Celebrategoldens
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2002
- Messages
- 85
Just a few thoughts about our Magical Cruise. I will tell you that my family thought I was nuts reading these boards so much before I went, but they were thankful when they saw how easy our embarkation went. We were on the ship with Palos and Spa Ressies done and were eating by 12:45. Don't miss the little fruit tarts at the Sail Away Buffet, they were GREAT! My husband even thanked me at the end of the week for bringing the "over the door shoe hanger" It was a welcome addition to our room. We met the other Dis Board members on Saturday afternoon, and occasionally saw one another on board. So MUCH to do and so little time. I can't tell you when my family has had such a relaxing vacation. NOBODY does it better when it comes to service and cleanliness. I don't know how they do it, but the Rock N' K bar doesn't even smell like a bar when you go in for the Family Cabaret events. Kudos to Disney!!!
The food was much better than we had been led to believe. Of course when you have such FABULOUS servers such as Louis and Mark (they were the BEST) eating is a real pleasure. If there was even a hint you didn't like something it was quickly replaced with something that we might enjoy. We often had several choices on the table for entrees and I don't even want to think about the number of deserts set before us!!! YUM, YUM.
We did "on your own" adventures in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. We walked into town ( a little far, but provided some MUCH needed exercise to offset some of those deserts!) in the morning and did our St. Maarten Shopping. Then went back to the ship for lunch. I never could figure out all those people who ate on the island just minutes from a ship full of wonderful FREE (well, not free, but already paid for) food. In the afternoon, my DH went ahead of us and rented a small jeep style car from AVIS for only $35. It was a great bargain, and we drove all around the island for about 2 1/2 hours. It was nice to see all the viewpoints of the island and my daughters had great fun with the NEW digital camera that we had purchased that morning. (the camera was a model I had researched carefully in the states, and I did save significant money purchasing it at Boolchands). So we had a great day and total cost for our "shore excurison" (if youdon't count the shopping money
) was about $40 for 4 people.
In St. Thomas we took a taxi, that luckily had some people who were doing a whole island tour, to Coki beach. That meant that the taxi driver gave us an island tour to Coki Beach, we stopped and looked at Saphire Beach and also at Red Hook. We had a wonderful morning at Coki Beach. The snorkling is MUCH better (but the current is stronger-little children beware) to the LEFT of the beach (away from Coral World). The snorkling isn't as good there at at Cozumel, but the water is wonderful and we saw some pretty fish. My oldest daughter got her hair cornrowed there for $25. (our tablemate at dinner had her daughter's hair cornrowed at Castaway Cay - WAY more expensive!!!!) $2 for the cornrow and then $1.50 for the rest of the braid. It was a good thing that my daughter didn't pay that much (it was her own money) because she had to take them out the next day as the braids gave her a terrible headache.
Castaway Cay is everything everybody else has said "MAGICAL". I loved it there. ADULTS- Don't miss going over to Serenity Bay especially for lunch! The grilled lobster is NOT to be missed!
Our only small negative on the whole trip was that the shows weren't quite what we liked. I think they were geared toward the younger children and they tried to add childlike humor to every show. I found the whiney (I hope digitally enhanced) voice of Morty's assistant and the little girl in Disney Dreams) to be MOST annoying. My children weren't all that enthralled with the shows either. I will say that my girls both dance in a ballet company and have been to several Broadway shows including the Lion King, so our expectations were probably way too high. It wasn't that the shows were bad, they just didn't have enough real dancing in them. We took a Carnival Cruise a couple of years ago, and even though DISNEY beat Carnival by a LANDSLIDE in almost every area, the shows were a bit more to our liking on Carnival. I will say that we were amazed at the sets and the fireworks during the shows. Disney Dreams ending is AWESOME!!! I LOVED getting sprinkled with Pixie Dust!!!
I will say DON"T miss the family cabaret shows!!! They were WONDERFUL!!! Actually my husband and I went to the family and adult shows serveral times, and the FAMILY shows were always the best. The adult shows were almost exact repeats and when you have seen something once it isn't as funny. The last comedian did do two completely different shows, although for those of us who don't like Raunchy comedians, his second show was Disneyed up (good PG13 rated comedy) so I enjoyed it immensely.
Disembarkation is certainly all everyone has said it would be. VERY EASY!!!!
We had the late (7:45) seating and LOVED it! Hope it stays!!
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!
THANKS to everyone here who made the cruise so easy for us!
The food was much better than we had been led to believe. Of course when you have such FABULOUS servers such as Louis and Mark (they were the BEST) eating is a real pleasure. If there was even a hint you didn't like something it was quickly replaced with something that we might enjoy. We often had several choices on the table for entrees and I don't even want to think about the number of deserts set before us!!! YUM, YUM.
We did "on your own" adventures in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. We walked into town ( a little far, but provided some MUCH needed exercise to offset some of those deserts!) in the morning and did our St. Maarten Shopping. Then went back to the ship for lunch. I never could figure out all those people who ate on the island just minutes from a ship full of wonderful FREE (well, not free, but already paid for) food. In the afternoon, my DH went ahead of us and rented a small jeep style car from AVIS for only $35. It was a great bargain, and we drove all around the island for about 2 1/2 hours. It was nice to see all the viewpoints of the island and my daughters had great fun with the NEW digital camera that we had purchased that morning. (the camera was a model I had researched carefully in the states, and I did save significant money purchasing it at Boolchands). So we had a great day and total cost for our "shore excurison" (if youdon't count the shopping money
) was about $40 for 4 people.In St. Thomas we took a taxi, that luckily had some people who were doing a whole island tour, to Coki beach. That meant that the taxi driver gave us an island tour to Coki Beach, we stopped and looked at Saphire Beach and also at Red Hook. We had a wonderful morning at Coki Beach. The snorkling is MUCH better (but the current is stronger-little children beware) to the LEFT of the beach (away from Coral World). The snorkling isn't as good there at at Cozumel, but the water is wonderful and we saw some pretty fish. My oldest daughter got her hair cornrowed there for $25. (our tablemate at dinner had her daughter's hair cornrowed at Castaway Cay - WAY more expensive!!!!) $2 for the cornrow and then $1.50 for the rest of the braid. It was a good thing that my daughter didn't pay that much (it was her own money) because she had to take them out the next day as the braids gave her a terrible headache.
Castaway Cay is everything everybody else has said "MAGICAL". I loved it there. ADULTS- Don't miss going over to Serenity Bay especially for lunch! The grilled lobster is NOT to be missed!
Our only small negative on the whole trip was that the shows weren't quite what we liked. I think they were geared toward the younger children and they tried to add childlike humor to every show. I found the whiney (I hope digitally enhanced) voice of Morty's assistant and the little girl in Disney Dreams) to be MOST annoying. My children weren't all that enthralled with the shows either. I will say that my girls both dance in a ballet company and have been to several Broadway shows including the Lion King, so our expectations were probably way too high. It wasn't that the shows were bad, they just didn't have enough real dancing in them. We took a Carnival Cruise a couple of years ago, and even though DISNEY beat Carnival by a LANDSLIDE in almost every area, the shows were a bit more to our liking on Carnival. I will say that we were amazed at the sets and the fireworks during the shows. Disney Dreams ending is AWESOME!!! I LOVED getting sprinkled with Pixie Dust!!!
I will say DON"T miss the family cabaret shows!!! They were WONDERFUL!!! Actually my husband and I went to the family and adult shows serveral times, and the FAMILY shows were always the best. The adult shows were almost exact repeats and when you have seen something once it isn't as funny. The last comedian did do two completely different shows, although for those of us who don't like Raunchy comedians, his second show was Disneyed up (good PG13 rated comedy) so I enjoyed it immensely.
Disembarkation is certainly all everyone has said it would be. VERY EASY!!!!
We had the late (7:45) seating and LOVED it! Hope it stays!!
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!
THANKS to everyone here who made the cruise so easy for us!
(try jumping off of the roof!). They actually have the show coreographed a couple of ways depending upon how much the ship is moving, but all of the coreography is lower to the ground than on stable stages.
behind!! - He got what he deserved!!). It was a much cheaper excursion ($14 per person for the taxi ride round trip and $5 or $10 for a chair on the beach) than the snorkeling trip we had planed that Disney cancelled because of poor snorkeling conditions.
