Disney Magic 7 day Eastern Caribbean DAY 4

[M M]

Tuesday September 29th 2009

St Maarten.

We were up early at 7am today as we had a shore excursion booked, the Mountain top downhill forest trek.
I went and got a Latte from Cove cafe, the we went and got some breakfast from Topsiders, Kerrie had an omelette and I just had cereal.
Next we went to sessions to meet our group for the trek, we were delayed a little as even though there had been plenty of warning to wear sensible shoes some people still turned up in flip flops.
We were led down to deck 1 and off the ship to meet our tour guide Donna. She took us to a coach to take us to the French side of the Island, St Maarten is a very beautiful Island but we did travel through some pretty poor looking areas particularly on the Dutch side.
Donna was very knowledgable about the Island and provided us with loads of information on the 45 minute (ish) coach ride.

Our destination was Pic Du Paradis, St Maarten's tallest mountain at 1400 ft. Our coach arrived at the Lotterie farm hidden forest,





There were hundreds of butterflies fluttering around and the whole place was very quiet and picturesque, we were all given a hiking stick and then boarded a very (I'll use the word cosy instead of cramped) 4x4 open air truck for the ascent to the top of Pic Du Paradis. The road to the top was very steep and the truck stopped and rolled backwards a little on more than one occasion but there were already some amazing views to be seen on the way up.

The base of the track we were about to go up:-



The steep track on the way up (I was sat going backwards)



The view on the way up:-



Once we reached the top we were treated to some amazing views:-









The Disney Magic and the Liberty of the seas from the top of the mountain:-

[M M]

Next we began our descent with Donna pointing out things of interest along the way and telling us about the local history and that of the Lotterie farm, we stopped for a couple more pictures,





We carried on down the wooded trails passing some ruins but unfortunatley not seeing any animals apart from butterflies at all (apparently monkeys had been known to appear)
Some of the ruins:-



The track on the way down:





We arrived back down at the Lotterie farm after about a couple of hours although it had only been about a mile and quarter down,
Where we had come from :-



And back down at base camp lol!



Back at the bottom we had a refreshing rum punch before boarding a coach to take us back to the dock. We arrived back at the Magic at around 12.30 after a very enjoyable morning and had a look around the port area:-



I took some photos of the Disney Magic and the Liberty of the seas that had docked next to us:-

[M M]

Kerrie went back to the room as she had a bit of a headache so I went to Topsiders for a bit of lunch where unforunately the crew members giving the plates out thought it would be fun to make everyone sing a Disney song before they would give them a plate, so I went for the Mickey Mouse march lol!
I had a beer by the pool and had a chat with the lad at the bar from the U.K, watched a bit of Lilo & Stitch on the Ariel vision t.v. then went to see how Kerrie was. She was feeling better so we ordered her a steak & cheese sandwich from room service and then spent quite a bit of time on the verandah.

The view from the verandah:-





We went for a walk around the ship for a while and had a drink, there was no show tonight as it was movie night and Surrogates with Bruce Willis was premiering in the Walt Disney theatre, however we decided to go and spend some time relaxing on the verandah and also watch the sunset:-







Then we got ready for dinner, we were eating in Lumiere's tonight with a pirates dinner menu as it was Pirates in Caribbean night, the meal was delicious as usual and Grace introduced us to the another English family on the table next to us. We got chatting and were a little late for getting a good spot for the deck party but never mind we still had a good enough view and we'll be back again lol!
We didn't manage much from the buffet again, Kerrie tried a few desserts and I got in a mess with a BBQ turkey leg lol!
We had a drink and watched a bit of Pirates in the Caribbean on the Ariel view t.v. and then went to bed.
Tomorrow St Thomas and St John and another shore excursion.

[disneydreamer]

Fantastic pics what a beautiful country. Liberty of the Seas looks HUGE compared to Magic. I'm glad you managed something from the Pirate Buffet all we managed was a bit of fresh fruit. Looking forward to reading about Day 5

[Bats]

Sat at work reading and looking at your trippie. It's making my evening much happier! More please!

[sdf]

It is sounding good so far. We are planning to book the Eastern Cruise next year for 2012. We went on the Western last year. We wait for the next installment!

[mandymouse]

Another great day, and fab photos too

[Michelle]

You gotta love that verandah

Love the sunset photos.

[Guest]

What a beautiful sunset

[joandwayne]

Some amazing pictures there.