This report is for the 7 day Eastern starting March 31-April 7. Cast is a familiy of 5 (3 boys). This is our second cruise on the Magic (same itinerary a year ago). Will break this report into sections:
MCO Budget car rental: This was a horrible experience. We had an SUV reserved. First of all we were in line for close an hour (although they had about 4 or so attendants) - their processing is just slow. We had an SUV reserved - they had none as they had overbooked. They instead gave us a Contitental in which we managed to get everything squeezed into, but it was annoying and a further waste of time.
Beach club Thursday and Friday. This was our first time (in many WDW visits) at the Beach Club. Awesome pool as described. Cape May food was good (not great, but good to experience and worth a visit). The next day we visited AKL in the morning. In the afternoon, we swam at Stormalong - had dinner at Nine Dragons - that food was just OK - and I agree with the assessment that it is overpriced for what you get and we will not return.
Saturday embarkation: Dropped wife and kids off at terminal around 10:00 AM. Returned the car at Budget. By the time I got back, they were done checking in. Embarkation was smooth. We made Palo and Spa reservations, and then went to Topsiders. I'll say that Topsiders is generally good, but for some reason, for the second straight cruise, the worst Topsider meal is the embarkation one. Our bags showed up by 2:45. We unpacked and then went to the lifeboat drill - then the sailaway party. Everything was off to a great start. We watched the NCAAs in the room prior to our late seating dinner.
Room: We had connecting cabins 2146 and 2148 which were far astern. Going in, I was concerned about cabin noise. There were a few posters that had stayed that far back on deck 2 and said that noise was not a factor. Well, we did get used to it, but noise IS definately a factor. That far back on deck 2, you do hear significant low frequency hum from the engines and there is some noticeable vibration. I think that the hum ceased just a few rooms forward of those cabins. You get used to this, but it is there.
Dinners: Our server, Alex from the Phillipines was PHENOMENAL. He made it a great experience for both us and the kids. He made sure to bring out a lot of things for us to try. He quickly became knowledgeable on everyones likes and dislikes so he kept on getting us the things we liked, even though it was not on the menu. He was friendly did magic tricks - our kids just loved him. We had tablemates for the first time. Everyone was a little apprenhensive at first, but come cruise end, we had become friends (as had our kids with their kids).
Late seating: worked out great for us. Our kids typically ate food from Plutos/Goofies late in the afternoon so they were never hungry. We never rushed to get back to the cabin to get ready for the early seating so we were able to take in most of the later afternoon activites or just enjoying a late cocktail topside as the ship sailed.
Unscheduled stop: Sunday night around 3:30AM, I was awakened to the sound of side thrusters and reversing. It took me a few minutes to realize that this was not normal for ocean sailing and that we were still a days sail from our destination. I looked out and to my surprise saw that the Magic was pulling up to a dock. This was unnerving as we did not know if there was mechanical trouble (or if we were in Cuba for that matter) or if the trip would be interrupted. We later discovered that there was a medical emergency that caused them to stop at Grand Turck to drop off the passenger.
Palo dining. We had dinner there on Monday night We decided that the meal was great (like it was the first time we cruised) - however the menu offerings were exactly the same as the ones from a year ago. As repeat cruisers on the Magic, we would have preferred to see some variety: more on this later. We had brunch on Thursday and we have decided that for now, we enjoy brunch more than the dinners.
St. Maarten: We got a cab and went on our own to Orient Beach. We rented an umbrella at Bikinis and stayed there from about 10:30AM to 4:30PM. Had cocktails and lunch there (their special was grilled lobster which we indulged in). The kids had a great time boogie boarding, playing in the waves, making sand castles. A perfect day.
St. Thomas: We had a private daysail arranged with Scubadu a catmaran sailboat. We were off to a bad start as we were supposed to meet the driver to take us to the boat at 8:00AM, but the ship had to tender. This process was VERY slow. To make things worse, our tender took about 25 minutes trying to dock at the shore. With 6 cruise ships being in port, things were a madhouse - there was a traffic jam and an accident downtown. To get to the dock, Rachel, our driver had to take an alternate route which took us over the mountains - it was scenic, but definately a detour. We did not get to the dock until 10:30, which was late consdering that we had to be back to the tender by 4:00 PM (meaning that the sailboat would have to return to the dock by 3:00 and therefore depart St. John at 2:15). Our private daysail was great: We went to some snorkel spots that were excellent, we also had some beach time at Honeymoon beach which was very nice. We had a grilled chicken and pasta for lunch (cooked up by the captain).
I would say that the only disappointment was the entire tendering process which cut into our time we could spend on the water at St. Thomas/St. John.
Castaway Cay: was a washout. We woke up to a rainy day. It first looked like things would clear up, so we got off the ship but by the time we went through the trouble renting snorkle equipment and our youngest got in the water they closed the beach down. We had lunch during the rainstorm after which persistant rainfall and cold sent us back to the ship's hot tubs. It cleared up later, around 3:00PM, but by then it was too late to get back to the beach.
Other general tidbits: Pirate night was fun for all; Fireworks off the ship were cool; Both my wife and I excercised every morning. We ran and lifted weights before the kids got up. Both of us had facials at the spa. My wife also had other spa treatments. They were all expensive but fine. The Golden Mickeys were a good show for the family. We left with a lot of great pictures. We went to both 70s and 80s night at Rockin Bar D. We were able to spend some time at the adult pool as our kids did some things on their own like to to the arcade or hang out. Our oldest son played a lot of basketball. We watched a movie or two out at the Dumbotron.
Our (minor) complaint about the trip was that we were on this same cruise a year ago, and lot of things were the same: Menu items (including specials) at Palos, songs played at Pirate night deck party, the same band, bits and sequences at 70s and 80s night, food in the main dining rooms. As a matter of fact, we liked it so much that we booked the same cruise for the following year. HOWEVER, it would be nice to know that some of the music, shows, food, etc will change. Disney must know that repeat guests are a big draw and they should at least attempt to mix things up a little.
Thats it. Back to reality and a cold spell in the US. We just found out that the ship had a bomb scare just a few hours after we got off. Thankfully, the next group got on its way. As for us, we are booked for Mar 29 08.
Regards, PS17
MCO Budget car rental: This was a horrible experience. We had an SUV reserved. First of all we were in line for close an hour (although they had about 4 or so attendants) - their processing is just slow. We had an SUV reserved - they had none as they had overbooked. They instead gave us a Contitental in which we managed to get everything squeezed into, but it was annoying and a further waste of time.
Beach club Thursday and Friday. This was our first time (in many WDW visits) at the Beach Club. Awesome pool as described. Cape May food was good (not great, but good to experience and worth a visit). The next day we visited AKL in the morning. In the afternoon, we swam at Stormalong - had dinner at Nine Dragons - that food was just OK - and I agree with the assessment that it is overpriced for what you get and we will not return.
Saturday embarkation: Dropped wife and kids off at terminal around 10:00 AM. Returned the car at Budget. By the time I got back, they were done checking in. Embarkation was smooth. We made Palo and Spa reservations, and then went to Topsiders. I'll say that Topsiders is generally good, but for some reason, for the second straight cruise, the worst Topsider meal is the embarkation one. Our bags showed up by 2:45. We unpacked and then went to the lifeboat drill - then the sailaway party. Everything was off to a great start. We watched the NCAAs in the room prior to our late seating dinner.
Room: We had connecting cabins 2146 and 2148 which were far astern. Going in, I was concerned about cabin noise. There were a few posters that had stayed that far back on deck 2 and said that noise was not a factor. Well, we did get used to it, but noise IS definately a factor. That far back on deck 2, you do hear significant low frequency hum from the engines and there is some noticeable vibration. I think that the hum ceased just a few rooms forward of those cabins. You get used to this, but it is there.
Dinners: Our server, Alex from the Phillipines was PHENOMENAL. He made it a great experience for both us and the kids. He made sure to bring out a lot of things for us to try. He quickly became knowledgeable on everyones likes and dislikes so he kept on getting us the things we liked, even though it was not on the menu. He was friendly did magic tricks - our kids just loved him. We had tablemates for the first time. Everyone was a little apprenhensive at first, but come cruise end, we had become friends (as had our kids with their kids).
Late seating: worked out great for us. Our kids typically ate food from Plutos/Goofies late in the afternoon so they were never hungry. We never rushed to get back to the cabin to get ready for the early seating so we were able to take in most of the later afternoon activites or just enjoying a late cocktail topside as the ship sailed.
Unscheduled stop: Sunday night around 3:30AM, I was awakened to the sound of side thrusters and reversing. It took me a few minutes to realize that this was not normal for ocean sailing and that we were still a days sail from our destination. I looked out and to my surprise saw that the Magic was pulling up to a dock. This was unnerving as we did not know if there was mechanical trouble (or if we were in Cuba for that matter) or if the trip would be interrupted. We later discovered that there was a medical emergency that caused them to stop at Grand Turck to drop off the passenger.
Palo dining. We had dinner there on Monday night We decided that the meal was great (like it was the first time we cruised) - however the menu offerings were exactly the same as the ones from a year ago. As repeat cruisers on the Magic, we would have preferred to see some variety: more on this later. We had brunch on Thursday and we have decided that for now, we enjoy brunch more than the dinners.
St. Maarten: We got a cab and went on our own to Orient Beach. We rented an umbrella at Bikinis and stayed there from about 10:30AM to 4:30PM. Had cocktails and lunch there (their special was grilled lobster which we indulged in). The kids had a great time boogie boarding, playing in the waves, making sand castles. A perfect day.
St. Thomas: We had a private daysail arranged with Scubadu a catmaran sailboat. We were off to a bad start as we were supposed to meet the driver to take us to the boat at 8:00AM, but the ship had to tender. This process was VERY slow. To make things worse, our tender took about 25 minutes trying to dock at the shore. With 6 cruise ships being in port, things were a madhouse - there was a traffic jam and an accident downtown. To get to the dock, Rachel, our driver had to take an alternate route which took us over the mountains - it was scenic, but definately a detour. We did not get to the dock until 10:30, which was late consdering that we had to be back to the tender by 4:00 PM (meaning that the sailboat would have to return to the dock by 3:00 and therefore depart St. John at 2:15). Our private daysail was great: We went to some snorkel spots that were excellent, we also had some beach time at Honeymoon beach which was very nice. We had a grilled chicken and pasta for lunch (cooked up by the captain).
I would say that the only disappointment was the entire tendering process which cut into our time we could spend on the water at St. Thomas/St. John.
Castaway Cay: was a washout. We woke up to a rainy day. It first looked like things would clear up, so we got off the ship but by the time we went through the trouble renting snorkle equipment and our youngest got in the water they closed the beach down. We had lunch during the rainstorm after which persistant rainfall and cold sent us back to the ship's hot tubs. It cleared up later, around 3:00PM, but by then it was too late to get back to the beach.
Other general tidbits: Pirate night was fun for all; Fireworks off the ship were cool; Both my wife and I excercised every morning. We ran and lifted weights before the kids got up. Both of us had facials at the spa. My wife also had other spa treatments. They were all expensive but fine. The Golden Mickeys were a good show for the family. We left with a lot of great pictures. We went to both 70s and 80s night at Rockin Bar D. We were able to spend some time at the adult pool as our kids did some things on their own like to to the arcade or hang out. Our oldest son played a lot of basketball. We watched a movie or two out at the Dumbotron.
Our (minor) complaint about the trip was that we were on this same cruise a year ago, and lot of things were the same: Menu items (including specials) at Palos, songs played at Pirate night deck party, the same band, bits and sequences at 70s and 80s night, food in the main dining rooms. As a matter of fact, we liked it so much that we booked the same cruise for the following year. HOWEVER, it would be nice to know that some of the music, shows, food, etc will change. Disney must know that repeat guests are a big draw and they should at least attempt to mix things up a little.
Thats it. Back to reality and a cold spell in the US. We just found out that the ship had a bomb scare just a few hours after we got off. Thankfully, the next group got on its way. As for us, we are booked for Mar 29 08.
Regards, PS17
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