October 11-18, 2008 Disney Magic Parrothead Pirates in Paradise Chapter 8!

[elgerber]

OK, I just had to do it! I've never gotten a BIG NUMBER!!!

Way to go Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have no answers to your questions, I am so not prepared in those areas. I think dh really wants to sail on the Regatta Boat.

I know I was talking to Alex about tagging along with his party to do some shopping in one port, but I don't know which.

I'd also maybe like to go to Maho to see the planes.

 

[cdhheidi]

Good morning cruisers!

CRUISE QUESTION

What excursions are you planning???

We are thinking we will see St. Maarten on our own - most likely hit a beach for a few and them do some shopping.

In St. Thomas, a couple of our party want to snorkle; the boys want to do the Atlantis Sub and I'm hoping we dock at the Havensight Mall so we can shop easily!

On CC, the boys want to parasail, maybe do the Wild Ride or EcoTour. I'll be at Serenity Bay feeling very serene.

Anyone ever do a fishing excursion on the Eastern? Or does anyone have any recommendations on what to do in either St. Maarten or St. Thomas?

(I hope you haven't all discussed this to death and I missed it)

Good Morning! And congratulations on getting one of those special numbers... LOL!

We have all our excursions planned out... doing LOTS of fun things!

St Maarten Brian and Kaj are doing the 12 metre regatta, then in the afternoon we are all 4 doing the see to Sea (mini submarine thing so we can get up close and personal with the fishes without getting wet!).

St Thomas we are going on Godfrey's tour (as are several others I think?) and planning on a couple of hours at the Coral park.

CC Sean is DYING to go fishing, so that is what he and mom and dad are doing, Kaj, being a teen, wants to go on the wild side, and has decided that he will try parasailing as well....

And of course we are trying all 3 different versions of Palo... Hubby and I are celebrating (a little early!) our 27 anniversary on the cruise. I am surprising him with the celebration stuff.... Giggle! We don't get to spend much time alone given all of Sean's medical care, so this will be a real treat for us!

Anyone joining us on some of these fun and exciting adventures???

 

[pinkygirl]

Good morning cruisers!

CRUISE QUESTION

What excursions are you planning???

We are thinking we will see St. Maarten on our own - most likely hit a beach for a few and them do some shopping.

In St. Thomas, a couple of our party want to snorkle; the boys want to do the Atlantis Sub and I'm hoping we dock at the Havensight Mall so we can shop easily!

On CC, the boys want to parasail, maybe do the Wild Ride or EcoTour. I'll be at Serenity Bay feeling very serene.

Anyone ever do a fishing excursion on the Eastern? Or does anyone have any recommendations on what to do in either St. Maarten or St. Thomas?

(I hope you haven't all discussed this to death and I missed it)

In St. Maarten we plan on going doing things on our own. We realized that with the boys they might get too tired and would want to head back early. So far we have a few ideas on places to go like the zoo, Butterfly farm, Maho beach to watch the airplanes, Divi beach to hang out on and a little bit of shopping.
In St. Thomas we don't have much planned. We would like to spend most of the day at Coral World and hang out at the beach that's beside it I think it's called Coki beach. Then we might go visit the Skyride and do some shopping on our way back to the ship.

 

[pinkygirl]

OK, I just had to do it! I've never gotten a BIG NUMBER!!!

CONGRATS on your first big number!!!!

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

Hello everyone!

Mary, Congrats on the big number!!! They are coveted!!

As for your question....we have Godfrey Tours booked for St Thomas. Have no idea what to do at St Maarten...we too are interested in seeing Maho Beach and watching the planes come in. I understand there are umbrellas and chairs to rent and a small bar with food available, so we might just take a taxi and hang out there most of the day? the only thing that "worries" me about St Maarten, is that I have read that traffic gets insane about 4pm...there is some drawbridge that goes up for a while and if you are not on the pier side of that bridge, you have the possibility of missing the boat! If we do something that is Disney organized, and we're late, they have to wait on us! As for CC, I'm not sure.....Steve and I have never been to Serenity bay, so we might have to do that. I have thought about booking us a couples massage on CC, but we have nothing really planned yet...... just relaxing!

 

[gometros]

Me too! LOL! My dad was a doctor, and I can't tell you the # of times he preached at us about the foibles of chiropractic. I know it works for some, and that is great!

My FIL was a physical therapist and chiropractor was a naughty word in the house. The biggest complaint was all the extracurricular stuff they practiced that was not covered by their chiropractic license.

 

[gometros]

CRUISE QUESTION

How about spa treatments? Anyone???

We're booking the couples cruise. Have done it both on CC and on board and we prefer on board better, since it doesn't take any time away from the beach. If I plan it right, we'll do it right before lunch which means we'll be realxed and hungry

 

[gometros]

As far as excursions go, I can't believe we've been to both islands twice already and still can't decide what to do. I want to get back over to St, John, so we probably will not use Godfrey this time around. My wife and I both picked different things to do, so we have to come to a meeting of the minds on it. I know she mentioned going to Magen's Bay, but I always forget if it is Trunk Bay or Magen's Bay that people say is always crowded on cruise days. I'd love to do the Golden Catamaran excursion. I'm not worried about making a decision too quickly, since I do not believe the excursions fill up as quickly as Palo or Spa. So Saturday night, I'm concentrating on those two things.

I do know one thing. I am going para sailing on CC. I did it last year and had a blast. But, I have to redo my pictures. I screwed up last year, forgetting that I had the camera set up for indoor light from the night before and all the pictures came out bluish. Yeah, I know I can color correct in Photoshop, but it's not the same thing.

 

[minniesota]

As far as excursions go, I can't believe we've been to both islands twice already and still can't decide what to do. I want to get back over to St, John, so we probably will not use Godfrey this time around. My wife and I both picked different things to do, so we have to come to a meeting of the minds on it. I know she mentioned going to Magen's Bay, but I always forget if it is Trunk Bay or Magen's Bay that people say is always crowded on cruise days. I'd love to do the Golden Catamaran excursion. I'm not worried about making a decision too quickly, since I do not believe the excursions fill up as quickly as Palo or Spa. So Saturday night, I'm concentrating on those two things.

I do know one thing. I am going para sailing on CC. I did it last year and had a blast. But, I have to redo my pictures. I screwed up last year, forgetting that I had the camera set up for indoor light from the night before and all the pictures came out bluish. Yeah, I know I can color correct in Photoshop, but it's not the same thing.

We have been on both islands twice, too, and we're wondering what to do! LOL! The first time we did the dolphin excursion on St. Maarten and the
5 Star Snorkle Tour. We loved the dolphins but felt really let down by the 5-Star tour. They detoured us to St. James Island rather than Trunk Bay claiming they had radioed ahead and the water was rough at Trunk. As it turned out, the snorkeling at St .James was terrible and when we returned to the ship, we found out that several others on our cruise did Trunk Bay and it was beautiful with calm seas!!! I did complain to Disney and I see that in the Passporter description/review, the "detour" to St. James is a common occurence.

Last time we cruised, we did a private tour on St. Maarten with a tour operator who is no longer in business. We had a great time but later learned he was some kind of white supremist who faked his own death. Quite a story!!! We had to tender into St. Thomas which was a big pain so DH took the kids to Morningstar Beach which was a letdown. I never left the ship!

I think we are going to try Orient Beach this time (and hope our DS14 and his friend don't burn their eyes out looking at the topless sunbathers!). We still may do an excursion on St. Thomas.

So parasailing was cool, huh? Even for us 50-somethings???

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

I was looking at the DCL offered excursions after my last post, and I was thinking that Orient Beach sounded good too! Has anyone been there?? Are there chairs and umbrellas just for the DCL or do you have to rent them when you get there. I see the water sport things are a rental, but the description DCL gives, doesn't really say that the chairs are provided. The one I looked at included a meal and beverages. Maho beach was something everyone in this family really wants to do, but since there isn't an excursion for that, would the best thing be to get a taxi at the pier and a taxi back when we were done?

 

[Octoberbride03]

We are not planning on doing any excursions, except for maybe something fun on CC. Unless I found something super reasonable in price, we'll be getting ourselves around the islands.

I've actually put off at looking around and seeing what's to do other thaqn going through the passporter and the DCL Kit. Guess I'll have to get started.

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

Ahhhhh!!!! My OCD trip planning has kicked in tonight! LOL I have been on cruise critic and found a tour for St Maarten. It's Bernard's tours. Sounds like Godfrey's but on another island! Here's the itinerary from his website...

BERNARDSTOURS ITINERARY
GROUP TOUR
$35 per person (cash)
All day tour includes sightseeing, beach and shopping.
9:00am - 11:30am ~ Sightseeing
11:30am - 1:30pm ~ Orient Beach
1:45pm - 3:30pm ~ Shopping in Philipsburg
The tour will consist of the following stops.
Great Bay overlooking Phillipsburg and harbor.
Cayhill overlooking Simpson Bay marina.
Sunset Beach bar ( Maho Beach ) where you can see the planes land right over your head.
Marigot - open market (French Capital)
Hilltop at Orient Bay overlooking the beach.
Swim at Orient Beach for two hours.
Note: Each scenic stop will be between five to ten minutes.
Note: The Marigot open market will be a forty five minute stop

there were nothing but rave reviews of this tour. I think we might book it!!!

 

[elgerber]

Ahhhhh!!!! My OCD trip planning has kicked in tonight! LOL I have been on cruise critic and found a tour for St Maarten. It's Bernard's tours. Sounds like Godfrey's but on another island! Here's the itinerary from his website...

BERNARDSTOURS ITINERARY
GROUP TOUR
$35 per person (cash)
All day tour includes sightseeing, beach and shopping.
9:00am - 11:30am ~ Sightseeing
11:30am - 1:30pm ~ Orient Beach
1:45pm - 3:30pm ~ Shopping in Philipsburg
The tour will consist of the following stops.
Great Bay overlooking Phillipsburg and harbor.
Cayhill overlooking Simpson Bay marina.
Sunset Beach bar ( Maho Beach ) where you can see the planes land right over your head.
Marigot - open market (French Capital)
Hilltop at Orient Bay overlooking the beach.
Swim at Orient Beach for two hours.
Note: Each scenic stop will be between five to ten minutes.
Note: The Marigot open market will be a forty five minute stop

there were nothing but rave reviews of this tour. I think we might book it!!!

Does this put Maho in the morning? I thought I had read the big planes only fly in the afternoon?

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

For what I read...maybe. LOL It seems that this is the basic itinerary, but it could change. I bet, if we had enough people to book his tour, he might do it as a private tour and flip flop the sightseeing to the afternoon. The bus holds something like 30 people though. I think the general rule is that he does follow this schedule. Someone had posted that they waited an extra 15 mins so that they could see a big plane land...but I think they had a private tour too.

 

[WDWCrazzyCunninghams]

HEY!! Colton just pointed out that I have over 2800 posts!!!! woot wooot!!!

 

[gouodux]

St Thomas we may go back to Magen's Bay. Last time we were there it wasn't very crowded at all - or we may try Coki Beach. Another option is St John, but we are thinking we might go there for the Tortola cruise. The big reason to push St John back a year is because we have booked a catamaran for St Maarten. It will just be the 18 of us on the boat and it has a pretty neat itinerary. Leaves early in the morning and has us back at 2pm so we have plenty of time to shop.

Castaway we are going to try to book the Eco Tour again. Our oldest daughter really wants to do this and it is alot of fun. The have already done the Stingrays twice, parasailing - aww maybe the banana boat!

So in a nutshell, we only have St Maarten decided.

 

[Octoberbride03]

Checked out Godfrey Tours from the website link. Sounds like a great day. Definately a great price. I'm assuming that do Coral World we would pay our own admission there as extra right?

I have 1 last work day tomorrow and then off for the weekend. Will have to wander over to cruise critic to check stuff out. I honestly have no idea what if anything we want to do on each island. We may not even want to get off the ship

As for CC we are talking about renting a trike and doing some snorkling.

 

[RanCan]

Hello all!!!!!!

How is everyone doing tonight??

We're having a great time here in AZ!!!! The one thing that there isn't a shortage of are stores!!!! Great shopping over here!! LOL
I got a few things for our cruise!!!!

 

[cdhheidi]

Hello all!!!!!!

How is everyone doing tonight??

We're having a great time here in AZ!!!! The one thing that there isn't a shortage of are stores!!!! Great shopping over here!! LOL
I got a few things for our cruise!!!!

All is well here... had a great physical for Sean today, he grew an inch and 8 POUNDS since february! That is a weight increase of like... 16%. Big smile on THIS mom's face!

Gonna go for a walk with DH in a bit... so nice to have kids that are old enough for us to do that from time to time!

 

[Octoberbride03]

Hey Candy

Glad you're having a great time. Hope you picked up something for me

Rich and I are going shopping ourselves this weekend. The mission is his cruise wardrobe. Boy is he excited I told him nothing he wears around the house is allowed on the cruise.