toolmanjan
Love DVC Vero Beach
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2008
- Messages
- 376
Trip report 7 day Eastern Caribbean 10/22/11-10/29/11
me DH and DW left our young adult children home.
Previous cruises
87 Big Red Boat Oceanic Bahamas
03 Disney Magic western
09 Disney Magic western
We flew in to Orlando from Philadelphia on Friday Morning. We used the Magical Express to AKL Jambo. (A note on the ME it would be nice if our driver could drive a manual transmission. Can you say whiplash?).
At Jambo we had a wonderful experience checking in with Joan from Jamaica. She could not do enough for us. She gave us buttons showing we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. She also made a call to housekeeping getting them to give us the next available room.
Once we were settled in our room we got the bus to MK we pre-purchased tickets to MNSSHP online before our trip. We arrived at MK at 4pm so we scanned our tickets and received our wristbands.
My DW had her left foot operated on 3 weeks prior to our vacation so we rented a wheelchair for the evening. I pushed her around the park. (I found a new respect for those people who require a wheelchair in the park both the pusher and the pushie. Its very trying when fellow MK goers are oblivious to you and your limitations.)
The MK was very crowded with people that were there for the party not for the rides the longest we waited on line was 10 min.
We worked our way counter clockwise around the park. We ate at pecos bills I hade a cheese burger my wife had the taco salad. PB is almost always a good meal this time was no exception. I like being able to use the self ordering terminal they have on some of the lines.
After we rode Pirates my wife wanted to go back to the AKL. Ray at the MK gate said I could wheel my DW to our bus stop and leave the chair there which was nice. I left my DW at the bus stop and when back in to ride buzz, people mover and space mtn. all had very short wait times. I headed out during the parade. I was the only one on the bus back to AKL.
In the morning we had breakfast at Boma. I have always heard people rave about this buffet. The food was good plus hot and fresh but not worth the price. After we went back to the room to kill time before the DLC bus picked us up. There was a knock on the door. Once we answered it we were presented a tray of cheese, flat bread, chocolate and fruit from the hotel for our anniversary.
The DCL bus picked us up shortly before noon. We stopped at 3 other WDW hotels before heading off to the port. We arrived at port about 2pm checked in at the Castaway Club desk. Once onboard we stopped by rocking bar D to try for reservations to Palos they added us to a short waiting list. We dropped our bags in our cabin and headed to topsider for lunch.
Before going into topsider we bought two 22oz bear mugs. We have bought these before when you have the mugs filled you pay for a 16oz beer. We asked the CM that served us if Babo our deck server from our last cruise was still on board. He said he knew Babo and had him meet us. Babo was a highlight from our last cruise on the magic. He always provides great service and conversation.
Our cabin 7554 was clean and in good repair. We were just a few short steps to the mid-ship elevator. Our cabin steward Derick did a good job and was attentive to our requests. We didnt see much of him as we were not in and out of our cabin as much as weve been when traveling with our kids.
We chose second seating for dinner. We were joined by two other couples at our table. On the first night our head waiter asked if we would be willing to move to another table so he could accommodate a family of 16s request to have their tables close together. We agreed so all of us were moved from a table in the middle of the restaurant to one by a window. Our servers Bomine and Laurain did an adequate (just) job. However the personal interaction for the most part was not there. Unlike our previous cruises on DCL where we had a great rapport with our servers. The food at dinner(s) was OK at best. I remember it being some what better. The desserts were great as always.
On our first two days at sea we spent most of our time at the quite cove pool. Be advised that there were no lounge chairs to be had after 9:30am. There were a lot of adults traveling without children this made the pool busy.
With all the sun we found ourselves sleeping most nights by 11pm. When we did hit the clubs they were not very crowded. I will say this the DCL needs to seek out new acts three of the acts we saw (in Rockin Bar D) were on our last cruise 2 years ago doing the same exact shows.
At St. Thomas we decided not to do any excursions. We opted to do a little shopping close to the ship. We walked around for a hour or so. We bought shirts etc for the kids. We also bought bottles of Cruzan raspberry rum (for Key West Lemonade Pink lemonade and raspberry rum with sugar on the rim of the glass. YUM
Then we headed back onboard to enjoy a empty ship/pool.
One of our days at see we had breakfast at Lumiers. The Service was subpar and the food except for my omelet was cold. My DW commented that the plate was warmer than the eggs benedict that were on it. We had the same experience on our last cruise, Its about time the DCL addresses this issue.
As with all good things our cruise had to end. I had heard that Topsider was open the disembark morning. Being that we had late seating we wouldnt be having breakfast until 8:15am. We decided to go to topsider for breakfast at 6:30 when it opened so we would be in the first group to get off the ship. We got off the ship at about 7:45. Made it through customs and were seated in a DCL (mears) van with 5 other people by 8am. We were checked in at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge by 9:15. The only thing that would have made life better at this point is that our room was ready.
Highlights of our cruise:
St. Marten & Orient Beach Excursion:
The guides were friendly and informative. The lunch that was included was delicious and abundant. Lunch choices chicken ribs or fish of the day were n included a soft drink or a beer additional beer was $3 each. The water was warm the waves were challenging and the beach was clean. The sand was white and smooth. Disney advises that you may encounter nude or topless bathers. We encountered one topless women and 3 70+ gentlemen in thongs walking the beach. These men were by no means a highlight of the excursion (LOL). The topless women when unnoticed by most as far as I could tell. The one downside to this beach was the locals trying to sell trinkets. They did back off when you told them no.
Topsider sea food buffet:
This was a great buffet. Crab legs, Crab, Shrimp, muscles, sushi etc. My favorite was the salmon with spinach and cream wrapped in a flakey crust.
Wine tasting:
This tasting was run by Raj. Raj had us laughing and at ease right from the start. He had 2 white and 2 red wines to taste in addition one Champaign. Rajs presentation was both educational and entertaining.
Dinner at Palos:
As I stated earlier we were on the waiting list for Palos. When we mentioned to Baboo that we wanted to eat at Palos he said he would call his friend Claudia and see if she could get us a reservation. When we returned from the pool on Monday there was a message from Palos we had a reservation at 630 on Tuesday.
We arrived at 630 on Tuesday. We were seated right away. To be honest if you asked me what I ate I couldnt tell you for sure. The pace for dinner was very laid back to our liking. BaBos friend Claudia was our server her attention to detail was well above our expectations. 2 ½ hours and 1 ½ bottles of wine later we left Palos with a memory of a great meal and great service. We will be dining there on our next cruise.
While dinning I observed other servers as the attended to their tables. Those servers seem to be just going through the motions not taking pride in their work. My DW and I say the experience wouldnt have been as great if we had one of the other servers that had tables near ours. Servers like Claudia and Babo are a true asset to the DCL. I hope DLC realizes their worth.
Castaway Cay: What can I say once again one of the best days of the cruise.
Things to remember for our next cruise:
Book early so we can get reservations at Palos beforehand. We booked 6 weeks out this time.
Arrive for dinner 5 minutes late to avoid the craziness waiting on line for the dinning room to open.
Skip the wine package. The choices werent the best on the standard or premium wine.
We purchased the standard pkg. The price per bottle with tip worked out to be just over $30 a bottle. I could have bought any of the wines on the list for $7-14 at home. We can live without wine at dinner.
Bring sports bottles or reusable soft drink cups (Plastic cup with a lid and straw). The cups at the beverage island were too small. We saw a lot of people using cups like these.
Here is my response to comments regarding the Magics condition. The old girl is in great shape. The crew does a great job keeping her clean and maintained. We saw nothing that would discourage us from sailing on her again.
Toolmanjan Toms River NJ
me DH and DW left our young adult children home.
Previous cruises
87 Big Red Boat Oceanic Bahamas
03 Disney Magic western
09 Disney Magic western
We flew in to Orlando from Philadelphia on Friday Morning. We used the Magical Express to AKL Jambo. (A note on the ME it would be nice if our driver could drive a manual transmission. Can you say whiplash?).
At Jambo we had a wonderful experience checking in with Joan from Jamaica. She could not do enough for us. She gave us buttons showing we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. She also made a call to housekeeping getting them to give us the next available room.
Once we were settled in our room we got the bus to MK we pre-purchased tickets to MNSSHP online before our trip. We arrived at MK at 4pm so we scanned our tickets and received our wristbands.
My DW had her left foot operated on 3 weeks prior to our vacation so we rented a wheelchair for the evening. I pushed her around the park. (I found a new respect for those people who require a wheelchair in the park both the pusher and the pushie. Its very trying when fellow MK goers are oblivious to you and your limitations.)
The MK was very crowded with people that were there for the party not for the rides the longest we waited on line was 10 min.
We worked our way counter clockwise around the park. We ate at pecos bills I hade a cheese burger my wife had the taco salad. PB is almost always a good meal this time was no exception. I like being able to use the self ordering terminal they have on some of the lines.
After we rode Pirates my wife wanted to go back to the AKL. Ray at the MK gate said I could wheel my DW to our bus stop and leave the chair there which was nice. I left my DW at the bus stop and when back in to ride buzz, people mover and space mtn. all had very short wait times. I headed out during the parade. I was the only one on the bus back to AKL.
In the morning we had breakfast at Boma. I have always heard people rave about this buffet. The food was good plus hot and fresh but not worth the price. After we went back to the room to kill time before the DLC bus picked us up. There was a knock on the door. Once we answered it we were presented a tray of cheese, flat bread, chocolate and fruit from the hotel for our anniversary.
The DCL bus picked us up shortly before noon. We stopped at 3 other WDW hotels before heading off to the port. We arrived at port about 2pm checked in at the Castaway Club desk. Once onboard we stopped by rocking bar D to try for reservations to Palos they added us to a short waiting list. We dropped our bags in our cabin and headed to topsider for lunch.
Before going into topsider we bought two 22oz bear mugs. We have bought these before when you have the mugs filled you pay for a 16oz beer. We asked the CM that served us if Babo our deck server from our last cruise was still on board. He said he knew Babo and had him meet us. Babo was a highlight from our last cruise on the magic. He always provides great service and conversation.
Our cabin 7554 was clean and in good repair. We were just a few short steps to the mid-ship elevator. Our cabin steward Derick did a good job and was attentive to our requests. We didnt see much of him as we were not in and out of our cabin as much as weve been when traveling with our kids.
We chose second seating for dinner. We were joined by two other couples at our table. On the first night our head waiter asked if we would be willing to move to another table so he could accommodate a family of 16s request to have their tables close together. We agreed so all of us were moved from a table in the middle of the restaurant to one by a window. Our servers Bomine and Laurain did an adequate (just) job. However the personal interaction for the most part was not there. Unlike our previous cruises on DCL where we had a great rapport with our servers. The food at dinner(s) was OK at best. I remember it being some what better. The desserts were great as always.
On our first two days at sea we spent most of our time at the quite cove pool. Be advised that there were no lounge chairs to be had after 9:30am. There were a lot of adults traveling without children this made the pool busy.
With all the sun we found ourselves sleeping most nights by 11pm. When we did hit the clubs they were not very crowded. I will say this the DCL needs to seek out new acts three of the acts we saw (in Rockin Bar D) were on our last cruise 2 years ago doing the same exact shows.
At St. Thomas we decided not to do any excursions. We opted to do a little shopping close to the ship. We walked around for a hour or so. We bought shirts etc for the kids. We also bought bottles of Cruzan raspberry rum (for Key West Lemonade Pink lemonade and raspberry rum with sugar on the rim of the glass. YUM
Then we headed back onboard to enjoy a empty ship/pool. One of our days at see we had breakfast at Lumiers. The Service was subpar and the food except for my omelet was cold. My DW commented that the plate was warmer than the eggs benedict that were on it. We had the same experience on our last cruise, Its about time the DCL addresses this issue.
As with all good things our cruise had to end. I had heard that Topsider was open the disembark morning. Being that we had late seating we wouldnt be having breakfast until 8:15am. We decided to go to topsider for breakfast at 6:30 when it opened so we would be in the first group to get off the ship. We got off the ship at about 7:45. Made it through customs and were seated in a DCL (mears) van with 5 other people by 8am. We were checked in at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge by 9:15. The only thing that would have made life better at this point is that our room was ready.
Highlights of our cruise:
St. Marten & Orient Beach Excursion:
The guides were friendly and informative. The lunch that was included was delicious and abundant. Lunch choices chicken ribs or fish of the day were n included a soft drink or a beer additional beer was $3 each. The water was warm the waves were challenging and the beach was clean. The sand was white and smooth. Disney advises that you may encounter nude or topless bathers. We encountered one topless women and 3 70+ gentlemen in thongs walking the beach. These men were by no means a highlight of the excursion (LOL). The topless women when unnoticed by most as far as I could tell. The one downside to this beach was the locals trying to sell trinkets. They did back off when you told them no.
Topsider sea food buffet:
This was a great buffet. Crab legs, Crab, Shrimp, muscles, sushi etc. My favorite was the salmon with spinach and cream wrapped in a flakey crust.
Wine tasting:
This tasting was run by Raj. Raj had us laughing and at ease right from the start. He had 2 white and 2 red wines to taste in addition one Champaign. Rajs presentation was both educational and entertaining.
Dinner at Palos:
As I stated earlier we were on the waiting list for Palos. When we mentioned to Baboo that we wanted to eat at Palos he said he would call his friend Claudia and see if she could get us a reservation. When we returned from the pool on Monday there was a message from Palos we had a reservation at 630 on Tuesday.
We arrived at 630 on Tuesday. We were seated right away. To be honest if you asked me what I ate I couldnt tell you for sure. The pace for dinner was very laid back to our liking. BaBos friend Claudia was our server her attention to detail was well above our expectations. 2 ½ hours and 1 ½ bottles of wine later we left Palos with a memory of a great meal and great service. We will be dining there on our next cruise.
While dinning I observed other servers as the attended to their tables. Those servers seem to be just going through the motions not taking pride in their work. My DW and I say the experience wouldnt have been as great if we had one of the other servers that had tables near ours. Servers like Claudia and Babo are a true asset to the DCL. I hope DLC realizes their worth.
Castaway Cay: What can I say once again one of the best days of the cruise.
Things to remember for our next cruise:
Book early so we can get reservations at Palos beforehand. We booked 6 weeks out this time.
Arrive for dinner 5 minutes late to avoid the craziness waiting on line for the dinning room to open.
Skip the wine package. The choices werent the best on the standard or premium wine.
We purchased the standard pkg. The price per bottle with tip worked out to be just over $30 a bottle. I could have bought any of the wines on the list for $7-14 at home. We can live without wine at dinner.
Bring sports bottles or reusable soft drink cups (Plastic cup with a lid and straw). The cups at the beverage island were too small. We saw a lot of people using cups like these.
Here is my response to comments regarding the Magics condition. The old girl is in great shape. The crew does a great job keeping her clean and maintained. We saw nothing that would discourage us from sailing on her again.
Toolmanjan Toms River NJ
but there seemed to be quite a few of those around us) and Mario and Micael just didn't give us the same attention as previous cruises. I thought maybe it was because we were sitting alone, but I guess not. Mario didn't seem interested. Micael had only been on the ship for two months; he seemed sweet and eager so I'm chalking that up to inexperience, he appeared to be trying hard but slightly overwhelmed. I wish we had gone to Topsiders on debarkation morning, breakfast was a nightmare. Service was horrendously slow; people arrived after us, ate and left before we even got our food, and we didn't see hide nor hair of our servers once our food arrived. Totally the complete opposite of our five previous experiences with DCL servers, where the norm was outstanding service, as well as entertaining tricks and just a wonderful rapport. The only positive difference was with our head server, Liam. I have never had so much interaction with the head server before. He came to our table every night and was very friendly and solicitous.
