Our Trip Report -Just back from the Magic 2/12-2/19

[NAJmom]

Before I start, thank you for all of the kind remarks. It is nice to know people are actually reading...wow.... I also think I finally have the picture thing figured out, so here goes...

Day 2 of cruise

I slept great that first night, but I always sleep well on ships. I never got seasick at all, but DH did a couple of times. He went to guest services and they gave him something like Dramamine. DH said it helped quite a bit.


DS7 and I were the first ones up on Sunday morning. We went up to Topsiders and went through the buffet line. I loved how the tray guy wouldn’t give my DS7 a tray until he said please. The two of us had our trays and a little boy ran up and completely cut in front of us. His mom gave me that sort of “oh well, what can I do” look at me and cut in front of us too. Really, people never fail to amaze me. DS and I took our trays outside and ate. It was still very windy and quite cold. (Don’t worry – that will change soon!) I only ate a chocolate croissant (LOVE those at the parks!) but the ones at Topsiders were dry. We had brunch reservations at Palo, so no problem. We took extra doughnuts to my other DS’s, who were still sleeping.

At 10:30, DH and I made our way to Palo. DS7 went to the Oceaners' Club, and my other two wandered around the ship. One thing I missed while I was at brunch, was DS11 playing PIG with Goofy. DS loves basketball, and so I would have loved a picture. Oh well, at least he has the memory.

Back to Palo (one of my favorite subjects)…our server’s name was Francois, from France. He was wonderful; so kind, non-intimidating, helpful, funny, etc. He knew when to come to our table, when to leave us alone, and I never felt silly asking him a question. Honestly, François was one of the best waiters I have ever had. He gave us a little tour around the tables, and explained what everything was. DH and I love good food, and this did not disappoint! I loved the scallops, and my Eggs Florentine was amazing. This is going to sound strange, but my favorite thing was something Francois recommended. A pizza, with cheese, grapes, and balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. Oh my…… He also brought us a drink like champagne…the name is on the tip of my tongue……anyway, it is like champagne but I like it better. We probably spent 1 ½ or longer at brunch. We were not pressured to hurry. One funny thing was we had a table right by the window. Palo is at the aft (back of the ship), and so my sons kept walking by, literally 3 feet in front of us. The windows were tinted, so Francois said there was no way the boys could see in. It was funny being right in front of them, watching and knowing they had no idea we were there. Francois also found it funny- that was one thing I liked – it did not feel stuffy at Palo. When it was time to go, Francois asked if we would be coming back for dinner. I said that unfortunately we would not, because they only available times were on the last night. He left for a minute, and came back and said they could get us in, so what night would we like to come back? Wow! All that stressing out for two months prior to my cruise for nothing. So my advice to any of you would be to speak with Palo directly, or certainly keep trying if you don’t have luck on-line. We choose Wednesday night to come back. One more thing. I had heard that the $20 fee you pay is supposed to be your server’s tip. But we were so impressed by Palo that we did give Francois more. He was that good.

That afternoon we really just relaxed by the pool.

My DS7 loved the kids’ pool, but honestly it drove me nuts, the pool was so full and loud. If I had a magic wand and could change something about the Magic, it would definitely be to double the sizes of the pools. We snacked on pizza that afternoon (really good) and watched classic cartoons on the movie screen. I think my DS14 also took my DS7 to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. DS 11 spent a little time in Edge, and also played a lot of basketball. I also spent some time at Shutters. (More on that later.)

The show that night was Villains Tonight. We got there early and Chip N Dale were there so we hopped in line to get pictures.

It ended up being one of my favorite pictures. I just love Chip N Dale. As far as the show -I know there have been mixed reviews, but we loved it. The idea of Disney Villains being on a Jerry Springer type show to learn to appreciate their loyal sidekicks was hysterical.

After the show we rushed to get in line for formal night pictures. (More on that later as well- I definitely have an opinion on pictures.) For dinner we ate in Lumiers, which I liked a lot more than Parrot Cay. Much quieter, and a much slower pace. DS7 did the dine and play, so after dinner my older two went off exploring, and DH and I went to the adult show. It was Heath Hyche. He was funny, and should be a mascot for Red Bull. How I wish I had his energy! His show was pretty good, and I tried my first Bahama Mama – yummy! Disco Legends came out after that, but we decided to head off to bed.
Tomorrow is day 3, and our second at sea day. I love at sea days!

 

[NAJmom]

Oh, and to answer one of the questions...we actually loved the late seating. I know if I had little ones I might not have felt that way. But for us - DS14, DS11 and DS7 it was perfect. One reason is we never felt like we had to rush back from the islands. If we did get back later, we could always go to the show in our casual clothes, and then had time later to dress for dinner. We also LOVED Dine and Play, and that is not available on the early rotation. One other thing was that my kids loved snacking all day. They loved getting pizza, nachos, ice cream etc. and when we snacked in the afternoon, there would have been no way we could have been ready to eat at 5:15. I would have had to tell my kids no snacking after 2:30 or so and that would have ruined one of their favorite things. Oh, and we also loved getting room service at 4:30 when we were getting ready- that wouldn't have worked with early seating. I also overheard someone (who obviously had first seating) say they felt rushed to get out of dinner for the 2nd seating.
So that was our experience!

 

[A's Princess]

OMG I am still dreaming of that Palo pizza! I want to try to make it at home & know I will be sorely disappointed. Guess I'll have to book another cruise...

Your TR is great! Looking forward to Day 3 when you get a chance.

 

[jlindemer]

I, too, LOVE that pizza!

And how cool! Playing BB with Goofy!

 

[capitalmom]

Back to Palo (one of my favorite subjects)…our server’s name was Francois, from France. He was wonderful; so kind, non-intimidating, helpful, funny, etc. He knew when to come to our table, when to leave us alone, and I never felt silly asking him a question. Honestly, François was one of the best waiters I have ever had. He gave us a little tour around the tables, and explained what everything was.

We were on your cruise as well and also had François serve us dinner at Palo, and I agree, he was lovely, and as an added bonus we were able to speak French with him (which I think he appreciated as well...) Anyway, great review - keep it coming

 

[CherylA]

Oh, and to answer one of the questions...we actually loved the late seating. I know if I had little ones I might not have felt that way. But for us - DS14, DS11 and DS7 it was perfect. One reason is we never felt like we had to rush back from the islands. If we did get back later, we could always go to the show in our casual clothes, and then had time later to dress for dinner. We also LOVED Dine and Play, and that is not available on the early rotation. One other thing was that my kids loved snacking all day. They loved getting pizza, nachos, ice cream etc. and when we snacked in the afternoon, there would have been no way we could have been ready to eat at 5:15. I would have had to tell my kids no snacking after 2:30 or so and that would have ruined one of their favorite things. Oh, and we also loved getting room service at 4:30 when we were getting ready- that wouldn't have worked with early seating. I also overheard someone (who obviously had first seating) say they felt rushed to get out of dinner for the 2nd seating.
So that was our experience!

I feel exactly the same for all of the same reasons. My kiddos were 5 and 8 on our last cruise and we loved the late seating. It was not what I had wanted and was waitlisted for early dining but we loved the late dining and I wouldn't do the early seating again!

 

[kimkdmm =)]

Grrr... I didn't know you updated, glad I checked

I loved sleeping on the cruise too, best rest I ever had!

That is AWESOME that your DS got to play basketball with Goofy, how fun!!!

Palo sounds amazing, and that pizza sounds so yummmmy! Glad you liked your server so much, and that he was able to get you in again!!!

Sounds and looks like you guys had a great rest of the day!!! SO enjoying your trip report and pictures! Hurry back!

 

[NAJmom]

Day 3 At Sea
When we woke up this morning, we were happy to see beautiful blue skies and it was nice and warm! I was determined to attend the scrapbook party, since I love to SB, and my favorite scrapbooks are Disney ones I have made for our different trips. DS7 and I ate breakfast again at Topsiders, and then he changed his mind and decided he would rather go to the Lab than to the SB party with me. The SB party was in Animator’s Palate, and as we walked in they gave each of us a packet with 2-3 Disney pages. They were actually pretty nice, and next we sat down to listen to the presentation. The mike wasn’t working, but I think they were planning to give us a talk on future cruises. Instead some people scrapbooked, but most of the serious scrapbookers just looked at the merchandise. Everything they had was available at the gift shop, so you don’t see anything different at the party. The best part was when a woman came back to our table and said the Disney Cruise Line scrapbooks were marked down to $7. We all discovered that one book was mis-marked, but since they sold one at that price, I guess they had to honor that price for everyone. I had already bought a nice Disney album at home, so I am not sure what I will do with the one I bought. But $7 for what is normally around $30+ –too good of a deal to pass up. Basically that was it. A lot of the moms that had come with their daughters were having fun pasting some die cuts they placed on the tables. If I were cruising and they were to have this again, I would go for the free paper and then leave.

One thing I decided to do though was use my free paper to get autographs from the characters. I had thought about getting photo mats signed, or pillowcases, or those vinyl characters autographed, but nothing really stood out to me. So instead, I put one of my new papers in a big baggie, and dropped it off at the Service Desk. They asked if I wanted all of the characters to sign and I said yes, and they filled out a form and put it in the baggie. The last night of the cruise Falcon (our room steward) dropped it off in our room. So now I have a big 12 x 12 Disney paper, with all of the character autographs for my book. My kids were only interested in pictures with the characters, not autographs this time, so this really worked out well. Score!

After the Scrapbook party I went to gather the family and we spent some more time at the pool. DS11 played more basketball on the top deck, and DS made Flubber in the Lab. DS7 basically wanted to stay in the Lab all day – but we did get him for meals. He and DS14 also saw Toy Story 3D together that afternoon. DH and I decided that while the kids were busy (Oh, how I love cruising!) we would check out the adult pool, and Cove Café. The Cove Café coffee shop was really nice, and when I cruise the Magic next time I would like to spend more time there. But that beautiful pool and fruity drinks were calling us. As soon as we got to the adult pool 2 chairs opened up. We left our towels (I know you are not supposed to do this, but everybody else does, and how else do you get a chair???) DH and swam for a bit and the pool was heavenly. We were really hoping to just have some quiet time together, but the funniest thing was the adult pool was where everyone seemed so social! We had more people talk to us here than any other time during the trip. It was fun to meet new people and get their impressions of the ship, but no alone time – oh well. One man we met told me to order a BBC. (Baileys, banana and crème) so when we got out of the hot tub I ordered one – Wow, was that good. DH and I made plans to return to the adult pool during our next at sea day.

Our show that night was Twice Charmed. It was cute, not the best of the week, but Cinderella is one of my favorites, so we all liked it. DS14 and DS11 didn’t complain – I was happily surprised! One other thing to note – someone told me to bring our own candy for the shows. I got $1 packs of candy at Wal-Mart before we left and each night we would bring one. Much cheaper than what people bought at the snack bar. We also brought in soda from the soda fountain and that seemed to be okay too.

Right before dinner we saw Heath Hyche again for the family show. My kids really liked this and he had a good show.

For dinner that night we were very excited to eat at Animator’s Palate. We had heard so much about the show so we were ready. DS7 was excited to do Dine N Play again, but I told him not tonight, that there would be a fun show to watch. He was angry and basically pouted during the whole show. We took him later to the Lab, but the rest of us did like the show. I won’t spoil it for those that haven’t seen it yet.

After dinner DH and I went o the Rockin Bar D to see John Charles. We had enjoyed him so much at the family show that we couldn’t wait to see him again. But as we were walking through Shutters I saw that a bunch of our pictures were up. Of course I had to look, but that made us walk into Rockin Bar D a minute or two late. John Charles totally called out my DH in front of the whole crowd. It was pretty funny, and DH wanted to stand up and say it was my fault for stopping at Shutters. Anyway, I can’t say enough about John Charles. He was by far the best entertainer of the week. I would happily pay to see him again.

Okay, that is our second day at sea! We are excited to stop at our first island – St. Marteen is tomorrow!

 

[KristiMc]

Enjoying your report. We will be on the Magic for the Eastern in 2 weeks. I can't wait!!

 

[kimkdmm =)]

Wow, nice deal on the scrapbooks

What a great idea to get autographs on the scrapbook paper! That will look great in your album

Glad you got the chance to enjoy some time at the adult pool, sounds awesome!

Sounds like you guys had a fun night! Looking forward to reading all about St. Marteen

 

[wilma-bride]

Absolutely loving this trip report. We are on the Eastern in October - our first 7-night cruise - and I can hardly wait.

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip - and great pictures, by the way.

 

[NAJmom]

Day 4 St. Maarten

We woke on Tuesday morning to our first port – St. Maarten. When we were planning this trip we decided that we would do an organized tour in St. Thomas, and our day in St. Maarten would be a beach day. Of course later in the week we would also have a beach day in Castaway Cay. But since our cruise was in February I knew the odds of a warm beautiful beach day in Castaway Cay were slim. Since my boys had never actually been swimming in the ocean I really wanted to make sure we had a day on a beach other than Castaway Cay – just in case. During my research on the boards I found people discussing Le Galion Beach. Originally I was planning on Orient Beach. It got great reviews, but I was concerned about a few things. First, we really weren’t looking for a big beach with lots of people, music, food, entertainment etc. Instead we were hoping for a quiet little beach where the kids could make sand castles, swim and enjoy the beauty. Orient Beach looked like a lot of fun, but we wanted something a little quieter. Another consideration was the big waves at Orient Beach. Some people said they were fine, and others said they could get quite rough. I also read reports where people talked about the strong undertow. Since I wanted more of a swimming experience, without big waves, I thought I would try to find a different beach. I also don’t want to make a big deal about the nudity – I don’t feel like we are that hung up on that kind of thing. But having boys the ages of 11 and 14, I didn’t want that to be what they remembered about their St. Maarten experience. When I found information about Le Galion I thought it sounded perfect.

When we first got off the ship I asked my DS11 how it felt to be in his first foreign country. For the last 3-4 years he had been begging to go to a different country. He used to tell me he was the only one in his entire school that had never been out of the country. Yeah, right….. We were excited though that he was finally going to get the chance.

Once we got off the ship we walked into a very nice clean port area. When DH and I had been in St. Maarten about 15 years ago it was our least favorite port. We found it very dirty, and confusing. It was obvious that since then they had built a new area and it was very easy to navigate around and had some nice shops. There was a very clear, easy to find area to catch a taxi. We lined up at the Orient Beach line and told the man controlling the taxis that we wanted to go to Le Galion. In about 30 seconds he motioned us to a minivan. Was that ever easy! We got in the minivan and the driver asked us where we wanted to go. When we told her Le Galion she got very crabby. She told us she would take us there, but there was no way she was going to come back and get us later. She spent the rest of the taxi ride complaining about the road into Le Galion. It was too far, it was too bumpy, it would ruin her car etc. The color in my DH face drained away as she talked. I could tell he was thinking, “How are we ever going to get back to the ship if she won’t come and get us.” I wanted to laugh though, because I knew exactly what was going on. It took about 20 minutes or so to get to the turn off to Le Galion. We drove by the butterfly museum, and then turned on to the “horrible road” that the driver kept talking about. Okay, yes it had some potholes, but nothing that would ruin her car. It only took a couple of minutes to get to the beach. It came to about $30 for the five of us. I leaned over and whispered to my husband to give her $40, and then we’d see if she would come back to get us. Well when he gave her $40 and did not ask for change her whole demeanor changed. She smiled and said she would be happy to come and get us. In fact, her son, who had a really nice car would come and get us. DH still seemed confused by the whole thing, but I am fairly certain she did this in order to get compensated for going to Le Galion. The funny thing is when we got to Le Galion there were lots of taxis dropping people off from our ship. Other people said that their drivers were more than happy to come back. So don’t let this stop you if you are thinking about going.

We arrived at Le Galion a little before 10:00. Wow, it was just as we had hoped- very beautiful, with calm waters and few people. We choose 4 chairs and 2 umbrellas and parked our stuff. I think it was around $15 for two chairs and one umbrella. We decided to get 4, but in retrospect that was a waste. Two chairs and one umbrella would have been enough for our family of 5. If you go, just pick where you want to sit and sometime during the morning someone will come by to collect money. It was very laid back. I would say over half the people there were from the Magic. You could tell by all of the kids wearing the Kids Club badges.

We stayed at Le Galion from about 9:45 until 2:30. I wished we had stayed until at least 3:30. We would have had plenty of time since the ship didn’t leave until 6:30. I really don’t know where the time went- really some of the fastest 5 hours of the trip. My kids swam, built sand castles, snorkeled, and My DS11 tried for an hour to catch a fish. It was so much fun to watch. There were lots of other kids there for DS7 (my social one) to play with, and he even found a friend he had met at the Kids Club to build sand castles with. People were very friendly and shared their toys. We bought sand toys at Wal-Mart, and were glad we had them. DS11 and I swam out to a big platform they had and climbed on top. It was a fairly long swim, and I wouldn’t attempt it unless you are comfortable swimming in deep (25 feet maybe?) water. There was also another platform much closer to shore that the kids had fun jumping off of into the water. The great thing about Le Galion is that your kids can swim out REALLY far and still be able to stand up. My DS went out at least 50 feet or so and the water was still up on his chest. This is the kind of beach that you can let your kids swim or play in and you don’t have to be in there with them. There were many kids under the age of 3 or 4 that were happily splashing around without mom or dad right there. It was very calm, and of course, VERY WARM. Can you tell I liked this place? I would go back in a heartbeat.

For lunch we ate right at the beach restaurant. The people were so friendly, and the food was delicious. DH and I ordered the fish and the Creole Chicken and shared. We both thought the fish was the best. The kids got hot dogs and fries. I think the whole meal for the five of us was around $55.


About 2:00 the taxi driver’s son came and found us on the beach. He said he was there, and to take our time, but when we were ready he would take us back. Oh, how I hated to leave! By that time the beach was fairly empty. I think a lot of people left after lunch to see other parts of the island. The drive back was nice- this guy was very friendly. I said I wanted to shop a bit, so he dropped us off in Phillipsburg. We shopped for awhile, but my men, who hate my kind of shopping, were very tired and whining. So we decided to head back to ship. The taxi driver said we could catch the little shuttle boat and it would take us back to the boat. But when we went over there someone said you could only buy tickets over on the side where you first get off the ship. Oh well, it really wasn’t that far, we probably walked it in 15 minutes or less. When we got back to port I decided to look in the little shops while they went back to the ship. Looking back, we should have just had the taxi driver just take us back to port. The shops there were fine for the type of shopping I was doing.

Back on board we got cleaned up. The show that evening was Gnomeo and Juliet, which had just opened. I have to admit, even though I love movies, I fell asleep at this one. I suppose that was mainly due to how tired I was after swimming all day. But this movie really didn’t grab me. Mega Mind was playing on TV all week, so we watched that in the cabin several times while getting ready for bed or dinner. I think Mega Mind is a much better movie than Gnomeo and Juliet. Well, anyway I got a nap. Dinner that night was in Parrot Cay, and it was Pirate Night! We jumped in line to get a picture with Captain Jack. He was adorable….DS11 teased him. Captain Jack told DS11 to come back with a plate of donuts. DS told him he would, and Jack said if he didn’t he would come after him. DS11 looked for Captain Jack the rest of the week. Very Cute – I just love how the characters treated my kids.
Dinner was great – I love seafood! DS7 had been ordering cheeseburgers all week. When he ordered one again, Okim told DS7 that it was time for DS to be a big boy and order something else. So DS7 ordered a steak. When it came Okim cut it up and fed him bites – so funny. He also did this for DS14. I got some cute pictures. I would say most people wore some kind of costume – either a Caribbean shirt or pirate garb. They did give us scarves to wear on our heads, but mine was small. (I do have a big head though!)
After dinner we rushed up to the deck for the pirate show. I know people love this, but to be honest I was a little disappointed. To get a good view you would either have to leave dinner early or have early seating. It was 10:15 by this time, and so many of the kids looked exhausted. It reminded me of the sail away party. The staff and characters danced, and danced, and danced…….after awhile I think all of us were ready for the fireworks. I also expected more of a story-type show. Basically all we saw was Mickey on a zip line. That was cool, but I am not sure it was worth all of that time with tired kids around us …did I mention all of that dancing??? Whew, finally the fireworks came, and we did love this…fireworks at sea...how cool was that!

By 11:00 we were all tired after our busy day. When I got back to the room I had a message from Guest Services. Back-story……when DH and I were last in St Thomas about 15 years ago, we had done the Trunk Bay excursion to St John. We absolutely loved it, and so when I was looking at excursions we decided to do it again with the kids. But about 2-3 weeks before we sailed I read something on the DIS boards about excursions. Someone posted that they had been on the full day sail and snorkels to Turtle Cove and Honeymoon Beach. I read their reviews and they said it was the highlight of their cruise, and swimming with turtles was amazing. I got to thinking about swimming with Turtles, and how much the kids would like that. I could not get this out of my head. So I decided to switch over to this tour. When I tried this on-line before the cruise it said that it was full. I was so bummed….. After my success with Palo, I decided to ask on board about this excursion. I asked on the first day and they said it was full, but they would put me on a wait list.

Back to pirate night… I called Guest Services back and they said if I came down, they would book us on the Turtle Excursion…..YAY! By this time it was close to midnight, so Guest Services was deserted. The lady there told me there wasn’t room….I explained how they had called and I had just talked to them, and they said there WAS room. They seemed confused and I was getting a little upset. I was tired, and tomorrow morning was an early day in St Thomas. She talked to her supervisor, and they told me they were not authorized to do this. What??? So they asked me to go to The Shore Excursion at 7 am the next morning when they opened. Sigh…..If we didn’t get on the new excursion we didn’t need to leave for Trunk Bay until 9:30. I was really hoping to get some sleep. But if we made the new excursion then we had to be at Promenade Lounge by 8:00am. What to do???

Tomorrow…St Thomas/St. John……Oh my……Oh my…

 

[wilma-bride]

I was so excited to see an update from you. The beach looks beautiful, we have been wondering what to do in St Maarten - I really am not that bothered about the beach since we get Castaway Cay leater int he cruise so think we may do the Under 2 Flags tour.

Can't wait to see what you did about your excursions. Meanwhile, I am going to read up about Turtle Cove - that sounds amazing!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Love your trip report. Signing on for more

 

[kimkdmm =)]

Too funny about the taxi...

Le Galion looks so beautiful, love your pictures...sounds like you guys had such a wonderful day!!!

Hmmm, haven't had a chance to see Gnomeo and Julliet... maybe I will skip that one

Oh no... sorry about the hassle setting up the Turtle Excursion... hope it all works out!!! Looking forward to more!!!

 

[MagicMe]

You left us hanging???????

Nice TR. Just wanted to note that we also LOVE John Charles!!!! We first saw him on our DD Western cruise in 2008. Our next and most recent cruise was the WBTA and my son kept saying he hoped that we would have him again. Well after docking on this side of the ocean, true enough, John Charles came aboard!! There were so many adults on this cruise that they held all of the adult shows in the main theater as opposed to Rockin Bar D. This really worked out and John had so much fun with this huge crowd that we went long! Of course, we are hoping that they'll fly him into Alaska for our cruise in August!! DCL - are you listening????

 

[NAJmom]

I promise I will get on tonight or tomorrow morning and fill you in on our St Thomas day. Sometimes I forget that people are actually reading this!

Here is a funny John Charles story. My husband and I walked into Cove Cafe the morning after one of John Charles' shows. He was on one of the sofas, working on his computer. I got all excited and whispered to DH, "Look, that is John Charles...right next to us." DH told me I was acting like we just ran into the president or something....

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

count me in! It is our first first cruise on Magic in Oct too. I CAN'T WAIT!!

 

[NAJmom]

Day 5 St. Thomas (Wednesday)
Several months before the cruise we had booked the St John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel Excursion. DH and I had done that excursion many years ago and wanted to introduce our kids to snorkeling and show them the beautiful beach of Trunk Bay. However the week before our cruise I read a review on the Dis board written by a man who had done an excursion that included time at a beautiful beach AND time to snorkel with sea turtles. He raved about how this was the highlights of his cruise, and how much his kids had enjoyed swimming with sea turtles. I couldn’t get that image out of my head, and finally, a couple of days before our cruise I decided to switch excursions. Of course when I tried to do this on-line it said the sea turtle excursion was full. So we kept our St John Trunk Bay excursion and I decided to check once we were on board. After my on-board good luck with booking Palo, I was feeling optimistic about our chances. The first day I went and talked to them at the excursion desk and the man said it was still full, but he would put us on a waitlist.

On Tuesday night after the Pirate show and fireworks we received a call saying that there was room and we could go on the the Full Day Caribbean Sail and Snorkel to Turtle Cove and Honeymoon Beach Excursion. Hooray! I went down to Guest Services and she told me that she was not authorized to print tickets, and she didn’t know if there was room. (Even thought they had JUST called me!) So she told me the best thing to do was to come back when the Excursion Desk opened, at 7:00am, and see what they said. Even though I hated to get up so early, since I still didn’t have tickets for the excursion we wanted, I decided it was worth it. I was there at 7:00am when they opened (It was fun to walk around the ship that early when it was so empty.) The man told me there was space, and so we switched excursions, and he printed off our new tickets. I called my DH and told him to get the kids up, because we had made it! Yay! We had to be at The Promenade Lounge by 8 am, so we really had to hustle to make it on time. Of course once we got there we basically sat for almost 45 minutes for the other people to get there……At about 8:45 we boarded our tender. (I forgot to mention that because of the number of cruise ships at St Thomas that day we had to tender in.) When we got off at St Thomas our guide was waiting for us. We didn’t know if we would get the pirate type ship, or another type boat. I think it was a catamaran, but I can never remember boat types, so you can look at the picture to see.

Even though the Pirate boat looked pretty cool, we were happy we were on the other boat. We were able to move around much easier than the people on their boat, and we went faster. But I don’t think you get to choose your boat – they just assigned us into groups. As we boarded we had to leave our shoes in tubs, and we did not see them for the rest of the day. Our crew consisted of our Captain; I think his name was Jim (?) and his assistants were Tony and Al. These guys were great – very funny, and easy to talk to. I have been on boat excursions before where I felt like the crew was just being nice for the tips. These guys were not like that. They were very easy to hang out with, and always offered to take family pictures for us. We sailed off, and it took around 45 minutes or so to get to Turtle Cove. It was an absolutely beautiful day. The sea was just shining today – really gorgeous and we could not have asked for better weather. They gave us a quick talk on rules, and instructions for those that had not snorkeled before.



When we arrived at Turtle Cove we noticed that we were one of several small boats with groups of snorkelers. Everything looked perfect and I was very excited.

Of course, this is when DS7 had other plans…..Once the boat stopped, my DS7 told me he was sick and he would not be able to get in the water. I knew he wasn’t sick, but that he was scared and didn’t want to get in the ocean. Granted, this was the first time he had ever gotten off a boat into deep water, but there was a ramp so you didn’t have to jump off the side. And yes, the water was probably about 40 feet deep. But he didn’t know that….. I was afraid this was going to happen……so I patiently told him that he I was sure he would have fun in the water, that I would hold his hand, and that it was so much fun to see the turtles. He told me he could see the turtles from the boat, (BTW, you can’t) and that there was no reason for him to get in the water. I quietly counted to 10….and tried reasoning with him again. Mom and Dad were so sure that he would love this….he was a big 7 year old boy and we were sure he could do this blah blah blah…. By now most of the people were off the boat. Al was leading a group off to the area where the sea turtles were, and I was missing it. I don’t know if I mentioned this yet, but snorkeling is one of my FAVORITE things to do……

There was another family still on the boat with a little girl about the same age as my son. She started to cry and said she wasn’t going in either. That mom took a different approach and picked the little girl up and THREW her overboard. I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or jump in and save her. The little girl came up screaming! My DS7 saw this and got even more scared. I told him I would not throw him in, but that we spent a lot of money on this and I expected him to try it. By now the group is gone, and I can’t see my DH or my other sons. I started to get angry, because I really wanted to be with my other sons the first time they experienced snorkeling, especially with the sea turtles. I told DS it was time to get in, and I started to move to the ramp. DS started to cry, and I had one of those mommy moments where you wish someone could just magically tell you what to do. On one hand I did not want to traumatize the poor kid. But I also kept thinking about how I knew he would like it if he just tried it, and why did I spend over $400 to take my family on this once in a lifetime opportunities, and now BOTH of us were missing it! So that is when I decided that if he would try it and then decided he hated it I would let him get back on the boat. But to not even try this was not a choice. The captain was watching, so I told DS very calmly, that he better get in that water with me, or I would find the time out area on the boat. I told him I didn’t know exactly where the time out area was, but it was probably down in the bottom of the boat and most kids thought it was pretty scary!!!

There you have it! I have admitted my bad mommy moment on a public forum, but sometimes even the best of us sink to a low place to finally get their child to do what is best. DS is so scared of the idea of a scary, dark, time out room on the boat that he follows me, sobbing. I wanted to sob too. At that moment I wondered why I didn’t leave DS on the Magic where he could happily be playing in the Kids Club. Meanwhile, my DH and sons are not in sight, the group is gone, and I am sure we only have like 10 minutes left before we leave. DS grabs on to my back and we enter the water. He hates it, because he is not used to being in deep water with waves moving around him. I try putting his mask on so he can look down but he wants none of it. We desperately set off, me hauling 75 pound DS on my back, while trying to find DH and sons. Oh, and I still haven’t seen a #%&* turtle yet!

Wow, since I spent so much time on our little turtle adventure I am out of time for today. I will try to get on and finish tomorrow. Don’t worry; you will see why this day turned out to be my absolute favorite of the trip!

 

[jinia]

You can't leave us hanging like this! Loving your report!