We are just back from the Eastern 8/9. I like the western ports better but love the extra day at sea.
We left about an hour late Saturday because weather delayed several flights. I heard, can't confirm, that more families still didn't make it and joined the cruise in St. Maartin.
QUESTION - why do people chance flying in embarkation day? After spending $8,000 on a cruise they can't spend $72 in a hotel room? I really think DCL should "STRONGLY ENCOURAGE" people to fly in the day ahead.
As reported by others, it was raining when we left so the party was inside - still a party, still a cruise, no problem! As we were dancing, however, I did remember that the Magic was originally built as two halves and put together later. I was hoping one of those harmonic convergence things would not happen with 2000 people dancing in the middle of the ship!
Dining - we had the LAPLAPL and got the table for 9 we had requested with another family. We had a front corner table in every restaurant (sometimes behind the server stations)- in the past, our table was in a different location in each - it was OK except that in Animator's we could only see one picture and were so close to the walls that we couldn't see the colors. Our servers were ?Sasheet? and Noy. Food was great, very well prepared, nicely presented. Our servers were nice - Sasheet went off on "I promise excellent service and excellent food" speech every night until we just quit listening - the only negative. Noy was very nice. I did get the feeling that they were rushed and wondered if DCL is cutting servers and allocating each pair an extra table or two. There also seemed to be a lot of shouting and yelling during dinner - usually someone announcing something.
Ports/Excursions - St. Maartin was my least favorite port but my most favorite excursion - the 12 metre regatta. What fun! Now I want to buy a sailboat (and crew)! Unless you are into jewelry, there is nothing to the town of Fredericksburg. In St. Thomas, we took an excursion to St. John - as beautifull as ever and hot, but decent breeze.
Speaking of excursions - this is an area the Disney heads need to figure out a better. With all the experience Disney has herding people around, there is a lot of "hurry up and wait". Part of the problem is clueless people who come the last minute, arrive without tickets or waivers signed, no KTTW card, and don't know where to go. One thing that would make it less confusing is to have large signs especially when two or more excursions are leaving from the same room.
Entertainment - Rich Purpora was great, hubby loves him. There were a couple of juggling/comic acts and a singer/comic Dan Riley who were good. A couple of them did the exact same show for family and for adults. Also, the band "Spirit" was obviously having problems - they didn't show the first or last night and played for only a few minutes the other nights. Quite different from last year when the band was EVERYWHERE at every event. I've heard that these are not hired bands but individuals hired to be part of a band. Maybe they were not getting along. The girl seemed especially listless. I don't know if it was because of them or a change in programming but the evening entertainment seemed a bit choppy. We usually like Rockin' Bar D. When we finished dinner (8:30 seating), there would be some Disney programming (60's, 70's night) already in progress, then Spirit for a very short time, then a break and cabaret show, then a break and DJ. We usually ended up leaving about the time the DJ showed up.
Our one kind of serious negative - our daughter graduated from HS this year and this trip was a present for her. She turned 18 earlier in the year and we asked if she could still be in the teen group with her brother. We have email confirming that she could. The counselors had not been informed of this and apparently had been told "no exceptions" (heard rumors of problems with 18yo on previous cruise). My husband had to leave dinner twice to go fight the battle and, we understand, they kicked it all the way up to Jacqui. She finally was allowed in but it was not a gracious welcoming.
Comment - Disney needs to work out something for the 18 - 21 crowd (and even older - maybe to 25) who are too old for teen group, too young to drink, and don't want to be hanging out in smokey bars listing to old music. The sight of someone my age doing kareoke (sp?) to 'rolling on the river' would probably send my daughter right over the edge of the ship! There is so much underutilized space (Sessions - where I never saw anyone, and Promenade - where there were about 4 people each night). It seems as though they could make a hangout for the young adults - it wouldn't have to be programmed, just provide a juke box, a TV, a couple of pool tables, access to a bar for non-alcoholic drinks (maybe back it up to an existing bar), a few sofas, etc. A sort of grown up Common Grounds.
Anyway, great trip. I hope they get something worked out so my daughter wants to go again (and have something to do), else it could be our last family DCL until she is older and has a family.
We left about an hour late Saturday because weather delayed several flights. I heard, can't confirm, that more families still didn't make it and joined the cruise in St. Maartin.
QUESTION - why do people chance flying in embarkation day? After spending $8,000 on a cruise they can't spend $72 in a hotel room? I really think DCL should "STRONGLY ENCOURAGE" people to fly in the day ahead.
As reported by others, it was raining when we left so the party was inside - still a party, still a cruise, no problem! As we were dancing, however, I did remember that the Magic was originally built as two halves and put together later. I was hoping one of those harmonic convergence things would not happen with 2000 people dancing in the middle of the ship!
Dining - we had the LAPLAPL and got the table for 9 we had requested with another family. We had a front corner table in every restaurant (sometimes behind the server stations)- in the past, our table was in a different location in each - it was OK except that in Animator's we could only see one picture and were so close to the walls that we couldn't see the colors. Our servers were ?Sasheet? and Noy. Food was great, very well prepared, nicely presented. Our servers were nice - Sasheet went off on "I promise excellent service and excellent food" speech every night until we just quit listening - the only negative. Noy was very nice. I did get the feeling that they were rushed and wondered if DCL is cutting servers and allocating each pair an extra table or two. There also seemed to be a lot of shouting and yelling during dinner - usually someone announcing something.
Ports/Excursions - St. Maartin was my least favorite port but my most favorite excursion - the 12 metre regatta. What fun! Now I want to buy a sailboat (and crew)! Unless you are into jewelry, there is nothing to the town of Fredericksburg. In St. Thomas, we took an excursion to St. John - as beautifull as ever and hot, but decent breeze.
Speaking of excursions - this is an area the Disney heads need to figure out a better. With all the experience Disney has herding people around, there is a lot of "hurry up and wait". Part of the problem is clueless people who come the last minute, arrive without tickets or waivers signed, no KTTW card, and don't know where to go. One thing that would make it less confusing is to have large signs especially when two or more excursions are leaving from the same room.
Entertainment - Rich Purpora was great, hubby loves him. There were a couple of juggling/comic acts and a singer/comic Dan Riley who were good. A couple of them did the exact same show for family and for adults. Also, the band "Spirit" was obviously having problems - they didn't show the first or last night and played for only a few minutes the other nights. Quite different from last year when the band was EVERYWHERE at every event. I've heard that these are not hired bands but individuals hired to be part of a band. Maybe they were not getting along. The girl seemed especially listless. I don't know if it was because of them or a change in programming but the evening entertainment seemed a bit choppy. We usually like Rockin' Bar D. When we finished dinner (8:30 seating), there would be some Disney programming (60's, 70's night) already in progress, then Spirit for a very short time, then a break and cabaret show, then a break and DJ. We usually ended up leaving about the time the DJ showed up.
Our one kind of serious negative - our daughter graduated from HS this year and this trip was a present for her. She turned 18 earlier in the year and we asked if she could still be in the teen group with her brother. We have email confirming that she could. The counselors had not been informed of this and apparently had been told "no exceptions" (heard rumors of problems with 18yo on previous cruise). My husband had to leave dinner twice to go fight the battle and, we understand, they kicked it all the way up to Jacqui. She finally was allowed in but it was not a gracious welcoming.
Comment - Disney needs to work out something for the 18 - 21 crowd (and even older - maybe to 25) who are too old for teen group, too young to drink, and don't want to be hanging out in smokey bars listing to old music. The sight of someone my age doing kareoke (sp?) to 'rolling on the river' would probably send my daughter right over the edge of the ship! There is so much underutilized space (Sessions - where I never saw anyone, and Promenade - where there were about 4 people each night). It seems as though they could make a hangout for the young adults - it wouldn't have to be programmed, just provide a juke box, a TV, a couple of pool tables, access to a bar for non-alcoholic drinks (maybe back it up to an existing bar), a few sofas, etc. A sort of grown up Common Grounds.
Anyway, great trip. I hope they get something worked out so my daughter wants to go again (and have something to do), else it could be our last family DCL until she is older and has a family.
