RV's March 17th, 2007 Eastern "Sharing the Magic with the Unmagic'ed" Cruise

[NHdisneylover]

For those who forget the baby oil (or are out of suitcase space) lotion aplied liberally and allowed to sit on the tatoo for a couple of minutes and then rubbed into it before washing off does the trick also. No way would DS let me scrub his face raw

 

[Babs417]

I think maybe you wake up to early> No beach day. Were was the flea market was it worth going to? Love your report your the best

 

[disneypoor]

Okay, the tattoo thing is almost even funnier than you breaking the bed! Loving the report!

 

[cntkg1]

Read every page of this TR during lunch today. Fantastic TR!! Must go now and wipe the "laughter spewage" from the screen.

Thanks for the laughs. Will definitely return tomorrow.

 

[Briarmom]

I'm not laughing at you...wait, yes I am.

 

[chepic]

Who needs Samantha Brown when you have Royal Vizier to show you around the ship!!! I do have 1 question...if the IL's are only 59, why are they so uptight? Are they transplanted New Englanders? If they are, I can understand that (being from RI), but otherwise, 59 is just so young!!

Keep it coming.....9 months to go for us, so we need to live vicariously through all of you who have gone before!!

cheryl

 

[lawhit88]

Wow!! Great TR!

I am going with the ILs in October (both will be 62 at the time). You are really scaring me

Thanks for all of the great info!!

 

[RoyalVizier]

For those who forget the baby oil (or are out of suitcase space) lotion aplied liberally and allowed to sit on the tatoo for a couple of minutes and then rubbed into it before washing off does the trick also. No way would DS let me scrub his face raw

Now ya tell me...

Were was the flea market was it worth going to?

The flea market was in the french capital of Marigot (I think), and yes, I'd say it was worth going to. I'm not really up on my flea markets, but it was a fascinating look at the culture. They had some really beautiful things for sale. I enjoyed myself. Since we were part of an organized excursion we only had 45 minutes there, and remember we got lost and wandered aimlessly for about 10 of those minutes, but we had enough time to take a good look around.

Okay, the tattoo thing is almost even funnier than you breaking the bed! Loving the report!

Thanks! I love that my antics can entertain...

Read every page of this TR during lunch today. Fantastic TR!! Must go now and wipe the "laughter spewage" from the screen.

Ewww!

Again, glad I can entertain you while you have your lunch.

I do have 1 question...if the IL's are only 59, why are they so uptight? Are they transplanted New Englanders?

This was just an entirely different experience for them. They'd never been anywhere in their entire lives, so to stick them on a ship with fancy dinners (to them anyway) and stage productions and just the sensory overload... they had a big adjustment to make.

Wow!! Great TR!

I am going with the ILs in October (both will be 62 at the time). You are really scaring me

I wouldn't take my in-law experience as the norm... my situation was probably on the more extreme end of the scale.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Again, I'm sorry there was such a huge gap of time in there with out an update. I'll try not to go that long again, but it may be a day or two before another pops up, just so you know.

 

[MagicMe]

Yeah - you remembered your loyal followers!
Once again, excellent updates! Really enjoying your report and the many unusual (?) happenings

 

[dreamcometrue]

great TR! I have only heard stories about RV's TR's, now I am actually reading one! I may have to look for the other one because I am curious now!

 

[Disneygrl36]

I can't believe you didn't go to the pirate party.........

Love the tattoo story....

Thanks for the updates........Did you have enough time to eat in Marigot instead of shop. Trying to decide on St Marteen excursion & thought the Under 2 Flags tour sounded interesting....DH wants to do the Rhino Riders.

Keep it coming

 

[lowtiger]

I am loving the Royal V's report.

I thought about how my DW's parents would have fared if we had taken them on our March 07 Eastern. MIL would probably have had fun but FIL would have been stir crazy. He does two things - plays golf and work around his house. My DW and I joked that since he couldn't play golf, we would get him one of the yellow jumpsuits and let him scrape and paint the ship. He probably would have loved it and if they had called on him to fix the bed after the little incident he would have been in heaven.
I had to laugh at the Shower H2O scene. We kept the shampoo and conditioner and when I need a reminder of the cruise I pull them out. There is something about the smell of that shampoo that takes me back.

SHOPPING NOTE FROM THE MAINLAND. My DW found a bunch of the H20 products on clearance at TJ Maxx 2 weeks ago. I was running out of what was left from the cruise so DW filled my Easter Basket with H20. It was a steal - a bottle of the shower gel was $3.00, they also had the body lotion, ....

I'm ready for the next installment. RV, you could be a professional travel writer. Your TR is not just informative, it brings in so much of the personal experience. Most travel writers are so dry and distant you wonder if they really went on the trip or just phoned the story in. Keep up the great reporting.

Lowtiger

 

[Babs417]

I want you to go on our cruise so you can write the trip report. Its going to be a full moon trip

 

[firstmickey]

Ok slacker....you had all weekend....let's get writing!

 

[RoyalVizier]

RV’s March 17th 7-night Eastern “Sharing the Magic with the Unmagic’ed” Cruise!

Cast of Characters:

Me – age 30
DW – age 34
DD – age 14
Father in Law (we’ll go with FIL on that one) – age 59
Mother in Law (we’ll go with MIL on that one) – age 59

Day 5 Part 1: A Battle for Breakfast and More Stars

I awoke at 5:30am with my face buried in my pillow. As I turned my head, the pillowcase rubbing against my cheek was an unwelcome reminder of the previous evening’s stupidity. I went into the bathroom with a grimace, fully expecting to see a red mass of mangled tissue or a bone protruding from my face, but it wasn’t that bad. A bit red, but my face was still intact. I’d thought maybe I’d loosened something in there and my face would just slide right off in the night.

I went up to Deck 10 to see the sights. What a gloriously gorgeous day! And we were heading towards the most gloriously gorgeous site! St. Thomas was breathtaking. This was the port we were looking forward to most. It was still dark outside, so everything was all lit up, speckles of light dotted along the mountain sides. I saw Capt. Thord on his perch just off the side of the ship doing his thing. In the distance I could see two other ships approaching, and we later learned that there were seven ships in port that day!

The plan for the day was to go on the St. John Trunk Bay Beach and Snorkel Excursion which we’d had booked for months. This was one we were sure about. We’d researched St. Thomas and St. John and knew that we had to go over to St. John. Especially to Trunk Bay. The pictures of this beach are breathtaking and we couldn’t wait to experience it ourselves. FIL had decided the night before that he was not going to be joining us on the excursion. Between not knowing what to expect and not knowing exactly where things were, and not knowing how much walking would be involved, he decided it best to stay on board. MIL said she would come with us though. But before we could experience this lovely place, we needed to take care of some business. This morning is customs/immigration morning and you know what? I don’t really have all that much to say about the customs process. Once we got to the Walt Disney Theater it was fast and painless. It was the events leading up to that that weren’t for the faint of heart.

We received a paper in our stateroom the night before telling us what time to report to the theater. 7am was our time to go to the theater and then we had to be at Animators Palette at 7:15am for our excursion. Well we wanted to get something to eat before disembarking to we headed up to Topsiders. This was at about 6:15am or so. When the elevator doors opened to Deck 9 aft, we were greeted by a swarm of people. The landing area was completely full, people elbow to elbow jostling around trying to make their way here and there. There were lines going every which way into Topsiders and we couldn’t even get off of the elevator. We totally didn’t even think about this and certainly didn’t expect this. I guess immigration morning is naturally hectic for everyone. So we stayed on the elevator and went back down. We didn’t know what else to do. On the way down I mentioned Goofy’s. We could just get some pastries and fruit and stuff, but DW didn’t think that it opened until 7am. I thought differently, but didn’t really want to add to the air of frustration that was growing within the elevator. I ended up saying that I really thought Goofy’s opened at 6am so when we got back down to our floor, we went right back up to nine, fought through the crowd and saw that yes, Goofy’s was open and business was booming there as well. I heard snippits of conversation and it seemed that everyone felt the same way. The frustration was apparent and I imagined a brawl breaking out over the last muffin or a cheese danish. After getting a plate of odds and ends we took it back to the room, got dressed, and then headed to immigration in the Walt Disney Theater. We walked in, they looked at us, they looked at our ID’s and then we left. That was it. This is nothing to worry about whatsoever. Aside from the early hour for some, this is harmless and is nothing to get worked up over at all. Just plan for breakfast that morning!!

We met in Animator’s Palate and again Pikey was our guide, and again we were assigned the red Pluto’s. He escorted us to Deck 1 Forward to board the ferry. This excursion was set up beautifully!! First off, we had to tender, which was not something that we enjoyed but what are you going to do, right? Seems that about every six weeks or so the Disney Magic has to tender instead of dock at St. Thomas due to rotation and of course we hit that tender week. Ah well… BUT…. What was great was that it was set up so that the ferry to St. John acted as the tender, came right up to the side of the ship and whisked us away to St. John! I thought that we would have to tender to St. Thomas, get a bus/taxi to another dock and then hop the ferry to St. John. I’m not quite sure why I thought that, but that’s what I was expecting. So to learn otherwise after a bit of a hectic start was great!

A few words about the ferry… it was a very large ferry with two decks. DD and I sat on the upper deck and DW and MIL sat down on the lower deck. I was very worried about MIL during this ride because it became very apparent over the course of the cruise thus far that she really didn’t like the movement of the ship or even the water for the most part. So now facing a 45 minute ferry ride on a much smaller vessel where the movement would be much more apparent had me a bit worried. I also felt kinda bad because I felt somewhat like DD and I had ditched them to sit up top. I didn’t want DW to feel abandoned, but did I change my mind and go sit with them? No.

So we were off. Our tour guide Cujo gave us a ton of information about everything! The history, the culture, the weather. It was very entertaining. He also pointed out some of the sights. Madonna’s house. Michael Jordan’s house. Alan Arkin’s house. David Letterman’s house. All beautiful of course. Then we saw the ferry. Not ours, but another ferry… half submerged… off nearer to shore! Uh, did I say half submerged?! Cujo explained that it had run aground the previous Saturday. There had been 29 people on board and all had gotten to safety, but the boat was still there and they were working on removing it. JUST WHAT I NEEDED MIL TO SEE! I imagined my DW down the on the bottom deck distracting her from seeing that sight or maybe holding her down, wrestling her to the aisle to keep her from raising a ruckus. This mixed with the extremely significant movement of the boat had me in a state or major worry!

Up Next: DW Saves the Day and Heaven on Earth

 

[NHdisneylover]

Thanks for the installment. Please keep 'em comming. Too funny about the sinking ferry being there when you've got the MIL along, what are the odds

 

[chepic]

RV....from how you described it, your MIL must have just died!! As I said earlier, we are New Englander's and I can only imagine my own IL and how they would be....I don't think they would ever get off the ship, scratch that....they would never go in the first place


Also, I guess your tip would be to order room service for the St. Thomas day.

Keep the info coming....

Che

 

[RLccweems]

i'm loving it....keep the report coming!


lettie

 

[RoyalVizier]

SHOPPING NOTE FROM THE MAINLAND. My DW found a bunch of the H20 products on clearance at TJ Maxx 2 weeks ago. I was running out of what was left from the cruise so DW filled my Easter Basket with H20. It was a steal - a bottle of the shower gel was $3.00, they also had the body lotion

Ohhhhh... I'll have to check it out! Thanks!

I'm ready for the next installment. RV, you could be a professional travel writer. Your TR is not just informative, it brings in so much of the personal experience. Most travel writers are so dry and distant you wonder if they really went on the trip or just phoned the story in. Keep up the great reporting.

Thank you so much! I really appreciate everyone reading it and enjoying it.

Ok slacker....you had all weekend....let's get writing!

Trying!

Thanks for the installment. Please keep 'em comming. Too funny about the sinking ferry being there when you've got the MIL along, what are the odds

Riiiiiiight! I couldn't believe it.

Also, I guess your tip would be to order room service for the St. Thomas day.

I'm thinking!

More to come very soon...

 

[RoyalVizier]

RV’s March 17th 7-night Eastern “Sharing the Magic with the Unmagic’ed” Cruise!

Cast of Characters:

Me – age 30
DW – age 34
DD – age 14
Father in Law (we’ll go with FIL on that one) – age 59
Mother in Law (we’ll go with MIL on that one) – age 59

Day 5 Part 2: DW Saves the Day and Heaven on Earth

St. John is a place where I could spend an entire vacation. Three or four nights in a beach resort with nothing to do but lounge and shop and eat and lounge would be perfect. St. John is utterly stunning. I was glad when we finally docked for MIL’s sake. I was anxious to see how she was and if she survived the ride over. I saw DW first as we were making our way off of the ferry, and I wondered for a moment if she’d had it with her mother and tossed her to the fish, but then I saw MIL bringing up the rear. She was absolutely fine, which confused me a bit, because she really doesn’t do all that well with the movement of the Disney Magic, but she’s fine on a turbulent ferry?

At the dock we boarded these cool little open-air buses that were going to take us to Trunk Bay. Our guide Felix showed us the sites as we wound up and down these narrow streets. Kinda scary, but fun! We stopped at three different overlooks along the way. Well, they weren’t necessarily overlooks, we just stopped along the side of the road, but anywho… here’s a pic:

After the final overlook, as we were driving along, the breeze blowing against my face, admiring natures awesome creation… the crystal sky, the crystal azure water, I noticed a man a row in front of me start to turn green. He was trying to whisper to a lady elsewhere in the bus and the look of alarm on her face was well… alarming! Turns out that this guy’s drivers license flew out of the bus. This guy and his wife started arguing a bit, with good reason I suppose, about how he was going to get back on the ship and such. Well they notified the driver and he stopped and started backing up on this narrow, steep road! My pessimistic mind took over and I thought there was no way we would ever find this guys license. I mean, there was a two foot wide shoulder to our left and then a drop off to the ocean below. I just couldn’t imagine the license falling neatly to the dirt shoulder. I of course imagined it flying to high heaven, over the side and into the fathoms below. We’d backed up a good way when my DW (love her!) shouted and pointed where it was on the shoulder. So someone hopped out and got it and the day was saved! I bet that guy was relieved as all get out!

After that ordeal, we arrived at Trunk Bay which is one of the planet’s most stunning locations. First of all, the facility of Trunk Bay is super! There is a nice parking lot, then a trail leading in passed restrooms, lockers, changing rooms, and showers. So there is plenty of storage space and comfortable facilities. We were led as a group down a path to a station set up with snorkel gear. They ran through some rules and gave us some info on the beach, gave us our gear and turned us loose. I just can’t express the atmosphere of the place. The weather was flawless, not a cloud in the sky, the water was practically blinding and the sand sensational. Trunk Bay is a place that everyone should experience in person.

So we just hung out and had a great time. MIL got in the water up to her ankles once, but stuck to the decision that the ocean wasn’t her thing. At 11:30am we had to head out. The trip back was set up so that the bus would take us back to the dock, the ferry would take us into downtown Charlotte Amalie where we would then have to hop a regular tender back to the Magic. All of that went well except for the fact that it started to rain right when we arrived in Charlotte Amalie. We were all grubby and tired… you know how it is after you’ve spent several hours at a beach, but we wanted to take a bit of time to look around some of the shops and they of course had a flea market area as well. Our hearts weren’t totally into it, especially with the rain and how crazy it was. Charlotte Amalie is a hustling bustling downtown district that’s for sure. The crowds (remember, seven ships in port that day) the traffic were nuts. Then the rain really started to come down. So we decided to call it a day and tender back to the ship. Luckily the tender boat was there ready for us, but unluckily, we sat there for a good twenty minutes next to open windows in the rain waiting for others so that we could leave with a full boat. Then, when we did start to move, the rain came horizontally into the open windows and soaked everyone even further. It was a pretty miserable ride back to the ship.

Once settled back on the ship we ate (of course) and napped and got showers. The rest of the day was pretty normal. We hung out; we went to the Promenade Lounge and played So You Think You Know Your TV Tunes where we played miserably. Right before dinner I really started to notice the movement of the ship. I was so conscious of it this trip, it kind of drove me nuts. Dinner was at Lumiere’s. During dinner, Belle, the Fairy Godmother, Stitch, the Mad Hatter, and Alice all ran through the dining rooms at different times. I was able to snap a pic of David before the Fairy Godmother ran away.

Here’s some of what we ate:

Bacon Cheese Tartlet

Fruit Plate

Weird, I don't have pictures of the main courses... sorry!

After dinner, between having stuffed my belly and the movement of the ship I felt rather ill. I needed to go to bed. So I quick ran up to Palo to get a menu. I wanted the in-laws to look it over before our dinner reservation tomorrow night in case they didn’t want to go. So I grabbed that and then it was lights out.

Up Next: Princesses Undressed!