The Very Best Cruise- Eastern Caribbean 1/17/2009

[TaniaU]

Moira had the camera while I was getting her lunch, so if this is you with Donald, welcome to my trip report.

That's Jet and my dad with Donald Too funny!

 

[Bytor01]

That's Jet and my dad with Donald Too funny!

Ahh that's great. If you would like the picture, just let me know your e-mail address and I will shoot it off to you.

Tim

 

[Bytor01]

Another great installment! We are also taking DCL transportation to the port. Do you remember what time you arrived if you left at 9:30? Thanks! Can't wait to see the navigators! And see your Cat 3 room

We were their no later than 10:15-10:20am. It is about a 45 minute ride. Although it feels much longer as you wait with anticipation.

Tim

 

[SCDizneyDawn]

Tim, I am loving your review! I am looking forward to the rest! Thanks for all the details!!

I hope I can ask a couple questions!


Do you happen to know what menu's were served on what nights? Lisa (lbgraves) has typed up new menus but no one has answered my question about what menus end up on what night! Kinda confused since the first night by these menu's is not a rotational menu! Also, looks like by her list that there is no longer a Captain's Gala menu so really confused what menu comes on the semi-formal night!

And do these look like the names of the menu's you had?

Let the Magic Begin Menu
Lumiere's Menu
Animators Palate Menu
Parrot Cay Menu
Golden Mickeys Menu
Pirate Night Menu
Til We Meet Again Menu
__________________

Thank you for any help!

 

[Bytor01]

Tim, I am loving your review! I am looking forward to the rest! Thanks for all the details!!

I hope I can ask a couple questions!


Do you happen to know what menu's were served on what nights? Lisa (lbgraves) has typed up new menus but no one has answered my question about what menus end up on what night! Kinda confused since the first night by these menu's is not a rotational menu! Also, looks like by her list that there is no longer a Captain's Gala menu so really confused what menu comes on the semi-formal night!

And do these look like the names of the menu's you had?



Thank you for any help!

As a matter of fact I do. I took pictures of all the mnus so I can even write down what will be served. The navigator's will say what the menus were for which nights. You will see them when I post the navigators. If you want the actual menu items, just let me know and I will write it down. The only menu I don't have is the one for the Palo Brunch, as there are no menus...JUST A LOT OF FOOD!!!

Tim

 

[Bytor01]

It’s 1:30, the witching hour. We head on down one deck…yes we take the stairs. (note: that is one of the questions that will come up constantly all week-What’s faster, the stairs or the elevator? My answer, depending upon the amount of decks you need to go…take the stairs midship and the elevators in the forward and aft of the ship). We make a right through the corridor and start heading towards room 8548.



We open the door and enter inside. I will let the pictures speak for themselves but here is a small breakdown. All I can say is wow. The room was great. The verandah was twice the size and best of all (wife interjects here) was the two bathrooms. In fact the second bathroom had like three parts. A sitting and makeup area, the sink and tub area, and finally the toilet and shower area. A lot of room. Our room had a queen size bed and the pull down bed in the master bedroom. The living room had a wet bar, some cabinets, a table and four chairs, a tremendous entertainment area and a sofa bed couch (which is where the kids slept). There was a fruit platter with apple, oranges and bananas in it. There were robes for both my wife and I and the kids. Let's not forget the Castaway Club gifts we got: a beach bag, 2 water bottles, a pencil sharpener, pad, and a pen/pencil bag.


Mary on the sofa bed


Master bedroom, Castaway gifts and the kid's gift baskets


Entertainment center


Make up area


Double sinks


Tub


View from Make up area into sink and toilet area


Shower


Toilet


Walk in closet and safe across from the make up area


View from Make up area across master bedroom towards verandah entrance


Probably the most important thing in the room-sliding glass door that separates the two rooms


Wet bar


view from table towards door-3 part closet on left and door to second bathroom on right


closet


closet


picture through mirror showing shower in second bathroom (taken by the unknown hands that appeared in our stateroom)


sink in second bathroom


kid's robes- ours were all white. We also had slippers provided also, non for the kids.


Plasma in master bedroom


Mary by the entertainment center in the master bedroom

I even got some gifts for the kids from Gifts of a Lifetime (you can see them in the above picture of the master bedroom). Shirley was great to deal with and the gifts were unbelievable. A lot of stuff for them and a lot of goodies too. My son got a pirate themed treasure chest while my daughter got a beach toy gift.

Our luggage was all there before we even had to go to the obligatory safety boat drill except for one bag. Here are the kids in there vests out on deck 4.
This was tough because the sun was going right in our eyes.





Continued...

 

[Bytor01]

Well, I had to go to a second page for part four. Apparently you are only allowed 25 pictures per post. Oh boy this may be a long one because my audience is clamoring for pics and I have a bunch of scans and pictures so lets all go along for the ride...

contined from above page....

But, it isn’t that long and before we knew it we were back upstairs in our stateroom getting ready to go. Once we got there our final bag was there so we were all set. With everything put in its proper place James, Moira and I headed for the Adventures Away Party and Mary that crazy as a fox wife of mine headed to the gym to get a run in before dinner.

Here are some pictures of the Party




Cruise Director Brent Davies



We danced and sang along and before you knew it there was the horn singing that sweet little tune. We started to pull out, the party was ending and because we were on the terminal side of the ship we ran to our room to watch as we pulled away. We waved to the people on the shore and they waved back. One guy even said take me with you so I yelled jump in and start swimming. He pretended to start to jump. It was funny. The kids we laughing because they thought the guy might actually do it (hey who would blame him).





As we got ready for dinner at Parrots Cay the sun was going down. I got some great shots of the sunset.







Of course, waiting for us in our room was the Navigators and many other information packets. Here are some of the info that awaits you, including Saturday’s Navigator.











Next up. some more postings of items of information, dinner, and the show coming to a close on our first day on the Magic. I hope you like the information and pictures. More to come.

BTW regarding any of the Navigators. If you have a specific question, let me know. It may be hard to read on here. I tried to enlarge them as best as possible but I can only get a 600 pixel shot (as I am sure we all know what that means).

 

[SCDizneyDawn]

Thanks for scanning in the Navigators! I found if I clicked on the page it took me to your webshots page and from that I could make it full size and read everthing!

THANK YOU!!!

 

[Bytor01]

Thanks for scanning in the Navigators! I found if I clicked on the page it took me to your webshots page and from that I could make it full size and read everthing!

THANK YOU!!!

OK so there you go. If anyone is interested just click on the page and it will take you to my webshot page. Good to know, thank you.

 

[Bytor01]

We were assigned a rotation of PLAPLAP. We were off to Parrot Cay for our first night. I like Parrot Cay very much and I think it is a great restaurant to start out in. The ambiance with its tropical, Caribbean theme just sets the right tone for the whole cruise. I called up and requested this specific rotation through the concierge department a couple of weeks before the cruise. So I was glad that my request was put through.

We were seated and we met our server Ivan and our assistant server May. Ivan is from Bulgaria and May is from the Philippines. We also had a trainee serving us. His name was Kristzian. Our Head server was Jeff. They would become like part of the family by weeks end. This was Cruise Casual night with an Island Dinner theme in Parrot Cay. The menu consisted of the following:

Appetizers
Tostada Vera Cruz
Smoky Chicken, Vegetables and Cheddar Cheese Fritters
Baked Crab Martinique
Island Jerk Tuna and Conch Ceviche

Soups and Salads
Cold Cream of Mango and Papaya
Cream of Sweet Onion Soup
Parrot Cay Salad
West Indies Caesar Salad
Tropical style Fruit Salad

Main Course
Island Roaster Rib-Eye of Beef
Mixed Grill
Pan Seared Grouper with Baby Shrimp Lemon Butter
Caribbean Roast Chicken
Barbeque Pork Tenderloin with Prickly Pear Glaze

Lighter Fare and Vegetarian
Grilled Sirloin Steak
Slow Roasted Breast of Chicken
Oven Baked Filet of Salmon
Vegetable Strudel
Gnocchi Au Gratin

Bread Selection
Pan de Plantana (Banana bread)

Desserts
Crème Brulee Cheesecake
French Toast Banana Bread Pudding
Lemon Meringue Pie
Chocolate S’more Vanilla Cake
Ice Cream Sundae
Pina Colada Bread Pudding- no sugar added
Cheesecake-no sugar added

With all these choices I went with the Baked Crab Martinque, Cold Cream of Mango and Papaya soup, Mixed Grill and the French Toast Banana Bread Pudding. Mary had the slow roasted Breast of Chicken, West Indies Caesar salad and the Chocolate S’more Vanilla cake. The kids went with some pizza which came with fries and cauliflower and broccoli. We also ordered the Wine package and had a Robert Mondavi merlot. Yes, we drank the whole bottle. So shoot us we are on vacation. Here’s the wine packages that are available





The mixed grill was fantastic. It was grilled beef tenderloin, lamb chop, bacon wrapped sausage and jumbo shrimp in a cabernet mushroom sauce. I didn’t think I would like the mango and papaya soup but that was great also. It is hard to argue with the chef’s recommendations and I tried most of them. I went into this cruise wanting to have our server just bring me food. I asked Ivan but he said he could only recommend and not just bring food to me. So, I went with his recommendations also. He was spot on all week.

For whatever reason when it was time for dessert, our kids didn’t want anything. In fact they ordered “Nothing”. What was funny is that we were making fun of them while we were chomping away on our desserts and Ivan brought over a really nice plate full of syrups with the word NOTHING spelled out on it. It was hilarious and James got all embarrassed because we were laughing but finally they started to laugh also.

After dinner we went up to the kids club because we had plenty of time before the show started. We got the kids their wristbands and then went after walking around a little we went to the show. It was a quest all week to get front row seats. My son was obsessed. This night we were front row on the right side of the stage as you are looking at it.

We were finally introduced officially to our Cruise Director for this trip. He is Brent Davies. I heard that Christian was supposed to be on this cruise but he took some time off because his wife had a child. We had Christian as our Director back in ’07 and he was great. I have heard good things about Brent so the comparison was now on. The All Aboard skit show was a good way to start and is very cute. Definitely not the best of the week but a good start. The jugglers, Team Rootberry, was very funny. The juggled swords while a woman from the audience stood between them as they past them in front and behind her. The funny thing was the said there record was 7 and 1 before they started. After they finished without a scratch to the women they now said there record stood at 7 and 2. Very funny moment once the audience got the joke. Freddy Fusion is also a very funny skit comedian. The part where he tries to place himself inside a balloon is great. It blew up just as he was getting his last foot inside.

We went up to Deck 5 were the Oceaneer’s Club is and the kids entered reluctantly (another theme all week). Mary and I went down to Rockin’ Bar D and caught a little of the band, Soul Drive. They sounded very good but we only caught a couple of their songs. Afterwards, David the Emcee for most things on the ship, started Magic Quest. It was a scavenger hunt. This scavenger hunt though dealt with things in the Bar or on your person. Let’s just say people get really creative when thinking of ways to come up with some of the items. I won’t ruin it for you but if you have the chance to catch this, do it. You will laugh and laugh real hard. We also wanted to catch Match your Mate and just as they picked the three teams the darn pager went off. Apparently Mary told the kids that they could contact us if they wanted to leave. Mary, Mary of why did you do that. Well we headed up to the Club and collected our two party poopers.

We called it a night. It was a long day and the kids were still a little cranky from being up real early the day before. So we hit the sack only to get ready for another day. Only we would be in for a rude awakening during the night. Stay tuned for our wake up call and the rest of Sunday. Thanks for reading.

And of course our towel animal that we found upon our return.


our Seal



James posing with the Seal or is he trying to pilfer the chocolate mints that were left, hmmmm makes you wonder?

 

[frdeb1999]

Great TR and pics so far. Looking forward to more!

 

[lovesDCL]

thanks you soooooooooo much for posting the navigators!

great installments! can't wait to hear about the "rude awakening"

 

[lulu0506]

Great TR!! THANKS I am excited to hear about the experience your kids had with the kids club. I am hoping my DS3 and DS7 like it enough to visit for a few hours each day Also curious as to whether you thought the concierge room was worth the extra money. I really wanted to go that route but just couldn't justify the extra cost so we booked Cat. 6 instead. I will stay tuned for more

 

[Jennifer_W]

bump!

 

[KittyKat08]

This is an awesome TR. I love all your pictures, they are great, keep them coming. The suite looks amazing, I don't think my DH will ever justify the cost to stay in one, but that's okay I'm living vicariously through you and your family. Can't wait for the rest.

 

[lwilliam]

Where did you go?

There is 4 inches of snow on the ground, freezing rain falling, and sleet, and I want to read more reports and see more pictures - these reports are the only way I get thru the winter in PA!

 

[mrstbalt]

Great report, can't wait to see and read more.

 

[Kay1]

Love all the detail. Wonderful report.

 

[dato63]

I'm also enjoying your report & can not wait to read more!!

 

[Bytor01]

I apologize to everyone. It has been really busy as I have been involved in a heavy duty court case this week. I will hopefully get a reprot up with pictures probably or hopefully in it. If not, I will get te pictures in tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Tim