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!

2-9-2005 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.