October 11, 2014 7-Night Southern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Magic (San Juan)

[carmie3377]

I may keep the 3 day repo a secret from my DD.... although a year is a LONG time to keep it quiet.

Oh, but so much fun when you can! We kept our last family cruise a secret from the kids for a year and a half! It was their birthday present since both their bdays fell during that week. We picked them up frm school early with a packed car and they kept begging trying to get us to tell them what we were up to. Finally, about 5 hours into our 12 hour drive we told them

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[NWmom]

Does that involve a transatlantic flight?

We'll be travelling from the UK but there are no direct flights so it is going to be a long journey. Which makes me so glad that they've added the repo so at least the return journey will be easier.

What about flying over and then resting for a night then taking a direct flight to San Juan? Helps to get over the time change.

When did our sail away become 9:30pm? I remember seeing 7pm when we booked....

That was the time when I booked.

I kind of wish I had seen your post before I called. I was worried about the noise on 5 because of theater - though I don't know why because it isn't running late at night. I never considered that there would be less people traffic. That is a real plus.

Actually there is slight noise above the theater at night. Not enough to prevent sleep, but enough to make you wonder what caused the noise.

They move all the scenerery from one show up into the rafters for storage. When we had a behind the scenes tour I was incredibly inpressed with how they store the sets for so many shows. They literally rearrange the storage almost every night setting up for the next show.

I changed my booking today (see previous post) and the itinerary that came with the update states that departure is 4:00 pm....

They need to make up theor minds on when we are leaving!!

 

[martinm]

It looks like a room on the 6th flor midship is about to open up for this cruise and the repo...

My DW wants to go on New Years Eve.

A happy wife and all that...

 

[ACDSNY]

It looks like a room on the 6th flor midship is about to open up for this cruise and the repo...

My DW wants to go on New Years Eve.

A happy wife and all that...

Have a good time ringing in the New Year.

 

[tigger137]

What about flying over and then resting for a night then taking a direct flight to San Juan? Helps to get over the time change.

That is one of the many options I keep going over and over. But we'll need a night at the airport before our transatlantic flight, then a full day travelling. So if we stay over another night somewhere before flying to San Juan, it will cut our time in San Juan down to just one night. Although doing the whole journey in one day will make for a very long day, at least the following morning we'd wake up in San Juan and have a full day to explore.

Never mind, I've only got another 4 months to ponder these things before flights become available to book.

 

[JenniferC]

We are late comers to this cruise also! It will be our 13th cruise. Our first Southern Caribbean. So excited! It will be ME, DH and DS(16).

 

[gometros]

We are late comers to this cruise also! It will be our 13th cruise. Our first Southern Caribbean. So excited! It will be ME, DH and DS(16).

With over a year to go, I don't know if you can call yourselves latecomers ;-)

Welcome to the club.

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[FriendOfFanatic]

We just booked the repo after having the 7 day Southern booked since the first week. I wished I would have known about the repo earlier, as I had to change my room to get the same one for both cruises. I liked the first better, but I will get a Navigator's veranda, which I have not had previously. It is my own fault for not following this cruise meet sooner. You had the information months ago.

The price of the repo does not seem too bad, but as someone else said, it will not be easy for DCL to entice people to fly to San Juan for a three day cruise to PC. It is easier for them to encourage us (southern Oct 11 cruisers) to book B2Bs. I think the repo will be empty compared to the southern portion.

I am not on FB, but I do enjoy everyone's comments on the DIS boards, I will try to contribute some myself. We usually cruise every October, so if any of you do as well, we have probably been on one together.

 

[Silverfox97]

We just booked the repo after having the 7 day Southern booked since the first week. I wished I would have known about the repo earlier, as I had to change my room to get the same one for both cruises. I liked the first better, but I will get a Navigator's veranda, which I have not had previously. It is my own fault for not following this cruise meet sooner. You had the information months ago.

The price of the repo does not seem too bad, but as someone else said, it will not be easy for DCL to entice people to fly to San Juan for a three day cruise to PC. It is easier for them to encourage us (southern Oct 11 cruisers) to book B2Bs. I think the repo will be empty compared to the southern portion.

I am not on FB, but I do enjoy everyone's comments on the DIS boards, I will try to contribute some myself. We usually cruise every October, so if any of you do as well, we have probably been on one together.

Welcome!

There are also people on the repo that are B2B with a cruise after the repo - flying to San Juan, doing the 3-night repo and then the cruise that follows.

I'm beyond excited to have the repo add on giving us a 10-night cruise and time to decompress after such a busy port intensive cruise. Time to relax...... Will be interesting getting home from PC after tho; we'll have to rent a car to drive home to Tampa. I prefer a ship bringing me back to FL vs. an airplane any day!!!! 3-night add on cruise trumps a 3-hr flight!!

We are also in a true Nav Verandah for the first time; all of the secret verandah cabins were gone before the TA covering for my vacationing TA could get one. We are on deck 6; same room for both cruises

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[gometros]

Btw, I ran a poll on the FB group of how many are doing a B2B with the Southern and 57 people have responded in the affirmative so far.

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[Poohbug]

I had a surprise last Friday night when I checked my emails.

I thought I had expressed to the travel agent my intentions of transferring my two OBB reservations to two connecting rooms on the southern. Apparently not, because I still had one OBB cruise booked for November and the email was from DCL about final payment. Well, I panicked a little thinking that the penalty phase had already started. Fortunately I had a few days left. I emailed the TA immediately but did not hear from her that night or the next morning. I ended up calling DCL to figure out my options. The CM JJ was extremely nice and helpful but to transfer the benefits, I had to make a new reservation with the current pricing. That was not to my benefit.

I got to thinking about the repo and how nice it would be to sail back to FL. So I transferred my OBB to the repo. Of course someone had to book one of the two connecting rooms I have on the southern so I moved us to a family Cat 4E for the repo.

So does anyone know how much of a pain it is going to be since we have to switch rooms? I was hoping that maybe they would let one person get off and handle the switch and the rest of the party could stay on board.

Oh, and I have not told my husband about the extra cruise yet. Hard to say how that is going to go over but I can always cancel if I need to.

 

[ACDSNY]

Moving on a B2B on the Dream wasn't too bad. We did have to pack up our luggage and then the CMs moved our stuff to our new cabin while we got off the ship and checked in again. Check in was quick and easy as it was before the new passengers were allowed in.

 

[cwdefouw]

So does anyone know how much of a pain it is going to be since we have to switch rooms? I was hoping that maybe they would let one person get off and handle the switch and the rest of the party could stay on board.

Rumours are that, for this set of cruises only, Parties doing B2B may not have to disembark at all. We may have to all go to the WD Theater or some other space while they finish clearing the ship then we would be free to return to cabins or other parts of the ship that are open.

However, you would still need to be out of your first cabin by 8:00 AM and may not be able to access the cabin you are moving to until 1:30 PM as it may not be ready until then. CM might move your luggage, but I wouldn't count on it. You may want to try to talk to the cabin steward for the 2nd room in advance to see if they can get that one done early in the rotation. If it was me, I would be doing my best to find a cabin that is open for both cruises and changing the reservation to that room. That is what we had to do, and we booked on the very first day that booking was officially open for the repo.

 

[gometros]

I don't recall if it was here on the FB page that somebody asked about the swimming with the turtles in Barbados, but I promised to post pictures from when we did it on a Queen Mary 2 Southern Caribbean cruise out of NYC in 2009.

 

[ssanders79]

The FE List has been updated.

 

[NWmom]

We tried to swim with turtles in St Thomas, but the turtles did not show up.

I think we will try to do this.

 

[mom3girls2000]

We tried to swim with turtles in St Thomas, but the turtles did not show up.

I think we will try to do this.

When that happened, did you still have to pay for the excursion? Was it a DCL excursion?

 

[NWmom]

When that happened, did you still have to pay for the excursion? Was it a DCL excursion?

It was a DCL excursion. It was fantastic. There were two turtles that showed up. My dd had a meltdown about getting in the water so I missed them.

Still being as it was a natural open area, I knew it might not happen and the wording refelcted they could not guarantee it.

It also said there would not be any fish, but there were tons of them so I enjoyed that part.

The sailboat ride back was also very enjoyable. We will do that one again if we are ever there again.

 

[mom3girls2000]

It was a DCL excursion. It was fantastic. There were two turtles that showed up. My dd had a meltdown about getting in the water so I missed them.

Still being as it was a natural open area, I knew it might not happen and the wording refelcted they could not guarantee it.

It also said there would not be any fish, but there were tons of them so I enjoyed that part.

The sailboat ride back was also very enjoyable. We will do that one again if we are ever there again.

Thank you. I appreciate those tips too.

 

[AndyR]

Was this on the 'Bones'? We had a great time with them many moons ago.