Just returned from Western Caribbean on the Magic - any Q's?

[nemofans]

On all the paperwork I've received from DCL it lists the port times. Look at your reservation confirmation or at your ressie online. I'm sure there may be some changes while on the cruise though.

 

[wdwishes1990]

We'll be on the Western leaving 1/8. Just wondering how early you were able to go ashore at each of the ports and how late you could return to the ship. I can't find anything on the website with this information, and I am trying to plan the Cozumel Bar Hop (no, we're not big drinkers but we're all adults and have heard great things about this excursion). Thanks for any info on all ashore and all aboard times!

Mr. Potts

Key West 12:30 - 7:30
Grand Cayman 7:30-4:00
Cozumel 9:30 - 6:30

 

[Mr_Potts]

Key West 12:30 - 7:30
Grand Cayman 7:30-4:00
Cozumel 9:30 - 6:30

Thanks! That helps a lot with planning. Hard to believe they can offer an excursion all the way to Tulum in that time frame!

 

[kathi]

We were on the same sailing also (11/27 - 12/4). The weather was certainly not terribly cooperative, but it was still a great trip. We were a diverse group. My parents (73 and 88) my husband and me (37 and 44) and our 6 year old daughter. We had adjoining Cat 3/Cat 4 rooms (8522 and 8524). We had a slight sewage smell the first day but I ran around putting water in all the drains (we had 3 bathrooms between the 2 room) and that seemed to solve the problem. I did notice septic smells once in a while around the ship, but it was not any different than other cruises. We thought the ship was in very good condition (I was expecting a rusty piece of junk based on some of the reviews). We had some ants in our room that they never really got under control (despite a lot of effort), but no other problems.

Cozumel day was rotten so we asked about a "local" restaurant and walked over to check it out. It was AWESOME and the highlight of our trip. I highly recommend La Choza. It's just a few blocks from the cruise terminal. Easy/safe walk. We were supposed to do Nachi Cocum. I have no idea if I'm eligible for a refund - there is no way they could have been open, the weather was just rotten.


Who/how was the Cruise Director? Peter
Who/how was your Head Server? Head Server was Liam - didn't really interact with him much, but he seemed cordial and competent.
How/who were your servers? Simon from Philippines was our server. Can't remember the assistant server's name. They were wonderful.
Movies? Didn't see any but they were playing: Tangled, Secretariat, Price of Persia, Up and a few others.
How were the shows? Didn't go to any.
What did you do in Grand Cayman? Shopped and checked out email at the coffee shop. My parents took our daughter on the Island tour and they had a great time.
Did you go to Palo? We ate dinner at Palo 3 times (we were concierge), brunch once and high tea once. Dinner and Brunch were awesome. Great variety, super service and delicious food. Tea was the worst experience I had on the ship. I'm a vegetarian and all the finger sandwiches are pre-made and there was only one without meat. It was open faced white bread with slices of cucumber. BLECH I really love tea at the Grand Floridian in Disney World and this was NOTHING like it. I would not do it again.

 

[luvmyprincess]

We had some ants in our room that they never really got under control (despite a lot of effort), but no other problems.
.

Ewww... Hate bugs of all kinds!! Never thought I'd see ants on a cruise ship!! This is our first cruise, is this a common problem??

 

[lisamarch]

We were on this cruise, too.

Who/how was your Head Server? Jaoh, or something like that.
How/who were your servers? Bomi and Sipho. They were SLOW>>> So, so slow. We would not have our entrees and other people were leaving. Never got out in under 2 hours. I'm all for taking an enjoyable amount of time for eating, but we never made the 9:45 or even 10:00 or 10:15 events.

Movies? My son saw Up in 3D and Sorcerer's Apprentice. We also watched Grown-ups in our stateroom about 3 times.

How were the shows? This was our first cruise. We really liked the Dreams show, but did not care for Villians Tonight.

What did you do in Grand Cayman? Stayed on the ship

Did you go to Palo?..for how many meals?..was it good? No, we didn't go.

I thought overall the food was good for 2,000 meals. Not California Grill great, but very good. Better than at home!

We LOVED the cruise. We loved the weather. We rebooked for 2012!

Our DS9 took a while to warm up to Oceaneer's but by Wednesday he loved it and spent a ton of time there. The first few days he spent time in the movie theater, the pools and the arcade, so he enjoyed it the entire time.

We were in 8520 and never noticed any smells. Nothing was wrong in our room. It was lovely!

We want to be back NOW!!

 

[aseyrick]

Never saw bugs of any kind anywhere. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing a bug on Castaway Cay.

Speaking of CC - we went onshore around 9:30 (when they cleared customs) and back on around 5:00 pm. Definitely be sure to get to CC as early as you can and claim a good set of lounge chairs. For those of you who's going during winter, you may want to reconsider Serenity Bay as the Family Beaches were less crowded and MUCH warmer! Plus, when we went, they had low tide, and Serenity was very yucky and smelly b/c the waters there were more shallow.

 

[mousebrat]

We did notice some ants on our balcony, but not in the room.

 

[kathi]

We were in 8520 and never noticed any smells. Nothing was wrong in our room. It was lovely!

We want to be back NOW!!

You were our neighbor - we had 8522 and 8524. Did you have issues VERY late one night (like 2 am) with then dragging deck chairs and tables around? If I weren't so tired I would have gone up there and tried to talk them out of it.

 

[iloverags2]

Who/how was your Head Server? Liam, although we did not interact with him much. When we did, he was very friendly, but he did not visit our table except to bring a special occasion cake the first night.
How/who were your servers? Server was Valentin from Bulgaria and our assistant server was Val from Romania. Valentin was very sweet, and always called us by name - even the first night. Val was incredible. Super friendly, and always had good suggestions for us when we asked about things outside of dining.
Movies? Did not go to see any movies.
How were the shows? Dreams was excellent as always! That was the only one I caught.
What did you do in Grand Cayman? We took the two-hour Island Tour, which we thought was really good. Gave us a good taste of Grand Cayman, but wasn't too long.
Did you go to Palo?..for how many meals?..was it good? We went to Palo once for dinner. My fourth meal in Palo, and as always it was excellent! Zoran was our server (he used to be on the Wonder, where I previously had him as a server). Had the Beef Tenderloin Palo.

Hope this helps!

 

[newbydisney]

thanks for all the updates.....

 

[figmentfan84]

Hope this helps!

What a small world! We had the same dining team in the main dining rooms, as well as Zoran for our Palo server. I completely agree with you on all accounts. Val was awesome. I don't drink alcohol but he kept trying to find wines and cocktails that I would enjoy. He didn't succeed, so on the last night he just offered to bring a strawberry smoothie for me. He would also chat with us about photography (we usually had our DSLR's with us). I'm tempted to print out some photos and send them to him. Super sweet guy! And Valetin was just adorable - sometimes we couldn't understand what he was saying, but he was so nice.

Zoran in Palo was also incredible - he stuffed us to the gills with food (my boyfriend had the beef and I tried monkfish for the first time). We ended up heading back to the room after dinner and sleeping through the Pirate deck party!

Were you on the early or late seating?

 

[lisamarch]

You were our neighbor - we had 8522 and 8524. Did you have issues VERY late one night (like 2 am) with then dragging deck chairs and tables around? If I weren't so tired I would have gone up there and tried to talk them out of it.

I didn't hear anything, but I'm sure we were so tired we slept through it. I had packed ear plugs but we didn't use them.

 

[kathi]

I didn't hear anything, but I'm sure we were so tired we slept through it. I had packed ear plugs but we didn't use them.

Hey I just recognized your signature as a magnet that was left on our door. (We had the crazy Christmas magnets). Were you celebrating your anniversary?

Kathi

 

[unrdisney]

The cruise director was Brent and he was all around fabulous!
Our head server was Anita from the Philippines, she was great.
Our assistant server was Simo (Slobadon) from Slovakia. He was by far the best we have ever had in terms of service and was the BEST CM on the ship. I couldn't speak more highly of him. We will surely be requesting him again for our next cruise!

Best of luck!