Magic Cruise (Eastern) Feb5-12

[4snowescapees]

We tremendously enjoyed our eastern cruise this past week. The weather in St. Martin was splendid! St. Thomas Doubloon excursion was the highlight of the trip! We were unable to dock at Castaway Cay (we've been there before so we knew what we were missing), but the additional day at sea was still completely enjoyed. Already booked for next year! Going on the western cruise again. Spent the day at the Magic Kingdom so that we didn't have 10 hours in the airport. Wouldn't use a small airline again...Air Tran Air...ugggh. What a super trip! Kids are already missing the lab counselors and table servers!

 

[DiaLady]

We had trouble when we flew Air Tran with our last cruise, but we were planning to try again since they are the only direct flight to Orlando from NN (saves like 3 hours). Was your plane delayed? We waited almost 8 hours last time. . ..

Thanks!

 

[4snowescapees]

We were not aware that there was no curbside assistance, but were ok with that; however, once inside the ticketing section we had to handle all of our baggage to the counter to be weighed and labelled. Also had to carry it from there to the xray screening machine. Kind of tricky with carry-ons and 2 small kids. But the plane was filthy. On the flight home, my seat was covered with melted chocolate and crunched up pretzels. The flight attendant copped an attitude. Eventually she wiped it off with a wet piece of paper and I sat on a magazine the entire way home since they do not have blankets or anything extra on board. Nothing we couldn't deal with, but will pay for a bigger carrier next time. Hope this helps.

 

[mickeyfan9194]

We also had a FABULOUS time on this cruise, in spite of missing Castaway Cay. Our servers (Roberto & Baiyok) and stateroom host (Calvin) were the greatest. We've rebooked for October 2006 on a special Western with TWO stops at Castaway Cay to make up for the one we missed. Our children are a little older (DS10 and DS13), but they said it was the best vacation we've taken. They did a lot with us, but my DH & I had plenty of "couple time" too. The shows were wonderful! My DS10 & I did the Dolphin encounter on Anguilla (had a blast!), and DH and DS13 did the 12 meter Regatta (couldn't stop talking about how fun it was). We cancelled our snorkeling excursion on St. John when they changed locations, but had a great time exploring and shopping on St. Thomas instead. You know, as much as I planned ahead of time to know what we'd be doing every minute of every day, very little of that ACTUALLY happened. It was good to be prepared, but not too rigid. Obviously, I was disppointed about Castaway Cay and not getting to St. John, but that's the way it goes. We found lots of other fun things to do instead. I also thought that registering for the kids clubs and getting Palo reservations wasn't that difficult (and we didn't get checked in until 1:00 or so). We didn't have to wait long at all for St. Thomas immigration (maybe 20 minutes total), but we were in the first group so that may have made a difference. All in all, we had a GREAT time!!!

 

[Popovich]

SnowEscapees,
We just returned from the 11/27 Eastern and had a terrific time. It exceeded all expectations. The people we met from our Disboards thread really made our trip special.

We are trying to decide whether to keep our 12/3/ Western that we booked onboard, or to go back and do the Eastern itenerary again.

We loved the Doubloon Sail and Snorkel and the extra day at sea. However, it might be nice to do something different.

Our kids will be DD 8 and DS 6.

Thanks for any advice.

Gaiyn

 

[4snowescapees]

Dear Gaiyn,
We are glad to have taken both cruises. Nice to see new ports. Love Grand Caymen, but would take a 3rd destination if they offered it during the dates we need. Both are awesome.

 

[Popovich]

Glad you enjoyed both. Hopefully we will too! I second your thought on a third destination, We'll have another excuse to rebook onboard!

 

[jlawall]

Thx for sharing! At least you were out of winter weather for a few days!!