This was our first cruise for me (44), DH (40) and DD (4). We have been to Mexico 6 times (Playa del Carmen) but never on a cruise or to the carribean. Instead of giving a day by day report I will just break it down by categories.
General Impressions: The ship was beautiful, the service wonderful with good food and a great kids program. Would we book a cruise every year? Probably not, mainly because of the size of the pools, which I'll get to later.
Sail Away party
Food and Dinner Seating: The food was good to excellent. Our favorite (of course) was our Palo dinner. I had the rack of lamb and DH had the filet. For dessert we had 2 choc souffles, a tiramisu and another dessert. We didn't ask for all of them, the waiter just brought them.
Palo Rack of lamb
Palo Desserts
We had the PLA late seating at 8:15 which was nice because we were in Lumiere's on formal night and Parrot Cay on Pirate night. Our servers, Cecelia from Argentina and Juan from Chile were great! Our favorite dinners were the Halibut, Mixed grill and a lamb shank. The only restaurant I wasn't that fond of was Topsiders. It was nice to sit outside but it was always crowded and hectic when we were in there.
Servers Juan and Ceceilia
I enjoyed eating the breakfast buffet at Parrot Cay and there was a really good asian buffet for lunch there on Monday. We also had breakfast at Lumieres one day and the eggs benedict was good.
Character Breakfast
There are pros and cons to the late seating. Dinner was usually finished by 9:45. It was pretty fast paced, they served one course right after another and we always ate 4 courses. We had to get our DD to take a nap whether we had early or late seating, but it was nice that we could wait until 4 pm for the nap and then go to the show, walk around and get pictures, dinner then go for a drink or see the karokee show. We usually went to bed at around 11 or midnight and woke up around 8:30 am. The cons of late seating are that a lot of good kids club activities are during dinner so if you want your kids to have dinner with you then they might miss some fun things.
Formal Night
Drinks: All were good and reasonably priced ($3.95-5.95). We usually tried the drink of the day. My husband bought the large beer mug for $11.99 (filled) then it was $4 or $5 a beer every time it was filled again. This gave you 22 oz instead of a 16 oz beer. But it was heavy to carry around and he forgot to bring it out of the room a lot. I I really wish cruise ships would include drinks in the price like the all inclusive resorts. The wine at Palo's was pricey ($10-12 a glass). We spent about $400 for drinks during the week. Don't miss the great coffee at the Cove cafe. The cafe Toledo was very good.
Promenade Lounge
Pools: To us, the pools were the only dissappointing thing about the cruise. On previous vacations we always stayed at a resort with a huge pool that was never crowded and had plenty of lounge chairs. All three pools on the ships are not much larger than a backyard or a regular motel pool. And they get very crowded on sea days. One time in the goofy pool it was so crowded it was just wall to wall people, you couldn't move. It was hard for us because our 4 year old hates getting spashed and of course with a few hundred kids in a small pool you will get splashed.
Crowded Mickey Pool
It was also very hard to get a lounge chair at the pool and almost all the lounge chairs are in the sun, there are very few in the shade (mostly regular tables and chairs in the shade). The adult pool was nice because even though it's small it was never crowded, so we swam in that when our DD was in the kids club. It was hard to swim as a family because the Mickey pool is for kids, and the goofy pool is so crowded. If pools aren't very important to you, there are so many other things to do - you will have a great time.
The Adult pool was never crowded
Cabins: We loved our cabin, 5628. It was on deck 5 AFT, not too far from the elevators. Very quiet, we never heard any noise. We had a balcony that we loved, even though we didn't spend a lot of time in the room it was wonderful to see the view and hear the waves.
Our cabin
The room had lots of storage space, more than the 3 us of needed. We put one suitcase in the closet and one fit under the bed. We did put our stroller on the balcony. We brought it, but didn't use it much but it was handy for port days. Of course when you bring the stroller DD always wants to walk, but if we leave it behind she wanted to be carried. I liked that our hallway didn't have that many cabins, compared to decks 6 or 2 where the entire deck was cabins. I think that's why it was so quiet.
Shows: The shows were great, but if your kids are sensitive to loud noises, they are very loud. DD held her hands over her ears during the shows, until we figured out that it wasn't so loud sitting in the back rows. She was also scared during the part in the Golden Mickeys where the giant octopus comes out, so we had to leave. She was also scared of the villain in Twice Charmed. It was frustrating for us because we wanted her to enjoy the show and she never used to be scared of movies or shows or rides before this.
She loved the Disney Dreams show (no scary parts). And she laughed a lot during the final farewell show. We went to karokee a few nights and she stood at the foot of the stage dancing and watching the kids sing. I think the highlight of the her week was when she got up to sing ABC's.
Oceanear Club: My daughter LOVED the kid's club. Her favorite part of the cruise. She would have stayed there 24/7 if we let her. The first day we thought we would leave her for an hour or so, went to pick her up and she had an all out tantrum because she didn't want to leave. So we came back 2 hours later and she still didn't want to leave. I was the mom trying to wrestle the cinderella dress off her 4 year old and get her out of the club so we could go to dinner. Needless to say we never got paged the entire time.
She really liked the Snow white do si do, the Nemo thing and the Peter pan story. She missed the pummba pajama party because it during dinner on the Wed. night and she was going miss dinner with us the next night because we were going to Palo.
Characters: The wait in line only took 5-10 minutes. I wish the first 2 days we had paid more attention to the character schedules and picture times. We were kind of in a daze the first few days, getting lost, not knowing what to do, etc. So the last few days we rushed around trying to get pictures. The last night in the lobby at 10 pm all the characters are there and then are on the stairs.
Princess Minnie in the atrium
Belle in the atrium
Snow White in the Atrium the last night
Pictures: We got the 2 picture packages from shutters. $84.95 for 5 8x10s and the same price for 10 6x8s. But we didn't end up with enough 6x8s, so we got a small credit. Shutters is a madhouse on the last night, very crowded, with everyone trying to find their pictures.
Ports:
St. Martin: The shops were closing early for a fesitval so we went shopping first at Ballerina jewelers near the pier. Then we took a taxi into Phillipsburg which was $3 pp. We walked around and bought a few souvenirs then took taxi to Orient Beach it was $9 pp and took about 20 minutes to get there. We got 2 chairs and an umbrella at Bikini beach for $17.
Orient Beach
St. Martin Port
Food on the beach is very expensive ($10 for a kids meal). Just off the beach there was a very good pizza place that sold pizza and sandwiches. We got a pizza for the 3 of us for $10. There is also a small grocery store a few shops down from the pizza place. Buy water there - it is only $1 instead of $2-3 at the beach bar. There was a beach bar, bathrooms and a small playground for kids. The water had some waves, not as calm as Coki or Castaway Cay. The french side of St. Martin looked nicer than the dutch side but we didn't see a lot of the island.
St. Thomas - we thought was more scenic and lusher looking than St. Martin. We took an open air taxi for $9 pp one way to Coral World/Coki beach. It was a roller coaster ride up and down narrow bumpy road with no seat belts - which was kind of scary when you are used to having your child strapped into a car seat. But it looked like even the tours used the same kind of open air vans.
A view from Coral World
Coral world was nice for children, pretty small. We spent about 1 1/2 hours looking, then ate lunch there and walked next door to Coki beach which was very calm and scenic. After the beach you can shower and use the bathrooms at Coral world if you paid admission ($38 for the 3 of us). We wanted to ride the tram up the mountain but didn't have time since it was 3:30 pm and the ship was sailing soon.
Castaway Cay - is a great, scenic beach. Kind of crowded at the beginning of the family beach. We should have walked down further but just wanted to grab the first empty chairs close to the water. We rented one float and shared it. We didn't do any excursions, just hung out swimming and our DD actually took a nap in the lounge chair which was a rare treat for us to be able to stay longer. We ended up getting on the cruise ship at 4:30. We were there 7 hours but it didn't seem like that long at all. The water was a little cooler than St. Thomas or St. Martin but OK once you got used to it.
Castaway Cay
Things I would do diffently if I went on another cruise:
1) Get more pictures taken, earlier in the cruise.
2) Rent a car and drive to the port early instead of taking the DCL bus. It stopped at 2 resorts after picking us up, so we didn't get on the ship until after 2 pm.
3) Book a ship with larger pools (either try RCL or wait for the new ships).
4) Instead of selecting a cruise with more at-sea days - pick a cruise with a few ports you don't want to visit. That way you can stay on the ship and it will be empty. It was too crowded on at sea days.
5) Pack less causual outfits. I was either in a bathsuit with a cover up or a nice dress for dinner. I rarely wore all the shorts, T-shirts and capris that I brought.
Observations: As a first time cruiser, the cruise was more relaxing than going to Disney parks but a lot less relaxing than most of the all inclusive resorts we have been to. There is just so much to do, that you don't want to miss anything so you are constantly rushing here and there, trying to fit in a nap, then getting ready for dinner, rushing to catch characters, etc.
If you had asked me if I liked the cruise after the first day or two I probably would have said not as much as my other vacations. But once you know your way around the ship, how to avoid crowds, find activities that you like it is much more enjoyable. I am so glad we did the 7 night instead of a 4 night. A 4 night would be okay if you have already been on the ship and know what to do but for a first timer I felt 7 days was perfect.
If anyone has any questions, please let me know
General Impressions: The ship was beautiful, the service wonderful with good food and a great kids program. Would we book a cruise every year? Probably not, mainly because of the size of the pools, which I'll get to later.
Sail Away party
Food and Dinner Seating: The food was good to excellent. Our favorite (of course) was our Palo dinner. I had the rack of lamb and DH had the filet. For dessert we had 2 choc souffles, a tiramisu and another dessert. We didn't ask for all of them, the waiter just brought them.
Palo Rack of lamb
Palo Desserts
We had the PLA late seating at 8:15 which was nice because we were in Lumiere's on formal night and Parrot Cay on Pirate night. Our servers, Cecelia from Argentina and Juan from Chile were great! Our favorite dinners were the Halibut, Mixed grill and a lamb shank. The only restaurant I wasn't that fond of was Topsiders. It was nice to sit outside but it was always crowded and hectic when we were in there.
Servers Juan and Ceceilia
I enjoyed eating the breakfast buffet at Parrot Cay and there was a really good asian buffet for lunch there on Monday. We also had breakfast at Lumieres one day and the eggs benedict was good.
Character Breakfast
There are pros and cons to the late seating. Dinner was usually finished by 9:45. It was pretty fast paced, they served one course right after another and we always ate 4 courses. We had to get our DD to take a nap whether we had early or late seating, but it was nice that we could wait until 4 pm for the nap and then go to the show, walk around and get pictures, dinner then go for a drink or see the karokee show. We usually went to bed at around 11 or midnight and woke up around 8:30 am. The cons of late seating are that a lot of good kids club activities are during dinner so if you want your kids to have dinner with you then they might miss some fun things.
Formal Night
Drinks: All were good and reasonably priced ($3.95-5.95). We usually tried the drink of the day. My husband bought the large beer mug for $11.99 (filled) then it was $4 or $5 a beer every time it was filled again. This gave you 22 oz instead of a 16 oz beer. But it was heavy to carry around and he forgot to bring it out of the room a lot. I I really wish cruise ships would include drinks in the price like the all inclusive resorts. The wine at Palo's was pricey ($10-12 a glass). We spent about $400 for drinks during the week. Don't miss the great coffee at the Cove cafe. The cafe Toledo was very good.
Promenade Lounge
Pools: To us, the pools were the only dissappointing thing about the cruise. On previous vacations we always stayed at a resort with a huge pool that was never crowded and had plenty of lounge chairs. All three pools on the ships are not much larger than a backyard or a regular motel pool. And they get very crowded on sea days. One time in the goofy pool it was so crowded it was just wall to wall people, you couldn't move. It was hard for us because our 4 year old hates getting spashed and of course with a few hundred kids in a small pool you will get splashed.
Crowded Mickey Pool
It was also very hard to get a lounge chair at the pool and almost all the lounge chairs are in the sun, there are very few in the shade (mostly regular tables and chairs in the shade). The adult pool was nice because even though it's small it was never crowded, so we swam in that when our DD was in the kids club. It was hard to swim as a family because the Mickey pool is for kids, and the goofy pool is so crowded. If pools aren't very important to you, there are so many other things to do - you will have a great time.
The Adult pool was never crowded
Cabins: We loved our cabin, 5628. It was on deck 5 AFT, not too far from the elevators. Very quiet, we never heard any noise. We had a balcony that we loved, even though we didn't spend a lot of time in the room it was wonderful to see the view and hear the waves.
Our cabin
The room had lots of storage space, more than the 3 us of needed. We put one suitcase in the closet and one fit under the bed. We did put our stroller on the balcony. We brought it, but didn't use it much but it was handy for port days. Of course when you bring the stroller DD always wants to walk, but if we leave it behind she wanted to be carried. I liked that our hallway didn't have that many cabins, compared to decks 6 or 2 where the entire deck was cabins. I think that's why it was so quiet.
Shows: The shows were great, but if your kids are sensitive to loud noises, they are very loud. DD held her hands over her ears during the shows, until we figured out that it wasn't so loud sitting in the back rows. She was also scared during the part in the Golden Mickeys where the giant octopus comes out, so we had to leave. She was also scared of the villain in Twice Charmed. It was frustrating for us because we wanted her to enjoy the show and she never used to be scared of movies or shows or rides before this.
She loved the Disney Dreams show (no scary parts). And she laughed a lot during the final farewell show. We went to karokee a few nights and she stood at the foot of the stage dancing and watching the kids sing. I think the highlight of the her week was when she got up to sing ABC's.
Oceanear Club: My daughter LOVED the kid's club. Her favorite part of the cruise. She would have stayed there 24/7 if we let her. The first day we thought we would leave her for an hour or so, went to pick her up and she had an all out tantrum because she didn't want to leave. So we came back 2 hours later and she still didn't want to leave. I was the mom trying to wrestle the cinderella dress off her 4 year old and get her out of the club so we could go to dinner. Needless to say we never got paged the entire time.
She really liked the Snow white do si do, the Nemo thing and the Peter pan story. She missed the pummba pajama party because it during dinner on the Wed. night and she was going miss dinner with us the next night because we were going to Palo.
Characters: The wait in line only took 5-10 minutes. I wish the first 2 days we had paid more attention to the character schedules and picture times. We were kind of in a daze the first few days, getting lost, not knowing what to do, etc. So the last few days we rushed around trying to get pictures. The last night in the lobby at 10 pm all the characters are there and then are on the stairs.
Princess Minnie in the atrium
Belle in the atrium
Snow White in the Atrium the last night
Pictures: We got the 2 picture packages from shutters. $84.95 for 5 8x10s and the same price for 10 6x8s. But we didn't end up with enough 6x8s, so we got a small credit. Shutters is a madhouse on the last night, very crowded, with everyone trying to find their pictures.
Ports:
St. Martin: The shops were closing early for a fesitval so we went shopping first at Ballerina jewelers near the pier. Then we took a taxi into Phillipsburg which was $3 pp. We walked around and bought a few souvenirs then took taxi to Orient Beach it was $9 pp and took about 20 minutes to get there. We got 2 chairs and an umbrella at Bikini beach for $17.
Orient Beach
St. Martin Port
Food on the beach is very expensive ($10 for a kids meal). Just off the beach there was a very good pizza place that sold pizza and sandwiches. We got a pizza for the 3 of us for $10. There is also a small grocery store a few shops down from the pizza place. Buy water there - it is only $1 instead of $2-3 at the beach bar. There was a beach bar, bathrooms and a small playground for kids. The water had some waves, not as calm as Coki or Castaway Cay. The french side of St. Martin looked nicer than the dutch side but we didn't see a lot of the island.
St. Thomas - we thought was more scenic and lusher looking than St. Martin. We took an open air taxi for $9 pp one way to Coral World/Coki beach. It was a roller coaster ride up and down narrow bumpy road with no seat belts - which was kind of scary when you are used to having your child strapped into a car seat. But it looked like even the tours used the same kind of open air vans.
A view from Coral World
Coral world was nice for children, pretty small. We spent about 1 1/2 hours looking, then ate lunch there and walked next door to Coki beach which was very calm and scenic. After the beach you can shower and use the bathrooms at Coral world if you paid admission ($38 for the 3 of us). We wanted to ride the tram up the mountain but didn't have time since it was 3:30 pm and the ship was sailing soon.
Castaway Cay - is a great, scenic beach. Kind of crowded at the beginning of the family beach. We should have walked down further but just wanted to grab the first empty chairs close to the water. We rented one float and shared it. We didn't do any excursions, just hung out swimming and our DD actually took a nap in the lounge chair which was a rare treat for us to be able to stay longer. We ended up getting on the cruise ship at 4:30. We were there 7 hours but it didn't seem like that long at all. The water was a little cooler than St. Thomas or St. Martin but OK once you got used to it.
Castaway Cay
Things I would do diffently if I went on another cruise:
1) Get more pictures taken, earlier in the cruise.
2) Rent a car and drive to the port early instead of taking the DCL bus. It stopped at 2 resorts after picking us up, so we didn't get on the ship until after 2 pm.
3) Book a ship with larger pools (either try RCL or wait for the new ships).
4) Instead of selecting a cruise with more at-sea days - pick a cruise with a few ports you don't want to visit. That way you can stay on the ship and it will be empty. It was too crowded on at sea days.
5) Pack less causual outfits. I was either in a bathsuit with a cover up or a nice dress for dinner. I rarely wore all the shorts, T-shirts and capris that I brought.
Observations: As a first time cruiser, the cruise was more relaxing than going to Disney parks but a lot less relaxing than most of the all inclusive resorts we have been to. There is just so much to do, that you don't want to miss anything so you are constantly rushing here and there, trying to fit in a nap, then getting ready for dinner, rushing to catch characters, etc.
If you had asked me if I liked the cruise after the first day or two I probably would have said not as much as my other vacations. But once you know your way around the ship, how to avoid crowds, find activities that you like it is much more enjoyable. I am so glad we did the 7 night instead of a 4 night. A 4 night would be okay if you have already been on the ship and know what to do but for a first timer I felt 7 days was perfect.
If anyone has any questions, please let me know
