Me - Heidi age 33
Hubby - Ryan age 33
McKaylee - dd age 10
Miles - ds age 9
Tanner - ds age 5
Tuesday May 4, 2004
LAND HO- St. Maarten Day
Woke up this morning to LAND and NO motion! What a great day this was going to be! I have never in my cruising life been so glad to hit land!
We went to Topsiders for breakfast and then set off for Orient Beach. It is beautiful there and there were only a few nudists around and our kids never noticed them once *or if they did they didnt mention it*. It was $30.00 each way for our family to go to Orient but we loved it.
Once we got to Orient we got hit by the hair braiders. A few were trying to get me to have dds hair braided but at the time she didnt want to so we declined. They all told me if she changed her mind to come and find THEM because they were the best, cleanest, cheapest whatever. They wanted $20.00 for 2 beach chairs and an umbrella there so we just sat on the sand.
5 year old was still complaining about his throat but the activity helped him forget about it. He did play in the ocean and loved it and it didnt seem to make him any worse. I on the other hand felt like crap UNTIL we hit the beach and then I started feeling better.
Finally a hair braider talked dd into having her hair done and we wanted to have a headband. (We tried to get it done on the ship but it was full) so I walked with dd over to have it done. The girl told me she would do her headband for $30.00 and I thought that was a pretty good deal so I said yes. About mid way through the process the first woman who had hit us up came walking by and all he## broke loose between her, me and the woman doing the actual braiding. After about 20 minutes dd was finished and she looked darling. This is where it turned really ugly. The braider demanded $46.00 instead of the $30.00 we agreed on at the beginning and we had a knock out drag out about it. She actually threatened to get the authorities on me and I figured since we had a verbal agreement she might actually win so I gave in and gave her the money. I was furious but lesson learned.
We stayed about another hour and then walked out to go back to the ship for lunch and then shopping. One thing I didnt realize is how there are NO taxis there if you need one. I finally conned one who had 30 min to kill before his scheduled ride to take us back to the port. Another $30.00 and we were back to the pier.
We went to lunch at Topsiders and this is where we decided that we were pretty disappointed with lunch there but had no desire to go to the restaurant.
We then set off to get some Guava berry and some souvenirs. It was so hot. We rode the water taxi for $5.00 for an all day pass for the adults and the kids under 12 were free.
Loved downtown St. Maarten and had a blast walking around. Got some Guava berry and a few other bottles of alcohol and the kids some souvenirs, and the boys some tropical shirts, saw some of our Dis board friends walking around and then set out back on the Water Taxi to go to the ship for the day.
It was about 4:30 when we set out for the ship and we got ready for our dinner in Lumieres again. The meal tonight was mediocre at best in our opinion.
Tonights show was Home on the Range in the Walt Disney Theatre but we skipped it and went to Pin Trading in the atrium and then back to the cabin so the boys could put on some shorts.
Tonight was tropicalifragilisticexpialidocious deck party night but our 9 year old didnt want to go. We left him in the cabin and told him where we would be and took the other 2 kids up on deck for the party. We had a good time but had to fork out a fortune for glow things for the kids. The 5 year old still complaining off and on about his throat so, I kept a supply of lifesavers with me and he was fine with those. My throat was under control with Tylenol and I felt much better. I had no fever or anything and 5 year old still hadnt shown anything other than complaining about a sore throat. DD started complaining that her throat was getting a little raw so we left the party and went back to the rooms.
The motion tonight was non existent which was SO nice! 9 year old had fallen fast asleep watching Cartoon Network so we put the other kids to bed with hefty doses of Tylenol and Tylenol cold and cough and we sat in our cabin and watched Intolerable Cruelty.
We knew we needed to get to bed because we had immigration in the morning. They put a note on our bed that told us when certain groups needed to appear at immigration. It was 6 -6:30 for those on morning excursions, 7:00 to 7:30 for decks 1,2 & 5, 7:30 to 8:00 for decks 6, 7, and 8 and then Guests who didnt want to go ashore were from 8:00 to 8:30. It was nice to find that out since I had prepared the kids for a 6 am wakeup call but instead we had a 7:15 one.
Click here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=566880 for our St. Thomas day report
Click here http://community.webshots.com/user/hydster to see our pictures. Still waiting for regular film to come back these are just the digitals (and I didn't upload many that included me!)
Hubby - Ryan age 33
McKaylee - dd age 10
Miles - ds age 9
Tanner - ds age 5
Tuesday May 4, 2004
LAND HO- St. Maarten Day
Woke up this morning to LAND and NO motion! What a great day this was going to be! I have never in my cruising life been so glad to hit land!
We went to Topsiders for breakfast and then set off for Orient Beach. It is beautiful there and there were only a few nudists around and our kids never noticed them once *or if they did they didnt mention it*. It was $30.00 each way for our family to go to Orient but we loved it.
Once we got to Orient we got hit by the hair braiders. A few were trying to get me to have dds hair braided but at the time she didnt want to so we declined. They all told me if she changed her mind to come and find THEM because they were the best, cleanest, cheapest whatever. They wanted $20.00 for 2 beach chairs and an umbrella there so we just sat on the sand.
5 year old was still complaining about his throat but the activity helped him forget about it. He did play in the ocean and loved it and it didnt seem to make him any worse. I on the other hand felt like crap UNTIL we hit the beach and then I started feeling better.
Finally a hair braider talked dd into having her hair done and we wanted to have a headband. (We tried to get it done on the ship but it was full) so I walked with dd over to have it done. The girl told me she would do her headband for $30.00 and I thought that was a pretty good deal so I said yes. About mid way through the process the first woman who had hit us up came walking by and all he## broke loose between her, me and the woman doing the actual braiding. After about 20 minutes dd was finished and she looked darling. This is where it turned really ugly. The braider demanded $46.00 instead of the $30.00 we agreed on at the beginning and we had a knock out drag out about it. She actually threatened to get the authorities on me and I figured since we had a verbal agreement she might actually win so I gave in and gave her the money. I was furious but lesson learned.
We stayed about another hour and then walked out to go back to the ship for lunch and then shopping. One thing I didnt realize is how there are NO taxis there if you need one. I finally conned one who had 30 min to kill before his scheduled ride to take us back to the port. Another $30.00 and we were back to the pier.
We went to lunch at Topsiders and this is where we decided that we were pretty disappointed with lunch there but had no desire to go to the restaurant.
We then set off to get some Guava berry and some souvenirs. It was so hot. We rode the water taxi for $5.00 for an all day pass for the adults and the kids under 12 were free.
Loved downtown St. Maarten and had a blast walking around. Got some Guava berry and a few other bottles of alcohol and the kids some souvenirs, and the boys some tropical shirts, saw some of our Dis board friends walking around and then set out back on the Water Taxi to go to the ship for the day.
It was about 4:30 when we set out for the ship and we got ready for our dinner in Lumieres again. The meal tonight was mediocre at best in our opinion.
Tonights show was Home on the Range in the Walt Disney Theatre but we skipped it and went to Pin Trading in the atrium and then back to the cabin so the boys could put on some shorts.
Tonight was tropicalifragilisticexpialidocious deck party night but our 9 year old didnt want to go. We left him in the cabin and told him where we would be and took the other 2 kids up on deck for the party. We had a good time but had to fork out a fortune for glow things for the kids. The 5 year old still complaining off and on about his throat so, I kept a supply of lifesavers with me and he was fine with those. My throat was under control with Tylenol and I felt much better. I had no fever or anything and 5 year old still hadnt shown anything other than complaining about a sore throat. DD started complaining that her throat was getting a little raw so we left the party and went back to the rooms.
The motion tonight was non existent which was SO nice! 9 year old had fallen fast asleep watching Cartoon Network so we put the other kids to bed with hefty doses of Tylenol and Tylenol cold and cough and we sat in our cabin and watched Intolerable Cruelty.
We knew we needed to get to bed because we had immigration in the morning. They put a note on our bed that told us when certain groups needed to appear at immigration. It was 6 -6:30 for those on morning excursions, 7:00 to 7:30 for decks 1,2 & 5, 7:30 to 8:00 for decks 6, 7, and 8 and then Guests who didnt want to go ashore were from 8:00 to 8:30. It was nice to find that out since I had prepared the kids for a 6 am wakeup call but instead we had a 7:15 one.
Click here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=566880 for our St. Thomas day report
Click here http://community.webshots.com/user/hydster to see our pictures. Still waiting for regular film to come back these are just the digitals (and I didn't upload many that included me!)
