March 27, 2010 - Spring Break with Mickey on the Magic!

[Maryrn11168]

I had to email him but there is a link through his website:
http://www.bernardstours.com/

I think there is a reservation form you can complete -- it wouldn't work for me - so I filled out the form and then copied/pasted the form in an email to him. You pay when you get there - so you don't have to worry about a deposit now. I am very excited -- I can't wait!!!

Here is the link and if you are interested in joining the rest of us, let pkmingo know. SHe is handling the list and talking with the tour people.

 

[elkesails]

All those activities in St. Thomas sound great for my family, too. I'm wondering if there's enough time to do them all?

There should be enough time to take in Coral World with a little beach time,lunch and still do the tram. A word of caution, traffic can be bad. The safest plan would be to head over to Coral World early and do the tram at the end of the day since it is walking distance from the ship. Also keep in mind that the ships in port that day carry 15,000 passengers plus crew. It will be busy.

 

[Pattiwig]

We are doing a DCL excursion on St. Thomas. After seeing that there are several other ships in port that day, and about the traffic nightmares, I feel safer knowing the DCL ship will wait for their own excursions. The time in porti in St. Thomas is also not as long as St. Martin.

 

[BishopFamily]

Same thinking here. We are doing the DCL coralworld excursion in st. thomas. We are signed up with DCL half-day beach break on st maarten, but i will cancel when we get signed up for Bernards. It sounds like Bernards does goes to the beach like the DCL excursion plus other stops (for about the same cost).

 

[pkmingo]

For the Bernards Tour group, I checked into adding more beach time since some had shown interest in that. He said that since our all ashore is 7:45am, if we could meet up with him by 8am or 8:15am at the latest - he would allow us 3 hours of beach time at Orient Beach. Other stops would remain same. The airport stop (Maho) to see the planes on the beach is in the am so it would be small planes only to come at that time. He said if seeing the big planes were a big deal, he would have to reverse the tour and shorten our am beach time because of traffic. He also wanted to remind everyone that while he will drop us off at the "other" end of the beach, sometimes a stray nudist walks the beach. He said if we wanted a beach like Le Galion or Grand Case which are more "kid friendly", he would take us there instead but he says that Orient is the Best for sure. Topless bathing is allowed at all beaches on the island so you never know where you might run into that.
Anyway, just wanted to pass the info along and if everyone does want more beach time, we can set our excursion to start then. Maybe we can pick a place to meet up on the ship at 7:45am like the DCL tours do, and then go ashore to meet him by 8 or 8:15am. At least we don't lose an hour of sleep because time will have already changed by then! Let me know what your thoughts and preferences are!
Carol

 

[Maryrn11168]

We are fine with whatever!! More beach, less beach, big planes, small planes, doesn't matter...we are in the Caribbean!!!!

Have had the Travel Channel on in the background all day...DCL& Disney!!! Nothing new but very cool!

I spent a good part of my day getting my magnets ready to print. I have so many great graphics I don't know which ones to do!!! Also worked on the FE's. I am planning on mailing them to the ship so I want to get them done in the next week or so, to leave time for shipping. We did that on our last cruise and it was great. We had another family join us and my friend is not very into the computer and not on the boards. So I signed them up for the FE, bought them one as a gift and did the gifts for both of us. I loved doing it, no complaints from me...the DH on the other hand...If he had to lug FE's x2 on a huge exchange in the luggage, he would have been....not happy, I will leave it at that!!

3 more weeks!!! (from tomorrow)

 

[JeffAmyCole]

I have been told that seeing the huge planes land there is incredible and there is a beach too! I checked and the biggest planes land between 1pm and 3pm.

20 days till we leave for Florida!!!! We are so excited!!!

 

[Maryrn11168]

I was just sitting here talking to my husband, going over the cruise plans, explaining Bernard's tour and I mentioned that there were kids around the same ages as ours, so they should have kids to play with. That got me to thinking about a DIS meet. I would love to introduce them earlier then Tuesday so they could have friends for the at sea days.

Anybody interested in a DIS meet?? They did one on our last cruise but we missed it. Any ideas???

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

Carol,

We're great with getting an earlier start on the tour - we can always catch a nap on the beach! I'd also kinda like to see the big planes land. If it's not too much trouble, could you ask Bernard to give us a possible itinerary where we start the tour earlier and go to Maho Beach when the big planes come in? That would probably help the group decide what we want to do. Thanks again for organizing this for us!

Dany

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

I was just sitting here talking to my husband, going over the cruise plans, explaining Bernard's tour and I mentioned that there were kids around the same ages as ours, so they should have kids to play with. That got me to thinking about a DIS meet. I would love to introduce them earlier then Tuesday so they could have friends for the at sea days.

Anybody interested in a DIS meet?? They did one on our last cruise but we missed it. Any ideas???

Last DCL cruise our group tried to do it on Deck 10 at the Sailaway Party - not a good idea, way too crowded. At the cruise terminal is tough because people arrive at all different times. From what I've read, a lot of DIS groups meet in the Promonade Lounge on sailaway day, at about 3 pm.

 

[pkmingo]

When I spoke w/ Bernard he said that if we wanted to see the 'big planes' we would pretty much reverse the tour (he says think circle tour of island). So we would start still with some sightseeing on the way, then hit Orient Beach approx. 10:30am, then Marigot, then the Airport (Maho) and then back to town for some shopping. He said that we would only be able to stay at the beach for 2 hours if we do it this way (even if we start at 8am) because traffic getting back from the airport would be much heavier that time of day. So what it really comes down to is big planes or more beach time. Let me know what everyone would like to do. Thanks! Carol

 

[ybcart7]

When I spoke w/ Bernard he said that if we wanted to see the 'big planes' we would pretty much reverse the tour (he says think circle tour of island). So we would start still with some sightseeing on the way, then hit Orient Beach approx. 10:30am, then Marigot, then the Airport (Maho) and then back to town for some shopping. He said that we would only be able to stay at the beach for 2 hours if we do it this way (even if we start at 8am) because traffic getting back from the airport would be much heavier that time of day. So what it really comes down to is big planes or more beach time. Let me know what everyone would like to do. Thanks! Carol

We are fine with anything. Whatever the majority of people want to do is fine with us. Thanks again for planning this!!

 

[Cdaub]

Carol - Thank you so much for putting this together!

We too are interested in seeing the big planes if possible.
This is going to be such a fun day with all of us on this tour! I know my son is excited that there are other kids on it too for him to hang out and play with.

 

[ybcart7]

We would love to do a dismeet -- that's a very good idea...let me know the time and place. Wonder if the travel agent can schedule it for us? We booked through Dreams - I can check and see if they can get one scheduled for us? Does anyone know if they can do that?

 

[elkesails]

Just a quick note on St Thomas. I have been thinking about opting out of my DCL excursion as I am not really pleased with the timing. I called Air Force One Tours yesterday and they are completely sold out on our port day. Not entirely surprised as there are 5 ships and 15,000 passengers arriving. A word of caution for anyone else still in the planning stages...don't assume you will walk off the pier and find a tour. The good guys are gonna be sold out.

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

When I spoke w/ Bernard he said that if we wanted to see the 'big planes' we would pretty much reverse the tour (he says think circle tour of island). So we would start still with some sightseeing on the way, then hit Orient Beach approx. 10:30am, then Marigot, then the Airport (Maho) and then back to town for some shopping. He said that we would only be able to stay at the beach for 2 hours if we do it this way (even if we start at 8am) because traffic getting back from the airport would be much heavier that time of day. So what it really comes down to is big planes or more beach time. Let me know what everyone would like to do. Thanks! Carol

We are fine either way, but I do have a slight preference for seeing the big planes in the afternoon (apparently the 747s come in on Tuesday afternoons). I watched a few clips of the landings on youtube and it's pretty impressive!

 

[pkmingo]

We would love to do a dismeet -- that's a very good idea...let me know the time and place. Wonder if the travel agent can schedule it for us? We booked through Dreams - I can check and see if they can get one scheduled for us? Does anyone know if they can do that?

I am a TA also but I have never 'formally' scheduled a meet anywhere. Usually, it is just agreed upon (a time and place) between the group. If anyone has had their TA do something different, let me know and I will be glad to set it up.

 

[pkmingo]

Also for the Bernards Tour, I asked him (especially if we do the shorter beach time & big planes) if he had any contacts on the beach so we could have our chairs & umbrellas ready when we got there and wouldn't have to spend extra time getting them picked out/or set up. He said that he did and is we have a number of people who would be interested in doing that, he would find out a price for us. Let me know if you would like to have that ready for you when you get to the beach. Thanks!
Carol

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

Also for the Bernards Tour, I asked him (especially if we do the shorter beach time & big planes) if he had any contacts on the beach so we could have our chairs & umbrellas ready when we got there and wouldn't have to spend extra time getting them picked out/or set up. He said that he did and is we have a number of people who would be interested in doing that, he would find out a price for us. Let me know if you would like to have that ready for you when you get to the beach. Thanks!
Carol

That's a great idea! We would definitely like to reserve 3 chairs and an umbrella. Thanks!

 

[SoThisIsLove]

My family and I were reading thru the boards today and thought the tour you had set up in St. Martaan sounded very nice. We were wondering if there was any room left and if there is, if you minded if we join you? We have a pretty large group....its 6 adults and 1 two almost three year old.