I know that the reason for the Pirate party the night before immigration has to do with picking a place in the ocean where the captain can slow down the ship to do the fireworks
but why doesnt
DCL go to STT first and then STM? Im sure there is a good reason but boy it would be great to not have to do that immigration thing.
Honestly it was pretty easy just a minor inconvenience. And they do take it seriously. Someone down the hall from us apparently never showed and a couple of nautical official looking guys showed up at their door shortly after last call for immigration was called.
Now the real inconvenience for the day was tendering in STT. I guess it rarely happens that DCL must do so, but we were the lucky ones. And for some reason tendering in STT is MUCH more difficult than on GC or Cozumel. We had zero issues in those ports on our Western this summer but the STT tendering was a nightmare.
After not really taking advantage of our status as concierge guests for the whole trip til now, we took up Jenny and Sandie on their offer of you dont have to wait for a tender ticket, just call us when you are ready to go and well get you on the next tender. That sounded too good to pass up and too good to be true. It was. And it wasnt Sandie & Jennys fault but whomever was telling them a story about who was on which tenders (given the fact they referred to talking to the assistant cruise director and that Darren the ACD called us after this situation I assume it was him). To make a very long story short, we waited in our room for more than 90 minutes for a tender. Had we gone to the WD Theater like we originally planned, we would have waited no more than 40. Darren kept telling the women that the tenders were full of guests on DCL excursions. Sounded reasonable until we got to our excursion full of other DIS members who went to the theater and made it long before we did. None of us was on a DCL excursion. Enough complaining because it truly didnt ruin our day..but was just an annoyance that we forgot about once our excursion got under way.
A view of STT from our verandah
We booked the tour with Sunny Liston that included shopping time, an island tour and beach time. Our shopping time was cut short due to our late arrival but that was okay as it wasnt a priority. The tour was nice. Saw some great views especially from Mountain Top. And it was great fun to be on a bus filled with DIS folks in fact I think three of the four buses on our tour were filled with DIS folks.
Some views from the tour:
DD (right) with her new friend
Then we went to Sapphire Beach for a couple of hours which was incredible. Ran into Cheri and Bill (PG4) there and told them to hold the ship for us in case we were late! One of our DIS friends daughter the girl with whom my daughter became attached on the first day -- stayed with us to play with DD8 and that was great fun for both of them though I have to admit I was a little stressed out when it came time to get back to the ship. Visions of calling these folks to explain why we were stuck in STT were definitely dancing in my head. But thankfully no problem getting back and we were all safe and sound.
Some pics from Sapphire Beach
Then back on the bus to a fun ride (especially for the kids) who sang along with Sunny every day of the weeeeeeek. The funniest part was when DD 2 1/2 fell asleep pretty quickly after boarding the bus and slept through all of the singing, whooping, crazy driving and chaos that was our ride back to the port.
Relieved to be back on one of the last tenders and returning someone else's child safe and sound!
Back on the ship we attended the concierge reception which was a nice touch then the girls all went to the Magic Show while I checked email and hung out in the Cove Pool for a brief time.
We had a chance to see both Princess Aurora and Cinderella, who is DD 2 1/2 favorite character and she will tell ANYONE who wants to know. DD8 says this wasnt the real Cinderella since she was a bit cold and didnt look right. She was right. The REAL Cinderella must have been working in the parks.
We had dinner at Parrot Cay and then canceled everything we had planned Flounders for the night, Lab for the night and my massage in the morning. The seas were getting VERY rough and I knew I needed sleep. None in my party got sick from the rough seas but we sure had challenges walking, eating, pretty much with everything. It was wild.
Up next: A ROCKY but still fun Day at Sea
I do feel better though. We were at the same beach, but on the other side. The kids loved the ocean. I thought the water was nice and warm. We had thought about going to Maho beach, but just decided to stay close to the ship. Enjoying your report. Great pictures!!
Pat
