05/09/2009 May 9, 2009 7-Night Eastern St Maarten... Watch Out!

[scottie]

My wife and I will be taking our first DCL cruise 5/9/09!!
Can't wait. Seriously, can we cast off now?
We're staying in a Cat. 4 with our 3 daughters: Hannah (5), Sarah (3), and Leah (she turns 1 on 5/7/09!)

I'm really interested in getting to know everyone here...I'll post again when the guilt of posting while at work subsides.

Seriously, though, how's now for the whole casting off thing?
Yes?
Maybe?

Sigh.

Welcome Aboard! We have stayed in a cat 4 room a couple of times and LOVED it, i'm sure your crew will too! And boy what a b-day gift for your little girl!
WOW another 3 year old joining the bunch- those counslers onboard will have their hands full with all our youngsters!

PS I fully understand the guilt you speak about, it will pass in time

 

[MouseNDaHouse]

Ha! Thank you very much - I'm learning to live with the pain...

And you mean first birthday present...to US right? We had planned the trip just before we got pregnant since our two older ones could be out of our hair...I mean 'enjoy the clubs more'...at these ages. Seriously, though, we're really looking forward to finding the balance between enjoying our daughters and some little breaks.

Here are my tentative plans...tell me what you think, Scottie:
St. Maarten - 12 Metre Regatta (I really want to do this one, but not sure how to handle the kids during the excursion and I really don't want to leave Natalia to babysit!) and the butterfly farm on our own.

St. Thomas - Coral World Excursion.

Castaway Cay - Beach time mainly w/possible Stingrays.

I figure the safest beach for our two non-swimmers is at Castaway Cay and the other experiences mixed with the clubs and the pools on the boat (not to mention the shows and the Mickey Bars) will more than fill up my daughters memory banks.

 

[scottie]

Ha! Thank you very much - I'm learning to live with the pain...

And you mean first birthday present...to US right? We had planned the trip just before we got pregnant since our two older ones could be out of our hair...I mean 'enjoy the clubs more'...at these ages. Seriously, though, we're really looking forward to finding the balance between enjoying our daughters and some little breaks.

Here are my tentative plans...tell me what you think, Scottie:
St. Maarten - 12 Metre Regatta (I really want to do this one, but not sure how to handle the kids during the excursion and I really don't want to leave Natalia to babysit!) and the butterfly farm on our own.

St. Thomas - Coral World Excursion.

Castaway Cay - Beach time mainly w/possible Stingrays.

I figure the safest beach for our two non-swimmers is at Castaway Cay and the other experiences mixed with the clubs and the pools on the boat (not to mention the shows and the Mickey Bars) will more than fill up my daughters memory banks.

Jeremy,
It is a balance no doubt! This is our first 7-night cruise so we are very excited for new opportunities! We have always cruised with our 3 kids (well two for the first few sailings) and make sure to have extended time (before they yelp about wanting to run off to the club) with the kids especially during the morning and thru the heat of the day time... swimming non-stop at the pools and just finding other fun things to do onboard.

We allow them to enjoy the clubs while we have some fun more adult orientated time too, usually into the evening. We don’t stop them from going to the club for an activity mid-day if the see something they want to do too.

The Flounders Nursery was a blessing for us last time we sailed, Dylan was a young 2 and we utilized it during dinners so us three adults could kick back and enjoy Disney dining. I would HIGHLY suggest booking your allotted time in here if you think you will use it! There was a small cost per hour, but worth every penny in our opinion last time around!
The girls love to have dinner with the other kids in the clubs at the buffet for the meal. They have assigned kids club dining times so we pretty much loose them at dinner each night, as they want to do the activities following the kids dining time in the clubs while we have late dinner seating. We are also big fans of the late dinner seating.

12 meter Regatta- was just reading that, hmmm maybe I should join you on this as it looks to be a blast! The ladies and kids can fend for themselves shopping or whatever it is they do! Seriously though, I may be interested in this escape!
I guess you could consider letting the older kids enjoy the clubs onboard for the couple hours and Leah can have some time in Flounders, if the adults in your party would like to do this excursion- or one do it and one shop the markets etc. Just an idea.

Coral World sounds like a good time. We are planning a family beach day on St Thomas as the water sounds so calm at many of the beautiful beach locations I read about. I think it would be perfect for all ages (hopefully). We are planning to hit Magens Bay for the day, feel free to join us if your plans change. I believe it was rated as a top-ten beach in the world.

Castaway Cay is just an experience in itself you will all have fun there!

Scott

 

[airtime247]

Sounds like fun! Maybe we will end up on the same bus or waving to you from the one parked next to it

If you end up doing this excursion, I can contact them and ask to be put on the same bus.

Wow, $64 airfare? I think that may cover what our luggage will cost us. We bought our airfare yesterday. It did drop about $20/pp but is still going to be over $500 as it's always expensive to fly out of our little podunk airport. We also have multi-destination tickets as we have to make a pitstop for a quick wedding in Los Angeles. We were going to wait it out to see if prices drop further but a lot of the flights are getting filled up. We already lost the flight we wanted coming back.

At least we got 5x the reward points by using our Disney Visa.

Welcome Jeremy! You sound like my kind of people. Wow, another three year old? We are going to have to rename this itinerary the Threeastern Caribbean. Don't be surprised if Disney raises the age for the Oceaneer's Club to 4yo after this cruise.

We are pretty sure we are going to visit Coral World too. I think my 3yo would love it. I do want to squeeze in some beach time as well so we are thinking about visiting Coki beach next door for a couple of hours. Rather than do an excursion, we will most likely just take a cab over so we don't feel so rushed.

I hear Magens Bay is nicer but I don't know how feasable it is time-wise to take a cab to Coral World, visit for a few hours, take another cab to Magens Bay for a few hours, and then a cab back and still have time to putt around the shopping area for a pin, postcard, and bottle of something that will make me forget how much this trip is costing us.

Have you visited Coral World's website yet? It's www.coralworldvi.com. They have some excursion-like things I see Disney is offering but a lot cheaper. You can do things like the semi-submarine, SeaTrek, or swim with sea lions or sharks.

-steve

 

[scottie]

I was just sitting here looking at the calendar and remembered we will be sailing on the high seas on Mothers Day- Dads don’t forget to get something special for the Moms sailing with you! I believe we will be eating in Palos that night.

 

[scottie]

If you end up doing this excursion, I can contact them and ask to be put on the same bus.

Wow, $64 airfare? I think that may cover what our luggage will cost us. We bought our airfare yesterday. It did drop about $20/pp but is still going to be over $500 as it's always expensive to fly out of our little podunk airport. We also have multi-destination tickets as we have to make a pitstop for a quick wedding in Los Angeles. We were going to wait it out to see if prices drop further but a lot of the flights are getting filled up. We already lost the flight we wanted coming back.

At least we got 5x the reward points by using our Disney Visa.

Welcome Jeremy! You sound like my kind of people. Wow, another three year old? We are going to have to rename this itinerary the Threeastern Caribbean. Don't be surprised if Disney raises the age for the Oceaneer's Club to 4yo after this cruise.

We are pretty sure we are going to visit Coral World too. I think my 3yo would love it. I do want to squeeze in some beach time as well so we are thinking about visiting Coki beach next door for a couple of hours. Rather than do an excursion, we will most likely just take a cab over so we don't feel so rushed.

I hear Magens Bay is nicer but I don't know how feasable it is time-wise to take a cab to Coral World, visit for a few hours, take another cab to Magens Bay for a few hours, and then a cab back and still have time to putt around the shopping area for a pin, postcard, and bottle of something that will make me forget how much this trip is costing us.

Have you visited Coral World's website yet? It's www.coralworldvi.com. They have some excursion-like things I see Disney is offering but a lot cheaper. You can do things like the semi-submarine, SeaTrek, or swim with sea lions or sharks.

-steve

Thanks for the offer! I was chatting with the family last night and I think they are all leaning towards a shopping day still for St Maarten. I will be sure to update you if that changes. However, I may try to convince them I need some “me” time and sneak off to that 12 meter regatta!

We lost our return preferred flight too before we booked so now we are going to sit in the airport for about an 1.5 hours two times on the way home. Oh well, the price was still good so I can live with it I guess, and hopefully the kids can too.

Maybe we should bring something to bribe the counselors so they wont think twice about our DIS swarm of 3 year olds invading the club!

I am going to investigate the other beach options for St Thomas and see if something else catches my eye over Magens Bay. I know it will be a beautiful beach I only slightly worry it could be crowded if lots of ships in port. One thing I am considering is asking the taxi driver how crowded Magens Bay is that day and if he thinks its overcrowded for the day I may ask him what his other suggestion would be for something more secluded and still family-friendly.

I can’t believe priority booking window is almost here, guess I will be staying up that night to book our stuff!

 

[MouseNDaHouse]

Thanks for the welcome, Steve. I'm sure glad my 3-yr.-old will have lots of stimulation, no matter the overwhelm of the counselors! I fear what she might do if left with too much time to plot my overthrow...

I hear you on the booking, Scott - I've had the priority date marked on my calendar for quite a while.

Told my wife that you might be interested in the 12 Meter Regatta and she seemed relieved that I might have someone else to go with!
(Even if we're able to get the kids situated somehow, I don't think she really wants to be away from them that long in foreign lands...)

Regarding the beach - yes, we definitely could be swayed to do that over anything else (although my daughters love bright colors and insects, so a butterfly farm on St. Maarten seems like the perfect recipe for them).
But now you've got me considering just beaching it on St. Thomas, too.
I mean, really, I may not get to see a truly world-class beach again for years. And growing up near the California coastline left me with a physical need for them! My biggest concern is simply keeping an eye on the girls...they take turns leading, but it's invariably toward trouble...never away.

I know the girls will love the park and they will really love the undersea tower, but we have a lot of opportunities to see sea life in the US...
So this will probably be my biggest decision of the trip - Coral World and Coki or strictly Magens Bay on St. Thomas?

BTW, anyone have any idea what exactly they 'farm' from the butterflies? I mean, is the milk sold in specialty shops? Or do the butterflies themselves actually grow from pods in the ground contrary to all the science texts I read as a child? Just askin'...

Final thought - I looked at the tours of the islands and Bernard's especially. He got great reviews and seems like just a guy who is doing what he loves - huge plus to these kinds of things. The thing that made me step away is the idea of trying to corral my mobile toddlers into a van for that long...I just think going point-to-point with them is going to mean more fun and frolic and less tantrums...

 

[MouseNDaHouse]

I was just sitting here looking at the calendar and remembered we will be sailing on the high seas on Mothers Day- Dads don’t forget to get something special for the Moms sailing with you! I believe we will be eating in Palos that night.

I agree on the Palo thing, but it's the second night of the cruise...not sure that I can convince my kids to eat in the clubs by then...and god forbid it's the Animator's Palette night!

 

[scottie]

I agree on the Palo thing, but it's the second night of the cruise...not sure that I can convince my kids to eat in the clubs by then...and god forbid it's the Animator's Palette night!

True on that! I didnt plan hitting Palo so early but the ladies in my party advised me they didnt want to have to bring a long too much formal type wear and opted to eat at Palo on "Formal" night, assuming I can secure a reservation there.

And I will do some chatting with DW and see if I can swing some time away to do the Regatta then I can figure out a way to get back to town to meet them and shop with them.

 

[scottie]

Its taken long enough but we finally made our mind up on where to stay the night before we sail (or so I think we have decided).
I discussed the options with my MIL today and we decided we will try to snag a good deal at the Hyatt inside the Orlando Airport via the Hyatt Stay certificate offer. We can get a room for $135 with tax plus $6 shipping via this method. That saves us about $60 for the night vs. the discounted rate DCL offers and about $80 over the Hyatt rate offered online. We figure the convenience factor alone of getting off the plane and heading to our room/pool right away will be a big plus! We can also avoid the risk factor of not knowing what hotel we will end up with that we would have ran into with Priceline/Hotwire. The kids are also excited about the chance to swim on top of the airport with planes flying overhead! Now I just have to hope the rooms won’t be booked up when I buy the Stay certificate!

 

[airtime247]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SCOTTIE!!!!!

I'm not sure if I would have noticed Mother's Day was taking place on our cruise. My wife who also reads this thread wouldn't have said thing but sent my forgetful butt overboard the day after to the thunderous applause of every woman onboard. I wonder if there will be a lot of sorry saps lined up at the ship's gift shop that day because they too forgot. That's a LONG day to be stranded at sea!

I've only been thinking about what we can do for our anniversary which is the day we return. We'll be spending that night at WDW.

I'm guessing we'll be on the APLAPLA rotation since we have little ones. If so, that would put us in Formal Night in Parrot Cay for Mother's Day. We were planning on going to Palo the night after when there is no special menu.

Now I've got to rethink everything!

-steve

 

[scottie]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SCOTTIE!!!!!

I'm not sure if I would have noticed Mother's Day was taking place on our cruise. My wife who also reads this thread wouldn't have said thing but sent my forgetful butt overboard the day after to the thunderous applause of every woman onboard. I wonder if there will be a lot of sorry saps lined up at the ship's gift shop that day because they too forgot. That's a LONG day to be stranded at sea!

I've only been thinking about what we can do for our anniversary which is the day we return. We'll be spending that night at WDW.

I'm guessing we'll be on the APLAPLA rotation since we have little ones. If so, that would put us in Formal Night in Parrot Cay for Mother's Day. We were planning on going to Palo the night after when there is no special menu.

Now I've got to rethink everything!

-steve

I think we have sailed with Disney 3 out of the last 6 Mother's Days so I am kind of a pro at matching up the phrase Disney Cruise and Mothers Day and remembering I need to get a hold of something special
I promise that I would have thrown a life preserver overboard for you!

There would not be special menu on Formal night either, correct? Just want to make sure I am planning correctly on my end.
Update- forgot about golden mickeys menu for the second night. Most of my party doesnt find that menu too exiciting so Palo should be a fine replacement

 

[MouseNDaHouse]

You boys seem to have some serious inside info that I need to avail myself of:

- How would you know what dining rotation you're on prior to the embarkation day? that would seem hugely helpful in planning...especially for Palo.

- Right now we have second seating - Do you recommend switching to first seating with our 5/3/1 year olds?

- How do you know which night will be formal and semi-formal?

- How do I choose my health coverage at work and find a new part-time second job that doesn't conflict with my current full-time work sched...sorry, wrong thread...

- This is also my Anniversary cruise as well - May 5. (Not a question, just a random insertion into the conversation. Please enjoy the nugget of knowledge with my compliments.)

Talk to you soon, gents.

 

[scottie]

You boys seem to have some serious inside info that I need to avail myself of:

- How would you know what dining rotation you're on prior to the embarkation day? that would seem hugely helpful in planning...especially for Palo.

- Right now we have second seating - Do you recommend switching to first seating with our 5/3/1 year olds?

- How do you know which night will be formal and semi-formal?

- How do I choose my health coverage at work and find a new part-time second job that doesn't conflict with my current full-time work sched...sorry, wrong thread...

- This is also my Anniversary cruise as well - May 5. (Not a question, just a random insertion into the conversation. Please enjoy the nugget of knowledge with my compliments.)

Talk to you soon, gents.

Ok I spoke to soon on my prior post and completely forgot Golden Mickey’s is on the second day so I believe there will be a menu to coincide with that show in the dinning rooms. We are still planning to go to Palo that night none the less.

You do not officially know what rotation you will have prior to getting to the port and seeing it on your KTTW card, but I believe it can usually be fairly figured out ahead of time based on the makeup of your party and past cruisers experience. However, I think I have read recently that they are adding a little more mix into the seating rotations for parties with kids.

Here is the rotation for the Eastern:
Sat- Port Canaveral Rotation dining menu-- Casual dress
Sun- Day at Sea Golden Mickeys menu-- *Formal dress
Mon- Day at Sea Rotation dining menu-- Casual dress
Tue- St. Maarten Pirates of the Caribbean menu-- *Pirate dress
Wed- St. Thomas Master Chef menu-- Casual dress
Thu- Day at Sea Captain's Gala menu-- *Semi Formal dress
Fri- Castaway Cay Till We Meet Again menu-- Casual dress

As for seating time, that is just a pure preference on how you think your day will go, normal eating time at home and so on. We have always had late seating, regardless of our kid’s ages at the time of sailing and found it to be ideal for our group. We mainly like the late seating’s because we personally feel it gives us more time to do stuff in the day before having to run back to the room to get cleaned up for dinner. There are so many options up on deck nine and room service during the afternoon to grab a late day snack for the kids or yourself to hold you over till dinner time if you choose to eat late. Others swear by early seating for their families and some like to switch off and on with their sailings. I hope my mess of thoughts didn’t confuse you more!

Well you will have your hands full celebrating Mothers Day and an Anniversary- but a cruise is a great way to celebrate both of those! We snuck away from the kids last Valentines Day and cruised on the 3-night Wonder cruise without them- it was GREAT! My wife said she would never leave the kids at home while we went away but turned out she ended up asking on the final day of the cruise when we could do it again!

As for a second job- just fill out an application to work on Disney Cruise Lines and have your interview while sailing, maybe they will hire on the wife and kids too!

 

[DisneyMommy1022]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SCOTTIE!!!!!

I'm not sure if I would have noticed Mother's Day was taking place on our cruise. My wife who also reads this thread wouldn't have said thing but sent my forgetful butt overboard the day after to the thunderous applause of every woman onboard. I wonder if there will be a lot of sorry saps lined up at the ship's gift shop that day because they too forgot. That's a LONG day to be stranded at sea!

I've only been thinking about what we can do for our anniversary which is the day we return. We'll be spending that night at WDW.

I'm guessing we'll be on the APLAPLA rotation since we have little ones. If so, that would put us in Formal Night in Parrot Cay for Mother's Day. We were planning on going to Palo the night after when there is no special menu.

Now I've got to rethink everything!

-steve

Hi Steve,
Do you have early dinning? Just wondering how you are coming up with the APLAPLA rotation. This is our first cruise and I am part of Planners Anonymous and like spreed sheets for everything. So I am desperately trying to find out our rotation so that I can plan Palo and everything else!

 

[scottie]

Here is a posting from a recent cruiser that shows how the normal rotations may be getting mixed a bit for those sailing with young kids, leave it to Disney to confuse us planners!:

I have back to back Western/Eastern cruises set for November 29 & December 6 on the Magic. I called today to find out my likely dining rotation as I am traveling with young children (3 & 5).

The rotations are a bit different than I expected. The Western rotation for those with young children is LAAPLAP. On the Eastern it's LAPLAPL.

Dining times for the above rotations are 5:30 (early seating) and 8:00 (second seating).

For mixed aged kids the rotations are APPLAPL (Western) and APLAPLA (Eastern). Dining times are 5:45 (early) and 8:15 (second).

 

[MouseNDaHouse]

Hi Steve,
Do you have early dinning? Just wondering how you are coming up with the APLAPLA rotation. This is our first cruise and I am part of Planners Anonymous and like spreed sheets for everything. So I am desperately trying to find out our rotation so that I can plan Palo and everything else!

Exactly my thoughts, Kristen!

 

[DisneyMommy1022]

Here is a posting from a recent cruiser that shows how the normal rotations may be getting mixed a bit for those sailing with young kids, leave it to Disney to confuse us planners!:

I have back to back Western/Eastern cruises set for November 29 & December 6 on the Magic. I called today to find out my likely dining rotation as I am traveling with young children (3 & 5).

The rotations are a bit different than I expected. The Western rotation for those with young children is LAAPLAP. On the Eastern it's LAPLAPL.

Dining times for the above rotations are 5:30 (early seating) and 8:00 (second seating).

For mixed aged kids the rotations are APPLAPL (Western) and APLAPLA (Eastern). Dining times are 5:45 (early) and 8:15 (second).

OK so let me ask this if you were me and your DD's where 4 and 7 and night owls, and eat dinner between 5-7 (Because of our work schedules) what dinning time would you pick early or late? I don't want to feel rushed for dinner. Also are we considered young children or mixed aged kids??? Right now I am down for early but I think that Late might be the way to go thinking that they must have us as " young kids" and we would eat at 8pm

 

[mopsey25]

Hello everyone..

just wanted to confirm we don't need to need to "pre-book" kids for the "club" correct? don't we just check them in when get on board? or how does that work.. we have a 3 and a 4 year old.

thanks!

 

[mopsey25]

Oops! I thought of something else.. we have a 12:30 flight back to boston on the 16th.. what is the best way and most cost effective to get to the airport? We don't want to rent a car so if anyone know of shuttle/car services that would great.