tidefan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2007
- Messages
- 4,463
Here goes:
Pre-Cruise
Drove down Friday from Birmingham, AL to Orlando (had to stop at the outlets and at WOD) then on to the Country Inn and Suites for our pre-cruise night stay and to meet Mom, Dad, and my Brother. The Country Inn and Suites was really, really nice and really, really close to the port. We booked a package for $125 that included 1 night hotel, parking for the duration of the cruise, and transfers to the port. I can't say enough good things about how smooth it was. I highly recommend this to all travelers. We got up Saturday morning and headed to the port about 10am hoping for upgrades...
Embarkation
... but there were none to be had. I have to say that during my review, I'll be doing some comparisons to Princess as we have done 4 previous cruises with them and this was our first venture outside. Anyway, I thought that the embarkation process was a nightmare. They didn't let anyone onboard until about noon, and then when they did, none of the staterooms were ready until 1:30. One thing that we really like better on Princess is that when they begin boarding, all rooms are ready (or at least that has been our experience) and you can go right to your room. On the Magic, we went to Topsiders (more on that later) and waited around with 500 or so of our new friends and about that many or more bags. We now know on our next DCL cruise not to board the ship before 1:30. Also, on Princess, our experience was that you went and checked in by Alphabetical groups (not one big line for many desks) which took all of 5 minutes then you walked right on the ship. With DCL it is a lot of hurry up and wait. Again, this would probably be better if you came later.
Day 1
Once in the room, we proceeded to unload and work on getting our door ready.
We were in a Category 11 (6131) and were very satisfied with the room. It had much more space than our last inside room on Princess. Our only thing with the room was that we would have loved more storage. We didn't get one of those steamer trunks in our room.
Then we went to the Oceaneer Club Open House and Delaney absolutely loved the slide. Did that for awhile and then went off to see my parents room. They had a cool Navigator's balcony on deck 7. I actually liked that setup better than the regular balcony. Got our Alice tea tickets and did a few other things exploring the ship and then got ready for dinner. We booked last April, and by that time, early seating was already gone, so we didn't eat until 8pm. This really didn't work for our daughter, so she only ate in the dining room a couple of times. Our servers were Toney (Head) and Trevor (Asst.). We really liked them both, though at times, it seemed to take forever to eat. We usually didn't get our entrees served to us until about 10 after 9. Anyway, we had our first dinner at Animators Palate and it was pretty good. The food was better than I had expected (don't really know what I was expecting), but still a hair below Princess. Didn't really get the gist of the show and when the restaurant is black and white, you kind of feel like you are in the middle of all those old generic products...
Lastly, sure seemed like the Magic rocked around a bit more than any other cruise we've been on. Anyone else notice this?
1st and 2nd Sea Days
Spent the day leisurely doing not much of anything. We checked Delaney into the club and went to the Dis Bag exchange. We took the Ohio bag/basket provided by love2crooze (thanks Mike and Mindy!) and had a blast. We enjoyed getting to meet everyone. After that, it was off to the DVC Member Celebration (this is why we had to move our Character Breakfast to Thursday) but didn't win anything. The guides told us that over 200 of the staterooms on the cruise were DVC members (probably due to this being the lowest point 7-night cruise) and they stayed extremely busy all week. Apparently the "best kept Disney secret" is out! Then went to lunch on deck. I then went to the matinee of the Golden Mickeys and Jennifer went to a Port Shopping talk and missed some of it, so we went back with Delaney at the 6:15 show. For those of you who were there, she was the 1st dwarf with Snow White who lost her shoe coming on stage and then couldn't keep her hat on. Truly a magical moment. Every time we saw Snow White after that on the ship she mentioned to Delaney about keeping her hat on.
On this note, I think that the true strength of DCL is the fantastic shows. I don't think that anyone else holds a candle to the Disney shows. The cast, scripts, and technical presentation were really good. I especially liked how they used the front screen in the Golden Mickey's to make Snow White, etc. look animated. Twice Charmed the next day was really good as well. Delaney loved all of the shows and at 4 1/2, they held her attention, which I was somewhat concerned about before we went.
Nothing else really to note on those sea days other than how nice it was to relax and take in the magic.
St. Maarten
Since we have been to St Maarten many times before, but my brother had never been, we decided to split up in the morning with Jennifer hitting Front Street for some power shopping while myself, Mom, Dad, Brother, and Delaney rented a car for $70 and headed around the island. We made a stop (i.e., Daddy, I need to potty) at the new Westin in Dawn Beach and it was really, really beautiful. Then we went through the orient beach complex and as we were leaving, about 3 Disney Cruise buses passed us coming in. Went through Grand Case, Marigot, Terre Basses, and then stopped in Maho to watch some planes land at the Sunset Beach Bar. Then stopped at our timeshare in Simpson Bay to say hello the manager, Marcel, then headed to the Grocery Store for Gouda and Ting. Went back to the ship for lunch and then spent a leisurely afternoon in Philipsburg which was much nicer and easier to deal with than Charlotte Amalie the next day. This was probably due to the fact that there were only two ships in that day.
That night we dressed up as Captain Hook (me), Elizabeth Swann in Dress (Jennifer), and pirate Elizabeth Swann (Delaney). Got a lot of good comments about our costumes. The Pirate party was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the fireworks. Truly a unique Disney touch.
St Thomas
Up and in line for Immigration at 7:00am. Went back to bed for an hour. Carried Delaney the whole time.
I honestly don't see what people love about St Thomas. I think that if the letters US weren't in front of VI, then this would be on the bottom of the list in ports. First off, we had to tender, which was a mess in itself. Took 45 minutes to get to town. Second, there were 7 ships in St Thomas that day, so we got to spend the day with about 17,500 of our best friends. Did just a little bit of shopping so that we could get our St Thomas liquor exemption and do the shopping drawings (Delaney won one of them!), and then back to the ship by 2:30pm. We did notice that Liquor was cheaper in St Maarten than St Thomas, however, you get a bigger exemption for St Thomas.
Last Sea Day
Enjoyed another full day at sea. We started at the 9:45 Character Breakfast and we had a blast. Lilo, Pluto, and Minnie all sat with Delaney at one point in time or another.
Lilo even started feeding her some of her Mickey waffle and Pluto pretended to steal her Jasmine backpack. Definitely one of the highlights of the cruise.
After that we headed to the line for the Princess Gathering and did all of that. Then, we took Delaney to the Club and went to the DVC general meeting, and again, did not win the $300 credit. Went back and got Delaney and grabbed a quick bite at Pluto's Dog House and then went to see Disney Dreams. Again another great show. Once that was over, we took Delaney to Tea with Alice where she was chosen to play the March Hare. Then off to the Celebrate the Journey graduation at 5, then ran to the club to pick her up so that we could make the 5:45 showing of Enchanted (which was really, really good). Then we had 30 minutes to get ready for Formal night and head to Dinner (Lobster! Yay!). Done at 10:00 and ready for bed. Whew...
Castaway Cay
The weather didn't really agree with us here, too windy and cold, but it did get better later in the day. That being said, we really, really liked Castaway Cay. Disney definitely did that one right. Got back and got ready to go to our night at Palo, which we were expecting great things from. Well, our server, Roberto, didn't seem too interested in waiting on us and seemed a bit miffed that we asked for iced teas instead of wine. Anyway, he suggested and brought us a Pizza which was really good and appetizers which were OK. Then he brought us a lemon sorbet to "cleanse our palette". Well we ate it and he came back and said, "It is already gone? This is not dessert!" Anyway the tone of it left us a bit miffed. We both had the tenderloin which was really good and he brought a bit of the lobster pasta which was also good. Then we got ready for the Chocolate Souffle after hearing so much about it. Roberto brings the souffles and after another 15 minutes of not seeing him, Jennifer mentions that shouldn't he have opened up the souffle and poured in some chocolate or sauce? I said yes, he probably should have, but by this time we were already full and just wanted him to come by the table so that we could leave. Other tables seemed to be getting taken care of very well and we were over on the other side like an afterthought. Also, we thought that even though the food was good, it wasn't any better than what you get in the dining room, so why pay more for it. Long story short, that was probably our last Palo outing.
On the plus side, we ended up concluding an add-on to our DVC membership before and after Palo, so all was not lost!
Disembarkation and General Observations
Disembarkation was very smooth. The only plus side of our late dining time was that we didn't have to eat breakfast until 7:45, then went right off of the boat, on to the Country Inn shuttle, dropped us right at our car, we packed up, went by Ron Jon, then headed to Saratoga Springs for Saturday's rainy Pirate and Princess Party (had fun).
We really had a great time on DCL and would definitely recommend it. That being said, we did have a couple of issues and for the premium Disney charges, they should do a better job at a couple of things. First, embarkation should be improved. Perhaps add some land-based crew to help the stateroom stewards to get the rooms ready. Second, Palo is very skippable. Lastly, and probably our biggest complaint about Disney was the Topsiders buffet. Not only was the food average at best and the layout very poor, the place hardly ever seemed to be open. In fact, on the Castaway Cay day, I don't think it was open at all after breakfast. But on other days, it would be closed at weird times as well. Came back from St Thomas at 2:30 on Wednesday, no Topsiders. You would think that they would anticipate lots of folks needing to eat after a day in port, but nope. Not open. Princess wins here again as their buffet is a 24/7 deal.
On the good side, the staterooms, the main dining rooms, the crew, kid's club and entertainers more than made up for this. By the end of the cruise, it seemed like all of the characters knew our daughter by name, in fact, at the good bye character gathering on Friday night, Wendy Darling even shouted out to her by name from the stairwell to say how much she would miss her. The cast and crew (except Roberto) really went out of their way to make this a magical experience and we will definitely do another disney cruise again!
Bottom line, you can't go wrong with either Princess or Disney. Bring on either one!
Brad...
Pre-Cruise
Drove down Friday from Birmingham, AL to Orlando (had to stop at the outlets and at WOD) then on to the Country Inn and Suites for our pre-cruise night stay and to meet Mom, Dad, and my Brother. The Country Inn and Suites was really, really nice and really, really close to the port. We booked a package for $125 that included 1 night hotel, parking for the duration of the cruise, and transfers to the port. I can't say enough good things about how smooth it was. I highly recommend this to all travelers. We got up Saturday morning and headed to the port about 10am hoping for upgrades...
Embarkation
... but there were none to be had. I have to say that during my review, I'll be doing some comparisons to Princess as we have done 4 previous cruises with them and this was our first venture outside. Anyway, I thought that the embarkation process was a nightmare. They didn't let anyone onboard until about noon, and then when they did, none of the staterooms were ready until 1:30. One thing that we really like better on Princess is that when they begin boarding, all rooms are ready (or at least that has been our experience) and you can go right to your room. On the Magic, we went to Topsiders (more on that later) and waited around with 500 or so of our new friends and about that many or more bags. We now know on our next DCL cruise not to board the ship before 1:30. Also, on Princess, our experience was that you went and checked in by Alphabetical groups (not one big line for many desks) which took all of 5 minutes then you walked right on the ship. With DCL it is a lot of hurry up and wait. Again, this would probably be better if you came later.
Day 1
Once in the room, we proceeded to unload and work on getting our door ready.
We were in a Category 11 (6131) and were very satisfied with the room. It had much more space than our last inside room on Princess. Our only thing with the room was that we would have loved more storage. We didn't get one of those steamer trunks in our room.
Then we went to the Oceaneer Club Open House and Delaney absolutely loved the slide. Did that for awhile and then went off to see my parents room. They had a cool Navigator's balcony on deck 7. I actually liked that setup better than the regular balcony. Got our Alice tea tickets and did a few other things exploring the ship and then got ready for dinner. We booked last April, and by that time, early seating was already gone, so we didn't eat until 8pm. This really didn't work for our daughter, so she only ate in the dining room a couple of times. Our servers were Toney (Head) and Trevor (Asst.). We really liked them both, though at times, it seemed to take forever to eat. We usually didn't get our entrees served to us until about 10 after 9. Anyway, we had our first dinner at Animators Palate and it was pretty good. The food was better than I had expected (don't really know what I was expecting), but still a hair below Princess. Didn't really get the gist of the show and when the restaurant is black and white, you kind of feel like you are in the middle of all those old generic products...
Lastly, sure seemed like the Magic rocked around a bit more than any other cruise we've been on. Anyone else notice this?
1st and 2nd Sea Days
Spent the day leisurely doing not much of anything. We checked Delaney into the club and went to the Dis Bag exchange. We took the Ohio bag/basket provided by love2crooze (thanks Mike and Mindy!) and had a blast. We enjoyed getting to meet everyone. After that, it was off to the DVC Member Celebration (this is why we had to move our Character Breakfast to Thursday) but didn't win anything. The guides told us that over 200 of the staterooms on the cruise were DVC members (probably due to this being the lowest point 7-night cruise) and they stayed extremely busy all week. Apparently the "best kept Disney secret" is out! Then went to lunch on deck. I then went to the matinee of the Golden Mickeys and Jennifer went to a Port Shopping talk and missed some of it, so we went back with Delaney at the 6:15 show. For those of you who were there, she was the 1st dwarf with Snow White who lost her shoe coming on stage and then couldn't keep her hat on. Truly a magical moment. Every time we saw Snow White after that on the ship she mentioned to Delaney about keeping her hat on.
On this note, I think that the true strength of DCL is the fantastic shows. I don't think that anyone else holds a candle to the Disney shows. The cast, scripts, and technical presentation were really good. I especially liked how they used the front screen in the Golden Mickey's to make Snow White, etc. look animated. Twice Charmed the next day was really good as well. Delaney loved all of the shows and at 4 1/2, they held her attention, which I was somewhat concerned about before we went.
Nothing else really to note on those sea days other than how nice it was to relax and take in the magic.
St. Maarten
Since we have been to St Maarten many times before, but my brother had never been, we decided to split up in the morning with Jennifer hitting Front Street for some power shopping while myself, Mom, Dad, Brother, and Delaney rented a car for $70 and headed around the island. We made a stop (i.e., Daddy, I need to potty) at the new Westin in Dawn Beach and it was really, really beautiful. Then we went through the orient beach complex and as we were leaving, about 3 Disney Cruise buses passed us coming in. Went through Grand Case, Marigot, Terre Basses, and then stopped in Maho to watch some planes land at the Sunset Beach Bar. Then stopped at our timeshare in Simpson Bay to say hello the manager, Marcel, then headed to the Grocery Store for Gouda and Ting. Went back to the ship for lunch and then spent a leisurely afternoon in Philipsburg which was much nicer and easier to deal with than Charlotte Amalie the next day. This was probably due to the fact that there were only two ships in that day.
That night we dressed up as Captain Hook (me), Elizabeth Swann in Dress (Jennifer), and pirate Elizabeth Swann (Delaney). Got a lot of good comments about our costumes. The Pirate party was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the fireworks. Truly a unique Disney touch.
St Thomas
Up and in line for Immigration at 7:00am. Went back to bed for an hour. Carried Delaney the whole time.
I honestly don't see what people love about St Thomas. I think that if the letters US weren't in front of VI, then this would be on the bottom of the list in ports. First off, we had to tender, which was a mess in itself. Took 45 minutes to get to town. Second, there were 7 ships in St Thomas that day, so we got to spend the day with about 17,500 of our best friends. Did just a little bit of shopping so that we could get our St Thomas liquor exemption and do the shopping drawings (Delaney won one of them!), and then back to the ship by 2:30pm. We did notice that Liquor was cheaper in St Maarten than St Thomas, however, you get a bigger exemption for St Thomas.
Last Sea Day
Enjoyed another full day at sea. We started at the 9:45 Character Breakfast and we had a blast. Lilo, Pluto, and Minnie all sat with Delaney at one point in time or another.
Lilo even started feeding her some of her Mickey waffle and Pluto pretended to steal her Jasmine backpack. Definitely one of the highlights of the cruise.
After that we headed to the line for the Princess Gathering and did all of that. Then, we took Delaney to the Club and went to the DVC general meeting, and again, did not win the $300 credit. Went back and got Delaney and grabbed a quick bite at Pluto's Dog House and then went to see Disney Dreams. Again another great show. Once that was over, we took Delaney to Tea with Alice where she was chosen to play the March Hare. Then off to the Celebrate the Journey graduation at 5, then ran to the club to pick her up so that we could make the 5:45 showing of Enchanted (which was really, really good). Then we had 30 minutes to get ready for Formal night and head to Dinner (Lobster! Yay!). Done at 10:00 and ready for bed. Whew...
Castaway Cay
The weather didn't really agree with us here, too windy and cold, but it did get better later in the day. That being said, we really, really liked Castaway Cay. Disney definitely did that one right. Got back and got ready to go to our night at Palo, which we were expecting great things from. Well, our server, Roberto, didn't seem too interested in waiting on us and seemed a bit miffed that we asked for iced teas instead of wine. Anyway, he suggested and brought us a Pizza which was really good and appetizers which were OK. Then he brought us a lemon sorbet to "cleanse our palette". Well we ate it and he came back and said, "It is already gone? This is not dessert!" Anyway the tone of it left us a bit miffed. We both had the tenderloin which was really good and he brought a bit of the lobster pasta which was also good. Then we got ready for the Chocolate Souffle after hearing so much about it. Roberto brings the souffles and after another 15 minutes of not seeing him, Jennifer mentions that shouldn't he have opened up the souffle and poured in some chocolate or sauce? I said yes, he probably should have, but by this time we were already full and just wanted him to come by the table so that we could leave. Other tables seemed to be getting taken care of very well and we were over on the other side like an afterthought. Also, we thought that even though the food was good, it wasn't any better than what you get in the dining room, so why pay more for it. Long story short, that was probably our last Palo outing.
On the plus side, we ended up concluding an add-on to our DVC membership before and after Palo, so all was not lost!
Disembarkation and General Observations
Disembarkation was very smooth. The only plus side of our late dining time was that we didn't have to eat breakfast until 7:45, then went right off of the boat, on to the Country Inn shuttle, dropped us right at our car, we packed up, went by Ron Jon, then headed to Saratoga Springs for Saturday's rainy Pirate and Princess Party (had fun).
We really had a great time on DCL and would definitely recommend it. That being said, we did have a couple of issues and for the premium Disney charges, they should do a better job at a couple of things. First, embarkation should be improved. Perhaps add some land-based crew to help the stateroom stewards to get the rooms ready. Second, Palo is very skippable. Lastly, and probably our biggest complaint about Disney was the Topsiders buffet. Not only was the food average at best and the layout very poor, the place hardly ever seemed to be open. In fact, on the Castaway Cay day, I don't think it was open at all after breakfast. But on other days, it would be closed at weird times as well. Came back from St Thomas at 2:30 on Wednesday, no Topsiders. You would think that they would anticipate lots of folks needing to eat after a day in port, but nope. Not open. Princess wins here again as their buffet is a 24/7 deal.
On the good side, the staterooms, the main dining rooms, the crew, kid's club and entertainers more than made up for this. By the end of the cruise, it seemed like all of the characters knew our daughter by name, in fact, at the good bye character gathering on Friday night, Wendy Darling even shouted out to her by name from the stairwell to say how much she would miss her. The cast and crew (except Roberto) really went out of their way to make this a magical experience and we will definitely do another disney cruise again!
Bottom line, you can't go wrong with either Princess or Disney. Bring on either one!
Brad...
) but have been there before with other servers we did not like. We went back twice with him last week.
and about froze. She did not want to cover her dress and did not want to wear anything under it. Oh well, live and learn.... Maybe that is why she is sick now!?!?!?!?!!?! 
