onetothenuts
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8
Day 4, Tuesday, March 29, St. Marteen
Up early, my son set his alarm to go off as we passed thru the straits, so I got up and turned off his alarm and proceeded to stay up, all I saw at the straits was three lights. Very little action around ship at 4:00 am, some vacuuming in the main lobby, what was interesting was the pool, it was pretty messy, leftover clothes, towels and garbage from last night, by 8:00 it was all gone. Watched the sun attempt to come up as we approached the harbor at Philipsburg. Just as we landed at port it started to rain. Our plan was to go to the French Riviera Rendezvous beach trip, at Orient Beach. We meet at rocking bar d at 9:15 and proceeded from there to the bus depot to board. Our guide Maya was very informative, being a local for over 40 years. We arrived at the beach and got our alcoholic or non alcoholic drink, and were brought over to the section of beach for us. We arrived around 10 am, we each got a chair but when you show up there are umbrellas already there, if you want to keep them it is 3 bucks. The beach is known for is French style, clothing optional, my wife and eldest son saw a few topless ladies the entire time. The beach itself was great, the surf was working, but even the little kids were alright with it. Rental of skim boards or boogie boards for 10 bucks each. Well worth the fun if you know what you are doing. On the return trip you can get off at downtown to shop or back to the depot by the port. Water taxis are at the port 4 bucks one way 6 bucks return or unlimited.
My eldest son and I went back into town and saw the sights on Front Street, which is not much different than other Caribbean ports, other than the French architecture style. We had to visit Planet Paradise, owned and operated by Nick Maley. He is known as the Yoda Guy, because he was instrumental in the design of that and many other characters in the movie field. He used to have his art place on Antigua but now has his art and memorabilia here. Back on the ship it started to rain, and rain pretty hard for quite some time. 4;30 to 5;30. We avoided going to the show tonight, Mars Needs Moms, many people we heard were not to keen on watching a movie in place of a show. Instead we spent the evening getting pictures taken with Captain Jack and stitch and wandering the shops. Dinner was at the Animators Palate again, this time pirate in the Caribbean theme. Our whole family was dressed for it, as were a good percentage of others. Once again we were the last people to leave dinner, at 10:05, 20 minutes after the show started, didn't matter to the kids, they went and played basketball. We stood around trying to look over shoulders until the fireworks, which were shot from the aft stack, towards the starboard side. Several other ships were nearby, we wonder if they were just trying to get a free show.
Day 5, Wednesday, March 30, St Thomas.
Up early to not see sunrise, very cloudy start to the port, which was Crown Bay port, not the Charlotte Amelia port. We ate again at the Topsiders Buffett. The excursion started rather flatly, we met at Rockin Bar D at 9:15 and exited about 10 minutes later, we waited at the port Until 9:45 to get in our buses. We had been to St Thomas and Magens Bay in the past and the path taken by the driver was pretty crazy. We stopped at the overlook down onto Magens bay. We saw our only iguana at the overlook, none at the beach. We arrived at the beach about 10:10 and were told that we would be picked up starting at 1:45 and were directed that we had chairs set up for us, which we did not expect. The beach was as we knew it would be, beautiful. However it was busy, very busy and expensive. A cheeseburger is $9.75. We enjoyed the cooler waters and calm waters. After a while it was obvious that our son was uncomfortable with his sunburn so I investigated taking a taxi back to the port, 9 buck a person for the wife and son, my other son and I went to downtown to shop, our fare was 4 a piece. Shopping in downtown was disappointing, I was unable to find what I was looking for, we did eat at the Tavern on the Sea, which was very good. My son had a BBQ cheese burger and I had a southwest chicken wrap, a little expensive but we are on vacation. The taxi back to the port was 4 bucks each. After getting on board we visited our blistered son and we decided planning for the rest of the night, St Thomas is an early exit port, 4;00. Mom and I went to the pool as our son slept back in the room. Later when I went to get drinks I found the band playing at the pool with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy, which seemed like fun for the kids that were there, my other son was around there somewhere. The show tonight which we did not attend was John Charles. We wandered into Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer, kinda cute. Dinner at Parrot Cay, Island Night, larger portions and good food. Our servers are great, we got out at 10 exactly, still almost last. The Kids went to the pool to try and pick up girls. We went late to see Freddy Fusion, very funny. Afterwards we went to pool to watch the end of Bedtime Stories and watch kids. Amazing the gaggles of kids that are wandering the top 2 decks after 10 pm until midnight.
Day 6, Thursday, March 31, at sea
Late sleep in, Topsiders for breakfast, the more time I eat the less I like the food, except for the second visit this morning, great omelets. There has been problems that we have heard about happening, a smell has been present several times during the trip, a sewer smell, including in the spa. It was very obvious last night outside parrot cay. There have been reports from people about the temperature in their room being uncontrollable. Yesterday it seemed that the ship was much cooler than any other day. We spent some time swimming this morning, followed by at trip to the movies to see Mars Needs Moms, which we did not watch two nights ago as the main show. I am very glad that we did not attend this that night, it was a bit of a disappointing movie to me, the effects were some of the most lackluster 3d I have seen, the story was alright, my 10 year old wasn't very keen on it. In addition I am sure now that movie crowds on this ship are definitely the noisiest.
Sat in on the Lee Unkrich q and a, very interesting, he did bring his Oscar with him. Afterwards I Spent the afternoon at the adult pool including the adult pool games, participate if you want a free drink. Tonight's show was Dreams, about a girl trying to dream and Peter pan visiting, my wife I enjoyed it, my 10 year old was not at all interested. Dinner was at Lumieres tonight, semi formal. As usual food was great. I actually took pictures of every menu that we saw during the trip if anyone is interested. After dinner the kids were going to attend a pool party and the adults, well we kinda hopped from one place to another. We had some real good conversations with some of the cast and crew while in Beat Street. We got some real insight into what it is like for these employees as they live on the ship. The highlight of the night is the Dessert Buffet set up in Lumieres.
Up early, my son set his alarm to go off as we passed thru the straits, so I got up and turned off his alarm and proceeded to stay up, all I saw at the straits was three lights. Very little action around ship at 4:00 am, some vacuuming in the main lobby, what was interesting was the pool, it was pretty messy, leftover clothes, towels and garbage from last night, by 8:00 it was all gone. Watched the sun attempt to come up as we approached the harbor at Philipsburg. Just as we landed at port it started to rain. Our plan was to go to the French Riviera Rendezvous beach trip, at Orient Beach. We meet at rocking bar d at 9:15 and proceeded from there to the bus depot to board. Our guide Maya was very informative, being a local for over 40 years. We arrived at the beach and got our alcoholic or non alcoholic drink, and were brought over to the section of beach for us. We arrived around 10 am, we each got a chair but when you show up there are umbrellas already there, if you want to keep them it is 3 bucks. The beach is known for is French style, clothing optional, my wife and eldest son saw a few topless ladies the entire time. The beach itself was great, the surf was working, but even the little kids were alright with it. Rental of skim boards or boogie boards for 10 bucks each. Well worth the fun if you know what you are doing. On the return trip you can get off at downtown to shop or back to the depot by the port. Water taxis are at the port 4 bucks one way 6 bucks return or unlimited.
My eldest son and I went back into town and saw the sights on Front Street, which is not much different than other Caribbean ports, other than the French architecture style. We had to visit Planet Paradise, owned and operated by Nick Maley. He is known as the Yoda Guy, because he was instrumental in the design of that and many other characters in the movie field. He used to have his art place on Antigua but now has his art and memorabilia here. Back on the ship it started to rain, and rain pretty hard for quite some time. 4;30 to 5;30. We avoided going to the show tonight, Mars Needs Moms, many people we heard were not to keen on watching a movie in place of a show. Instead we spent the evening getting pictures taken with Captain Jack and stitch and wandering the shops. Dinner was at the Animators Palate again, this time pirate in the Caribbean theme. Our whole family was dressed for it, as were a good percentage of others. Once again we were the last people to leave dinner, at 10:05, 20 minutes after the show started, didn't matter to the kids, they went and played basketball. We stood around trying to look over shoulders until the fireworks, which were shot from the aft stack, towards the starboard side. Several other ships were nearby, we wonder if they were just trying to get a free show.
Day 5, Wednesday, March 30, St Thomas.
Up early to not see sunrise, very cloudy start to the port, which was Crown Bay port, not the Charlotte Amelia port. We ate again at the Topsiders Buffett. The excursion started rather flatly, we met at Rockin Bar D at 9:15 and exited about 10 minutes later, we waited at the port Until 9:45 to get in our buses. We had been to St Thomas and Magens Bay in the past and the path taken by the driver was pretty crazy. We stopped at the overlook down onto Magens bay. We saw our only iguana at the overlook, none at the beach. We arrived at the beach about 10:10 and were told that we would be picked up starting at 1:45 and were directed that we had chairs set up for us, which we did not expect. The beach was as we knew it would be, beautiful. However it was busy, very busy and expensive. A cheeseburger is $9.75. We enjoyed the cooler waters and calm waters. After a while it was obvious that our son was uncomfortable with his sunburn so I investigated taking a taxi back to the port, 9 buck a person for the wife and son, my other son and I went to downtown to shop, our fare was 4 a piece. Shopping in downtown was disappointing, I was unable to find what I was looking for, we did eat at the Tavern on the Sea, which was very good. My son had a BBQ cheese burger and I had a southwest chicken wrap, a little expensive but we are on vacation. The taxi back to the port was 4 bucks each. After getting on board we visited our blistered son and we decided planning for the rest of the night, St Thomas is an early exit port, 4;00. Mom and I went to the pool as our son slept back in the room. Later when I went to get drinks I found the band playing at the pool with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy, which seemed like fun for the kids that were there, my other son was around there somewhere. The show tonight which we did not attend was John Charles. We wandered into Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer, kinda cute. Dinner at Parrot Cay, Island Night, larger portions and good food. Our servers are great, we got out at 10 exactly, still almost last. The Kids went to the pool to try and pick up girls. We went late to see Freddy Fusion, very funny. Afterwards we went to pool to watch the end of Bedtime Stories and watch kids. Amazing the gaggles of kids that are wandering the top 2 decks after 10 pm until midnight.
Day 6, Thursday, March 31, at sea
Late sleep in, Topsiders for breakfast, the more time I eat the less I like the food, except for the second visit this morning, great omelets. There has been problems that we have heard about happening, a smell has been present several times during the trip, a sewer smell, including in the spa. It was very obvious last night outside parrot cay. There have been reports from people about the temperature in their room being uncontrollable. Yesterday it seemed that the ship was much cooler than any other day. We spent some time swimming this morning, followed by at trip to the movies to see Mars Needs Moms, which we did not watch two nights ago as the main show. I am very glad that we did not attend this that night, it was a bit of a disappointing movie to me, the effects were some of the most lackluster 3d I have seen, the story was alright, my 10 year old wasn't very keen on it. In addition I am sure now that movie crowds on this ship are definitely the noisiest.
Sat in on the Lee Unkrich q and a, very interesting, he did bring his Oscar with him. Afterwards I Spent the afternoon at the adult pool including the adult pool games, participate if you want a free drink. Tonight's show was Dreams, about a girl trying to dream and Peter pan visiting, my wife I enjoyed it, my 10 year old was not at all interested. Dinner was at Lumieres tonight, semi formal. As usual food was great. I actually took pictures of every menu that we saw during the trip if anyone is interested. After dinner the kids were going to attend a pool party and the adults, well we kinda hopped from one place to another. We had some real good conversations with some of the cast and crew while in Beat Street. We got some real insight into what it is like for these employees as they live on the ship. The highlight of the night is the Dessert Buffet set up in Lumieres.
