Just back from our 4 and 5 night B2B trip. We had a wonderful time and did lots of different things this trip.
The 4 night was go go go with all the port stops. We highly recommend the Aquarium in Key West. We stopped on our own and once you pay you can keep coming back all day to watch the various fish feedings. We spent a lot of time there. We shopped a little in Key West too, but just picked up small items for people back home.
Nassau, well we did the Greycliff chocolate tour through DCL and really enjoyed it. Our hostess was awesome and made it a lot of fun. After we got dropped off we fought through the crowds (5 ships were in) and got back on the ship. Now I read that there is a lot of crime and violence in Nassau, what I am curious is, if this is away from the shopping district. When traveling we saw a solid police presence and tons of people in the shopping area. I would think it would be difficult for someone not to get busted if they pulled something, the whole safety in numbers thing.
Rob Sanders on piano. I can't say enough about this guy. He is a DCL employee, but he played one full night in Keys and another night in O' Gills. He also played in the Lobby Atrium over a meal time and before the we will see you real soon event on the last night. While playing over the meals we watched the officers even getting into his music, dancing a bit, singing to some songs, etc. he is the first act we have ever heard anyone clap for in the atrium. He is just a special musician, that pours his heart into what he plays and the crowd definitely feels it too. If you like music he is a must see. We turned into groupies, but after his last performance he thanked us for showing up at all his shows, it meant a lot to him.
The other musicians on the ship we liked were Midtown, good singer and guitar playing. The normal piano guy was not for us, we tried to listen once but just couldn't get into it.
Alcohol, some minis may have ended up in our room, and because of this we ended up buying 5 or 6 drinks vs the none we were going to buy. I will say that picking up the alcohol on debarkation day is a joke, so we didn't buy any. When we have in the past we packed it carefully the night before so it would not break, that would be tough now, and if you have DCL transfer your luggage you are just out of luck. We did do the Mojito and Caipirinha tasting and it was a blast. It went way over time, but we ended up getting 5 drinks, well worth the 20 bucks.
Overall the cruise staff was awesome and we interacted with them a lot and many remembered us on the second cruise. I still think that the staff on the classics are way friendlier than on the newer ships, maybe because they have less people to deal with. We also ran into the same people on the ship which was nice.
I did run the Castaway 5k twice and managed my PB the 2nd trip which was awesome after not having run for 2 years
The weather was interesting. The first time at Castaway Cay it was so windy that they closed the snorkel lagoon. The second time was cool and overcast. The weather on the first cruise other than Castaway was very comfortable. The second cruise was very overcast with some rain, but we ignored the weather and did some stuff we haven't done before. My daughter and I did have a blast playing hoops on deck one night in a blinding rain it really reminded me of our Hawaii cruise in he Pacific where they broke out the blankets.
We did do our first Palo supper and another brunch. The supper was good and reminded me of an Italian place I ate as a kid, but it wasn't so great we would do it again. The brunch was awesome as usual.
The time off the ship between cruises was 55 minutes, it may have been less if we didn't have to wait 20 minutes for them to find a family that apparently wanted to stay on the ship.
We of course had a lot of magical moments, and witnessed a lot of kids having them too. Saw one of the princesses stop randomly and talk to a young girl.
Tangled was incredible, it was very well done and played to full crowds on both nights. Freddy Fusion was on the first cruise, and since we are not a fan we didn't watch. Max Winfrey and Ryan and friends were on the second trip and we enjoyed both of there shows. We also saw Star Wars and Bridge of Spies on board. Star Wars was really good, but Bridge of Spies really surprised me, this was a great movie.
We did notice that the future cruise desk was nowhere near as busy as previous cruises. The person was very rude to my wife too. Had it been any of the other people we have dealt with in the past we would have asked if rebookings onboard were down. My wife was talking to Captain Andy at the gold and platinum reception, and after my wife said we might not be back for a while due to price, he said that he has been seeing less people attending these receptions lately. We did book a placeholder in case the prices look better in a year, we hope so, but will see.
I did grab clean navigators if anyone is interested and there was a playbill for Tangled too. Overall it was another great trip, and you got a lot of info because we had 4 hours to wait for our flight Just posting this now because we had travel delays and got home over 7 hours late, that included waiting on the taxiway in Fort Lauderdale for 2.5 hours for a storm to pass so we could take off.
Oh yeah and the Magic was in great shape, we stayed in 5013, a sideways inside room.
The 4 night was go go go with all the port stops. We highly recommend the Aquarium in Key West. We stopped on our own and once you pay you can keep coming back all day to watch the various fish feedings. We spent a lot of time there. We shopped a little in Key West too, but just picked up small items for people back home.
Nassau, well we did the Greycliff chocolate tour through DCL and really enjoyed it. Our hostess was awesome and made it a lot of fun. After we got dropped off we fought through the crowds (5 ships were in) and got back on the ship. Now I read that there is a lot of crime and violence in Nassau, what I am curious is, if this is away from the shopping district. When traveling we saw a solid police presence and tons of people in the shopping area. I would think it would be difficult for someone not to get busted if they pulled something, the whole safety in numbers thing.
Rob Sanders on piano. I can't say enough about this guy. He is a DCL employee, but he played one full night in Keys and another night in O' Gills. He also played in the Lobby Atrium over a meal time and before the we will see you real soon event on the last night. While playing over the meals we watched the officers even getting into his music, dancing a bit, singing to some songs, etc. he is the first act we have ever heard anyone clap for in the atrium. He is just a special musician, that pours his heart into what he plays and the crowd definitely feels it too. If you like music he is a must see. We turned into groupies, but after his last performance he thanked us for showing up at all his shows, it meant a lot to him.
The other musicians on the ship we liked were Midtown, good singer and guitar playing. The normal piano guy was not for us, we tried to listen once but just couldn't get into it.
Alcohol, some minis may have ended up in our room, and because of this we ended up buying 5 or 6 drinks vs the none we were going to buy. I will say that picking up the alcohol on debarkation day is a joke, so we didn't buy any. When we have in the past we packed it carefully the night before so it would not break, that would be tough now, and if you have DCL transfer your luggage you are just out of luck. We did do the Mojito and Caipirinha tasting and it was a blast. It went way over time, but we ended up getting 5 drinks, well worth the 20 bucks.
Overall the cruise staff was awesome and we interacted with them a lot and many remembered us on the second cruise. I still think that the staff on the classics are way friendlier than on the newer ships, maybe because they have less people to deal with. We also ran into the same people on the ship which was nice.
I did run the Castaway 5k twice and managed my PB the 2nd trip which was awesome after not having run for 2 years
The weather was interesting. The first time at Castaway Cay it was so windy that they closed the snorkel lagoon. The second time was cool and overcast. The weather on the first cruise other than Castaway was very comfortable. The second cruise was very overcast with some rain, but we ignored the weather and did some stuff we haven't done before. My daughter and I did have a blast playing hoops on deck one night in a blinding rain
it really reminded me of our Hawaii cruise in he Pacific where they broke out the blankets. We did do our first Palo supper and another brunch. The supper was good and reminded me of an Italian place I ate as a kid, but it wasn't so great we would do it again. The brunch was awesome as usual.
The time off the ship between cruises was 55 minutes, it may have been less if we didn't have to wait 20 minutes for them to find a family that apparently wanted to stay on the ship.
We of course had a lot of magical moments, and witnessed a lot of kids having them too. Saw one of the princesses stop randomly and talk to a young girl.
Tangled was incredible, it was very well done and played to full crowds on both nights. Freddy Fusion was on the first cruise, and since we are not a fan we didn't watch. Max Winfrey and Ryan and friends were on the second trip and we enjoyed both of there shows. We also saw Star Wars and Bridge of Spies on board. Star Wars was really good, but Bridge of Spies really surprised me, this was a great movie.
We did notice that the future cruise desk was nowhere near as busy as previous cruises. The person was very rude to my wife too. Had it been any of the other people we have dealt with in the past we would have asked if rebookings onboard were down. My wife was talking to Captain Andy at the gold and platinum reception, and after my wife said we might not be back for a while due to price, he said that he has been seeing less people attending these receptions lately. We did book a placeholder in case the prices look better in a year, we hope so, but will see.
I did grab clean navigators if anyone is interested and there was a playbill for Tangled too. Overall it was another great trip, and you got a lot of info because we had 4 hours to wait for our flight
Just posting this now because we had travel delays and got home over 7 hours late, that included waiting on the taxiway in Fort Lauderdale for 2.5 hours for a storm to pass so we could take off. Oh yeah and the Magic was in great shape, we stayed in 5013, a sideways inside room.
