We were in St. Maarten today. We docked in Philipsburg on the Dutch side. We had to get up early this morning for our excursion. We were doing the Sea & See Island Tour, which was supposed to be part bus tour and part semi-submerged submarine. The problem was that due to rough seas, they had to cancel the sea part of the excursion. We decided to do it anyway and Disney reduced the price accordingly. The bus took us through the Dutch side into the French side. The driver acted as the guide and told us about the history and interesting facts about the island. We made one stop at a small souvenir shop and then ended up in Margot, the French capital for an hour of shopping (oh joy). I did find a cool island shirt for $10 and Judy bought a magnet for the frig (while my thing is Disney pins, Judy loves to collect refrigerator magnets). We didn’t find anything else to buy, we’ll probably do most of our shopping in St. Thomas tomorrow. . The excursion was enjoyable. The driver's delivery was rather dry, but informative. We enjoyed it the tour, but it probably would have been better if we were able to do the sea part of the tour.

After the tour, we went back to the ship for lunch and then we took a water taxi into Philipsburg to shop some more. Again, we weren’t really impressed with the shops, so we didn’t buy anything. On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a casino and I played the slots for about 15 minutes. I lasted that long on four dollars, before losing it.

After shopping, we went back to the ship where I took a nap while Judy went back off the ship to try to buy a t-shirt she saw that she liked. For some reason, the credit card wasn’t accepted. Some problem the store was having with their system and I had all the cash.

Judy came back and woke me up so that we could get ready for Palos. Our reservations were at 6:00. We had the same server we had for lunch. His name was Steve and he was from Paris. We had a wonderful meal. Here's another vote for the chocolate soufflé for dessert that was heavenly and Judy had the dessert pizza!

After dinner, we went to the Walt Disney Theater to see Monsters, Inc. This is a great place to see a movie, they have surround sound with speakers all over the place (about 95 speakers in all). It is so cool to hear stuff happening all around you. The effect is amazing. Since the cruise, Monsters, Inc. has been showing with trailers. I'd be curious to know if later cruises had this version of the movie.