Oh boy.... We're going on a CRUISE!!!
Executive Summary - Disney Magic - Disney Cruise Line. Beautiful boat, good facilities, excellent staff, food was good, stateroom was fantastic, supervision of 9 year old daughter was superb. Cruise diving was ok. St. Martin was surgy and had current but also had beautiful oranges, reds and yellow sponges. St. Thomas was nice and calm, and not too bad.
And now, the story...
I often questioned the wisdom of getting married on a Friday, loading child, groom and 1/2 the house into an airplane on Saturday morning, jetting to Florida, and getting on a week long Disney cruise. However, I question my wisdom all of the time (as does everyone else) so I totally ignored it and pressed on. And why not? It would be a complete surprise to the small child (age 9 on 10/16...) it might be a break for us (damn, I hope so after all the wedding/cruise planning ups and down we went through) and good fun might actually be had by all. It was certainly worth the chance.
First, the planning. In the midst of planning a wedding extravaganza, we were also trying to fix the mess that had become of our reservations. If we can offer any advice to others regarding cruise planning, it's INSIST that the travel agents clear the actual flights with you before booking, and also, if someone says that you have a great room, CHECK where on the ship that great room is located prior to their booking it. We eventually got the mess unravelled, paid some additional fees, and had suddenly moved from deck 2 (bottom of the ship, ocean view meaning watching it splash across your porthole) to deck 8, top of the ship with a veranda. Excellent happy idea of a honeymoon/kidlet fun. Now it was time to actually GET to Port Canaveral and get on de boat. I had visions of Sloop John B playing in my head.
The trip to the ship
Welcome to the Chinese hell of parents who never discipline their children. What is this world coming to, anyway, when parents sit there while their children who are old enough to know better, shriek at the top of their lungs in a full airplane, simply because they want attention? Carry it a bit further and ask yourself why in the world parents would pay all the necessary money to take their children on a Disney cruise, then allow them to annoy other tables during dinner? I actually had to tell other people's children to 1) stop kicking the back of Morgan's bus seat, 2) stop yelling in my ear, and 3) stop harassing my daughter at dinner when you don't even know her and you're not even sitting at our table. The parents, of course, did nothing but look at me as if I were an alien creature from the planet Discipline or something. *ARGH*
Ok, so we've established that some people don't know how to raise kids. What about the rest of stuff?
Our stateroom is fantastic. Over 700 square feet of space (almost as big as my first condo). Absolutely gorgeous with tons of room, 2 bathrooms, a great veranda, and all the perks you would expect on a much more expensive cruise. The staff is wonderful, the ship is beautiful, and this is certainly wonderful for the money, especially since I paid for most of this using free points from my Merrill Lynch Global Gold account. However, I digress :-).
The flight down was uneventful except for the screaming little brat whose parents did nothing to stop the high pitched shrieking noises that my 8 (almost 9, mommy) year old daughter was blocking her ears from. Of course, my small child was already pissed because she was missing having a birthday party this year because her horrible mother and step father were taking her on a "business trip." She has no idea whatsoever that she was going on a cruise. In fact, when we met the cruise representative at Orlando international Airport, with the "Disney Cruise Line" clipboard, she was completely oblivious, and didn't even notice him. It wasn't til baggage claim, when we were putting "Disney Magic" tags on our luggage for the nice baggage person to take to the ship for us that she realized something cool was about to happen. Small child responded by skipping down the baggage claim hallway singing "we're going on a Disney cruise, we're going on a Disney cruise." She was in heaven before we even left the airport.
The Disney people have this one down pretty well. You get off your plane, meet the rep, get your bags, tag them and hand them off, get on a bus (a nice bus) that takes you from Orlando to Port Canaveral, and go into the terminal from there. The terminal has a HUGE number of staff in attendance, making the cruise check in a very civilized experience. Not the long horrible annoying waits of other cruise companies IUd experienced and heard about. After only about 10 minutes, we were on board the ship, found our stateroom, had signed up for shore excursions, found out about dinner, etc. All quite painless, and did not make us feel like cattle.
On the ship - night 1.
Then, we had the on board safety drill. It was hot. The life jackets were heavy. People were disorganized. All of this seemed par for that type of course. But then, the parents started WHINING, causing the children to start WHINING, so nobody could hear the actual safety announcement. Oh well...don't you just trim for best glide and find a field anyway? Sheesh : )
After the drill, we went topside to watch the ship pull out of the harbor. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, and was blocking the ingress and egress portions of the ship. All kinds of vessels lined the channel, waving to this huge monstrosity of a ship that plays the first bars of "When you wish upon a star" when the horn blows. The smoke stacks were huge red things with Mickey Mouse ears painted on them. The stern has a statue of Goofy on it, painting the final touches on the ship's name in gold. The bus driver had pointed out that maritime law mandates that lifeboats be painted orange, however, Disney had received a special exemption to this rule because orange was not an approved Mickey Mouse color. He ended with "that's the power of the mouse." One of the parents in the back said "no, that's the power of money." That might also be true : )
So, off we went to explore the ship, the 5th largest cruise ship currently sailing (although the bridge crew says that changes almost daily now a days with each cruise line wanting "the biggest" ship). 85,000 tons, 2500 passengers, crew of 950 from 52 different countries. The ship was actually built in two halves, at two different facilities in Italy, then joined together and tested. They show a video about that in your stateroom for interested geeks like us :-). As for the part where you actually entertain people, Disney certainly has that down to a science, having separate facilities for families, teens, children, and adults only areas for when you just had to get away. Morgan's jaw was open the entire time we walked around the ship. "Wow mom, this is really like being in a huge fancy place, and not at all like being on the ocean." She must have been on some of the dive boats we've been on :-). We signed her up for the "Oceaneering Lab" for kids 9 and older, where she could have fun playing with other kids, and learning stuff about the ocean, and about Disney animation, etc. The kids can actually be left there from about 7 am until midnight. We signed up for some shore excursions (guess what....scuba diving :-)), I signed up for a massage for the next day, and by then it was time to get ready for dinner.
Disney has a kind of "rotating" dinner type schedule. Guests have the same table, same staff, but a different restaurant for each of their nights on the cruise. Our first night was at Animator's Palate, where the night starts out with all of the pictures in black and white, and as the night progresses, all turn to color, including the jackets of the wait staff. Our first night we were seated with a nice Japanese couple and their very young daughter. Our assignment was being rotated to the 8:30 seating (from the 6:00 seating) for the rest of the cruise, so we would be at a table for 4 by ourselves.
Dinner the first night was quite nice, except for the monster child at the next table that I actually had to tell to stop harassing Morgan and sit in his chair. I got "the look" from the parents, but that's about it. Child then sat. Besides that, everything else was very nice, Morgan was pampered, we had good food and service, and all was well.
By the time we got back to the room, the sea was noticeably rougher. We could only have imagined what it would have been like way in the front of the boat and on the 2nd deck. People were already walking around holding "In Case of Sea Sickness" info sheets from the health center. Thankfully, I wasn't feeling any ill effects besides the normal slamming into walls while trying to walk. We went to bed early, us in our palatial bedroom in the huge queen sized bed, Morgan in her way cool pull down Murphy bed that she decided was the neatest thing. Our steward, Daniel, had turned down the bedclothes for us, and had made a swan out of a towel for Morgan, which she thought was really cool.
Sunday - 10/15/00
After a very restless night between Morgan coughing and hacking and Wes snoring, I got up early enough to make my 8 am massage appointment. The massage was wonderful, helping me to get a lot more relaxed than I was. I noticed on the way up to the spa that the boat was rocking significantly more this morning, and looking out there were whitecaps on the waves and swells to what I thought were about 5 feet or so. The masseuse was a nice girl from Bulgaria who was also a personal trainer on the ship. She was definitely in excellent shape, and invited me to the Tae Bo classes on board. Of course, I thought that would be a wonderful thing, I just have to wait and see if my energy level approaches my desire to be in better shape :-).
Right after the massage, it was time to run back to the stateoom, and get ready for the character breakfast. Morgan was up and way excited to be meeting some of the characters, like Chip and Dale, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, the March Hare, and her favorite, Goofy. At breakfast, we met our new wait staff at our new table. Jean, our server, was from France. Baly, our assistant server, was from Hungary. They were both wonderful, making sure that everything we needed or wanted was there. After breakfast, Morgan went off to the Oceaneering lab which was a fabulous Disney idea. The children can have activities all day long if they wished, and the parents were issued with a text pager in case it was necessary to get hold of us for any reason while our kids were having fun. There were two options for kids MorganUs age - one was allowing the child to check in and out of the lab as they pleased, and the other was parental sign in and sign out. We decided to start with the sign in and out, gave them our password, and the list of who was allowed to pick her up from the lab. The staff explained the procedures, and we slithered away, not even noticed by Morgan.
Ah HA! We found the "report from the bridge" channel on the television set. I was wrong about the seas. 22 to 27 knot wind gusts giving us a lovely sea classified as "rough" at 8 to 13 feet. Ouch. No wonder we are smooshing back and forth. However, the Captain told us that he expected the seas would be better by the nighttime. Believe it or not, I was only a little bit queasy. I considered myself quite lucky, as others were markedly worse off than I was, definitely feeling rotten.
That evening, we were lucky enough to get into Palos, the Italian restaurant that was reservations only. Our server, Stephanie from the Brittany area of France, was a brilliant recommender of wines, appetizers, and main courses there. It was absolutely wonderful. We had Chateau du petit village, which was very nice wine, Wes had lamb, and I had pasta. The restaurant was also adults only, so it was a great place to relax and just let down. We knew that Morgan would be fine in the Oceaneering lab.
By evening, the captain's prediction was exactly correct. Seas were 1.4 feet next time we checked. Much less rocking. Hopefully I'll get a lot more sleep tonight.
Day 3 - Monday
Today was an "at sea" day. More importantly, it was Morgan's birthday. We were lazy bums and spent most of the day relaxing, while Morgan was playing at the Oceaneering lab and hanging out with her friends there. We picked her out a few things from the Disney stores on board, relaxed ourselves, and waited for dinner.
The "Report From the Bridge" on television that we'd found the day before gives us distance sailed from the last port of call, sea conditions, weather conditions, etc. It also shows graphically where we are located. At 2 that afternoon, we attended a RnavigationalS seminar, where some of the bridge crew were there, giving us information on how the ship navigates, etc. We found out that they use DGPS systems (two of them on board) and that when or if those break, they have to use sextants 3 times per day to find out where they are. None of the bridge crew could actually explain to us in the one hour timeframe, exactly how they would use the sextant, but they both assured us that they could actually get us from point A to point B if necessary, without their lovely GPS system. We actually believed them :-)
Dinner was at Lumieres, which was a rather good restaurant. We again saw our new wait staff, including Jean and Baly. They were excellent. Very nice people. It was a very early night, we went to sleep, and thought about the morning in St. Martin.
Day 4 - Tuesday
St. Martin is an interesting place. Half of the island is French, the other half is Dutch. We dock on the Dutch side and tender into the town. Our shore excursion was for scuba diving, and we gathered with about 7 other divers to line up for tenders to the shore. This particular excursion was for certified divers only, so there werenUt too many people who were interested in going.
Once we got to shore, we were taken to a Dive Safaris, a small operation in Phillipsburg. Here, we were put with approximately 15 others, for a total of 20 divers, 4 divemasters, and one diveboat :-). The first dive was to approximately 60 feet, to a rather nice old wreck from the 1700s that had some trigger fish, yellow faced trumpet fish, blue faced trumpet fish, some cool blennies, a big ole green morray, and various and sundry other macro critters. Some of the humanoid critters were, unfortunately, less than macro, and many were newbie divers, so we got run over a bit, especially since it was not an easy dive, with quite a bit of surge, and a lot of current. Not a great place for people who do one dive per year or so, have trouble with their air, their positioning, and getting back up on the ship when they are exhausted.
After the surface interval, we went to a dive site called Fishbowl, where almost immediately, we saw a small reef shark hanging out. Unfortunately, it didn't let us get too terribly close. Soon thereafter, one of the newbies thought it would be a good idea to push into me, pushing my leg into fire coral. That was a not wonderful feeling, as I blistered over about a 6 inch by 2 inch patch. Here, the surge and current were even worse, and people were having serious problems, some coming up with zero air, and being physically ill. Apparently, this is "situation normal" in St. Martin, and we were told that we had a very good day for diving. We didn't personally have too much difficulty with the conditions, but then we feel we're in pretty good shape and dive 100 or so dives per year. My fire coral injury made it necessary for me to come up a little earlier than I normally would, due to the pain, and we missed a spotted eagle ray, which was a big bummer, but oh well. The good news is that they had vinegar on board for this kind of thing,
Later on, we went and picked up the small child, and took her shopping in Phillipsburg. It wasn't quite as easy as it sounded, however, since there was a medical emergency that tied up the tenders for a bit, causing a backup and a long line to get back to the ship. Unfortunately, people don't stay civilized or want to wait their turn, and once they open the boarding for the tenders, people tend to push and shove towards the tenders, pushing their kids in front, etc. The good news was that the Disney people didn't put up with it. The way back to the island was not as difficult at all since all of the excitement had calmed down.
Once we took the small child back to the town, we also played the "how many times will we be asked to get our hair braided" game. That was a fun game. We counted 16 times for me and Morgan. Zero for Wes. What a surprise :-). We had lunch at the barefoot terrace, spent entirely too much money on gifts and stuff, and slithered back to the ship exhausted, but still within plenty of time for dinner, and well before the 10:30 departure out of St. Martin for St. Thomas.
Day 5 - Wednesday
We sailed into St. Thomas early on Wednesday morning, the island looking much like it looked a few years ago, when I was there last. Only this time, rather than trying to pass a resort scuba course, I was there as a certified diver. This morning, we had 6 who decided to dive, including some who had passed up the St. Martin trip due to the surge and current. Luckily, in St. Thomas the ships can dock next to the pier, so tenders are not necessary to get to town. We marched in our straight lined happy Disney like manner to a ferry boat, and over to Scuba Safaris (not affiliated with Dive Safaris of St. Martin) for fitting mask, fins, BCDs, etc. Damn, do I hate rental gear :-). It was nice rental gear, but rental gear nonetheless.
Scuba Safaris had a nice large boat, which was a good things since there were 4 cruise ships in port, filling the boat with about 30 divers. M00. Unlike St. Martin, however, the sea conditions were very calm, there was no surge, and there was very little current. We were separated depending on which ship we were from, which was a great thing, given that there were only 6 of us with a divemaster. The first dive was a site off of Buck Island, a small island off of St. Thomas. There was a very small wall, descending to about 70 feet. There were actually quite a few macro type creatures living here, including various small dancing shrimp, some petersens, some pretty nice anemonies, some blennies we hadnUt seen before, and one of those shrimp that hangs out at cleaning stations, hiding under the anemonie until you need cleaning, then sneaks out and pinches your fingers just a little bit too hard :-). I found that if I stayed very still, they would come and manicure my fingernails for a few minutes before the shrimp pinch. That was rather fun. The divemaster later pointed out a large green moray who was pretty neat.
After a short ride, and a short surface interval, back in we went, this time to the site of a derelict barge that had been sunk in 90 feet of water. A hurricane pushed it up into about 40 feet of water, which was where we caught up with it. We saw a bunch of cool things, and played with a few others. There were bunches of jellyfish that had kind of brownish powder puffs on top. They didn't mind gentle touches. Then, there was a tiny little arrow crab that played with us for a bit. Some really cool box like crabs were hanging out at the bottom, and we played with them as well. The main group went looking at a large hermit crab who had made the mistake of wandering too near. Meantime, I found a few more cleaning stations, where I got to play with the petersen's shrimp. Later in the dive, Wes found a small goldentail moray who came out of his hole long enough to investigate me quite thoroughly. He came right up to my mask and gave me a long look. I was the one who retreated. We also found a nice spotted moray who was minding his own business until we bugged him. A nice dive, but I certainly would have liked to have had my camera gear (whine and pout :-)).
Shopping in St. Thomas was disappointing. Granted, we didn't get a chance to go further than the Havenside mall near the cruise dock since it had taken so long for us to finish diving, but the selection wasn't great, the prices werenUt that good, the salespeople were VERY pushy, and it was just too annoying to deal with for very long. We went back to the ship and took Morgan to meet THE mouse and get his autograph. Then it was off for a nap before dinner.
Dinner tonight was at Parrot's Cay. I had the stuffed shells. Wes had the grouper. I, of course, can't eat grouper after having played with Rudolph at Little Cayman, but I digress. Morgan had already had dinner, so we had the table to ourselves, as well as a bottle of champagne. Jean and Baly were, again marvelous as always. Tomorrow will be a day at sea, then we're off to Disney's island, Castaway Cay for our final day on the Disney Magic.
Day 6 - Thursday
This was a nice relaxing day at sea. Morgan wasn't feeling too great, and relaxed with us for most of the day. I did a lot of reading, downloading pictures from the digital camera, and hanging around the place. We lined up for some character photos and autographs for Morgan, and generally spent the day watching TV and looking out at the ocean passing by. It was great. Thursday night we had dinner at Palos again, after leaving Morgan in the capable hands of Jean and Baly so she could have a ladies night out. We found Stephanie, again had wonderful wine (an Italian red that was quite nice) and excellent food (I had penne pasta, Wes had beef with lobster tail) and those wonderful chocolate souffles that take 25 minutes to prepare. When we got back to the stateroom, we noticed that Miss Morgan had shed her formal gear and had taken off to the Oceaneering lab party.
Day 7 - Friday
A little too much wine caused us to sleep in a bit this morning, which was ok since we didn't have anyplace we had to be. We sailed into Castaway Cay at about 9 am, the ship backing into the dock. It really looked like a great little island. The island had multiple beaches (one for adults only) a small shop, snorkeling, sailing, canoes, paddle boats, and other equipment you could rent for the day. We decided that although things looked ok on the island, we would rather be back on the ship, so we dropped Morgan with the oceaneering lab, and ran off to the deserted ship. Just about everyone was gone to the island, leaving us the run of the ship. That was a lot of fun, just hanging around and relaxing. We also got to start packing, take care of tip coupons (Disney is smart and lets you charge tips to your shipboard account) and basically get ready to go home.
Our last dinner on the ship was wonderful. We were able to get email addresses and final photos, ate too much, drank too much, and went to sleep happy :-)