GeorgiaVol
Looking for a Cool Change
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2001
We traveled as part of a four family group with our 5 kids.
First of all, the weather was great and the seas were fairly calm. The only rain was some intermittent showers on our St Thomas day, but we still had alot of sunshine.
Overall, we had another great time. The food was better than I remembered it and the crew was great. Here are a few comments/lessons learned that may or may not help out future cruises.
*****************
The shows need some updating and work. Morty the Magician was pretty good, and Disney Dreams was nicely done. Hercules wasn't as good as I remembered. The variety shows were okay. One of the magicians, Gary (don't remember his last name, was terrible. A musician/comedian named Dan was fantastic and should be seen whenever/where ever he performs on the ship.
Our servers were Deepak (India) and Gabor (Hungary). Absolutely first class guys who did great with our kids. Anybody who gets either of them should mention us Georgia folks, as we made enough noise to not be soon forgotten.
At St. Maarten, we rented cars and went to Dawn Beach, but the surf was way way up from the northeasterly wind blowing pretty hard. Lesson learned: Find out the wind direction and take it into consideration when visiting a beach on St Martin or St. Thomas/John.
Including the Magic, there were three cruise ships in St. Thomas and Trunk Bay on St. John got a little crowded.
We had problems with our Key to the World Cards becoming demagnetized. Several folks in our party (including me) had to go back to Guest Services to get the cards restored.
When you arrive in St. Thomas, you have to go through US Customs by passing through the Walt Disney Theatre and having a US customs person check your documents. This takes about 15 minutes to get done. When you leave the theatre, you get a hand stamp that allows you to immediately get off the ship (the crew checks for your stamp with a little black light scanner when you leave). You don't need to wait for the all the passengers to go through customs to get off.
None of our five kids (ages 9 to 11) liked the Oceaner's Lab. They all had the same comment after two visits: BORING! The computers are the main focus of interest and there are not enough to go around without alot of waiting time. Disney needs to revisit the Lab concept in a big way. In fact, we seldom saw much activity in the Lab when we walked by the entrance (our Deck 6 stateroom was close to the same set of stairs).
The Deck 9 food was just fine, although we wished the ice cream at scoops was a bit colder. The stuff melted faster than a popsicle in an oven
On our first day (Sat), we got on the ship by 12:10 and Palo's and the Spa were accepting reservations before 12:30.
My wife and I attended the Palo brunch and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it!
Hats off to the Magic technical crew. We had NFL football playoff games on Sunday, due to their signficant effort in finding a satellite feed from CBS and Fox, via a Latin American ESPN feed. Believe me, I'm a techie and I know they had to really work to find a feed. You football nuts should be able to see the Super Bowl.
Well, that's enough for now. If anyone has questions, just email me. We go back for a three day in December!
First of all, the weather was great and the seas were fairly calm. The only rain was some intermittent showers on our St Thomas day, but we still had alot of sunshine.
Overall, we had another great time. The food was better than I remembered it and the crew was great. Here are a few comments/lessons learned that may or may not help out future cruises.
*****************
The shows need some updating and work. Morty the Magician was pretty good, and Disney Dreams was nicely done. Hercules wasn't as good as I remembered. The variety shows were okay. One of the magicians, Gary (don't remember his last name, was terrible. A musician/comedian named Dan was fantastic and should be seen whenever/where ever he performs on the ship.
Our servers were Deepak (India) and Gabor (Hungary). Absolutely first class guys who did great with our kids. Anybody who gets either of them should mention us Georgia folks, as we made enough noise to not be soon forgotten.
At St. Maarten, we rented cars and went to Dawn Beach, but the surf was way way up from the northeasterly wind blowing pretty hard. Lesson learned: Find out the wind direction and take it into consideration when visiting a beach on St Martin or St. Thomas/John.
Including the Magic, there were three cruise ships in St. Thomas and Trunk Bay on St. John got a little crowded.
We had problems with our Key to the World Cards becoming demagnetized. Several folks in our party (including me) had to go back to Guest Services to get the cards restored.
When you arrive in St. Thomas, you have to go through US Customs by passing through the Walt Disney Theatre and having a US customs person check your documents. This takes about 15 minutes to get done. When you leave the theatre, you get a hand stamp that allows you to immediately get off the ship (the crew checks for your stamp with a little black light scanner when you leave). You don't need to wait for the all the passengers to go through customs to get off.
None of our five kids (ages 9 to 11) liked the Oceaner's Lab. They all had the same comment after two visits: BORING! The computers are the main focus of interest and there are not enough to go around without alot of waiting time. Disney needs to revisit the Lab concept in a big way. In fact, we seldom saw much activity in the Lab when we walked by the entrance (our Deck 6 stateroom was close to the same set of stairs).
The Deck 9 food was just fine, although we wished the ice cream at scoops was a bit colder. The stuff melted faster than a popsicle in an oven
On our first day (Sat), we got on the ship by 12:10 and Palo's and the Spa were accepting reservations before 12:30.
My wife and I attended the Palo brunch and absolutely loved it. I highly recommend it!
Hats off to the Magic technical crew. We had NFL football playoff games on Sunday, due to their signficant effort in finding a satellite feed from CBS and Fox, via a Latin American ESPN feed. Believe me, I'm a techie and I know they had to really work to find a feed. You football nuts should be able to see the Super Bowl.
Well, that's enough for now. If anyone has questions, just email me. We go back for a three day in December!
