It's Over 4/17 Eastern-Days 2,3,4,5

[maminnie]

Days at Sea

The first day at sea was really tough. It was so windy that very few people even ventured up to deck 10 so deck 9 was really crowded. The kids DD6 and DS10 loved the camps and spent most of day there. My husband and I tried to enjoy the adult pool but the winds were really bad and the temps were a bit cool when the sun went behind the clouds.

The second day at sea the winds subsided enough for people to go up to deck 10 but it was still quite windy. We enjoyed the day by the adult pool and the kids pool later in the day. The kids and family pools really got crowded and we were so glad to be able to retreat to the adult area when the kids were in camp.

St. Maarten

We went to Anguilla for the Dolphin Encounter. We had been to Anguilla on our honeymoon (13 years ago) and were thrilled to go back. The ferry ride was 45 minutes and the bus ride about 15-20. We did not get back to the Magic until around 4:00pm. The Dolphin Fantaseas is on Meads Bay Beach which is beautiful. We went to the beach for one and a half hours and then had lunch. We then did the encounter with the Dolphins and Stingrays in the afternoon. The dolphins and stingrays are in a man-made habitat overlooking the Caribbean. Really a sight. My kids loved the dolphins and stingrays. You actually get right in with them. The dolphins swim around you, wave to you, jump, kiss, etc. You get to touch and pet them. It was really a great experience in an absolutely beautiful place. If anyone would like more info, please just let me know.

St. Thomas

We went on the St. John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel. Unfortunately the sun did not come out all day. The ferry ride was choppy and 45 minutes. The coastline of St. Thomas is really pretty. The ride to the beach from Cruz Bay only took about 10-15 minutes as our driver drove really fast; too fast for me. He stopped at overlooks to look at other beaches/bays but only for a very brief time and I mean brief. Trunk Bay Beach is beautiful but is rather small and narrow. It is surrounded by vegetation. It is not a long, walking beach but rather a cove/bay beach. It looks just like the pictures in brochures; there even was a sailboat anchored off in the distance like in the pictures I've seen. We joked that it was put there each day. My husband has been to Africa and said it reminded him of the beaches there. The beach did get crowded but the kids had lots of fun with other kids in the water. The water was crystal clear and greenish-blue. We did not snorkel. It looked like those that did had a good time and saw some sealife. There was snorkelling trail. We were at the beach for one hour and forty-five minutes. We were back to the Magic by 1:15pm.

We are glad we went to St. John but must admit that we will likely not go there on a vacation which was always one of our goals. We are glad to say we have been only if it was for a few hours.

We had the APL rotation and our servers were excellent. The food was very good throughout the week although I thought it was best at the beginning of the week. Maybe I just got tired of eating toward the end of the week??

The shows were great. We enjoyed them all. My kids saw Hercules on the Wonder but enjoyed seeing it again very much. In general, I do think the quality of singing was better on the Wonder 4 night in April of '02.

Will write more later.

 

[staylor]

Was your dolphin encounter in St. Marteen booked w/ DCL? How deep was the water? Was your 6 year old tall enough?
Thanks for the great reports.
Staci

 

[maminnie]

Staci:

Yes the encounter was booked through DCL and was when the boat was docked in St. Maarten. Dolphin Fantaseas is on the island of Anguilla which was a 45 minute ferry ride from the St. Maarten dock.

My six year old daughter and 10 year old son enjoyed it immensely; one of the highlights of the cruise. The stingray pool is about 5 feet. My DD had a life jacket on and could only look through her mask at the stingrays as they stay close to the bottom. She is a good swimmer but chose to just look not touch!
My son, husband and I had fun diving down and trying to touch them. By the time our group of five went they were full and we could not use bait to get them to come near us so we had to swim after them. They are very fast!

The dolphin pool is deep and we all had on life jackets even the trainer. There are three dolphins; Cobi the baby born in Dec. '02, Alla the mother, and Al (he might be the father but they do not know as there was another male present at the time). We had Cobi for our group. My kids loved him. He was a great entertainer and a real kid at heart. He would perform and play with us and then swim off after his mother. He would come back with his mother swimming with him and they would both swim around us. It was a great experience in a beautiful place.

If you are thinking about this excursion be sure to call the first minute of the first day as if fills up quickly. A young girl was in our group of five and her mother accidently overslept the morning you could book the excursion and by the time she called later that morning it was booked. I think someone cancelled so her daughter ended up being able to do it. There was no room for the parents or the brother so they went as observers which is also offered by DCL.

You can also go to DolphinFantaseas.com to get more info and pictures of the facility and the dolphins.

Hope this helps.

 

[Luv2Dream]

I can't believe we were on the same excursion and didn't even know it. We were also on the beach first in the morning and then we had "Al" for our dolphin. Gosh, I wish I knew you were with us as I would have tried to seek you out to meet you.