CanadianCruiser
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2003
- Messages
- 89
We just returned from the 12/13/03 Magic cruise this weekend, and we had a really great time onboard. I haven't been on the DISforum long so I don't really know the other people here (eg. Alex, AnnMorin) who went on the same trip. It sounds like they had a great time too!
We managed to book our trip about a month and a half ago as a Cat 11 inside GTY room which DCL later upgraded to Cat 8 for free so kindly for us.
We were so happy to have the large porthole as it really made a difference with the additional light and being able to watch the ocean go by. We took a peek into one of the inside rooms, and boy I can't imagine spending the week without a window. The CTC code worked fine for us, and there was a little note waiting for us on the desk.
The split washroom was a nice feature which we didn't have on the Holland America Westerdam cruise I went on 10 years ago. I was surprised to find the huge amount of water that flowed from the taps since I was expecting an airplane like trickle. You really had to be careful not to turn the taps on too high or risk getting splashed! They do not use water tap aerators apparently onboard. I did find the beverage cooler a little lacking in coolness so yes it's not the best thing to place leftover food in. They should just put in a decent bar fridge that works better and be done with it.
For those looking at an excursion on St. Thomas, try taking the St. John Trunk Bay snorkelling tour even if you don't snorkel. We took the other tour (the land one) which wasn't as good since there really wasn't any beach time that let you go swimming. The snorkel tour seems to be limited to 5 years old and up. One other option might be to take the ferry over to St. John, and then just grab a taxi or something to get over to Trunk Bay for the day. It looks very scenic there with very calm water and few people on the beach.
On St. Maarten, we decided to check out Dawn Beach instead of Orient beach. We just thought it best to avoid the "nude" thing. I don't know if Orient beach is a lot better, but we found Dawn beach to be fairly nice. I've seen some pictures of Orient beach online, and it does look like a nice beach. Dawn beach is not crowded at all and a bit closer to the dock so the taxi trip doesn't take long. The waves were slightly on the bigger side there but nothing too wild.
The food on the Magic was very good. I liked the variety they had at the various restaurants much better than Holland America. Some of the dishes did arrive a little on the cold side unfortunately so they must be having some issues with their heaters. The pan fried Halibut at AP was overdone resulting in a dry, flakey kind of bland fish. I'm used to steamed Halibut which is much more tender. I kind of like the various appetizers on the Magic better than the main dishes so we tended to order a few of them for the variety. I wish they had more of a fruit selection since most of the fruit was just a small side dish.
Our servers did an excellent job, but we did find them preoccupied with the larger table next to us. I suppose it's an issue of priorities since a big table=big tips. I don't know what the purpose of the head server was really except to appear in those white suits and kind of hover around. We ended up giving everyone the recommended tips at the end of the trip. What do other people do? What's the average tip for Palo brunch/dinner?
Palo was a nice change from the larger restaurants, and the food was not "mass produced" nor lukewarm. It's a must for anyone seeking a nice, classy place to dine. You can ask for smaller portions to sample too if you don't think you can finish the main dishes entirely and don't want to waste good food. We found that worked out perfectly. Our dinner waitress there was so so as it seemed she was a little distracted while talking to us (kind of looked off into the distance at times while she gave us what sounded like a memorized description of the food). I'd rate her friendliness about a 6 or 7 out of 10, but oh well, she brought the food and drinks out very well so that's the main thing. I'm not much for artificial saccharine sweet servers anyways.
Palo brunch was also great as they had a nice selection of items as Alex already has described. I was a little turned off by a small fly buzzing around the fruit and dessert area though, but it's a little hard to control that kind of thing so I don't blame Palo at all. It was landing on many of the items so I tried to shoo it away, but maybe I should have mentioned it to the server instead.
The Golden Mickey show was a blast. I wish I could have recorded a few of the shows on my camcorder, but oh well - I thought GM was the best compared to Hercules and Disney Dreams. They all kind of blur together a bit after the fact.
You can watch them again on the TV if you missed any of the action.
Kara the cruise director has a sugary sweet voice that sounds like she should be doing announcements on those computerized telephone directory / service systems. I read that Alex didn't like her very much. The Oceaneer's Club was a fun, happening spot. It did strike me to be slightly crowded at times as they do pack the kiddies in there pretty good. The counsellors seemed to be competent enough for the most part although it would have been nice to see them in action a bit more just to make sure. Our kiddie had no complaints and often wanted to go back so hopefully she had a good time there.
Castaway Cay was just a little too cold for my liking, and they had to cancel all the excursions and activities pretty much except for the kids areas in the tree sheltered spots. I've never experienced cold weather in the Carribean so it was a shock! People were not going into the water and just staying on the beach trying to keep warm. The sand was cold on the feet, and you had to just make the best of it. I was glad to get back onboard! It normally is supposed to be quite hot I hear, but I think we had a cold front move in as the return cruise was pretty choppy at night.
Luckily it started near bed time anyways so the motion helped you get to sleep.
The Magic is quite a smooth sailing vessel so we didn't notice too much of a problem with motion. It apparently has retractable fins near the bow that can be deployed to assist in stabilization. I watched the building of the Magic on the in-room TV and found it quite interesting. One problem I discovered was that you sometimes can't hear the public announcements inside the cabin so you have to open the door to listen to them. You can hear the chime pretty well though.
We also found that we had no heat on the disembarkation morning! It was freezing when we woke up which was a chilly surprise. I ended up cranking the heater to maximum to try to get the room warm. There was also no hot water from the tap (just lukewarm) so I don't know if a furnace / boiler went into sleep mode or something during the night, but it was dang cold. Maybe we didn't tip our maid enough? I don't know.
Overall, we loved DCL and enjoyed our trip emmensely. I can see why you people frequent this board and rave on about Disney cruises! They really go that extra mile to make the cruise "magical."
I can't wait to go on a return voyage sometime. That 10 day cruise next Christmas would be a dream come true as 7 days just didn't seem long enough!
CC
We managed to book our trip about a month and a half ago as a Cat 11 inside GTY room which DCL later upgraded to Cat 8 for free so kindly for us.
We were so happy to have the large porthole as it really made a difference with the additional light and being able to watch the ocean go by. We took a peek into one of the inside rooms, and boy I can't imagine spending the week without a window. The CTC code worked fine for us, and there was a little note waiting for us on the desk.The split washroom was a nice feature which we didn't have on the Holland America Westerdam cruise I went on 10 years ago. I was surprised to find the huge amount of water that flowed from the taps since I was expecting an airplane like trickle. You really had to be careful not to turn the taps on too high or risk getting splashed! They do not use water tap aerators apparently onboard. I did find the beverage cooler a little lacking in coolness so yes it's not the best thing to place leftover food in. They should just put in a decent bar fridge that works better and be done with it.
For those looking at an excursion on St. Thomas, try taking the St. John Trunk Bay snorkelling tour even if you don't snorkel. We took the other tour (the land one) which wasn't as good since there really wasn't any beach time that let you go swimming. The snorkel tour seems to be limited to 5 years old and up. One other option might be to take the ferry over to St. John, and then just grab a taxi or something to get over to Trunk Bay for the day. It looks very scenic there with very calm water and few people on the beach.
On St. Maarten, we decided to check out Dawn Beach instead of Orient beach. We just thought it best to avoid the "nude" thing. I don't know if Orient beach is a lot better, but we found Dawn beach to be fairly nice. I've seen some pictures of Orient beach online, and it does look like a nice beach. Dawn beach is not crowded at all and a bit closer to the dock so the taxi trip doesn't take long. The waves were slightly on the bigger side there but nothing too wild.
The food on the Magic was very good. I liked the variety they had at the various restaurants much better than Holland America. Some of the dishes did arrive a little on the cold side unfortunately so they must be having some issues with their heaters. The pan fried Halibut at AP was overdone resulting in a dry, flakey kind of bland fish. I'm used to steamed Halibut which is much more tender. I kind of like the various appetizers on the Magic better than the main dishes so we tended to order a few of them for the variety. I wish they had more of a fruit selection since most of the fruit was just a small side dish.
Our servers did an excellent job, but we did find them preoccupied with the larger table next to us. I suppose it's an issue of priorities since a big table=big tips. I don't know what the purpose of the head server was really except to appear in those white suits and kind of hover around. We ended up giving everyone the recommended tips at the end of the trip. What do other people do? What's the average tip for Palo brunch/dinner?
Palo was a nice change from the larger restaurants, and the food was not "mass produced" nor lukewarm. It's a must for anyone seeking a nice, classy place to dine. You can ask for smaller portions to sample too if you don't think you can finish the main dishes entirely and don't want to waste good food. We found that worked out perfectly. Our dinner waitress there was so so as it seemed she was a little distracted while talking to us (kind of looked off into the distance at times while she gave us what sounded like a memorized description of the food). I'd rate her friendliness about a 6 or 7 out of 10, but oh well, she brought the food and drinks out very well so that's the main thing. I'm not much for artificial saccharine sweet servers anyways.
Palo brunch was also great as they had a nice selection of items as Alex already has described. I was a little turned off by a small fly buzzing around the fruit and dessert area though, but it's a little hard to control that kind of thing so I don't blame Palo at all. It was landing on many of the items so I tried to shoo it away, but maybe I should have mentioned it to the server instead.
The Golden Mickey show was a blast. I wish I could have recorded a few of the shows on my camcorder, but oh well - I thought GM was the best compared to Hercules and Disney Dreams. They all kind of blur together a bit after the fact.
You can watch them again on the TV if you missed any of the action.Kara the cruise director has a sugary sweet voice that sounds like she should be doing announcements on those computerized telephone directory / service systems. I read that Alex didn't like her very much. The Oceaneer's Club was a fun, happening spot. It did strike me to be slightly crowded at times as they do pack the kiddies in there pretty good. The counsellors seemed to be competent enough for the most part although it would have been nice to see them in action a bit more just to make sure. Our kiddie had no complaints and often wanted to go back so hopefully she had a good time there.
Castaway Cay was just a little too cold for my liking, and they had to cancel all the excursions and activities pretty much except for the kids areas in the tree sheltered spots. I've never experienced cold weather in the Carribean so it was a shock! People were not going into the water and just staying on the beach trying to keep warm. The sand was cold on the feet, and you had to just make the best of it. I was glad to get back onboard! It normally is supposed to be quite hot I hear, but I think we had a cold front move in as the return cruise was pretty choppy at night.
Luckily it started near bed time anyways so the motion helped you get to sleep. The Magic is quite a smooth sailing vessel so we didn't notice too much of a problem with motion. It apparently has retractable fins near the bow that can be deployed to assist in stabilization. I watched the building of the Magic on the in-room TV and found it quite interesting. One problem I discovered was that you sometimes can't hear the public announcements inside the cabin so you have to open the door to listen to them. You can hear the chime pretty well though.
We also found that we had no heat on the disembarkation morning! It was freezing when we woke up which was a chilly surprise. I ended up cranking the heater to maximum to try to get the room warm. There was also no hot water from the tap (just lukewarm) so I don't know if a furnace / boiler went into sleep mode or something during the night, but it was dang cold. Maybe we didn't tip our maid enough? I don't know.
Overall, we loved DCL and enjoyed our trip emmensely. I can see why you people frequent this board and rave on about Disney cruises! They really go that extra mile to make the cruise "magical."
I can't wait to go on a return voyage sometime. That 10 day cruise next Christmas would be a dream come true as 7 days just didn't seem long enough!CC
