Southern Caribbean on the Magic

[Jess_S]

Hi everyone. I just booked our second Disney cruise -- the 7 night Southern Caribbean itinerary aboard the Magic. It's a r/t from San Juan and ports are Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Antigua and St. Kitts and we sail in April 2017. (Such a long wait, but I wanted to book now while rates were still within my budget). Me, my hubby and our son, who will be 4 at the time. This will be our first time and all of these ports and our first tropical Disney experience since our first cruise was to Alaska on the Wonder. It's also the first time that my son will be big enough to go to the kids club on his own.

I found one or two reviews of this itinerary here on the boards, but overall it's hard to find info. Any thoughts on must-dos aboard the ship or in port are appreciated. I'm especially interested to know if there are any DCL excursions that are worth booking or if we should be booking with independent tour companies or just taking taxis.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We did this cruise in Jan except it went to Grenada rather than St Lucia. In Barbados we rented a taxi and driver at the port and had him drive us around the island. Probably cost 100 for five of us. On st kitts my grand daughter and I did the atv tour thru Disney. It was great. On martinque we did a Disney tour to the zoo and gardens. It too was very nice. And I think on Antigua we rented a car and driver at the port. About 100 again. Everyone seems to take U.S. dollars.
There was a snorkeling excursion to swim with turtles on Barbados that I would have liked to do. And on Grenada we did a kayaking excursion which was great.

We have been to st Lucia before although on another cruise line. When there we rented a car for the day and drove around on our own. The island is very beautiful.

I assume it will start from San juan PR like ours did. I recommend you go in a Couple days esrly. We rented a car for a day and drove to the national park and hiked to a waterfall. And then drove around looking at beaches. Spectacular scenery. Also the old part of San Juan is a lovely place just to walk around for a few hours. Do not try to drive there though. No place to park and s continual traffic jam. We took a taxi to old town and back from our hotel.
We stayed at the embassy suites in San juan. Very close to airport. It had a great pool and large one bedroom suites that included breakfast. It wasn't 5 star but it was clean and the staff were great. When we went in Jan our rooms, we had two, were about 250 each per night. The taxi to the port cost about 80 because we needed a large van with 5 people and luggage.
To rent a car for the day, which only cost 50, we just walked a block to the next hotel which had a car rental agency in Lobby.

I assume you will be on the Wonder as we were. It's older but very nice. It does not have the Aquadunk like the Magic but it does have a wonderful little coffee and liquor bar right above the Cove in the adult section You can get to it from the cove on the 9th floor or there is a door on 10.

 

[Jess_S]

Thanks very much. We're actually on the Magic. We've only sailed the Wonder previously and loved it, but I am excited to see the updates to the pool area on the Magic. (I'm also hoping that DS will like the kids club so that I can spend at least a little time enjoying some of the adult areas. He was too small for the kids club on our last cruise).

Did you encounter any issues with driving in PR outside San Juan. Your suggestions of renting a car to drive to the National Park sounds like something we would love. We're big hikers and outdoors people.

 

[DizMagic]

We too just returned from the Southern on the Wonder. We did all DCL excursions (2 adults) and had a great time at every port. Our table mates did private excursions at almost every port and they too said they had wonderful experiences. I really dont think you can go wrong. Pick something you and your family are interested in and you will have a great time. These islands were all beautiful.