6/14 Eastern - The best excurstion

[DOOGIERUNNER]

We just got back this week from the 6/14 eastern followed by 2 more weeks at WDW and had a wonderful time. If you're looking for an excursion on St. Martin, take a side trip to Anguilla with the link below. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I've never seen such white and remote beaches... anywhere. We chartered our own day excurstion with offshoresunsations ( http://www.offshoresunsations.com ) . The operator (Jack) was excellent. I've never been on an excurstion where there was so much attention to detail and concern about your personal satisfaction. Our kids, 8 and 10, loved it.

 

[JoniJ]

That sounds like a great excursion. How much does it cost? Was your family the only ones on it? How long does it last? Do you get lunch or a snack included? Sorry for all the questions, but I would be interested in doing this with my DH and DS(6). Do you think they would enjoy it? Joni

 

[DOOGIERUNNER]

The cost is $1000 for the full day, we originally chartered 1/2 day and decided to take the full day after we got on the boat and visited the first beach. We were on the excursion for about 7 hours, but cut it a bit short as the kids we're getting tired on the last stop. They will customize the excurstion to whatever you want to do.

I was a bit skeptical before we booked, and we exchenged several e-mails. They even followed up with us after our cruise to make sure everything was satisfactory. It was more than satisfactory... I'd say awsome... a must do!!

Yes, we were the only ones... just the four of us. It was an experience we'll never forget. The tour operator (Jack) and his captain Ritz were soooo friendly and personable. Lunch is not included, drinks are. There are a few places we stopped that we could have purchased lunch. We ate a huge breakfast before getting off the boat. You could also have your stateroom host pack a lunch for you to take along. My wife is not a drinker.. a beer now and then... we're pretty reserved and frugal folks, but if you like to indulge... no problem, there's plenty to drink . If you're interested, visit the site and e-mail them w/ questions.

We're hoping to go back. We're DVC members w/ enough points for about 12 weeks, so I'm hoping to sell some time and visit Anguilla again. It is truely beautiful... much more so than St. Martin.

 

[JoniJ]

Thanks for info. We are also DVC members (we are using our points for our cruise) and we love doing different things other then just going to Disney world all the time. I will check out there web page and my DH says it looked like something we should do. I will let you know if we go on it what we thought. We don't cruise until Feb. so we have sometime to check it out. Thanks again!!! Joni

 

[jessicajulie]

DoogieRunner -

I think I saw your family go by us on the beach on Anguilla (it was around the 10:00 - 11:00 am timeframe). We at Dolphin Fantaseas beach. I recognized the boat from web site that you had posted prior to your trip. The boat came in quite near the shore and then zoomed back out again - looked like a blast. I also enjoyed Anguilla - and it was very interesting to see the inside parts of the island. It consists of only abject poverty conditions - or luxury five star resorts and nothing in between. And has a very small population in comparison to St. Martin which is the same size island. Our bus driver told us the names of lots of celebrities who own property on the island.

I'm glad you posted about your experience. I was curious how it went since I would have been interested in it if we hadn't had the dolphin excursion already planned. I'm glad you had a good time.

JessicaJulie (Kristin)

 

[DOOGIERUNNER]

JessicaJulie,

Cool, small world . How'd you like the dolphin excursion?

 

[jessicajulie]

DoogieRunner -

As far as the dolphin excursion goes I have mixed feelings. We were split into two groups and our group went to the beach in the morning and then went to swim with the dolphins in the afternoon. My daughter absolutely loved snorkling on the beach.

Lunch was OK - nothing special and I didn't think the servers were very happy to have us there (just an observation). After lunch our group went in to see the stringrays. The stringrays were very disapointing. There were five of them in this small tank and we were allowed in the tank in groups of two and instructed to sink down to the bottom of the tank with a piece of fish in our hand the and the stingray would come eat it. I don't think anyone in our group was able to feed them - they really weren't interested in us - I think they may have been full of fish from all the people who had already been in the tank. Also - there was a family in our group who had gone on the Stingray City excursion on the Western cruise and they said that this was NO comparison.

Then we got in with the dolphins - there were three - a male, female and a baby who was just born in December. They were in a tank of sixteen feet deep and about the size of a medium sized swimming pool (I wasn't overly impressed with their habitat). We got to pet them, feed them, kiss them, play ball with them, and swim around in the pool with them for approximately half an hour. It was fun to interact with the dolphins and they are wonderful creatures but I left feeling kind of sad for them.

In conclusion, I'm glad we did it but I'm not entirely convinced it was worth the money.

Kristin

 

[DOOGIERUNNER]

Has anyone else tried this?