Aug. 21, 2004 Eastern Magic check in list

I have the following 19 DIS'ers e-mail addresses in my address book, if you would like your e-mail address removed from the 8-21-04 Cruise List could you please let me know. If you do not see your name here and would like to be added to the list, could you please let me know as well.

Thanks!!!


alicedisny
Colestat
Credit Man
dannyb
Denise5374
Disney3144
Disneycrazymom
Gayle17
goingbacksoon
jennyl772003
Lalapodip
luv2sail
Maleficent59
Marcotta
Max123
Mnmomof1
Quirky Cruiser
steverog
Verandah Man
 
Linda and I just got back from our anniversary cruise on the Celebrity Constellation. The cruise originated and ended in San Juan, and we got to spend some time there yesterday. Our last stop on the cruise was St. Thomas, where we had been before. We were looking at both islands w/ a view towards what to do when we returned there w/ the entire family this August.

I think that we go to St. Thomas - - right? Or is it St. Maarten? Well, if I'm wrong, pls disregard these ramblings.

In St. Thomas, we spent much of the day at Megan's Bay and then did some shopping. Cab rates to Megan's Bay were fixed at $6/pp plus an entry fee of $3 to go to the beach. You can go there on a ship's excursion, but it is much, much cheaper to do it on your own. Beach chair rentals were available for $6 plus a refundable deposit. You need to move the chairs yourself. There is a decent (although kind of slow) beachfront restaurant w/ decent burgers and pizza. On the pricey side. They also have a great bar that makes what I decided is the best tasting frozen drink on the planet - a Bushwhacker, which I understand is a famous St. Thomas drink. Mostly Bailey's Irish Cream w/ vodka or rum (they used vodka at this bar, but apparently use rum elsewhere), Khaluha, amaretto, brandy, pineapple juice, coconut milk, blended w/ ice. Ground nutmeg on top. Consistency of a milkshake, but no where near as sweet as a pina colada. Phenomenal!

Notwithstanding my focus on the bar, this is a GREAT beach to take small children to. Lots of trees for shade. The sand is great, and the water gets deep very gradually to allow safe play. Very little waves or undertow. In a word, perfect for young'ens. And very tranquil for mom and dad, too. Not a good place for snorkeling, though, although there were a few people out there doing it. Not much to see though.

Megan's Bay has gotten quite popular lately and can get very crowded. We were lucky, in that we were on the only ship in port that day - - and the Constellation is not as big as Disney Magic. There will probably be several ships in, and significantly larger crowds when we get there.

Many people took various excursions to St. Thomas, which is said to have even nicer beaches. Some feel that the amount of time in port does not justify the trip out there. We may very well decide to do something like that on our trip.

The shopping in St. Thomas is probably the best in the Caribbean, and it has the most liberal rules re what you are allowed per US Customs, too.

The picture in San Juan is not as happy. We had stopped there on a ship in 1996 but did not arrive until evening. So, there weren't many options other than checking out the shops in Old San Juan and going to a night spot for a few hours. As we'll be there in the daytime, that is not really going to be an option for us. Now, we arrived there in the late morning and immediately boarded the ship. Although could have explored San Juan that day (we didn't have to board until 10:30 pm), we decided to spend the afternoon on the ship rather than in port, largely because we did not have very many sea days on our itinerary, and we wanted to enjoy the ship.

Our return date was a different story. Our flight out was not until 6:00 pm. We decided to sign up for a ship excursion to El Yanque (pronounced Junkee) rainforest. It was a long coach trip during which the driver talked non-stop about how large their K-Mart was, how many Walgreen's and Subway's were on the island, etc. We spent 15 minutes at a tourist trap to use the restrooms and get drinks and snacks (when I would much rather explore some of the roadside stands where they fried fish over open wood fires - a local delicacy).

We then drove through the forest. We spent virutally the entire time in the bus and were allowed on "hike", which was really a 5 minute walk through a paved area of the forest. There were other longer, more interesting trails that beckoned to us, but no time was allowed, and the walk was not guided. There was a brand new visitor's center, but "that is not part of the tour." The forest was beautiful, but I think that I would much rather rent a car or hire a driver to take us there so that we could do it at our own pace and speed. When we go back, we will either do just that, or maybe just arrange a day pass at a local hotel and spend the day at the beach. We are not yet decided.

It figures - - we have been on 6 cruises and have never booked a ship excrusion, always chosing to hire a driver at port or make arrangements in advance directly with vendors after researching it myself. We have never been disappointed doing that, but we really did not like this excursion.

Our port was not right in Old San Juan - - remember, this was a port used for embarkation and disembarkation, so they used a more remote location w/ a full terminal facility. I understand that some cruise ships just stopping by may use the port and then utilize shuttles to take you to Old San Juan. I don't know how much Old San Juan has changed since we were there 8 years ago, but I recall that there is much of historic interest and some decent shopping besides. The Bacardi tour gets high marks, too.

Andy, you had asked about the horseriding excursion. I did not have a chance to find out anything about it. There is a great site w/ info on cruises in general and specific info on ports - - www.cruisecritic.com I highly recommend it to everyone interested in researching what to do while in port.

Anyway, Linda and I had a great cruise -- this was to celebrate our 15th anniversary (we're married 17 years last week, actually, and we were supposed to go a couple of years ago but had to put this trip off - - a long story). We tell everyone that Celebrity is our favorite cruise line when we go by ourselves, but when the entire family is along, we love Disney!

Five months from today!! Wow!

Dan
 
Thanks for the report, Danny! sounds like you had a great time.

Mary, I sent you a PM regarding Rachel.
 
We were also on the August 16th cruise last year, and will be on the August 21st this year. It will be our 3rd 7 day August cruise in a row. We're hopelessly addictied. We joined DVC last year, and am considereing a quick trip to WDW in May for Member Homecoming. Will be traveling alone with a 12 yo and 13 yo. ~Jennifer
 

Originally posted by jweiss
We were also on the August 16th cruise last year, and will be on the August 21st this year. It will be our 3rd 7 day August cruise in a row. We're hopelessly addictied. We joined DVC last year, and am considereing a quick trip to WDW in May for Member Homecoming. Will be traveling alone with a 12 yo and 13 yo. ~Jennifer


Welcome Aboard to the San Juan Sojourners 8-21-04 cruise Jennifer. If you would like to be added to our cruise list all you need to do is send me your information and I will add you and your kids. We also have a photo gallery on the cruise list page, so if you want to e-mail me a photo, I can include that as well. If you haven't already done so, you can see who else is already on our cruise list by going to www.verandahman.com and looking down the left hand column, click on the 8-21-04 Cruise List.

Hey all you San Juna Sojourners, we have a new family to welcome to our cruise.
 
Welcome aboard, Jennifer. Glad to have your family sailing with us!
 
Our family is really excited to be going back on the Magic on the Aug. 21 cruise. We made our reservation a couple of months ago, but wanted to get the rest of our plans in place before posting on this board - airline vouchers, hotel points, etc.

We are the Duncan family: Al (44), Linda (41), Emily (11) and Alexander (8).

We live in South Jersey near Philadelphia.

This will be our 6th Disney Cruise. Al and I have taken two without the kids (for our anniversary) and the rest have been the whole family. We've done two 3-day, two 7-day Eastern and one 7-day Western. The DIS boards have helped us get so much more out of our trips!

We will fly in on the 20th and are staying at the Courtyard in Cocoa Beach. We're doing one-way car rentals with Budget. Right now, we are booked on a Cat. 10 GTY. We have usually done a Cat. 11 - one time tried a Cat. 6, but the 11's have been just fine for us... The only apprehension we have is not being able to select our cabin location. We usually try to stay mid-ship on Deck 6.

Our kids, daughter especially, have made some great friends on the cruise and still email back and forth.

We're looking forward to the different itinerary. Anyone know when San Juan excursions will be released?

After the cruise we're spending one night at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and will try to park-hop to see everything we can that's new before we have to fly home Sunday night.

Looking forward to getting to know everyone.

Linda
 
Welcome aboard, Linda! So glad your family will be joining us!!
 
Welcome to the San Juan Sojourners Cruise Linda and Family. We must be neighbors, we live in South Jersey, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia International Airport. We look forward to you and your family joining our group. If you would like to be added to the 8-21-04 cruise list and photo gallery, just let me know. You can check out the cruise list on my website www.verandahman.com and click on the 8-21-04 Cruise List in the left column of my homepage.
 
Linda and family,

Welcome tot eh San Juan Sojourners!!! Looking forward to meeting you!

Our kids are almost the same age, my DD Brittany is 11 and my DS Collin is 7(he turns 8 on 8/29). My DS does not have email yet but if your daughter would be interested in another email buddy, PM me and I will give you her email address.

We live in a suburb north of Philadelphia (in Montgomery County) so we are neigbors!
:wave2:
 
I just booked the AutoTrain for our trip to Florida! After Brittany learned that you guys were going she gave us her blessing to go that way so we are BOOKED!!!

YAY!! all the plans are falling into place...I cannot wait for August to get here!!!!

Now, if only I can get to the NJ DISmeet.......it falls right at the end of little league season so I will have to wait and see what the schedules look like and if wither of our teams will be in the playoffs.....:goodvibes
 
Great news, Denise! Kristin will be excited to hear that.
 
Yiippee!!!!

Pretty soon we will be doing the Double Digit dance!!!:jumping1:
 
Goodness! Gone for a few weeks and lots of families to welcome! Welcome to DuncanLL, Maryisme, and JWeiss (I hope I didn't miss anyone)! JWeiss, I see you were on last year's 8/16 cruise - so were we! Did you ever make it to any of the DIS meets?

I hope you all have a great NJ pre-cruise meet! Take lots of photos to share with the rest of us (I guess I really don't need to post this since I know Andy will be there with BOTH of his digital cameras!). :wave2:

-Sarah
 
Hello My Fellow San Juan Sojourners,

I received a phone call the other day and my family has been invited to spend the week leading up to our August cruise at a two bedroom condo in the Orlando area. This is a gift from a fellow DIS'er, and we have been very touched by their extremely kind offer. So now, I'm not sure if we will be at the Radisson on Friday night (8-20) or not, since we will have the condo up until the Saturday morning we leave for our cruise. So, if I don't get to meet some of you at the Radisson that Friday night, I will be looking forward to meeting you at the DCL Terminal or on the ship.

The cruise is getting closer with each passing day!!!

Andy
 
That sounds wonderful. Your vacation plans just get better and better.

Andy thanks so much for the magnet and card. I love it!!!

Gayle
 
Sounds great, Andy! Looks like a perfect example of "Pay it Forward". Nice things do happen to nice people.
 
Sounds like a great way to spend the week leading up to a MAGICal cruise! Have a great time!!

Are you going to wear your Captains Hat in the terminal so we can find you??
 
Originally posted by denise5374
Sounds like a great way to spend the week leading up to a MAGICal cruise! Have a great time!!

Are you going to wear your Captains Hat in the terminal so we can find you??


My Captain's Hat was sent to Nate Page (Verandah Boy) back in the fall. I will probably have my lime green Verandah Man DISboards t-shirt on. Just look for the "giant lime" walking around the terminal, LOL!!!
 

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