Live from the Magic, 2/4 to 2/11/2006

[Boxkite]

* The pizza. Need I say more? The kids thought it was the best, better than any pizza available back home. Every night, one of us would make our way up to pick up 4-5 slices of pizza and some cups of coke and come back to the stateroom for instant pizza party. We never bothered with room service.


Im spoiled.. I grew up in NYC... I havent had any decent pizza anywhere since I moved.

Bill, I agree that NYC pizza is the best. The pizza review was written from the point of view of the children not us adults!

* Allow extra time for traffic when you need to get to shore excursions not booked through DCL. We booked all of our shore excursions through Shoretrips dot Com and while we liked the shore excursions themselves, we did not always allow enough time to get from one place to another on St. Maarten. Take the estimated time and add at least another 20-30 minutes. Also, be aware that traffic gets even worse once school lets out at 1:00 PM!


We found out about this when we booked the Dolphin swim in Nassau. I book through the company wesite directly. Cuts out all the middlemen!

Yes Shoretrips took great care of our shore excursions and we will use them again. We will just allow more time for the traffic jams!

When I have more time I will written some shore excursion reviews, which will include reviews of the Islands themselves.

 

[D-Daddy]

OK - I have a question about the fireworks from your cabin. At what point in the party do they do the fireworks? I want to go to some of the party, but know that my kids will never make it up for the whole thing.

Someone please correct me if you think I'm mistaken, but I am very sure that the pirate party fireworks actually took place at 10:50PM. The Navigator listed the Pirate party from 9:45 til 11PM. I assumed that the fireworks would be at the very end of the night -- 11:00.

My DS-9 and I were walking around on Deck 10 thinking we'd get a good spot to see the fireworks -- which we did, but right about 10:45 Mickey appeared and within a few minutes kaBLAM kaBOOM!

They set off the fireworks from the front nose of the ship and they went off at midship on the port side only (over the water, of course) -- I wondered if they change to the starboard side depending on the wind?

I'll tell you something that I didn't know! I had no idea that they had a Pirates of the Caribbean snack (chili, turkey legs, chicken wings, fajitas) bar and dessert bar that stayed open til midnight! It looked great, but I was totally full by then.

-Jeff

 

[schinz]

The pirate party was great and kids really enjoyed it, although they were a bit tired. I'm not sure what time the fireworks were, but immediately after the place cleared out. I think is was actually closer to 10:30 - 10:45pm.

We have two girls, DD5 and DD7 and my nephew who is 10. We planned that day around the pirate party and are glad because the kids actually said that was one of their favorite times on the cruise. We went to the beach for the day in St. Maarten - yes the kids stayed in the water for the rain showers and came back to the ship around 4:00pm. We then showered and went up on deck for dinner instead of the dining room. Thus allowing for a late afternnon nap. We put the kids in for nap at 6:00pm with them complaining they wouldn't sleep but were out like a light - I guess all that swimming paid off - We had to wake them for the pirate party around 9:15pm. I then just put them in simple pirate attire - bandana, and hoop earring and off we went. The girls were a little sleepy for a while but then got into in and my nephew was off dancing from the get go. It was really fun and although we thought about letting the kids just sleep we're glad we didn't and they are too.

Hope you can plan the day so the kids can enjoy this but you have to do what is right for your kids. We saw several kids sleeping on their parents through the party and fireworks and I just wondered why they didn't put those poor kids to bed.

Just my two cents worth.

Stefanie

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

OK - I have a question about the fireworks from your cabin. At what point in the party do they do the fireworks? I want to go to some of the party, but know that my kids will never make it up for the whole thing.

The fireworks are at the very end of the party. We all went to the party, but my younger dd got very cranky, and we went back to the cabin (pre-food and pre-fireworks). But we did get to watch from the verandah, which was GREAT -- one of the highlights for her. It was probably 10:30, although I could be totally off.

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Am I alone in wishing that more reports focussed on the actual places visited? Seems to me that the size/content of a pizza is of more interest than touring areas of the world unseen before.

We have cruised umpteen times, but find friends and family are way more interested in the places we saw and details of the actual ship and activities - than in what we consumed daily. Come on folk............the food just ISNT important. Eat when you are hungry, but less of the details. We all know what is on offer aboard the ships!

You know, I found this post to be offensive. And maybe you didn't mean it to land that way; maybe you did.

After we spent 10 plus pages discussing everything we did on the cruise, you chose to pick at one portion of one post about pizza. Yes, there is discussion of food (which is an integral part of many cruisers' itineraries), but there is also a lot of discussion about the ports, the activities, etc. Please don't bemoan our collective recollections of our cruise -- when you cruise, you get to post your own version of your trip report.

 

[D-Daddy]

You know, I found this post to be offensive. And maybe you didn't mean it to land that way; maybe you did.

After we spent 10 plus pages discussing everything we did on the cruise, you chose to pick at one portion of one post about pizza. Yes, there is discussion of food (which is an integral part of many cruisers' itineraries), but there is also a lot of discussion about the ports, the activities, etc. Please don't bemoan our collective recollections of our cruise -- when you cruise, you get to post your own version of your trip report.

Hi Marcy!

If you take a look, several of the posters already expressed the same opinion that I had: I don't especially care about the ports! I like to know about everyone's experience on the boat -- good, bad or whatever!

Thank you to everyone who posted their cruise reviews. I've read every word of it!

-Jeff

 

[MarcyIn Florida]

Jeff,

I did take a look. I just wanted to add my two cents.

 

[Bigboy]

Well as a new cruiser, I want to know everything. So tell me about the food and the people and the places. I think your report was wonderful. Thank you Thank you Thank you

ps - I'm hungry for pizza right now and it is early in the morning.

 

[steveandtonya]

You know, I found this post to be offensive. And maybe you didn't mean it to land that way; maybe you did.

After we spent 10 plus pages discussing everything we did on the cruise, you chose to pick at one portion of one post about pizza. Yes, there is discussion of food (which is an integral part of many cruisers' itineraries), but there is also a lot of discussion about the ports, the activities, etc. Please don't bemoan our collective recollections of our cruise -- when you cruise, you get to post your own version of your trip report.

You tell him Marcy, I think you related your experiences regarding the cruise very well. I wish I was back there now. Hope everything is fine down there.

Steve and Tonya

 

[steveandtonya]

Since I started the cruise meet thread for this cruise a long time ago, I guess I'll be the last to post on this thread. Hope that we can cruise with you all again sometime. We are looking at May 2008. Wishing everyone the best in the future.

Steve, Tonya, Delaney, Zachary

 

[Billinaz]

We not only rebooked onboard for a date that we will hopefully transfer to Christmas 2008 but we also have ressies for back to back Wonder cruises in 2007.

We want to see whats its like to stay onboard at PC.