February 11, 2012 Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Magic***

[Paxton's Mom]

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to say that my family and I will be joining all of you on what I'm sure will be a great cruise. It is me (Dawn), DH, DD12 and grandma.

We've done a few Disney cruises now. We started out with a 4-day about 5 years ago and the family loved it so much we had to re-book a 7-day Western while still onboard. We did that over Valentine's Day two years ago and were lucky enough to be offered a 3-day "bounce back cruise" (AKA basically free) that we did in November that same year. We've had a dummy reservation for a 7-day eastern ever since we were on the Western cruise but the weeks have never lined up with my school vacations until now. (I work in a school.) Here's a big shout out to my school principal that suddenly decided to make a change to next year's calendar....I quickly sent it out to all of the parents so now it is set in stone!

 

[dceks cruisers]

@Paxton's Mom...were you on the Valentine Voyageur's cruise??? We were on that one and got the BB, which we did in Dec. with a few other's from the VV cruise.

I forgot to mention that we are from the Twin Cities too!

 

[Paxton's Mom]

@Paxton's Mom...were you on the Valentine Voyageur's cruise??? We were on that one and got the BB, which we did in Dec. with a few other's from the VV cruise.

I forgot to mention that we are from the Twin Cities too!

Yes, we were on that cruise. Small world huh? Maybe we can steal the name and use it again!

 

[Rebecky]

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to say that my family and I will be joining all of you on what I'm sure will be a great cruise. It is me (Dawn), DH, DD12 and grandma.

We've done a few Disney cruises now. We started out with a 4-day about 5 years ago and the family loved it so much we had to re-book a 7-day Western while still onboard. We did that over Valentine's Day two years ago and were lucky enough to be offered a 3-day "bounce back cruise" (AKA basically free) that we did in November that same year. We've had a dummy reservation for a 7-day eastern ever since we were on the Western cruise but the weeks have never lined up with my school vacations until now. (I work in a school.) Here's a big shout out to my school principal that suddenly decided to make a change to next year's calendar....I quickly sent it out to all of the parents so now it is set in stone!

I'm getting so excited! We booked our condo for before the cruise and I think we got a fantastic deal! We are going for 3 nights before and booked a 3 bedroom 2 bath for $60 a night that is only 3 miles from Disney!

 

[KansasScrapper]

I'm getting so excited! We booked our condo for before the cruise and I think we got a fantastic deal! We are going for 3 nights before and booked a 3 bedroom 2 bath for $60 a night that is only 3 miles from Disney!

Can anyone book them or do you have to be part owner???

 

[youalleverybody]

Wendy, sorry it's taken so long...I have not visited this thread for a while.
We are close, probably. We live on a few acres between Lawrence and Baldwin City.

We are planning to go down a few days early and spend time at WDW. Anyone else? LIke someone said, we couldn't stand to be that close and not visit.

Those of you who have cruised before, do you usually plan a meet for the DIS folks?

 

[Rebecky]

Wendy,
Anyone can book as we are not members. We are staying at the Villas of Somerset. I found the condo through the VRBO.com website.

Becky

 

[Disney1430]

Yay!! We just got off the Magic this morning. Drove home and have been resting on my couch since 10:00.

Thrilled to share that we booking this cruise on board! So excited to be BACK on the Magic in 363 days. We had the Western Itinerary and it was amazing, can't wait to do Eastern next.

Our FE exchange was small, but nice because it was easy to manage. Look forward to participating on this one also!!

We are the Valentine's Day Cruisers , wonder how quickly Palo will book for that night I will be online as soon as it opens for us!

Cruising with my DH and our DD (5 at sail time) and DS (almost 2 at sail time).

HI
We took the Valentine's Day Cruise on the Dream (2/13/11). I tried to book Palo's on day after the online opened and it was completely booked for that day, and only a few times opened for the other days. I was allowed to book out 90 days in advance (This time I get 105 ). It was also the 3 day cruise so that could of factor into it too.

GOOD NEWS:

My husband put us on the waiting list when we arrived and we were able to get in for Valentines day

I do have to say though I enjoyed the Palo's Brunch even more then the Dinner. So we will most likly be booking that this time around.

 

[blessedmomofboys]

Hi Everyone! Haven't been on here in a while. I finally convinced DH to keep our booking for this cruise. We looked at the itineraries that were released for sailing out of Galveston (we are in Texas) but the base price was almost twice as much as this cruise. Thought we could possibly save money on flights but nope!! lol My dad and step mom have decided to come with us too! So excited!!!!

My last dis group did meet the first day...which I totally forgot to go to! We got too busy trying to make ressies for Palo and exploring the ship. My last dis group also had a Facebook group page which was great for keeping in touch with everyone. I definitely felt like I got to know them better through that then the dis boards. Maybe b/c I always check FB on my phone??

Valentines was booked at Palo when our booking window opened up. It wasn't too big of a deal for me. We still got in for another night which was fine. We also did high tea and brunch. I won't do high tea again but definitely want to do dinner and brunch. It was sooo yummy!!!

Only 34 weeks, 5 days till the real fun starts!!!!!!

 

[BP0608]

Just wanted to say Hi! My family and I will also be joining all of you for this cruise.

DH and I took the Magic on an Eastern for our honeymoon 6 years ago, and we took the kids on the Dream in last month, everyone is looking forward to this cruise.

Quick question, some have posted of 'turning things in' to be signed, who would I turn something into?

Thanks!

 

[Tigger1313]

Just wanted to say Hi! My family and I will also be joining all of you for this cruise.

DH and I took the Magic on an Eastern for our honeymoon 6 years ago, and we took the kids on the Dream in last month, everyone is looking forward to this cruise.

Quick question, some have posted of 'turning things in' to be signed, who would I turn something into?

Thanks!

Welcome aboard. You give your "stuff" to be signed to guest services, its best to put it in a bag with markers.

 

[mom3girls2000]

Hi, everyone, I hope I'm doing this right .

We are embarking on this trip using our DVC points, my first cruise ever. Hubby was on one cruise as a teenager (obviously not a Disney cruise lol).

I'll be 52 (yuk ) & he'll be 51 on the cruise.

We went to DW for our honeymoon in 1984, and then not until 2007 when we took our 3 daughters (who were 21, 20 and 15) and the oldest's boyfriend (who was 20). Since 2007, we've been to DW around 10 times (more if you count single-day visits). Most of our trips have been kidless, a few were with just our youngest who's still at home. One memorable trip was with her and her best-friend-from-high-school last Christmastime. And the other most memorable trip was when we took the 3 girls this past March, for a day-trip to the MK .

I just now explained FE's to dh and he laughed and said it sounds like fun. We’re both excited about the FE exchange J! Do I have to sign us up somewhere? How or when do we find out 1, our stateroom number, and 2, all the other DISboard FE exchangers’ room numbers? Or do we just roam the corridors looking for FE’s? I went onto our reservation online and found out that we are STAN Deck 2 (does that mean *standard*?), but nothing about a room number.

I also am in the process of creating some Valentine's Day decorations, both for the door (I know, magnetic only), for the interior of the room, and for t-shirts.

Idk if it's the same for non DVC-ers, but I have to wait until November 28th to book any activities.

I'm also a little anxious because I am a woman of size, and Idk which activities would be too difficult for me. I plan to take my mobility scooter (which I only use at DW parks) for on-board, but Idk if off-ship activities are scooter-friendly.

We haven’t decided if we’re going to do DW combined with the cruise, and if we do whether we’d do DW pre-cruise or post-cruise. I know we won’t be able to take advantage of Disney transportation to get between the resort and the ship because we’re driving up from the Tampa area and I’ve been told that we can’t leave our car on DW property to go cruise. And if we were to perhaps drive to the cruise ship and they let us take the Disney bus to DW post-cruise, we’d still have to go back after our DW stay for the car! So yeah, I’m a little bummed about missing out on that experience.

I saw on some other boards about buying things like a resin model of the ship, a birthday decorations package, a cake, etc. Where can I find more info on these things? Some acquaintances of ours were on a non-Disney cruise and they were able to buy a themed scrapbook on board, does DCL sell those? I wonder how much that would cost? Similar to the scrapbook items in the parks, I imagine. And they also had "official" cruise-line photos of their family, does DCL do that? Is it like the PhotoPass in the parks?

I have one more Q - what’s a “Disney Box with things we are going to get signed”? (copied from another poster)

 

[sdjen]

Just wanted to say Hi! My family and I will also be joining all of you for this cruise.

DH and I took the Magic on an Eastern for our honeymoon 6 years ago, and we took the kids on the Dream in last month, everyone is looking forward to this cruise.

Quick question, some have posted of 'turning things in' to be signed, who would I turn something into?

Thanks!

I have only taken one Disney cruise but here is what we did. I got a photo mat and put it in a bag with some darker colored markers. I left out the light ones because I figured they would not show up as much. When you drop them off at guest services, they give you a little slip to fill out with your room number, name etc... you can choose to have all chararcters sign or just choose princesses, fab five etc....

I also found someone online to embroidered a pillowcase with my daughters name and a birthday saying (we were sailing over her birthday). i turned that in with some fabric markers and it turned out super cute!!

 

[sdjen]

Sorry i havent been on much lately. I have been traveling a lot for work and havent been good about checking in. Just think, in only 8 months we will be sailing on the Magic!!

Has anyone decided what excursions they are going to try to book? I have been daydreaming and trying to get them at least narrowed down

I know one for sure will be the stingrays at Castaway Cay. We had that booked on our last cruise but missed it because we were late to dock that morning.

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Jen

 

[blessedmomofboys]

Sorry i havent been on much lately. I have been traveling a lot for work and havent been good about checking in. Just think, in only 8 months we will be sailing on the Magic!!

Has anyone decided what excursions they are going to try to book? I have been daydreaming and trying to get them at least narrowed down

I know one for sure will be the stingrays at Castaway Cay. We had that booked on our last cruise but missed it because we were late to dock that morning.

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Jen

I was just looking at the excursions this morning. I don't think we are going to do any through Disney. Last cruise we went to Le Gallion beach in St. Maarten on our own and it was a perfect day and perfect beach with kids. We took a taxi and the taxi picked us back up a few hours later.

We went to Coral World in St. Thomas and did the sky ride all on our own but I don't think we will do either this time. Coral World was a waste of time and money in my opinion. Maybe we've been spoiled by Sea World too many times but we were very disappointed. The sky ride was fun but my kids were so tired and hot that none of us really enjoyed it that much.

We did do the Stingray adventure in Castaway Cay and LOVED it!!! I would book a later time though because our cruise was late that morning too and the earlier times were cancelled.

This trip I'm planning on going to Le Gallion beach again, taking a water taxi over to St. Thomas and spending the day on the beach there and just hanging out on the beach on Castaway Cay. Ahhhhh....I can't wait!!!

 

[blessedmomofboys]

My dad called me this afternoon to let me know him and his wife are going to pay for a cabana on Castaway Cay! Hopefully, we can get one when our booking date becomes available!!! That would seriously make our day that much better!!!!

 

[youalleverybody]

Blessedmom,
Did you prearrange for the taxi, or are there plenty at the port just waiting for cruise passengers?

We have five kids, so we would need a van of some sort.

 

[blessedmomofboys]

Blessedmom,
Did you prearrange for the taxi, or are there plenty at the port just waiting for cruise passengers?

We have five kids, so we would need a van of some sort.

They have a taxi stand right when you get off the ship. They had it broken down in sections for different locations. The taxis in st Maarten are vans so they load quite of few people in each one. Our driver dropped us off at the beach at 10 and we agreed as a group that 2 would be a good pick up time. The same driver came back around 1:30 and waited for all of us to get packed up and on. The beach we went to wasn't busy and taxis didn't come by so it worked out well. We were nervous about taking taxis but it was very easy.

 

[cherokeemamma]

Good Morning!
Thanks for the info in regard to the excursions. This will be our first cruise so I feel anxious/excited about all of the excursions. They seem very pricey to me and I love the idea of using local vendors but it makes me nervous. I guess I am fearful of getting ripped off.
My family loves the idea of spending the day relaxing on a beach. I am curious if you take snacks/sandwiches with you or do you purchase food beach side somewhere? How far away from port is the beach? Also, what was the cost of a taxi?
Thanks and sorry for asking so many questions....

TTFN
Darlene

 

[blessedmomofboys]

From my experience most of the people that work on the island don't want to rip you off. They really depend on tourism in order to live. I'm sure there are some that are there to rip you off and you do have to be cautious but for the most part everyone seemed like nice people. Their taxis are government regulated across both the French side and the Dutch side. Here is a link that has their rates: http://www.taxistmaarten.com/en/taxi-zones-rates.html.

We went to Le Galion Beach which was PERFECT. It is super calm water and very shallow and the shallow part goes pretty far out. There weren't a lot of people there either and we only saw 1 topless lady. (I think Orient Beach has a lot more topless) There is a little shak that has a menu to order from and have cold drinks. We rented 2 chairs and umbrella for I believe around $15-20. http://www.sxm-orientbeach.com/chezpat/

I will go through my pictures and see if I can figure out how to post a few. I know I took some of the taxi stand and etc.