pandapants
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2001
- Messages
- 47
Wow, what a great cruise....we were first time Disney Cruisers and had a blast. Thought I'd post about the excursions we went on first.
St. Croix - My DH and DS13 went on the deep sea fishing excursion and had a great time. The seas were a little rough, but they all made it through OK. I would suggest taking Bonine or some type of motion sickness meds as a precaution, whether you are prone to it or not. It can make the difference between a good experience and not. My DH suggested they put that in the excursion description so people understand. My DS got a little seasick (not as far as vomiting, but was to the point he wasn't able to participate after awhile). Anyway, there were about 5 people that went on the excursion, plus 3 crew. My son caught the first fish, a baracuda (2-3 feet in length I think?). My DH also caught a baracuda. Then one of the other guys caught a Wahoo, which was about 3-4 feet in length. But the big "catch" of the day was a Mahi-Mahi. One of the Magic's crew members was on the excursion and worked hard for about 1/2 hour trying to bring it in. He got it right up to the boat and the crew tried to gaff it, but missed. Tried again, but the fish got off the line. That was a heart-breaker! But they got it right up to the boat and my husband was able to get some pictures with the guy's camera, so he got some nice pictures of it anyway (NOT the typical "one the got away"...there was evidence!) The crew estimated that it was about 50-60 pounds. My DH and DS said they really enjoyed it and the crew educated them on some of the fishing techniques. They said they would definitely do it again.
St. Thomas - Doubloon Sail and Snorkel was as good as I'd read about, or better! It was a fun ride out to Buck Island. The crew of Bert, Megan and Dave were fun, efficient and helpful. By the time we got to Buck Island they had all the snorkel equipment passed out (all equipment was clean and in great shape) so we were ready to get in the water after a short safety talk from Megan. We saw other excursions that were just handing out the equipment when they got there, so people had to wait to get in the water. We saw sea turtles, stingrays, an octopus, and lots of fish. Megan took us around to different things and explained about some of the habitat, or you could snorkel on your own. We snorkeled for about an hour, then back to the boat where the gave us as much rum punch as we wanted (kids got sodas) and chips and salsa. Bert gave a little sales speech which was hilarious and didn't make you feel like you were gettting a sales pitch to buy t-shirts. But we bought 3 of them! They're really cool! This was a great excursion and I recommend it highly! Book early if you can!
Castaway Cay - We signed up to do the jet-ski excursion, but the day we docked (I think we were lucky we got to even go there) it was extremely windy, so all excursions were canceled. No matter.....there is so much to do on CC! It was so windy they didn't even want us to put up the umbrellas (but it calmed later in the day so we could put them up to get out of the sun). There were crab races, dancing, sporting activities for the kids, the grouper pavilion where you could play all kinds of games like shuffle board, backetball, oversized chess and checkers, etc. Bike rentals were available too. So there wasn't a shortage of things to do and see. Castaway Cay is an amazing place. The lunch at Cookies BBQ was spectacular.
Hope to add more about our trip later.
St. Croix - My DH and DS13 went on the deep sea fishing excursion and had a great time. The seas were a little rough, but they all made it through OK. I would suggest taking Bonine or some type of motion sickness meds as a precaution, whether you are prone to it or not. It can make the difference between a good experience and not. My DH suggested they put that in the excursion description so people understand. My DS got a little seasick (not as far as vomiting, but was to the point he wasn't able to participate after awhile). Anyway, there were about 5 people that went on the excursion, plus 3 crew. My son caught the first fish, a baracuda (2-3 feet in length I think?). My DH also caught a baracuda. Then one of the other guys caught a Wahoo, which was about 3-4 feet in length. But the big "catch" of the day was a Mahi-Mahi. One of the Magic's crew members was on the excursion and worked hard for about 1/2 hour trying to bring it in. He got it right up to the boat and the crew tried to gaff it, but missed. Tried again, but the fish got off the line. That was a heart-breaker! But they got it right up to the boat and my husband was able to get some pictures with the guy's camera, so he got some nice pictures of it anyway (NOT the typical "one the got away"...there was evidence!) The crew estimated that it was about 50-60 pounds. My DH and DS said they really enjoyed it and the crew educated them on some of the fishing techniques. They said they would definitely do it again.
St. Thomas - Doubloon Sail and Snorkel was as good as I'd read about, or better! It was a fun ride out to Buck Island. The crew of Bert, Megan and Dave were fun, efficient and helpful. By the time we got to Buck Island they had all the snorkel equipment passed out (all equipment was clean and in great shape) so we were ready to get in the water after a short safety talk from Megan. We saw other excursions that were just handing out the equipment when they got there, so people had to wait to get in the water. We saw sea turtles, stingrays, an octopus, and lots of fish. Megan took us around to different things and explained about some of the habitat, or you could snorkel on your own. We snorkeled for about an hour, then back to the boat where the gave us as much rum punch as we wanted (kids got sodas) and chips and salsa. Bert gave a little sales speech which was hilarious and didn't make you feel like you were gettting a sales pitch to buy t-shirts. But we bought 3 of them! They're really cool! This was a great excursion and I recommend it highly! Book early if you can!
Castaway Cay - We signed up to do the jet-ski excursion, but the day we docked (I think we were lucky we got to even go there) it was extremely windy, so all excursions were canceled. No matter.....there is so much to do on CC! It was so windy they didn't even want us to put up the umbrellas (but it calmed later in the day so we could put them up to get out of the sun). There were crab races, dancing, sporting activities for the kids, the grouper pavilion where you could play all kinds of games like shuffle board, backetball, oversized chess and checkers, etc. Bike rentals were available too. So there wasn't a shortage of things to do and see. Castaway Cay is an amazing place. The lunch at Cookies BBQ was spectacular.
Hope to add more about our trip later.
