Just back from the 1/25 7-day Eastern cruise!

[debbiebones]

Hi everyone!

This was our first cruise with Disney and I have to say it was big hit with all in our party.

My parents came along with us and they absolutely loved it! We've all been on RCCL and Disney is right up there and better in some respects.

Food - Food was great! Especially Palo and DON'T miss it if you go! It's definitely worth the reservation. The meal and service were outstanding! The rest of our dinners were great as well. We chose to eat sit down breakfasts and lunches and that was very nice too...very relaxing and enjoyable.

Weather - Well, I think we picked a good week. It was very cold the day we left Port Canaveral but the further into the Caribbean we got, the better! AND, after a somewhat questionable day on Sunday (a bit windy and not as much sun), the Captain sailed 90 miles out of our way to give us a good weather day on Monday. From then on, it was great...albeit a bit showery on St. Thomas, but they were quick downpours and then the sun would reappear. Castaway Cay weather was fabulous...not too hot...not too cool and plenty of sunshine.

Shows - were fabulous and we didn't even make all of them. My parents went to more than we did and they thought they were outstanding.

Kids clubs - Our 4 year old daughter loved it but she did also spend a good deal of time with us. It's nice because she was able to pick and choose the times she wanted to be there and come back to us whenever she wanted. Our son who turned 3 the day we returned was not quite as ready and was a "typical 2-3 year old" meaning he had his good moments and bad moments. Like my mom said, "just because we're on a cruise...doesn't mean we should expect them to behave any better that home". I was disappointed that one of the few times our son went into the club, he took his "blue satin blankie" and set it down...never to be seen again. Our fault for letting hiim take it there but I was sure it would turn up in one of the lost and founds but it never did.

Our tablemates were wonderful and perfectly matched to us as they were couple in their late 30's-40 with a 4 year old daughter who bonded instantly with our daughter. Thanks Disney!

Our servers were fine...very nice although they didn't always remember our orders well and forgot the "little things regarding the kids" and were quite slow. Nothing too major though and I do have to say they were extremely pleasant to us.

Our cabin steward "Ike" was absolutely fantastic and became quite good friends with our son who fell in love with him! He really was the best and was extremely pleasant!

AND, the disembarking was flawless! I've never seen a more organized program! We didn't buy our flight through Disney but they still took care of our luggage and got it to the airport without further help from us...leaving us to spend our day at Downtown Disney without having to lug the suitcases around.

All in all, very enjoyable! Thanks for reading,

Deb

 

[Dancind]

Thanks for the report, Deb. Brings back great memories! Sorry you didn't get the usual wonderful DCL servers.

 

[nicurnc]

Thanks for the report-
There's not too much said about the eastern cruise these days.
What di you do in St. Thomas and St. Martin?

Loretta

 

[debbiebones]

Hi Loretta,

Well, our day in St. Maarten didn't pan out as expected because our son developed an ear infection the night before so instead of jumping in a cab in the morning for a day at the beach, we waited until later in the day to make sure he was feeling okay. Then, sometime after lunch, we took a water taxi to the island for $5 and there was a beach right there as we got off. That satisfied the kids and us for the afternoon.

On St. Thomas, we took an $18 taxi ride to Megan's Bay and spent the entire day on the beach there. It was crowded but still very nice and perfect for our 3 and 4 year old.

If the kids had been older, we would have ventured out more. Maybe next time.

Hope that helps,

Deb

 

[kajohn]

Were you happy with that beach in St. Maarten? That is what I was planning on doing that day. I thought the water taxi sounded like a good deal. Is it $5/pp for all day? That is what I had heard. I wanted to do some shopping in town also. I have been to St. Maarten before and didn't really like it, so I thought the beach by the ship would be good enough.

Also in St. Thomas was the charge to get to Megan's bay a set fee per person for the taxi? I heard it was $8 for the first person and $6 for each additional in your group. Is that correct?

Was Megan's Bay crowded? Were you able to rent chairs and umbrellas fairly easily?

Sorry for all the questions, but we leave Friday for next weeks sailing, so I'm trying to cram as much info into my brain as I can!

It was really great hearing so much about last weeks sailing. As the previous poster said, there isn't much info on the eastern itinerary these day!

4 days 28 minutes until we leave for our trip!!!

 

[debbiebones]

Hi Kelli,

Actually, I thought the beach right off the water taxi on St. Maarten was just fine. I'm sure there are prettier beaches but it was pretty enough for us and very convenient! And yes, it's $5 for the water taxi, you get a wrist band that covers you for the entire day. In fact, my husband bought his earlier in the day when he did a bit of shopping by himself, then he was able to use it again when he came back to the ship for me and the kids. AND...our 3 and 4 year olds rode for free!

In regards to Megan's Bay, we had heard that it was between $6 and $8 one way. When our very kind driver dropped us off, he said it would only be $18 for the 4 of us and we just gave him an even $20. I think you can get it cheaper if there are more people in the van but it was just the 4 of us.

The beach does get crowded but not to the point where it's unbearable and it's a long beach so if you walk a bit further, it's less crowded. We parked ourselves right by the restaurant and chair rental and we were fine. If we didn't have small children, we probably would have walked a bit further down. There are plenty of chairs to rent and I think they were only something like $4 or $6 plus a refundable deposit. The restaurant/bar was your typical outdoor style place. I thought their pizza and french fries were excellent and we just took them back to our chairs on the beach.

We had originally planned on going to Sapphire Beach but when we talked to a server at Palo, she thought we'd be happier at Megan's Bay with our small children because the waters are much calmer in the bay. We thought it was great! It's funny, once you have small children, you look more for convenience than anything else.

Hope that helps and have wonderful trip!

Deb

 

[kajohn]

Thanks Deb,

I feel much better about the plans I had made, now that I have a cruiser who had done the same thing just 2 weeks before!

 

[sandee]

My granddtr. loved Megan's bay. She could go out quite a distance and still only be in waist high water. She was always scared of the beaches near home because of the waves. Megan's bay was so calm she didn't want to leave to return to the ship. Your kids will love it and laying on a raft while looking at the lush tropical growth on the beautiful distant hills was like being in paradise. We also did the beach area right next to the ship on St. Martin's and enjoyed it too. Not as nice as Megan's bay but very convenient. I envy you.....enjoy your vacation!

 

[klynch]

Sounds like you really enjoyed the trip. I have a question, did the airlines take the bags from you at the Cruise Terminal when you were disembarking?

 

[debbiebones]

That's a good question and we had a pleasant surprise when we returned. We had not booked our flights through Disney, but through Northwest so we assumed we were on our own. Then the night before getting off the boat, we received a letter in our stateroom which listed all airlines that were among those who Disney would take care of the luggage.

All we did was leave it outside our room the night before. The morning of disembarking, all luggage was lined up inside the cruise terminal. we found our luggage, grabbed one of the guys with the dollies and they took it right outside where Northwest baggage handlers were there and checked our luggage through. We didn't have to worry about it again until we got home to Detroit.

That was a nice touch because we got off of the boat at 8:30 a.m. and our flight wasn't until 5:25 p.m. We drove our erntal car back to Orlando, spent the day walking around downtown Disney and we didn't have to worry about lugging around all those suitcases.

I do have to say (at least in our case) that Disney has a very efficient system in handling the luggage, better than any other I've seen on other cruise lines.

Deb

 

[>>^..^<<]

Thanx for the report


Having good table mates makes all the difference!

Servers seem to be hit or miss on the cruise... just like real life in any restaurant.

thanx again,

>>^..^<<