Picture Imperfect: Live on Harmony

[Familygoboston]

CAPT BOBS Excursion. 

I’ve never done the “planes at Maho” because of the safety issues above. Each to their own, but CAPT Bobs was a safe way to experience this. We were on the water with the plane above, very fun and safe! 

It was also a lot of fun everywhere else too! I’ll let Randy explain more, but here are a few shots from our day. Including a shot from from our cigarette boat with our captain and or mate! 

 

Harmony in St Thomas

 

The bow of our boat the Rum Bum

 

Capt Nikko

 

Our mate AJ 

Edited June 6, 2019 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

Here is the video of the plane at Maho coming into Princess Julianna airport. 

[bobmacliberty]

7 hours ago, dude_hdt said:

Please tell me more about Honeymoon Beach DIY!!!  We'll be there in late July and had consider the Fast Cat but reading about the crowd...it's off the plans.  How do you get to the ferry?  How often does it go back and forth?  Cost?  We're a group of 4 with 2 late teenage boys. 

 

TIA!

 

Familygoboston/Rsharp...sorry for the temporary hijack.

 

This assumes that you're docked at Crown Bay.  I think that's true for all Oasis Class ships but other smaller ships may still dock at Havensight.  The satellite view below shows the pier at the bottom of the image and the Water Island Ferry shown at the top right corner of the image (by Tickles Dockside Pub).  Stay to the right along the water as you get off the ship, walk past the shops, through the parking lot, across a street and through the marina until you get to the pub.  It's about a 10 minute walk.  The ferry is a small boat that leaves from the corner of the dock by the pub.  It leaves once an hour (at the top of the hour) so plan accordingly.  It's $10 per person round trip.  As I said, it's a small boat that only holds maybe 20 people at most?  It's a 10 minute ride to Water Island, and the return trip leaves at 15 minutes after the hour.  I think they will toss in an unscheduled trip at 30 minutes after the hour if they had to leave people at the dock because there's not enough room in the boat.  People were left on the dock for our return trip and the captain said he'd be right back to pick them up.  I'd get to the dock with time to spare (in both directions) to ensure that you don't have to wait for a second, unscheduled trip.

 

When you get to Water Island, Dinghy's will have a safari trolley bus sort of thing (several open benches that can hold 4-5 people) that will shuttle you between the dock (top middle of the picture below) and Honeymoon Beach (bottom of the picture).  It's walkable but you go up and over hill.  Not a walk I'd want make in the heat.  No charge for the shuttle trolley but we tipped the driver.

 

Dinghy's has several chairs and umbrellas with no charge to use them.  They just expected that you will pay for food and drinks.  Drinks were reasonably priced and food was good.  They also have several water toys for rent.  Very nice couple that owns the place, living the good life.

 

There's a review of Dinghy's with some pictures here, and their FB page is here.  Great place to hangout for a day.

 

Back to the review...

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Bob no apologies needed! This is exactly the info I would have given if I was home. Yes harmony dies dock at crown bay. Thanks k you for sharing this info.

 

I was wrong , hilariously wrong , about what side we docked. I was on the starboard side texting Randy , who was in port side, furiously telling him that we were sitting still 100 yards from the dock and no dock workers in sight. He thought I was insane because we were ALREADY docked on the port side 🤣. So occasionally they will change it up.  

[Familygoboston]

CHOCOLATE BUFFET ( and Mexican buffet) atnthe Wind Jammer Day 5 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6, 2019 by Familygoboston

[OCSC Mike]

DW is drooling over the chocolate.  She won't eat Mexican (which I love) but just said she doesn't care if it's Mexican night, she'll just eat chocolate for dinner!

 

Thanks again for the WJ updates.  Hope it was as good as it looked!

 

Last summer on Radiance in Alaska was the first time we saw theme nights in the WJ.  Have there been themes every night?

[rsharp83]

Jamie’s Italian dessert plank

 

The chocolate brownie with popcorn is pretty awesome. Lemon meringue cheesecake very good.  Tiramisu  Good. Raspberry meringue good. Sponge cake, hard as a rock, dry and basically inedible. 

[Familygoboston]

COLUMBUS a musical comedy that kinda of defies expectations and is tough to explain, but so much fun!! 

 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

BIONIC BAR

My advice; wait a while. It’s novel  thing with big waits early on in the cruise. It’s fun to do but wait till mid cruise when wait gives (posted computers displays next to the bar) are under 5 minutes. 

 

You order your drink on an iPad. Then your name pops up on the computer screen when your drink is started. For the cost of a drink it’s a fun thing to do! 

 

When your drink is done, you swipe your sea-pass or eye band and the finished drink comes forward in the track! 

 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

EVENING ACTIVITIES 

IM too buzzed to tell you where they are exactly 🤣🤣 Naybe that bionic bar delivers bionic drinks! 😳 

the pub was the bonnet and something. And I believe comedy will happen soon🤣 This is our Crew needed a panorama to get them all in. 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

DAY 5 COMPASS

St Martin

[Familygoboston]

... and what we’ve all been waiting for and only available (fir some bizzare reason ) in the diamond lounge 

 

DONT MISS THE SHOW 

SHOWTIMES AT A GLANCE 

 

[knots4crewzing]

Hi FamilygoBoston,

 

Looks like you're having an amazing time.  Thank you so much for your review and beautiful pics.

 

    I have a question about the dock in Crown Bay which we have docked in before but i cant remember seeing a windmill.

  My tour guide has said as soon as we dock we'll see a windmill and just past that he will be waiting for our group with our name.

 

Do you recall seeing a windmill?  LOL

I hope he's not thinking of Havensight😕

 

Thank you  have a great time!!

Liz

 

 

[rsharp83]

Captain Bob Delivered Again

 

Once again another outstanding excursion provided by Captain Bob! Yesterday’s cattle call excursion in St Thomas wasn’t the best. But new cruisers didn’t have anything to compare it with so they didn’t fully understand why were so disappointed. 

 

30 minutes into the Captain Bob trip those newbies were coming up to me and saying “Ok, I now understand why you said this trip would be completely different and a better experience,” 

 

Even veteran cruisers and travelers were very impressed. It was a fantastic day. The water was beyond perfection. Crystal clear, so much so that it didn’t even seem like it could be real. I’ve never seen water that clear, and neither had anyone else. 

 

We we had a new boat that they custom built and it was a top notch piece of work. The 2crew members were very helpful and friendly. 

 

Just an absolutely perfect day. Captain Bob runs the best trip! 

 

Most of of my pictures and videos of this excursion will be posted later.  

 

 

 

Crystal blue water. 

 

 

 

Plenty of shade and comfortable seating. 

 

 

The new boat, Rum Bum. 

Edited June 7, 2019 by rsharp83

[rsharp83]

The 30 for 30 cruise!

 

 

[perfect match]

On 6/5/2019 at 10:00 PM, Familygoboston said:

NOT IMPERFECT PUCTURES! 

 

We interrupt this this review of imperfect pictures to share (drum roll please!) some of my hubby Jeff’s much less imperfect photos of our excursion today! (Many from the underwater camera) One shows the crowd on the Fast Cat, the others are of harmony in St Thomas. 

Enjoy! 

 

The crowd on the Fast Cat

 

Note to self: Do not book this excursion!

 

We did an excursion to Buck Island that I thought was bad because we saw far more pirate ships than marine life, but at least our boat was nowhere near that crowded! That picture really shows why some ship excursions are often referred to as cattle boats.

 

Going to the opposite extreme, I like the looks of Capt Bob’s new boat! I would definitely tour with him again.  😎

[Ocean Boy]

4 hours ago, knots4crewzing said:

Hi FamilygoBoston,

 

Looks like you're having an amazing time.  Thank you so much for your review and beautiful pics.

 

    I have a question about the dock in Crown Bay which we have docked in before but i cant remember seeing a windmill.

  My tour guide has said as soon as we dock we'll see a windmill and just past that he will be waiting for our group with our name.

 

Do you recall seeing a windmill?  LOL

I hope he's not thinking of Havensight😕

 

Thank you  have a great time!!

Liz

 

 

The Windmill is very easy to spot from the ship, pier, and port area at Crown Bay. You will have no problem seeing it.

[Familygoboston]

A LITTLE UPDATE ON ST MARTIN

We had not been back to St Martin since the devastating hurricane. St Martin is 100% back in business, but while talking to locals, I can’t overstate how difficult the storm and recovery have been to the local folks 

 

Our guides and local servers were happy to share their own stories of surviving the storm and how the rebuilding has happened. 

 

Friends who went to ORIENT BEACH said while there was infrastructure there to accommodate them, most of the beach clubs are not yet rebuilt. 

 

On out circumnavigation of the island by water we saw many villas and hotels have not yet been rebuilt. Our guide explained that the Dutch side came back quicker, large corporations with money to lobby for recovery funds fared better. The French side with smaller boutique properties got caught up in red tape they had no money to navigate. And of course you are dealing with two different governments. 

 

We visited TINTE MARE and PINEL ISLAND, which were already fairly “underdeveloped” before the hurricane. One of the concessionaires on Pinel told us that every chair, every building, every tree was GONE after the storm. They had to start from scratch. The Yellow Beach is back as well as two of the beach bars/restaurants there. 

 

We hiked the trail around PINEL and were shocked by the devastation to the vegetation because of the salt water. All of the tees were knocked over, the grasses were brown still, a salt tolerant sea grapes have come back. The interpretive “shelter” at the top of the bluff is gone. Last time we hiked here you could not see the “nude” undeveloped beach because of trees, this time, as you can see in the photo below, you can see straight to that beach from the bluff. 

 

We also walked from the ship to the dock for Capt Bobs in PHILLIPSBURG along the walkway. Every one of the beautiful shady palm trees was reduced to a blown over stub of a fallen tree cut. They’ve not been replanted. We didn’t have time to go into Pburg, but today I will interview the folks who went shopping and see what their impressions were. 

 

My my overall impression was St Martin wants us back, they have worked hard to get things looking like and working like usual, but it doesn’t hide the devestation and trauma that happened to the people here. 

 

On the bluff at Pinel 

 

[bobmacliberty]

We were in Phillipsburg a couple of weeks ago and decided to just camp at the beach there.  The shops/bars/restaurants at the beach were almost all open.  Eating at the Blue ***** Bar has become a mini-tradition.  Same for shops on Front Street east of and near the main pier/square.  There are still a few buildings that don't seem to have been touched.  The hotel that was on the far western end of the beach has been fully demolished but building does not appear to have started on the new replacement hotel.  We were told by a taxi driver on our last trip that the new hotel would be a high end/luxury property.

 

I think we'll put Captain Bob's on our list for the next visit.  Sounds like a great tour.

 

 

[dude_hdt]

thank you much for the detailed info on getting to/from Water Island.  Definitely on our list for something different to do at St Thomas.

[Familygoboston]

Thanks  to Bob and Mike an ocean boy for filling in the gaps while we are playing! 🤣 

 

SEA DAY! 

There is nothing quite like a sea day on Oasis class- so filled with possibilities! 

We started the day with breakfast in the solarium (no lines no waiting) and a workout. Yes, really ! I heard Sharp went up to the flowrider- some of you know why I DID NOT 😳 go to the flowrider. 

Of you don’t know why... take a little diversion down this particular rabbit hole 🤣🤣

 

http://www.goseeittravel.com/travel-blog/2018/2/6/fear-of-the-flowrider

 

According to his texts, Randy is pretty upset with the process. I’ll let him explain but sounds like they treat everyone like a newbie 😞

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, Familygoboston said:

- some of you know why I DID NOT 😳 go to the flowrider. 

Of you don’t know why... take a little diversion down this particular rabbit hole 🤣

FYI - barrel rolls are very much discouraged - one just needs to be prepared with the "correct" wardrobe to avoid "issues".

[Familygoboston]

FITNESS AND SPA

huge!! Even on a sea day plenty of machines and space to do mat work even while a class is going on. This is a nice change from some ships. 

 

We also took a walk around the jog track. Even if you don’t jog or pep step, be sure to  take a walk because the views are outstanding! This class of ship reintroduced the full circumference promenade deck and it’s a nice addition from the freedom and mariner classes which didn’t allow you to walk all the way around. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

 

 

If you are on this boat / you are in trouble! 

 

Plus a lovely view of the wake, usually we get an aft cabin and I have this view all the time! The aft cabins on this ship are all suites. 

 

View of the wake from the jog track 

 

Life boat 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Familygoboston

[K1200S]

You guys are doing a great job with the shared live review.