alyssanickhoov
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2003
- Messages
- 6
We sailed on the February 8th Eastern cruise on the Magic with DD 4, DS 3, DH 34 and DW 32. This was our first cruise and the first time we have used our DVC points for a trip since we joined in Feb 2002. We had an incredible time and are looking forward to cruising again on the Western side in 2006. Below are some of the comments we have on various portions of our trip:
Stateroom:
We were in an outside stateroom with a veranda (6042) which had a queen size bed, a sofa that converted to a twin and a pull down bed in the ceiling. The veranda came in very handy as we spent many hours sitting outside enjoying the views while the kids played with their toys or bubbles we brought with us. My only complaint about the room was the TV is in the part of the room where the sofa/ceiling beds are located so we could not watch it when the kids went down to sleep.
Definitely order a wake-up call and answer the phone using the speaker phone as Captain Mickey is the one on the line calling.
Dining:
Our dining rotation was APLAPLA. Our server was Pairoj who was great with the kids and the assistant server was Rodger, who started out a little slow but got better as the week went on. Do not miss the first night of Animators Pallete for the changing of the pictures and the wait staff! We made reservations for Palo on the second night we were scheduled for Parrots Cay since we heard it was probably the one you would want to skip. Unfortunately, PC was our favorite meal and we could have skipped one of the additional trips to AP. Overall I would rate the food in the dining room as very good for the adults and the menu selection for the kids was excellent. For the little ones, they could select the standards every night of chicken tenders, hot dog, PB&J sandwich or mac and cheese and then they usually had two other entrees that changed each night.
The food at Palo was average. If you go, I and I think you should try it so you can get the full Disney cruise experience, stick to the pastas. We had the lasagna as an appetizer and it was the best part of our meal. I had the filet in the wine sauce and thought the filet I had at Lumiere's in the dining room earler in the week was much better. My DW had the chicken and she thought it was OK.
For breakfast we mostly ate at topsiders for the buffet since it has everything for both the parents and kids. One morning you will be assigned for the character breakfast. I highly recommend you attend as the kids enjoyed seeing the characters. EVERY character made it to our table for pictures so we were quite pleased.
For lunch we ate at Plutos Dog House and Pinnochios Pizzaria. The hot dogs were excellent and the pizzza was surprisingly good as well.
We brought our own bottle of wine to the dining room and were not charged a cork fee.
Excusions:
We decided to skip the excursions offered by Disney and venture out on our own. It turned out to be much cheaper and from what I heard from other passengers we had much more fun.
On St Maarten we took a cab to the French side of the island to Grand Case Beach ($24). My DW did some research and read it was a good beach for kids because the waves were small and it was secluded. Well, the waves were small but there was a big dropoff about 10 feet into the water so the kids could not venture out very far and it was very secluded: we were the only people on the beach. That could have been due to the fact that it was cloudy and misty most of the morning and then a big rain shower came through at about noon. We found a cab and headed back towards the boat and by the time we arrived the clouds broke and the temp started rising so we took the water taxi to the Bay Beach. The kids were happy here and we probably should have just gone there from the beginning since we had such an enjoyable afternoon in the sun.
On St. Thomas we took a cab to Magens Bay ($18). This beach was rated one of the top 10 in the world and we could understand why. The view is beautiful, the water is clear and clean and the kids could venture out quite far before it got too deep. We ended up leaving after lunch and it appeared to be getting quite crowded but in the morning it was very serene and quiet.
The night before we ventured out on both St. Maarten and St. Thomas we ordered PBJ sandwiches from room service and packed them in the ziplock bags we brought with us so we did not have to worry about eating while on shore. However, if you really have a need to fulfill that fast food fix, there is a Burger King in St Maarten a short distance from where the water taxi drops you off downtown!(Important to know if you have little ones)
On Castaway Cay we layed on the beach all day and enjoyed the sun. We rented an intertube to float in and it was $6 per day. The water was COLD but the air temp was nice. If you want to get a hammock next to your beach chairs you need to get there early.
Oceaneers Club:
This was the best part of the cruise for the kids, duh! They have activities going from 9am to midnight every day and they will even take your kids to lunch and dinner if you want them to. We let our kids spend about half their time at the club and they always ate lunch and dinner with us since they are such picky eaters. Some of the activities they went to included Lilo & Stitch's Aloha Lua (Mickey showed up and danced with the kids), Hats off to Peter Pan, Mousketeers in Training, Ariels Bubble Adventure, Pumbaa's PJ Party (They sang Goofy to sleep!), Do Si Do with Snow White, Welcome to Wonderland and the grand finale, Discover the Magic. At the grand finale, the kids went on stage in the Walt Disney Theatre and danced to Disney music while they played a slide show of the kids from the club. Mickey Mouse came on stage and danced at the end and it was a very cute show.
I would highly recommend you take advantage of some time alone and let your kids enjoy the club. They are only a page away. One afternoon me and the DW sat in the ESPN Skybox watching a tractor pull show, drinking beer and eating chips and salsa. Not one of our favorite things to do but with no kids to supervise, it seemed so perfect!
What to do On Board:
We participated in the wine tasting, golf chipping contest, Disneys Art of Entertaining series. We went to as many character greetings as we could so we could get the kids to see all of the characters on board. My DW and DD saw Morty and Magician and thought it was good. I took my DD to see Hercules the Muse ical and it was excellent for the kids. We saw Disney Dreams twice because it was so good and it was the kids favorite. We spend time in the ESPN Skybox. If you drink beer and plan on having more than 8 glasses (I did the math), you must purchase the ESPN souvenir mug. It is a 20oz mug and they charge 9.99 to buy the glass and charge you the same amount as the 16oz glass for refills. The best part is you can get it refilled at any bars and even in the dining rooms!
I highly recommend the dueling piano show for both the family version and the adult version. During the family show they play songs like the Hokey Pokey and the theme from Spnogebob Squarepants and they have kids joke's as well. My DS who turned 3 on the first day of the cruise even got up to tell his joke! If you go for the adult show, Fidelio and Jeff are awesome! Give Fidelio some love ($$$$) and request he play Flush the Magic Toilet. It is very relevant to the toilets on the DCL.
That's about all my mind can purge at this time. If you need any advice or have questions do not hesitate to ask
Stateroom:
We were in an outside stateroom with a veranda (6042) which had a queen size bed, a sofa that converted to a twin and a pull down bed in the ceiling. The veranda came in very handy as we spent many hours sitting outside enjoying the views while the kids played with their toys or bubbles we brought with us. My only complaint about the room was the TV is in the part of the room where the sofa/ceiling beds are located so we could not watch it when the kids went down to sleep.
Definitely order a wake-up call and answer the phone using the speaker phone as Captain Mickey is the one on the line calling.
Dining:
Our dining rotation was APLAPLA. Our server was Pairoj who was great with the kids and the assistant server was Rodger, who started out a little slow but got better as the week went on. Do not miss the first night of Animators Pallete for the changing of the pictures and the wait staff! We made reservations for Palo on the second night we were scheduled for Parrots Cay since we heard it was probably the one you would want to skip. Unfortunately, PC was our favorite meal and we could have skipped one of the additional trips to AP. Overall I would rate the food in the dining room as very good for the adults and the menu selection for the kids was excellent. For the little ones, they could select the standards every night of chicken tenders, hot dog, PB&J sandwich or mac and cheese and then they usually had two other entrees that changed each night.
The food at Palo was average. If you go, I and I think you should try it so you can get the full Disney cruise experience, stick to the pastas. We had the lasagna as an appetizer and it was the best part of our meal. I had the filet in the wine sauce and thought the filet I had at Lumiere's in the dining room earler in the week was much better. My DW had the chicken and she thought it was OK.
For breakfast we mostly ate at topsiders for the buffet since it has everything for both the parents and kids. One morning you will be assigned for the character breakfast. I highly recommend you attend as the kids enjoyed seeing the characters. EVERY character made it to our table for pictures so we were quite pleased.
For lunch we ate at Plutos Dog House and Pinnochios Pizzaria. The hot dogs were excellent and the pizzza was surprisingly good as well.
We brought our own bottle of wine to the dining room and were not charged a cork fee.
Excusions:
We decided to skip the excursions offered by Disney and venture out on our own. It turned out to be much cheaper and from what I heard from other passengers we had much more fun.
On St Maarten we took a cab to the French side of the island to Grand Case Beach ($24). My DW did some research and read it was a good beach for kids because the waves were small and it was secluded. Well, the waves were small but there was a big dropoff about 10 feet into the water so the kids could not venture out very far and it was very secluded: we were the only people on the beach. That could have been due to the fact that it was cloudy and misty most of the morning and then a big rain shower came through at about noon. We found a cab and headed back towards the boat and by the time we arrived the clouds broke and the temp started rising so we took the water taxi to the Bay Beach. The kids were happy here and we probably should have just gone there from the beginning since we had such an enjoyable afternoon in the sun.
On St. Thomas we took a cab to Magens Bay ($18). This beach was rated one of the top 10 in the world and we could understand why. The view is beautiful, the water is clear and clean and the kids could venture out quite far before it got too deep. We ended up leaving after lunch and it appeared to be getting quite crowded but in the morning it was very serene and quiet.
The night before we ventured out on both St. Maarten and St. Thomas we ordered PBJ sandwiches from room service and packed them in the ziplock bags we brought with us so we did not have to worry about eating while on shore. However, if you really have a need to fulfill that fast food fix, there is a Burger King in St Maarten a short distance from where the water taxi drops you off downtown!(Important to know if you have little ones)
On Castaway Cay we layed on the beach all day and enjoyed the sun. We rented an intertube to float in and it was $6 per day. The water was COLD but the air temp was nice. If you want to get a hammock next to your beach chairs you need to get there early.
Oceaneers Club:
This was the best part of the cruise for the kids, duh! They have activities going from 9am to midnight every day and they will even take your kids to lunch and dinner if you want them to. We let our kids spend about half their time at the club and they always ate lunch and dinner with us since they are such picky eaters. Some of the activities they went to included Lilo & Stitch's Aloha Lua (Mickey showed up and danced with the kids), Hats off to Peter Pan, Mousketeers in Training, Ariels Bubble Adventure, Pumbaa's PJ Party (They sang Goofy to sleep!), Do Si Do with Snow White, Welcome to Wonderland and the grand finale, Discover the Magic. At the grand finale, the kids went on stage in the Walt Disney Theatre and danced to Disney music while they played a slide show of the kids from the club. Mickey Mouse came on stage and danced at the end and it was a very cute show.
I would highly recommend you take advantage of some time alone and let your kids enjoy the club. They are only a page away. One afternoon me and the DW sat in the ESPN Skybox watching a tractor pull show, drinking beer and eating chips and salsa. Not one of our favorite things to do but with no kids to supervise, it seemed so perfect!
What to do On Board:
We participated in the wine tasting, golf chipping contest, Disneys Art of Entertaining series. We went to as many character greetings as we could so we could get the kids to see all of the characters on board. My DW and DD saw Morty and Magician and thought it was good. I took my DD to see Hercules the Muse ical and it was excellent for the kids. We saw Disney Dreams twice because it was so good and it was the kids favorite. We spend time in the ESPN Skybox. If you drink beer and plan on having more than 8 glasses (I did the math), you must purchase the ESPN souvenir mug. It is a 20oz mug and they charge 9.99 to buy the glass and charge you the same amount as the 16oz glass for refills. The best part is you can get it refilled at any bars and even in the dining rooms!
I highly recommend the dueling piano show for both the family version and the adult version. During the family show they play songs like the Hokey Pokey and the theme from Spnogebob Squarepants and they have kids joke's as well. My DS who turned 3 on the first day of the cruise even got up to tell his joke! If you go for the adult show, Fidelio and Jeff are awesome! Give Fidelio some love ($$$$) and request he play Flush the Magic Toilet. It is very relevant to the toilets on the DCL.
That's about all my mind can purge at this time. If you need any advice or have questions do not hesitate to ask
