Mandymouse's '5 Days to book a holiday !! .... You Must Be Kidding' Report

[dolphingirl47]

Sounds like you had a great day over all. We did a tour with Bernard's Tours in 2010 and loved it. Like you, we did not really rate Marigot, but loved Maho Beach, where we went in the morning (there is nothing quite like swimming in the sea with planes flying directly overhead) and Dawn Beach, where we stopped in the afternoon. Other than those, we just had a number of photo stops. I even liked the rum punch.

Corinna

 

[Cruisin]

Great trip report Mandy.

Wonderful pictures as usual.

Thanks for taking the time to share your vacation with us

 

[DISWolves]

Maybe next time, you could go straight to Maho Beach?
Did you see any 'Jet Surfers'? i have seen a few YouTube videos where people hang on to the fence in full blast of jets taking off

 

[mandymouse]

The mini golf looks like fun. I am coming around to the idea that there may be elements on the new ships that I would enjoy.

The Polenta and Portobello Mushroom starter at Palo is probably my favourite dish on the ships.

Corinna

Corinna, I wasn't overly impressed with the Dream last year, but we had only been on it 3 nights, whereas I absolutely love the Fantasy, give it a go, I think you'll like it too

What a fab day, wish I was there, love your dress, I am not quite sure where you put all of that food you are eating...not fair!

Thanks Andrea, I think that's my favourite dress, Paul bought it for me from Coast. LOL, I can clearly see where all the food went now .. back on the diet I thinks

What a great day Mandy. Were you bothered a lot by people smoking on the verandahs? We have booked a verandah for the first time for our cruise on the Fantasy next year and I am really worried that we won't get to enjoy it because of smokers

Love your Palo dress You look like you have caught the sun a bit.

We've never been bothered by smokers when we have had a verandah.

To be honest the smoking didn't bother me that much as we weren't in our stateroom that much, the people in the next room tended to be out there during the day, I could never understand why they spent so much time in their room, especially as they had a couple of kids

It wouldn't put me off from having a verandah again, though to me having any kind of room on deck 5/6 or above comes before having a verandah

Mandy, Mandy, Mandy...I think I'm drunk just reading your trippie! I absolutely love your reports, and I did wonder where you were on FB for a couple of weeks! The F1 was on and not a Mandy in sight

As I say, I so enjoy reading about your adventures, you always pack tons of things in for us to drool over and keep dreaming! Looking forward to reading more...

Thanks Rachel

Another lovely day, the food looks lovely

Thank you

Just caught up....

Mandy, you really do wear some beautiful dresses & I love the cool designs on your nails.

High tea looked fab, very yummy.

What's in a Bahama Mama? Sounds good...

Martini tasting looks fun, they look so colourful

lovely update xx

Thank you, a Bahama Mama is a rum based cocktail, and it's delish

Mandy, your latest instalment has brought back some lovely memories of our day in St Maarten. We absolutely loved our tour with Bernard's - while i can appreciate what you're saying about the bits you weren't that bothered about, I thought it was a great way to see a lot of the island. And Maho beach was just amazing.

Interested to see what you did at St Thomas.

Sounds like you had a great day over all. We did a tour with Bernard's Tours in 2010 and loved it. Like you, we did not really rate Marigot, but loved Maho Beach, where we went in the morning (there is nothing quite like swimming in the sea with planes flying directly overhead) and Dawn Beach, where we stopped in the afternoon. Other than those, we just had a number of photo stops. I even liked the rum punch.

Corinna

Maybe next time, you could go straight to Maho Beach?
Did you see any 'Jet Surfers'? i have seen a few YouTube videos where people hang on to the fence in full blast of jets taking off

Thanks for your comments guys. I'm really glad we did the tour. We knew we'd enjoy Maho Beach, and next time we will definitely take a taxi there, it's so cool to see the planes coming in that low

No we didn't see any 'jet surfers', we did hear about a girl who had been blown off the fence two weeks prior to our visit and she had broken both her legs

Great trip report Mandy.

Wonderful pictures as usual.

Thanks for taking the time to share your vacation with us

Thanks Robin

 

[tony64]

Hi Mandy

St. Maarten was our fav day of the cruise, we did have sunshine all the time we were on the beach so that can make a big difference to how you feel about it.

Bernard was our driver and we really enjoyed his company.

 

[mandymouse]

Hi Mandy

St. Maarten was our fav day of the cruise, we did have sunshine all the time we were on the beach so that can make a big difference to how you feel about it.

Bernard was our driver and we really enjoyed his company.

Hey Tony, do you think you'd do the tour again, or would you just go to Orient or Maho Beach by taxi ?

 

[squitty]

We loved our time at Maho Beach too.. the beach was empty when we were there.

On the WBTA we didn't bother with tours, a bunch of DISers hired a car and drove ourselves. We could spend as much or as little time as we liked.

 

[irongirlof12]

Wow, love it all, what a fab day, love the picci of your relaxing on the sun lounger your look so relaxed and happy. Pirate night is such a blast nice to see you donned the attire for the event

 

[jjk]

what a lovely day Mandy, St Marteen looks lovely its on our list to do Kieran is desparate to see the planes landing.

 

[jockey]

Mandy another great day, some lovely pics

 

[Whisky In A VAse]

Brilliant Mandy, bringing back great memories from our cruise last year.... Great stuff...

 

[mandymouse]

Wednesday 9th May

I woke around 7am, and we had already docked at St. Thomas. It was a lovely morning, so I sat out on the verandah to read the Navigator and catch up with my trip report on Paul's iPad (I really need to be getting myself one of these)

We popped up to deck 11 for Paul to get some brekkie, and I went to get a skinny latte from the Cove Cafe

Once we were done we disembarked. Our first stop was the Skyline Ride. We paid $21 dollars each and took the cable car up the mountain.

Now the last time we were here there was a power cut at the top, so I was unable to sample their famous Bushwaker (Bailey's based) cocktail. Thankfully this time at 10am the DJ was in full swing and the Bushwaker's were on the go too, so I had one and Paul had a Heineken.

We chatted to the girls on-line, took photos and had another round of drinks too. We stayed a couple of hours, then descended the mountain in the cable car

We headed back to the ship, but I had to call into the Señor Frogs shop for a shot glass for Kerry, and then it seemed rude not to pop in . We both ordered a Señor Frog yard cocktail and I ordered some fish & chips, and Paul had a turkey club sandwich and fries. When the food hadn't come after half an hour, our waitress apologised and sent us over some chips and salsa (not that we were bothered, we were having too much fun soaking up the atmosphere)

Our food arrived (which was very nice), and we had some balloons plonked on our heads. We joined in with knocking back jelly shots (I think they saw us coming lol), and we had another cocktail yard. We spent a fun couple of hours here, then staggered the short distance back to the ship around 2.30pm

We sat on the verandah for a while enjoying our sparkling vino that we received earlier in the week

Paul then had a kip and snored on the bed for the next hour while I continued with my trip report, then as he looked so settled I annoyed him till he woke up and we went up on top deck for an hour (sorry but he looked far too chilled for me lol)

While on top deck I ran into Jen (who was a little tipsy ) and Scott, who had just returned from an excursion. They joined us, so we found some comfy chairs and we sat chatting, laughing and drinking as the sun set. We really didn't want to move, but with less than an hour till dinner, we all left to get showered and changed (though at the time of writing this, I wasn't actually sure if Jen made it to dinner lol *later we found out that she did*)

Dinner tonight was back in the Enchanted Garden. To start I had a polenta dish, followed by New York strip and I finished off with Tiramisu. Paul started with salmon and had the New York strip too, and he finished with lemon cheesecake, it was all nice.

After dinner I changed out of my new (but now rather tight dress) into something not so fitted lol, and we had a drink at The Tube where Stewart made me another fab Cosmo, we watched the game show, then called it a night

Cont'd ...

 

[mandymouse]

...

During the night, Paul had one of his wanders around a quiet ship

 

[mandymouse]

...

 

[DISWolves]

Another good day.
We did Senor Frogs in Nassau for the first time last year....looks like we will revisit again next year.......a great atmosphere!
I particuarly like the piccy of you and Paul at the table with the ship in the distance (top of the mountain)

 

[florida sun]

Just caught up Mand, fabulous trip report so far, Im loving all your dresses. Pauls photos of the empty ship are fabulous. Cant wait for more

 

[ukintheus]

While on top deck I ran into Jen (who was a little tipsy ) and Scott, who had just returned from an excursion. They joined us, so we found some comfy chairs and we sat chatting, laughing and drinking as the sun set. We really didn't want to move, but with less than an hour till dinner, we all left to get showered and changed (though at the time of writing this, I wasn't actually sure if Jen made it to dinner lol *later we found out that she did*)

Was I tipsy? I wouldn't remember!! Beware the excursions with the free-flowing rum punch! I am very glad that you set the record straight that I did in fact make it to dinner after showering, washing and drying my hair I might add, which is all rather impressive I think...considering...LOL

Great trip report so far and some great pics.

 

[Linda67]

Thanks so much for this wonderful TR
I was on the Fantasy right after you on the May 19th Western and your photos are taking me right back
I don't think I have ever had the post holiday blues so bad in my life
The Fantasy is AMAZING !!!!!

 

[mandymouse]

Was I tipsy? I wouldn't remember!! Beware the excursions with the free-flowing rum punch! I am very glad that you set the record straight that I did in fact make it to dinner after showering, washing and drying my hair I might add, which is all rather impressive I think...considering...LOL

Great trip report so far and some great pics.

LOL, tipsy was an understatement How the heck you got showered etc. and made it to dinner was beyond me Wish we were on deck 13 having Leo running around after us right now, we had a fun few hours didn't we ?

 

[mandymouse]

Thursday 10th May

I didn't sleep well and just about saw every hour in from 3am.

Today was a day at sea. We got up around 8ish, got into our swimwear and headed up to deck 13, and I picked up a skinny latte from the Cove Cafe on the way

We stayed out till about 10am, then went back to our stateroom to get showered and ready for our 11am Brunch at Palo

We were 10 minutes early, but we were shown to our table, and as the room where the buffet was set up was quiet, Laszlo showed us around the tables of pizzas, cheeses, breads, seafood, meats, egg dishes, lunch dishes and desserts

Laszlo went to get us some Mimosas and glasses of water, and we chose our first plate of goodies. Next we chose our egg dishes, eggs julia for Paul, and eggs florentine for me

For our lunch part of the meal we both chose the Chicken dish and ordered another Mimosa each

We were full to bursting, but we couldn't miss out the dessert table, so Tiramisu's and Panna Cotta's were chosen and Paul had a pot of tea too

Cont'd ...