Magic Cruise to St. Croix starts tomorrow [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

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paango

01-02-2009, 03:31 PM

DMMarla07860

01-02-2009, 04:00 PM

no last minute tips, but have fun. I'll be going to st. croix in febuary 28th-March 7th cruise so would love to hear about that place:goodvibes

mrstbalt

01-02-2009, 04:02 PM

We are going in December, can't wait to see pictures and hear all about it. Have a fun trip!!

glindamood

01-02-2009, 04:19 PM

Have an awesome time and hoping you have sunny skies and smooth seas. We are heading to St. Croix in November so I am anxious to hear what you have to say as well.

fltink

01-03-2009, 11:43 AM

We are cruising in two weeks! Please keep us up to date on the Magic!!!!! Have fun!!!

3Charbys

01-06-2009, 10:43 AM

But have fun!! Looking forward to reading your trip report and seeing any pictures you have from St Croix!! My family of 3 are sailing on the Feb 28th St Croix!

fairfax

01-06-2009, 01:25 PM

I'm interested in hearing your trip report too, we will be on this cruise in a few months!

DMMarla07860

01-06-2009, 02:08 PM

I'm interested in hearing your trip report too, we will be on this cruise in a few months!

I noticed you'll be on the same cruise as me:goodvibes

fairfax

01-06-2009, 03:34 PM

I noticed you'll be on the same cruise as me:goodvibes

It's really getting close now isn't it? I'm so excited!

Are you doing two 7 nights back to back? Wow am I jealous!!

SandieT

01-06-2009, 03:41 PM

I would love to know if formal night/pirate night etc are all the same as past 7 night Eastern cruises.
What did you do in St. Croix?
We are going March 28
Hope you are having a wonderful time!!!
:cool1:

mumom95

01-08-2009, 12:05 AM

Looking forward to the trip report when you get back, we are doing the St Croix/St Thomas trip in the end of March.

Weedy

01-08-2009, 03:10 PM

We're going March 28th. Would love to know about the excursions. Also if you could post the Navigators.
Thanks

All Things Simba

01-08-2009, 10:10 PM

DD (15) along with DH and I are hading to St. Thomas and St. Croix tomorrow on the Magic. We've cruised DCL a few times before but its been awhile. We are in cabin 6654 and I promise to come back with pictures and a full report. Any last minute tips?

:cool1:

As I'm responding to your post.... you all are still sailing now! How wonderful!
Hope it feels like your vacation is lasting forever!

We are on the Magic/St. Croix sailing coming up on 1/31/09! We can't wait to her from you and other cruisers about St. Croix and the experiences you've had with this new tropical destination! We'll be standing (or sitting!) by the computer waiting for your report!:surfweb: Enjoy! :yay:

LoveMickey

01-09-2009, 02:35 PM

We are interested in your trip report also. We'll be sailing on the Eastern next January.

If you can let us know about the temps, water temp, etc. that would be great.

Hope your trip was Magical.

mumom95

01-09-2009, 02:58 PM

We're going March 28th. Would love to know about the excursions. Also if you could post the Navigators.
Thanks

We are going to be on that cruise too. I don't know if you've seen, but we have a thread on the Cruise Meets board, if you haven't yet, you should come join us.

makewifehappy

01-09-2009, 06:02 PM

Got room for me? My family currently has to wait until Thanksgiving of 2010 before we go.

Take advantage of the buffet at Parrot Cay when you get to the ship tomorrow. It's always a good way to start the trip off.

Angie_Ohio

01-10-2009, 07:02 AM

My family is also going on the March 28th to ST. CROIX and ST. THOMAS. :banana: We've never been to ST. CROIX so are wondering how it is. What excursions are you planning if any? :confused3 We are booked for the WAVE jeep tour.
Angie

nzdisneymom

01-10-2009, 06:57 PM

Welcome home! Can't wait to read about the trip! Hope you all had a Magical time!

paango

01-11-2009, 12:13 PM

We just returned yesterday from the St. Croix trip. I will have all my pics posted next weekend.

It was fabulous, of course! We had a great time, and only a couple of small glitches. DH and I used separate credit cards for our Key to the World Cards and interestingly, when I presented my card at Palo and the Spa, the charges showed up on his Key card so keep an eye out if this is an issue for you. This is the 4th cruise for me and DD (15), and 1st cruise for DH so we have some interesting perspectives. If you have specific questions send 'em on!

Note to anyone in the military active-duty: DH is active duty and I was told to call about 45 days prior to cruise to see if there would be a military discount. Was there ever! We got about $1800 back on military discount which applies to all in the same stateroom. Do it! Make that phone call, and fax a copy of the active id! Sorry, don't know if it applies to retired military.

I thoroughly walked the ship and looked in on the kids program areas and they were very clean and up to Disney standards. My daughter even lamented that she couldn't spend time in those places for the little ones.

The ship: The ship was as beautiful as we remember it from previous cruises. Just out of dry dock in October and the carpeting was new and they did some general up keep and reconfiguration in some areas. Parrot Cay seemed to be the only place that seemed dated, but then again how much tropical/parrot themed places can a family from Florida stand? We were in room 6654 (handicapped accessible) and it showed a little wear but the room was way too cool (more on that later). There is a video that runs in the room that shows all the work they did during dry-dock and it is pretty amazing.

St. Croix: my advice to anyone who does not have a pre-planned excursion: STAY on the ship. I live in Florida and the "islands" are right in my backyard so I know from experience. St. Croix has not had a cruise ship in dock for 8 years and it shows. Mind you, we did not have an excursion planned as we just wanted to do our own thing. The taxis were a mess and very unorganized. We tried to get a taxi to the Cruzan Rum factory and none of the taxi people knew what we were talking about. If you didn't want to go to one of the locations posted on their board (everything was $20), forget it. We walked around a bit and finally got on a taxi to Christiansted - about a 30 minute ride. The marina area was beautiful and the shops were ok but there were only a few and not anything special. We did hear from those doing excursions that it was nice and the snorkeling was great. But if you are just looking to do it yourself, stay on the ship and enjoy!

I will post more when I can a little later - but reality calls :sad1:

paango

01-11-2009, 12:51 PM

Report from 7 day St. Croix on the Magic:

Alcohol: We packed a small roll-on suitcase that we carried on board. The security sign says specifically no alcohol but true to what a CM said, they are looking for weapons etc. We carried on Red Bull (not avail on cruise), a 12 pack of near-beer and a box of wine for me. No one even blinked. I highly recommend for those looking to save a few bucks and enjoy drinks in the room to do this. And get a box of wine - travels so much better and easier. DH did take red bull to a bar and they mixed it with liquor for him. The refrigerater is really a drink cooler but it was nice to have a glass of wine on the verandah at night.

When you get on the cruise you are offered to purchase a case of evian water and have it delivered to your stateroom. It worked out to about $1.50 a bottle as opposed to $2 a bottle separately. If you are a water person, I suggest you bring it on yourself or buy the case. We brought reusuable plastic mugs and helped ourselves to free coke products, coffee and tea, lemonade and regular water throughout the cruise available on deck 9 aft near Topsiders. Out of the room we drank the "tap" water at the table etc and it tasted fine to us. At dinner the soda and iced tea was free.

They now offer beer packages - you get your choice of 6 beers for set price and can buy buckets of beer - pay for 5 get 1 free. Not bad. We do recommend the mojitos, no flavor, and ask them to make it with light rum, not Baccardi limon. Best ones in the Diversions Bar. Best margaritas with regular tequila in Promenade - find bartender named Prince.

There is a specialty coffee cafe at the Cove Pool - deck 9 forward. Nice place but anyone under 18 can't go in to order a coffee drink, so I ordered for my DD who needed a cappucino one morning.

Some general tips: do take plain pillowcases and/or tshirts and colored sharpies to the guest services desk and ask them to have as many characters sign as possible. They will be delivered to your stateroom the last night. We took several and they made great gifts for our younger friends when we got home.

They now have hold performances for the Disney shows during a matinee. Take advantage - less hassle than doing it before/after dinner.

Do go to Topsiders and Goofy's Galley in between or in place of regular dinner. Goofy's had awesome sandwiches, paninis, salads and fruit. We had one every day. And Topsider was less busy and had great food and we did have the porterhouse steak - wonderful!

Do prepay the gratuities. We did and what a relief - no messing with the guest services etc. the gratuity tickets are delivered to your stateroom the last day and it was just so easy to handle it and we added a little cash to one CM who was exceptionally attentive.

Do bring a deck of cards or Uno game. We played for some togetherness time and later had others join us, and we forget how much fun it is.

Wipe your hands! I have never seen such attention to hygiene. Everywhere you go, and in front of each eatery there is handi-wipes and someone handing them out whether you want one or not. Disney is extremely conscientious about cleanliness.

Do bring a $5 clear shoe organizer to put over the bathroom door. Saved space and was really handy and stopped a lot of the "honey, where is my ---" questions.

We bought walkie-talkies for the DD to check in with us. Its a lot to ask for the transmission through the decks and metal but for the most part it was good. We had her "key" us once an hour to check in, when she didn't want to take the walkie-talkie, and we were in the room late in the evening, we had her call the room once an hour from any of the courtesy phones everywhere on the ship. Easy to do and a relief for parents.

Beware of the on-line internet packages. The brochures in the room advertise a totally different set of packages and prices that are cheaper than the actual packages when you sign on. We got the 100 minutes package and checked in for about 10min a day, and it was just enough from our stateroom with our laptop. We took the laptop because we wanted to download the pics from the camera every day too.

Photopass is up and working. When you get your embarkation pic taken and any other time you get your photo taken in front of a backdrop, they swipe the card and you can see the pics at a kiosk. Just make sure you check all adult key cards because they show up on the key card that was swiped at the time...took a bit before we realized some pics were on DH's key card.

ESN

01-11-2009, 01:21 PM

Thank you so much for the info --

I am thrilled to hear about the photpass -- The biggest gripe I had with DCL (beside the cost!) was Shutters. This will be a much needed improvement!

Did you talk to anyone who did the Wave Jeep tour in St Croix? We are booked on this and are wondering if it is worth keeping or not.

How about the Buck Island trip- hear anything about this?

nzdisneymom

01-11-2009, 01:56 PM

Sounds like you all had a good trip - thanks for the info about St. Croix. If you post pictures somewhere, we'd love to look.

autocon1

01-11-2009, 04:51 PM

Hi:

Can you share what the dining rotation was for your trip? Which night was formal/pirate/ etc?

Thanks!

LAMPSKIES

01-11-2009, 10:47 PM

Thanks for the trip report......hey the bar tender in Diversions wouldn't have happened to be Nyoman (sp?)? He has been on our last 5 sailings and definately makes the best mojitos ANYWHERE

DMMarla07860

01-12-2009, 07:47 AM

thanks for the report

What cruise staff was on the ship? just wondering if you know:goodvibes

lilofan

01-12-2009, 09:07 AM

SIx of us were on the trip and had a great time. My daughter and her friends rented a jeep and had a marevlous time on ST Croix. I would look into doing that insterad of the jeep tour. People we talked to did not enjoy the jeep tour that much. They paid only about $50 for the jeep.

ESN

01-12-2009, 10:29 AM

Thanks --

Do you know if they booked jeep ahead of time, or when they arrived?

If pre-booked -- any idea who they booked with ?

lilofan

01-12-2009, 12:47 PM

They rented from Avis on St Croix. They drove most of the island, went to the rain forest, Cristianstaad, and ended up at Cane Bay beach.
All four of them raved about what a great time they had.

lilofan

01-12-2009, 12:48 PM

They rented from Avis on St Croix. They drove most of the island, went to the rain forest, Cristianstaad, and ended up at Cane Bay beach.
All four of them raved about what a great time they had. They rented when they got to the island.

ESN

01-12-2009, 01:48 PM

Thank you so much -- we may end up doing this!

Do you recall what times you arrived/departed St Croix?

Was it dock or tender?

lilofan

01-12-2009, 04:59 PM

7:30 Arrival and 5:30 back on the ship--although one family cut it really close. They were running up the pier as the gangways were being pulled up. We were the only cruise ship at St. Croix--a distinct plus--and I think all the cruises to St. Croix will be, so there is no tendering.

ESN

01-13-2009, 11:08 AM

Awesome - thanks for the info - hope you had a great trip, and that your return to reality was not too harsh.

sagira

01-14-2009, 11:10 AM

jbuckent

01-14-2009, 02:48 PM

Thanks for the report! I've been anxiously waiting to hear about St Croix and if the schedule of events changed so thanks so much!

sagira

01-16-2009, 01:49 PM