ontariomonkey
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2008
- Messages
- 471
We just got off the Magic for a 7 night Eastern Carribean cruise on the Magic and wanted to give my review as I found these boards so very helpful in my planning. I want to say a big Thank You to all the veteran cruisers whose advise was so useful. This is going to be long!
The cast: DH and I, both early 30s. This was our 3rd cruise, but our first with DCL I've never written a vacation review before, so hopefully it works out.
ARRIVING AT THE PORT: We stayed in Florida for a week before the cruise so we drove our rental car to the port. We used Budget who had the best rate ($207) even though it was a one-way rental as we had picked the car up at MCO. We experienced no problems with Budget from start to finish. We also used them for a rental from the port to MCO after the cruise. We paid $28 all in for the few hours that we needed.
EMBARKATION: Quick and painless. We arrived at around 11:30 via the Budget shuttle. We checked in and had photos taken and got boarding group 16. They were boarding group 5 at the time. We sat down and read our books and before we knew it, we were boarding. The only hicup was that we had not brought the ENTIRE cruise contract with us, just the signature page so we had to sign something else. Also I didn't print out the credit card authorization form so we had to redo that even though the lady had the info on the computer screen. Small potatoes but I was irked at the time because I had purposefully called DCL to see which forms I had to bring and was given wrong information.
We were in Parrot Cay eating lunch by 1pm I think.
BOOKING PALO ONBOARD: DH and I had agreed that we would not bother with Palo so did not try to get ressies prior to the cruise. However, our tablemates at lunch convinced DH that Palo was AMAZING so we went to see if anything was available. This was at least 2pm by now. Brunch was waitlisted, 2 pages of names in front of us so that was not happening but we were very high on the waitlist for dinner, and we got in for our prefered night.
LUGGAGE: Arrived quickly and intact by the time we were done with lunch.
STATEROOM: 6036, a cat 6 veranda room with plexiglass veranda. Lots of space and storage. Everything in working order but the couch felt very tired if you KWIM. The privacy curtain did not close all the way, left a one foot gap.
SR hostess: At some point on the first day we came back to change into bathing suits and our stateroom door was propped wide open. I was a bit miffed as my purse was in plain view and we hadn't even organized ourselves enough to put stuff in the safe (yes, stupid). After a few minutes, the hostess came along and I have no idea what she was up to, she seemed to want to clean the bathroom or something but for goodness sakes, we had literally just arrived, what on earth needed to be done?
Since we spent alot of time in our room on the veranda and also like to nap, we dicided to keep the privacy sign on the door all day until dinner. The SR hosts usually do the rooms twice a day. The bed was made up neatly and towels replaced (even though there is a sign saying that they have a 'green' policy to only replace towels that are in the bathtub). We also always had a nice towel animal, the navigator for the next day and some chocolates.
ADULTS ONLY AREAS: The pool was lovely, I like how there is that shalow ledge all the way around so that you can sit or lie in the shallow water. There were 2 things missing in the pool area. 1. enough sun loungers and 2. enough shade. There were relatively few children on this cruise, presumeably due to the beginning of school, and therefor, lots of adults who had time to enjoy the pool. We went up to deck 9 a couple of times during the day and there were never loungers or tables for eating free on the non-smoking side however there were usually chairs in front of the cove cafe. I don't know if there was space on deck 10 as it is in full sun so we didn't check. Yes there were lots of loungers with towels on but no bodies. Since our veranda had shade during the day for the first half of the cruise we read up there during the day instead of at the pool deck.
We went to the pool each evening around 6pm and it was a ghost town (bliss). Still lovely and warm enough to swim but no need for sunscreen at that hour.
I only saw 2 sets of children in this area, they had a bit of a look and then left.
ADULTS ONLY ENTERTAINMENT: We went to Rockin Bar D everynight after our late dinner for the adult show (sounds dirty but it's not lol). There was a band which was good, and played covers of older stuff (70s and 80s) as well as more recent music. The first night they had a 'scavenger hunt' for grownups. The description in the navigator made it sound really lame so we were not planning to go but it actually started 45 minutes late so we were there for it. It was very very fun indeed. We were split into teams and had to bring stuff up to the front to get points. Some easy things, and some difficult things. So so much fun. It was hilarious. Match your Mate show was amusing although DH is certain that the couple who won was cheating. The other nights had various acts, usually the people would do a family show one night, then do an adult show the next night. Sorry, I'm really bad with names but here goes: Female ventriloquist/comedienne quite funny. I think puppets are lame so it took me a bit to get into it, but enjoyed the show. Freddy Fusion, magic/comedy was very very good. There was a comedian who used lots of props and did impressions and we didn't like that show. I had a couple of laughs but DH didn't find any of it funny. Lots of other people seemed to like it though. The second to last night was a comedian who has a show in LA and has been on TV shows and things and he was great. After the adult show, there was dancing with the band playing/singing.
ADULTS ONLY ACTIVITIES IN THE DAYTIME: We don't drink alcohol so were not interested in any of the wine, martini etc tastings. I was definitely disapointed with the variety of activities for adults. There was a scrapbooking meet on the second day but I was still feeling sick. Also I wondered if it might just be a sale of stuff that I didn't need. We did watch 2 movies though: The Proposal and Confessions of a Shopaholic and enjoyed both.
FOOD:
Breakfast: Topsiders: We came here twice I believe. Very clean, fresh food, good variety, no problems. Found seating inside once, and outside once. The only issue is that it is at the back of the boat, so there is a feeling of vibration which I don't like.
Parrot Cay: came here for breakfast once, no problems. Same food as in Topsiders. They always want you to share a table in here, even if the dining room is virtually empty. We said no thank you twice and it was no problem to be seated by ourselves.
Lumieres: had our last breakfast here. Table servce a la carte. No problems although I didn't get what I ordered. I was too tired to care. And I agree that our server was distracted that morning. The drink server was his usual self though.
Room service: continental conveniently delivered to your door. We did this on port days. You can pick a 30minute window for delivery. The only annoying thing was the 2nd morning we did this, we asked for 7-7:30. We had a wake up call set for 7am. At 6:45 room service called to say that our food would be there soon. ***!! My last 20 minutes of sleep were ruined and the food did not arrive til 7:20.
Lunch: Had a couple of lunches at Parrot Cay. No problems. Good variety and presentation. Was very disapointed in the crab claws though. I have never had these before but they do not taste anything like crab legs. Flavourless. The peel and eat shrimp was better then I'm used to at the buffets around here.
Dinner: Very good food although DH who is a picky eater had to have the plain chicken breast a couple of times because pretty much everything either comes with a sauce or with mushrooms. The food was good, no doubt about it but it was not the best cruise food I have had (a euro cruise line, now out of business). They seem to use vegetables more as decoration then anything else so usually had to ask for more. DH is most upset that there was NO chocolate cake on board, everything had mousse in it.
Quick service: Pinochio's Pizza: good but better from room service.
Plutos dog house: liked the hotdogs, chicken tenders and fries, everything looked good.
Gooffy's galley: nice variety of sandwiches however the paninis are exceedingly greasy as they use a ton of cooking spray. To be honest, I only had one because of this reason. The fruit and salad were lovely, especialy the raspberry vinegrette, yumm.
Room service: Ordered lots of pizza and cookies and mickey bars. Once, they brought us the completely wrong order and we had to wait another 30mins to get our food. Otherwise no problems. I had a turkey sandwich and it was really nice.
SERVICE IN THE DINING ROOM: The boards make the service out to be so AMAZING, I am not sure what I expected, maybe I thought that they would follow us back to the room and tuck us in or something. We were spoiled on our first cruise with truly fantastic service which was genuine, attentive and intuitive. This time I went with high expectiations. Our server tried very hard to please and asked several times if everything was excellent and to be honest, the service was fine. The only complaint that I would have is, if we were not sure that we would like the chosen dish, and told him that we might need something else, he didn't always check back to see if it was ok or not. One time, DH's dinner was covered in mushrooms and peppers even though we asked for it without and he just did not come back. The head server (manager type guy in white coat) came by on his rounds and he ended up fixing it for us. I guess I felt that the service was good but nothing special. But nothing specific where we could say, the service is not excellent because blah blah blah. On our previous cruise the waiter noticed that DH loved this certain kind of potato, so guess what, he got some everynight. And double portions of chocolate cake lol. On further discussion with DH, he did not 'click' with this server so that didn't help I'm sure. I found him to be very nice but just a bit socially awkward.
Our drinks server was very friendly and smiley and personable. My only issue is that he only ever asked me what I wanted to drink once. So I was served ginger ale every night even though I only wanted it the first night because I felt sick. I usually only drink water, so that is fine, there was always water. I asked for a coke on the last night and he looked at me funny like "but I made this ginger ale for you special" bless him. But it was no problem getting the coke.
I guess that I expected the servers to be a little more available to us. They only had 2 tables to serve yet they were hardly ever around. Not that I want them looking over my shoulder constantly when I eat there was just something lacking.
Palo: we had dinner here and had a very good meal. Not sure it was so good that it was worth the $15pp extra plus tip if I'm being honest. Obviously, it was worth $15 but we already had dinner for that night included if kwim. You also end up effectively tipping twice that night. We won't bother next time but will try and get in to brunch.
DISNEY VACATION CLUB: we are new members and booked this cruise on points. There are lots of people here on the DIS that think that is not a good use of points but we disagree as did most of the DVC members we spoke to onboard. There were 750 DVC people on board! Not all booked on points of course. There was a members meeting which I found really really boring but they had some good incentives for buying more points on board. They also gave away a bunch of stuff and raffled off some $ in onboard credit. There is a modest reduction in point requirements if you rebook a cruise 'while on board'. You actually have 3 days after you get home to book with the discount. Also of interest, we wanted to book a 2011 cruise but of course, the booking window is not open yet. The DVC people looked into it, and as long as I call in the first 3 days to state my intent, once the booking window is open in a week (or tomorrow for you gold and platinum people), I will have 7 days to book and still take advantage of the discount.
QUALITY OF FELLOW CRUISERS: I have never been on a vacation where everybody you came across was so friendly! Of course there were a couple of instances of blatant rudeness but by and large everyone was lovely. You could not get on an elevator without someone asking you how your day was. We were seated with 2 other couples without children at dinner and we all got along just fine.
PORTS: St Thomas. We took the ferry and taxis to St John to snorkel in Trunk Bay. The taxi fares are regulated here so no haggling. Disney had the exact same excursion for $65pp. We saved about $20pp to do it on our own but I had my own snorkel gear so didn't have to bear that cost. We also got to spend more time there. We got there about 30mins before DCL and left 1-2 hours later. Totally worth it for us. The snorkelling was absolutely wonderful. Perfectly calm, warm water. Very vibrant sea life. The beach did not feel crowded at all. Most of the people there were on the DCL tour, there were some people that were holidaying on St John or St Thomas. The beach is long but not wide. There was shade or sun available. This is in a national park so there are showers and toilets and souvenirs and presumeably food but we brought snacks with us. Not super comfortable chairs available to rent for $7 each plus a $25 deposit. Better than laying on the sand though and btw not included in the DCL excursion. The beach is life guarded.
Tortola: took a taxi to Brewer's Bay to snorkel. We paid $12 each for the 2 of us, each way. There was a family of 10 there who paid $7 each for a total of $70 each way. Decide for yourself who got the best deal. Try to haggle with the driver if you are up to it. We could not be bothered. There is a bar/restaurant there. Lounge chairs are $5 each to rent. Did not use the bathroom but hear that it is pretty rough. Very nice snorkelling, not quite as nice as trunk bay for amount and variety of sea life. You had to go pretty far out to get to the nicer part of the reef so be aware that it is very easy on the way out, just floating and drifting. On the way back, you will actually have to swim. It gets tiring so know your limits and consider some sort of flotation device. There is no lifeguard on this beach. Once again, we were the only cruise ship in port so the beach was vurtually deserted. Probably about 10 families, and all from the cruise.
Castaway Cay: Went to the adults only beach. Beautiful, calm water, very very clear. It stays shallow for ages. I went out up to my shoulders and DH was just a distant speck on the beach. I had heard that it is really rocky and shelly here but I did not find it to be so. I didn't bother bringing the snorkelling gear but actually there was alot more sea life then I expected. Several fish although only probably 4 or 5 different kinds. One type in particular was very interested in my pink toe nail polish. There was one area where some metal structure had been deposited presumeably to encourage sea life and nature was definitely beginning to take hold. There were lots more fish here and even a spikey sea urchin which is a sign of a healthy reef apparently. They water was waist deep here but clear enough that no one should step on this stuff inadvertantly. There were lots of sea shells here. I found a couple of living sand dollars. My pals told me that if I had gone out just a bit deeper, that I would have seen a ton of starfish, darn. Oh well, next time.
The BBQ was only open 'til 2pm which is too early imho. The food was just ok. The potatoes in the potato salad were not cooked all the way through for instance and the steak and ribs were a really cheap cut. But there are hot dogs and hamburgers. There was no fish available when we went up but the chef said that food is brought over from the shop periodically so you never know what will be there. A lady brought cups of ice water to the people waiting in line which was nice as it was boiling hot.
The trams were frequent and you can wait for them in the shade. There was no way that I would want to walk all that way in the heat. In true Disney style, you cannot take the tram directly from the ship to Serenity bay, you are forced to walk through the gift shops lol.
MOTION SICKNESS: I have cruised twice before so I knew that I would have a hard time with this. However, I also prefer not to take medicine. My first cruise I broke down and took some, on the 2nd I forgot it at home and had to suffer. This time, I can armed with a boat load of ginger capsules, sea bands (for acupresure) and a homeopathic remedy called cocculyne. The first day I was cursing my husband for bringing me on another cruise. The first two days I would say that my baseline was uncomfortable with short periods of feeling absolutely ghastly. By day 3 I had variable periods of feeling uncomfortable and by day 4 the sea bands were off, homeopathics and ginger not needed. What helps me the most is distraction. During the shows in Rockin Bar D I felt the best because I was so busy laughing that I did not notice how crappy I felt. The next best thing for me is water therapy. Sitting in the pool or hot tub is the best place to be as the swishing of the water helps your inner ear figure out WTH is going on with your body. The worst was the cinema, topsiders and Palo. TS and Palo because they are at the back and you feel vibrations there. Ugh.
PERSPECTIVE FROM A 'NON DISNEY' PERSON. Flame suit on, but I have no special feelings for Disney. To me, it is a brand, a company, like any other out to make money for its shareholders. Now, their way of making money by making people happy is wonderful. I guess I am trying to say that I went to DCL despite of the characters, not because of them. We chose DCL because they are a reputeable, reliable company that you can count on for excellent, reliable service. There were lots of characters around but it was easy to ignore them. We did not attend any of the disney themed shows. We did not attend the sail away party and found the pirate party to be very very lame. Not that the entertainers were not doing a cracking job, I just have no interest in watching teenagers sing and dance on stage, let alone a bunch of cuddly characters. But one must wait patiently because this will end with a great fireworks display. There was a couple behind us who found the show very entertaining and apparently hilarious, so I am fully aware that not everyone shares my opinions. I thought that the show at AP was silly with all the servers following Mickey around the dining room but it would be great for the kids and I can put up with it for a few minutes in order to get the other benefits that DCL affords. So long story short, it is easy to ignore the 'disney stuff' if you want. It's not so annoying that it should negatively impact your cruise in any way shape or form.
TO SUM UP: If you made it this far, we had a great time. We rebooked for a western in the winter. We booked on DVC points, I don't think that I would pay cash money for this cruise. It is too expensive and don't think that it is $1000 (or whatever) better than other cruise lines out there. Obviously many people disagree as DCL is doing a booming trade.
Please feel free to ask questions if you wish. Happy cruising!
The cast: DH and I, both early 30s. This was our 3rd cruise, but our first with DCL I've never written a vacation review before, so hopefully it works out.
ARRIVING AT THE PORT: We stayed in Florida for a week before the cruise so we drove our rental car to the port. We used Budget who had the best rate ($207) even though it was a one-way rental as we had picked the car up at MCO. We experienced no problems with Budget from start to finish. We also used them for a rental from the port to MCO after the cruise. We paid $28 all in for the few hours that we needed.
EMBARKATION: Quick and painless. We arrived at around 11:30 via the Budget shuttle. We checked in and had photos taken and got boarding group 16. They were boarding group 5 at the time. We sat down and read our books and before we knew it, we were boarding. The only hicup was that we had not brought the ENTIRE cruise contract with us, just the signature page so we had to sign something else. Also I didn't print out the credit card authorization form so we had to redo that even though the lady had the info on the computer screen. Small potatoes but I was irked at the time because I had purposefully called DCL to see which forms I had to bring and was given wrong information.
We were in Parrot Cay eating lunch by 1pm I think.
BOOKING PALO ONBOARD: DH and I had agreed that we would not bother with Palo so did not try to get ressies prior to the cruise. However, our tablemates at lunch convinced DH that Palo was AMAZING so we went to see if anything was available. This was at least 2pm by now. Brunch was waitlisted, 2 pages of names in front of us so that was not happening but we were very high on the waitlist for dinner, and we got in for our prefered night.
LUGGAGE: Arrived quickly and intact by the time we were done with lunch.
STATEROOM: 6036, a cat 6 veranda room with plexiglass veranda. Lots of space and storage. Everything in working order but the couch felt very tired if you KWIM. The privacy curtain did not close all the way, left a one foot gap.
SR hostess: At some point on the first day we came back to change into bathing suits and our stateroom door was propped wide open. I was a bit miffed as my purse was in plain view and we hadn't even organized ourselves enough to put stuff in the safe (yes, stupid). After a few minutes, the hostess came along and I have no idea what she was up to, she seemed to want to clean the bathroom or something but for goodness sakes, we had literally just arrived, what on earth needed to be done?
Since we spent alot of time in our room on the veranda and also like to nap, we dicided to keep the privacy sign on the door all day until dinner. The SR hosts usually do the rooms twice a day. The bed was made up neatly and towels replaced (even though there is a sign saying that they have a 'green' policy to only replace towels that are in the bathtub). We also always had a nice towel animal, the navigator for the next day and some chocolates.
ADULTS ONLY AREAS: The pool was lovely, I like how there is that shalow ledge all the way around so that you can sit or lie in the shallow water. There were 2 things missing in the pool area. 1. enough sun loungers and 2. enough shade. There were relatively few children on this cruise, presumeably due to the beginning of school, and therefor, lots of adults who had time to enjoy the pool. We went up to deck 9 a couple of times during the day and there were never loungers or tables for eating free on the non-smoking side however there were usually chairs in front of the cove cafe. I don't know if there was space on deck 10 as it is in full sun so we didn't check. Yes there were lots of loungers with towels on but no bodies. Since our veranda had shade during the day for the first half of the cruise we read up there during the day instead of at the pool deck.
We went to the pool each evening around 6pm and it was a ghost town (bliss). Still lovely and warm enough to swim but no need for sunscreen at that hour.
I only saw 2 sets of children in this area, they had a bit of a look and then left.
ADULTS ONLY ENTERTAINMENT: We went to Rockin Bar D everynight after our late dinner for the adult show (sounds dirty but it's not lol). There was a band which was good, and played covers of older stuff (70s and 80s) as well as more recent music. The first night they had a 'scavenger hunt' for grownups. The description in the navigator made it sound really lame so we were not planning to go but it actually started 45 minutes late so we were there for it. It was very very fun indeed. We were split into teams and had to bring stuff up to the front to get points. Some easy things, and some difficult things. So so much fun. It was hilarious. Match your Mate show was amusing although DH is certain that the couple who won was cheating. The other nights had various acts, usually the people would do a family show one night, then do an adult show the next night. Sorry, I'm really bad with names but here goes: Female ventriloquist/comedienne quite funny. I think puppets are lame so it took me a bit to get into it, but enjoyed the show. Freddy Fusion, magic/comedy was very very good. There was a comedian who used lots of props and did impressions and we didn't like that show. I had a couple of laughs but DH didn't find any of it funny. Lots of other people seemed to like it though. The second to last night was a comedian who has a show in LA and has been on TV shows and things and he was great. After the adult show, there was dancing with the band playing/singing.
ADULTS ONLY ACTIVITIES IN THE DAYTIME: We don't drink alcohol so were not interested in any of the wine, martini etc tastings. I was definitely disapointed with the variety of activities for adults. There was a scrapbooking meet on the second day but I was still feeling sick. Also I wondered if it might just be a sale of stuff that I didn't need. We did watch 2 movies though: The Proposal and Confessions of a Shopaholic and enjoyed both.
FOOD:
Breakfast: Topsiders: We came here twice I believe. Very clean, fresh food, good variety, no problems. Found seating inside once, and outside once. The only issue is that it is at the back of the boat, so there is a feeling of vibration which I don't like.
Parrot Cay: came here for breakfast once, no problems. Same food as in Topsiders. They always want you to share a table in here, even if the dining room is virtually empty. We said no thank you twice and it was no problem to be seated by ourselves.
Lumieres: had our last breakfast here. Table servce a la carte. No problems although I didn't get what I ordered. I was too tired to care. And I agree that our server was distracted that morning. The drink server was his usual self though.
Room service: continental conveniently delivered to your door. We did this on port days. You can pick a 30minute window for delivery. The only annoying thing was the 2nd morning we did this, we asked for 7-7:30. We had a wake up call set for 7am. At 6:45 room service called to say that our food would be there soon. ***!! My last 20 minutes of sleep were ruined and the food did not arrive til 7:20.
Lunch: Had a couple of lunches at Parrot Cay. No problems. Good variety and presentation. Was very disapointed in the crab claws though. I have never had these before but they do not taste anything like crab legs. Flavourless. The peel and eat shrimp was better then I'm used to at the buffets around here.
Dinner: Very good food although DH who is a picky eater had to have the plain chicken breast a couple of times because pretty much everything either comes with a sauce or with mushrooms. The food was good, no doubt about it but it was not the best cruise food I have had (a euro cruise line, now out of business). They seem to use vegetables more as decoration then anything else so usually had to ask for more. DH is most upset that there was NO chocolate cake on board, everything had mousse in it.
Quick service: Pinochio's Pizza: good but better from room service.
Plutos dog house: liked the hotdogs, chicken tenders and fries, everything looked good.
Gooffy's galley: nice variety of sandwiches however the paninis are exceedingly greasy as they use a ton of cooking spray. To be honest, I only had one because of this reason. The fruit and salad were lovely, especialy the raspberry vinegrette, yumm.
Room service: Ordered lots of pizza and cookies and mickey bars. Once, they brought us the completely wrong order and we had to wait another 30mins to get our food. Otherwise no problems. I had a turkey sandwich and it was really nice.
SERVICE IN THE DINING ROOM: The boards make the service out to be so AMAZING, I am not sure what I expected, maybe I thought that they would follow us back to the room and tuck us in or something. We were spoiled on our first cruise with truly fantastic service which was genuine, attentive and intuitive. This time I went with high expectiations. Our server tried very hard to please and asked several times if everything was excellent and to be honest, the service was fine. The only complaint that I would have is, if we were not sure that we would like the chosen dish, and told him that we might need something else, he didn't always check back to see if it was ok or not. One time, DH's dinner was covered in mushrooms and peppers even though we asked for it without and he just did not come back. The head server (manager type guy in white coat) came by on his rounds and he ended up fixing it for us. I guess I felt that the service was good but nothing special. But nothing specific where we could say, the service is not excellent because blah blah blah. On our previous cruise the waiter noticed that DH loved this certain kind of potato, so guess what, he got some everynight. And double portions of chocolate cake lol. On further discussion with DH, he did not 'click' with this server so that didn't help I'm sure. I found him to be very nice but just a bit socially awkward.
Our drinks server was very friendly and smiley and personable. My only issue is that he only ever asked me what I wanted to drink once. So I was served ginger ale every night even though I only wanted it the first night because I felt sick. I usually only drink water, so that is fine, there was always water. I asked for a coke on the last night and he looked at me funny like "but I made this ginger ale for you special" bless him. But it was no problem getting the coke.
I guess that I expected the servers to be a little more available to us. They only had 2 tables to serve yet they were hardly ever around. Not that I want them looking over my shoulder constantly when I eat there was just something lacking.
Palo: we had dinner here and had a very good meal. Not sure it was so good that it was worth the $15pp extra plus tip if I'm being honest. Obviously, it was worth $15 but we already had dinner for that night included if kwim. You also end up effectively tipping twice that night. We won't bother next time but will try and get in to brunch.
DISNEY VACATION CLUB: we are new members and booked this cruise on points. There are lots of people here on the DIS that think that is not a good use of points but we disagree as did most of the DVC members we spoke to onboard. There were 750 DVC people on board! Not all booked on points of course. There was a members meeting which I found really really boring but they had some good incentives for buying more points on board. They also gave away a bunch of stuff and raffled off some $ in onboard credit. There is a modest reduction in point requirements if you rebook a cruise 'while on board'. You actually have 3 days after you get home to book with the discount. Also of interest, we wanted to book a 2011 cruise but of course, the booking window is not open yet. The DVC people looked into it, and as long as I call in the first 3 days to state my intent, once the booking window is open in a week (or tomorrow for you gold and platinum people), I will have 7 days to book and still take advantage of the discount.
QUALITY OF FELLOW CRUISERS: I have never been on a vacation where everybody you came across was so friendly! Of course there were a couple of instances of blatant rudeness but by and large everyone was lovely. You could not get on an elevator without someone asking you how your day was. We were seated with 2 other couples without children at dinner and we all got along just fine.
PORTS: St Thomas. We took the ferry and taxis to St John to snorkel in Trunk Bay. The taxi fares are regulated here so no haggling. Disney had the exact same excursion for $65pp. We saved about $20pp to do it on our own but I had my own snorkel gear so didn't have to bear that cost. We also got to spend more time there. We got there about 30mins before DCL and left 1-2 hours later. Totally worth it for us. The snorkelling was absolutely wonderful. Perfectly calm, warm water. Very vibrant sea life. The beach did not feel crowded at all. Most of the people there were on the DCL tour, there were some people that were holidaying on St John or St Thomas. The beach is long but not wide. There was shade or sun available. This is in a national park so there are showers and toilets and souvenirs and presumeably food but we brought snacks with us. Not super comfortable chairs available to rent for $7 each plus a $25 deposit. Better than laying on the sand though and btw not included in the DCL excursion. The beach is life guarded.
Tortola: took a taxi to Brewer's Bay to snorkel. We paid $12 each for the 2 of us, each way. There was a family of 10 there who paid $7 each for a total of $70 each way. Decide for yourself who got the best deal. Try to haggle with the driver if you are up to it. We could not be bothered. There is a bar/restaurant there. Lounge chairs are $5 each to rent. Did not use the bathroom but hear that it is pretty rough. Very nice snorkelling, not quite as nice as trunk bay for amount and variety of sea life. You had to go pretty far out to get to the nicer part of the reef so be aware that it is very easy on the way out, just floating and drifting. On the way back, you will actually have to swim. It gets tiring so know your limits and consider some sort of flotation device. There is no lifeguard on this beach. Once again, we were the only cruise ship in port so the beach was vurtually deserted. Probably about 10 families, and all from the cruise.
Castaway Cay: Went to the adults only beach. Beautiful, calm water, very very clear. It stays shallow for ages. I went out up to my shoulders and DH was just a distant speck on the beach. I had heard that it is really rocky and shelly here but I did not find it to be so. I didn't bother bringing the snorkelling gear but actually there was alot more sea life then I expected. Several fish although only probably 4 or 5 different kinds. One type in particular was very interested in my pink toe nail polish. There was one area where some metal structure had been deposited presumeably to encourage sea life and nature was definitely beginning to take hold. There were lots more fish here and even a spikey sea urchin which is a sign of a healthy reef apparently. They water was waist deep here but clear enough that no one should step on this stuff inadvertantly. There were lots of sea shells here. I found a couple of living sand dollars. My pals told me that if I had gone out just a bit deeper, that I would have seen a ton of starfish, darn. Oh well, next time.
The BBQ was only open 'til 2pm which is too early imho. The food was just ok. The potatoes in the potato salad were not cooked all the way through for instance and the steak and ribs were a really cheap cut. But there are hot dogs and hamburgers. There was no fish available when we went up but the chef said that food is brought over from the shop periodically so you never know what will be there. A lady brought cups of ice water to the people waiting in line which was nice as it was boiling hot.
The trams were frequent and you can wait for them in the shade. There was no way that I would want to walk all that way in the heat. In true Disney style, you cannot take the tram directly from the ship to Serenity bay, you are forced to walk through the gift shops lol.
MOTION SICKNESS: I have cruised twice before so I knew that I would have a hard time with this. However, I also prefer not to take medicine. My first cruise I broke down and took some, on the 2nd I forgot it at home and had to suffer. This time, I can armed with a boat load of ginger capsules, sea bands (for acupresure) and a homeopathic remedy called cocculyne. The first day I was cursing my husband for bringing me on another cruise. The first two days I would say that my baseline was uncomfortable with short periods of feeling absolutely ghastly. By day 3 I had variable periods of feeling uncomfortable and by day 4 the sea bands were off, homeopathics and ginger not needed. What helps me the most is distraction. During the shows in Rockin Bar D I felt the best because I was so busy laughing that I did not notice how crappy I felt. The next best thing for me is water therapy. Sitting in the pool or hot tub is the best place to be as the swishing of the water helps your inner ear figure out WTH is going on with your body. The worst was the cinema, topsiders and Palo. TS and Palo because they are at the back and you feel vibrations there. Ugh.
PERSPECTIVE FROM A 'NON DISNEY' PERSON. Flame suit on, but I have no special feelings for Disney. To me, it is a brand, a company, like any other out to make money for its shareholders. Now, their way of making money by making people happy is wonderful. I guess I am trying to say that I went to DCL despite of the characters, not because of them. We chose DCL because they are a reputeable, reliable company that you can count on for excellent, reliable service. There were lots of characters around but it was easy to ignore them. We did not attend any of the disney themed shows. We did not attend the sail away party and found the pirate party to be very very lame. Not that the entertainers were not doing a cracking job, I just have no interest in watching teenagers sing and dance on stage, let alone a bunch of cuddly characters. But one must wait patiently because this will end with a great fireworks display. There was a couple behind us who found the show very entertaining and apparently hilarious, so I am fully aware that not everyone shares my opinions. I thought that the show at AP was silly with all the servers following Mickey around the dining room but it would be great for the kids and I can put up with it for a few minutes in order to get the other benefits that DCL affords. So long story short, it is easy to ignore the 'disney stuff' if you want. It's not so annoying that it should negatively impact your cruise in any way shape or form.
TO SUM UP: If you made it this far, we had a great time. We rebooked for a western in the winter. We booked on DVC points, I don't think that I would pay cash money for this cruise. It is too expensive and don't think that it is $1000 (or whatever) better than other cruise lines out there. Obviously many people disagree as DCL is doing a booming trade.
Please feel free to ask questions if you wish. Happy cruising!
