Celebrating Easter 2011 on the Magic

[Griffith6]

Is anybody else getting excited? We are! I made a shutterfly photo book of our last cruise (a year ago) and gave it to the kids on Christmas morning - last page said, surprise, we are going again!! They can't wait.

We are less than 4 weeks for date to make ressies - starting to do some planning and research. Any ideas from the group?

Debbie

 

[pixieprincessmom]

We will probably book the excursion to Trunk beach on St. Thomas day, but still not sure about St. Martin. I have been doing some reading and am thinking about booking on our own, but I am worried about missing the boat.

Have started looking at fish extender ideas. Looks like our group will be small.

 

[collinsfamle]

We are booked on this cruise too! This will be our second cruise, but first on the Magic. We took a 4 day on the Wonder last Easter break, and we all had such a great time, we wanted to do it again - but longer this time! I would love to participate in the FE, but I am worried about not having enough room in our luggage - so I guess I will have to pass on it this time. We are going to spend a couple of days at WDW before, and I really don't want to have to do laundry on vacation. There are four of us, me, DH,
DS(16) and DS(11). We are really excited about this - but it still seems so far away!

 

[pixieprincessmom]

Getting closer very quickly!! We will be abkle to book excursion on the 23.

 

[Griffith6]

Woo Hoo - we are paid in full and Palo reservations booked!! We are getting so excited and hope the next 90 days pass quickly.


Any new cruisers out there for our FE exchange?

 

[pixieprincessmom]

Just booked palo brunch and excursions!!

 

[mlemmons]

We also got our reservations booked for Palo over the weekend. We were able to get everything we wanted. I have a feeling this cruise will be far from full.

 

[mlemmons]

Based on everyone's replies, here's a summary of the FE plan.

mlemmons DS 13, DD 11, DD 8
mlemmons sil DD 6, DS 4
queenbee99 DD 7
Griffith6 DD 10, DD 8, DD 6, DS 4
pixieprincessmom DD 15, DS 13, DD 10

Have I summarized this correctly? Please let me know if I've made any mistakes. Hopefully we add a couple of families in the next couple of weeks.

 

[queenbee99]

To those of you that booked Palo, was there still alot of availability? I haven't made our final payment yet so haven't booked that. How did you know which night to book it for. Do we know when Pirate night is? Formal Night? Do you know the rotation of the restaurants? Anyone done the High Tea? I figured since there are more at sea days there are more brunchs and since there are more days it wouldn't be as big of an issue. Also has anyone read that they do something for the kids on Easter? Anything special? Sorry for all the questions...

 

[queenbee99]

Also I think we are going to go to DDD on Friday so we will probably stay there and drive to PC on Saturday am. Does anyone know a nice inexpensive place to stay near there? Or would it be less expensive to drive to PC and stay there? What time can we board the boat? Last time we missed the characters in the terminal and I do not want to this time. Is there a place in PC that you can stay the night and park there while you are on your cruise?

 

[queenbee99]

Glad to see so many girls around dd's age!! She still doesn't know and has been saving since last trip to go back on Mickey's boat!

Based on everyone's replies, here's a summary of the FE plan.

mlemmons DS 13, DD 11, DD 8
mlemmons sil DD 6, DS 4
queenbee99 DD 7
Griffith6 DD 10, DD 8, DD 6, DS 4
pixieprincessmom DD 15, DS 13, DD 10

Have I summarized this correctly? Please let me know if I've made any mistakes. Hopefully we add a couple of families in the next couple of weeks.

 

[collinsfamle]

What excursions did you guys book? I have never been to St. Martin, and I would like to see the island, but we are not really into snorkeling. Has anyone been there before? Can anyone offer suggestions for excursions? I thought about parasailing for my two sons 11 and 16, but I don't know if they would let them go without an adult?

 

[collinsfamle]

To those of you that booked Palo, was there still alot of availability? I haven't made our final payment yet so haven't booked that. How did you know which night to book it for. Do we know when Pirate night is? Formal Night? Do you know the rotation of the restaurants? Anyone done the High Tea? I figured since there are more at sea days there are more brunchs and since there are more days it wouldn't be as big of an issue. Also has anyone read that they do something for the kids on Easter? Anything special? Sorry for all the questions...

We were on the Wonder last Easter, and they did not do anything special for it. But that was embarkation day too. Since we will already be on the ship this year - maybe they do something different.

 

[mlemmons]

To those of you that booked Palo, was there still alot of availability? I haven't made our final payment yet so haven't booked that. How did you know which night to book it for. Do we know when Pirate night is? Formal Night? Do you know the rotation of the restaurants? Anyone done the High Tea? I figured since there are more at sea days there are more brunchs and since there are more days it wouldn't be as big of an issue. Also has anyone read that they do something for the kids on Easter? Anything special? Sorry for all the questions...

I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability. We had no problem getting the exact date and time we wanted for Palo dinner and brunch 15 minutes after our 90 day reservation window opened last Saturday night. My SIL and BIL just made final payment today and tried to book dinner for the same time as us (8:00p Mon.) and it was not available so they took the 7:30p slot. We'll get our reservations synced up the day we get on the Magic.

Based on the Navigators for the October 23rd Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Magic (which can be found HERE), Pirate Night is Tuesday night. Formal night is Sunday and Semi-formal night is Thursday. The Restaurant Rotation is PLA, LAP, or APL. Never did high tea. Haven't read anything about prior Easter Cruises.

 

[mlemmons]

Also I think we are going to go to DDD on Friday so we will probably stay there and drive to PC on Saturday am. Does anyone know a nice inexpensive place to stay near there? Or would it be less expensive to drive to PC and stay there? What time can we board the boat? Last time we missed the characters in the terminal and I do not want to this time. Is there a place in PC that you can stay the night and park there while you are on your cruise?

I have less to offer with these questions. There are many threads on the Cruise Forum boards about people who have gotten cheap hotel rooms on Priceline in the Orlando area and in the PC area. I've never stayed in Orlando without staying in the World cuz we are DVC members and we have points to use. The night before our April cruise we are staying in PC at The Country in and Suites, which is close to sold out. There is a thread somewhere with a friends and family discount code for the Radisson hotel that as of 10 days ago produced an $89 rate at the PC Radisson. From what I understand the Radisson, as well as others, have park and ride rates for all the cruise lines in PC.

We've taken two cruises on the Magic. Both times they started allowing people to enter the terminal around 10:00 a.m. Both times we weren't able to board the Magic until around noon.

 

[mlemmons]

What excursions did you guys book? I have never been to St. Martin, and I would like to see the island, but we are not really into snorkeling. Has anyone been there before? Can anyone offer suggestions for excursions? I thought about parasailing for my two sons 11 and 16, but I don't know if they would let them go without an adult?

We've been to St. Martin while on a childless RCCL cruise. We zip lined while there at Lotiere Farms. HERE's a link to some reviews of Lotiere Farms. It was the only time I've zip lined and I enjoyed it. I didn't see that as a DCL excursion. That was all we did while on St. Martin, so I can't be of much help. We are looking at doing a beach day while in St. Martin this time. I've found some helpful information on cruise critics forums.

I know you can parasail at Castaway Cay. I'm sure you already know this as well, but in case you don't.... at Castaway Cay, kids 13 and up can parasail on their own while kids under 13 must be accompanied by an adult over 18 (info HERE).

I hope this helps.

 

[Griffith6]

The only excursion we booked is on St Marteen and trying a non-DCL one. Someone on disboards highly recommended Captain Alan's chartered snorkeling and beach tours and the review ons Trip Advisor are very good. The guy was great when I emailed with questions before booking. See link below.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...norkeling_Adventure-St_Maarten_St_Martin.html

We are still thinking about plans for St Thomas - our kids are young so options are limited. We may just do our own beach day (Magen's Beach) and enjoy a little water fun with our family. We did that on Grand Cayman for western DCL and had the BEST time - just took taxi to nice beach, rented chairs and enjoyed our kids. The weather and water were perfect. I look forward to others ideas for St Thomas excursions.

Getting excited.....

 

[pixieprincessmom]

We booked under 2 flags in st. Martin and trunk bay snorkel in st. Thomas. Both through Disney. Kids are not really into snorkeling and dd14 wanted to see the French side on St. Martin so just booked the sightseeing. DH really wants to snorkel so Trunk bay for him. DD14 already has a list of things that if she sees them she is out of the water, but they all agreed to try snorkeling. We picked up snorkel sets at academy at the end of summer and they tried them in the pool (DD10 also uses hers in the bathtub!).

I need to book a hotel at the port. For the price to park at the port we can stay the night before and park. Read about breakin at cars at the Radisson lately so I'm thinking Country Inn and Suites. Will try to book today.

Can't believe only 5 families for FE. Was hoping for a little larger group. My dd's are really excited about it and have plans to make a few things (sorry if they don't turn out so great).

 

[Mom of boys]

This will be our first cruise, we're so excited! We'd also love to take apart in the FE exchange. There will be four of us, myself, DH, DS 11, DS 7. anyone have any suggestions on the kind of gifts? We're flying in from CA, so space is an issue.

Nira

 

[collinsfamle]

We booked under 2 flags in st. Martin and trunk bay snorkel in st. Thomas. Both through Disney. Kids are not really into snorkeling and dd14 wanted to see the French side on St. Martin so just booked the sightseeing. DH really wants to snorkel so Trunk bay for him. DD14 already has a list of things that if she sees them she is out of the water, but they all agreed to try snorkeling. We picked up snorkel sets at academy at the end of summer and they tried them in the pool (DD10 also uses hers in the bathtub!).

I need to book a hotel at the port. For the price to park at the port we can stay the night before and park. Read about breakin at cars at the Radisson lately so I'm thinking Country Inn and Suites. Will try to book today.

Can't believe only 5 families for FE. Was hoping for a little larger group. My dd's are really excited about it and have plans to make a few things (sorry if they don't turn out so great).

The Under 2 Flags excursion in St. Martin is the one I was looking at too. My thoughts are that it will let us experience both sides of the island, and not take up the whole day. I guess we are looking at Castaway Cay as our "beach day" so I am not really looking to go to beaches elsewhere. My boys don't really even want to get off the ship! But it seems silly to go all that way and then not see what is there. I also found a non Disney parasailing company that is cheaper than CC, on St. Martin, so we might look into that too. The only other time I was in St. Thomas, we took a "rum punch cruise" over to/past St. John's with a stop somewhere else for about an hour. Something like that might be fun - minus the rum punch because we have the kids with us now.