Mumph39
Every day should be a magical day!
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2001
- Messages
- 206
St. Maarten:
Yeah! Our first port day. We woke up in St. Maarten to clear and sunny skies. Headed off the ship around 10:00. We all (17 of us) got in a van and headed for Orient Beach. Our driver, "Dependable Dan" recommended KaKao. When we pulled up, it turned out to be the same beach/restaurant we had loved on our first Disney Cruise. We had forgotten the name, so we were very excited this was it. We grabbed some beach chairs and a few umbrellas and planted ourselves for the remainder of the day. The beach is beautiful, the water clear and blue. The kids spent the day in the ocean. The food at the restaurant was very good too. Many vendors were walking the beach. We bought some towels since we forgot to take them from the ship and the kids bought some necklaces and pareo's. The vendors weren't pushy and they just went on their way if you weren't interested. "Dependable Dan" was back to pick us up at our designated time and we headed back to the ship. First stop back onboard is always Scoops for a refreshing ice cream! (It's always been tradition
).
We spent some time on deck 9 while the kids swam in the pool. Our favorite bar server Kadir brought us some drinks and we further enjoyed the day! Tonight is Pirate night, and we are all looking forward to the deck party.
Dinner was fun. Menu's look like a treasure map. Everyone is given a bandana and the photographers make their rounds to the tables. After dinner we headed for the deck party. The show is great. The fireworks amazing. This is a special treat. We loved it. The kids got to hear their favorite song again (Hey baby, I want to know if you'll be my girl....
- it has turned into their theme song back home!).
Off to bed, immigration
in the morning.
St. Thomas:
Being on deck 7 and not doing a shore excursion, we were to be at immigration between 7:15 and 7:30. Got there at 7:15 for a long line. It took about 1/2 an hour to get through. My suggestion here is if you want to get off the ship, get there as early as possible. Next, we had to get our party together and report to pick up our tendering tickets. This was the worst part of the trip. It felt like you were being shuffled from place to place and people were starting to get frazzled. We originally were going to take the ferry to St. John but decided instead to go to Sapphire Beach. With all of the immigration and tendering, we just didn't want to do anymore rushing around and worrying about missing the ferry back. I think we made a great choice. Most of us had been to Megan's Bay already and knew that it got crowdedl. Sapphire was our next pick. Hopped in two vans and headed there. The cost to Sapphire I believe was $8 per person. The beach was beautiful and the snorkeling was really good. We walked over to the hotel and had lunch at the outdoor restaurant there. Very good, a little slow, but hey it's Island Time. Our cabs were there to meet us at our prearranged time. Back to the ship for Scoops!
When we arrived back to the stateroom we found a message that there was room for us in Palo for dinner that night.
The kids went off to the dining room, with the 17 year olds in charge. We were off to Palo. Lucky for us, Sasha was our server again. We ate so much and so well it put us all into a food coma! The chocolate souffles are marvelous, who has room for the other desserts we were brought to sample??! What a great day and night (it made all the morning stuff worthwhile!)
Tomorrow, another sea day and character breakfast.
Yeah! Our first port day. We woke up in St. Maarten to clear and sunny skies. Headed off the ship around 10:00. We all (17 of us) got in a van and headed for Orient Beach. Our driver, "Dependable Dan" recommended KaKao. When we pulled up, it turned out to be the same beach/restaurant we had loved on our first Disney Cruise. We had forgotten the name, so we were very excited this was it. We grabbed some beach chairs and a few umbrellas and planted ourselves for the remainder of the day. The beach is beautiful, the water clear and blue. The kids spent the day in the ocean. The food at the restaurant was very good too. Many vendors were walking the beach. We bought some towels since we forgot to take them from the ship and the kids bought some necklaces and pareo's. The vendors weren't pushy and they just went on their way if you weren't interested. "Dependable Dan" was back to pick us up at our designated time and we headed back to the ship. First stop back onboard is always Scoops for a refreshing ice cream! (It's always been tradition
).We spent some time on deck 9 while the kids swam in the pool. Our favorite bar server Kadir brought us some drinks and we further enjoyed the day! Tonight is Pirate night, and we are all looking forward to the deck party.
Dinner was fun. Menu's look like a treasure map. Everyone is given a bandana and the photographers make their rounds to the tables. After dinner we headed for the deck party. The show is great. The fireworks amazing. This is a special treat. We loved it. The kids got to hear their favorite song again (Hey baby, I want to know if you'll be my girl....
- it has turned into their theme song back home!).Off to bed, immigration
in the morning.St. Thomas:
Being on deck 7 and not doing a shore excursion, we were to be at immigration between 7:15 and 7:30. Got there at 7:15 for a long line. It took about 1/2 an hour to get through. My suggestion here is if you want to get off the ship, get there as early as possible. Next, we had to get our party together and report to pick up our tendering tickets. This was the worst part of the trip. It felt like you were being shuffled from place to place and people were starting to get frazzled. We originally were going to take the ferry to St. John but decided instead to go to Sapphire Beach. With all of the immigration and tendering, we just didn't want to do anymore rushing around and worrying about missing the ferry back. I think we made a great choice. Most of us had been to Megan's Bay already and knew that it got crowdedl. Sapphire was our next pick. Hopped in two vans and headed there. The cost to Sapphire I believe was $8 per person. The beach was beautiful and the snorkeling was really good. We walked over to the hotel and had lunch at the outdoor restaurant there. Very good, a little slow, but hey it's Island Time. Our cabs were there to meet us at our prearranged time. Back to the ship for Scoops!
When we arrived back to the stateroom we found a message that there was room for us in Palo for dinner that night.
The kids went off to the dining room, with the 17 year olds in charge. We were off to Palo. Lucky for us, Sasha was our server again. We ate so much and so well it put us all into a food coma! The chocolate souffles are marvelous, who has room for the other desserts we were brought to sample??! What a great day and night (it made all the morning stuff worthwhile!)
Tomorrow, another sea day and character breakfast.
