NYDisneyMom
I need to have a vacation planned at all times...
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2003
- Messages
- 1,122
Is it Tuesday already??! 
We didn't get up too early, since I knew we'd be doing St. Maarten on our own. We were off the ship by 9:00. We grabbed a cab/van and we were off to the Butterfly Farm.
The boys were pretty shocked to see the poverty once you leave the port area, but I guess it's a lesson they had to learn. It cost us $21 to get to the Butterfly Farm, and we asked our driver to come back for us in an hour or so (he did!)
The Butterfly Farm was not really what I expected...although I'm not sure what I did expect. It is pretty much a shack with some butterfly souvenirs and then you walk into the netted butterfly area. But man...what gorgeous butterflies!! Some of them were pretty big, too!! One landed right on my son's hat, but fly off before I could snap a pic. We were taken around by Karin, a very nice, laid back butterfly enthusiast. If you do the butterfly farm make sure you wait for a tour to start, otherwise you're just looking around at trees and passing butterflies. You do learn a lot by doing the tour. My boys stood quietly and were very interested in the presentation. There's also free punch (regular and rum punch) available, grab some, it was pretty good!
After the tour our cab/van driver was there waiting for us as he promised. He took us back to the port. Our plan was to go for a swim on the ship and then bring the kids to the club and we'd go shopping. If I had known that we were going to be the ONLY cruise ship in port that day I probably would have planned differently. The beaches were empty! Too late, though, the boys had their hearts set on some time in the Goofy pool with no crowds.
After lunch on the ship we checked the kids into the club and DH and I went back to the Island. We took the water taxi over to the shopping area ($5 each, they give you a bracelet so you pay once for the whole day). My advice...don't buy the little souvenirs like t-shirts, etc., until you get further into town. I think they started out 2 for $10 and by the time you walk a few blocks they're 5 for $10!! We bought lots of t-shirts for all the nieces and nephews back home! I found a little store that had really nice beach bags, with St. Maarten embroidered on them, 3 for $10!
There were the high end shops also, Tiffany, Coach, Ralph Lauren. I bought two gold chains at the Colombian Emerald store. One for me and one for my niece. Very reasonably priced.
We headed back to the ship around 4:30 so we could relax a bit and get ready for dinner.
Tropical Night dinner was in Parrot Cay. Again, the lines to take pictures with the nice backgrounds were very long. We picked one. After dinner we took several pics with the characaters out in the atrium. We went to see Hidalgo at the Walt Disney theater but it was soooooo cold in the theater I had to leave almost immediately after it began. About half an hour later my DH and the boys left too (guess the movie wasn't that good, huh?)
We were up at the deck party (not even going to try to spell that!!) for a bit but we had a big day coming up so again, we were in bed by 11:00.
I have to say, every night when we got to the room we ordered a plate of cookies, milks and the silver carafe of coffee so my DH could have his coffee in the morning. Amazing, the coffee came out steaming hot every time!
Tomorrow, St. Thomas!!
http://community.webshots.com/user/phylliskelly
We didn't get up too early, since I knew we'd be doing St. Maarten on our own. We were off the ship by 9:00. We grabbed a cab/van and we were off to the Butterfly Farm. The boys were pretty shocked to see the poverty once you leave the port area, but I guess it's a lesson they had to learn. It cost us $21 to get to the Butterfly Farm, and we asked our driver to come back for us in an hour or so (he did!)
The Butterfly Farm was not really what I expected...although I'm not sure what I did expect. It is pretty much a shack with some butterfly souvenirs and then you walk into the netted butterfly area. But man...what gorgeous butterflies!! Some of them were pretty big, too!! One landed right on my son's hat, but fly off before I could snap a pic. We were taken around by Karin, a very nice, laid back butterfly enthusiast. If you do the butterfly farm make sure you wait for a tour to start, otherwise you're just looking around at trees and passing butterflies. You do learn a lot by doing the tour. My boys stood quietly and were very interested in the presentation. There's also free punch (regular and rum punch) available, grab some, it was pretty good!
After the tour our cab/van driver was there waiting for us as he promised.
He took us back to the port. Our plan was to go for a swim on the ship and then bring the kids to the club and we'd go shopping. If I had known that we were going to be the ONLY cruise ship in port that day I probably would have planned differently. The beaches were empty! Too late, though, the boys had their hearts set on some time in the Goofy pool with no crowds. After lunch on the ship we checked the kids into the club and DH and I went back to the Island. We took the water taxi over to the shopping area ($5 each, they give you a bracelet so you pay once for the whole day). My advice...don't buy the little souvenirs like t-shirts, etc., until you get further into town. I think they started out 2 for $10 and by the time you walk a few blocks they're 5 for $10!! We bought lots of t-shirts for all the nieces and nephews back home! I found a little store that had really nice beach bags, with St. Maarten embroidered on them, 3 for $10!
There were the high end shops also, Tiffany, Coach, Ralph Lauren. I bought two gold chains at the Colombian Emerald store. One for me and one for my niece. Very reasonably priced.
We headed back to the ship around 4:30 so we could relax a bit and get ready for dinner.
Tropical Night dinner was in Parrot Cay. Again, the lines to take pictures with the nice backgrounds were very long. We picked one. After dinner we took several pics with the characaters out in the atrium. We went to see Hidalgo at the Walt Disney theater but it was soooooo cold in the theater I had to leave almost immediately after it began. About half an hour later my DH and the boys left too (guess the movie wasn't that good, huh?)
We were up at the deck party (not even going to try to spell that!!) for a bit but we had a big day coming up so again, we were in bed by 11:00.
I have to say, every night when we got to the room we ordered a plate of cookies, milks and the silver carafe of coffee so my DH could have his coffee in the morning. Amazing, the coffee came out steaming hot every time!
Tomorrow, St. Thomas!!
http://community.webshots.com/user/phylliskelly
