We enjoyed our cruise. Seas were the roughest we have cruised in but we couldn't feel the ship move. Our location was a cat. 3 midship 8548. We will be in this room again next spring break. Deck 8 is noisy compared to deck 6 but we were still able to sleep. To all: to get the cheapest cruise rate book as far in advance as possible.
The DIS meet was the largest we had seen. All were nice.
The weather was fantastic. A lot warmer than last year and no rain! Well, when we were leaving Key West it rained but we sailing away.
Key West was great. Ladies, the Tikal Trading Company has cute tropical mother/ daughter outfits at a good price. Fast Buck Eddies was a fun store to shop in. The aquarium was a good thing to do with children.
Grand Cayman. Missed it because of sea swells coming into the harbor. No the Magic was fine and not rocking but we are boaters and believe me after what we saw in the harbor, we would not want to be in a small tender in those conditions. DCL had a wonderful day at sea planned for us and the weather ended up being better than our first day at sea. It didn't bother us at all, we prefer the days at sea and we got the 3 days at sea just like the eastern!
Cozumel. We rented a taxi and took a small island tour. Mr. Sanchos beach is where we will spend time the next time we go to Cozumel. The other side of the island looks completely different than where the ships dock. Our daughter opted to stay aboard the ship and do the club.
Castaway Cay. Perfect. A word of caution, remember the entire ship gets off on one island. Be prepared, it well be crowded. We saw a young family at 11:30 am complaining to a cast member because it was so crowded. It wasn't what they expected, they had a small child and they were demanding a umbrella with chairs. All we thought was, well, they aren't the only family aboard with a small child. If you want an umbrella, get off the ship early.
The children's programming. Our daughter loves the club. She is in the 10-12 group. She enjoyed this cruise as much as her first back in '99. She loved the party held at night in the Mickey Pool just for her age group. They were able to use the slide with out the crowded conditions of the pool. I don't remember that from last year. She was sad when we had to leave the ship Sat. morning. She was reminded we are coming back in '04.
The food. Getting better each cruise. If you are a food snob you would be turning your nose up but for cruise food cooked in mass quanities it was tasty. The lobster was the best I have ever had on a cruise ship in my total of 12 cruises. My husand said the beef was much better from our first DCL cruises.
The ship. She needs her dry dock time. We have cruised a year apart for 5 cruises (except once it was 6 mo. apart) and we can see her wear and tear. It is expected. The ship is half children every cruise and as parents we all know how rough children can be. I hope they replace the mattresses, ours was really feeling broken down. The carpet in our room was also looking old.
The common areas of the ship were looking great. We did have a small plumbing problem with our bubble tub and it was fixed in a timely matter.
The crew. Not one rude cast member. That is a first.
The passengers. Well this cruise had more than its fare share.
The dissappoinments. This is only our OPINION so please no debate started.
We where prepared for 1 formal night, 1 semi-formal night and the rest casual. What we experienced was the formal night was more like a semi-formal night and the rest was casual. I was surprised at the number of people who dressed in tropical attire on the semi-formal night. Maybe it was just our rotation. We had PAL. Did not like that rotation at all. Our previous cruises we had LAP which we prefer.
Our cruise in Jan on Celebrity was a 7 day so we had a ton of children aboard. We had 4 formal nights and I mean tux formal nights, 1 semi formal night and 2 casual. We know the defense is always, we paid for our vacation and we will wear what we want. So be it. We just like the cruising tradition of dressing up and seeing all the fellow passengers in their finest attire.
We have decided we prefer the eastern over the western but I would do the western once again. Disney is still the cruiseline we feel is the best for families. Dave and Kathy
The DIS meet was the largest we had seen. All were nice.
The weather was fantastic. A lot warmer than last year and no rain! Well, when we were leaving Key West it rained but we sailing away.
Key West was great. Ladies, the Tikal Trading Company has cute tropical mother/ daughter outfits at a good price. Fast Buck Eddies was a fun store to shop in. The aquarium was a good thing to do with children.
Grand Cayman. Missed it because of sea swells coming into the harbor. No the Magic was fine and not rocking but we are boaters and believe me after what we saw in the harbor, we would not want to be in a small tender in those conditions. DCL had a wonderful day at sea planned for us and the weather ended up being better than our first day at sea. It didn't bother us at all, we prefer the days at sea and we got the 3 days at sea just like the eastern!
Cozumel. We rented a taxi and took a small island tour. Mr. Sanchos beach is where we will spend time the next time we go to Cozumel. The other side of the island looks completely different than where the ships dock. Our daughter opted to stay aboard the ship and do the club.
Castaway Cay. Perfect. A word of caution, remember the entire ship gets off on one island. Be prepared, it well be crowded. We saw a young family at 11:30 am complaining to a cast member because it was so crowded. It wasn't what they expected, they had a small child and they were demanding a umbrella with chairs. All we thought was, well, they aren't the only family aboard with a small child. If you want an umbrella, get off the ship early.
The children's programming. Our daughter loves the club. She is in the 10-12 group. She enjoyed this cruise as much as her first back in '99. She loved the party held at night in the Mickey Pool just for her age group. They were able to use the slide with out the crowded conditions of the pool. I don't remember that from last year. She was sad when we had to leave the ship Sat. morning. She was reminded we are coming back in '04.
The food. Getting better each cruise. If you are a food snob you would be turning your nose up but for cruise food cooked in mass quanities it was tasty. The lobster was the best I have ever had on a cruise ship in my total of 12 cruises. My husand said the beef was much better from our first DCL cruises.
The ship. She needs her dry dock time. We have cruised a year apart for 5 cruises (except once it was 6 mo. apart) and we can see her wear and tear. It is expected. The ship is half children every cruise and as parents we all know how rough children can be. I hope they replace the mattresses, ours was really feeling broken down. The carpet in our room was also looking old.
The common areas of the ship were looking great. We did have a small plumbing problem with our bubble tub and it was fixed in a timely matter.
The crew. Not one rude cast member. That is a first.
The passengers. Well this cruise had more than its fare share.
The dissappoinments. This is only our OPINION so please no debate started.
We where prepared for 1 formal night, 1 semi-formal night and the rest casual. What we experienced was the formal night was more like a semi-formal night and the rest was casual. I was surprised at the number of people who dressed in tropical attire on the semi-formal night. Maybe it was just our rotation. We had PAL. Did not like that rotation at all. Our previous cruises we had LAP which we prefer.
Our cruise in Jan on Celebrity was a 7 day so we had a ton of children aboard. We had 4 formal nights and I mean tux formal nights, 1 semi formal night and 2 casual. We know the defense is always, we paid for our vacation and we will wear what we want. So be it. We just like the cruising tradition of dressing up and seeing all the fellow passengers in their finest attire.
We have decided we prefer the eastern over the western but I would do the western once again. Disney is still the cruiseline we feel is the best for families. Dave and Kathy
