last time. So, we only want to "drag" them off the boat at CC and one other port. Bill (DH) and I can enjoy the peace and quiet at the other port with just Cole (DS1). He is a very low maintenance child, or at least for now he is. We spent the morning in Nassau at the British Colonial Hilton Hotel (a short walk from the dock) with all three kids at the beach. After we had enough fun in the fun, we brought Will (DS6) and Emily (DD4) back onboard and took Cole (DS1) back off with us for shopping. He was great and couldn't go very far confined in his stroller. All the women in the Straw Market were oohing and aahing over him, then again they probably wanted a sale too. Everyone have a great weekend and for my Bill (DH) Go Cowboys!

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

The tender fiasco merely made it FEEL like afternoon!

What was the "tender fiasco"? Just curious. Thanks!

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

Jennifer, usually you dont have to tender at either port. Just once in awhile they tender at St.Thomas. I have never heard of them tendering at St.Maartin.
Normally you would just swipe the card and off you go.
Just when you tender it take longer to go back and forth and it is more akward walking down the walkway to the tender boat that has pulled along side the ship for loading. They do have CM's to help you if needed.

Hopefully we wont have any tendering at all this trip. The butterfly farm is more than a museum. There is a huge outdoor area where butterflies live and they are flying around by the thousands most of the year.
They will land on you too if you stand still for a minute.
When we were on St.Maartin this month on a different tour they mentioned how in November the butterflies are all hatching out and it was the best time of the year to see them. So it may be a good option for the kids.


Hope everyone has a great weekend.
We are cloudy and foggy again today.

Kathy



I hope all my bananas are safe from Bill's monkeys!!

 

[cruisemutt]

Mornin everyone...
the fiasco part of the tendering was just the disorganization of the whole thing. I don't know if its that crazy EVERY time you tender or not since it was my first experience with that(Kathys our resident expert) but it was more difficult getting on and off the ship. I'm pretty sure we had a link to the harbor facility on our other board for the tendering schedule and I'll try and find it and post it.

Time for me to do a lil shopping gang....
Have a great day!

Cheri? you still have good weather? Its been awesome for Ohio so far....
Mutt

 

[cruisemutt]

Here's the link....I'm not sure how often they post but its a good indicator as to who anchors and who doesn't. Poor Queen Mary 2 in Dec...
http://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/cruiseship/

 

[pgfour]

Good morning!

Yes, Mutt, we're still having good weather!

I had just typed a nice long account of tendering & customs and when I hit "submit" I got bumped off line.

Since I have such profound words of wisdom, I'll re-do it but submit it in small chunks!!

I also have my first race of the 2007 season today. It's a 5k trail run so it should be nice and muddy by noon!

Cheri

 

[pgfour]

Customs at St. Thomas:

VERY EASY!!!! Those of us down in the coal mines had to be in the WDT by 7:00. Mickey gave us a wake up call and we were out the door by 6:55. DD5 just went in her nightgown.

We grabbed coffee & rolls, gave them our room #, and moved very quickly through the line, showed our IDs, got our hands stamped, and that was it. We didn't even get a chance to eat or drink anything because the line was moving so fast!

If only tendering was as simple. . .

 

[pgfour]

You may have noticed that DCL takes great pride in not having to tender at CC -- you'll soon understand why that's such a big deal!

If you and your family plans to go ashore before 10-11:00, the entire family must report to the Buena Vista Theater to get "tickets". You then sit in the theater and wait (and watch how people on vacation can't follow even the simplest directions) until the next tender is ready. You are then herded out of the theater, into the hallway, down the steps as you S-L-O-W-L-Y make your way to the security check point and board the tender. Once the tender is full, it moves across the bay to the pier. Our tender had a hard time docking. Took a total of 25 minutes on the tender and probably another 20 minutes prior.

I guess there were some mechanical problems with earlier tenders so that added to the pain.

My Bill stated that tendering represents everything he hates about vacation -- being herded from place to place with hundreds of other people.

The trip back wasn't as bad, but it's still a very slow process.

 

[pgfour]

By contrast, the water taxis on St. Maartin worked very well. You pay a $5 (?) fee to ride the taxi all day. You board the taxi and once they don't see anyone running up to the pier, they take off across the bay.

If you've ever taken the water taxis in Nassau to get to Paradise Island, you'll be VERY happy with the situation in St. Maartin.

Hope this helps a bit!!

Cheri