4/25/09 Magic - First Visit To Tortola!

[hoosiercruiser]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[amy2girls]

hmmmmmmmmm. so many choices- thank you for the info!

 

[A10560]

Does anyone know what night are the formal dinners?

 

[aznaphrodite]

Does anyone know what night are the formal dinners?

Day 2 - Sunday is formal night. Day 6 - Thursday is semi-formal night.


Today is the last day to sign up for the FE list so jump in now while you can!!! I want to go FE gift shopping this weekend!

 

[ametaldiva]

Hi everyone! I just booked the 4/25/09 Tortola cruise this morning! I am so excited! This will be our first 7-night cruise (and our first time on the Magic)! I am going to go back and read all of the pages in the thread when I get a chance! I am busy researching excursions now! I am surprised that just about everything is still available on the Shore Excursions list on the DCL website! We are thinking of doing the fishing on Castaway Cay and some snorkeling at St. Thomas... Not sure about Tortola yet...

Any recommendations on shore excursions would be great!

 

[aznaphrodite]

Hi everyone! I just booked the 4/25/09 Tortola cruise this morning! I am so excited! This will be our first 7-night cruise (and our first time on the Magic)! I am going to go back and read all of the pages in the thread when I get a chance! I am busy researching excursions now! I am surprised that just about everything is still available on the Shore Excursions list on the DCL website! We are thinking of doing the fishing on Castaway Cay and some snorkeling at St. Thomas... Not sure about Tortola yet...

Any recommendations on shore excursions would be great!

Welcome!

I can't make any recommendations since I've never been to any of the ports other than Castaway Cay but I can tell you what we're doing:

Tortola: Tour to Virgin Gorda (basically the Baths w/out lunch)
St. Thomas: St. John Island Tour & then St. Thomas beaches on our own
Castaway Cay: Stingray Adventure & bicycle rental; snorkeling on our own

 

[ametaldiva]

Welcome!

I can't make any recommendations since I've never been to any of the ports other than Castaway Cay but I can tell you what we're doing:

Tortola: Tour to Virgin Gorda (basically the Baths w/out lunch)
St. Thomas: St. John Island Tour & then St. Thomas beaches on our own
Castaway Cay: Stingray Adventure & bicycle rental; snorkeling on our own

Thanks!

Your list sounds good - I guess the Baths are probably the most popular thing in Tortola?

We have done the stingray adventure and snorkeling at Castaway Cay and we loved them both! DH loves fishing so we are thinking of doing the fishing excursion - although it is expensive! We will have to watch our budget - we are used to doing the 4-night cruises!

 

[adnil530]

Day 2 - Sunday is formal night. Day 6 - Thursday is semi-formal night.


Today is the last day to sign up for the FE list so jump in now while you can!!! I want to go FE gift shopping this weekend!

We are looking at this one now. Hopefully we can sneak in on the FE if we book in the next week?

Linda

 

[brophy_erin]

I wanted to see if anyone was interested in a shore excusion while in port in Tortola. Friends of mine went and they said it was the best thing they did on thier cruise. The website is kuralu.com. It is an all day shore excusuion for $110 a person. It has two snorkel spots, lunch, drinks, and a stop at Foxy's bar (one of the top 20 beach bars in the world - according to the travel channel). I think Disney has something simliar for $105 but it is only for 4 or 5 hours. Anyways we are trying to get a group of at least 4 together to do it. Anyone interested plesase let me know. Thanks

The desciption is as follows:

"Visiting the British Virgin Islands? Come sailing on Kuralu, our 50’ luxury cruising catamaran. With over 1,000 square feet of deck space, there's plenty of shade, an open bar all day and our famous buffet lunch, which is served onboard. Kuralu sails out of Sopers Hole at Tortola’s West End to visit Green Cay and Sandy Spit to snorkel the reef and explore the tiny one-acre island. Then with the big colorful spinnaker we sail to beautiful White Bay, Jost Van ****. White Bay has been voted by Conde Nast Traveller as; "One of the 10 best beaches in the Caribbean", Fantastic for snorkeling, swimming, a visit to the Soggy Dollar Bar, birthplace of the real "painkiller". White Bay is where we stop and enjoy a relaxed lunch, in the shade, onboard Kuralu.
A look in at Foxys in the quaint and unspoiled Caribbean settlement of Great Harbour, completes the day.

 

[brophy_erin]

Looking forward to meeting all of you. This will be our first Disney cruise with our three year old. We are hoping she loves the kids club. We will be in DisneyWorld for about 5 nights after the cruise. We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We figure if we are in the neighboorhood, we mise well visit. I posted something about a day snorkel/beach trip in Tortola that friends of mine did and said was great. Kids are welcome. Let me know if anyone is interested. We are trying to get a small group together. Thanks

 

[amy2girls]

kuralu looks great- we already have an excursion booked, but I am sure you will get some offers!


It still looks like there are a lot of cabins still open- anyone hoping for an upgrade???????

 

[son3disfan]

Anyone know about the fuel supplement refund...(on-board credit??)

....are we getting a refund for our April 25th Cruise? When will we know?

Has something to do with the price of gas.. or stocks?

Anyone know?

We booked our ressie in Feb 08 for a 4 day( before the fuel supplement) but changed it in Dec. to this 7 day cruise.... I wonder if we are eligable, since I believe our TA cancelled and rebooked....it works out to be about $256 for 6 of us in two rooms..... would be nice!

 

[CKCruising]

I think in the next two weeks is the cut off for the Fuel Surcharge credit.

Something about the price of West Texas on the Mercantile Exchange being under 70/barrel. It's in the 40's now I believe. We should be getting the credit, no problem.

 

[brophy_erin]

We would love an upgrade. We are currently category 11. We were trying to keep in on the cheaper side since we are doing Disney afterwards. Also we are currently the late dinner seating. I would love to switch to the early. We are on the wait list. Does anyone know how they decide on upgrades and dinner seatings from the waitlist? Thanks

 

[ametaldiva]

kuralu looks great- we already have an excursion booked, but I am sure you will get some offers!

I agree - the Kuralu does sound great but we have booked an excursion to Virgin Gorda - who knows if we will ever make it back to Tortola!?!

We also booked the Captain Nautica's snorkeling trip in St. Thomas and the sky ride...

We are so excited! To top it all off - I put an item on Ebay (thanks to a tip from a fellow disboarder) that has bids up to $500 now (something I paid $20 for a few years ago)! This is my first time ever selling on Ebay so I am excited!

Maybe this will be a good Monday after all!

Oh, I also was wondering about the fish extender thing - I don't know much about it or if we are too late to join anyway (no biggie if we are) - maybe somebody can chime in on that???

 

[aznaphrodite]

We booked our ressie in Feb 08 for a 4 day( before the fuel supplement) but changed it in Dec. to this 7 day cruise.... I wonder if we are eligable, since I believe our TA cancelled and rebooked....it works out to be about $256 for 6 of us in two rooms..... would be nice!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=30691875

According to this thread, if you (or your TA) booked after Dec. 1st, then you are not eligible for the fuel surcharge credit because you would have booked without the surcharge in the price already.\

Oh, I also was wondering about the fish extender thing - I don't know much about it or if we are too late to join anyway (no biggie if we are) - maybe somebody can chime in on that???

Info about what fish extenders are can be found in the FAQ:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2068966

The cutoff for the FE list was Friday but lsutigger2 is organizing it so it's her call. I'm sure she'll chime in soon or you can PM her.

It still looks like there are a lot of cabins still open- anyone hoping for an upgrade???????

I would love an upgrade but I'm not holding my breath. We're already in a Cat. 6 so I think it's less likely we'll be upgraded. But if they upgrade the lower cat's to cat. 6, maybe we will be upgraded too!! Here's hoping!

Upgrades is another good reason we should all meet up before the safety drill. If any of our rooms change, we need to update the FE list!

 

[JEA2009]

I agree - the Kuralu does sound great but we have booked an excursion to Virgin Gorda - who knows if we will ever make it back to Tortola!?!

We also booked the Captain Nautica's snorkeling trip in St. Thomas and the sky ride...

We are so excited! To top it all off - I put an item on Ebay (thanks to a tip from a fellow disboarder) that has bids up to $500 now (something I paid $20 for a few years ago)! This is my first time ever selling on Ebay so I am excited!

Maybe this will be a good Monday after all!

Oh, I also was wondering about the fish extender thing - I don't know much about it or if we are too late to join anyway (no biggie if we are) - maybe somebody can chime in on that???

That's awesome that you are making such a profit on your ebay item! Good luck!

I'm not sure yet what we're going to do re: shore excursions. We don't have anything booked yet. I am thinking about booking a dolphin encounter while on Tortolla (I think it's all full on the DCL excursion list, but am pretty sure we can just book online through the dolphin encounter place). And heading to St. John while in port at St. Thomas (the beaches in St. John are beautiful). I think we'll just hang out at Castaway Cay on the beach all day - no excursions there.

Crossing our fingers that we get an upgrade...

 

[JEA2009]

Looking forward to meeting all of you. This will be our first Disney cruise with our three year old. We are hoping she loves the kids club. We will be in DisneyWorld for about 5 nights after the cruise. We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge. We figure if we are in the neighboorhood, we mise well visit. I posted something about a day snorkel/beach trip in Tortola that friends of mine did and said was great. Kids are welcome. Let me know if anyone is interested. We are trying to get a small group together. Thanks

Welcome! Brophy Erin

Our daughter will be 3 in June - so I don't think she is eligible for the kids club

 

[JEA2009]

kuralu looks great- we already have an excursion booked, but I am sure you will get some offers!


It still looks like there are a lot of cabins still open- anyone hoping for an upgrade???????

How can you tell there are lots of cabins open? Good news It will be great if the ship isn't too crowded!

 

[brophy_erin]

From what I read kids can go to the kids club when they are within a 1-2 months of three as long as they are fully potty trained.

We plan on hitting the beaches in St. John while in St. Thomas also. Does anyone know of a tour for that? I know we can take the ferry but I wasnot sure whihc to go to, etc. Thanks all!