clarabelle
<font color=green>Pandas don't seem to have much o
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2003
- Messages
- 4,909
Trip Report Just back 4/5 Magic-long
Hello this is my first post. These boards were so helpful in helping me plan my trip I thought the least I could do is return the favor. Instead of going day by day I thought I would move from topic to topic.
Let me start off by saying was one of the best family vacations we ever had and that I think we will cruise DCL again in a year or two. Anything negative I have to say was no more than a minor annoyance at the time.
Traveling with me were my DH and two daughters 4 and 7(almost 8). This was our first cruise as a family. DH and I had been on RCCL about 10 years ago pre-children.
We were in cabin 6522 with a porthole.
The cabins were larger than I expected we liked the split bathroom. Our room attendant was Samuel- he was great- very unobtrusive- but friendly. The kids liked him- he called them the little princesses. DD 7 bought a stuffed Pluto on board and he would move him artistically around the cabin in different little poses- sitting in the porthole etc..
DINING- Our servers were Darko (Croatia) and Sylvester (India) They couldnt have been any better. One evening I was cutting up my daughters steak and I thought that Sylvester was going to knock me out of the way. No No let me do that!
I thought the food was really good. Some things I liked better than others- The coffee didnt knock my socks off and Cookies BBQ didnt really wow me but otherwise I was pleased. We ate at Palo on the semiformal night. Our server there was Marco from Italy. He was very nice- brought us lots of things to try that we didnt order. DH had the filet and I had chicken and the tomato and mozzarella appetizer (yummy!) I had the soufflé and DH had a special coffee. Marco suggested that we put our names on the waiting list for another night and we didnt but now I wish we had.
We ate breakfast mostly at topsiders. One day we went to the buffet at Parrot Cay (next to the last day) and wished we had went there more often.- Why? Because we didnt have to carry trays with drinks on them and deal with the girls at the same time! The food was almost the same- and we got table service with coffee refills instead of having to hop up for it. I highly recommend the omelets.
CHARACTER BREAKFAST Was good- the blueberry pancakes are really nice- I recommend ordering a double portion if you are really hungry- they give you two small pancakes. We got lots of good pics with the kids. Chip and Dale get up and lead you in a hand jive the kids loved it. You have your usual dining room servers.
TEA WITH WENDY DARLING I wouldnt recommend this one unless you dont have anything better to do or you are a big Peter Pan fan. You sit down and have iced tea (it is in a tea pot) and a cookie and then Wendy (she was charming and such a dainty little woman) comes out and talks for a minute about taking tea and using a napkin and then she tells the story of Peter pan and then you line up for pics. The entire thing was pretty short.
KIDS PROGRAMS Were great. My kids would look and the navigators and pick what they wanted to do. They spent several hours in there on sea days. They ate mostly with us and usually went to the clubs in the afternoon except for our Palo night when they ate in the club. The lines to check in were longer than I expected. I was impressed with the handwashing aspect. We did the kids show on the castaway cay day and I got a lump in my throat seeing the kids on stage singing the Mickey Mouse Club song on stage with Mickey. I was surprised at how many of the really cool kids activities were after nine in the evening- this was hard for us being from the east coast so we were on ship time already and our kids are usually in bed by nine.
ST MAARTEN I liked it. It felt European to me. DH didnt like the poverty and all the people trying to sell you stuff and braid your hair. We did the butterfly tour. It was nice. The butterfly place is small. You get a little butterfly lecture, then punch, then a few minutes on your own to either look for butterflies or spend money in the gift shop. They had some cheap kids items there and both girls got some stickers and a ring.
Then we went to Marigot and had an hour there to look around. It was raining and we went for a pastry in a shop recommended by the tour guide. She was very good by the way told us lots about the two different governments on the island. I was surprised that some of the people on the tour talked all the way through her commentary. That was about the only time I experienced rudeness from other passengers. Then we got dropped off in Phillipsburg and shopped. People kept stopping us to braid the girls hair and they were getting kind of restless so we went back to the ship. DH took the kids to the pool and I went back on my own out shopping. IF you dont have anything to wear for topical night you can pick up some stuff cheap. Both girls got little tropical dresses for less than 10 dollars each. Also I got some of those swim cover up scarf things for 3/ten dollars and then there were others for 3/15 dollars. I bought several to take home for gifts. Many of the t-shirt places did not take Visa so bring some cash. The people on St Maarten were very friendly they wanted your business and made an effort to get it.
One note- on both of our shore excursions there was the same family with a small child that bought a BIG stroller with them. One of the deluxe Graco types. Anyway there was no place on the bus to put it so they just propped it by the door and we all had to step around it every time we got on and off. I dont even think they used it. I would consider bringing a smaller umbrella stroller.
ST THOMAS DH liked this better than St Maarten. It feels more American (because it is I guess) and was cleaner. We did the beach day at Sapphire beach. It was a lovely beach at a resort. Not very big and a little crowded. We could have cared less. The kids loved it and paired off with children from the ship. It sprinkled a few times but never really rained. They played in the sand and frolicked in the surf. There was a lady (just the one) there doing hair braiding and I wish we had taken her up on it- we were planning on waiting for Castaway Cay. They gave us lunch (rolls, ham, turkey, cookies, chips, pasta salad) This time the %$#! Stroller rode up front with the driver of the open air bus taking up most of his seat.
Afterwards we cleaned up -checked the kids into the clubs and went back out to shop for an hour. Very nice day.
CASTAWAY KEY We almost didnt make it. We tried 3 times to get into port we had VERY strong winds. As it was we were two hours late and did not have any of the water things available it was just too windy for banana boat rides etc . The people that usually come over to hair braid couldnt come and the post office was closed for the same reason. Disappointing- but even Disney cant control the weather. This made us especially glad we had done the beach day on St. Thomas.
The water was chilly we hung out on the beach for an hour or two and had a conch cooler and watched the kids play then we went to lunch and then checked the kids in the clubs for an hour and went to the adult beach and read .There were some especially cute kids t-shirts at castaway cay. If I were going to buy a shirt I would wait until I had seen those. Went back to the boat around 3:30.
SHOWS were great we did Morty. Hercules, Disney Dreams and the Farewell show. We did not stay up and do any of the things going on in the clubs like 70's night.
SPA we did surial we loved it- and rainforest- I dont think I am much of a steam room person- I probably wouldnt do it again.
ALL AND ALL it was a great trip. We may go again in a year or two
Please feel free to ask any questions.
BIG TIPS that I got from these boards that were most helpful were the over door shoe caddy, a small fan for our room, Lysol spray, and the cheese tray!
Hello this is my first post. These boards were so helpful in helping me plan my trip I thought the least I could do is return the favor. Instead of going day by day I thought I would move from topic to topic.
Let me start off by saying was one of the best family vacations we ever had and that I think we will cruise DCL again in a year or two. Anything negative I have to say was no more than a minor annoyance at the time.
Traveling with me were my DH and two daughters 4 and 7(almost 8). This was our first cruise as a family. DH and I had been on RCCL about 10 years ago pre-children.
We were in cabin 6522 with a porthole.
The cabins were larger than I expected we liked the split bathroom. Our room attendant was Samuel- he was great- very unobtrusive- but friendly. The kids liked him- he called them the little princesses. DD 7 bought a stuffed Pluto on board and he would move him artistically around the cabin in different little poses- sitting in the porthole etc..
DINING- Our servers were Darko (Croatia) and Sylvester (India) They couldnt have been any better. One evening I was cutting up my daughters steak and I thought that Sylvester was going to knock me out of the way. No No let me do that!
I thought the food was really good. Some things I liked better than others- The coffee didnt knock my socks off and Cookies BBQ didnt really wow me but otherwise I was pleased. We ate at Palo on the semiformal night. Our server there was Marco from Italy. He was very nice- brought us lots of things to try that we didnt order. DH had the filet and I had chicken and the tomato and mozzarella appetizer (yummy!) I had the soufflé and DH had a special coffee. Marco suggested that we put our names on the waiting list for another night and we didnt but now I wish we had.
We ate breakfast mostly at topsiders. One day we went to the buffet at Parrot Cay (next to the last day) and wished we had went there more often.- Why? Because we didnt have to carry trays with drinks on them and deal with the girls at the same time! The food was almost the same- and we got table service with coffee refills instead of having to hop up for it. I highly recommend the omelets.
CHARACTER BREAKFAST Was good- the blueberry pancakes are really nice- I recommend ordering a double portion if you are really hungry- they give you two small pancakes. We got lots of good pics with the kids. Chip and Dale get up and lead you in a hand jive the kids loved it. You have your usual dining room servers.
TEA WITH WENDY DARLING I wouldnt recommend this one unless you dont have anything better to do or you are a big Peter Pan fan. You sit down and have iced tea (it is in a tea pot) and a cookie and then Wendy (she was charming and such a dainty little woman) comes out and talks for a minute about taking tea and using a napkin and then she tells the story of Peter pan and then you line up for pics. The entire thing was pretty short.
KIDS PROGRAMS Were great. My kids would look and the navigators and pick what they wanted to do. They spent several hours in there on sea days. They ate mostly with us and usually went to the clubs in the afternoon except for our Palo night when they ate in the club. The lines to check in were longer than I expected. I was impressed with the handwashing aspect. We did the kids show on the castaway cay day and I got a lump in my throat seeing the kids on stage singing the Mickey Mouse Club song on stage with Mickey. I was surprised at how many of the really cool kids activities were after nine in the evening- this was hard for us being from the east coast so we were on ship time already and our kids are usually in bed by nine.
ST MAARTEN I liked it. It felt European to me. DH didnt like the poverty and all the people trying to sell you stuff and braid your hair. We did the butterfly tour. It was nice. The butterfly place is small. You get a little butterfly lecture, then punch, then a few minutes on your own to either look for butterflies or spend money in the gift shop. They had some cheap kids items there and both girls got some stickers and a ring.
Then we went to Marigot and had an hour there to look around. It was raining and we went for a pastry in a shop recommended by the tour guide. She was very good by the way told us lots about the two different governments on the island. I was surprised that some of the people on the tour talked all the way through her commentary. That was about the only time I experienced rudeness from other passengers. Then we got dropped off in Phillipsburg and shopped. People kept stopping us to braid the girls hair and they were getting kind of restless so we went back to the ship. DH took the kids to the pool and I went back on my own out shopping. IF you dont have anything to wear for topical night you can pick up some stuff cheap. Both girls got little tropical dresses for less than 10 dollars each. Also I got some of those swim cover up scarf things for 3/ten dollars and then there were others for 3/15 dollars. I bought several to take home for gifts. Many of the t-shirt places did not take Visa so bring some cash. The people on St Maarten were very friendly they wanted your business and made an effort to get it.
One note- on both of our shore excursions there was the same family with a small child that bought a BIG stroller with them. One of the deluxe Graco types. Anyway there was no place on the bus to put it so they just propped it by the door and we all had to step around it every time we got on and off. I dont even think they used it. I would consider bringing a smaller umbrella stroller.
ST THOMAS DH liked this better than St Maarten. It feels more American (because it is I guess) and was cleaner. We did the beach day at Sapphire beach. It was a lovely beach at a resort. Not very big and a little crowded. We could have cared less. The kids loved it and paired off with children from the ship. It sprinkled a few times but never really rained. They played in the sand and frolicked in the surf. There was a lady (just the one) there doing hair braiding and I wish we had taken her up on it- we were planning on waiting for Castaway Cay. They gave us lunch (rolls, ham, turkey, cookies, chips, pasta salad) This time the %$#! Stroller rode up front with the driver of the open air bus taking up most of his seat.
Afterwards we cleaned up -checked the kids into the clubs and went back out to shop for an hour. Very nice day.
CASTAWAY KEY We almost didnt make it. We tried 3 times to get into port we had VERY strong winds. As it was we were two hours late and did not have any of the water things available it was just too windy for banana boat rides etc . The people that usually come over to hair braid couldnt come and the post office was closed for the same reason. Disappointing- but even Disney cant control the weather. This made us especially glad we had done the beach day on St. Thomas.
The water was chilly we hung out on the beach for an hour or two and had a conch cooler and watched the kids play then we went to lunch and then checked the kids in the clubs for an hour and went to the adult beach and read .There were some especially cute kids t-shirts at castaway cay. If I were going to buy a shirt I would wait until I had seen those. Went back to the boat around 3:30.
SHOWS were great we did Morty. Hercules, Disney Dreams and the Farewell show. We did not stay up and do any of the things going on in the clubs like 70's night.
SPA we did surial we loved it- and rainforest- I dont think I am much of a steam room person- I probably wouldnt do it again.
ALL AND ALL it was a great trip. We may go again in a year or two
Please feel free to ask any questions.
BIG TIPS that I got from these boards that were most helpful were the over door shoe caddy, a small fan for our room, Lysol spray, and the cheese tray!
