luvcruising
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2004
- Messages
- 33
July 10 Magic Cruise
This was our second cruise on the Magic. The first was 3 years ago and it too was the Eastern Caribbean. We won that trip through the Boston Globe and stayed in a beautiful spacious suite on deck 8 with a double verandah. They paid for everything and we cut no corners on that trip.
Lets get back to July 10th.
We flew on Delta Song on Friday 7/9. This was a great flight! There is a TV at every seat, free headphones for everyone and all the seats are leather. The kids were entertained the entire trip. We rented a car from Budget at Orlando (MCO) and stayed in the Days Inn at Cocoa Beach. Easy pick up and drop off and Budget brought us to the ship.
My wifes parents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary so her 2 sisters and their families also attended. 8 adults and 7 kids aged 2 to 10. Before we boarded we surprised them with custom light blue t-shirts for everyone to wear. The shirts said Clara & Pepe, 50 years and still cruising. They loved it.
We had 4 staterooms in a row on Level 2. (2120, 2122, 2124 and 2126) The two middle staterooms joined together and the Bungee cord idea to keep the doors open worked perfectly. We thought it would be a big disappointment but the staterooms were very nice and we had plenty of room with empty drawers to spare. A 9yr old on the top bunk, 6yr old on the bottom and the 2 yr old on our bed. All suitcases and life vests fit under the bed and left the closet for us. The nightlight, bathroom deodorizer, suction cup hooks and shoe hanger were priceless!
We were not able to make a reservation at Palos for 8 because large tables there are limited and they were already booked for the week. We went on a waiting list. Needless to say we were called the next day (Sunday) and ate there that night at 7 PM. Very good food and the service was excellent. (Try the lamb!) During the week, when we would walk by in the evening, we saw several empty large tables in Palos hmmmmm
The shows (family and adult), movies and other activities were exceptional. Attend all you can. We ended up getting so many pictures from Shutters that we bought the packages to save money. We had them take Family pictures when we were dressed up on Semi Formal night. There were no lines that night because most took their pictures on Formal night earlier in the week. We went at 5 PM before our 6 PM dinner seating and had the photographers to ourselves for a half hour.
Notice: There are signs posted when you are leaving the ship not to take any fruit or food onto the Islands. It is forbidden. We had stocked up on fruit at breakfast to take and had to give it up when leaving.
St. Martens: Our server (Stipe, pronounced Steepay) was excellent, and I asked him to recommend a beach on the Island. He told us to go to Scavengers Beach which is close to Dawn Beach. We did not rush to get off the ship but took our time that morning and left at 9:45 AM. Just a few others leaving when we left. It also was a short ride from the cruise ship and we did not need to take the water taxi to town for a cab. It was excellent. Barely anyone there except those who owned the beautiful homes overlooking the water from the hillside. There was a quaint little bar and grill on the beach and many of those who walked down from their (I imagine vacation homes) gathered there for drinks and gossip. There was one topless woman at the far end of the beach and it was only noticed by the oldest child. The water was so clear you could see everything without a snorkel and mask. No stones or anything hard to walk on in the water or on the beach, just pure white sand as deep as you could dig your feet in. The kids could walk out a comfortable distance without any steep drop offs and they stayed in the water the full 3 hours that we visited. We never saw another taxi the whole time and our taxi driver showed up 15 minutes early and told us no hurry to leave. We got back to the ship at 2:30, changed and signed the kids in for activities, then went into town for an hour of shopping. No real bargains were found for pricey items even though we were the only cruise ship in port so we mostly browsed. We did get t-shirts and a few other inexpensive tourist items at the open market behind the court house. It was a very good Island visit!
St. Thomas: We went to Coral world and Coki beach where we had a great time 3 years ago. It was empty then and no excursions went there. This time there was a traffic jam of tour buses and taxis continually all day. Coral World (discount coupon can be printed at their Web site) was still pretty good and the kids enjoyed it. The beach was very crowded and we snorkeled and saw a tremendous amount of fish. It was a very busy place. Not too sure if we would do that again. No problem getting a cab back after we had our fill, the parking lot was full of them. We shopped for an hour before boarding the ship and my wife got a very nice watch for a very reasonable price. Watch the recorded shopping show that plays constantly on your room TV for some good pointers. It worked for us. As the boat was leaving, I had the kids on deck 10 telling them all about the pirates that once occupied this Island hundreds of years ago. I printed out a few short stories from the Web and took along a page of pirate jokes. They really enjoyed this, and wouldnt you know, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee appeared for autographs and pictures. All the kids had a picture taken with both of them in the middle with St. Thomas in the background as the ship was leaving. History and fantasy all in one picture.
Castaway Cay The kids had a great time on the beach. They started serving lunch at 11:20 when we were walking by to get a drink so we ate early with no lines and plenty of places to sit. Bought t-shirts for everyone and a few fridge magnets. A dark cloud passed a distance away and there was a very loud clap of thunder. Everyone cleared out of the water. There was no more thunder, the cloud passed, and everyone went back in. Many more umbrellas than the last time we went. If you wait a few hours, others around us gave us their floats and tubes that they rented and got bored of using. There were many abandoned floating all around us. We enjoyed the day!
Hair Braiding appointments only on the ship, and by the time we made the appointment, all that was available was for Friday on Castaway Cay. That was no problem, however bring your appointment card with you because the women braiding hair had no idea who had appointments, and what appointments were booked. By waiting until Friday we learned from others. 1 woman had her daughters hair braided on the boat for $30. Another had the same thing done on St. Marten for her daughter and paid $90. Get a price before you start if you are at a Port of Call, if you dont, the sky is the limit. Same with Taxi fares.
Overall:
Dave's Disney Cruise Line Tribute Site is awesome !!
Would I stay on deck 2 again? Yes, without any hesitation.
Will we go again? Yes, in about 2 years to let the youngest get a little older.
I have never seen 7 days go by so fast since the first time we went on a Disney cruise.
Everyone was almost in tears as we left the ship. Port Canaveral was not a stop to look forward to.
This was the first cruise for the person caring for our room. It seemed that every time we returned from dinner or breakfast, she was just starting on our room. Very inconvenient because we would need to go away for another hour, but the room was always very clean when she finished.
We saved everything for a second scrapbook.
This was our second cruise on the Magic. The first was 3 years ago and it too was the Eastern Caribbean. We won that trip through the Boston Globe and stayed in a beautiful spacious suite on deck 8 with a double verandah. They paid for everything and we cut no corners on that trip.
Lets get back to July 10th.
We flew on Delta Song on Friday 7/9. This was a great flight! There is a TV at every seat, free headphones for everyone and all the seats are leather. The kids were entertained the entire trip. We rented a car from Budget at Orlando (MCO) and stayed in the Days Inn at Cocoa Beach. Easy pick up and drop off and Budget brought us to the ship.
My wifes parents were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary so her 2 sisters and their families also attended. 8 adults and 7 kids aged 2 to 10. Before we boarded we surprised them with custom light blue t-shirts for everyone to wear. The shirts said Clara & Pepe, 50 years and still cruising. They loved it.
We had 4 staterooms in a row on Level 2. (2120, 2122, 2124 and 2126) The two middle staterooms joined together and the Bungee cord idea to keep the doors open worked perfectly. We thought it would be a big disappointment but the staterooms were very nice and we had plenty of room with empty drawers to spare. A 9yr old on the top bunk, 6yr old on the bottom and the 2 yr old on our bed. All suitcases and life vests fit under the bed and left the closet for us. The nightlight, bathroom deodorizer, suction cup hooks and shoe hanger were priceless!
We were not able to make a reservation at Palos for 8 because large tables there are limited and they were already booked for the week. We went on a waiting list. Needless to say we were called the next day (Sunday) and ate there that night at 7 PM. Very good food and the service was excellent. (Try the lamb!) During the week, when we would walk by in the evening, we saw several empty large tables in Palos hmmmmm
The shows (family and adult), movies and other activities were exceptional. Attend all you can. We ended up getting so many pictures from Shutters that we bought the packages to save money. We had them take Family pictures when we were dressed up on Semi Formal night. There were no lines that night because most took their pictures on Formal night earlier in the week. We went at 5 PM before our 6 PM dinner seating and had the photographers to ourselves for a half hour.
Notice: There are signs posted when you are leaving the ship not to take any fruit or food onto the Islands. It is forbidden. We had stocked up on fruit at breakfast to take and had to give it up when leaving.
St. Martens: Our server (Stipe, pronounced Steepay) was excellent, and I asked him to recommend a beach on the Island. He told us to go to Scavengers Beach which is close to Dawn Beach. We did not rush to get off the ship but took our time that morning and left at 9:45 AM. Just a few others leaving when we left. It also was a short ride from the cruise ship and we did not need to take the water taxi to town for a cab. It was excellent. Barely anyone there except those who owned the beautiful homes overlooking the water from the hillside. There was a quaint little bar and grill on the beach and many of those who walked down from their (I imagine vacation homes) gathered there for drinks and gossip. There was one topless woman at the far end of the beach and it was only noticed by the oldest child. The water was so clear you could see everything without a snorkel and mask. No stones or anything hard to walk on in the water or on the beach, just pure white sand as deep as you could dig your feet in. The kids could walk out a comfortable distance without any steep drop offs and they stayed in the water the full 3 hours that we visited. We never saw another taxi the whole time and our taxi driver showed up 15 minutes early and told us no hurry to leave. We got back to the ship at 2:30, changed and signed the kids in for activities, then went into town for an hour of shopping. No real bargains were found for pricey items even though we were the only cruise ship in port so we mostly browsed. We did get t-shirts and a few other inexpensive tourist items at the open market behind the court house. It was a very good Island visit!
St. Thomas: We went to Coral world and Coki beach where we had a great time 3 years ago. It was empty then and no excursions went there. This time there was a traffic jam of tour buses and taxis continually all day. Coral World (discount coupon can be printed at their Web site) was still pretty good and the kids enjoyed it. The beach was very crowded and we snorkeled and saw a tremendous amount of fish. It was a very busy place. Not too sure if we would do that again. No problem getting a cab back after we had our fill, the parking lot was full of them. We shopped for an hour before boarding the ship and my wife got a very nice watch for a very reasonable price. Watch the recorded shopping show that plays constantly on your room TV for some good pointers. It worked for us. As the boat was leaving, I had the kids on deck 10 telling them all about the pirates that once occupied this Island hundreds of years ago. I printed out a few short stories from the Web and took along a page of pirate jokes. They really enjoyed this, and wouldnt you know, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee appeared for autographs and pictures. All the kids had a picture taken with both of them in the middle with St. Thomas in the background as the ship was leaving. History and fantasy all in one picture.
Castaway Cay The kids had a great time on the beach. They started serving lunch at 11:20 when we were walking by to get a drink so we ate early with no lines and plenty of places to sit. Bought t-shirts for everyone and a few fridge magnets. A dark cloud passed a distance away and there was a very loud clap of thunder. Everyone cleared out of the water. There was no more thunder, the cloud passed, and everyone went back in. Many more umbrellas than the last time we went. If you wait a few hours, others around us gave us their floats and tubes that they rented and got bored of using. There were many abandoned floating all around us. We enjoyed the day!
Hair Braiding appointments only on the ship, and by the time we made the appointment, all that was available was for Friday on Castaway Cay. That was no problem, however bring your appointment card with you because the women braiding hair had no idea who had appointments, and what appointments were booked. By waiting until Friday we learned from others. 1 woman had her daughters hair braided on the boat for $30. Another had the same thing done on St. Marten for her daughter and paid $90. Get a price before you start if you are at a Port of Call, if you dont, the sky is the limit. Same with Taxi fares.
Overall:
Dave's Disney Cruise Line Tribute Site is awesome !!
Would I stay on deck 2 again? Yes, without any hesitation.
Will we go again? Yes, in about 2 years to let the youngest get a little older.
I have never seen 7 days go by so fast since the first time we went on a Disney cruise.
Everyone was almost in tears as we left the ship. Port Canaveral was not a stop to look forward to.
This was the first cruise for the person caring for our room. It seemed that every time we returned from dinner or breakfast, she was just starting on our room. Very inconvenient because we would need to go away for another hour, but the room was always very clean when she finished.
We saved everything for a second scrapbook.
