Magic Christmas Cruise 2010 (Dec 18th - 29th) - PART II

[Liz Arjay]

This looks like a great tour and at $40, the price sounds right! We may be interested (4 adults, 3 kids).

Does anyone know the rough taxi far from the St. Maarten cruise dock to Orient Beach? Is it charged per person (like in St. Thomas) or 1 set rate for however many people in the taxi? Is there a name for the North part of the beach that is "family friendly" (less/no nudity)? Where does the DCL excursion go? Are there plenty of taxis at Orient Beach to get you back to the Magic whenever you are done?

 

[momssurprise]

Liz,

My Passporter says Philipsburg (port) to Orient Beach is $15 - that's a base fare for 2 people, each addl person is abt 1/3 the base fare. Sounds a lot cheaper than DCL sponsored. I don't know how much the chairs are to rent.

I am thinking about doing it this way, tho I'm reserved on the DCL trip to Orient Bay right now. The highest ranked St. Maarten tour in the Passporter is the Twelve Metre Regatta.

HTH.

 

[momssurprise]

One other thing -- Passporter has a note about St. Maarten traffic and the fact that it gets worse every year. The DH of this travel writing team's family has had a place in St. Maartin for over 30 year. They seem to recomment Great Bay Beach in Philipsburg. Close to the ship, clean beach, good food and drink and close to shopping. Hmmm....

 

[discruiser]

Another choice is to do a non Disney sponsored excursion. We are currently planning on using Bernards tours in St. Maarten. It has a lot of positive reviews on cruisecritic, but we haven't booked quite yet. If we can get enough people interested in similar things, we could also go with a private tour through Bernards. We are hoping to change the public tour around a little bit to make sure we are at Maho beach for the larger planes landing in the afternoon. Cost is much cheaper than most of the Disney excursions and you get to see a little bit more of the actual island.

http://www.bernardstours.com/interest.htm

The tour will consist of the following stops.

Great Bay overlooking Phillipsburg and harbor.
Cayhill overlooking Simpson Bay marina.
Sunset Beach bar ( Maho Beach ) where you can see the planes land right over your head.
Marigot - open market (French Capital).
Hilltop at Orient Bay overlooking the beach.
Swim at Orient Beach for up to two hours, as time allows.
Return to Philipsburg will be between 1:30 and 2:00, depending on factors.

Note: Shopping at the Rima's store will be for 20 minutes if time allows.
Note: Each scenic stop will be between 5 to 10 minutes.
Note: The Marigot open market will be a 30 minute stop.
Note: Upon your return to Philipsburg, you will be offered a direct return to the ship at the Cruise Facility, or you may choose to remain in Philipsburg for shopping and return to the ship on your own.

If anyone else is interested, please post or PM me.

Thanks
Ed, DW, DD11

We are currently booked on this tour. We did the same tour with Bernard last November, on the Thanksgiving cruise. For the price, it really can't be beat. We are also doing a non-DCL excursion in Barbados. Because my youngest will be 4, I found our options with Disney somewhat limited.

Kim

 

[momssurprise]

For some reason I can't figure out how to search our thread and on Google I only found infor for St. Maarten; but someone listed what other ships were at our ports on our port days. Help?

 

[BigHugsForEeyore]

.

 

[momssurprise]

I seemd to have overlooked the "search this thread" button ... and I see Caryn found that we are all alone except for in St. Maarten.

Has anyone toured the volcano in Guadeloupe? It sounds cool but there doesn't seem to be a DCL sponsored tour.

 

[Almagetty]

Kevnbren!!

For St. Martin beaches, we really like Divi's Little Bay ... one beach over from Great Bay ... a short taxi drive from the ship ... never crowded.

 

[miatamel]

We are currently booked on this tour. We did the same tour with Bernard last November, on the Thanksgiving cruise. For the price, it really can't be beat. We are also doing a non-DCL excursion in Barbados. Because my youngest will be 4, I found our options with Disney somewhat limited.

Kim

If you don't mind me asking, what non-DCL Barbados excursion are you doing? I'm still searching for things as my youngest will be just turned 7.

 

[discruiser]

If you don't mind me asking, what non-DCL Barbados excursion are you doing? I'm still searching for things as my youngest will be just turned 7.

Not at all. We are doing the Best of Barbados Tour with the Glass Bottom Boat through Glory Tours. It's a little pricey at $117/adult and $68/child, but it is a 6-7 hour tour and includes stops at Harrisons Cave, the Wild Life Reserve, East Coast (with a lunch stop) and 1.5 hours Glass Bottom Cruise, Swim with Turtles & Snorkel at the shipwreck. My kids are 12.5, 10.5, 6 and 4, and I really wanted a tour that included the sea turtles, but my 4 year old was too young for DCL's tour. I think this tour will let us see a little bit of everything on the island.

Kim

 

[kevnbren]

Welcome! We also have DS16 and Ds15. Do yours like to play basketball on Deck 10? We are from Central FL, but I've heard nothing but great things about Fort Worth.

Yes, they like basketball. We love Central Florida, too.

 

[Cruisin'Nick]

Hey Nick:

We looked at this one and it didn't impress DH too much. What did you like about it. Sadly, all the stuff we wanted to do on St. Maarten was already booked up, sigh.

Hey Dagny,

Sorry it took so long to answer, been busy at work. Thing we loved most about it was we were able to swim interspersed (sp?) with the fish no matter where we went in the little bay where they took us. It's also an area where there's a beach, so if you need to get up on shore and rest or just relax with a drink, you can. We're there for an hour and a half, able to do whatever we want.

 

[StJohnfamily]

...and just because I think he has such mad skillz, this is what my hottie German carpenter husband built for the girls. Designed and built completely by him. Cedar, all bent by his invention, and completely handmade. We put it in a Christmas parade.

What an amazing talent. It is beautiful!! Love all your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[StJohnfamily]

One other thing -- Passporter has a note about St. Maarten traffic and the fact that it gets worse every year. The DH of this travel writing team's family has had a place in St. Maartin for over 30 year. They seem to recomment Great Bay Beach in Philipsburg. Close to the ship, clean beach, good food and drink and close to shopping. Hmmm....

The traffic in St. Maarten is horrendous. We were there last February and it took atleast 45 minutes to get about 5 miles. We went over to Coki Beach. It took even longer to get back to the ship, so we ended up getting out of the taxi and walking back.

 

[VMinick]

Last Christmas there was alot of construction going on everywhere .. Should be fun to see. Im sure they need a much bigger building to hold everyone getting on board the bigger ships..

We were on the Wonder from the 7th-10th, and there's still lots of construction. The CM's at the port told us that the terminal and the parking garage will not be completed until January!

 

[pennymike]

Liz,

My Passporter says Philipsburg (port) to Orient Beach is $15 - that's a base fare for 2 people, each addl person is abt 1/3 the base fare. Sounds a lot cheaper than DCL sponsored. I don't know how much the chairs are to rent.

I am thinking about doing it this way, tho I'm reserved on the DCL trip to Orient Bay right now. The highest ranked St. Maarten tour in the Passporter is the Twelve Metre Regatta.

HTH.

DH and I did the 12 Metre Regatta last Xmas cruise. HIGHLY recommend it! Had a great time, "Captain Morgan" was great! (Yes....really his name!) Too much fun!

 

[STLUCIELADY]

We just booked this cruise today! We are me, dh, dd 17, ds16, ds15. Will be in 2 rooms. We are from Fort Worth, TX. Anyone else from this area going? Would love to meet beforehand.

Welcome aboard Kev! Glad to see more families with teens. We're from So Florida and my kids are dd27, ds18, dd15. My son loves basketball and hangs on deck 10 alot. I hope one of your boys is a basketball lover.

 

[Dagny]

Another choice is to do a non Disney sponsored excursion. We are currently planning on using Bernards tours in St. Maarten. It has a lot of positive reviews on cruisecritic, but we haven't booked quite yet. If we can get enough people interested in similar things, we could also go with a private tour through Bernards. We are hoping to change the public tour around a little bit to make sure we are at Maho beach for the larger planes landing in the afternoon. Cost is much cheaper than most of the Disney excursions and you get to see a little bit more of the actual island.

http://www.bernardstours.com/interest.htm

The tour will consist of the following stops.

Great Bay overlooking Phillipsburg and harbor.
Cayhill overlooking Simpson Bay marina.
Sunset Beach bar ( Maho Beach ) where you can see the planes land right over your head.
Marigot - open market (French Capital).
Hilltop at Orient Bay overlooking the beach.
Swim at Orient Beach for up to two hours, as time allows.
Return to Philipsburg will be between 1:30 and 2:00, depending on factors.

Note: Shopping at the Rima's store will be for 20 minutes if time allows.
Note: Each scenic stop will be between 5 to 10 minutes.
Note: The Marigot open market will be a 30 minute stop.
Note: Upon your return to Philipsburg, you will be offered a direct return to the ship at the Cruise Facility, or you may choose to remain in Philipsburg for shopping and return to the ship on your own.

If anyone else is interested, please post or PM me.

Thanks
Ed, DW, DD11

We would also be interested in this as well

 

[Dagny]

Are you taking any kids? What ages?

Yes, I have two kids. My daughteri s 19 and my son is 11

 

[Dagny]

Welcome! We also have DS16 and Ds15. Do yours like to play basketball on Deck 10? We are from Central FL, but I've heard nothing but great things about Fort Worth.

Liz:

My son is only 11 but he will spend a majority if his time on Deck 10 He has met sooo many great kids up there, even some that he talks to via text weekly