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.
Day four of our cruise was another glorious sea day. The girls eventually got moving out of the room, so Nancy and I decided to go to Triton’s to have brunch. Nancy enjoys breakfast and I prefer lunch, so it was the perfect meal for us. We probably spent an hour having brunch and talking, then we decided to head towards Promenade Lounge. We needed to kill some time before two of our favorite activities, Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash and the Character Dance Party. Luckily, Promenade Lounge was hosting Disney Cruise Line’s version of the Family Feud.
Here is the menu and some food items from Animator’s Palate on the Disney Wonder. This menu is identical to the one on the Disney Magic. You can also see additional food items from that menu.
Today was Castaway Cay day, one of our favorite stops! We had a lot of plans for the day and were eager to get started. Nancy and our friends were going to run the Castaway Cay 5K and then head to one of the cabanas on Serenity Bay Beach, the adults only beach. My older daughter was planning to spend the day with her new friends from Vibe. My younger daughter and I were going to head to the family beach and then meet our friends for a jet ski excursion late in the day.
Today was our first port stop of the trip at the beautiful island of St. Maarten (or Saint Martin). The last time we were on St. Maarten, we took a bus tour of the Dutch and French side. This time, we decided on something much simpler. We were planning on a self planned beach day. We started the day off with a quick breakfast at Cabanas.
Our first stop once boarding the ship was Deck 11 to wait for the AquaDuck. The AquaDuck is the water roller coaster that is on the Disney Fantasy and Disney Dream. The girls had worn bathing suits under their clothes so they could get some rides on the AquaDuck before the ship got crowded. We grabbed some chairs near the entrance and the girls headed off. Nancy went off to take some pictures and I got something to drink. After a few rides on the AquaDuck, we took turns getting some food from Cabanas. Our youngest daughter decided to head to the Sweet on You Shop to see if they had milkshakes. She came back with this:
When you embark on a Disney Cruise, you will be given a Key To The World Card. The card will not only unlock your stateroom but also uniquely identifies you to the crew. It has a lot of information embedded on the card as well. I’ll try to breakdown the information as well to show you some examples of the card.
What normally would have been a really sad day turned out to be just fine. We always dread leaving our Disney cruises. We usually have a great dining team that we get to know and always have a great, relaxing time on board. Leaving the ship means a return home to work and school, which isn’t nearly as fun. This time would be the exception though. After getting off the ship, we would be traveling up to Walt Disney World to spend five days at the Dolphin and go to the parks!
We had three main goals for the day (according to my younger daughter). She wanted to see a chicken, visit with a six-toed cat, and drink from a coconut. With those goals in mind, we headed out. Our first stop was going to be the Earnest Hemingway House. It is open to the public for tours (for a fee). We left the ship and used Google Maps to guide us. As we turned the corner out of a nearby neighborhood, we spotted this fellow:
