Let me begin by saying we've done the Wonder several times and this was our first cruise on the Magic to celebrate our 32nd Wedding Anniversary. Embarkation was easy enough as we knew the whole process from going on the Wonder. We had a nice lunch at Parrot Cay but our server was no where in site for quite a while and we were thirsty more then hungry. Once he got to us, all was good. We got up to our cabin and everything looked beautiful and clean. Our very special deliveries were there from The Perfect Gift and they were stunning as usual. My gift from my husband was a dozen of the most beautiful red roses. THey lasted the entire week until the last full day when I put in a couple of cups of water out of the faucet. Won't do that again because they were still perfect and the next morning they were dead! Maybe all the salt isn't out of that water after all! My gift to my husband was a brightly colored tote bag filled with all sorts of goodies to eat when we went to the movies!
It lasted the entire week and then some! Thanks to Shirley and her staff once again for making our trip a little more special. There is just something delightful about going into your cabin and seeing gifts waiting for you. Makes you feel young again and so special!
As two mature adults
, because I can't bring myself to say "older adults" we had no problem relaxing and enjoying the cruise. We found plenty to do or not to do depending on our mood that day. This cruise actually ended up being more of a relaxing cruise for us because we both ended up feeling a little under the weather with a cold. For some reason I just felt more crowded on this cruise. I am assuming it was fully sold out and everyone was taking full advantage of all there is to do. I think the other reason possibly was there were many more adults enjoying the adult areas then we have ever seen on the Wonder.
We had late dining and I have no idea how they pick who they sit you with but we ended up with two lovely younger couples, each with a young child. Kids were tired at dinner everyone. I would suggest you feed them before they get to dinner if you have late seating so when they fall asleep at least they had something to carry them through the night and aren't waking you up at 5 for breakfast! The food was pretty good.
We had a few nights where I struggled with what to eat but got through it by ordering off the lighter fare section. I gained 5 lbs on this cruise.
Too many desserts! And as I have read on these boards before, most people dress whatever way they want for dinner. While I didn't wear a formal gown on formal night, I did dress as I would if I were going to a 5 star restaurant on land. Our formal night ended up being the night we went to Palo for dinner so I wore a nice very dressy pants suit and my husband wore his best dark suit. We dressed, we ate, we left and changed. Wasn't difficult for us because there are so many degress of formal dress these days depending I think on what region of the country you come from and naturally your financial status can make a difference. When I see people in shorts and tee shirts for dinner I try not to judge just in case this cruise was a trip of a lifetime for them and they struggled to make ends meet to go on it and just don't have the style clothes that are suggested.
Or who knows they just not care what others think and they are comfortable as they are. I know the one couple we were with had no idea there were different styles of dress suggested. They just came on with casual clothes and that was fine for them. Brunch at Palo was excellent as usual. The High Tea, wasn't so high on my score card. I actually would give it a 1 out of 1 to 10. The tea was eh and to us the food was worse. They need to go take a lesson from the people who do the tea at the Grand Floridian.
Our excursions... We went on the two country tour or whatever it is called in St. Martin. As luck would have it, we ended up with one of the families that we had dinner with every night. We sat in the back of the bus and had a few good laughs. Much of the tour was depressing to us as poverty is everywhere on the island. There are million dollar houses (which I would never pay that for one) and then there are lots of shacks with lots of garbage everywhere. If nothing else this tour made me EXTREMELY thankful for all we have.
Our trip in St. Martin coincided with two things, their Labor Day and their parade so most of the stores were closed for the day. A few were open but we chose not to shop because getting back to the ship would be difficult once the parade started and we were afraid of not getting back on time. I think when you plan these tours you think you are going to see something like "Lifesyles of the Rich and Famous". I understand why tourist dollars are so important to these communities. In St. Thomas we did the Atlantis submarine dive. The submarine was the easy part. The boat ride to the sub was a little more challenging. If you get sea sick be forewarned to be prepared for this little ride. It can get a bit rocky at times. The sub itself was ok. We did it once, won't do it again. I am not a marine biologist but I don't think their reefs are extremely healthy there. If they are, that sea life are very good at hiding. We saw some fish, a turtle and a shark but at least we can say we were down in a submarine. Oh and if you go, bring your singing voice!!! Study any songs that relate to submarines (hint, hint..Beatles) cause you will be asked to sing the chorus!!! The island looked more lush then St. Martin but we didn't do anything but walk around the shopping area by the boat after our sub ride. My stomach was a little off so I didn't want to wander far from the ship.
Ok the good, the bad and the ugly of our trip. The good was we never were bored, the food was good, our stateroom host was excellent and our servers were excellent as well. The bad, it was a little more crowded then we were use to, we didn't feel the price of our excusion was worth it if you are looking for all the pretty parts of life, but definitely makes you grateful. The ugly, ok this is a tough one. The ugly was our toilet in our cabin failed twice and by that I mean the first time it wouldn't flush at all. We had to get maintenance there to repair it. Said it was fixed and it worked for two days and broke again. Let me see how I can put this as delicately as possible as not to offend anyone, if you have anything in the toilet other then liquid
, flush often in between innings? How's that?
That darn thing just was tired of flushing I think. Also be careful with your KTTW cards as they are damaged very easily and then you have to have someone come and open your safe for you. So after all that, maintenance and guest services called us every day to make sure our toilet and safe were working. Talk about wanting to hide under a bed!!!!
So in closing this novel up, let me just say that Castaway was still our favorite and we rebooked a cruise for 9/08 that has two Castaway stops. If you are going on the adult beach, rent those floating devices early as they do run short on them. With the water being so shallow there it's worth getting a float to enjoy the water that way. Oh and when we were leaving Castaway and were about a 1/2 a mile away from the dock I was standing on our verandah and got to see a shark swim along side the ship. That did freak me out a little bit about it being so close to shore and I better never fall off those wave runners or when we are swimming!!! My best suggestion to anyone is always to try something for yourself because everyone's opinion are different. My glass is raised and I toast all that get to go on these beautiful vacations and wish you nothing but good times ahead!


As two mature adults

We had late dining and I have no idea how they pick who they sit you with but we ended up with two lovely younger couples, each with a young child. Kids were tired at dinner everyone. I would suggest you feed them before they get to dinner if you have late seating so when they fall asleep at least they had something to carry them through the night and aren't waking you up at 5 for breakfast! The food was pretty good.



Our excursions... We went on the two country tour or whatever it is called in St. Martin. As luck would have it, we ended up with one of the families that we had dinner with every night. We sat in the back of the bus and had a few good laughs. Much of the tour was depressing to us as poverty is everywhere on the island. There are million dollar houses (which I would never pay that for one) and then there are lots of shacks with lots of garbage everywhere. If nothing else this tour made me EXTREMELY thankful for all we have.

Ok the good, the bad and the ugly of our trip. The good was we never were bored, the food was good, our stateroom host was excellent and our servers were excellent as well. The bad, it was a little more crowded then we were use to, we didn't feel the price of our excusion was worth it if you are looking for all the pretty parts of life, but definitely makes you grateful. The ugly, ok this is a tough one. The ugly was our toilet in our cabin failed twice and by that I mean the first time it wouldn't flush at all. We had to get maintenance there to repair it. Said it was fixed and it worked for two days and broke again. Let me see how I can put this as delicately as possible as not to offend anyone, if you have anything in the toilet other then liquid





So in closing this novel up, let me just say that Castaway was still our favorite and we rebooked a cruise for 9/08 that has two Castaway stops. If you are going on the adult beach, rent those floating devices early as they do run short on them. With the water being so shallow there it's worth getting a float to enjoy the water that way. Oh and when we were leaving Castaway and were about a 1/2 a mile away from the dock I was standing on our verandah and got to see a shark swim along side the ship. That did freak me out a little bit about it being so close to shore and I better never fall off those wave runners or when we are swimming!!! My best suggestion to anyone is always to try something for yourself because everyone's opinion are different. My glass is raised and I toast all that get to go on these beautiful vacations and wish you nothing but good times ahead!
