June 12 Eastern Day 4- day

[musicgirl]

I'm getting really frustrated with trying to post. I've been trying to post in small parts and then editing and even replying to my own post. This is the second time I have gotten the message that I am not logged in. It won't even let me go back to copy and paste. errggg!

Cast: DH-41, ds-13 and myself, dw-40

I have 2 seperate threads already. I have "replied" to my own post so that each thread has 2-3 parts. So make sure to keep reading.

Day 4 St Martin

Dh and I can not believe how beautiful the water is and also that the weather has been perfect.

We are doing our excursions on our own so I'm a bit nervous. We took a taxi to Dawn beach to snorkel. We told them we wanted a round trip (port-beach-port) and set up a pick up time. The van was nice and our driver was very informative. It was $18 one way for the 3 of us. He did not have us pay on the first leg of the trip.

Dawn Beach was beautiful and was not crowded at all. We went here because we had heard this was a pretty good spot to snorkel. It was nice, but a little wavy!! We had arranged for the driver to pick us up in 90 min. He was very prompt and gave us dry towels to sit on.

This is where you need to remind the driver exactly where you are going. He took us into town and stopped. We thought that this was the way we had to go due to construction. We told him that we wanted to go to the ship, which he did. However, our rate should have been $36 but was $42! Oh well, I'm on vacation and I refuse to sweat the small stuff.

We had wanted to eat on board,shop and then go the Great Bay beach (right next to the ship) to enjoy the jet ski and the trampoline. We were pretty tired already, so we decided to skip the beach. We all got cleaned up and were ready to go.

We used the water taxi which was fast and convenient. We never had to wait for the boat to fill. We were the only ship at St. M. It was a great investment for $5 each. It took us right to Great Bay Beach! The beach looked awesome. It wasn't crowded. I kept thinking well maybe....

We went into shop for a bit. I was all ready to buy a ring with all my wealth of knowledge ( remember that is knowledge not money!) Well, all the wealth (knowledge and what money I had) went out the window. The first store we walked into, we bought.

We had gone into look at color changing shirts for dh and ds. It was combined with a jewelry store!! Such luck!! Where do you think I went!

I was looking for amethyst (A) or tanzanite (T). I found that most of the "gems" were huge everywhere we went! I wanted to make sure that the setting was low because I have a tendency to destroy rings on my right hand. At first when I looked at the price of the first A ring, I figured well I won't be buying a ring. Of course, this was not even close to the "magic price" on the calculator.

Well, he would throw in some T earrings. I'm not sure if there are really "chips" of T in them or not. He also was going to throw in a shirt for ds. Well, I really was not in love with this ring so I asked to see a T ring. The price was double.

Mistake #1, I should have said that I really wanted a T ring, but this was too expensive. Instead, I looked at another A ring which I ended up buying.

Oh well, I really like it. I don't ever want to have anyone examine it to see if I got a deal or not. In my mind, it was and it will stay that way.

Oops, spent all the cash and forgot a credit card. We looked in a few other stores then went back. I decided to take a look in the shops right by the ship. Lots of jewelry.

When I got back on board, ds was off to the stack. Dh and I decided to go back to shop. Again, the water taxi were quick and we were off to find the guavaberry coladas. We ran into our server Sammy and another family from the ship. We were then challenged to buy the ugliest shirt for tropical night. Now dh has a mission and I really get to look a lot!!!

I believe he won. It was a lime green tropical shirt with bright orange dolphins!!!

We found the guavaberry shop. We were given a shot of the liquor and then we each had a sample of the guavaberrycolada. Very tasty, we bought 1. We finished shopping for trinkets and then we went back to the ship. We found a little bar right next to the ship for another guavacolada.

Now I needed my pool and rainforest!

 

[musicgirl]

Day 5 St. Thomas

We were up and dressed by 6:30am because we got to go first due to the fact that we had an early excursion. This was easy, about 10 min. but go early. Of course ds was with us. This was nice because we saw alot of people that we had met. This was our proof that we really had a child!!! They did ask me a question, what was my maiden name. Now, it's not that I don't remember, but it caught me off guard.

We had a nice treat to look at, the Queen Mary 2 was docked in the bay. It is so big, it can not dock at any piers. They always have to tender.

We had plenty of time to eat and get our bag ready for the most awesome excursion, Capt. Nautica!!!!!

We met our guides who split us into 2 groups. Each of the boats hold 25, but there were only 17 and 19 on each this time. We had Morgan and Kevin. They were great. They explained all the safety stuff and we were off.

The speed boat ride was great in itself. It is fast and bumpy, but in a fun way. This is not for everyone however. We had some smaller children on board about 5-8. They loved it!!! They also provide noodles and floaties for those who are not very secure with the whole snorkeling idea.

We arrived at our first of 3 snorkel sites.

It was about a 20 min. ride to Buck Island for Turtle Cove. We were here for 1 hour. We were the first to arrive so the snorkeling and seeing turtles was incredible. After we got back on board, we were served drinks and fresh fruit.

The second stop was basically around the corner to Shipwreck Cove. It was pretty busy here. The BOBs were here. They are underwater jet ski with a scuba helmet. We only stayed here for about 20 min. Most people were pretty tired from the first hour.

We then sped about 20 min. to the smaller of the two St. James island. This was without a doubt the most beautiful snorkeling. We spent another hour here with only one other excursion boat of maybe 10 scuba divers. AMAZING!!!

Now, back to the ship! We were served drinks again and also shrimp. Another 20 min. of speeding and we were back to the port.

This was the highlight of our trip. Now, I don't want to berate any of the other excursions but I really want to compare for a moment. Most of the other excursions take you to 1 spot for 45-60min of snorkeling. We went to 3 spots and snorkeled for almost 2 1/2 hours. We saw the other excursions at Turtle cove and Shipwreck cove.

Morgan and Kevin were funny and knowledgeable. They will also change the itinerary based on weather, visibility and how crowded a spot is. So you might go to different places. This is a top notch excursion. If I were ever to go there again, I wouldn't even look at the other excursions available.

Again, we got cleaned up, ate and then to look in the shops at the mall right next to the ship. I really didn't want to go into town because it was already 2. Everyone says that if you want the best prices, go into town. We only bought trinkets here.

To the pool to relax!!!!

For dinner, our tablemates were all at Palo and the kids in the clubs. So it was just the 3 of us. Well, 2 of us. Some of ds's friends were eating at all together because their table had no one but the one child. It happened to be right next to our table, so ds just turned his seat around.

At first the server for that table was a little confused. But they did a great job with this energetic group of 5 teens. Samir and Orland were quite entertaining with them!!!

Tonight was 80's night. It didn't start until 11. We were so tired but we stayed. It was pretty fun. 2 of the guys in our group of pool groupies got chosen to participate. They were great on stage, unfortunately one of them got so into it that he jumped off of the stage and hurt his knee that he had previously had surgery oouch! This was the latest night until 2

My overall thoughts on the 2 ports. St. Thomas was definitely nicer than St. Martin. Some people were complaining about the condition of St. Martin. Personally, we had a great time at both and really tried to enjoy the beauty instead of seeing poverty or all the stores. This is how they live, I think we need to see this. It reminds me how lucky we are. On the other hand, it sure looked like a simple way to live. Who knows, maybe they are the lucky ones.

That is all for now!

Lorie

 

[Disneyfan37]

Hi!Thanks for sharing your trip with us.Great trip report!We are going on our First Disney Eastern Cruise in December.I know what I want when we get to St Maarten a guavacolada?Where did you find this at?I hope I am able to bring a bottle of it back home.I love the guava fruit whenever I can get it,so I can't wait to taste the drink!Thanks!

Maria

 

[musicgirl]

Maria, the Guavaberry shop is on Front street (the main street) If you take the water taxi, you will stop by the beach first. When you get off, walk straight to the street in front of you (Front street) Then take a right. Just keep going and you will find it. The nice thing is that once you get there and buy your guavaberry, you just keep going in the same direction for just a bit and you will be at the 2 stop of the water taxi. The water taxi only goes to 3 places. The beach, bobby's marina and then back to the ship.

If you just want a guavaberry colada, stop by the little outside bar with stools. They sell the drink, but not the bottles of liquor. It was just before the little shop of coconut carvings.

Lorie

 

[Disneyfan37]

Cool!I plan on going to both the shop and to the bar.I can't wait.It is hard for me to find guava made stuff here in FL.I already told dh I know where we are going when we get to St Maarten<G>.

The shop of coconut cravings sounds interesting.We will have to check that out too!

Thanks,
Maria

 

[Mom2Belle&PeterPan]

You guys did an outstanding job of choosing your excursions! Hey, I did not know about guavaberrycoladas, sound delicious! Next time, heh? Is your Kahlua Colada still your favorite drink?!

What will you be blending together this weekend as you enjoy your photos?!



Barbara

 

[musicgirl]

Well, I do favor Kahluacoladas with a kick, the guavacoladas have their own kick!

But, this week's feature will be the bucket drinks! I don't know how many of you have tried these, but they are buckets with the mixin's and you add the "kick". You then freeze them and have slushy drinks whenever you want, just scoop them out of the bucket with no mess (well that depends on how many scoops you've already had!)

The flavor this week will be Lemon drops with vodka.

Lorie

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

Was the ST.Thomas excursion through Disney or set up on your own???? Did it take you to St.Johns??? I am looking for something fun for DD and I to do on the Eastern when we go in October 05??? I really want to see St.Johns.....

Thanks for your report.

I try to note things in my travel folder so I don't forget all these great ideas....

 

[musicgirl]

BABYJ,

We did book the excursion through DCL. They go to different spots depending on the weather conditions, water conditions. I'm pretty sure they always start with Turtle Cove since this is the best place to see them.

They were so informative and nice, I really trusted their judgement of picking the best spots. I knew they were not in this just for the money of taking out then in. I really felt that they wanted to give us the best trip possible.

It was definitely the highlight of the cruise.

We did end up tipping them ($10) extra because they were so great!

Lorie