February 28, 2009 Bushwacker Banditos Magical Cruise

[ejkjmom]

Got some really good advice on St. Croix yesterday, via Sue Ellen, our travel agent at Dreams Unlimited. Will post soon.

Mark

WE will be waiting

 

[vanessa3198]

Too funny you guys! TP for my bunghole...hahahaha

Well... seems like the antibiotics are working... I don't feel like total crap anymore...woo hoo! Imagine...for 4 days I wasn't even excited for our cruise!?!?!

Not excited...for the cruise...wha.....??

Not only were you sick, I think you went a little insane there, friend!

Got some really good advice on St. Croix yesterday, via Sue Ellen, our travel agent at Dreams Unlimited. Will post soon.

But for the time being, I am posting to whine that it is 16 degrees and I am going to walk Prince, the German Shepherd.

Are we leave yet? ARE WE??

Mark

Patiently waiting Mark!
Can't wait to find out what ya heard!

WE ARE GOING ON ANOTHER CRUISE! The group my DH works in has a program that you can get nominated for doing an outstanding job and there is a committee that looks at all the nominations and picks a winner. Well this year DH was the winner and the prize is a cruise! Its a 4 day on I believe Carnival. He brought home a poster to tell us which is probably how they told him and on the poster is a big ship with the red and blue fin which I believe is Carnival right? End of April and goes to Naussa and I can't remember the other place, he thinks its their private island. So YAY! We get a free trip and DH doesn't even have to take vacation time! This one will be kid free so we can have even more fun! I'm so excited!

Then with the bounce back offer we should be getting I planned on looking into that, so I could be going on 3 cruises in 2009!

Free cruise??!? FREE=GOOD!
SCORE!!!!!
Congrats!!

 

[Johnna_Story]

I'll take the liberty of posting the info from our travel agent re: St. Croix. Mark probably won't be back on this thread until tomorrow at least.

In the meantime, I've sent an email to the Carambola Beach Resort to see if they provide any day passes and how much they cost. When I hear back from them, I'll let you know.

Have a great day everyone!

From Sue Ellen at Dreams Unlimited:

Also, I wanted to give you some info on St. Croix. We went on the 1/3 sailing and you MUST, MUST, MUST make sure to leave the port area to explore the island. The Fredricksted area is not a pretty area. You should make sure to at least travel over to the Christiansted area of the island. We ate at Rum Runners, and had a wonderful lunch overlooking the water. It was very nice.

Don't judge St. Croix by the port area…make sure to venture out. We wanted to visit the Cruzan rum factory, but the day we were there was 3 Kings Day and a holiday so the factory was closed.

I think you will find the island to be really quite neat.​

You definitely have to travel to the other side of the island though (because the port area just isn’t anything you are going to want to explore.

I do have to say it was kind of nice to be at an island that wasn’t so overrun with commercialism as so many of the other ports are. It is very different than other ports, but the island is the largest of the virgin islands. Because they don’t get ships into port as frequently as other islands it is quite different.

It certainly wasn’t my favorite stop of any I have done, but it was nice to see something different. There is also a nice hotel/resort over by Christiansted as well, which is a neat place to visit.

The restaurant Rum Runners where we ate was very good. I had a lobster salad, which was about $13, and it had more lobster on it than ordering a lobster dinner some places. I think it had the equivalent of 4 lobster tails on it!​

 

[DMMarla07860]

I'm pretty sure we are doing the Christiansted Walking Tour in St. Croix

 

[jbuckent]

Thanks for posting that Johnna! We were hoping to stay in F'std since we never know when our youngest will have a melt down and it would be real easy to get back to the boat. Now I'm not sure, we might have to make a trip to C'std. So much to think about!

 

[Dave and Micha]

Got some really good advice on St. Croix yesterday, via Sue Ellen, our travel agent at Dreams Unlimited. Will post soon.

But for the time being, I am posting to whine that it is 16 degrees and I am going to walk Prince, the German Shepherd.

Are we leave yet? ARE WE??

Mark

OOOOOO... please share, please share... cuz we have no idea what to do there and would consider almost anything

 

[Dave and Micha]

I spoke too soon... there it is.

We've written Carambola twice from our travel agency email address and still haven't gotten a reply. I may call them. We have also been trying to get info from tour operators, but no one seems to have email, and those that do never write back. Not encouraging Maan.

 

[aan1701]

Good to know about St. Croix. Still, and this is just my thing, I would write back to the TA and ask them why tell me about having lunch off he ship when I have pre paid food on the ship. Like I said that is just me. But my first rule is no eating in port, we always eat on the ship, it helps to save a little money. I may be the only person here who feels sorry for the people who won a free cruise on Carnival. If I was in there shoes I would have turned it down. I have taken two trips with them and I would rather lose vital parts of my body than ever go on their ships again. Free or not I would not be going. (Can you tell I have had really bad experiances with them). Well I hope you can have dome fun and congratulations.

 

[Dave and Micha]

Vital organs are over rated. Every ship and line has good days and bad and I don't mind giving free a go. I just copied my Cruise Critic signature and could probably say something good and bad about everyone of those cruises. What I learned is that its what you take from it so have a blast!

Dave (67 cruises)
Glory (1) Galaxy (1)
Premier's Majestic (2) Atlantic (3) Oceanic (1)
Dolphin IV (3) Seabreeze (1) Royal Majesty (1)
Brittanis (2) Regent Rainbow (2)
Nordic Empress (3) Splendour of the Seas (2) Soveriegn of the Seas (1)
Enchanted Isle (1) Crown Jewel (1)
Pacific Princess (1) Grand Princess (1)
Costa Victoria (1) Costa Romantica (1) Costa Fortuna (1)
Lirica (1) Marco Polo (3)
Staatendam (1) Prinsendam (1) Westerdam (1) New Amsterdam (1)
Norwegian Crown (1) Seaward (1) Windward (2)
Paradise (1) Elation (1) Mardi Gras (2) Carnivale (2) Imagination (2) Pride (1)
Sensation (2) Tropicale (2) Celebration (1) Fantasy (4) Ecstasy (3)
Monarch of the Seas(1), Ryndam(1), Century(1), Mariner of the Seas(1)

 

[aan1701]

And Dave like I said, it is just me. To say I hate Carnival cruises is a understaement. Good to know you would take a free cruise with them, I would not. Still I wish the winner all the fun in the world.

 

[3Charbys]

Holy Snap!!!
Dave you are the cruise KING!! Look at all those ships you have been on! What a lucky guy and how awesome!!

We are wondering about the cost of those Carombola (sp?) day passes too so whenever someone has something to share that would be great!

Jennifer, I think the free cruise is an awesome opportunity! Enjoy the time on board and just know that it is one less day in the humdrum of home... you are on paid vacaton with your sweetheartt and Wahoo!!! It was a freebie!!!

I got this in an email today... laughed so hard so I thought I would share...

You are on the bus when you suddenly realize ... You need to fart.
The music is really loud, so you time your farts with the beat. After
a couple of songs, you start to feel better as you approach your stop.
As you are leaving the bus, people are really staring you down, and
that's when you realize, you have been listening to your ipod.

 

[ChocoKat]

Man... I wish I could check the forums from work!
I think I'll need this thread on novel format, I might finish it by the time we get on board

Just checking in to say hi . Work is keeping both DH and I very busy, but I can't wait to finally board. Just a bit over a month!!!

I still need to do some shopping for ship apparel and try to get all the essentials in place. I am on call at work 24/7 until the cruise, so that's proving to be a bit difficult.

I have been planning on taking my wiifit onboard with me to keep me from eating WAY too much. Do you think I will be able to connect it to the cabin's TV?

DH keeps telling me not to expect anything incredible from St Croix, but I can't help but being excited to go anyhow. Maybe he says it because he is from the island?

Anyway, I am sure we'll all have a blast!

 

[ChocoKat]

ROFL I nearly choked on my soda with that joke,

Holy Snap!!!
Dave you are the cruise KING!! Look at all those ships you have been on! What a lucky guy and how awesome!!

We are wondering about the cost of those Carombola (sp?) day passes too so whenever someone has something to share that would be great!

Jennifer, I think the free cruise is an awesome opportunity! Enjoy the time on board and just know that it is one less day in the humdrum of home... you are on paid vacaton with your sweetheartt and Wahoo!!! It was a freebie!!!

I got this in an email today... laughed so hard so I thought I would share...

You are on the bus when you suddenly realize ... You need to fart.
The music is really loud, so you time your farts with the beat. After
a couple of songs, you start to feel better as you approach your stop.
As you are leaving the bus, people are really staring you down, and
that's when you realize, you have been listening to your ipod.

 

[ejkjmom]

I got this in an email today... laughed so hard so I thought I would share...

You are on the bus when you suddenly realize ... You need to fart.
The music is really loud, so you time your farts with the beat. After
a couple of songs, you start to feel better as you approach your stop.
As you are leaving the bus, people are really staring you down, and
that's when you realize, you have been listening to your ipod.

 

[Dave and Micha]

May I share a sage piece of advice that a very good friend taught me years ago?


Never trust a fart



It can ruin a good pair of undies.

That said, Carambola replied (I wrote them with my travel agent jacket on) and referred us to Disney's excursion. That being said, if they didn't offer travel agency owners or airliners any kind of day pass or rebate I don't expect they will send you anything different about the day passes. That also being said, I did some research into transportation on the island and regular taxis do not generally use the meters and charge flat rates from place to place. If you consider that you will most likely pay $20/$25 cab fare to and from Carambola plus the seperate fee for lunch/drinks (muy expensivo) and a day pass, you are almost up there with the Disney charge.

We're gonna go keep looking.

 

[3Charbys]

Thanks for the info Dave! Sounds like it might be the safe route for us to consider the trip via Disney... we are not gonna nickel and dime ourselves!

We will wait abit though and see what the next wave of Disers have to say about their St Croix experiences... but I do know Lauren would enjoy the beach and that is our goal to get her on the beach as much as we can.

Touring islands and learning history would not be that thrilling to our 4 yr old!! LOL That can wait until she is older.

Have a super day everyone!!! Off to a meeting about the Kindergarten enrollment for the fall....

 

[jbuckent]

Touring islands and learning history would not be that thrilling to our 4 yr old!! LOL That can wait until she is older.

Have a super day everyone!!! Off to a meeting about the Kindergarten enrollment for the fall....

I didn't realize you had a 4 year old too. We have been busy visiting and thinking about kindergarten as well.

 

[3Charbys]

Hi Jennifer,
Yes Lauren was 4 on Sept 11th!

This thread has some pictures posted of St Croix if anyone is interested!

Wanda

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2055051&page=2

 

[Johnna_Story]

Thanks for the info/advice Dave. I wonder if Carambola just doesn't care since they are in management transition mode and it's easier for them to just refer to the cruise excursion? Anyway - I won't hold my breath for a response.

I am actually trying to figure out if I can start packing yet. Oh wait - perhaps I should focus on getting all the Christmas decorations away first. Seriously - they are 80% away; just the villages are left.

And I'm trying to get post-cruise parties planned and out of the way. Our annual St. Patrick's Day bash will be the Saturday after we return; and then DD's birthday is two weeks after that (at Build-a-Bear).

So I need to get my ducks in a row before we leave. (supposed to be ducks in a row - cut me some slack folks)

I need a wife.

 

[ejkjmom]

I got this in an email today... laughed so hard so I thought I would share...

You are on the bus when you suddenly realize ... You need to fart.
The music is really loud, so you time your farts with the beat. After
a couple of songs, you start to feel better as you approach your stop.
As you are leaving the bus, people are really staring you down, and
that's when you realize, you have been listening to your ipod.

Cute!!!!