Our First Cruise, 9/2-9/9 (all in one thread)

Amy&Dan

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Feb 19, 2004
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This trip had been planned for over a year. We have been to Disneyland and WDW many times and were excited to try something new. Our family consists of me, Amy, husband, Dan and two kids, Matthew 11 and Maria 9 (both almost ready for a birthday). We also were thrilled to have along Dan's Aunt Eileen and his cousin (Eileen's daughter) Rebecca. It was such a treat to experience this with them. They have cruised several times in the past but this was their first DCL experience.

Wednesday, August 30:
We departed out of Denver at around 7:00 p.m. Ernesto was set to be crossing over Florida that day but we were hopeful that our midnight arrival would find him gone. We had so much baggage, packing for a 10 day trip complete with seven outfits of varying degrees of dressiness for dinner for four people was a challenge. But we got to the terminal, checked in, had dinner and made it to our gate just fine. We were off! We landed in MCO right on time at 12:15 a.m. It was pouring rain but a smooth landing. Ernesto had not given us any headache thus far! We got our bags, went to the ME desk and were on our bus to Coronado Springs in no time. This was our first time at this resort so that was another new thing to try this trip. Eileen and Rebecca had arrived earlier and left us a message that we had adjoining rooms in the Ranchos section. We got to our room, unpacked our "Coronado Springs" suitcase and put everything else in the corner. We were asleep by about 2:30, what a long, long day!

Thursday, August 31:
We went to Blizzard Beach this day. Eileen and Rebecca had decided to go the Kennedy Space Center so we still didn't get to see them as they were long gone by the time we arose. We slept in a bit due to our late night and finally got up, put our swimsuits on and headed to Blizzard Beach. The weather was sunny and extremely muggy. No problem since we would be in the water all day. We had a ball, we had never been to BB before and the kids loved Summit Plummet. I loved watching them from below! We had rain during lunch but managed to do most everything we wanted to do. We stayed until closing and agreed this had been a fun day. We got back to CSR and finally met up with Eileen and Rebecca later and all had dinner at Maya Grill. We really pigged out, this was a preview of things to come: eating to the limit!

Friday, September 1:
We just hung out at CSR all day. I took a nice 45 minute walk around the resort, it was hot and humid again but not too bad. We spent the late morning and lunch at the main pool but then a huge thunderstorm drove us away. I did some laundry and we swam later in the quiet pool. We had a 7:00 ADR at O'Hana and by then it was nice and sunny. We admired a baby alligator (or maybe crocodile?) in the lake. Then we cabbed to the Poly had another huge meal that was wonderful and then headed to DTD for some shopping. The kids have September and October birthdays respectively, so Eileen and Rebecca bought them gift cards for the ship and let them pick some things out at World of Disney. Mattehw of course had to get this nasty skull full of junk that he just loved! Arrived back at CSR by 10:30ish. Tomorrow is our cruise at long last. Maria in particular has always wanted to cruise. She was so excited she could barely sleep. She was worried they wouldn't let her into the 10-12 group (she was turning 10 on September 10) but I assured her they would since she was only one week shy. We finally drifted off to sleep dreaming of the Magic.

Saturday, September 2:
We were up early, FL Tours was picking us up at 8:00. The FL Tours driver was wonderful, I wish I could remember his name. We were all tired and dozed on the way to the Port. Suddenly, Dan woke me up, there was the Magic! What a beautiful sight. All the planning I had done, books I had read, planning DVD's and Travel Channel shows we had watched, could not prepare us for the sight of that ship. I woke up Maria from her sound nap and she literally screamed she was so excited. It was about 9:15 I think so we had a bit of a wait but it wasn't too hot today so it was fine. As we got out of the van another family who had been on the previous cruise was getting into it. They told us to have a great time. They were sad of course and I realized that in exactly one week I would be feeling just like they were! They had an itinerary change but still had a wonderful week and wished us well. In no time we were in the terminal, getting the kids checked in (and yes Maria made it to the 10-12 group), having a light snack and just anticipating boarding. It just kept filling up with more people and I was so glad we had arrived early. We had literally been one of the first people in there. Eileen looked at her KTW card and saw that the wrong names were on it. Luckily she got it changed with no problem. We were given a boarding pass with a big "3" on it which was very nice because we hardly waited at all and then suddenly we were on the ship. It was so beautiful, classy but not over the top. Rebecca hurried to make a hair appt. while Dan, the kids, Eileen and I went to make a Palo brunch reservation. It was easy and quick to do. We met back up with Rebecca and the next thing I knew we were eating lunch at Parrot Cay. It was a very nice spread and it almost seemed surreal that we were actually on board. That place was full of happy, giddy people all excited to be exactly where they were. I had a bad moment when I realized I had forgotten to pack the swimsuits in the carryon. That meant the kids would not be swimming right away which was too bad since it was hot out on Deck 9 which is where we headed after lunch. We played some ping pong, had some drinks and then went and checked out our stateroom. 2626 on Deck 2, Category 9. I had seen some not good reviews of this stateroom on some website and I have to say it was fine. It was a bit noisy on port days but that was a good wake up for us and nothing that was so awful we couldn't handle it. The rest of the time it was very quiet. It also was much roomier than I had thought it would be with plenty of storage. We wondered around the ship some more and then headed back to our stateroom to get our life jackets for the drill. Then we headed to the Sail Away Party. Dan and I had a ball dancing with the kids, it was so exciting for us. It was hot as all get out while we danced, I was about to die. After that we headed to our stateroom, our luggage was there and we all took showers and changed clothes and headed to the show. Our room looked like a wreck and since I am an anal freak about tidiness it killed me not to immediately begin unpacking. But I wanted to see the show and I was so glad I did. Eileen and Rebecca met us at the theater, they were also on Deck 2 but on the other side of the ship. The magician/ventriloquist Micahel Harrison was hilarious. Matthew in particular loved that show. After the show was over we all headed to our staterooms to change for dinner. Our rotation was LAP so we headed to Lumiere's that night. Our servers were Mladdin and Ion. What a nice couple of guys. They took such good care of us all week, they felt more like friends than anything. I miss them and all their great service! And Matthew decided he would try escargot. He loved it (too bad for him since he won't be getting that again anytime soon). Aleksandra our head server was so thrilled when we asked if he could get it another night that the other two times we ate at Lumiere's she brought him two orders! Before dinner, we had also met Elsa our stateroom hostess. She was wonderful too. She made us towel animals every night and kept our room spotless. Can I just say how much I miss her too? After dinner the kids headed to the kids' club while Dan and I strolled on Deck 4. Again, it was just surreal to finally be on board and experiencing this cruise we had planned for so long. We picked up the kids around midnight and headed to bed. I think the sound of the ship and the motion were the best sleeping aids we ever had. We all slept like rocks the whole trip. Our full bellies helped in that area as well!

Sunday, September 3:
Our first full day at sea. The four of us had breakfast at Topsiders. Eileen and Rebecca had wanted to sleep in so we made a plan to meet them for lunch at 1:00. We were up and having breakfast by about 9:00. We really enjoyed sitting outside; the pleasant breeze and the view were so nice. We ate a light breakfast since we were having lunch there later. After that the kids headed to the kids club and Dan and I headed to Deck 4 to relax and read. That was the area we loved the most. Just relaxing and reading on those comfy chairs with the ocean in view. What could be better. I suddenly at some point remembered the whole Tea with Wendy Darling thing and went in and called Guest Services but was too late, it was sold out. Too bad, although Maria didn't seem to care too much when I told her later. Lesson learned to do that quicker next time! We picked up the kids and met Eileen and Rebecca at Topsiders. They had a pasta buffet and it was quite good. Dan and I split an order and it was so huge even after I had told the chef to add about half the pasta to the pan he wanted to! I could see a trend of overeating developing quite easily. After lunch we headed up to Deck 9 to swim. Mattew was disappointed at how shallow the Mickey Pool was and vowed to avoid it all costs. Naturally Maria loved it. She just sort of liked to crab crawl all around it amongst the one thousand screaming kids in there. So we took turns at the pool since neither of our kids seemed interested in swimming without the other, yet as usual couldn't get along when they were together! The story of my life as usual. Dan had gotten his beer mug and I just decided to try out the drink of the day, every day, for the next week and we were both happy and couldn't have cared less which pool we were at! Eileen and Rebecca read and enjoyed people watching while Dan and I bounced back and forth between the two pools. In no time it was time to head to our stateroom to shower and get changed for the show. Tonight was Golden Mickey's which we all loved. We love all Disney shows at WDW and DL, but I have to say the ones on DCL are really amazing. And you can have a cocktail while you watch! Then it was time to get ready for our 8:30 dinner. We were at Animators Palette. We really loved that restaurant and the show. I could have eaten in there every night. After dinner we took the kids to the Oceaneers Club (or was it Lab, never could keep that straight) so that Dan and I could head to Deck 4. We saw Eileen and Rebecca up there, chatted with them about the next day's happenings and then parted ways so that we could walk a bit and relax on the comfy lounge chairs. Another great day. The only problem is that Dan and I are seeing that time really flies on the Magic and we know our week will be over all too soon!

Monday, September 4:
We had our character breakfast today. Except that we also had our brunch at Palo. Mladdin told us to bring the kids, let them eat and see the characters and then head to Palo assuring us that we would be out of there in time. He was right. I was proud of Dan in that he didn't eat one piece of bacon so he could save room for Palo. I never knew he had pork resistance in him! The kids enjoyed themselves although they were tired from their late night. Also given our numerous trips to DL and WDW, character meals are ho hum to them. Next time I might just sleep in that day! But then again it was still alot of fun. We took them to the kids club and headed to Palo. What a beautiful setting. Our server Milano was wonderful and knew our regular server Mladdin and told us a few things we could give him a hard time about later. We really enjoyed all the seafood on the buffet and then we all split entrees. I loved the way the desserts were in small sizes, perfect for sampling more than one! It was just a lovely atmosphere, sitting there sampling the exceptional cuisine and sipping champagne. It was also nice to have a peaceful, kid free (as in our kids and everyone elses too) meal. We left stuffed and Rebecca picked up Matthew to go see Pirates of the Caribbean II, Eileen headed to the DVC Presentation, and I took Maria swimming. At 2:00 they played Cinderella on the giant pool screen and she and I watched from inside the pool. What a memory! I have no idea where Dan was this whole time, if memory serves he headed to Parrot Cay for a salad :confused3 and to visit with Mladdin and Ion and have a drink for a bit. Go figure, the man ate 20 pounds of crab at Palo but hey, he's happy, I'm happy! He showed up later eating ice cream and drinking beer. And complaining he had heartburn :rolleyes: ! While we watched Cinderella, I told Maria that next Monday we would be home, she'd be in school and I'd be doing Lord knows what. (And at exactly noon today which is 2:00 EST, I realized that one week earlier had been our Cinderella at the Pool afternoon. Great memory yet also a major bummer to remember when I'm up to my ears in real life!) As usual, all too quickly the afternoon was over and it was time to get ready for the show and dinner. Tonight was Twice Charmed. Another great Disney show enjoyed with a cocktail. I love cruising! Dinner was at Parrot Cay. I had thought I wouldn't like this place as much but I was wrong. It was sort of like eating in the Tiki Room. And the drink of the day goes down better when its enjoyed in a tropical setting!

Tuesday, September 5:
Today was St. Martin. We slept in a bit, had breakfast at Topsiders then changed into swimsuits and headed off the ship. Mladdin had told us to go the French side for a quieter beach. So we took his advice, found the cab center and had them take us over there. The cab driver suggest Grand Case and we arranged with her to pick us up at 4:00. We got there around 11:30 and found a restaurant/bar that had nice lounge chairs that were free if you were eating or drinking. We had a wonderful day. The beach was deserted, the restaurant was great (Calmos Cafe) and Maria and Matthew made friends with several friendly dogs who lived on the beach apparently. It was just a perfect day. At 4:00 it clouded up and luckily Brenda, our cabdriver was wating for us. She said it had been very rainy on the other side of the island so I was glad we had gone where we did. I really loved this beach. It was completely not touristy and as long as you went to the cafe you had a nice lounge chair. And canine company to boot. And drinks that were so strong I couldn't even drink it. I needed a nice, fruity, mild, drink of the day, not something that tasted like it was made at a college frat party! Dan of course downed his and mine so I guess it wasn't too bad. He took a brief swim to cool off midway through his lunch and came back to find one of our new dog friends had finished his chicken. Just like home, you can't turn your back for one minute without some mutt eating your food. We headed back to the ship, showered, changed and took the kids to the Oceaneers Lab since there was no show. Dan and I sat out on Deck 9 and had a drink. It was deserted and very pleasant to see the lights of St. Martin as we began to sail away. They were setting up for the Pirates Party which was really getting us in the mood for that. We had dinner in Lumiere's and it was so fun to see the whole place decked out in pirates gear. We also enjoyed meeting up with Eleen and Rebecca, we hadn't seen them all day. Rebecca had done a snorkling excursion and Eileen had spent the morning on the ship and then gone shopping. We had such a great evening. We went to the Pirate Party after dinner, did some dancing and then saw the fireworks. We didn't eat any of the food, it smelled good but with our late dinner no way could we eat. Eileen and Rebecca stayed for a bit of the party but the loud noise was a bit much (and it was so incredibly loud) so they headed to their stateroom. We weren't far behind!

Wednesday, September 6:
St Thomas day. That meant getting up at the crack of dawn to go through immigration. After that was done (it was painless but so early) we slept walked up to Topsiders for breakfast. Eileen and Rebecca were going on the St. John excursion so we didn't see them. We got off the ship when it was allowed and headed to get a cab to Magens Bay. It was lovely but slightly dampered when we realized we hadn't brought as much cash as we intended. I tipped the first driver generously (he was very nice and I was very happy with the lovely, scenic drive and completely unaware of our cash situation). Then Dan gave me the news we had just enough to get back but only $2 left to tip the next driver. Luckily the place where you rented snorkles, chairs etc. took credit cards. I hate cheap tippers and I felt like such a heel that we were going to tip some driver $2 on a $32 fare. So driver, whoever you are, I am so sorry! The beach was very nice. Matthew and I snorkled for two hours. We saw tons of fish and since neither one of us had snorkled before it was so fun. Just like my special time with Maria watching Cinderella from the pool, I really enjoyed having some alone time with Matthew snorkling (Maria didn't like snorkling at this point and neither did Dan so they played in the sand and shallow water which was nice for them). We decided to head back to the ship around 2:00. I was all set to ask this couple I recognized from the ship for a loan for tip money until we could get some more cash out of our safe but it just felt awkward so I didn't. I made Dan pay the driver while I got out of Dodge, shrouded in shame! Still it was great day. We hadn't had lunch so we headed to Deck 9, had some pizza and swam. Eileen and Rebecca joined us and we were sailing away from St. Thomas in no time. Then once again it was time to get ready for the show and dinner. The show tonight was a hilarious guy named Rich Purpura. He totally reminded me of John Goodman. I still laugh when I think about him and the kids loved it too. I cannot really remember what we did the rest of the night. I think we took the kids to the kids club while Dan and I stayed in the stateroom and watched Fantasia 2000. Only on a Disney Cruise can you put your kids in late night daycare so you can watch a Disney movie in peace and quiet. Mostly we were just in food comas due to a late lunch followed by another huge dinner. Another great day came to an end, our days are winding down!

Thursday, September 7:
I was actually glad to be at sea again. In some ways we enjoyed the at sea days the best. The kids went to make flubber while Dan and I hung out on Deck 4 sadly realizing that this was our last time to do this while the ship was sailing since we were at Castaway Cay the next day. But we made the most of it and did some shopping in the process. Eileen and Rebecca met us for lunch at Topsiders and then they took the kids to make towel animals while Dan and I took care of our gratuities. During my early research on cruising, when I first read about what this would cost I was a bit bummed but I tell you it wasn't enough given the level of service we experienced. I also did some packing so that I wouldn't have to do it all the last night. We met up with Eileen and Rebecca and the kids later and then all went to the pool. The Mickey Pool was closed so that solved our dilemma of switching pools. It was a nice afternoon and we were all excited for Castaway Cay the next day. The show tonight was Disney Dreams. I really enjoyed it but not quite as much as Golden Mickey's and Twice Charmed. For one thing I hate it when adults play little kids, no idea why. But it was still a wonderful show and I loved the way the wove so many characters into the story. Our nightly routine had been that Dan and Matthew would dress for dinner before the show and then see one of the family shows in Rockin Bar D at 7:30 so that Maria and I could get ready for dinner easier. She and I also would scout for characters after the show before we got ready with no eye rolling from Matthew. It was really nice that Dan and I had lots of opporunities to do things one on one with the kids. We had dinner Parrot Cay that night. We had them bring Maria a birthday cake since her birthday was on the 10th. She was thrilled to have everyone sing Happy Birthday to her. And it was this enormous piece of cake we got to take back to our stateroom wrapped up in foil shaped like a swan. I filled out a room service card for the next morning so we could eat in our stateroom before Castaway Cay. Our cruise is almost over but we were excited to go there. I think its kind of nice they save that for last, it makes the last day something to look forward to instead of to dread. I did a bit more packing and organizing. As usual it was apparent that all the stuff that fit nicely before the trip wasn't doing so well for the next leg. We bought two huge shopping bags for the souveniers and even toyed with buying another suitcase. But with some cramming we got it all in.

Friday, September 8:
Castaway Cay day. The room service thing worked out very well. It got us out of bed and going and it was nice not to have to leave the stateroom to eat. This was the only day we did room service. We were ready to go right on time and met Rebecca and Eileen at the aft elevator area. It was a human traffic jam but it moved pretty quickly. It was really, really hot and sticky outside. There didn't seem to be any breeze and poor Eileen was really feeling the heat. She and Rebecca took the tram while walked so we could meet Jack Sparrow. My sister is a huge Johnny Depp fan so I wanted to get a picture of all of us with his lookalike. We made it to the family beach and got chairs in the very back in the shade. It was so intensely sunny and hot we headed right into the water. We rented snorkling equipment and Rebecca took Matthew out for a couple of hours then I took Maria out. She hadn't liked it in St. Thomas but the mask was better at CC and she loved it. Dan was still not a lover of the whole snorkling thing and passed. He enjoyed chatting with Eileen on the beach which was nice for him. We found the sunken Mickey and saw a couple of fish. We had lunch at Cookie's and then swam and relaxed some more. I was amazed at how crowded and noisy that beach was. It was fun but I couldn't help but remember our deserted beach on St. Martin. I wasn't disappointed in CC, but it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. I think partly it was because it was the last day. Still it was wonderful. Next time I think Dan and I would spend some time on the adult beach, even just an hour would have been nice. We headed back to the ship about 3:00. Dan and Matthew went off somewhere, I finished the packing while Maria napped. We pulled out right on time and Maria and I said a sad goodbye to Castaway Cay knowing that if we were leaving there it was just about time to say goodbye to the Magic too! We saw our last show which started with an incredible juggler, followed by another Rich Purpura magic show and finally ending with Remember the Magic. I don't mind saying I really cried at the end of that one, especially when Mickey and Minnie came out. I couldn't belive it was all over! We had our last dinner in Lumiere's and Matthew got his last order of escargot. We enjoyed dinner but somehow the last night was not as much fun as all the others and we really hated to say goodbye to our servers. Part of me just wanted to go back to the stateroom after the show pack up and go to bed. But we went to dinner as planned and gave our servers the little envelopes, hugged goodbye and then headed back to our stateroom. I had thought we might try to go for a late night swim and watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks on the pool screen but we were just too tired. So we turned in instead. Both kids got weepy knowing our vacation was over. Dan and I didn't blamed them and thought what the heck, lets all cry and be sad. We both tossed and turned all night. I did finally manage to sleep and when I woke up we were in port. Instead of looking out the window and seeing the ocean, I saw a parking lot! Rude awakening!

Saturday, September 9:
We had an 8:00 pickup from FL Tours. We got off the ship quite easily, found our bags and met up with our driver in no time. We all teared up a bit saying goodbye to the ship, Maria and I sat in the back of the van and were able to turn around and see it out the back window. Dan and Matthew refused to even look. It was a very quiet trip to the airport. We were at MCO before 9:00. Our flight left at 5:00 and Eileen and Rebecca's at 8:00. We found out we couldn't check our bags before 2:00 p.m. Now what? Frontier didn't have an earlier flight we could make, but Eileen and Rebecca were able to change to a noon departure. So that was good for them. Dan and I decided to see if we could get a day room at the Hyatt. One of those things I meant to look into before I left home and didn't get around to. No problem, it was $89, so we got our numerous bags up to our room, dropped them off and then met Eileen and Rebecca in the terminal to say a sad goodbye. We had had such a good time with them! We have travelled together before and always had wonderful times and this was no exception. They are coming to be with us Christmas and that helped ease the goodbye pains a bit, but we were still sad that our adventure was over! After that we headed to breakfast at the Hyatt (very mediocre, expensive, breakfast buffet, we missed Topsiders!) then to our room to rest. We watched some of our video we had shot on the ship which was fun but also a bit depressing. We kept checking the clock and thinking that one week ago we were doing this, that or the other. A little before noon we went out on our balcony to see if we could see a jet taking off from Eileen and Rebecca's airline and sure enough we did. We assumed it was Eileen and Rebecca's flight. Matthew had been watching the planes the whole time and hadn't seen that airline and the time was right. It was a funny feeling to watch them fly away! Then we freshened up and checked out about 3:15, headed to Frontier, checked in, got through security, had dinner at Burger King (Matthew commented the free burgers at Pluto's were way better and he was right) and were flying away ourselves in no time. We saw a few people from the cruise on our flight and they looked like we felt!

It was wonderful trip. Far better than anything I could have imagined. It was our first cruise so we had nothing to compare it to but Eileen and Rebecca thought Disney did a terrific job. They felt the food on DCL was better than what they had on Holland America, they also thought the stateroom had a better set up. The set up with the elevators however and the smaller pool(s) on DCL however were not as good for them. I also sort of wonder if at times maybe they might have missed the more quiet, mature crowd on HAL? But I know the fun of seeing and being with Matthew and Maria in cruise heaven and to just spend time all of us together as a family was likely worth the trade off. I am hopeful that in two to three years maybe we can cruise with them again! Time to start up another DCL account! Thanks for reading.
 
Great report.

Question - where the dining rooms or theaters cold? Should we take a sweater?
 
CNB1124 said:
Great report.

Question - where the dining rooms or theaters cold? Should we take a sweater?

The dining rooms were not cold for me. But I am a human furnace. My daughter however is not and she never one time got cold. Now the the Walt Disney theater was a bit chilly a time or two but not so bad we couldn't enjoy. A sweater wouldn't hurt however. I brought one for dd but she never used it.
 
CNB1124 said:
Great report.

Question - where the dining rooms or theaters cold? Should we take a sweater?

YES! We FROZE. I guess it depends on your internal thermostat- but esp. when we went to matinees dressed in our shorts it was chilly. my son stole my sweater at least 2 of the times. One afternoon we wised up and brought a blanket form the room and all 4 of us sat under it. I'd say pack sweaters for everyone just in case if you're likely to get chilled in A/C.
 

What a great trip report! Thanks for taking time to share. I really enjoyed reading it. :thumbsup2
 
Amy&Dan said:
I was proud of Dan in that he didn't eat one piece of bacon so he could save room for Palo. I never knew he had pork resistance in him!

:rotfl2: Out of the entire report, this is what cracked me up the most for some reason!

Awesome report! Sounds like you had a fabulous time!

What's with all of these kids eating escargot on the cruise? I've read more trip reports lately with little ones slurping down the snails! :crazy2: :sick:
 
Hello, we were on this same cruise.. We had a great time...We had early dinner seating. Same rotation as you.. Barbie, Jim, James 9 and Megan 5
We will be crusing again next year... Same week... :cloud9:
 
Hi,

Great report...

you mentioned having to go through immigration at St. Thomas. Was this for only the people getting off the ship or for everyone?

I'm not sure I understand...
( we are going on our first Eastern in October)
 
It sounds like you had a ton of fun. My favorite line was in Monday's review. "I love cruising!" I think that about sums it up.
 
misseulalie said:
Hi,

Great report...

you mentioned having to go through immigration at St. Thomas. Was this for only the people getting off the ship or for everyone?

I'm not sure I understand...
( we are going on our first Eastern in October)

Everyone on the ship had to do it. The US citizens reported at differing times to the Walt Disney Theater and the non-US citizens reported to Rockin Bar D. It went amazingly fast. You should be aware that agents preferred to see passports, which was why I was glad we had obtained them for both of our girls.
 
Great report! DH and I must have been sitting next to you at dinner all week because we had the same great servers at dinner. :thumbsup2 I only wish Mladden had given us the same advise about St. Maarten. DH and I didn't really like the Dutch side of the island. Our tablemates had gone over to the French side and said it was very nice. I guess we'll just have to go on another cruise to check it out. ;)
 
mickeymedic said:
Great report! DH and I must have been sitting next to you at dinner all week because we had the same great servers at dinner. :thumbsup2 I only wish Mladden had given us the same advise about St. Maarten. DH and I didn't really like the Dutch side of the island. Our tablemates had gone over to the French side and said it was very nice. I guess we'll just have to go on another cruise to check it out. ;)

What a small world! We were at table 70 at the 8:30 seating, where we were you guys? The beach we went to was very nice and private and it sounds like we made a good choice. I don't know about you but I have post cruise blues!
 
We were at table 69. I'm going through major cruise withdrawl. I was joking with my coworkers that I was still on cruise feeding schedule - which was eat whenever I'm hungry. It's terrible now - I can't just walk up to a counter and ask for a piece of pizza or an order of chicken fingers. What a bummer. :sad2:
 
Thank you for the great trip report! We are going on the eastern for spring break, so I read ALL of the eastern reports over and over just to make sure I don't miss anything. :goodvibes

Did you plan ahead to rent the snorkeling equipment at Megan's Bay, or was there just a stand renting it when you got there? My husband would like to check out the island some before we actually go to the beach, but my kids would love to snorkel. We snorkeled at CC for the first time this past June and loved it. Any advice would be appreciated. We still don't know for sure if we're doing excursions or not. :confused3
 
disneypoor said:
Thank you for the great trip report! We are going on the eastern for spring break, so I read ALL of the eastern reports over and over just to make sure I don't miss anything. :goodvibes

Did you plan ahead to rent the snorkeling equipment at Megan's Bay, or was there just a stand renting it when you got there? My husband would like to check out the island some before we actually go to the beach, but my kids would love to snorkel. We snorkeled at CC for the first time this past June and loved it. Any advice would be appreciated. We still don't know for sure if we're doing excursions or not. :confused3

They have a stand that rents snorkels, floatey mats, chairs and towels right there on the beach. Its not too expensive, they require a deposit which is basically never charged to your card as long as you return the items. We had much better snorkeling there than we did at CC. You can do this on an excursion but its cheaper to do it on your own. And very easy! When you disembark the ship, you just get a cab right there and tell them to take you to that beach. It was very nice and a lovely drive. Take your camera on the drive, you have some nice views as you climb up the hill of the Magic and any other ships in port. The cab fare was $8 per person each way and there was $3 per adult and .25 per kid fee to get into the beach area. HTH!
 
mickeymedic said:
We were at table 69. I'm going through major cruise withdrawl. I was joking with my coworkers that I was still on cruise feeding schedule - which was eat whenever I'm hungry. It's terrible now - I can't just walk up to a counter and ask for a piece of pizza or an order of chicken fingers. What a bummer. :sad2:

We really were right next to each other! I too ate what I wanted, when I wanted and my stomach is still stretched out! And I went to Wendy's for a burger and they made me pay for it, what a bummer!
 


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