3/6-3/13 MAGIC, Eastern: FEEDBACK & POST RESULTS !!!

[vanwingen]

March 6-13 DISNEY MAGIC-EASTERN-FEEDBACK-POST RESULTS:

First, I'm sad it's over. However it was an expierience.
Based on what I saw here's a list of the positives and negatives of our trip.

POSITIVES- "THUMBS-UP !!!"

-food,
-ship ,
-restaurants,
-rotation,
-servers,
-the service,
-bars,
-drinks,
-Hercules the show !!!
-THE WEATHER
-ship daily up-keep,
-character breakfast
-kids activites and clubs, -
-PAGERS
-St. Maarteen
-guest services,
-NO CASINOS (saved $$$$),
-pop card,
-walk track,
-Navigator & ship map,
-SCOOPS!,
-fruit bar,
-CaStAwAy CaY !!!


NEGATIVES- "THUMBS-DOWN"

#1- WITHOUT A DOUBT:

CUSTOMS CHECK THROUGH IMMIGRATION FOR ST. THOMAS.

did anyone wait LESS than an hour?


ALSO:
-the wind (Thur. "day at sea"),
-4 people in an inside stateroom,
-price (why does the price go UP as the sailing date gets CLOSER?,
-soft low music volume at Goofy pool. Kool Breeze everyday....all day.
-Kathy and Si at the Promede Lounge (sorry people, they were really, really, BAD. I'm a musician, I know).
-adult activities didnt start until 11pm,
-time in St. Thomas, l
-imited smoking areas,
-rooms need a fan to drown out creeking noise and other people/cabin noise,
-ship rocking on Thur,
-small elevators even tho we walked everywhere.

We did not do any excurisions so I cant comment about those.

Conclusion:
Awesome, awesome, awesome, cruise! :jumping4:

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

The immigration check in St. Thomas drives me nuts. I can't believe they're still doing this. I thought it was just a knee-jerk reaction to the 9/11 attacks and that when cooler heads prevailed, someone in charge would notice that it's not really making things safer and is inconveniencing thousands of people every week. Last time we sailed, they had two immigration officers to check passports for 2500 people.

I agree with you about the time spent in St. Thomas, but I was told by one of the Magic's officers that they have to leave St. Thomas that early in order to get to Castaway Cay in time to have a full day there. Given the trade-off, I'm OK with leaving St. Thomas at 4:45.

 

[Leeannb11]

vanwingen,

We also had a blast on the cruise! I didn't mind the rocking boat...just helped me sleep! I loved the food and gained 3 lbs. My kids now have to get used to only odering one thing! I did mind the St. Thomas customs thing and yes we waited at least an hour! I have to laugh about what you said about Kathy and Si...my kids got really tickled everytime they walked by the lounge and my seven year old would burst into Unforgetable every once in a while and that would set the older ones off howling again! We loved our servers and the ship in general and all the shows. My kids really liked the Rock and Roll comedian and the ventriloquist and of course the Disney Shows. I'm so very sad to be home and dh is really missing his turn down service, chocolate on the pillow and coffee delivery in the am.

Lee Ann

 

[CRSNDSNY]

vanwingen -- This is the same cruise I'll be on next year. Tell me more about the weather. And what were the water temps like?

 

[vanwingen]

Anyone feel free to add to my weather. I am going by memory.

First, I did research (weather.com) and found that the LEAST time of the year for RAIN in the Eastern Carib is this approx. time of year. Then we just picked a week to avoid the majority of Spring Breaker's and not to conflict with our work schedules.

Our weather was awesome. It rained for about 5 minutes in St. Maarteen. Thats it. The weather patterns come and go so fast.
I would get up and go up to Deck 9 to check the weather and get coffee. It would be overcast.
By the time we showered and came back upstairs to eat breakfast the sun was rising and the sky was clearing.
We had a couple windy days. One night was a little rocky with the boat, however the sea was calm. Go figure?
the temps in FL were in the lower to mid 70's.
The temps in the Carrib were upper 70's to lower 80's.
In St. Thomas the OUTSIDE temp in our cab (van) read 95 Degrees!!! The sun was strong ! It didnt feel like 95 tho.

Bottom Line:
We hade awesome weather. Bring the sunblock. My 8 year old daughter put 30 block on everyday and she came home with a nice tan. My wife and I tanned before we left, and we still had to put a 4 or 15 block on to prevent burning.

 

[Daisy5115]

this leaves me with a question about the noise onboard. Would you recommend bringing a white noise type machine? I have a little battery operated thing that plays rain sounds/birds/white noise, etc. I don't use it too often, but now am wondering should I bother to bring? It is very small like a little radio.
Thanks!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

That recap of the weather sounds great. We've only cruised in December and January...and our last time on the Eastern was in December during Christmas. The weather in the Caribbean was awesome, but CC's water was too cold for me. What did you think of the water temps in CC?

High 70s, 80s sounds perfect to me!

Have you ever checked out www.wunderground.com?

Did you rebook?

 

[mickeyboat]

We had quite an adventure. Did you see the poor people racing to the ship at 5PM? That was us. Our flight was delayed, we were on stand-by for our connection and almost missed it. We boarded the ship through the first floor (sorry - no embarkation photos for us) and although we made the ship, our luggage did not.

Guest services was amazing, especially Arnaldo. They had our laundry done every day, arranged for us to borrow formal wear, filed a claim with Delta for a clothing allowance, and provided us with toiletries.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE - if you are considering booking a cruise, make sure you fly down the night before! Don't risk it. (BTW - I am not sure it would have helped us in this particular situation, the flights were cancelled the night before due to fog and problems with the navigational system).

We had trouble on the way home too, the airport shuttle left me waiting outside in the cold NH wind for an hour and a half.

But the cruise was fantastic. The weather was almost perfect with the exception of the wind. I couldn't believe how strong it was.

I agree with all of your points, thumbs up and down. Were you in immigration when that woman flipped out because she was waiting for a diving charter and needed to get off the ship? (We lovingly referred to her as Ursula). She flipped out waiting for tender tickets too, swearing and yelling in front of all the kids. The poor CM got an undeserved earful. I heard her again yelling at her kids at dinner one night.

I did not have a problem with noise. We were on deck 1 so there was very little hall traffic. We did hear noise from the thrusters and some banging on the side of the ship while we were in port. But we didn't have troube sleeping until Thursday night - wow the ship rocked.

Castaway Cay was amazing. I was nervous that we would not be able to dock and that the weather would be too cool. BUT the entire day was incredible.

I hope everyone had a great time. I was bummed that I did not get to meet all of you.

Denae

 

[Kimnicki]

I thought the weather was perfect! Rachel, the cruise director, said that our first three days at sea were the best they've had in a long time. I was worried too that we would not be able to dock at Castaway Cay because of the wind. We were on the second deck, forward, and I swore the waves were at least 18' high. The waves slammed so hard against the side of the ship that the sea was spraying all over our porthole . I would've definately brought a noise machine if I knew how loud the ship creaking would be during the "rough" times.

Denae, we had someone just like your "Ursula" behind us for the Immigration at St. Thomas. If I heard him say " you can thank your government for this!" one more time I was gonna sock him!

Leeann, I wish I only gained 3 lbs! LOL! Mine is more like 10! I think it was the Pina Coladas that did me in...and the lava cake!

I have to laugh at the Kathy and Si comment too! My DH thought maybe they were rejects from American Idol....

Kim

 

[vanwingen]

YES YES YES,

BRING A NOISE MAKER !!!!!!!!!!

The rooms did creek and deck 6. (Room # 6105).
And my wife kept hitting me at least 10 times every night because I was snoring. (Not loud). I went to the gift shop for one of theose "no snore" things, but no luck.
The rooms were cool with AC, however they are VERY, VERY quiet. YOU HEAR EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE. (yes, I am talking about hyper kids in the cabins around us).
So YES, bring a noise maker, radio, or fan, etc.

I know of that lady who was complaining !!! When we were standing UP in line to go through immigration, my Mother in Law purposely kept saying (loud enough for that lady to hear)
"Wow, weve been waiting an hour and a half!"
She said it becauase that lady was irritating her and they had just sat down when it was our turn to get up.

The water temps were just fine with me. At Castaway cay, I got used to the water in a minute or so, and was off snorkeling.

I was a little cautious if I should say anything about Kathy and Si, but I'm glad I did. They were baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad !!!! How did they pass the auditions?
On a positive note, that band "Franky and the West End Boy's" were GOOOOOOOOOOOD !!! That send off party ROCKED !!!!

I am now searching fir the next vacation. Another cruise ? An all-inclusive on St. Maarteen ????

 

[Grumbo]

Well we got home tonight after three days of driving. We went to the Pop Century Resort after the cruise. The Pop Century is "OK" but wouldn't stay there again. Kind of reminds me of those big chicken coops that they stick roasting chickens into to fatten up before they eat them

We were in the "Non U.S." national group in Rockin' D on St Thomas morning. There was a bit of a delay and we had a woman that I described as "Ursuala" as well!!! She looked like Ursula with her hair and size. What a female dog she was!! Ranted and raved at the cm. I saw her a few times after and we called her Ursula. It HAS to be the same person. We were through the immigration relatively quickly but we got screwed up with the tenders as my wife went right to dec 1 to wait for us without a tender ticket (That they never even asked to see anyway) and our friends went to get the tender ticket before clearing immigration. We had our sailing day planned and figured it was going to be doomed. I went to the theatre figuring my wife went there by mistake rather than the Buena Vista theatre. WOW!!! you Americans sure had a "theatre full" I could see with the numbers you were going to be quite a while. We were on our sailboat after getting a cab in St Thomas by 9:10 am. I heard grumblings from others but until reading this now realize it was due to the large number of U.S. citizens as the Non U.S. line was long it was negligible as compared to what you had.

Well I'll write more later as I'm going to bed. We have WDW bags and dirty washing piled up everywhere. Looked at my credit card online and am now truly sick

Anyway hopefully "Ursala" had a good holiday. Her tantrum was more entertaining than Si and sidekick. My dd kept asking why she was sitting on top of the piano when there were so many chairs in the lounge

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[AndPigletToo]

Just got home, 3/20 @ 11:30 am. We stayed the following week. I hope everyone got home safe and sound. I will post later, Just wanted to let you all know I am alive!!!

 

[amtmommy]

We are going on the 4/17 Eastern.

I would love to hear what people thought of the non Disney Shows,

Everyone raves about Hercules, Disney Dreams and the Golden Mickeys but I never hear about the performers on the cruises.

I would love to hear more of what you thought of them.

Thanks

 

[Leeannb11]

We loved Frankie and the West End Boys too. The second sail away was so fun I even got my 12 year old son (who is a great dancer but hates it) to jitter bug with me!

LeeAnn

 

[vanwingen]

Not sure what NON-DISNEY SHOWS would be on a D-Cruise, However I'll give it a shot:

Welcome Aboard Variety Show: (didnt see)

Disney Dreams: Good Show

Golden Mickeys: OK

Hercules; AWESOME, FUNNY, A MUST SEE !!!

Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer? Good

HIDALGO (movie): (didnt see)

Farewell Variety Show: Good !!! Funny !!!

 

[mickeymo]

we were on the 3/13 magic cruise - it must be the crossing on thursdays, because Thurs was also very windy for us, too.

my in-laws loved Kathy and Si and went to see them every night- they begged us to go sit with them before dinner one night - thankfully, the kids were whining and wouldn't sit still - we only lasted about 5 minutes and even then it was too long...From your responses, I guess it wasn't just my mother-in-law's singing along which drove me crazy;you were the week before us!

we then compromised on kenne in sessions - a bit better - but his chattering got old.

The pianist who played piano during the character photo shoots was good. I would have loved to hear him in a quieter venue.

We had Charles Marshall Band at send-off and they played in Rockin-Bar D - they were good.

 

[vanwingen]

HOW WAS YOUR WEATHER for the 3-13 Western Caribbean cruise? All sun? Any rain ?

 

[natdencro]

Yep, we were also there when "Ursula" laid into the poor cast member at immigration. Not a good example to all the children in the room! We heard her say "I wouldnt pay to come on this ship again!" I think the rest of the guests would have PAID her not to ever go on the ship again! Disney have NO control over what time the immigration officers board the ship: her outburst was unnecessary: the rest of us (although tired) were all in good spirits, as the cruise was just great. Guests like her we can all do without. The cast member behaved impecably!

Also had a chuckle about the singing duo................. did ANYONE actually sit and listen to them? Am sure they are good singers, but their reportoire was just not appropriate.Sorry guys.

Also saw "Hurcules", but it wasnt as good as last year. It was hilarious too, as the "boy"Hercules was twice the size of the "adult" Herc!!!

We too have mountains of laundry, as we also had a further week in Orlando after the cruise. But hey................ it was all BRILLIANT! Nat