OPERA 2nd APRIL and ST. THOMAS Coach tour 5th April

As Henri advised us Opera will be one of 8 cruiseliners at St. Thomas. It is going to be busy and crowded. Taxis will probably be much in demand and charging top rate.

So far quite a few have expressed an interest in our booking our "own" little tour. I have made enquiries and am now going to book a 20 seater "open air" bus. Price will be 30 dollars per person.

We will start about 9.00 a.m.

The basic tour of the mountain top with all the spectacular views can be read about on http://www.havefunwithus.com. They will then take us to 3 main beaches Magens Bay, Coki Beach and Sapphire Beach then back to the main town and shopping areas. This will be "OUR" tour so we can plan it en route pretty much as we wish. We end up back at Opera.

To date those interested are Amber and Nigel, Varadero, Henri and Marian, Robyn, Vic and Carol and we 4 so that makes 13. I am working on the basis that if no one else from our CC group is interested in this little outing that we will find dining table mates etc who will be happy to take up the remaining few seats to enjoy a real FUN day out.

If we make more than 20 then I guess we can just ask for a larger bus.

Barry

WOW! We will have some BIG neighbours berthed with us!

QM2 @ 151,400 tons, Voyager of the Seas @ 138,000 tons,

Caribbean Princess @ 116,000 tons, Carnival Glory @ 110,000 tons

There is from the 8 cruise ships the possibility of 20,000+ passengers!

Dear friends,

to complete the cruise-list for St. Thomas, here is the time-schedule.

Opera, Voyager o/t Seas and Caribbean Princess arrive at 07:00 AM.:D

Norwegian Crown, QM2, Zuiderdam and Century arrive at 08:00 AM.

Carnival Glory arrives at 10:00 AM.

See : http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn/default.aspx (copy/paste), where you can give a harbor (anywhere in the world) and a date, and he gives the right answer!!:)

The MSC-schedule says leaving at 17:00 (0500 PM), but this cruise-calender says 18:59 (0659 PM)so there is another surprise.

According to the time of the other ships, maybe it is best to go shopping first, I can not imagine 20000+ people in St.Thomas ?!?:eek:

But.. it's also nice to see the "armada" coming.:D

Henri.

When we were on the Opera (Jan 29, Eastern) Cruise Cal said 6 in port. Only 4 when we got there. Two from Princess, Carnival Triumph, and us. Cruise Cal said QM2. and a RCCL "big un". We left at 4:45PM although scheduled for 5:00PM. At 4:30 they were pulling up the Gangway. REMEMBER this. Although CruiseCal may say 18:59, I would not bet on it. Make sure to take a credit card with you. You may need to find another way to St. Croix.

Mapsmith

Hi Czechmate, Henri, Mapsmith and other cruisers.

You can count two more in on your proposed coach tour of St. Thomas.

Coming from Australia, beaches are not our tour priorities however we believe this is a great way to see the island and meet fellow Opera travelers early in the cruise.

About us - Joan and Neville from Sydney, Australia. Our first time in the Carribean and on a MSC cruise. Have cruised the Baltic with Fred Olsen Line (fantastic) and the Far East with Princess Line (terrific).

Staying on deck 7, outside cabin. Counting the days till our trip and meeting you all.

Good to have your company and you are "counted in" for the St Thomas tour.

No doubt you will also read the "other" thread for Opera 2nd April - join us there.

We have a Pre Sail GTG on 1st April starting at Goosbys Bar and Grill, Fort Lauderdale Marina Marriott at 5.00 p.m.

Then a GTG on 2nd April at Il Patio on Opera.

Hi Czechmate

Great you received our message. Whilst we would really like to go the the GTG on 1 April we are unavailable as we are staying with friends prior to the cruise. We will of course meet up at the GTG in Il Patio on the 2 April.

Believe there are classes on board to learn Italian which could be interesting - does anyone have any information?

Regards

Joan and Neville

Good to have your company and you are "counted in" for the St Thomas tour.

 

No doubt you will also read the "other" thread for Opera 2nd April - join us there.

 

We have a Pre Sail GTG on 1st April starting at Goosbys Bar and Grill, Fort Lauderdale Marina Marriott at 5.00 p.m.

 

Then a GTG on 2nd April at Il Patio on Opera.

Hi Joan & Neville,

Look forward to meeting you onboard on 2 April. :D

Re - Italian classes - as czechmate has said, we have another thread which is the official roll call where we are all chatting generally about the ship/cruise etc. It's just a couple of posts below this one. I'm sure some of the rest of our fellow cruisers will have the answer to that question, if you post it there?

:) welcome! it's our 1st MSC cruise also were on deck 8;)

Hi all

Got the confirmation today of our open air bus for St. Thomas.

They confirm that we can plan the tour as WE want on the day. We start at 9.00 a.m.

Aye, aye, Barry,

that's nice, we'll be looking forward to it.

And we'll have a lot of fun on 'our' bus-coach.

Henri.

Good morning Czechmate

Thank you for all your work on our behalf. Count us in for our own "private" tour of Saint Thomas. How fun.

Vic & Carol

:)Thank you, we cann't wait..........

Hi all

 

 

Got the confirmation today of our open air bus for St. Thomas.

 

They confirm that we can plan the tour as WE want on the day. We start at 9.00 a.m.

Thanks for organising the bus czechmate - should be a fun day :D

My pleasure folks.

Robyn - do you think Rhona and Ken might want to join us for this little outing?

Hi Barry

Thankyou for all you effort in arranging the special bus tour of St.Thomas - we really look forward to meeting you and our fellow "bus mates".

Regards

Joan and Neville

Thanks for organizing the trip. My husband,Boro, and I would definitely like to add our names to the growing list for the tour on April 5th. Once again thanks for getting all the info etc regarding the trip. Mary:)

Mary - have added you and Boro to our list.

Now we are 17!!

Contacted the company yesterday and if necessary they can change us to a 22 or 24 seater. So we can accommodate a few more if needed.

My pleasure folks.

 

Robyn - do you think Rhona and Ken might want to join us for this little outing?

Hi Barry - have emailed Rhona & Ken with the link to this thread, and asked if they were interested, to post here.

Cheers

Robyn

Thanks Robyn. How many sleeps now? :-)

Thank you for your organization, Czechmate. We would love to be part of the St Thomas tour if there is still room on the bus.

Rhona and Ken

Hi Rhona and Ken. Have added you to the list and look forward to the company.

Anyone else interested - just say. The company have said they can change us to a 22 or 24 seater if necessary.

Should I do some research for the other islands also? Antigua, Martinique, Barbados?

Good morning Czechmate:

Has anyone told you recently that you are an angel?:o It would be great to learn about a possible private tour in another one of our islands. Since we are addicted to cruising we have been to all the Carribbean islands on our April cruise. Thus something new to do will be exciting.

Vic & Carol

Should I do some research for the other islands also? Antigua, Martinique, Barbados?

Barry - if you are willing that would be wonderful :D Have been meaning to do this myself, although I am leaning towards one ship excursion in Antigua - the "Coral Ark Party".

I actually have a list of the usual shore excursions for our ports from my friend at MSC Sydney. I will try to find the time over the weekend to post them on here (heaps of them :eek:)) so everyone can have enough advance notice as possible. Might help decide whether some of us do our 'own' excursions or ones from the ship.

Thanks Robyn. How many sleeps now? :-)

Ask and ye shall receive!

36 sleeps to Goosbys GTG

24 sleeps to my flight to USA :D:D