weluv2cruise
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 19, 2004
- Messages
- 21
Ok here it goes... I read the boards obsessively before our cruises but have never posted anything. I thought it was time to provide information to others since it helped me so much. Sorry up front if I do something wrong 
My extended family (10 in all) cruised Eastern Magic April 2002, Western Magic May 2004 and finally 3/25 Western. We have dd7, dd5 and nieces 5 & 3.
Because 6 of 10 had gotten norwalk flu virus on May 04 cruise, I was really obsessed with not getting sick again. Success!!
Some tips we used: all of the wipes were great - use them. They make kids wash hands upon ENTERING kids club but don't require anything upon leaving. Make sure kids use wipes (sitting on desk) upon leaving (adults too!) We did bring our own crayons for dinner (mentioned in another thread). Also from when I was quarantined in May 04, sick passengers are allowed to go onto CC. They weren't as careful about handing out wipes on CC. Make sure you still use them (or bring your own Purell). I met a woman in the bathroom whose whole family had been sick (you can bet I was really careful there!) As a last word, be careful but still have fun!
We flew in Friday and stayed at Radisson (second time). Rooms are nice (a little noisy). If you stay here, make shuttle reservations in advance. People trying to make them day of were getting 12:30 at earliest. We rented Budget car at airport. We left for terminal 9:45. We were asked to wait across the road until 10:00 when he called us over. My DH dropped us and baggage off. We were second family in terminal (Boarding number 2). I checked us all in (needed DH's passport). My husband only had to show his drivers license to get back into port. We had already done all online paperwork, much easier than last cruises. We got bands and pagers for kids club in terminal. Warning these lines got REALLY long closer to 11am. We got on ship around 11:45, I think.
We ate at PC. Our favorite place for same reasons listed on this board. No problems with luggage and got into rooms right at 1:30. We had APL rotation, which means 5:30 dinner. Overall a little inconvenient but with all our little kids better for us than later seatings. Our servers, Alex and Jon were GREAT! They did magic tricks for the kids, Disney drawings and took care of all of us splendidly. My parents have taken 13 cruises (not all Disney) and said they were the best servers ever.
KEY WEST: Our character breakfast was Sunday morning. I like that because then we see all the major characters earlier on. Also not as hard to get up to eat at 8am earlier in trip. At Key West we hadn't planned on taking kids off ship. From our previous Western cruise we knew there wasn't much for little ones there. We enjoyed the somewhat uncrowded Mickey pool. My DH and I did have to do a run to Walgreens to get a prescription (accidentally lost meds on plane). It took awhile because the drugstore pharmacies close to ship were closed on Sunday.
DAY AT SEA: We had a lovely day. We enjoyed Chicken Little in the morning and Mickey pool all afternoon. The chair saving was rampant but did not bother us. We sat on the bottom steps or pulled small chairs over in shade (didn't care that much about sun).
CAYMAN: We took a taxi to Sea Grape Beach and LOVED it. It is a beautiful beach with no seaweed, rocks, etc. The kids had such a great time. Upon leaving the taxi line wanted us to wait for a bus to fill up (there were only 2 people on it so far). It would have taken forever. We found another family to share a van with us. Bus driver still wasn't happy but the van driver just took off. My DH is the only scuba diver in our group so he did a disney excursion on his own. He loved it.
COSTA MAYA: We left the youngest three kids in club and took oldest off to shop. I normally would not do this but at Costa Maya there is no tendering and Kids Club confirmed pagers worked in little town. Came back on to eat lunch (Mexico and all). Then took everyone in taxi to Majahual. The taxi driver dropped us off at first bar. The beach was nice, more seaweed than Cayman. Had we known I would have had driver take us farther down because you could walk to other places. Where we went was isolated by trees. It looks like it is finally back to Cozumel. Incidentally, we loved Paradise Beach here (pre-hurricane so I don't know now)
Pirate Night was a little annoying to me. Not only is it late for my kids (plus you change to central time for just this one day), it really was just a bunch of dancing and an eternity wait for the fireworks (10:30 - which is 11:30 eastern!). The fireworks were great and kids did stay up (barely). I just wish they could do the fireworks a little earlier.
DAY AT SEA: Pretty much same as before. We loved ordering the All Hands on Deck cheese platter (ask for more crackers!). My parents brought wine on board and we enjoyed cheese and wine as we got ready for dinner several evenings.
CASTAWAY CAY: It was beautiful as always. How can you not have a good time here?
Disembarking was smooth. Since we had 5:30 rotation, our breakfast was at 6:30. We did opt to get up early but could have chosen limited menu at Topsiders. We then went up to deck 9 and played ping pong until getting off about 9:15 (during first of "Last calls for all ashore").
I know this is long. I am a very detailed person. Some final comments...
This was the first cruise we ate at Lumiere's so often. We had originally thought the kids wouldn't like to sit and be served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were wrong. We ate there any time it was open. It was great to be served and it was generally very quick.
I know popcorn came up on one thread. We were disappoined to find out it was for a charge on room service and cheese popcorn was all they had. I think they normally do have regular popcorn though.
It was a Magical cruise!
My extended family (10 in all) cruised Eastern Magic April 2002, Western Magic May 2004 and finally 3/25 Western. We have dd7, dd5 and nieces 5 & 3.
Because 6 of 10 had gotten norwalk flu virus on May 04 cruise, I was really obsessed with not getting sick again. Success!!
Some tips we used: all of the wipes were great - use them. They make kids wash hands upon ENTERING kids club but don't require anything upon leaving. Make sure kids use wipes (sitting on desk) upon leaving (adults too!) We did bring our own crayons for dinner (mentioned in another thread). Also from when I was quarantined in May 04, sick passengers are allowed to go onto CC. They weren't as careful about handing out wipes on CC. Make sure you still use them (or bring your own Purell). I met a woman in the bathroom whose whole family had been sick (you can bet I was really careful there!) As a last word, be careful but still have fun!We flew in Friday and stayed at Radisson (second time). Rooms are nice (a little noisy). If you stay here, make shuttle reservations in advance. People trying to make them day of were getting 12:30 at earliest. We rented Budget car at airport. We left for terminal 9:45. We were asked to wait across the road until 10:00 when he called us over. My DH dropped us and baggage off. We were second family in terminal (Boarding number 2). I checked us all in (needed DH's passport). My husband only had to show his drivers license to get back into port. We had already done all online paperwork, much easier than last cruises. We got bands and pagers for kids club in terminal. Warning these lines got REALLY long closer to 11am. We got on ship around 11:45, I think.
We ate at PC. Our favorite place for same reasons listed on this board. No problems with luggage and got into rooms right at 1:30. We had APL rotation, which means 5:30 dinner. Overall a little inconvenient but with all our little kids better for us than later seatings. Our servers, Alex and Jon were GREAT! They did magic tricks for the kids, Disney drawings and took care of all of us splendidly. My parents have taken 13 cruises (not all Disney) and said they were the best servers ever.
KEY WEST: Our character breakfast was Sunday morning. I like that because then we see all the major characters earlier on. Also not as hard to get up to eat at 8am earlier in trip. At Key West we hadn't planned on taking kids off ship. From our previous Western cruise we knew there wasn't much for little ones there. We enjoyed the somewhat uncrowded Mickey pool. My DH and I did have to do a run to Walgreens to get a prescription (accidentally lost meds on plane). It took awhile because the drugstore pharmacies close to ship were closed on Sunday.
DAY AT SEA: We had a lovely day. We enjoyed Chicken Little in the morning and Mickey pool all afternoon. The chair saving was rampant but did not bother us. We sat on the bottom steps or pulled small chairs over in shade (didn't care that much about sun).
CAYMAN: We took a taxi to Sea Grape Beach and LOVED it. It is a beautiful beach with no seaweed, rocks, etc. The kids had such a great time. Upon leaving the taxi line wanted us to wait for a bus to fill up (there were only 2 people on it so far). It would have taken forever. We found another family to share a van with us. Bus driver still wasn't happy but the van driver just took off. My DH is the only scuba diver in our group so he did a disney excursion on his own. He loved it.
COSTA MAYA: We left the youngest three kids in club and took oldest off to shop. I normally would not do this but at Costa Maya there is no tendering and Kids Club confirmed pagers worked in little town. Came back on to eat lunch (Mexico and all). Then took everyone in taxi to Majahual. The taxi driver dropped us off at first bar. The beach was nice, more seaweed than Cayman. Had we known I would have had driver take us farther down because you could walk to other places. Where we went was isolated by trees. It looks like it is finally back to Cozumel. Incidentally, we loved Paradise Beach here (pre-hurricane so I don't know now)
Pirate Night was a little annoying to me. Not only is it late for my kids (plus you change to central time for just this one day), it really was just a bunch of dancing and an eternity wait for the fireworks (10:30 - which is 11:30 eastern!). The fireworks were great and kids did stay up (barely). I just wish they could do the fireworks a little earlier.
DAY AT SEA: Pretty much same as before. We loved ordering the All Hands on Deck cheese platter (ask for more crackers!). My parents brought wine on board and we enjoyed cheese and wine as we got ready for dinner several evenings.
CASTAWAY CAY: It was beautiful as always. How can you not have a good time here?
Disembarking was smooth. Since we had 5:30 rotation, our breakfast was at 6:30. We did opt to get up early but could have chosen limited menu at Topsiders. We then went up to deck 9 and played ping pong until getting off about 9:15 (during first of "Last calls for all ashore").
I know this is long. I am a very detailed person. Some final comments...
This was the first cruise we ate at Lumiere's so often. We had originally thought the kids wouldn't like to sit and be served for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were wrong. We ate there any time it was open. It was great to be served and it was generally very quick.
I know popcorn came up on one thread. We were disappoined to find out it was for a charge on room service and cheese popcorn was all they had. I think they normally do have regular popcorn though.
It was a Magical cruise!
