We just got back from the 4/13-4/20 Magic, our second DCL 7 day cruise. We had a wonderful time! Some things had changed since our first cruise - Halloween 2000, which was so terrific as well!
Here are some positive observations/notes:
We had fantastic weather! It rained a bit on Sunday, clouds & sun in St. Maarten & sun and blue skies the rest of the time, calm seas. Jim the Cruise Director mentioned that the previous two cruises did not have good weather at all.
No one we encountered complained of sea sickness, just bloat from eating too much! The Sun. dessert buffet was larger than I remembered it from the first cruise. All I can say is WOW! 50 zillion calories!
We were a party of six- DH,DD(11) & me. We traveled with our friends and their DD (10). It was my DD's 11th Bday on St. Thomas Day. She had a blast! They presented her with a choc. Bday cake with a white choc Happy Bday ribbon with a pic of the Magic printed on it in dark choc! Her friend gave her the big white Mickey hands as one of her gifts. The photographer saw them & the b day cake through the Lumiere's window. She came in & got the two girls & took their pic with Goofy, Chip & Dale in the Atrium. They started dancing with the girls all over the Atrium! My DD & Goofy started to do high "4's"with their white gloves!
This was indeed the Northeast cruise- the ship was full. NE school vacation. Mass, CT, RI were the 3 dominate groups there. We had the pleasure of meeting Joan S. & Leslie, their families and the others that made up their party of 17. What a truly nice group of people!!
There were close to 1000 kids under the age of 17. Robin, the Activities Director commented how well behaved the kids were on this cruise. I agree! There were many groups of teenagers hanging out together on Deck 9 and 10 late in the evening. They were quiet and polite and looked like they were having a great time together. The Goofy pool was a bit crowded on sea days, but not too bad. The Mickey Pool was swarming with the under 6 set! The lab had a private Mickey Pool party one evening for the 10-12 group, so they could use the slide. I didn't see many big kids in the Mickey Pool at all. We got deck chairs, with no problem and seats for the show, no problem at all. There weren't a lot of kids wandering around in the halls or on the elevators. Our kids loved the lab- the activities and the computers, which they just upgraded, new games. They did say they had to fight the boys a lot to get on the computers- but they were successful!
I tried the Rain Forest Room this time and loved it! I also tried Bingo this time( first time playing it as an adult) and I won $266!! It paid for all the pics I bought! Bought 1 soda mug, didn't use it much- nice souvenier. I liked the old system using a coke bottle sticker on the card better.
We didn't do any DCL excursions this cruise. We rented a car from Hertz at the Port- a soft top Jeep, drove to the french side. Visited the butterfly farm (cute, but the Bronx Zoo has more butterflies & a better set up in their Butterfly Zone) and went to Orient Beach from about 10 to 1:30PM. It was cloudy, but sun was strong. Love those lounge chairs! We made a wrong turn going in and drove right up to Club Orient!!LOL!! Saw two old naked men walk by & we knew we were on the wrong side of the beach! We headed out of there quick. The family beach is on the Left side. The girls had their hair braided by two very sweet women there. Cute, cornrow headband style with beads- $1.00 a braid. The ship's hairbraiding was booked for the entire cruise by 10AM Sun. morning, so if you want to do it on the ship, go early for reservations, by the Goofy pool. They seemed to do a nice job too. Had lunch in Marigot by the Marina, shopped in the boutiques and in the open air Market place. Back to the Port by 4:30PM. The new Port is so nice. Last time we tendered in to Bobby's Marina.
We took a taxi to Magaen's Bay in St. Thomas. Water was clear, no waves -beautiful day. Rented a kayak for an hour, swam & back to the ship by 12:30PM. Showered, changed, ate lunch and back to Charlotte Amalie for shopping. We did St. John last cruise, which took most of the day. Love St. John though! I wish St. Thomas day was longer!
The family game shows at 7:45PM were fun too. My DH & DD won the Mickey Mania contest. They received two DCL "I'm a winner" gold medals, complete with red,white & blue ribbons. The TV show trivia one was fun too!
Castaway Cay was great. What a beautiful island! We slept in & got off the ship late- about 10AM. We got a beautiful spot under two palm trees by the snorkeling area. Never made over to Serenity Bay. Rented kayaks, snorkeled, walked around, had fun!
Clifford was our steward. He made blanket animals instead of ones from towels- much bigger, so cool! He was so accomodating!The food in the dining rooms seemed to be better than our first trip. Our servers Sacheet & Leeroy were terrific. Our Head Server Christophe was alot of fun too. They were tricksters... Sacheet served me a rubber chicken that squawked one night and pretended to drop a fake cappechino (sp?)on me!I got him back though... We dined with the ship's safety officer- Bengt, from Norway which was very interesting. He said he's been with DCL four years and has gotten off the ship only four times. The officers work very long hours, but they love it- very dedicated. Palo's brunch and dinner were outstanding- Marianna was our server. She was great and so much fun- great sense of humor. We made the mistake of going to Palo's on Fri @ 8PM though. We didn't get out of there until 10:30 & still had to pack by 11PM ( We did, but frantically...)
We were told the Magic's rear stack was going to be worked on. The crane was waiting for the ship when we got to Port. We stayed at the Radisson on Sat., rented a car from Avis. What a great place! We had the $99 2 king bed suite- very spacious- great pool! Nice people at Radisson & Avis! Went to Kennedy Space Ctr. for the day, did the Up Close tour, well worth the extra money. Saw everything by 4PM, except IMAX movies- too tired... Made time for Ron Jon's- really cool place! The crane was still up & the Magic was in Port when our friends drove by just before 8PM that night! I read on the boards they sailed shortly after.
I hope this post helps those of you that are concerned about DCL cruises. We had a great time! We will probably be booking a Western route 2003 cruise soon!
- Linda
Here are some positive observations/notes:
We had fantastic weather! It rained a bit on Sunday, clouds & sun in St. Maarten & sun and blue skies the rest of the time, calm seas. Jim the Cruise Director mentioned that the previous two cruises did not have good weather at all.
No one we encountered complained of sea sickness, just bloat from eating too much! The Sun. dessert buffet was larger than I remembered it from the first cruise. All I can say is WOW! 50 zillion calories!We were a party of six- DH,DD(11) & me. We traveled with our friends and their DD (10). It was my DD's 11th Bday on St. Thomas Day. She had a blast! They presented her with a choc. Bday cake with a white choc Happy Bday ribbon with a pic of the Magic printed on it in dark choc! Her friend gave her the big white Mickey hands as one of her gifts. The photographer saw them & the b day cake through the Lumiere's window. She came in & got the two girls & took their pic with Goofy, Chip & Dale in the Atrium. They started dancing with the girls all over the Atrium! My DD & Goofy started to do high "4's"with their white gloves!
This was indeed the Northeast cruise- the ship was full. NE school vacation. Mass, CT, RI were the 3 dominate groups there. We had the pleasure of meeting Joan S. & Leslie, their families and the others that made up their party of 17. What a truly nice group of people!!
There were close to 1000 kids under the age of 17. Robin, the Activities Director commented how well behaved the kids were on this cruise. I agree! There were many groups of teenagers hanging out together on Deck 9 and 10 late in the evening. They were quiet and polite and looked like they were having a great time together. The Goofy pool was a bit crowded on sea days, but not too bad. The Mickey Pool was swarming with the under 6 set! The lab had a private Mickey Pool party one evening for the 10-12 group, so they could use the slide. I didn't see many big kids in the Mickey Pool at all. We got deck chairs, with no problem and seats for the show, no problem at all. There weren't a lot of kids wandering around in the halls or on the elevators. Our kids loved the lab- the activities and the computers, which they just upgraded, new games. They did say they had to fight the boys a lot to get on the computers- but they were successful!
I tried the Rain Forest Room this time and loved it! I also tried Bingo this time( first time playing it as an adult) and I won $266!! It paid for all the pics I bought! Bought 1 soda mug, didn't use it much- nice souvenier. I liked the old system using a coke bottle sticker on the card better.
We didn't do any DCL excursions this cruise. We rented a car from Hertz at the Port- a soft top Jeep, drove to the french side. Visited the butterfly farm (cute, but the Bronx Zoo has more butterflies & a better set up in their Butterfly Zone) and went to Orient Beach from about 10 to 1:30PM. It was cloudy, but sun was strong. Love those lounge chairs! We made a wrong turn going in and drove right up to Club Orient!!LOL!! Saw two old naked men walk by & we knew we were on the wrong side of the beach! We headed out of there quick. The family beach is on the Left side. The girls had their hair braided by two very sweet women there. Cute, cornrow headband style with beads- $1.00 a braid. The ship's hairbraiding was booked for the entire cruise by 10AM Sun. morning, so if you want to do it on the ship, go early for reservations, by the Goofy pool. They seemed to do a nice job too. Had lunch in Marigot by the Marina, shopped in the boutiques and in the open air Market place. Back to the Port by 4:30PM. The new Port is so nice. Last time we tendered in to Bobby's Marina.
We took a taxi to Magaen's Bay in St. Thomas. Water was clear, no waves -beautiful day. Rented a kayak for an hour, swam & back to the ship by 12:30PM. Showered, changed, ate lunch and back to Charlotte Amalie for shopping. We did St. John last cruise, which took most of the day. Love St. John though! I wish St. Thomas day was longer!
The family game shows at 7:45PM were fun too. My DH & DD won the Mickey Mania contest. They received two DCL "I'm a winner" gold medals, complete with red,white & blue ribbons. The TV show trivia one was fun too!
Castaway Cay was great. What a beautiful island! We slept in & got off the ship late- about 10AM. We got a beautiful spot under two palm trees by the snorkeling area. Never made over to Serenity Bay. Rented kayaks, snorkeled, walked around, had fun!
Clifford was our steward. He made blanket animals instead of ones from towels- much bigger, so cool! He was so accomodating!The food in the dining rooms seemed to be better than our first trip. Our servers Sacheet & Leeroy were terrific. Our Head Server Christophe was alot of fun too. They were tricksters... Sacheet served me a rubber chicken that squawked one night and pretended to drop a fake cappechino (sp?)on me!I got him back though... We dined with the ship's safety officer- Bengt, from Norway which was very interesting. He said he's been with DCL four years and has gotten off the ship only four times. The officers work very long hours, but they love it- very dedicated. Palo's brunch and dinner were outstanding- Marianna was our server. She was great and so much fun- great sense of humor. We made the mistake of going to Palo's on Fri @ 8PM though. We didn't get out of there until 10:30 & still had to pack by 11PM ( We did, but frantically...)
We were told the Magic's rear stack was going to be worked on. The crane was waiting for the ship when we got to Port. We stayed at the Radisson on Sat., rented a car from Avis. What a great place! We had the $99 2 king bed suite- very spacious- great pool! Nice people at Radisson & Avis! Went to Kennedy Space Ctr. for the day, did the Up Close tour, well worth the extra money. Saw everything by 4PM, except IMAX movies- too tired... Made time for Ron Jon's- really cool place! The crane was still up & the Magic was in Port when our friends drove by just before 8PM that night! I read on the boards they sailed shortly after.
I hope this post helps those of you that are concerned about DCL cruises. We had a great time! We will probably be booking a Western route 2003 cruise soon!
- Linda
