Michelle064
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2011
- Messages
- 88
DH, DD10, DD7 and I took our first ever cruise from March 12-19, 2011. The seven night Eastern Caribbean itinerary on board the Disney Magic did not disappoint!
Before leaving on our trip, I was concerned by some of the negative reviews I had been reading about a drop in service levels on DCL. I can honestly say that the service we received exceeded my expectations. From our stateroom host, to our dining room servers, to every cast member we encountered, the service was top notch.
We arrived at the cruise terminal around 10:15 on Saturday morning. We waited less than 5 minutes in line to check in, and were given boading number 5. We were onboard shortly after noon.
After a quick lunch at Topsiders, we found our stateroom. We were in 6056, a verandah stateroom on deck 6 midship. This was a great room, located conveniently next to the stairs and midship elevators. We had no problems with noise from the elevators at all. The only noise we heard at night was some kind of pump running sometimes around 4:00 a.m.
We had early dinner and our dining rotation was PLAPLAP. Our servers Jelena and Gede were wonderful. They were very friendly and attentive and really added to our cruise experience. Our first dinner was at Parrot Cay.
The best part about our dining rotation was being in Lumieres for formal night. It really added to the sense of occasion. We enjoyed all of the restaurants. Our favourite menu was Pirate Night.
The entertainment onboad was fabulous. Our favourite show was Disney Dreams. We also loved Villains Tonight, Twice Charmed and all the other shows on board. We had a great time at the Pirates in the Caribbean party.
On St. Maarten, we did the "Under 2 Flags Island Tour". This was the only thing all week where we had any issues at all. The tour itself was really good, but we waited almost an hour for the bus to pick us up at the beginning of the tour. A minor issue in my opinion. At least we were standing outside on a nice sunny day, and not up to our knees in snow!!
In St. Thomas, we did the Coral World excursion. It was very good but it would have been nice to have more time at Coral World to enjoy some of the other activities offered.
By far, our favourite port of call was Castaway Cay. The beach is so beautiful and the barbecue lunch was really yummy. We rented float tubes and also went on the paddle boats. The day just seemed to fly by. I can see why people like the double dip cruises!
Our kids didn't spend very much time in the Oceaneer Club or Lab, likely because DD who will be 11 in June was really too old for the kinds of activities offered. DD7 went to the lab a few times and enjoyed it when she did go.
All in all, this was absolutely the best vacation we've ever been on! We didn't rebook on board, but definitely play to return to DCL likely in 2013 or 2014. We're waiting to see what's planned on the Disney Magic once the Fantasy arrives before we decide what to do next.
Before leaving on our trip, I was concerned by some of the negative reviews I had been reading about a drop in service levels on DCL. I can honestly say that the service we received exceeded my expectations. From our stateroom host, to our dining room servers, to every cast member we encountered, the service was top notch.
We arrived at the cruise terminal around 10:15 on Saturday morning. We waited less than 5 minutes in line to check in, and were given boading number 5. We were onboard shortly after noon.
After a quick lunch at Topsiders, we found our stateroom. We were in 6056, a verandah stateroom on deck 6 midship. This was a great room, located conveniently next to the stairs and midship elevators. We had no problems with noise from the elevators at all. The only noise we heard at night was some kind of pump running sometimes around 4:00 a.m.
We had early dinner and our dining rotation was PLAPLAP. Our servers Jelena and Gede were wonderful. They were very friendly and attentive and really added to our cruise experience. Our first dinner was at Parrot Cay.
The best part about our dining rotation was being in Lumieres for formal night. It really added to the sense of occasion. We enjoyed all of the restaurants. Our favourite menu was Pirate Night.
The entertainment onboad was fabulous. Our favourite show was Disney Dreams. We also loved Villains Tonight, Twice Charmed and all the other shows on board. We had a great time at the Pirates in the Caribbean party.
On St. Maarten, we did the "Under 2 Flags Island Tour". This was the only thing all week where we had any issues at all. The tour itself was really good, but we waited almost an hour for the bus to pick us up at the beginning of the tour. A minor issue in my opinion. At least we were standing outside on a nice sunny day, and not up to our knees in snow!!
In St. Thomas, we did the Coral World excursion. It was very good but it would have been nice to have more time at Coral World to enjoy some of the other activities offered.
By far, our favourite port of call was Castaway Cay. The beach is so beautiful and the barbecue lunch was really yummy. We rented float tubes and also went on the paddle boats. The day just seemed to fly by. I can see why people like the double dip cruises!
Our kids didn't spend very much time in the Oceaneer Club or Lab, likely because DD who will be 11 in June was really too old for the kinds of activities offered. DD7 went to the lab a few times and enjoyed it when she did go.
All in all, this was absolutely the best vacation we've ever been on! We didn't rebook on board, but definitely play to return to DCL likely in 2013 or 2014. We're waiting to see what's planned on the Disney Magic once the Fantasy arrives before we decide what to do next.
We had four kids in the Ocean/Lab, 2 in the Edge and one in the vibe...as well as a 19 and 21 year old. Every kid had the trip of a lifetime and they have spent the last week talking about how much fun they had. There is truly something for everybody on that ship! The adults had as much fun as the kids and b/c the kids had so much fun we got to do lots of adult stuff. We were not sure how that would work out but once we realized the kids wanted to be with friends we signed up for some great adult things!
