Partying around Europe on the Disney Fantasy
Mar 9, 2012 Travel
One of the big misconceptions about going on a Disney cruise is that you will be surrounded by mouse ears and children all the time. And while I wouldn’t mind the mouse ears, I don’t do well when I can’t get away from children periodically, even my own (especially my own?).
Not only is there an adult-only pool on the new Disney Fantasy, there’s an entire entertainment district, called Europa. Some of the bars are adults-only after 9pm, some of them are off limits to kids all the time. So there are always places to go and get away from the little people.
The most charming thing about these bars and lounges on the Fantasy is that they’re populated with employees from the countries each bar is inspired by. It gives the experience an authentic feel, and makes for some interesting conversations with the bartenders and servers.
La Piazza
Our first stop was La Piazza, a charming and romantic space inspired by Italy. There’s a gorgeous carousel bar in the center, and quiet nooks and booths around the perimeter.
O’Gills Pub
Our next stop, O’Gills Pub, was exactly what you would expect from an Irish pub, with some fun touches, such as Wii and XBox games on giant screens. This is a great place to go and watch a game while drinking a beer (two things I don’t do, but I realize I’m in the minority on both). I think this was probably the least Disney-feeling spot on the ship.
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Tags: Disney Cruise Line, Disney Fantasy, Travel
Drinking & eating…& eating…& eating on the Disney Fantasy
Mar 8, 2012 Travel
Anyone who has cruised has probably gushed about the food. Multiple seatings, buffets, snacks, sundae bars, piles of dessert. It’s everywhere, sure, but on the Disney Fantasy, it’s also awesome. Because what’s the use of massive amounts of food if it’s the equivalent of a $3.99 steak dinner in Vegas?
I visited the Fantasy twice last week, and on the second visit got to have dinner in The Animator’s Palate. As you would expect with Disney, this restaurant has excellent food and entertainment.
My favorite thing about dinner on Disney ships is that your wait staff follows you from restaurant to restaurant, night after night. If you tell them the first night that you drink Diet Coke with every meal and hate mushrooms, those are things you won’t have to repeat. Disney restaurants also take great care with food allergies.
The decor of The Animator’s Palate is whimsical but classy. TV screens are everywhere, but at the beginning of your meal they simply look like lithographs on the walls.
I’ve never wanted to create a distraction and steal a couple of chairs so much in my life!
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Tags: Disney Cruise Line, Disney Fantasy, Food, Travel
So what do kids do on the Disney Fantasy?
Mar 7, 2012 Travel
There’s plenty for families to do on the new Disney Cruise Line ship the Fantasy, which I visited twice last week while it was docked in NYC. There are the pools, the AquaDuck water coaster, interactive paintings that come to life when you walk by and other games scattered throughout the ship, three different amazing mainstage shows, movies, parties, and lots more. But what about when you don’t want to be with your kids? What about when you want to go to the adults-only pool area, or have a quiet lunch with your husband, or take an excursion?
The Oceaneer’s Club, for kids age 3-12, is one of the most amazing play spaces I’ve ever seen. The grown-ups didn’t want to leave during our tour.
The main room is full of big screens and a huge, interactive, touch-sensitive floor that we played an UP-themed game on.
Off of this room are a bunch of other themed rooms, geared towards different ages and interests.
Pixie Hollow give little fairies a chance to dress up and play.
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Tags: Disney Cruise Line, Disney Fantasy, Travel
The Disney Fantasy: Gorgeous from head to toe
Mar 7, 2012 Travel
One of the best things about Disney World is all of the details and care that have gone into the entire experience. From the breathtakingly beautiful decorations to the little touches you might only notice if you really know where to stop and look, these details take Disney to another level. That same attention to detail is present in every corner of the new Disney Fantasy cruise ship.
I was lucky enough to visit the brand new ship twice last week as it was docked in NYC. When you first walk onto the ship you go into the grand atrium, which is, um, grand. But it’s also functional. Behind hidden panels are lights so that in case of bad weather, parties that would usually be held outside on the deck can be moved inside the atrium. Always thinking, those Disney designers – they’re not going to let weather ruin a good party!
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Tags: Disney Cruise Line, Disney Fantasy, Travel
High atop St. Thomas
Jul 7, 2011 Travel
The first time I visited St. Thomas I stayed with my sister. She happened to live near the bottom of Flag Hill. She made me walk up it. I hated her for that. On this last trip, I got to go up the hill on the Skyride, a tram that takes you up to the top of the hill to Paradise Point, a popular tourist destination with the absolute scariest Ferris wheel in the history of Ferris wheels. More on that later, when I can bring myself to look at the pictures again without screaming.
The tram ride was a lot of fun for the kids, and a nice way to see the harbor below us.
Once at the top, we dove into some drinks and snacks. Fiona was thrilled with her virgin drink, which made her feel very grown-up.
An all-day pass for the activities is definitely the way to go, otherwise you will spend a fortune. I’ve shelled out as much as $8 per kid per ride for the sky jump in many a mall, so Jake couldn’t quite believe that he got to go on this one as many times as he wanted! And the kids took full advantage of that.
In between rides we took in the view. This is a fantastic way to see Charlotte Amalie, spread out below you. We went around dinner time because sunsets from Paradise Point are legendary. As luck would have it, this was the only cloudy day we had our whole vacation!
Fiona did some hamming for the camera.
Around this time the musicians started warming up.
The Ferris wheel was next, and I’m not going to lie to you: I was nervous. This simply wasn’t like me. I go on the tallest, fastest, craziest roller coasters! Why was I afraid of a Ferris wheel? Because this one is on the edge of a 700-foot hill, that’s why. When you come over the top there is no ground in front of you. It is absolutely terrifying. And the kids dragged me on six or seven times between them. And, since it wasn’t that busy, they were giving us really long rides.
The view was pretty though…
As the sun went down the music started, and the locals packed the place – it’s not just for tourists. Then, the hermit crab races started! This was insane. Honestly it was late at that point and we were trying to leave, but the kids wanted to know what was going on, so the crowd let them get to the front so that they could see. They each got to pick a crab and name it and we all cheered our heads off during the heats! There was a hilarious guy with a mic calling the races.
Fiona’s crab even made it into the finals! Sadly, it didn’t win. That’s him down there in last place, taking his sweet time – must have been tired out from totally kicking ass in his qualifying heat.
Finally we had to go, with one last look at the Ferris wheel.
You can follow Paradise Point on facebook!
Next up: the gorgeous Ritz Carlton St. Thomas
A big thank you to Paradise Point for giving my family tram tickets and all-day ride passes for the Ferris wheel and Sky Jump, and to the USVI Department of Tourism.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Kids, St. Thomas, Travel
The delightful characters of Coki Beach
Jul 5, 2011 Travel
You never know who or what you might run into on the beaches of St. Thomas. Ex-Brooklynites, chickens, and the nicest machete-wielding man I’ve ever come across.
After spending the first half of the day at Coral World swimming with sea lions, we went right next door – literally steps away – to Coki Beach. It was yet another gorgeous day, so we wanted to make the most of it.
There’s a shack right at the entrance closest to Coral World that rents snorkel gear and other water stuff, so I rented masks and snorkels for the kids. We set up our towels and things under a tree so my little niece could be out of the sun, and hit the water.
Jake took to snorkeling like a fish to water, and we ended up buying him his own set later in the trip.
Fiona liked looking at things in the water while wearing the goggles, but didn’t actually want to put her face in the water…hmm…
The water on Coki Beach was some of the clearest I’ve ever seen. You almost don’t need snorkel gear! You can just look right down to your feet and see the fishies swimming by. Since it’s in a bay, the waves are gentle. You can explore around the coral without smashing into it.
We played in the waves for a while, then Fiona decided to build a sand castle.
It was around this time that a machete dropped from the tree next to us, followed by a couple of coconuts, followed by a skinny man. Nobody else seemed alarmed by this, so I pretended to ignore it too. I acted like I was actually watching the chickens that were hanging around near us, but I was really keeping an eye on machete man, at least until he was out of the immediate area.
Actually, the chickens were fun to watch – they had babies with them!
After a while I walked down to the other end of the beach, to explore a bit. The side of the beach closest to Coral World is very quiet, but the other end is where the partying happens. There’s music, and a bunch of different places to get food and drinks, and more snorkel rentals.
I wanted to take in a little of the local flavor – so far on the trip most of the people I’d talked to on St. Thomas were from somewhere else. A woman at one of the drink shacks gave me a sample of the best smoothie I’d ever had: mango, strawberry, banana, and coconut. I bought one, and we started talking, and it turned out she wasn’t originally from the islands either: she used to own a place in Brooklyn less than a mile from where I live!
If you’re on Coki Beach, go get an all-natural smoothie from Jabrina at Virgin Island Perfection – you will not be disappointed! Tell her Amy from Brooklyn says hi.
On my way back to the other end of the beach, I stopped and took a picture. I wasn’t really thinking too much about it, I take pictures of everything. And I thought that everyone in the picture was far enough away that I wasn’t invading anyone’s privacy.
A second later, though, one of the people in the picture – the guy with the wheelbarrow – started yelling at me to come to him, so I did. It was machete man. He scolded me a little for taking a picture of him without asking permission first. So I apologized, and introduced myself. He said his name was Leon, but that everyone called him The Black Bull, and he offered me a coconut.
Now, pretty much everything I know about islands I learned from years of watching Gilligan survive on his, so I didn’t realize that coconuts were green and fairly smooth on the outside. Where were the brown things that girls wore as bikini tops? He explained to me that that was inside. But before we could get to that part, we had to drink off the coconut milk. He opened up a coconut with a few whacks of his machete.
I tasted the sweet juice, and then brought him over to my mom and kids, because they had to try this.
Even Jake, who never wants to try anything new, tried the coconut juice. Because when a man with a machete tells you to try something, you do it! I’ll have to remember this when I introduce a new vegetable…
After that Leon cut a couple of the coconuts up for us so that we could eat the flesh. If you’ve never had fresh coconut before, you have to try it.
After that we splashed around in the water some more, until we had to get going – it had been a long day, but a fantastic one. We were all exhausted.
I think the kids were asleep in the car before I even got out of the parking lot.
Next up: Screaming my head off at the top of Paradise Point
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Kids, St. Thomas, Travel
Swimming with sea lions in St. Thomas
Jul 4, 2011 Travel
If you want to get kids excited, tell them that they’ll be swimming with some kind of sea creature on vacation. If you want to confuse them, tell them they’ll be swimming with sea lions. Fiona was asking us questions about swimming with dolphins for weeks before our St. Thomas vacation, and I kept gently correcting her. I started to wonder if a sea lion would end up being a disappointment, since she really seemed to have her heart set on a dolphin.
At Coral World in St. Thomas, there are no dolphins to swim with. Sea lions are the main attraction, and I needn’t have worried about anybody being disappointed. It was quite possibly the most amazing afternoon of my life.
If you don’t know anything about sea lions (I sure didn’t) they’re big, for one thing. Our guy was four hundred pounds. They have very whiskery faces that give them a bit of a kindly-old-grandfather look. They’re playful and excitable, and seem very patient around silly tourists.
There are four sea lions at Coral World, and how they got there is an interesting story. They started out in the warm waters near Uruguay where fishermen were killing sea lions because they were eating all of the fish. These four were rescued and sent to Thailand to be trained as rescue swimmers – they wore harnesses and would swim out to struggling swimmers, who would grab onto the harnesses and be towed to shore. But after the tsunami hit Thailand in 2004, tourism dropped so much that the sea lions’ services just weren’t needed any more. They were looking for a new home, and Coral World happened to have empty tanks that were originally meant for dolphins, so they took the sea lions in.
Kids over 50 pounds can participate in the sea lion swims, and every child under twelve must have an adult with them. We signed our waivers, got a safety briefing and learned some background info on the sea lions, and were on our way to the tanks. Since my husband hadn’t joined us on our trip yet, my sister Cara came along to be the other chaperone for Jake and Fiona.
One of the sea lions doesn’t like to be around people, so he sits out the swims and encounters with Coral World guests, but the other three seemed eager to get the show on the road. Yes, I know, they probably were just looking forward to all of the fish, but it was exciting to see them pressing their noses against the netting and getting a sneak peek at who they’d be playing with as we were getting our gear on.
First we were introduced to our sea lion, Remo, and got to play with him up on the deck. We learned some hand signals and got him to do some tricks.
I couldn’t believe how well Remo could handle himself outside of the water, seeing as he was huge. We got to pet him, and pose for pictures with him, and whenever he got too hot he just hopped into the tank, swam around for a minute, then came right back out and joined us for more playing and posing.
He even hammed it up for some goofy pictures (Fiona couldn’t quite get the hang of the “fake scared” idea):
Then we got into the water with Remo, which was incredible. We played ball with him, 
and got him to spin around on our command,
and petted him some more.
Then, for the grand finale, we held on to a rope, and all four-hundred pounds of him jumped over us! It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
I would have considered myself lucky if the entire encounter had lasted ten minutes, but it was actually about forty minutes. It doesn’t feel rushed at all – we really got to know Remo!
After that we had to say goodbye and get out of the tank – we were all sad to go. We spent a couple more hours wandering around Coral World, watching a shark feeding (the trainer drips blood into the water to tell the sharks it’s feeding time!) and petting some starfish.
It’s a very hands-on place, which delighted the kids.
The setting is gorgeous, right on the water, with parts of it jutting out into the ocean:
One of the most interesting things about Coral World, though, is how much money it loses ($800,000 last year alone) and that the owner doesn’t care. School kids on St. Thomas are allowed to visit for free on class trips as often as they like, and some go six or seven times a year. Everyone we met was so enthusiastic about the creatures all around them, and we had a wonderful time. It’s not a huge place, making it perfect for splitting the day between Coral World and Coki Beach, which is right next door.
If you go, a few things to keep in mind: make reservations early for the sea lions, they’re popular. The tank is very salty, so if you have sensitive eyes you might want to bring goggles. There are no observers allowed on the deck, but the trainers take plenty of pictures so you can purchase a CD about half an hour after your swim.
If you’re in St. Thomas, this is a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. The memories will last a lifetime.
Don’t forget to follow Coral World on facebook!
Next up: a strange encounter on Coki Beach with the coconut man
Thanks very much to the wonderful people at Coral World and the USVI Department of Tourism for giving us complimentary access to the sea lion swim.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: animals, Kids, St. Thomas, Travel
The Marriott Frenchman’s Reef, St. Thomas
Jul 3, 2011 Travel
Yesterday I mentioned the great balcony view from our first hotel in St. Thomas. When I look for a family hotel I look for a few key elements. Everything else is fairly optional, but I need these things in order to survive on vacation with my kids: a pool, easy access to food, and a balcony (OK, that last one is more for my husband, but I’ve been known to escape out there too, when the kids are driving me crazy). The Marriott Frenchman’s Reef had all of that, plus more, at a great price. It’s situated on a cliff, which gives you amazing views of the water.
The Pool
When I was a kid the hotel pool was the vacation. My kids feel the same way. Any old relatively clean pool will do for them, but now that I’m a grown up I also need a deck with lounge chairs that isn’t insanely crowded. What I loved about the pool at Frenchman’s Reef was it wasn’t the kind of place where someone had to get there early and reserve chairs. We never had a problem finding two or three together, whatever time of day we went.
The pool is huge, with two sections, and a foot bridge dividing them. Between the two sections is a swim up bar, so you don’t even have to get out of the water. The smaller section has a volleyball net (at least it did the whole time we were there) which Jake absolutely loved.
There wasn’t always a towel attendant, but there were always fresh towels that we could grab ourselves behind the counter, and everything was well-kept and clean. I was very pleased with the entire pool area.
The Beach
I’m more of a pool person than a beach person, so I didn’t mind that the beach was a bit of a trek. If you anticipate spending most of your time on the beach, though, you might want to look into staying at the lower half of the Marriott resort, Morningstar. If you’re staying at Frenchman’s Reef you take a glass elevator down the cliff to a boardwalk, where you take a nice walk to the beach.
You pass the hotel’s tennis courts, and yet more iguanas…
And then you get to the huge, gorgeous, clean beach.
It’s actually a pleasant walk, and the kids especially enjoyed it.
It’s just not hugely convenient if you want to go back and forth a lot from the beach to your room. But since we only visited the beach a couple of times it was fine for us.
The Food
The best thing ever when traveling with kids is the breakfast buffet. For one thing, I can usually get my picky son to try something new, since it doesn’t involve committing to an entire order. There’s no waiting for someone to take our order, then waiting for the food – we drop our stuff and grab plates. And since I’m fairly cheap and like to sleep in, when we hit the breakfast buffet on the later side we’re all full until dinner. Plus, I only like to eat fruit when someone else has washed, peeled, and sliced it for me, which is my favorite thing about breakfast buffets – the giant platters of sliced fruit.
This is Fiona, eating a breakfast sandwich she made from just about every meat and cheese on the buffet.
The buffet at Frenchman’s Reef was possibly the best I’ve ever been to. With every kind of bread you could ask for, an omelet station, oatmeal, pancakes, French toast, both hot breakfast meats and cold cuts, cheeses, lox, yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit (of course!) and much more, we ate there every single morning. The kids were able to eat at a discount making it even better.
The Renovation
Much of Frenchman’s Reef is actually closed right now for a huge, forty-eight million dollar renovation that was due to start just after we left, and will be completed in October 2011. I thought that the resort was already very nice, so it’s possible that everything I saw will be even better by the time you get there.
I got to see a model room, and it looked beautiful:
On our next trip to St. Thomas I’m almost positive we would pick this hotel again. Our room was spacious, the balcony was very nice, the pools and beach were fantastic, and the staff was very friendly. I’d highly recommend it.
Next up: swimming with sea lions at Coral World
Please note: after choosing and booking this hotel on my own I received discounts not available to the general public. Thanks very much to the USVI Department of Tourism and the Marriott Frenchman’s Reef.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Kids, St. Thomas, Travel
