January 28, 2012-do you believe in MAGIC?

[sissy_ib]

I totally forgot today was the day! All checked in and I have dinner at Palo for the day I get married!

 

[castawaycayfans]

I think that we have decided on Bernards Tours for St Maarten, after several recommendations. We didn't wait to spend all day at the beach and this will give us a little bit of everything. It is looking like Doubloon for St Thomas, we did it on our last cruise and had a great time. We are skipping Palo this time, maybe next time!

 

[DCLdarren]

Wanted to say hello to all of you (i.e. to stop being lazy and post!) Will be on the cruise with you and can't wait, in fact can't believe it's such a short time away now.
This will be my 7th Disney cruise although I'm as excited as if it were my first.

I'm crusing solo this time so looking forward to take it easy and try not to do too much (although whether that will happen I'll have to see).

Haven't really thought about any shore excursions yet although managed to get Palo for brunch on the second sea day and looking forward to that, the brunch in there is always amazing.

Take care, hope everyone isn't having too much of a depressing Monday, if so just think in 10 weeks we'll all be relaxing on-board.

 

[heyshanny]

I am beyond excited for this cruise! We really need a vacation. I have a couple questions for y'all:

Has anyone played Bingo on board? Anyone know about how much it runs?

When is the FE cut off? We are signed up and I'd like to go ahead and buy some items for the exchange. I want to make sure I get enough for everyone.

We were able to get Palo reservations for dinner but I'd LOVE to do tea and a brunch too. Does anyone know where to do for in person reservations since they are sold out online?

Thanks everyone! Can't wait to see you all on the Magic!!!

 

[pag1164]

Hi everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the U.S..
I'm hoping my travel agent did my check-in for me. She said she would, but she's out of town now for the holidays. We're starting to get very excited here. We should try to arrange a time and place for all of us to meet. I was very happy to get my parasailing excursion for CC booked. Anyone else going up?

 

[AngieEstaAqui]

I am beyond excited for this cruise! We really need a vacation. I have a couple questions for y'all:

Has anyone played Bingo on board? Anyone know about how much it runs?

When is the FE cut off? We are signed up and I'd like to go ahead and buy some items for the exchange. I want to make sure I get enough for everyone.

We were able to get Palo reservations for dinner but I'd LOVE to do tea and a brunch too. Does anyone know where to do for in person reservations since they are sold out online?

Thanks everyone! Can't wait to see you all on the Magic!!!

The FE cutoff is Dec. 28th. I was able to get brunch at Palo, but would love to have tea, as well. I called Disney and they told me to head straight to Guest Services upon boarding to make this request. HTH.

 

[Katekins13]

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I just switched our April booking to this cruise because I just found out (on Thanksgiving!!!) that I am pregnant and will be too far along the end of April.

We did the Western Caribbean last January and are really looking forward to doing the Eastern Caribbean!

I haven't looked through the whole thread yet, but I will to see what everyone is doing as excursions and info on the FE (if there is still time to join).

 

[DCL Cruiser]

Can't believe we sail 8 weeks from this Saturday. We will be flying down 8 weeks from today.

Got an email from DCL regarding our reservation (not sure why because we've been booked for a while and didn't change anything) the other day. I noticed on there that it says we are tendering in St. Thomas. Did anyone else see that anywhere?

We haven't tendered in St. Thomas since our first cruise there about 8 years ago. We've always docked, even in January when we've been there.

Not the end of the world, just not as convenient. We weren't going to do much that day anyways, probably just do some shopping and take the tram to Paradise Point. Maybe be off the ship about 2 hours.

 

[mcubit]

That is interesting. So will we be docking at the same location then, or a different port on the island? This is our 1st Eastern cruise so do not know the ports very well.

 

[DCL Cruiser]

That is interesting. So will we be docking at the same location then, or a different port on the island? This is our 1st Eastern cruise so do not know the ports very well.

If we do indeed tender, the ship will drop anchor out in the harbor. Small boats (some cruise lines use their life boats) will come up along side the ship and passengers will load off a dock type system they have on the ship.

You won't be able to just walk off onto land.

Also, on the way back, you will get in line for one of the boats to take you back to the ship.

They do this all the time on the Western cruises when they go to Grand Cayman (there is no dock there). So if you've done a western, you've tendered before.

 

[DCL Cruiser]

That is interesting. So will we be docking at the same location then, or a different port on the island? This is our 1st Eastern cruise so do not know the ports very well.

I should have added that you don't want to dock at the other docking location in St. Thomas as it is way away from everything. Tendering would actually be better than the other dock.

But nothing beats docking at the normal cruise ship dock.

Somewhere on the web the list of ships in port that day should be listed. I'm thinking there will be more than 3 cruise ships (which is the max at the normal dock) in that day.

 

[DCL Cruiser]

Just found the schedule for February 1, 2012, the day we will be in St. Thomas. The link is here. You'll have to page forward to get to February.

Looks like there are 7 ships in St. Thomas that day (some of them huge). Talk about busy.

They include:

Carnival Glory (110,000 tons) - WICO
Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas (160,000 tons) - WICO
Norwegian Epic (156,000 tons) - WICO

Holland America Eurodam (122,000 tons) - CB
Grand Princess (109,000 tons) - CB

Disney Magic (83,00 tons) - Anchorage
Celebrity Solstice (122,000 tons) - Anchorage
​

WICO is the West Indian Company Dock (this is the main dock).
CB is Crown Bay Dock (this is the one way on the other side of the bay).
Anchorage means they are dropping anchor.

 

[Buzz & Woody]

Hi everyone. This time around I am the worst poster. Usually when we are planning a Disney vacation I am on the disboards all the time. But this time I have hardly posted and feel horrible. This will be our fourth cruise on the magic. There is eh, myself and our two boys ages 9 and 11. But this time we are going with our whole family for my inlaws 40th Annoversary. If i total it all up there willbe 17 of us traveling together. And we can't wait. Dh and the kids and I are flying out a week early and going to Miami or somewhere further south the. To Disney and to the cruise. Hope everyone is having a great fall and are getting ready for the holidays. We are just the other side of the US border. On niagara on the lake and don't have any snow yet. Take care

 

[castawaycayfans]

Time is flying by...getting excited about the cruise. I bought a new dress for formal night, time to retire the other one, much to teenage DD's happiness. She has become my fashion critic and all items must be approved by her, which is kind of funny since up until now she didn't care what I had on. It is starting to sink in that we leave in little over a month I can't wait!

 

[heyshanny]

So who's decorating their stateroom doors?? I need to work on my magnets after the holidays. Honestly I don't really know where to start. But I sure love looking at all the decorated doors on the ship!

 

[castawaycayfans]

We will be decorating our door! DH makes a drawing, I am always in awe of what he is able to do. I will be making some sort of magnets, I haven't decided yet. I just need to make it through Christmas first and maybe things will slow down a bit. The cruise is sneaking up on me!

 

[DCL Cruiser]

Less than 6 weeks folks. Get to new years and we're under 4.

We will be decorating our door. We'll look for some Disney images online and just print to magnet paper and then cut them out. We're not much of "designers", so we cheat.

We too like looking at all the decorated doors. Some people go all out.

 

[DCL Cruiser]

We have all our plans set now for our trip. Just moved our reservation for the Plaza on the Friday before the cruise from Dinner to Lunch. Now we can leave for port that afternoon/night whenever we want as we're not tied down to a specific time in the evening.

 

[DCL Cruiser]

Question, were there any DIS meets planned for the cruise?

 

[castawaycayfans]

OUR CRUISE DOCS CAME TO DAY!!! DOING THE HAPPY DANCE!!!