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

[don604]

Then lets say that my 2 double doubles were yours! Mine only had grilled onions!
We did go to DLR for one afternoon/evening. Didn't get there till around 4:00 but still had a good time.

Great! Hope your time there was awesome!! I have a sister who lives in Buena Park (right behind Knott's Berry Farm) and she has annual passes to DLR and gets to go quite often... I sure do miss living there

Scottie - Sounds good to me as well, let's do it

 

[alanapapa]

Great! Hope your time there was awesome!! I have a sister who lives in Buena Park (right behind Knott's Berry Farm) and she has annual passes to DLR and gets to go quite often... I sure do miss living there

Scottie - Sounds good to me as well, let's do it

Caro & I used to live just down from Knott's. If you continue down the street that the Chicken Dinner and shops are on and keep going straight instead of turning on Crescent we lived on the second right (Fillmore). We had dinner at Mrs Knotts and waited almost two hours in line. It was worth it though.

 

[don604]

Caro & I used to live just down from Knott's. If you continue down the street that the Chicken Dinner and shops are on and keep going straight instead of turning on Crescent we lived on the second right (Fillmore). We had dinner at Mrs Knotts and waited almost two hours in line. It was worth it though.

Cool. I know where thats at Yeah, they serve good food there. My sister took my family & I there this past August. We also went to DLR in August for 3 days and stood at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel... we had a blast!! We try to go annually but I doubt we will be doing much this year due to our big Disney Cruise in 09... cant wait!

 

[scottie]

I updated the first posting to include a list of those who are sailing with us. Please feel free to let me know of any corrections or stuff I missed!

 

[alanapapa]

I updated the first posting to include a list of those who are sailing with us. Please feel free to let me know of any corrections or stuff I missed!

looks good

 

[don604]

I updated the first posting to include a list of those who are sailing with us. Please feel free to let me know of any corrections or stuff I missed!

Thanks Scottie! Looks good.

 

[don604]

Anyone here ever stay in a SPH (Secret Porthole) stateroom? I ask because we have 2 booked for the cruise. Let me know, thanks!!

 

[scottie]

Anyone here ever stay in a SPH (Secret Porthole) stateroom? I ask because we have 2 booked for the cruise. Let me know, thanks!!

WOW sounds like between the two of us we have almost all the SPH rooms booked. We are in 5522 and 5524. Hopefully we arent sharing the same rooms!!

Havent stayed in them before but always wanted to so we are giving it a try for 09'. We will love the proximity to the kids clubs if not anything else. A lady thats posts on DIS has a site that gives info and pics for the SPH rooms. If you havent seen it and want a link I can try to get it to you, the boards wont let me post it.

 

[don604]

WOW sounds like between the two of us we have almost all the SPH rooms booked. We are in 5522 and 5524. Hopefully we arent sharing the same rooms!!

Havent stayed in them before but always wanted to so we are giving it a try for 09'. We will love the proximity to the kids clubs if not anything else. A lady thats posts on DIS has a site that gives info and pics for the SPH rooms. If you havent seen it and want a link I can try to get it to you, the boards wont let me post it.

We are booked in 5020 (us) and 5520 (the in-laws) ... I think I saw those pics before, is it the castawayclub site? I guess by booking early we were able to get those rooms, huh? I heard they tend to go pretty quick. I didnt reaize they were SPH's until after I booked them... the family was pretty excited about that (especailly the in-laws)

 

[scottie]

We are booked in 5020 (us) and 5520 (the in-laws) ... I think I saw those pics before, is it the castawayclub site? I guess by booking early we were able to get those rooms, huh? I heard they tend to go pretty quick. I didnt reaize they were SPH's until after I booked them... the family was pretty excited about that (especailly the in-laws)

If all works right, maybe my daughter Morgan and son Dylan will become best-cruise friends with your children. They will be within about a year of each other it appears and maybe they can spend time togther in the clubs, pools etc. Who knows!

Hopefully we wont be too loud for your in-laws as we will be sharing a wall with them. It will be DW, myself and DS in the room next to them. My MIL and two DDs will be in the room next to us (5524). We actually tried to get 5520 but it was taken already so you beat us to the punch. I booked just an hour or two after bookings opened, when did you book?

Forgot to add, Castaway Club site of Barbs is the right site!

 

[don604]

If all works right, maybe my daughter Morgan and son Dylan will become best-cruise friends with your children. They will be within about a year of each other it appears and maybe they can spend time togther in the clubs, pools etc. Who knows!

Hopefully we wont be too loud for your in-laws as we will be sharing a wall with them. It will be DW, myself and DS in the room next to them. My MIL and two DDs will be in the room next to us (5524). We actually tried to get 5520 but it was taken already so you beat us to the punch. I booked just an hour or two after bookings opened, when did you book?

Forgot to add, Castaway Club site of Barbs is the right site!

That would be cool. My kids love playing with others especially Janeya, she loves to make friends.

My in-laws are deep sleepers so not much wakes them up but on the high seas... who knows?

I first inquired about the cruise mid last year but was told that the dates for 2009 were to be announced in December so I kept my eyes and ears open and I booked on December 13th. I must have booked at the right time Pretty good for a first-timer, huh?

 

[scottie]

That would be cool. My kids love playing with others especially Janeya, she loves to make friends.

My in-laws are deep sleepers so not much wakes them up but on the high seas... who knows?

I first inquired about the cruise mid last year but was told that the dates for 2009 were to be announced in December so I kept my eyes and ears open and I booked on December 13th. I must have booked at the right time Pretty good for a first-timer, huh?

Should be a blast! Are you set up with late or early dining? We went with late dining again. Not sure if the kids will eat with us or the kids clubs for dinner as they have in the past.

And yes, you did a good job for sure picking up those rooms! Im surprised a travel agent didnt scoop them up by then. We booked on the 4th of December.

 

[don604]

Should be a blast! Are you set up with late or early dining? We went with late dining again. Not sure if the kids will eat with us or the kids clubs for dinner as they have in the past.

And yes, you did a good job for sure picking up those rooms! Im surprised a travel agent didnt scoop them up by then. We booked on the 4th of December.

We booked main dining... I guess we picked main because it was closer to the time that we normally have dinner. Have you ever booked main before? Is there any difference?

Well... early in the day on December 13th, we had 2 other rooms saved but in the evening when I booked the room numbers switched to the ones we have now.

 

[scottie]

We have always went with the late seating even with kids. It is a couple of hours after we normally eat at home, but at home we are not on a vacation in which we find a million and one things to keep everyone busy or happy all day long... from the early morning hours on. So we have been pleased with the later seating because we can spend more time doing all the neat stuff before having to head back to the room to clean up then if we went with an early seating.
The kids were fine usually with eating at the later time too because there was never an issue with getting them a late day something to eat to hold them over like a bite to eat from room service or something else like chicken fingers or a fruit plate by the pool. We also learned that the kids old enough to go to the clubs quickly found out about the dinner with the club and tended to eat dinner meals with the club, which is more around our normal dinner time. I guess they like being with all their new friends and getting to eat all that kid type food at the buffet.

I have also read people who were never happy with the late seating. I guess it is just up to what everyone feels best with!

 

[don604]

What you said makes sense...we will try main dinning this time and see how it goes and if we find ourselves rushing back to the room to get ready for dinner then next time we will choose late dinner.

Where's everyone else?? Hopefully we get some more to join in soon

 

[airtime247]

We've always done late seating before our DD was born. Now we do main seating mainly to keep in line with her schedule. Her witching hour begins around 7:30pm!

Our one big complaint about late dining with Disney is the lack of availability of good food when we get back on the ship after port. If we aren't eating dinner until after 8pm, we'd like something around 3pm or so and all that was available on our last two cruises is the "theme park food" on Deck 9. I really wish Topsiders had longer hours! On our 14-day cruise, Pluto's and Pinocchio's got really old.

The thing I really like about having early dining is that I don't feel like I have to rush out to make the late night shows. When we had late dining, we always got out too late to get a good seat for the shows in Beat Street. I guess we're too chatty with our tablemates!

I think generally families with young children traditionally take the earlier seating. I thought I read a while back that Disney tends to put those families in the APLAPLA rotation with the extra seating at Animator's Palate and families with no kids in the LAPLAPL rotation to have an extra night at Lumiere's. We like to try to request the rotation that will give us Parrot Cay on tropical/pirate night and Lumiere's on formal night. I thought that was APLAPLA when we sailed the western three years ago.

-steve

 

[don604]

We've always done late seating before our DD was born. Now we do main seating mainly to keep in line with her schedule. Her witching hour begins around 7:30pm!

Our one big complaint about late dining with Disney is the lack of availability of good food when we get back on the ship after port. If we aren't eating dinner until after 8pm, we'd like something around 3pm or so and all that was available on our last two cruises is the "theme park food" on Deck 9. I really wish Topsiders had longer hours! On our 14-day cruise, Pluto's and Pinocchio's got really old.

The thing I really like about having early dining is that I don't feel like I have to rush out to make the late night shows. When we had late dining, we always got out too late to get a good seat for the shows in Beat Street. I guess we're too chatty with our tablemates!

I think generally families with young children traditionally take the earlier seating. I thought I read a while back that Disney tends to put those families in the APLAPLA rotation with the extra seating at Animator's Palate and families with no kids in the LAPLAPL rotation to have an extra night at Lumiere's. We like to try to request the rotation that will give us Parrot Cay on tropical/pirate night and Lumiere's on formal night. I thought that was APLAPLA when we sailed the western three years ago.

-steve

Thanks for your input Steve. Yeah, that was our main reason for choosing main dining... I know how my kids can get when they are hungry
whether or not it will suit us...we shall see but I have a feeling it will.

 

[airtime247]

I'll be searching around on the boards and on CruiseCritic in the upcoming months but I wanted to ask you all first. Have any of you sailed the Eastern before and have any excursion ideas you could recommend that would be fun (or at least easy) for a three year old?

We've been to Castaway Cay before but have no idea about what to do in the other ports.

We usually like to snorkel but won't be doing that on this trip with her. Long tours would be difficult too.

Have any of you travelling with toddlers given any thought about what to do at these ports yet?

TIA!
-steve

 

[Caropooh]

I'll be searching around on the boards and on CruiseCritic in the upcoming months but I wanted to ask you all first. Have any of you sailed the Eastern before and have any excursion ideas you could recommend that would be fun (or at least easy) for a three year old?

We've been to Castaway Cay before but have no idea about what to do in the other ports.

We usually like to snorkel but won't be doing that on this trip with her. Long tours would be difficult too.

Have any of you travelling with toddlers given any thought about what to do at these ports yet?

TIA!
-steve

we did the Eastern last March, but not with a 3 year old, so can't help you there. We did the 3 Flags tour in St Maarteen and Blackbeards Castle in St Thomas. On CC, we did the Eco Tour. I personally won't do the Eco tour again, but that is due to DD13 and I falling off the Waverunner. I couldn't get back on and was scared to death. I went parasailing when we went in July '05 and LOVED it!

 

[scottie]

I'll be searching around on the boards and on CruiseCritic in the upcoming months but I wanted to ask you all first. Have any of you sailed the Eastern before and have any excursion ideas you could recommend that would be fun (or at least easy) for a three year old?

We've been to Castaway Cay before but have no idea about what to do in the other ports.

We usually like to snorkel but won't be doing that on this trip with her. Long tours would be difficult too.

Have any of you travelling with toddlers given any thought about what to do at these ports yet?

TIA!
-steve

We too will have a 3 yr old when sailing, but will be our first time on the Eastern. We have always done the 4-night sailings with DCL. I haven’t begun to look at the excursions yet, but figured I would start up on that task in the spring. We will likely try to get some shopping in at the ports- that is an excursion as far as my DW and MIL are concerned So that’s all we have planned at this point.
However, since we haven’t been on the 7-night before I am sure we will try to do an excursion or two that the whole family can enjoy.