We slept in till 9:30 am on St. Maarten day since we didn’t have a specific time we needed to leave the ship.  We decided on this cruise to get in a number of relaxing beach days and this would be the first one.  We decided to return to one of the easiest beach stops there is, the Holland House.  This was recommended to us by the DCL Dude and this would be our second return. 

We needed some food first, so after getting ready, we headed upstairs for some breakfast from Cabanas.

After finishing breakfast, we left the ship around 10:30.  The Wonder was docked on the pier right next to a Fred Olsen ship.  This was the first time we’d ever encountered a Fred Olsen ship. 

The Wonder was looking splendid, as always!

Our first stop was the water taxi stand so we could get our tickets.  I detailed the procedure and walk in our previous visit to St. Maarten and it remained unchanged this time, with one exception.

The water taxi took us to a different pier, but it was still a relatively easy walk to the Holland House.  We actually enjoyed this walk as it was a bit more scenic. 

The walk was from the other end of the beach and took us past a good number of shops and restaurants.  We did get a lot of vendors encouraging us to visit their shops/bars/restaurants.  We told them no thank you, we were headed to the Holland House.  They all wished us a good day. 

After a short 5 minute walk, we were back at the Holland House.  We stopped at the outside bar and got our chairs and the Wifi code.  This time, the signal seemed to be able to reach the beach and we could use it all day long.   The cost was the same as last time, $25 for two chairs, an umbrella, and four drinks.

We picked some chairs that were close to the water, although the temperature was a bit chilly.  We enjoyed the sunshine while it was there, but the clouds would come and go.

Our view of the Wonder was great!  We also had a view of a thunderstorm that was rolling towards us.  With a good amount of warning, we knew we would have to leave the beach in a bit once it came though.  We had been on the beach about 45 minutes when we started to gather our items up.

We took our stuff and headed up to the main hotel once it started raining.  We decided to sit inside and use up some of our included drinks.  There wasn’t a lot of seating inside though, but we did manage to find a bench to sit on. 

We asked if we could sit in the hotel’s restaurant until the storm went over, since there were lots of open seats, but they wouldn’t let us.  The security guard was being very nice and letting people come in off the street to get out of the downpour.  After sitting inside for about 30 minutes, the storm passed and we headed back outside.

The weather warmed right back up and we continued to enjoy the beach until about 2 pm.

By the time 2 pm came around, we were getting a bit hungry and wanted to head back towards the ship for lunch.  We made sure to stop and get a picture of the cow!

On the way back to the ship, we decided to look for the Yoda Guy shop.  The shop and museum is run by Nick Maley, who was a make up artist on a number of Star Wars Movies. 

We found the shop by looking it up on the internet, then walked over to the address.  Once you find the door, you have to head upstairs.

It is pretty easy to figure out if you are in the right place.

The shop is free to enter, the museum has a per person charge.  Since we wanted to get back to the ship, we headed inside the shop for a quick look.  There are lots of drawings and models for sale.  Nick Maley was in the shop and talking with people as they went through the museum.

After looking around the shop, we headed back to the water taxi pier.  We almost missed the water taxi because of some last minute clothes shopping, but the water taxi was nice enough to wait for us since it was just a few extra seconds.  We made sure to tip them a few dollars extra!

We made it back on board without issue and took turns on using the shower in the room.  I headed up to get some lunch from the quick service locations (shawarma).  After a nice lunch, I went to Deck 10 to read and relax.  That quickly turned into a power nap.  Once I woke up, it was my turn in the shower so I headed back to the room.  Later, Nancy and I headed to the shops so she could get some sunglasses.  We decided to walk around the ship before we left port to get some pictures.

After the walk, we headed to the French Quarter Lounge so Nancy could look around since she didn’t get to experience it the day of boarding.  We let our friends know we were there and they joined us for a quick snack and some drinks.

After relaxing and talking for a while, we went to Azure for one of our favorite activities, the Silent Disco!  I think there were three different channels you could listen into with your headphones.  We stayed there until it was over, then we had to head to dinner.

Dinner tonight was in Animator’s Palate.  The menu was the standard menu, but the food was a little bit disappointing.  Some of the items were a bit cold and not quite right, but we let it slide.

One thing we noticed were these plastic cups.  Disney Cruise Line has made a number of changes recently to help the environment, including getting rid of a number of single use plastics.  I asked our waiter about the cups.  He said they were the new cups for kids, but these were washed and reused instead of being thrown away.

After getting the information on the cups, Nancy and I headed back to bed.  We had another great towel animal waiting for us in the room!

Tomorrow will be our first stop in Antigua!

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