Just back from Magic...any questions?

[sistergroove]

We're back from our Eastern Caribbean Magic cruise. Reality has set in. I've finally come to the conclusion that someone is not just sitting around waiting to serve me food every 2 hours now that I'm home!

I would be happy to answer any questions about the experience. We're a family of 4, daughters ages 7 & 10, stayed in an inside cabin, used Disney transfers in and out of Orlando, arranged own shore excursions, ate at Palo's.

Let me know if you'd like details to help with your planning...

[crhenderson]

Did you happen to eat dinner at Topsiders or see a dinner menu?

[sistergroove]

No we didn't, only breakfast and lunch. Are you looking for a change from the dining rooms?

[aidan]

we're going on magic out of LA this summer. can i leave my 3.5 year old at the oceaneer's club or fouder's nursery while we're off the ship? Also, have you tried the palo tea time event and/ or wine tasting? if so, what do you think? thanks

 

 

:confused:

 

We're back from our Eastern Caribbean Magic cruise. Reality has set in. I've finally come to the conclusion that someone is not just sitting around waiting to serve me food every 2 hours now that I'm home!

I would be happy to answer any questions about the experience. We're a family of 4, daughters ages 7 & 10, stayed in an inside cabin, used Disney transfers in and out of Orlando, arranged own shore excursions, ate at Palo's.

Let me know if you'd like details to help with your planning...

[crhenderson]

We may not be able to eat in main dining room due to being asigned late seating and we have a 1 year old. It is for one of the west coast sailings so I am anticipating the ship being full and not being able to change our dining times.

[JTcruiser]

Sistergroove: How formal were people dressed on formal night? I will be on a West Coast cruise and am planning to wear a black chiffon cocktail dress...will this be dressy enough or do many women wear formals? What worked for you?

[sistergroove]

We may not be able to eat in main dining room due to being asigned late seating and we have a 1 year old. It is for one of the west coast sailings so I am anticipating the ship being full and not being able to change our dining times.

Oh, got ya. We were also waitlisted for the early seating and somehow managed to get it. So maybe it will be the same for you! I wonder if you spoke to the maitre de (spelling????) after you board, if he could do anything. Good luck! There is also the nursery, but I did not deal with it, so I don't know if you can make a standing reservation for it each night at dinner time, or if your little one will be sound asleep by then.

[sistergroove]

we're going on magic out of LA this summer. can i leave my 3.5 year old at the oceaneer's club or fouder's nursery while we're off the ship? Also, have you tried the palo tea time event and/ or wine tasting? if so, what do you think? thanks

 

 

:confused:

Yes, you can leave them. We did not do this, so I'm not sure how it works on land, but while on the ship you get a pager in case they need you. The kid's club was very well organized, so I'm sure they have some great system. I recommend signing your child up very soon after boarding the first day. This is what we did, and it took about 10 minutes. The next day the line to sign the kids up was a mile long!

Palo's is a must-do. We did brunch and dinner. We had signed up for tea, but when the time came I couldn't pull myself away from my deck chair. But our friends that we traveled with did and thought it was nice. You pick tea from a lot of different choices, and there are pastries and little munchies. Now the brunch is fantastic. You start with a buffet of shrimp, huge crab legs (already split in 1/2...YAY), pastries, salads, breads. And when you're completely stuffed, you then order off the menu. You can order breakfast or lunch items, or all of the above. The restaurant is very pretty with nice ocean views. The dinner is fanstastic too. Our waiter recommended ordering little bits of everything and sharing all. We all got steaks that were delicious.

We did not do the wine tasting, but if it's thru Palo's it's got to be good!

When you board the ship, let one of you rush immediately to sign up at Palo's while the other one of you can go to eat at Parrot Cay with your child and wait for you. Apparently the reservations at Palo go fast.

[sistergroove]

Sistergroove: How formal were people dressed on formal night? I will be on a West Coast cruise and am planning to wear a black chiffon cocktail dress...will this be dressy enough or do many women wear formals? What worked for you?

I think your dress would be great. I have cruised previously on Celebrity and Carnival, and Disney was a cross between the two. I wore a formal, just because I had it from Celebrity. Maybe a third of the women were in formals, a third in cocktails, and a third in church dresses, with even a few in capris. The men mainly wore suits, with maybe a 1/4 in tuxes, and a 1/4 in slacks with polo shirts.

[jennat]

I was wondering if you would enjoy the brunch if you don't like seafood? I know, I am wierd...but I keep hearing about all the wonderful seafood and was just wondering....

Thanks

[jennat]

One more question.....How did your kids like the kids club. Did they want to be there as much as possible, never or somewhere in between. I have a 9 DS and a 6 DD.

Thanks again,

[sistergroove]

jennat,

Yes, you should still love it even if you don't care for seafood. I focused on that because I love crab, but my husband doesn't like seafood, and he loved the brunch. The menu for the brunch is good enough to where you wouldn't even be upset if you didn't eat anything off of the buffet. It's also a nice little grown up thing, where most of the trip is so centered around the kids. .

My kids wanted to spend a medium amount of time in the kid's club. I have 2 daughters, 7 & 10. They both make friends very easily, and did so on the 1st day by the pool. So sometimes they wanted to go to the club, and sometimes they wanted to play by the pool with friends. The younger one rarely asked to go to the club, but always enjoyed it when she did go (they had to go when we went to Palo.) The older one checked herself in and out during the day and evening. You will get a kid's club calendar of events, and we carried that around with us. When an activity interested them, they'd go.

My younger went to the club on Castaway Cay. They move the entire club to the beach. The first activity interested her, and when I went to pick her up an hour later, she didn't want to leave the club. She stayed all day, and even ate with them.

My older one especially enjoyed the late night parties and movie nights. They had separate girl and boy parties with sports for the boys and girly stuff for the girls. They also both loved the lab where they made flubber.

So did I describe it well enough to answer your question?

[JTcruiser]

Sistergroove: Thanks for the dress info. I'll just plan on my dress which I used for our RCCL cruise and something within reason for the semi-formal night. You are a great source of info :)

[nato]

What shore excursions did you take and who did you use to book them? Thanks!

[sistergroove]

We booked ourselves with Godfrey's tour in St. Thomas and the Lord Sheffield boat day trip in St. Martin. If you go under the "ports of call" on the message boards for St. Thomas and St. Martin you will be able to read a ton about both of them and find the web sites. Godfrey's tour picks you up from where you dock, drops you off at shopping, takes a tour of the island, drops you off at a beach of your choice, and then picks you up 3 hours later. All for $20.00. It's a great deal. Especially if you consider that you have to pay for a taxi if you go to the beach or shopping, and the taxis aren't cheap! Our kids loved the shopping (as long as some of it was for them) and the beach. They could've cared less about the island tour, but at one stop there were a few arcade games, so they were ok.

The boat trip was great too. You sail out then stop and swim with noodles. The kids can steer the boat and ride way up front over the ocean. It was $50.00 for adults and $25.00 for kids. You can walk to where you catch the boat.

Our friends went on the Atlantis submarine tour that they booked thru Disney. They really enjoyed it.

[frayedend]

We may not be able to eat in main dining room due to being asigned late seating and we have a 1 year old. It is for one of the west coast sailings so I am anticipating the ship being full and not being able to change our dining times.

 

I was on Disney a few years ago with a 6 month old. We were at early seating but our son was too fussy and we had trouble eating in the dining room so we asked to switch times. All of the tables were full but the head waiter eventually found a group that wanted the early seating so the switched us. You should ask the head waiter as soon as the dining room opens. Our son fell asleep after we fed him and then we went to late dinner with him sleeping soundly in the stroller (we even were able to go see the show while he slept in the stroller next to us). It worked out great. I suppose it depends on the age of your child. Just turned one and you may be able to do what we did, but closer to 2 may not sleep in the stroller.