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Freedom with 54 Surprise Guests, $6513, and Justin Bieber :)

myfamilyluvs2cruise
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deedle7544

deedle7544

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Y'all had great tables! And I love the Justin guy, my daughter is a huge fan (roll eyes).

 

I have a little blue alien guy, came out of a McDonald's Happy Meal last year that will be cruisng with us. I plan on taing his picture everywhere!

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myfamilyluvs2cruise

myfamilyluvs2cruise

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LOVED Jost Van Dyke, can't want to return for some Painkillers!

 

417402_10151063626823234_1276993658_n.jpg

 

 

This is hysterical!!!! Thanks for posting it! My neighbor bought a bumper sticker that says "Zero to naked in 3.2 painkillers". He snuck in our garage at put in on our mini van! Really?? I laughed so hard when I found it the next day after making a stops that day.

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myfamilyluvs2cruise

myfamilyluvs2cruise

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You may have to tell me how to put the pictures in!

Not going until Septembr :(

 

I definitely struggled with the pictures. I ended up uploading everything to Shutterfly. Then you can click to open a picture- copy- and drag to CC and drop it where you want it. Quite easy, but it only works that way on my HP, not my Mac. To upload them on a Mac was much more convoluded and I needed to use the yellow mountain button at the top- cut and paste a URL, etc. The click and drag is SO much easier.

 

September will be here soon! I hope you have a great cruise!

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Ron_L

Ron_L

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Great review and it sounds like a great cruise!

 

We're hitting the same ports on the Breeze in December so your information has been great!

 

On St. Thomas, were you at the Secret Harbor Resort or is there a public beach there that you went to?

 

Thanks!

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irishlizz

irishlizz

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On St. Thomas, were you at the Secret Harbor Resort or is there a public beach there that you went to?

 

Thanks!

 

Secret Harbour is a resort. My first time in St. Thomas I went to there and it is a very nice beach resort. At the time a friend was the president of the board of directors of Secret Harbour and I had to say yes to going there... :p

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finzup-kt

finzup-kt

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Jay, Justin and 54 others take on Jost Van Dyke!

 

 

We sailed for about 90 minutes, by St John and St Thomas to Jost Van Dyke. I really don’t have words to describe how amazing that area of the world is. The islands seem to come straight out of the ocean and look like green mountains in the middle of a turquoise sea. As we pulled up to White Bay- which looked exactly to us like the set of Gilligan’s Island- we were all giddy with excitement.

 

I had pre-arranged a lunch with Tina at the Soggy Dollar Bar. So, we parked our respective boats out in front of that area, and we began our swim into shore. For those of you who are not comfortable swimming- they did have life jackets, noodles, stuff like that to assist. We were close enough that we could pretty much stand and walk in- but the other boat was a little further out. It is a VERY easy swim in, and it is just like a swimming pool! Unbelievably clear- you can see your toenail polish perfectly when you look down! (If you are a female . . . well, scratch that- I don’t like to judge J)

 

The sand was so soft and warm, the palm trees were blowing gently, and it was warm, but nice. It was definitely the most comfortable temperature-wise we had been at any of our stops. We walked up to the bar, and Mick (Tina’s husband, I think?) lined up a bunch of cups and started making their famous painkillers! VERY DELICIOUS! Apparently the drink originated in that very spot many years ago. For those of you who have not had one, well, they are a magical mixture of pineapple, orange, cream of coconut, dark rum and a little nutmeg on top. The Soggy Dollar’s recipe is top secret, but if you Google, you will find some excellent replicas.

 

Lunch was being prepared on a grill. I will say that I was quite skeptical about the food, as it is a pretty rustic set-up and the menu sounded just so-so. BOY WAS I WRONG!!! I had prearranged a buffet to be set up for $14 a person that included a choice of chicken sandwich (best spices ever), mahi mahi sandwich (again people were RAVING about the freshness and spices), or a cheeseburger w salads and sides. OMG is all I can say.

 

Now, if you go there, you must try the Chicken Roti- which they were giving out indiscriminately. I am not sure but I think there is a possibility that they put crack in it, because once you have a bite – all you want is more. At least four of us (that I know of) have already tried to make something like it at home since returning. It is a curry chicken mixture wrapped like a burrito with spicy mango chutney. People who don’t even typically like curry were arm wrestling over the Roti. BEST STUFF EVER!

 

We were enjoying the hammocks, the beach chairs, the whole vibe- and of course, the Painkillers. They also have a ring game that is addictive, and everyone was trying their hand at that. I decided (after a little peer pressure) to swim back out to the boat to get Justin Bieber. While I was swimming carefully back to the Soggy Dollar, working hard to keep his cardboard likeness dry, I came back to find our group had experienced a slight mishap . . .

 

One of the older boys (21) asked a younger boy (14) to toss him his camera. Apparently the 14 year old has mad quarterback skills, and the 21 year old might have not had his best wide receiver reflexes firing on all cylinders after a delicious Painkiller. The camera ended up going through his hands, and hit the older boy’s lip, spitting it wide open, and taking a chunk of skin with it. Clearly he was going to need stitches, and we were a little perplexed as to what to do. But within a minute Tina jumped in and came over and asked the young man and his father to get in the Soggy Dollar truck. She drove them to a clinic on the island, and told them she would come back to get them shortly.

 

We were a little concerned about him having this procedure, although simple, done on an island. We had no idea what kind of care he would get, how much it would cost, or even if they would be back in time as we had to leave shortly to not miss our ship. Well, low and behold about 35 minutes later they were back. Apparently, the doctor was excellent, the clinic did a great job of shuttling him in, and his lip looked sore, but great. And, the whole bill was only $99!!!! It was shocking how great it all worked out- and we were all pleasantly surprised. Kudos to the folks at the Soggy Dollar for their quick action and help- and kudos to the clinic on JVD!

 

We had just a few precious minutes left- so Justin hung out at the bar a little bit with Mick (see pictures). Our group brought a boom box and played and sang “Sweet Caroline” to Jay- and we all relaxed and enjoyed just a bit longer. The kids were jumping off one of the boats (which was perfectly fine with the crew), and swimming around. During a jump our daughter got excellent underwater footage of a beautiful ray swimming around. I was shocked she was calm enough to take the video!

 

Then, sadly it was time to think about wrapping it up. We bought a bunch of really fun souvenirs- they have a GREAT little shop there! (Check out the Soggy Dollar website if you are curious J). And, at that moment, I was so glad that we had skipped Sandy Cay- as the time we did have at the Soggy Dollar was not nearly long enough. Of all the ports that we wished we had a 6am-6pm port time in- this was the one!

 

 

 

 

IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING DAY EVER!!!! J

 

 

oh your post brought back memories! hubby and I spent an amazing week at the soggy dollar bar for our honeymoon. They have 6 little cabins on the property - they call it the sandcastle hotel. We had so much fun and Mick, Tina and all the staff are truly the best ever. JVD was quiet in the mornings, then got fun when all the boats pulled in. We met some awesome people from all over the world. Then in the afternoon, they'd depart and it'd be "our" beach and island. One day we rented a dinghy and went all around JVD and to sandy spit. SO relaxing and awesome. Another day we did a snorkel trip to the indians, caves, and willy-t (SO fun to jump off that boat). We walked on the beach, played ring toss, lounged in hammocks, ate and drank at some great places (seddy's one love, ivan's stress free bar, Gertrudes, Foxy's, etc. ) . On the other side of the island was a family-run restaurant called Harris place where we shared a GIANT lobster.

 

I think I had 582 painkillers while I was there.

 

For an island with "not much to do", we sure had a fantastic time!

 

So anyway, if you liked your day trip to JVD you should totally go back for a longer stay.

Fly into St Thomas and then ferry to west end, tortola.

Stay 1 night in Tortola (you'll most likely have to due to ferry schedule), then in the morning take the 20 min ferry to JVD. Paradise, truly!

 

You can also fly to Tortola via Puerto Rico, but it costs a lot more for that flight, and you still need to get transport to west end for the JVD ferry... so price wise, much better to fly into St Thomas and ferry it to Tortola.

 

Ok I need to stop rambling now :)

 

 

Edit: In case you're interested, here's my album from our honeymoon on JVD.. we stayed the 1st night on tortola at Chateau Relaxeau lol (great name, right?)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.458216728979.242648.527963979&type=3&l=f0c9e182f8

 

OK sorry for hijacking the thread :) i love your review by the way! We took the same ship and itinerary in Feb (my 1st cruise -- see link in my signature)

Edited by finzup-kt
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ibcnusoon

ibcnusoon

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If you go to JVD from Tortola are they checking passports?

 

I don't think so, but they do check passports and you need to pay fees if you want to take a private excursion from St. Thomas for the day to anywhere in the British Virgin Islands.

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ibcnusoon

ibcnusoon

Posted
Posted (edited)
oh your post brought back memories! hubby and I spent an amazing week at the soggy dollar bar for our honeymoon. They have 6 little cabins on the property - they call it the sandcastle hotel. We had so much fun and Mick, Tina and all the staff are truly the best ever. JVD was quiet in the mornings, then got fun when all the boats pulled in. We met some awesome people from all over the world. Then in the afternoon, they'd depart and it'd be "our" beach and island. One day we rented a dinghy and went all around JVD and to sandy spit. SO relaxing and awesome. Another day we did a snorkel trip to the indians, caves, and willy-t (SO fun to jump off that boat). We walked on the beach, played ring toss, lounged in hammocks, ate and drank at some great places (seddy's one love, ivan's stress free bar, Gertrudes, Foxy's, etc. ) . On the other side of the island was a family-run restaurant called Harris place where we shared a GIANT lobster.

 

I think I had 582 painkillers while I was there.

 

My husband and I took a week long land vacation to Jost van Dyke 20 years ago. We stayed at Harris' and experienced the same as you. One time a ferry pulled into the Harbor and dropped off tourists for an hour. My husband and Harris worked the bar and I was working the gift shop with Cynthia. It was hysterical, we were the only week-long guests for them and had to help out! Harris' Place, Peace and Love, Foxy's ... ah, memories!!

Edited by ibcnusoon
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finzup-kt

finzup-kt

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My husband and I took a week long land vacation to Jost van Dyke 20 years ago. We stayed at Harris' and experienced the same as you. One time a ferry pulled into the Harbor and dropped off tourists for an hour. My husband and Harris worked the bar and I was working the gift shop with Cynthia. It was hysterical, we were the only week-long guests for them and had to help out! Harris' Place, Peace and Love, Foxy's ... ah, memories!!

 

that sounds really awesome! All this talk of JVD... I really want to go back :)

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LizaMM

LizaMM

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WOW!!! What a fantastic day! You share it so well and then the photos are just icing on the cake! I would love to cruise with your group one day!!

 

I am amazed at how well they took care of the split lip and the price was great to boot....probably would have had to add a few zeros at the end here in the states! Sorry to hear it happened but glad it all was taken care of.

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