January 19, 2002 Magical Cruise! St Maarten/St Thomas/St John

[IrishCowboy]

Part 3 -
Our cast, DW Vicki (35), DD Autumn (11), DS Billy (5) and myself, Bill (40).

Tuesday
We had pre-booked the morning Golden Eagle Catamaran excursion prior to our cruise. I think we had close to 50 DIS-ers on this excursion. We had to meet in the Promenade lounge at 7:45. We were informed that we would be heading to an alternate beach due to weather/wave conditions and given the opportunity to withdraw from the excursion and receive a full refund. By 8:30 we were heading off the ship towards the catamaran that was docked nearby. Once onboard, we headed off to Mullet Bay. The crew served complimentary drinks (soda/punch). We docked about 25 yards off shore and had about 1.5 hours on the beach to snorkel or just relax. The crew also served us drinks on the beach. Everyone had a great time, this was one of the highlights from the trip! Just a few notes about this excursion:
-Mullet Bay Beach is a french beach, there are a few topless women
-Bring some cash along. Beach chairs were rented for $2. The crew also sells t-shirts on the way back to the ship. I picked up a nice t-shirt for $12. The crew will also hit you up for tips as you leave the ship. I overheard few passengers comment that they didn't bring any cash and weren't prepared to make purchases or tip.
-This was a great excursion!!! Price is $62/36.

We returned to our cabin, changed clothes and headed to Lumiere's for lunch. After lunch, DD Autumn wanted to stay in the Oceaneer's Lab as Vicki, Billy and myself set off for some shopping. We caught the water taxi to the shopping area. The water taxi is $5 all day for adults, free for children. FYI: Shopping is much better in St Maarten. Prices on liquor, clothing, and jewelry are much cheaper than St Thomas. We picked up a few items and some nice Australian Opal pendants and a gold chain at Ororama Jewellers. They provided some free cokes as my DW made her choices.

Unfortunately, we missed the sail away party (7:00PM) on deck 9 because we had early seating. Another drawback of early seating. On our last cruise, we had a blast at the sailaway party.

Wednesday
We had to go to the Walt Disney Theatre at 7:00am to clear customs. What a joke! The customs official didn't even look at our ID's. At least we were up and ready to go. After grabbing a quick breakfast at Topsiders, we were off the ship at 8:10. We grabbed a taxi ($32 for the 4 of us) and headed towards Redhawk to catch the ferry to St John. We arrived in plenty of time to catch the 9:00am ferry ($3 for adults, $1 for children). Once on St John, we caught a taxi ($12) to Trunk Bay Beach ($4 entrance fee for adults, free for children). WOW!! Trunk Bay Beach is beautiful!! A true island paradise. We were on the beach by 10:15am. After a few hours, we enjoyed a picnic lunch that we had packed in our soft-sided cooler. The beach has nice facilities, showers, restrooms, gift shop and food.

We headed back around 1:15 to catch the 2:00 ferry. We arrived back at the ship in plenty of time to do a little more shopping and restock on soft drinks.

After dinner we went to the 8:30 'Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer'. Its a nice show, but very frustrating. I'm no Disney trivia expert, but I could do much better than some of these contestants. I don't think anyone won more than $80.

 

[Pam]

It sounds as though your family had a lovely vacation. Those beaches sound heavenly! We did the 3 day cruise 1 1/2 years ago.

Your daughter has the same name as my daughter!

Thanks for sharing your trip and I look forward to the next portion!
Pam

 

[Pluto4President]

While I am one of the Mouseketeer game losers - $20 - who knew Tinkerbell had blue eyes, thought they were green. The one girl in from of us won close to $200 I believe.

Trust me, the questions always seem easier when you're watching from a far. Besides the ones we got stumped on, most of the other contestant's seemed easy

Anyway, my wife redeemed us by hitting Bingo for $372

 

[kcand sunshine]

Hello Irish cowboy. We're from B'ham also and you seem like you know alot about the cruise. I am a single mom taking DD9 and DS7 for Spring Break!!We're so excited except that our flight leaves at 5:25AM. Oh well. I hope they'll sleep on the bus to the port. WE are staying in room 6089 . Do you know much about its location? We have the late seating which I heard was fine for kids my ages. Our best friends went last year and said early seating was too rushed.We are doing the Golden Eagle catamaran. I had read about your trip and many others who thought it was awesome.What to do in the morning? We're doing the 1:00?Where is the good shopping in St. Maarten? We're doing the 9:30 Atlantis submarine trip and hoped to go to Magen's Bay for the afternoon. Any other suggestions for St. Thomas? Are the pools crowded? They look so small from pictures-are they small?My children are pretty self-sufficient having grown up w/out a dad so i feel comfortable letting them roam the ship. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Kathryn from B'ham

 

[IrishCowboy]

You'll have a great time...are you going during AEA week?

- Late seating worked better for us
- You'll love the Golden Eagle Catamaran
- Lots of shopping available as soon as you arrive in St Maarten from water taxi
-Magen's bay is beautiful. Make sure you take a soft sided cooler and some ziploc bags. At breakfast that morning, grab lots of fruit and some cookies and have a picnic at Magen's bay!
-Pools are crowded and very small.....I think my pool is bigger than all 3 combined! Get there early on days at sea to get a chair close to pools.

check out copies of recent navigators.

glad to help...let me know if you think of anything else!

 

[kcand sunshine]

Yes, it's AEA week-March 23-30. I know it'll be crowded but it was our only choice.I hadn't planned on taking a cooler. Can you eat somewhere on Magen's Bay or I guess we could eat on the boat b/f we go? Do we need to take birth cericficates everytime we get off boat? I'm a little confused about that.I may think of questions later. Thanks so much!!!