PoohJen
<font color=green>Willing to share a Mickey Bar?<b
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2004
- Messages
- 3,045
The Cast: me, DH 41, DS 12, DSs 7&7; first time cruisers
TIP: The clock jumps ahead an hour the night before St. Maarten!
Having learned that, we changed our 7 am excursion to the 1pm outing! In the meantime, we ordered our REAS breakfast in bed. Although room service is free and available 24/7, the breakfast menu is continental. If you order a Romantic Escape at Sea (REAS) package, you can order from a special breakfast menu one morning. It was lovely sipping my mimosa on the verandah in the sunny St. Maarten morning. We order an omelet, eggs benedict, bacon, ham and pancakes for the kids. A relaxing start to the day.
It was fairly quiet up on the deck at the Mickey and Goofy pools. There were no adult/family activities scheduled until 2 (save for informal shuffleboard), which was fine as the twins just wanted to soak in the family pool hot tub. Note: the Club and Lab did have activities scheduled all day. DS 12 checked out the Lab and hooked up with some friends. He met up with us at noon for lunch before we readied for our excursion.
We had booked the Golden Eagle Catamaran snorkelling excursion. After lunch on Deck 9, we hurried to our cabin to get ready, and I noticed our phone message light was on. The message was left earlier that morning, telling us that our excursion was cancelled due to rough waters during the monring excursion. Phooey. Guest services suggested some alternative excursions, but they didn't suit our needs.
But, you know what? We never missed a beat. I had learned so much on these boards that I came up with Plan B in a matter of seconds. We packed up our beach bags and head off the ship for the water taxi and Great Bay Beach. St. Maartens was "empty" as we were the only ship in port. The kids loved the water taxi ($5 all day ticket; free for under 12), which dropped us right at the beach (so weird: the taxi was playing reggae Christmas carols! All week, even with the MAgic decked out for Christmas, it was far too tropical to get into a holiday mood!).
As we walked onto the beach, we were immediately approached by the hawkers. It seemed that they had sectioned the beach off every 25 feet or so, with their own swimming areas and chair/umbrella sections. We said "no thanks" for the first 3 or 4 hawkers, as I was looking to see if any of my DisFriends were around. Once at the water trampoline, we decided on a deal. Typically, they start out like this: $5/kid for the water tramp, $10 for two lounge chairs and umbrella; $40 for 1/2 on a jet ski. They agreed to give us all the above (including 3 kids on the trampoline) for the $40.
We had a wonderful afternoon! Sunny, warm enough to swim, but not hot. I took each of the kids out on the waver runner (which was a great quality; very fast and in good repair) for a turn. They loved the water trampoline but NOTE: TIP: the water trampolines are not for non-swimmers. Although close to the shore line, the ground dropped quickly, and so the water was deep. there was little for the children to hang on to, and they were really exhausting themselves with all the jumping, climbing and swimming. You need to keep a close eye on your children when they are playing on the water trampoline.
Lots of vendors trolled the beach. A woman was selling long brightly colored scarves/sarongs/??? I thought a nice blue one would go with my sleeveless sundress, keeping me a bit warmer in the air conditioned dining room. She said $10, I said $5 (she looked VERY annoyed at this). Finally settled on $7. She was back in 10 minutes, forgetting I had just purchased from her!
The vendors were selling mostly those scarves and also beach towels and tropical shirts. There were quite alot of them, especially since the beach wasn't overly crowded. So we spent alot of time saying "no thank you".
Back to the ship in time for our early seating. Tonite was Pirates In the Caribbean night!!! We wore our tropical/pirate-like garb. Everyone got a pirate bandana at dinner, which the wait staff deftly tied on to you. The wait staff looked great in their costumes. We were in Parrot Cay tonite, which added to the festive, tropical atmosphere. The menus were rolled like treasure maps. I recall I had a scrumptious appetizer of coconut crusted banana in an orange glaze with fresh pineapple. Mmmm. The whole dinner was festive; everyone got into it and had a grand time.
After dinner we headed to see The Incredibles. One of the twins went to the Club, as he didn't want to go (he gets frightened easily in the movie theater). I had read the movie was intense, so I didn't push him.
The INcredibles was fun. I found it humorous, no-big-deal, but the rest of my family loved it! And what fun to see it on the ship! (back at sea, we were swaying again!)
which reminds me... TIP: As the ship was rocking all week, I continued to take bonine (since I'm prone to motion sickness). I'm please to report I never had a sea sickness problem all week!
Okay, time to pick up DS, who was eager to hear about the movie. But the night wasn't over yet! It was time for the Pirates In the Caribbean Deck Party! Again, very festive, an upbeat crowd. Mickey and friends dropped in, all decked out in their pirate best. DH took one tired twin back to the room while I took the other to peruse the Pirate buffet. We managed to make room for one more dessert before heading to bed. (DS 12 was out and about after the movie, given a midnite curfew). Tonite's towel animal was a monkey, with a gold chocolate coin placed as an eye-patch. Too cute!
It was quite a sun-filled and fun-filled day!
Click here for Day 5 report - St. Thomas!
TIP: The clock jumps ahead an hour the night before St. Maarten!Having learned that, we changed our 7 am excursion to the 1pm outing! In the meantime, we ordered our REAS breakfast in bed. Although room service is free and available 24/7, the breakfast menu is continental. If you order a Romantic Escape at Sea (REAS) package, you can order from a special breakfast menu one morning. It was lovely sipping my mimosa on the verandah in the sunny St. Maarten morning. We order an omelet, eggs benedict, bacon, ham and pancakes for the kids. A relaxing start to the day.
It was fairly quiet up on the deck at the Mickey and Goofy pools. There were no adult/family activities scheduled until 2 (save for informal shuffleboard), which was fine as the twins just wanted to soak in the family pool hot tub. Note: the Club and Lab did have activities scheduled all day. DS 12 checked out the Lab and hooked up with some friends. He met up with us at noon for lunch before we readied for our excursion.
We had booked the Golden Eagle Catamaran snorkelling excursion. After lunch on Deck 9, we hurried to our cabin to get ready, and I noticed our phone message light was on. The message was left earlier that morning, telling us that our excursion was cancelled due to rough waters during the monring excursion. Phooey. Guest services suggested some alternative excursions, but they didn't suit our needs.
But, you know what? We never missed a beat. I had learned so much on these boards that I came up with Plan B in a matter of seconds. We packed up our beach bags and head off the ship for the water taxi and Great Bay Beach. St. Maartens was "empty" as we were the only ship in port. The kids loved the water taxi ($5 all day ticket; free for under 12), which dropped us right at the beach (so weird: the taxi was playing reggae Christmas carols! All week, even with the MAgic decked out for Christmas, it was far too tropical to get into a holiday mood!).
As we walked onto the beach, we were immediately approached by the hawkers. It seemed that they had sectioned the beach off every 25 feet or so, with their own swimming areas and chair/umbrella sections. We said "no thanks" for the first 3 or 4 hawkers, as I was looking to see if any of my DisFriends were around. Once at the water trampoline, we decided on a deal. Typically, they start out like this: $5/kid for the water tramp, $10 for two lounge chairs and umbrella; $40 for 1/2 on a jet ski. They agreed to give us all the above (including 3 kids on the trampoline) for the $40.
We had a wonderful afternoon! Sunny, warm enough to swim, but not hot. I took each of the kids out on the waver runner (which was a great quality; very fast and in good repair) for a turn. They loved the water trampoline but NOTE:
TIP: the water trampolines are not for non-swimmers. Although close to the shore line, the ground dropped quickly, and so the water was deep. there was little for the children to hang on to, and they were really exhausting themselves with all the jumping, climbing and swimming. You need to keep a close eye on your children when they are playing on the water trampoline.Lots of vendors trolled the beach. A woman was selling long brightly colored scarves/sarongs/??? I thought a nice blue one would go with my sleeveless sundress, keeping me a bit warmer in the air conditioned dining room. She said $10, I said $5 (she looked VERY annoyed at this). Finally settled on $7. She was back in 10 minutes, forgetting I had just purchased from her!
The vendors were selling mostly those scarves and also beach towels and tropical shirts. There were quite alot of them, especially since the beach wasn't overly crowded. So we spent alot of time saying "no thank you".
Back to the ship in time for our early seating. Tonite was Pirates In the Caribbean night!!! We wore our tropical/pirate-like garb. Everyone got a pirate bandana at dinner, which the wait staff deftly tied on to you. The wait staff looked great in their costumes. We were in Parrot Cay tonite, which added to the festive, tropical atmosphere. The menus were rolled like treasure maps. I recall I had a scrumptious appetizer of coconut crusted banana in an orange glaze with fresh pineapple. Mmmm. The whole dinner was festive; everyone got into it and had a grand time.
After dinner we headed to see The Incredibles. One of the twins went to the Club, as he didn't want to go (he gets frightened easily in the movie theater). I had read the movie was intense, so I didn't push him.
The INcredibles was fun. I found it humorous, no-big-deal, but the rest of my family loved it! And what fun to see it on the ship! (back at sea, we were swaying again!)
which reminds me...
TIP: As the ship was rocking all week, I continued to take bonine (since I'm prone to motion sickness). I'm please to report I never had a sea sickness problem all week!Okay, time to pick up DS, who was eager to hear about the movie. But the night wasn't over yet! It was time for the Pirates In the Caribbean Deck Party! Again, very festive, an upbeat crowd. Mickey and friends dropped in, all decked out in their pirate best. DH took one tired twin back to the room while I took the other to peruse the Pirate buffet. We managed to make room for one more dessert before heading to bed. (DS 12 was out and about after the movie, given a midnite curfew). Tonite's towel animal was a monkey, with a gold chocolate coin placed as an eye-patch. Too cute!
It was quite a sun-filled and fun-filled day!
Click here for Day 5 report - St. Thomas!
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