Cheryl in PA
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2002
- Messages
- 44
We returned yesterday from the March 23rd Magic and I am here to tell you it was an AMAZING trip! I wanted to offer my brief opinions. The kids are in withdrawl from the experience and are begging to do this again. It was a great family vacation and one that we won't forget anytime soon. Disney does it right!
First, I am here to say that we did not get on the ship until about 1:30 and unlike what you hear on this board, we were in line with HUNDREDS of others and were still able to get Palo reservations as well as the surial mud bath at the spa with NO problems! I was so anxious about our flight being in the late morning and not being the first to get on the ship. It didn't matter whatsoever. We were able to have a lovely Topsiders buffet and make our reservations after that. My feeling is, do not make yourself crazy with anxiety, it will work out!
We loved our Category 4 stateroom. We were in 8500, as far forward as you can get! It was quiet, very spacious fo our family of four. I am a horrible packer and we had tons of room! We didn't even use all of the drawers! Our verandah was lovely and well worth it, in my opinion. As this was our fourth cruise, 1st with Disney, I am glad we did the verandah. Rodolpho was our host and he was terrific. Always smiling, towel animals a true peice of artwork! We never once used room service, didn't find the need to. I am a huge coffee drinker and there was plenty of it on deck nine, just one deck up!
I used the fitness center daily and it was always crowded at opening time, 7:00. So if you can wait to work out later, it may be less crowded.
The pool. This was the ONLY area of the ship that you feel the overwhelming numbers of people on the ship. YES, people reserve chairs as early as 7:00 AM even though you are not supposed to. No one stops rude families from reserving 10 chairs everyday! My advice, get up and save one chair for your family early or on at sea days you will not find a chair anywhere! On Thursday, our last at-sea day, people were viscious about their chairs. I was waiting to see a fistfight over a chair!
The shows were terrific and highly entertaining. We saw all of them and the kids loved them too. Disney Dreams is not to be missed! Brings tears to your eyes even if you are not a Disney fanatic!
St. Maarten - BRING EXTRA STRENGTH SUN SCREEN! Our son got very burnt, blisters and all even after using 45 sunscreen and applying it multople times! The sun is very strong and intense. We went to Kakoe beach at Orient Beach and rented comfy chairs, umbrella and towels. Well worth it. The kids loved it, met up with other kids to play with and we had a great time. But rememeber, the Caribbean sun is very strong so beware!
St. Thomas - Shopping is great at Charlote Amalie. We also went to Magen's Bay Beach and had another very sunny afternoon there. We rented chairs there as well. We brought towels from the ship that day and good thing, cause there were no towels to rent.
We took taxis at both islands with NO PROBLEMS! The locals are friendly and want you to have a nice day at their island. We made arrangements at both islands for taxis to come and get us when we were finished with our beach time. They came back at the arranged time, no worries!
There is plenty to do on board during the day if you don't want to be at the pool. There are movies, games, kids club activities galore. We had to investigate all of that due to our son's burns from the sun. He was busy all day making flubber in the kids club, seeing the Snow Dogs movie, going to the arcade, eating ice cream etc.
Our daughter (almost 11) made friends, had a great time hanging out at the pool, beach and kids club with kids her age. Our son (7 1/2) enjoyed the planned activities at his club and liked his counselors. He didn't really make attachments to other kids but still enjoyed it just the same.
I'd say we utilized the kids club about 10 % of the time, the rest of the time the kids were with us. There were days they never went to the kids club at all.
We had late seating APLAPLA. Truthfully, there are pros and cons to late seating. Not sure what I would do the next time. We are all exhausted at the end of a long day and it was hard for the kids to sit through dinner each night without looking like they were going to fall into their food! Our servers were AWESOME and we had an attachment to them. Girish and Stipe were excellent, friendly, helpful, and personable. We will miss them.
There were some nights when we went to the show, gave the kids dinner at topsiders and then took them to kids club when we went to dinner. Everyone was happy with that arrangement.
Things to bring and not--Forget the two way radios. We brought ours, tried to use them once, picked up everyone elses conversations and never used them again. The extension cord was VERY helpful as I did bring my own hairdryer and needed to plug it in by the desk. Bring your own dryer if you like your hair a certain way since the dryer there is not strong. We did bring our own hair conditioner as well. We did not bring our own sodas, water, liquor or anything else. We did get the kids each a package from The Perfect Gift which was a really nice surprise for them. We had an underwater camera in there for each of them with chips, sodas, and candies. I even surprised my husband with a package with his favorite beer, pretzels, brownies and cookies. Nice for a late afternoon snack.
Castaway Cay was a highlight and we rented the bikes, floats and snorkels. It was a great day. Do get off the ship immediately upon docking as people RACE for seats! They do. So, if you want an umbrella, get off the ship and walk directly to the family beach to get one. You will not get an umbrella if you wait. There are plenty of chairs though. We were in the first 20 to get off the ship and did NOT get a hammock. We did get an umbrella with four chairs. We loved it there.
What I learned from this board and from my trip.
1. Relax---it will all work out.
2. Have your own experience. Others details are great for some things but can make you crazy.
3.
First, I am here to say that we did not get on the ship until about 1:30 and unlike what you hear on this board, we were in line with HUNDREDS of others and were still able to get Palo reservations as well as the surial mud bath at the spa with NO problems! I was so anxious about our flight being in the late morning and not being the first to get on the ship. It didn't matter whatsoever. We were able to have a lovely Topsiders buffet and make our reservations after that. My feeling is, do not make yourself crazy with anxiety, it will work out!
We loved our Category 4 stateroom. We were in 8500, as far forward as you can get! It was quiet, very spacious fo our family of four. I am a horrible packer and we had tons of room! We didn't even use all of the drawers! Our verandah was lovely and well worth it, in my opinion. As this was our fourth cruise, 1st with Disney, I am glad we did the verandah. Rodolpho was our host and he was terrific. Always smiling, towel animals a true peice of artwork! We never once used room service, didn't find the need to. I am a huge coffee drinker and there was plenty of it on deck nine, just one deck up!
I used the fitness center daily and it was always crowded at opening time, 7:00. So if you can wait to work out later, it may be less crowded.
The pool. This was the ONLY area of the ship that you feel the overwhelming numbers of people on the ship. YES, people reserve chairs as early as 7:00 AM even though you are not supposed to. No one stops rude families from reserving 10 chairs everyday! My advice, get up and save one chair for your family early or on at sea days you will not find a chair anywhere! On Thursday, our last at-sea day, people were viscious about their chairs. I was waiting to see a fistfight over a chair!
The shows were terrific and highly entertaining. We saw all of them and the kids loved them too. Disney Dreams is not to be missed! Brings tears to your eyes even if you are not a Disney fanatic!
St. Maarten - BRING EXTRA STRENGTH SUN SCREEN! Our son got very burnt, blisters and all even after using 45 sunscreen and applying it multople times! The sun is very strong and intense. We went to Kakoe beach at Orient Beach and rented comfy chairs, umbrella and towels. Well worth it. The kids loved it, met up with other kids to play with and we had a great time. But rememeber, the Caribbean sun is very strong so beware!
St. Thomas - Shopping is great at Charlote Amalie. We also went to Magen's Bay Beach and had another very sunny afternoon there. We rented chairs there as well. We brought towels from the ship that day and good thing, cause there were no towels to rent.
We took taxis at both islands with NO PROBLEMS! The locals are friendly and want you to have a nice day at their island. We made arrangements at both islands for taxis to come and get us when we were finished with our beach time. They came back at the arranged time, no worries!
There is plenty to do on board during the day if you don't want to be at the pool. There are movies, games, kids club activities galore. We had to investigate all of that due to our son's burns from the sun. He was busy all day making flubber in the kids club, seeing the Snow Dogs movie, going to the arcade, eating ice cream etc.
Our daughter (almost 11) made friends, had a great time hanging out at the pool, beach and kids club with kids her age. Our son (7 1/2) enjoyed the planned activities at his club and liked his counselors. He didn't really make attachments to other kids but still enjoyed it just the same.
I'd say we utilized the kids club about 10 % of the time, the rest of the time the kids were with us. There were days they never went to the kids club at all.
We had late seating APLAPLA. Truthfully, there are pros and cons to late seating. Not sure what I would do the next time. We are all exhausted at the end of a long day and it was hard for the kids to sit through dinner each night without looking like they were going to fall into their food! Our servers were AWESOME and we had an attachment to them. Girish and Stipe were excellent, friendly, helpful, and personable. We will miss them.
There were some nights when we went to the show, gave the kids dinner at topsiders and then took them to kids club when we went to dinner. Everyone was happy with that arrangement.
Things to bring and not--Forget the two way radios. We brought ours, tried to use them once, picked up everyone elses conversations and never used them again. The extension cord was VERY helpful as I did bring my own hairdryer and needed to plug it in by the desk. Bring your own dryer if you like your hair a certain way since the dryer there is not strong. We did bring our own hair conditioner as well. We did not bring our own sodas, water, liquor or anything else. We did get the kids each a package from The Perfect Gift which was a really nice surprise for them. We had an underwater camera in there for each of them with chips, sodas, and candies. I even surprised my husband with a package with his favorite beer, pretzels, brownies and cookies. Nice for a late afternoon snack.
Castaway Cay was a highlight and we rented the bikes, floats and snorkels. It was a great day. Do get off the ship immediately upon docking as people RACE for seats! They do. So, if you want an umbrella, get off the ship and walk directly to the family beach to get one. You will not get an umbrella if you wait. There are plenty of chairs though. We were in the first 20 to get off the ship and did NOT get a hammock. We did get an umbrella with four chairs. We loved it there.
What I learned from this board and from my trip.
1. Relax---it will all work out.
2. Have your own experience. Others details are great for some things but can make you crazy.
3.
It is ashame that people have to be so greedy
I don't need anything that badly. Thanks also for the tip on the sunscreen. God bless and HAPPY EASTER!
