SuAnne
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 9, 1999
- Messages
- 415
Hi Everyone,
Hope you enjoy reading highlights of our Magic cruise, Dec. 14-21. We had a great time!
Cruisers:
My Mom (65)
DD (9)
Myself (SuAnne)
Our Cruise:
Dec. 14 Disney Magic (Eastern). We had originally booked directly through DCL following our cruise in Dec. 2002 and later transferred over to Dreams. A big thanks to Donna and Cathy for all their help!
Transportation:
We arranged for our own Air and travelled on Air Canada using my Aeroplan points, which I had to book about a year in advance. Great flights both there and back. Going down we had to pre-clear U.S. customs in Toronto. Lucky me, I was selected to have one of my checked bags searched and it was the one with all my wine and Christmas decorations stashed in it. No problem with the wine, but the customs agent was most interested in my 12 inch artificial fibre optic Christmas tree and whether it was real or not!!
We used Yourride and for our transportation in Orlando and to the ship and their service was wonderful. We stayed at Universal and WDW for 5 days prior to our cruise and used Rabbit to take us to from MCO to Universal, from Universal to WDW, WDW to the port and then from the port back to MCO. Rabbit was very courteous and the service was prompt and it sure made getting to each of our destinations a breeze. I would highly recommend Rabbit and Yourride.
Embarkation:
We arrived at the Port at around 10:45. No lines to check in and we were approx. the third family in line to board, but the line seemed to grow very quickly from about 11:00 a.m. on. Boarding started at around 11:45 and we were announced as we boarded with Mickey waving to everyone from the atrium balcony.
Our first stop was up to Topsiders for some lunch and we stopped to buy a drink sticker along the way. They were not using refillable mugs for this cruise. For lunch we had some of those yummy jumbo shrimp and other selections from the buffet. My DD had her first of MANY slices of Pizza from Pinocchio's. All food from the buffet was served by Cast Members and they were also handing out wipes along with your trays. I actually quite liked the fact they served you. It seemed to make the lines go quicker, and seems much more sanitary than having people grabbing at everything on the buffet themselves.
After a quick lunch, I headed off to make reservations for brunch at Palos at around 12:15. There was no one else even there so I had my choice of times. I made our reservations for our day at sea on Thursday. As it turns out though, we ended up cancelling as we preferred having our meals with the entire family.
After Palos, I slipped into Sessions see about our table assignment. Since the ship was not full I wanted to see if we could possibly have our own table. Not a problem, and there were actually quite a few empty tables at our rotation.
Last stop was to register DD for the Lab. Again ,I was the first one there and had everything taken care of within minutes. The counsellor remarked how quiet it was that day.
By now it was getting close to 1:00 so we went by our room to see if it was ready. Our stateroom host was still finishing up the rooms so we just dropped off our things and set off to explore a bit until the Safety Drill.
The Safety Drill was very quick and painless and our station was in Animator's Palate this time which was much nicer than being crowded on the deck outside.
Our luggage arrived throughout the afternoon with our last bag arriving about 5:00 which was not a problem as we had late dinner. During the afternoon our Castaway Club towel was delivered along with confirmation of our shipboard credits from our Castaway Club booking and from Dreams. We also had a lovely goody tray and a bottle of sparkling cider in our room from Dreams!
Sailaway Party:
You think of warm Florida sunshine as you sail away to your week in the sun ,right? Well, it was not to be. It was cold, cloudy and windy but that didn't stop the festivities with the characters singing and dancing . Those Sailaway Strawberry Margarita/ Pina Colada special drinks were just the thing to take the chill out of the air! After we pulled away from the terminal we went up to the front of the ship as we sailed out the channel. Much to our delight there was a pod of dolphins jumping out of the water alongside of the ship just as we were coming out of the channel into the ocean. What a sight and we knew then our week would be truly magical!
Stateroom:
Our stateroom was 7620. A Category 7 which was one of the rooms which was recently reclassified from a Cat.5 since it was considered to be "obstructed". What a deal that room was!! It was a regular veranda with a curve in the top portion of the veranda which slightly obstructs the view. We had a regular veranda room on our previous cruise and the obstruction was barely noticeable. In fact the with the curve the way it was, it provided some shelter from the wind when you were sitting out there on the days at sea. We just pulled the chairs over to that side of the veranda and it was nice and sheltered with a perfect view of the ocean in front of us as we sailed along. There are photos of the veranda in the link I have attached at the bottom of my report.
The location was great. The room was aft and very close to the aft stairs to Topsiders and Scoops as well as that lovely Deck 7 deck at the back of the ship. We would most definitely book this room again on another cruise.
Our room host was Nick who was wonderful. Very polite and friendly and our room was always spotless and we had adorable towel animals when we returned every evening.
The room was fairly quiet , but we seemed to have a family above us that stomped around like a herd of elephants from time to time , and the couple in the room beside us had a rip-roaring fight the last night of the cruise to which we were privy to every word until the woman slammed the door and left.
We also had smokers on both sides of us this time and the smoke was quite noticeable from both directions if they were smoking and we were out on our veranda. Not enough to drive us away, but noticeable all the same. More on my smoking observations at the end of my report.
Dining/Food:
Our dinner rotation was ALP with late seating. It worked out to be a very good rotation as it put us in Lumiere's for our last formal night ,which was lovely. We also enjoyed late seating very much. We never felt rushed during the day and it allowed us to catch the entertainment before we had dinner. Since we aren't late night people it worked out nice that we could see the shows, have dinner, have some quite time ,then go to bed. With the way my daughter ate through the day (a constant diet of pizza and ice cream) she was never too hungry by dinner time.
Our servers were excellent. They treated us like royalty and were always very professional and knowledgeable. Pirem would entertain my DD with tricks with crayons and would make sure he brought her a Caesar salad very night ( her favourite) and our assistant server would also bring her a Shirley Temple very night with her meal without DD even having to ask.
The meals were very good and I found everything to be well prepared and presented. Not being huge eaters, we found the portions to be just right. We felt bad if we were full and didn't finish everything on our plates as our servers were so concerned that we didn?t like our meal. Our evening meals were one of the highlights of our day!
As I mentioned, we did not do Palos this trip. With it just being the three of us we wanted to have our meals together.
There was always lots to eat through the day with the breakfast and lunch buffets at Topsiders and the snacks at Pluto's and Pinocchio's ... not to mention the ice cream at Scoops! They sure knew DD by the end of the week.
We also ate a couple of lunches at Lumiere's during the week. The food was excellent and just the right portions for lunch. A nice alternative to the buffets as I am not much of a buffet person.
Most people dressed very nicely for dinner all nights of the cruise. The dress was much less formal on the 4 day Wonder cruise.
Christmas Activities:
The ship was very festive for the holidays. The characters were out and about in their holiday attire. The atrium was beautifully decorated with a huge tree, garland on the staircases and big wreaths. There was even a Christmas tree outside on the top of the ship.
There was a tree lighting ceremony on Monday night with carolling , as well as Mrs. Claus reading Christmas stories in the atrium one night. They also had Christmas music playing throughout the atrium and halls on the ship 24 hours a day. I wish they had it playing on the Report From the Bridge TV station so that we could have listened to it while we were in our room!
We signed up for the gingerbread house making on our day at sea on Monday . It was lots of fun. Each family was given a gingerbread house to decorate and then you can take it back to your stateroom. Unfortunately, ours caved in on one side shortly after we got it back to our room so it was pretty sad looking!
We brought some decorations to put up in our room. Some bows for the veranda, a 12 inch fibre optic tree for the room, a small string of Christmas lights which we hung around the mirror over the desk. We also hung a large Christmas tree decoration on our veranda door.
Ports:
St Maarten:
We did not do any excursions here, and planned to do some shopping and then go to Great Bay Beach to do some swimming.
The shopping was very good in St. Maarten. Much more reasonable than St. Thomas. I bought a 750ml. bottle of Grand Marnier for $12.99 U.S. ($21.00 CDN). I priced it here when I came home and it was $42.00 CDN!! I also bought some cute sun dresses for DD.. two for $10.00 and a two piece skirt/tube top for her for $6.00. I also splurged and bought myself a diamond cluster ring and a gold bracelet for $250.00. I bought it at a shop that was recommended to me by someone I work with who goes to St. Maarten every year. She goes to the same jewellery store each time she is there, and has had her jewellery appraised which she has purchased there and it is very good quality, so I felt very confident that I did well with my purchases. We also used the coupon from the ship to buy some tanzanite earrings for $5.00 which made great little gifts for DD to bring back to her friends. Mom bought a tote bag for $3.00...the exact same thing in St. Thomas was $7.99! Oh yes, also picked up some of that famous Guavaberry Liqueur.
After shopping we came back to the ship. Had some lunch then took the water taxi back over the Great Bay Beach to swim. It was quite nice and DD had fun playing in the waves. Since we weren't staying long we didn't bother to rent beach chairs and just sat on our towels. Since DD had her hair braided on the ship on Sunday we weren't bothered by the hair braiders, but lots of locals were selling beach wraps etc. We just politely said no thanks and weren't bothered any further.
We were treated to fireworks that night in celebration of the one millionth cruise ship passenger to visit St. Marrten. It was quite by surprise. DD and I were on Deck 4 watching one of the other ships pull away and all of a sudden the sky was lit up with a beautiful fireworks display from a barge out in the harbour.
Unfortunately, the deck party that night was a bit of a wash out as it was raining. A warm rain though and some kids were out dancing in the rain with the CMs , but it was too crowded under the covered areas on Deck 9 so we left after a few minutes and went back to the room.
St Thomas:
Beautiful! We did the 5 Star St. John Snorkelling Excursion which was well worth it. You board the boat right from the dock and it is about a half hour narrated boat ride to Trunk Bay. As everyone here has mentioned , Trunk Bay is breathtakingly beautiful but the time there is way too short. I could have stayed there all day! The water was clear blue and warm, and the sand pure white and soft. It was heaven.
The trip back was very relaxing and DD was thrilled at seeing "Mini Me's" house.
We were back on the ship by noon, had some lunch and Mom & I slipped over the Havensight Mall across from this ship...but no deals there. We weren't really looking for anything though as we had shopped in St. Maarten.
The sailaway from St. Thomas was another highlight. There was a beautiful sunset , they had 2 for 1 Midori Coladas ( the best drink I had all week!) and they played Lois Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" as we pulled away from the dock. I had tears in my eyes!
Castaway Cay:
Arrived there just after 8:00 am as we were eating at Topsiders. Felt the ship slow down and walked toward the front of the ship and we were pulling in. We pulled straight in that day. What a sight!!.
We were off the ship early and made our way right down to the far end of the Family Beach close to the Heads Up Bar. Nice and quiet at that end of the beach.
It was quite windy, but sunny and warm. The water was a bit cool for me but DD played on the blow up floats we had brought from home until it was time for our Banana Boat ride at 11:30. What a riot that was!! With the wind, the waves were quite large so we had a real wild ride. You really need to hold on tight though. Everyone was squealing with delight as we bounced our way through the waves out past the Magic. Lots of fun and well worth it. Henn1313 and her DDs were with us for our ride.
After the Banana Boat ride it was time for lunch. We had the BBQ ribs, chicken and some salads, which all seemed to be much better than on our last cruise. We had some ice cream for dessert and headed back to the beach.
Since I didn't see Serenity Bay on our last cruise, I took the tram over to have a look. What a difference from the Family Beach. No wind and the water was calm as could be. It was very nice. The water there is very shallow and warm. Since I had left DD with Mom, I didn't stay long.
We had enough of the sun by about 2:30 and went back to the ship to clean up.
Onboard Activities/Shows:
Oceaneer's Lab: DD was in the 8-9 age group in the Lab. She may have spent an hour or so a day there, but was only really interested in the formal activities. She wasn't interested in going when there was just free time. She said it was "boring" and there were "too many rude boys there" (give her a couple of years and that will be the reason she wants to go!) Activities she enjoyed were: making goo, making postcards and a mouse pad, karaoke, the Villains game and the crime solving game. She also went in the Discover the Magic show and got a new T-Shirt. She had just about outgrown her one from two years ago!
I did allow her to sign herself in and out of the Lab, and she would have me paged when leaving so we could meet at the room. It worked out quite well and it gave her some independence. She was quite proud of herself!
Hair Braiding: I had DD's hair braided on Sunday (our first day at sea) They took appointments at Treasure Ketch that morning and started taking appointments before the designated time. DD had her hair done in the headband type cornrows and it was $36.00. I was a bit disappointed though as when she was showering on the last night of the cruise two of the elastics broke and the braids came out. That was okay with her though as she wanted them out by then anyway.
Shows: Of course our favourite show was Disney Dreams and we saw both the matinee and evening performances and DD had to sit right up front. I asked one of the CMs if I could take some pictures at the end and he said it would be okay right at the end during the finale, so I was able to get a couple of shots.
The highlight of the entire trip for DD though had to be being selected as a contestants for "Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer". Actually it was my seat which was selected, but I had DD in the hot seat. Talk about nerve wracking!!! We managed to get up to the $225.00 question before we ran out of lifelines, but we did win $175.00 which was wonderful. What a great experience and I'm sure it's the first thing DD will tell her class about when she gets back to school . Wouldn't you know it though, it was the one night that my Mom decided not to come to a show with us, so she missed it!! For anyone there, we were the last contestants at the 6:30 show
We also really enjoyed the variety shows that they had in the Rockin Bar D each night before dinner. They were always very entertaining.
DCL Shopping. With $175.00 in an onboard credit from Mouseketeer we were ready to do some shopping! With it being the end of the year, they had reduced their 2002 merchandise to more than ½ price in some cases. We picked up at 2002 T-Shirt for DD, a sweatshirt for myself, a DCL Christmas ornament and DCL scrapbook all at great prices. Other things we bought were: a replica of the ship signed by the Captain, a Mickey beach wrap, and a nice black T-Shirt with the ship and Mickey ears in silver sparkles. Needless to say our winnings went very quickly!!
DIS Meet: We had planned to meet at Lumiere's on Monday for lour DIS lunch. As we gathered in front of the Mickey statue, 4nana's daughter came up and told us about the situation involving 4nana. We were all in shock and our lunch certainly wasn't the same with 4nana missing. The lovely lady had sent us all lime green tick-tacks with lime green ribbon bow on the front. We sure missed her there. I did get to meet her on the water taxi in St. Maarten once she was out and about and give her a big hug!
We had a lovely DIS lunch and it was wonderful to meet all these great DISers . It was so nice to see their friendly faces around the ship all week. It was great to meet all of you!
Debarkation: Being from Canada we had to report to Immigration at 6:00 am so we were up bright and early. Since our sit down breakfast wouldn't be until 8:00 we decided to just grab something at Topsiders. We finished eating breakfast and were off the ship by around 8:00. What a breeze. A porter loaded up our luggage and wheeled it all across the street where Rabbit was waiting for us. We were back to MCO by 9:15.
This and That:
Virus Protection Measures: I don't think DCL could have done anything more to keep the ship clean and prevent the spread of the virus. They were constantly cleaning and wiping things down, hand wipes were given out at meals, they served everyone at buffets, had the drink station manned, had drink stickers rather than refillable mugs. We were also given notes in our stateroom on a couple of nights with reminders about hand washing. We had also brought our own hand wipes, antibacterial hand soap and Lysol for our room as well.
There did seem to be a lot of CMs as well as passengers with terrible sounding colds. Horse voices and bad coughs. Seems like a bad year all around for colds and viruses.
Unfortunately, my Mom came down with a very bad cold on the day we were leaving and seems like we got her back home in a nick of time as she had pneumonia. My Mom has bronchiectasis which makes her very susceptible to any type of cold. The saddest part is that since it was so close to Christmas we have had to postponed our family Christmas until she is feeling better. Hopefully she will be up and about by the weekend and we'll celebrate then.
Seasickness: I am very prone to motion sickness and took Bonamine every day which really helped. We had some pretty choppy seas on Thursday. We were really rocking and rolling and I'm sure I would have been sick as a dog without it. I have continued to take it since I've been home and have not felt the house move at all since I've been back! Great stuff.
Smoking: This is the only area where I could see that perhaps there is some room for improvement on DCL. I realize DCL is much better than other cruise lines in restricting smoking in public areas and maybe I was just more aware of it with traveling with Mom who cannot be around smoke for any length time at all with her bronchiectasis , but I did notice a lot more smoking on this cruise than on our previous one. Probably just bad luck that we ended up with smokers on either side of us this time and could notice the smell of the smoke while on our veranda. It also seemed that there was a lot of smoking on Deck 9 in the areas where the tables are that is enclosed with the glass. A couple of times we actually had to get up and move while we were eating there from smoke drifting over from other tables. The other time I really noticed it was at the deck party in St. Maarten. Since it was raining, everyone was crammed in under the protected areas and there was a lot of smoke. I wish that DCL would designate some specific areas on Deck 9/10 as smoking areas and perhaps designate some of the stateroom veranda rooms as non smoking.
Packing: One day I'll learn the art of packing lightly!! We brought WAY too many clothes. It is so hard to judge what to bring this time of the year. Being in Orlando for 5 days before the cruise we needed to be prepared for anything....little did we know that rain gear was all we really needed. When we go again we will do either the cruise or WDW. Although we had a great time doing Universal, WDW and the cruise , doing them all in one shot was a bit much.
Conclusion: We had a wonderful cruise and found the 7 days to be very relaxing and especially enjoyed having the three days at sea. I think DCL is the very best for a family vacation in that it offers something for both adult and children with the magic of Disney thrown in. Add to that the festivities of the holiday season ,and it was our best vacation ever. We hope to go again in December 2004 and try the Western cruise.
A big thanks to everyone here on the DIS Boards for their help in the planning of our trip and all the very best to everyone and their families in the New Year!
Feel free to ask any questions and to have a look at our trip photos at the site below.
http://home.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=spicystruthers&password=90789886
Hope you enjoy reading highlights of our Magic cruise, Dec. 14-21. We had a great time!
Cruisers:
My Mom (65)
DD (9)
Myself (SuAnne)
Our Cruise:
Dec. 14 Disney Magic (Eastern). We had originally booked directly through DCL following our cruise in Dec. 2002 and later transferred over to Dreams. A big thanks to Donna and Cathy for all their help!
Transportation:
We arranged for our own Air and travelled on Air Canada using my Aeroplan points, which I had to book about a year in advance. Great flights both there and back. Going down we had to pre-clear U.S. customs in Toronto. Lucky me, I was selected to have one of my checked bags searched and it was the one with all my wine and Christmas decorations stashed in it. No problem with the wine, but the customs agent was most interested in my 12 inch artificial fibre optic Christmas tree and whether it was real or not!!
We used Yourride and for our transportation in Orlando and to the ship and their service was wonderful. We stayed at Universal and WDW for 5 days prior to our cruise and used Rabbit to take us to from MCO to Universal, from Universal to WDW, WDW to the port and then from the port back to MCO. Rabbit was very courteous and the service was prompt and it sure made getting to each of our destinations a breeze. I would highly recommend Rabbit and Yourride.
Embarkation:
We arrived at the Port at around 10:45. No lines to check in and we were approx. the third family in line to board, but the line seemed to grow very quickly from about 11:00 a.m. on. Boarding started at around 11:45 and we were announced as we boarded with Mickey waving to everyone from the atrium balcony.
Our first stop was up to Topsiders for some lunch and we stopped to buy a drink sticker along the way. They were not using refillable mugs for this cruise. For lunch we had some of those yummy jumbo shrimp and other selections from the buffet. My DD had her first of MANY slices of Pizza from Pinocchio's. All food from the buffet was served by Cast Members and they were also handing out wipes along with your trays. I actually quite liked the fact they served you. It seemed to make the lines go quicker, and seems much more sanitary than having people grabbing at everything on the buffet themselves.
After a quick lunch, I headed off to make reservations for brunch at Palos at around 12:15. There was no one else even there so I had my choice of times. I made our reservations for our day at sea on Thursday. As it turns out though, we ended up cancelling as we preferred having our meals with the entire family.
After Palos, I slipped into Sessions see about our table assignment. Since the ship was not full I wanted to see if we could possibly have our own table. Not a problem, and there were actually quite a few empty tables at our rotation.
Last stop was to register DD for the Lab. Again ,I was the first one there and had everything taken care of within minutes. The counsellor remarked how quiet it was that day.
By now it was getting close to 1:00 so we went by our room to see if it was ready. Our stateroom host was still finishing up the rooms so we just dropped off our things and set off to explore a bit until the Safety Drill.
The Safety Drill was very quick and painless and our station was in Animator's Palate this time which was much nicer than being crowded on the deck outside.
Our luggage arrived throughout the afternoon with our last bag arriving about 5:00 which was not a problem as we had late dinner. During the afternoon our Castaway Club towel was delivered along with confirmation of our shipboard credits from our Castaway Club booking and from Dreams. We also had a lovely goody tray and a bottle of sparkling cider in our room from Dreams!
Sailaway Party:
You think of warm Florida sunshine as you sail away to your week in the sun ,right? Well, it was not to be. It was cold, cloudy and windy but that didn't stop the festivities with the characters singing and dancing . Those Sailaway Strawberry Margarita/ Pina Colada special drinks were just the thing to take the chill out of the air! After we pulled away from the terminal we went up to the front of the ship as we sailed out the channel. Much to our delight there was a pod of dolphins jumping out of the water alongside of the ship just as we were coming out of the channel into the ocean. What a sight and we knew then our week would be truly magical!
Stateroom:
Our stateroom was 7620. A Category 7 which was one of the rooms which was recently reclassified from a Cat.5 since it was considered to be "obstructed". What a deal that room was!! It was a regular veranda with a curve in the top portion of the veranda which slightly obstructs the view. We had a regular veranda room on our previous cruise and the obstruction was barely noticeable. In fact the with the curve the way it was, it provided some shelter from the wind when you were sitting out there on the days at sea. We just pulled the chairs over to that side of the veranda and it was nice and sheltered with a perfect view of the ocean in front of us as we sailed along. There are photos of the veranda in the link I have attached at the bottom of my report.
The location was great. The room was aft and very close to the aft stairs to Topsiders and Scoops as well as that lovely Deck 7 deck at the back of the ship. We would most definitely book this room again on another cruise.
Our room host was Nick who was wonderful. Very polite and friendly and our room was always spotless and we had adorable towel animals when we returned every evening.
The room was fairly quiet , but we seemed to have a family above us that stomped around like a herd of elephants from time to time , and the couple in the room beside us had a rip-roaring fight the last night of the cruise to which we were privy to every word until the woman slammed the door and left.
We also had smokers on both sides of us this time and the smoke was quite noticeable from both directions if they were smoking and we were out on our veranda. Not enough to drive us away, but noticeable all the same. More on my smoking observations at the end of my report.
Dining/Food:
Our dinner rotation was ALP with late seating. It worked out to be a very good rotation as it put us in Lumiere's for our last formal night ,which was lovely. We also enjoyed late seating very much. We never felt rushed during the day and it allowed us to catch the entertainment before we had dinner. Since we aren't late night people it worked out nice that we could see the shows, have dinner, have some quite time ,then go to bed. With the way my daughter ate through the day (a constant diet of pizza and ice cream) she was never too hungry by dinner time.
Our servers were excellent. They treated us like royalty and were always very professional and knowledgeable. Pirem would entertain my DD with tricks with crayons and would make sure he brought her a Caesar salad very night ( her favourite) and our assistant server would also bring her a Shirley Temple very night with her meal without DD even having to ask.
The meals were very good and I found everything to be well prepared and presented. Not being huge eaters, we found the portions to be just right. We felt bad if we were full and didn't finish everything on our plates as our servers were so concerned that we didn?t like our meal. Our evening meals were one of the highlights of our day!
As I mentioned, we did not do Palos this trip. With it just being the three of us we wanted to have our meals together.
There was always lots to eat through the day with the breakfast and lunch buffets at Topsiders and the snacks at Pluto's and Pinocchio's ... not to mention the ice cream at Scoops! They sure knew DD by the end of the week.
We also ate a couple of lunches at Lumiere's during the week. The food was excellent and just the right portions for lunch. A nice alternative to the buffets as I am not much of a buffet person.
Most people dressed very nicely for dinner all nights of the cruise. The dress was much less formal on the 4 day Wonder cruise.
Christmas Activities:
The ship was very festive for the holidays. The characters were out and about in their holiday attire. The atrium was beautifully decorated with a huge tree, garland on the staircases and big wreaths. There was even a Christmas tree outside on the top of the ship.
There was a tree lighting ceremony on Monday night with carolling , as well as Mrs. Claus reading Christmas stories in the atrium one night. They also had Christmas music playing throughout the atrium and halls on the ship 24 hours a day. I wish they had it playing on the Report From the Bridge TV station so that we could have listened to it while we were in our room!
We signed up for the gingerbread house making on our day at sea on Monday . It was lots of fun. Each family was given a gingerbread house to decorate and then you can take it back to your stateroom. Unfortunately, ours caved in on one side shortly after we got it back to our room so it was pretty sad looking!
We brought some decorations to put up in our room. Some bows for the veranda, a 12 inch fibre optic tree for the room, a small string of Christmas lights which we hung around the mirror over the desk. We also hung a large Christmas tree decoration on our veranda door.
Ports:
St Maarten:
We did not do any excursions here, and planned to do some shopping and then go to Great Bay Beach to do some swimming.
The shopping was very good in St. Maarten. Much more reasonable than St. Thomas. I bought a 750ml. bottle of Grand Marnier for $12.99 U.S. ($21.00 CDN). I priced it here when I came home and it was $42.00 CDN!! I also bought some cute sun dresses for DD.. two for $10.00 and a two piece skirt/tube top for her for $6.00. I also splurged and bought myself a diamond cluster ring and a gold bracelet for $250.00. I bought it at a shop that was recommended to me by someone I work with who goes to St. Maarten every year. She goes to the same jewellery store each time she is there, and has had her jewellery appraised which she has purchased there and it is very good quality, so I felt very confident that I did well with my purchases. We also used the coupon from the ship to buy some tanzanite earrings for $5.00 which made great little gifts for DD to bring back to her friends. Mom bought a tote bag for $3.00...the exact same thing in St. Thomas was $7.99! Oh yes, also picked up some of that famous Guavaberry Liqueur.
After shopping we came back to the ship. Had some lunch then took the water taxi back over the Great Bay Beach to swim. It was quite nice and DD had fun playing in the waves. Since we weren't staying long we didn't bother to rent beach chairs and just sat on our towels. Since DD had her hair braided on the ship on Sunday we weren't bothered by the hair braiders, but lots of locals were selling beach wraps etc. We just politely said no thanks and weren't bothered any further.
We were treated to fireworks that night in celebration of the one millionth cruise ship passenger to visit St. Marrten. It was quite by surprise. DD and I were on Deck 4 watching one of the other ships pull away and all of a sudden the sky was lit up with a beautiful fireworks display from a barge out in the harbour.
Unfortunately, the deck party that night was a bit of a wash out as it was raining. A warm rain though and some kids were out dancing in the rain with the CMs , but it was too crowded under the covered areas on Deck 9 so we left after a few minutes and went back to the room.
St Thomas:
Beautiful! We did the 5 Star St. John Snorkelling Excursion which was well worth it. You board the boat right from the dock and it is about a half hour narrated boat ride to Trunk Bay. As everyone here has mentioned , Trunk Bay is breathtakingly beautiful but the time there is way too short. I could have stayed there all day! The water was clear blue and warm, and the sand pure white and soft. It was heaven.
The trip back was very relaxing and DD was thrilled at seeing "Mini Me's" house.
We were back on the ship by noon, had some lunch and Mom & I slipped over the Havensight Mall across from this ship...but no deals there. We weren't really looking for anything though as we had shopped in St. Maarten.
The sailaway from St. Thomas was another highlight. There was a beautiful sunset , they had 2 for 1 Midori Coladas ( the best drink I had all week!) and they played Lois Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" as we pulled away from the dock. I had tears in my eyes!
Castaway Cay:
Arrived there just after 8:00 am as we were eating at Topsiders. Felt the ship slow down and walked toward the front of the ship and we were pulling in. We pulled straight in that day. What a sight!!.
We were off the ship early and made our way right down to the far end of the Family Beach close to the Heads Up Bar. Nice and quiet at that end of the beach.
It was quite windy, but sunny and warm. The water was a bit cool for me but DD played on the blow up floats we had brought from home until it was time for our Banana Boat ride at 11:30. What a riot that was!! With the wind, the waves were quite large so we had a real wild ride. You really need to hold on tight though. Everyone was squealing with delight as we bounced our way through the waves out past the Magic. Lots of fun and well worth it. Henn1313 and her DDs were with us for our ride.
After the Banana Boat ride it was time for lunch. We had the BBQ ribs, chicken and some salads, which all seemed to be much better than on our last cruise. We had some ice cream for dessert and headed back to the beach.
Since I didn't see Serenity Bay on our last cruise, I took the tram over to have a look. What a difference from the Family Beach. No wind and the water was calm as could be. It was very nice. The water there is very shallow and warm. Since I had left DD with Mom, I didn't stay long.
We had enough of the sun by about 2:30 and went back to the ship to clean up.
Onboard Activities/Shows:
Oceaneer's Lab: DD was in the 8-9 age group in the Lab. She may have spent an hour or so a day there, but was only really interested in the formal activities. She wasn't interested in going when there was just free time. She said it was "boring" and there were "too many rude boys there" (give her a couple of years and that will be the reason she wants to go!) Activities she enjoyed were: making goo, making postcards and a mouse pad, karaoke, the Villains game and the crime solving game. She also went in the Discover the Magic show and got a new T-Shirt. She had just about outgrown her one from two years ago!
I did allow her to sign herself in and out of the Lab, and she would have me paged when leaving so we could meet at the room. It worked out quite well and it gave her some independence. She was quite proud of herself!
Hair Braiding: I had DD's hair braided on Sunday (our first day at sea) They took appointments at Treasure Ketch that morning and started taking appointments before the designated time. DD had her hair done in the headband type cornrows and it was $36.00. I was a bit disappointed though as when she was showering on the last night of the cruise two of the elastics broke and the braids came out. That was okay with her though as she wanted them out by then anyway.
Shows: Of course our favourite show was Disney Dreams and we saw both the matinee and evening performances and DD had to sit right up front. I asked one of the CMs if I could take some pictures at the end and he said it would be okay right at the end during the finale, so I was able to get a couple of shots.
The highlight of the entire trip for DD though had to be being selected as a contestants for "Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer". Actually it was my seat which was selected, but I had DD in the hot seat. Talk about nerve wracking!!! We managed to get up to the $225.00 question before we ran out of lifelines, but we did win $175.00 which was wonderful. What a great experience and I'm sure it's the first thing DD will tell her class about when she gets back to school . Wouldn't you know it though, it was the one night that my Mom decided not to come to a show with us, so she missed it!! For anyone there, we were the last contestants at the 6:30 show
We also really enjoyed the variety shows that they had in the Rockin Bar D each night before dinner. They were always very entertaining.
DCL Shopping. With $175.00 in an onboard credit from Mouseketeer we were ready to do some shopping! With it being the end of the year, they had reduced their 2002 merchandise to more than ½ price in some cases. We picked up at 2002 T-Shirt for DD, a sweatshirt for myself, a DCL Christmas ornament and DCL scrapbook all at great prices. Other things we bought were: a replica of the ship signed by the Captain, a Mickey beach wrap, and a nice black T-Shirt with the ship and Mickey ears in silver sparkles. Needless to say our winnings went very quickly!!
DIS Meet: We had planned to meet at Lumiere's on Monday for lour DIS lunch. As we gathered in front of the Mickey statue, 4nana's daughter came up and told us about the situation involving 4nana. We were all in shock and our lunch certainly wasn't the same with 4nana missing. The lovely lady had sent us all lime green tick-tacks with lime green ribbon bow on the front. We sure missed her there. I did get to meet her on the water taxi in St. Maarten once she was out and about and give her a big hug!
We had a lovely DIS lunch and it was wonderful to meet all these great DISers . It was so nice to see their friendly faces around the ship all week. It was great to meet all of you!
Debarkation: Being from Canada we had to report to Immigration at 6:00 am so we were up bright and early. Since our sit down breakfast wouldn't be until 8:00 we decided to just grab something at Topsiders. We finished eating breakfast and were off the ship by around 8:00. What a breeze. A porter loaded up our luggage and wheeled it all across the street where Rabbit was waiting for us. We were back to MCO by 9:15.
This and That:
Virus Protection Measures: I don't think DCL could have done anything more to keep the ship clean and prevent the spread of the virus. They were constantly cleaning and wiping things down, hand wipes were given out at meals, they served everyone at buffets, had the drink station manned, had drink stickers rather than refillable mugs. We were also given notes in our stateroom on a couple of nights with reminders about hand washing. We had also brought our own hand wipes, antibacterial hand soap and Lysol for our room as well.
There did seem to be a lot of CMs as well as passengers with terrible sounding colds. Horse voices and bad coughs. Seems like a bad year all around for colds and viruses.
Unfortunately, my Mom came down with a very bad cold on the day we were leaving and seems like we got her back home in a nick of time as she had pneumonia. My Mom has bronchiectasis which makes her very susceptible to any type of cold. The saddest part is that since it was so close to Christmas we have had to postponed our family Christmas until she is feeling better. Hopefully she will be up and about by the weekend and we'll celebrate then.
Seasickness: I am very prone to motion sickness and took Bonamine every day which really helped. We had some pretty choppy seas on Thursday. We were really rocking and rolling and I'm sure I would have been sick as a dog without it. I have continued to take it since I've been home and have not felt the house move at all since I've been back! Great stuff.
Smoking: This is the only area where I could see that perhaps there is some room for improvement on DCL. I realize DCL is much better than other cruise lines in restricting smoking in public areas and maybe I was just more aware of it with traveling with Mom who cannot be around smoke for any length time at all with her bronchiectasis , but I did notice a lot more smoking on this cruise than on our previous one. Probably just bad luck that we ended up with smokers on either side of us this time and could notice the smell of the smoke while on our veranda. It also seemed that there was a lot of smoking on Deck 9 in the areas where the tables are that is enclosed with the glass. A couple of times we actually had to get up and move while we were eating there from smoke drifting over from other tables. The other time I really noticed it was at the deck party in St. Maarten. Since it was raining, everyone was crammed in under the protected areas and there was a lot of smoke. I wish that DCL would designate some specific areas on Deck 9/10 as smoking areas and perhaps designate some of the stateroom veranda rooms as non smoking.
Packing: One day I'll learn the art of packing lightly!! We brought WAY too many clothes. It is so hard to judge what to bring this time of the year. Being in Orlando for 5 days before the cruise we needed to be prepared for anything....little did we know that rain gear was all we really needed. When we go again we will do either the cruise or WDW. Although we had a great time doing Universal, WDW and the cruise , doing them all in one shot was a bit much.
Conclusion: We had a wonderful cruise and found the 7 days to be very relaxing and especially enjoyed having the three days at sea. I think DCL is the very best for a family vacation in that it offers something for both adult and children with the magic of Disney thrown in. Add to that the festivities of the holiday season ,and it was our best vacation ever. We hope to go again in December 2004 and try the Western cruise.
A big thanks to everyone here on the DIS Boards for their help in the planning of our trip and all the very best to everyone and their families in the New Year!
Feel free to ask any questions and to have a look at our trip photos at the site below.
http://home.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=spicystruthers&password=90789886
