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Epic Review - Haven Stateroom 16006 on November 9, 2013 - w/ dailies

cruisecritiquer

By cruisecritiquer,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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cruisecritiquer

cruisecritiquer

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First stop...St. Maarten/St. Martin.

 

ST. MAARTEN/ST. MARTIN

 

Cut and pasted from Bernard’s Tours website….

We had the following stop during this tour:

Pickup at the cruise pier

Iguana Farm (getting off the bus is optional) [5-10 mins]

Stop at the French and Dutch border [2 mins]

Brief stop at Oyster Pond overlooking the island of St Barths [5-10 mins]

Orient Beach where you'll be able to swim and have lunch [90-120 mins]

Marigot - open market (French Capital) [30 mins]

Maho Beach [40 mins]

Drive through Simpson Bay marina

Harold Jack Hill (View of Simpson Marina,Airport & Anguilla)

Return to Philipsburg depends on tour departure time; all guests will be returned in time to meet their ship's sail time.

 

Bernard’s Tour in St. Maarten was referred to us by this Board. It was a great tour. Our tour guide was “Sexy” – that’s his name…not my opinion of him. We went on the French and Dutch side of St. Maarten/St. Martin

 

First we stopped at the Iguana Farm which isn’t completely finished yet but houses quite a few Iguanas of various sizes, one snake, and one monkey. “Sexy” didn’t know the name of the other animals so we had to guess as to what kind of snake and monkey they were but the snake was definitely a constrictor and the monkey looked like the one in Outbreak (the movie).

 

We had a brief stop at Oyster Pond overlooking the island of St Barths where a gentleman local showed us the sea life. I held a sea urchin and he showed us the alive and dead version of the animals which I thought was very interesting.

 

Also on St. Maarten we went to Orient Beach. We passed the upper north side and saw two nude beach walkers from a distance before heading to the lower south side of the beach. There were topless bathers there (I’m saying this only if this is a concern for you if you have little ones) but my DS didn’t even notice this. He’s 11 and he was more interested (thank God) in what was going on in the sea than what was going on the beach. If you go to orient, bring some goggles or snorkel gear so you can see the fish under the water. We had one person that worked there bring some bread into the water to attract a school of fish. It was pretty awesome for being just off the beach. They offer parasailing and jet skiing on this beach as well but we just basically frolicked on the beach for about 90 minutes and then we stopped in Marigot at Sarafina’s for some French Pastries. They were delicious. J had the cheese and ham sandwich. I have never seen one look quite like that but it sure was yummy. I may try to duplicate this at home. After that, we were off to Maho Beach.

 

Maho Beach…my son found Maho on YouTube and showed it to me after he found out we were going to St. Maarten. I had seen all the “sand blasting” from the jets on YouTube so I was prepared for what we might be in for or…so I thought.

 

Let me just say that we pulled up to Maho and got settled just as a pretty large plane was about to take off. It seemed to me that the best thing to do was to tape other crazy people getting jet blasted so that I could keep that as my souvenir. I was pretty sure I was far enough away from the jet blast area to avoid being caught in the sand storm which was likely to ensue. I didn’t’ allow DS to go to the fence and hang on as some onlookers did but I did want him to be there to witness the chaos. Slight miscalculation on my part….

 

I thought that I was far enough away but turns out while I was trying to tape others being sand blasted it was probably only a 5 second delay before I realized that we were also beginning to be hit by sand. The link is video footage my husband took of me trying to video other people right before the jet blast began and during. OUCH! My first instinct was to RUN but I quickly realized I had “young” I had to protect so my maternal instincts won out as I tried to protect my son from the sand blast.

 

Others rolled down the embankment into the water, ran for the water and jumped in, crouched down in the fetal position, jumped on top of their children to protect them, put on a brave face and took it, hid behind rocks, etc. It was quite funny to see the way people reacted. I want to play the video through at full speed once and then let you watch it in slow motion. You just can’t get the full effect until you see people freaking out in slow motion.

 

After Maho, we did a bit more touring and then headed back to the ship. It was a full day and we were exhausted so we didn’t do any shopping. We just enjoyed the ship until everyone else returned.

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

Iguana madness!

 

ry%3D480

 

 

ry%3D480

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cruisecritiquer

cruisecritiquer

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My yacht waiting for me at the marina...this is how I cruise when it's not Norwegian. :p

 

ry%3D480

 

No pics please...

 

ry%3D480

 

An Epic behind...

 

ry%3D480

 

At the Oyster Pond the gentleman explained to me that when we find sea life on the beach they have a different appearance in the living state.

 

So what you see here is the live sea animal next to it's dead counterpart.

 

I thought that was interesting.

 

ry%3D480

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cruisecritiquer

cruisecritiquer

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At MAHO waiting for the jet blast...

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

And so it begins...

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

See the sign...?

 

ry%3D480

 

Do we listen...of course not...we are Norwegians! Why were made to break the rules...

 

Right now I'm uploading a video of our experience there. I'll post that when it's finished.

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cruisecritiquer

cruisecritiquer

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Other ships we saw leaving port...

 

Celebrity ship...can't remember which one...beautiful at night...

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

If you are staying in the Haven...I think I mentioned they put in you a special elevator to skip the crowds. I'm not sure if this is a perk or not after seeing what they think of us...:o

 

ry%3D480

 

DH handling Concierge business. I left the phone in the room several times and DH kept fussing at me because we'd be out at a show and then want to eat but couldn't call the Concierge to get us in without the phone. So...he started carrying it around. It felt great knowing you could go almost anywhere you wanted almost any time you wanted.

 

ry%3D480

 

Game show...we didn't play but it looked fun!

 

ry%3D480

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cruisecritiquer

cruisecritiquer

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Next stop...St. Thomas...

 

ST. THOMAS

 

We’ve been to St. Thomas before so we just opted for a helicopter excursion through Caribbean Buzz. I was really annoyed with the taxi service in St. Thomas. They have this huge line of taxis and everyone I asked claimed they didn’t know where Caribbean Buzz was. I had heard about this little game before we got there. The fact is that they want to pack their vans with as many people as possible and charge $8.00 per person. You ride share so they are just dropping people off along a certain route. However, our particular drop off wasn’t on the way to any of the common places so everyone feigned ignorance. I usually do not make such cavalier statements about things but the airport where Caribbean Buzz is located is on Lindbergh Bay which is one of the main drags. There is no way they don’t know where Lindbergh Bay or the airport is. So we let this gentleman price gauge us and he charged us 50 dollars to take us to the airport but we didn’t have many options because we had a 10AM appointment so there wasn’t a lot of time to shop around. On the way back, Caribbean Buzz called a taxi (same company we saw at the port) and was there within 5 minutes. He charged us $24.00 to get to the port. How did the taxi manage to find this place so fast? Hmmmmmm….

 

Anyway, when we got to Caribbean Buzz they took us into a small trailer set up where we met a really nice lady named Carol. We were off to the helicopter in minutes and were not asked to pay until the end of the tour. I think businesses that do that know their product is great so they don’t feel the need to expect payment up front and in this case they were absolutely correct. Caribbean Buzz is awesome and we’d use them again. Our pilot was Jerry and he was great. I’d guess he was in his mid to late twenties. He said he was from Belgium originally and he gave us a lot of great info about the islands. We flew over St. Thomas, St. Johns, Tortola, and a lot of the smaller privately owned islands. We were told that the Rockefellers used to own St. John but that they donated most of it back to the people so long as they kept most of it as a nature preserve. Caribbean Buzz also allows you to also book a drop off excursion where they drop you off on Hans Lollick or Lil Hans Lollick for several hours in a totally secluded area and then come back to pick you up. We might try that one next time when it’s just DH and I and have a picnic or something.

 

We paid and wrote on their wall how much we loved our tour. Traffic back to the port was a breeze and our taxi guy was very friendly. We didn’t do any shopping in St. Thomas. We decided to just enjoy the empty ship since we had been there before.

 

DS realizing he gets to go on a helicopter ride.

 

ry%3D480

 

Our pilot Jerry on the left....

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

Seems like DS was having some second thoughts...?

 

ry%3D480

 

Pics from the whirly bird.

 

ry%3D480

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cruisecritiquer

cruisecritiquer

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After all that food it was time to work out...

 

ry%3D480

 

That should do it...

 

ry%3D480

 

It's been ten minutes since my last meal...

 

View of the courtyard from the Haven gym...

 

ry%3D480

 

Someone can tell me where I am because I don't remember...it was one of those Haven lounge areas...

 

ry%3D480

 

ry%3D480

 

Trying to get our faces together so we can take "selfies"...

 

ry%3D480

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You Love The Sea

You Love The Sea

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Thank you so much for the lengthy and first hand account, I realize you aren't done just yet!

 

I (we) just joined the boards because we will be going on the Epic a little less than a year from now for our honeymoon in the Mediterranean. This really gives us a feel for what the ship will be like and what to expect, thank you again. :D

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