Mickeyhugger
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2003
- Messages
- 5,827
Everyone is finally able to leave the ship for awhile today! The sea days are great, but DH and DD are so happy now to be able to swim in the ocean (later.)
We didn't have any excursions planned for St. Maarten/Martin, as we wanted to have a leisurely day. (Turned out, it wore DD out, but more on that later.
)
We took a water taxi from the ship into town. Our plan was to get DD's hair braided. I know many recommend the ship, but call me naive or overly-sensitive, I'd rather pay someone on St. Maarten than the ship, as the people who live on this impoverished island depend on the DCL passengers for their income. This is also a SLOW season for them, and Disney is the ONLY ship here today! The braiders waste no time approaching you once you arrive. Two young women walked right up to us and and speaking really fast, showed us pics of how they could do our DD's hair 'in 45 minutes for 1.00 per braid.' Cutting to the chase folks, BEWARE! They started out braiding her hair in extremely THIN braids. I quickly caught on and politely but firmly asked them to please make them thicker. I know these people need $$, but at this point our time was most important. Next time, I'll just have her hair corn-rowed instead of the 'Bo-Derek' look. It took 1 1/2 hours instead of 45 minutes. (She ended up w/79 braids!) On a positive note, they did an excellent job. Once we agreed to let them braid her hair, we were led to their air-conditioned salon about a block away from the pier. (Not far at all.) I will definitely have her hair braided in St. Maarten again, but I will very assertively tell them how I want it done. After the braiding, we spent about 30 minutes walking along the beach in front of the shops. The waters felt so good! The temperature was just right. After that, we taxied back to the beach for lunch at Topsiders. It was a Southwestern buffet today, and was definitely a 'so glad I came back or I would've missed this!' DD and I must have had about 10 mini burritoes. (We're from Texas folks, where Tex-Mex rules, and we LOVED this!) These burritoes were fried. They had a beef filling. I kept going back to load up on the rice and corn w/peppers. But of course, for me, no report would be complete w/out mentioning the dessert. Yes, I'm going to say it again..OMG! Why does DCL do this to me? Couldn't they have just one meal in which no desserts look good? No! They are determined to keep me from being able to fully zip my shorts! LOL! I won't elaborate (or I'll start getting hungry for it
), but will just say be sure to get the banana cream pie. (yes, it has chocolate in it.) Also, I looked at the other desserts, OMG..there it was again! The heavenly, scrumptious, 'no other baker or restuarant could make this' to-die-for lemon meringue pie that was featured at Palo brunch!
Okay, that does it. I'm not going to even try to hide the fact of how much of this I can eat. I had a slice at the table, and took two slices up to the stateroom to put in my fridge. So there. I admit it!
After a 30 minute rest in the stateroom, we headed out to the French side (St. Martin) for Orient beach. If you decide to take a cab, ask for Dion! Very informative. Is able to tell you everything their is to know about St. Maarten/Martin. We told him we will recommend him to everyone we know who takes this cruise. (How great to have these boards!) We had a great time at Orient beach. Every so often, we saw a topless woman, but the kids (we were w/another family) didn't really seem to notice or care, as they had a great time in the ocean. They had such a good time, that DD put her head on the dinner table and fell asleep at Parrot Cay that night. It was tropical night, and she was missing out on most of the fun! Okay, I love reporting about the food! For appetizers, don't miss the pineapple boat! It included a banana which was rolled in sweetened coconut! It was soooo good! For dinner I had the split shrimp. Need I say more? It was..here I go again..to die for! I'm not a spoiler for anyone who's sailing the Magic. Don't miss Tropical night. You have to see what they do in the dining rooms. You're a very big part of it! There are leis at your table place-setting. You'll dance! Then head up to deck 9 for the party afterwards! There's a sandwich/appetizer/dessert buffet as well. (I know! MORE food!) This is my favorite night on the cruise! The dancing, the tropical wear, the music, the festivities and everything else truly makes it a MAGICal experience.
Will try to post Day 5 tomorrow!
We didn't have any excursions planned for St. Maarten/Martin, as we wanted to have a leisurely day. (Turned out, it wore DD out, but more on that later.
)We took a water taxi from the ship into town. Our plan was to get DD's hair braided. I know many recommend the ship, but call me naive or overly-sensitive, I'd rather pay someone on St. Maarten than the ship, as the people who live on this impoverished island depend on the DCL passengers for their income. This is also a SLOW season for them, and Disney is the ONLY ship here today! The braiders waste no time approaching you once you arrive. Two young women walked right up to us and and speaking really fast, showed us pics of how they could do our DD's hair 'in 45 minutes for 1.00 per braid.' Cutting to the chase folks, BEWARE! They started out braiding her hair in extremely THIN braids. I quickly caught on and politely but firmly asked them to please make them thicker. I know these people need $$, but at this point our time was most important. Next time, I'll just have her hair corn-rowed instead of the 'Bo-Derek' look. It took 1 1/2 hours instead of 45 minutes. (She ended up w/79 braids!) On a positive note, they did an excellent job. Once we agreed to let them braid her hair, we were led to their air-conditioned salon about a block away from the pier. (Not far at all.) I will definitely have her hair braided in St. Maarten again, but I will very assertively tell them how I want it done. After the braiding, we spent about 30 minutes walking along the beach in front of the shops. The waters felt so good! The temperature was just right. After that, we taxied back to the beach for lunch at Topsiders. It was a Southwestern buffet today, and was definitely a 'so glad I came back or I would've missed this!' DD and I must have had about 10 mini burritoes. (We're from Texas folks, where Tex-Mex rules, and we LOVED this!) These burritoes were fried. They had a beef filling. I kept going back to load up on the rice and corn w/peppers. But of course, for me, no report would be complete w/out mentioning the dessert. Yes, I'm going to say it again..OMG! Why does DCL do this to me? Couldn't they have just one meal in which no desserts look good? No! They are determined to keep me from being able to fully zip my shorts! LOL! I won't elaborate (or I'll start getting hungry for it
), but will just say be sure to get the banana cream pie. (yes, it has chocolate in it.) Also, I looked at the other desserts, OMG..there it was again! The heavenly, scrumptious, 'no other baker or restuarant could make this' to-die-for lemon meringue pie that was featured at Palo brunch! Okay, that does it. I'm not going to even try to hide the fact of how much of this I can eat. I had a slice at the table, and took two slices up to the stateroom to put in my fridge. So there. I admit it!After a 30 minute rest in the stateroom, we headed out to the French side (St. Martin) for Orient beach. If you decide to take a cab, ask for Dion! Very informative. Is able to tell you everything their is to know about St. Maarten/Martin. We told him we will recommend him to everyone we know who takes this cruise. (How great to have these boards!) We had a great time at Orient beach. Every so often, we saw a topless woman, but the kids (we were w/another family) didn't really seem to notice or care, as they had a great time in the ocean. They had such a good time, that DD put her head on the dinner table and fell asleep at Parrot Cay that night. It was tropical night, and she was missing out on most of the fun!
Okay, I love reporting about the food! For appetizers, don't miss the pineapple boat! It included a banana which was rolled in sweetened coconut! It was soooo good! For dinner I had the split shrimp. Need I say more? It was..here I go again..to die for! I'm not a spoiler for anyone who's sailing the Magic. Don't miss Tropical night. You have to see what they do in the dining rooms. You're a very big part of it! There are leis at your table place-setting. You'll dance! Then head up to deck 9 for the party afterwards! There's a sandwich/appetizer/dessert buffet as well. (I know! MORE food!) This is my favorite night on the cruise! The dancing, the tropical wear, the music, the festivities and everything else truly makes it a MAGICal experience.Will try to post Day 5 tomorrow!
I can't believe you wore your 9 yr old out! Thanks for the report and keep them coming!
