Am I Gonna EAT? Or Am I Gonna STAAAARRRRRVE To Death? Eastern Fantasy UPDATED 06/12/15

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Wow, great pics! And I Loooovvveee National Lampoons Vacation! Good thing you didn't end up on the roof of the car

hahhahah that movie is just the best! I swear my husband Andy was constantly joking around about eating or starrrrrving to death, and then he'd go off to what he was calling the "ice cream social" which was the soft serve ice cream spot on the ship

Thanks for reading!

 

[michellekcm]

I love your trip report - thanks so much for sharing! Can't wait to read more

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

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[PiperGirlInWondrland]

I love your trip report - thanks so much for sharing! Can't wait to read more

Thanks for reading!

 

[Glitzytraveller]

Your report is great! We are going on this same cruise in two weeks! I loved the area you went in the afternoon in St. Maarten. I will have to check that out.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Your report is great! We are going on this same cruise in two weeks! I loved the area you went in the afternoon in St. Maarten. I will have to check that out.

Thank you so much! How exciting that you are going in two weeks I am super jealous!! Is this your first cruise? St. Maarten was great, so glad we went! Are you doing any excursions? We didn't do any this trip other than my sons went on the jet skis at Castaway Cay. It was our first cruise and we weren't sure what to expect so we just ventured out on our own. On our next cruise we are doing an Atlantis beach day - I hope it's fun! Thanks for reading!

 

[scaryt]

Thank you so much for taking the time to put up this report, I've loved reading it. We're off on our first ever cruise on 11th April with the same itinerary. I am so excited after reading all you have written.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Thank you for reading my report! April 11th will be here soooo soon! It's so exciting to go on a first cruise! Ours exceeded my expectations! Are you doing any excursions or venturing on your own? Castaway Cay is so awesome - we live in NY and it snowed here yesterday I'm dreaming about Castaway Cay right now!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

it would help if I remember to insert the quote first!

Thank you so much for taking the time to put up this report, I've loved reading it. We're off on our first ever cruise on 11th April with the same itinerary. I am so excited after reading all you have written.

Thank you for reading my report! April 11th will be here soooo soon! It's so exciting to go on a first cruise! Ours exceeded my expectations! Are you doing any excursions or venturing on your own? Castaway Cay is so awesome - we live in NY and it snowed here yesterday I'm dreaming about Castaway Cay right now!

 

[scaryt]

Thank you so much for responding. I can't believe how we're finally so close to sailing after having booked the cruise so long ago. Weather here in England has been grey (how unusual for England!) snow would have me weeping.

I have booked Blue Safaris for a speedboat and snorkelling tour in San Maarten for myself and my 8yr old son. Then in San Juan we are all (me, husband, son and mother in law) going on a private tour with Charlie's custom tours, reviews on trip advisor are great so hoping this will be awesome. It's a once in a lifetime chance for us so I wanted to get the most out of each port stop. Hoping to do the 5k on Castaway Cay before we enjoy it properly.

Reading trip reports like your own has been invaluable for me, so thank you for all the time and effort you have put into writing each post and choosing the photos.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Thank you so much for responding. I can't believe how we're finally so close to sailing after having booked the cruise so long ago. Weather here in England has been grey (how unusual for England!) snow would have me weeping.

I have booked Blue Safaris for a speedboat and snorkelling tour in San Maarten for myself and my 8yr old son. Then in San Juan we are all (me, husband, son and mother in law) going on a private tour with Charlie's custom tours, reviews on trip advisor are great so hoping this will be awesome. It's a once in a lifetime chance for us so I wanted to get the most out of each port stop. Hoping to do the 5k on Castaway Cay before we enjoy it properly.

Reading trip reports like your own has been invaluable for me, so thank you for all the time and effort you have put into writing each post and choosing the photos.

You are going to have an amazing cruise! Your excursions sound amazing! I am hoping to do the 5k on Castaway Cay as well when we go on our next cruise in May. I will need to relax after it I'm sure as I am out of shape but it's something I just really want to do

 

[Glitzytraveller]

Thank you so much! How exciting that you are going in two weeks I am super jealous!! Is this your first cruise? St. Maarten was great, so glad we went! Are you doing any excursions? We didn't do any this trip other than my sons went on the jet skis at Castaway Cay. It was our first cruise and we weren't sure what to expect so we just ventured out on our own. On our next cruise we are doing an Atlantis beach day - I hope it's fun! Thanks for reading!

This cruise will actually be our 9th. We don't typically do cruise excursions. We like to go out on our own. In St. Maarten we are renting a car to explore.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

This cruise will actually be our 9th. We don't typically do cruise excursions. We like to go out on our own. In St. Maarten we are renting a car to explore.

Oh wow! 9th cruise! That is awesome! Renting a car and exploring sounds like fun I would love to do that someday!

 

[Zarina]

Love your thorough reports, sorry you are not on a Disney high anymore

 

[Zarina]

Oops,
This was meant for dizneat, sorry

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Finally it was a day we had been looking forward to for a year! Not only was it our first visit ever to Castaway Cay - it was Zach's 25th birthday! I was beyond excited! We headed out to take some pics as we pulled in.

I love seeing the color of the water! SOOOO pretty!

We got off the ship as soon as we could. I took a pic of the cute bathroom LOL - I thought it was funny how they put daughters and "suns"

And of COURSE I had to check out Cookie's Too BBQ

Then there was the adorable "sand bar"

I think Chase and I were the first customers of the day LOL - Chase ordered a strawberry Daiquiri. When I tried it there was a LOT of rum. I made a face and the bartender laughed and said to the other bartender "she just doesn't like rum" They were super nice and funny and I DO like rum.

Now we definitely didn't want to staaaaaaaaaaarrrrrve to death - so I ventured over to take some pics of the bbq. I may or may not have nibbled on a few things while I was over there

These spicy chicken sandwiches were my drug of choice on the cruise - OMG - I don't want to know how many I ate

These ribs were pretty good!

cute little corn on the cobs

snacks - chips/cookies, etc

choc chip cookes - oh yeah!

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Zach and Mariah had gotten off the ship before us and we had gotten separated. I wasn't sure where they were but I really wanted to see Zach since it was his birthday. I thought maybe they had headed to Serenity Bay so we headed over that way on the tram to check it out. When we got off the tram we ran into one of my favorites!

He was sooo nice - he saw me taking pics as he was walking up the path so he came up and posed. He also advised us all the rum was gone - he might have seen the same bartenders we did at the "sand bar"

Love me some Captain Jack!

Look who we found - the birthday boy and Mariah!

Even though Mariah has her eyes closed in this pic you can see a little more of Serenity Bay in it so I will add it in

We headed back over to the Family Beach after a bit to hang out with the girls - Piper and her BFF were having a good 'ole time in the water - the water was pretty much ice cold I thought!

Being off the ship didn't stop us from having an "ice cream social" in Andy's honor - they have soft serve ice cream and soda over by cookies BBQ that you can help yourself to

By now we were "starving" so we headed to Cookie's - I had a burger, some cole slaw, potato salad and grapes

Andy's plate

After we ate we realized that they were doing the crab races right near Cookie's BBQ so we stopped over to watch them - TOO CUTE!!!! Families had "adopted" a crab and were holding up signs and cheering for their crab - adorable

We went back over to sit in the sun and let the girls enjoy the water. We had rented tubes for the day - I think it was like $10 each Sorry these pics did not turn out good at all on the phone but it's all we had

Chase and Laine made an appearance from over on Serenity Bay

Then Zach showed up and they were doing a 2 for 1 drink special. You basically get 2 of the same drinks so when I ordered a drink and so did Andy (same one) we got 4. So if you only want one each just have one person order the drink.

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

I had signed Zach and Chase up to do the Jet Ski excursion so we headed over to the area where you meet up for that. Along the way I had to get a pic there:

You can see the little excursion desk in the background on the left - i wanted a pic of the boys with the ship in it

You can see the people from the last jet ski excursion heading back in the background

After a quick rundown on the jet skis they were ready to head off!

You can book a single or double rider

there they go

the excursion is 1 hr long. They were back right on time

They really enjoyed it! I saw this cute sign and took a pic

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Now I'm going to add in a whole bunch of pics that Zach, Chase, and Andy all took with the underwater camera as they were snorkeling. They boys snorkeled on Serenity Bay for a huge chunk of the day then Andy went out at the regular snorkeling area in the family area later on. I think it was around $18 to rent the snorkeling equipment and you are required to wear one of their yellow vests while you snorkel.

But wait - let them take a selfie

They saw this HUGE starfish - Zach took a pic of it with his hand so you can get a feel for the size of this beautiful starfish!

I have no idea what this thing is but yuck! LOL

 

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

If you are still with me I have a bunch more pics to post