2005 Feb.---Disney Wonder Cruise (7 nt), Let's try again!--St. Maarten; St. Thomas; Castaway Cay

2005 Feb.---Disney Wonder Cruise (7 nt), Let's try again!--St. Maarten; St. Thomas; Castaway Cay

Feb. 2005- Disney Wonder 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise:

Disney Wonder!

After the disastrous Disney Magic cruise the year before (where Dad attempted drowning, as he called it), I emailed Disney Cruise lines to see if they were aware of what happened on one of their sanctioned excursions. One of the things cruise lines boost about using their excursions is the "safety checks" they make on the providers.  I figured they needed to "check" this group again.  About a month later, I received a coupon in the mail for Buy One, Get One Free on another Disney Cruise. They certainly weren't obliged to do that, but we appreciated it and took them up on their offer to cruise with them again. This time, we elected to go on a 7 night cruise of the Eastern Caribbean and enjoyed an ocean view room.  (To check out that disastrous cruise, click here: Disastrous 1st cruise  )

2-5-2005 embarkation day:
  
2-6,7-2005 Sea Days:

2-8-2005 St. Maarten:

2-9-2005 St. Thomas; St. John USVI

2-10-2005 Sea day:

2-11-2005 Castaway Cay:

 Our week ended too soon and soon we were getting off our cruise.

I wouldn't mind cruising on Disney cruiselines again, but I think the price will probably keep me from doing so. But this was a very good vacation. Thanks, Disney! Thanks, Dad! Thanks, God, for keeping us safe this time!

2-11-2005 Castaway Cay:

Our last port was the treacherous Disney private island, Castaway Cay. This time we did not book an excursion. But we did find the adult area of the island. They do have a tram that runs there from near the ship, but we chose to walk. 

The area was beautiful! We found a couple lounge chairs and parked there for a good part of the day.

 I did do some snorkeling there and was surprised to find some wildlife in that area---a stingray, a barracuda, and a few other small fish.

For the adventurous ones, they do have several water toys for rent, such as these Sea-Dos.

A couple more pictures around Castaway Cay-

 Castaway Cay as seen from the ship.  The family beaches are the 2 closest to the ship.  The adult beach is around the point.

 And our last towel critter.  I bet I could make this one! 

Then came the dreaded time to pack up our stuff and try to enjoy our last evening on the ship.

 

2-10-2005 sea day:

Another day to explore the ship.  It is a pretty ship.

 looking down to the atrium

 a quick email for a ridiculous amount o money.  Good thing I'm a fast typer!

 Love, Love, Love looking at the ocean!

We enjoyed our dinners with our table mates. One of the nights was pirate night. Even the menues were made in that theme.

Also true to the theme we were given bandanas. Here's our server joking around with my Dad.

 

We were seated with 2 young families, but they were both very interesting and their kids were very well behaved.

 Another night at dinner-

We also partook in a beer tasting. I believe it was something like $15/person. It was held in our favorite spot---the sports bar.

Since Dad got his beer, I was able to get my tea! We elected not to do the Palo dinner this trip, but did go there for a high tea. There was a fee of something like $5@ for it, but it was well worth it. Along with a choice of some really good teas, there were assortments of finger sandwiches and scones and such. It truely was a high tea--unlike the ones I've been to on a couple other cruises. I was born in England, and drinking tea was ingrained in me every since.

 Walking into the Palo restaurant.  We had reservations for another steak dinner here, but enjoyed our table mates so much that we ended up cancelling our Palo reservation. 

Another thing we did on board was the free tour of the bridge. Although they don't actually let you in the bridge, we were able to look down into it and a staff member talked to us.

 We also enjoyed our nightly towel animals

 Although I usually prefer port days, Disney does have a lot of neat things for adults to do on board their ships. 
 

2-9-2005 St. Thomas; St. John USVI:

Our next port was St. Thomas. This was another impressive island, although we didn't spend much time here. We took a ship excursion that went to St. john.
 The boat that took us there actually picked us up right by our ship, so we didn't even get to go into town.

 But the 30 minute or so ride to St. John was really nice. 

Then we boarded open air buses and headed into the National Park.  The bus stopped a couple times at some very scenic view points.  1st one was here with a view of Cruz Bay.

I had heard a lot about the snorkeling at Trunk Bay and really wanted to go there----No, my Dad did not snorkel! Here is a stop we made on the way to Trunk Bay for another photo-op.

Trunk Bay was really beautiful. My Dad happily sat under a palm tree with a book, while I did a little snorkeling.

I was somewhat disappointed. They have a snorkel trail in the water, but the trail doesn't take you by much in the way of good coral and, therefore, good fish viewing. Many people were venturing past the snorkel trail and going by the little island where I imagine the snorkeling was better, but I figured I'd be good and stick with the area we were suppose to stay in (especially since we were on a discounted cruise due to a near drowning incident).

More of the beautiful Trunk bay beach

 our open air "bus"

 Back on St. Thomas, we did get to wander around the port shops a little while.

 Then queued up and headed back onto the ship.

 but not before getting a picture of our ships name.

 views of the beautiful bay from our ship

 some of the other ships in port.  There are actually 2 ports here.   Usually we're at the smaller port which is the HAL port.  It was nice being here at the big port of Havensight near the main town of Charlotte Amelie.

 views as we sailed away

 almost out of the bay

This is one of my favorite islands.  In fact, in 2009 we did a 9 night land vacation here and have been here on cruises several more times. 

 

2-8-2005   St. Maarten:

Our first port was St. Maarten. It has the world record for being the smallest island in the world to host two nations---Sint Maarten on the Dutch side and St. Martin on the French side.  It is a 37 sq mile island that features all the charm of the Caribbean.  

We did a ship excursion around the island

 Our tour stopped on at the French capital of Marigot for a couple hours.

 There our excursion also took us on a glass bottom boat trip. I wasn't too impressed with the glass bottom boat part

 heading down the pier to our boat

 the water wasn't all that clear and the only thing we really saw was the few colorless fish by the scuba diver feeding them.

 Now I know where Santa goes after a busy holiday season!

 After our boat ride, we had about an hour to roam around.  There was a shopping mall right there, so we walked through it quickly.

 Back on the bus and back to the Dutch side of the island.

View of Marigot from Fort Louis

 More of Marigot

 We got off the tour bus by the boardwalk in Philipsburg. 

 walking along the boardwalk

 beautiful area

 The beach and water here is beautiful! 

 Lots of interesting looking buildings near the beach, too.

 There is a boat ferry that runs from Philipsburg to the port, but it's only about a mile walk back, so Dad and I elected to walk.  It was an interesting walk.  At one point it looked like we were walking past an old boat graveyard.  Made for some fun photos of rusted metal parts.

Back at the port and the port shops. 

I was rather impressed with this island. There were lots of hills and beautiful beaches.