Paula,
We went on our first DCL "Magic" cruise in November 2001. It was an awesome experience. Our kids were 13 and 10. I know considerably older than yours.
First off, we gave up a two week DVC vacation at Christmas (Dec 01) to go on the cruise (we used pts). Don't know if that was a smart thing to do, but we certainly didn't have the cash to do it, we had just added on at Vero.
We made our ressies during our June 01 trip. When we returned home from vacation, I immediately found this board and started chatting to anyone that would write back. I was very concerned about my son (13) he is shy and was not into introducing himself to strangers. I got him to start writing to this gal in CA and they immediately hit it off, as soon as we got on board we only saw him at dinner. For our DD (10), she was introduced to big brother's friends sister, the same age. We checked her into the 10-12 year old club and they gave us a pager. I don't think it matters what age group they are in, if they are under 12 you get a pager. Any way, she too was hard to find except for the dinner meal. She would check in and out of the club on her own (allowed for her age group) and they would send me a pager message. I would be hard for me to say whether you should wait or go. Your kids will be in the clubs at all times unless they are out as a group. You won't have the worries about where are they. Okay, that might be the perk. Another thing to consider is that they won't be in the same clubs.
There are plenty of activities for you to do with the kids, shows, movies, tea with Wendy, games. I'd give anything to have a small one to play in the Mickey pool with. I was disappointed that it was only for small children, I wanted to go down the slide.
The ship will definitely be decorated for Christmas by then. They may be in the process of still doing it, however, some of the major decorations will be up.
Good luck in making your decision.
We went on our first DCL "Magic" cruise in November 2001. It was an awesome experience. Our kids were 13 and 10. I know considerably older than yours.
First off, we gave up a two week DVC vacation at Christmas (Dec 01) to go on the cruise (we used pts). Don't know if that was a smart thing to do, but we certainly didn't have the cash to do it, we had just added on at Vero.
We made our ressies during our June 01 trip. When we returned home from vacation, I immediately found this board and started chatting to anyone that would write back. I was very concerned about my son (13) he is shy and was not into introducing himself to strangers. I got him to start writing to this gal in CA and they immediately hit it off, as soon as we got on board we only saw him at dinner. For our DD (10), she was introduced to big brother's friends sister, the same age. We checked her into the 10-12 year old club and they gave us a pager. I don't think it matters what age group they are in, if they are under 12 you get a pager. Any way, she too was hard to find except for the dinner meal. She would check in and out of the club on her own (allowed for her age group) and they would send me a pager message. I would be hard for me to say whether you should wait or go. Your kids will be in the clubs at all times unless they are out as a group. You won't have the worries about where are they. Okay, that might be the perk. Another thing to consider is that they won't be in the same clubs.
There are plenty of activities for you to do with the kids, shows, movies, tea with Wendy, games. I'd give anything to have a small one to play in the Mickey pool with. I was disappointed that it was only for small children, I wanted to go down the slide.
The ship will definitely be decorated for Christmas by then. They may be in the process of still doing it, however, some of the major decorations will be up.
Good luck in making your decision.
