Dave's Disney Eastern Caribbean Cruise -  October 2, 2004

I've been reading Aleece's comments with great interest - we were on the same cruise and it's fun to see other perspectives.

Instead of reporting daily, I'll just summarize our experience by comparing our ratings.

Cruise: Disney Magic October 2, 2004
Ports: St Thomas, Antigua, Castaway Cay
Passengers: Dave 43, Heather 41, Dave's parents, Bob & Joan 70+, Dave's Aunt Ginny, 70+. Cruise history: Five previous for Dave & Heather, second for Bob & Joan, first for Ginny. Other cruises: 2 Carnival, 2 HAL, 1 DCL

This was a 45th wedding anniversary present for my parents, and was preceded by a week at Pop Century. Heather and I live in Florida, so we met the party at MCO, and after WDW, we drove down to Port Canaveral.

Deck Chair availability:
Not a problem, since we could use the Quiet Cove (the few times we used the pool).

Disney Transportation to the ship:
We had the directions and had little difficulty driving. One wrong turn because of a hurricane flattened sign, but pretty straight forward. Back to the airport afterwards was even faster because of additional signage.

Quality/size of room and furnishings:
Because this was an anniversary trip, we opted for adjacent verandah rooms on deck 8. Larger than the Pop Century rooms. If we had been going by ourselves, I would not have bothered since it was too hot to really utilize the verandah and you really don't spend that much time in the room.

Cabin attendant:
We had Sampop, and I can't say enough about him. He introduced himself, asked when we'd like ice delivered each day and was on his way. He was easy to find when needed since he was constantly cleaning. We had a couple of requests during the week, and they were followed through quickly. And amazingly fast at the turndown - pillows, blankets, towel animal and mints. I swear I left the room, came back in 10 minutes and he had come and gone already.

Kids programs:
Not nearly enough of them, since screaming children were constantly underfoot. We picked this time period to minimize the number of children we'd have to deal with. I hate to see that ship during school vacation if this is during the school year.

Ship appearance:
As Aleece noted - constant painting and maintenance. I think there might have been a/c problems as the hallways were constantly warm and occasionally stuffy.

Most other crew (not mentioned above or below):
I had the opposite experience. In fact, I was notorious for losing the rest of the group because I had gotten sidetracked chatting with a crew member. I was wearing a lanyard with Millionaire pins from the MGM show and a visit to the hot seat, and crew were coming up to look at the pins because they didn't recognize them. Therese, a server from breakfast first morning and I were constantly chatting when we ran into each other at lunches.

Main Server/Assistant Server/Head Server:
Gabor Vigh, Dougal Toney and Nadege Thiava. Possibly the finest team I have ever had the pleasure of dining with. Gabor knew dining preferences by Day 3 and adjusted his suggestions accordingly. Charming, efficient and fast. Toney had the drinks down before I even knew he was there. Both were chatty, performed magic tricks to amuse the children, loved to talk about cultural differences and went out of the way to make sure dinner was *exactly* what you wanted. When the 6-year old fell asleep at the table (late seating), Nadege fashioned a blanket from spare tablecloths, a pillow from spare napkins and put two chairs together. Parents finished dinner while daughter slept blissfully.

Photographers:
As Aleece noted, very unobtrusive. I thought they shut down a little quick at night, before Second Seating had completely cleared the dining rooms and could decide to have pictures taken. There was once particular photographer who's name I didn't catch, a tall almost gaunt Slavic fellow, who, if he took our picture, had a guaranteed sale - he was that good.

Ports:
Antigua - I thought was a little run down, and not because of hurricane damage. I don't think DCL will be making in a regular stop. It was fun to see the HMS Cardiff moored next to us. St Thomas - Very unhappy that the US is the only Caribbean port disrupting vacations with unnecessary customs red tape. I have written to DCL suggesting they drop USVI stops until this nonsense is stopped. Castaway Cay - I remain amazed at the amount of damage repaired so quickly. Were it not for the foliage damage and the sand being dredged, I would not have known the difference. Kudos to that team of cast members!

Weather:
Absolutely typical for the region at this time of year - hot, humid and chance of rain.

Shows:
Of all the shows, I though the Farewell was the weakest and would have been better without the puppeteer and guitar comedian. We skipped Who Wants to Be a Mousketeer due to lack of interest. Disney Dreams never fails to entertain. I think Golden Mickeys needs to cut back on the pre-show interviews. Watching 7-8 camera-shy children get interviewed got old *very* fast. Hercules the Muse-ical remains my favorite. A show that funny with that much adlibbing is a rare treasure and I simply adore it.

Overall ship/trip:
Would we go again? Probably not - Even though the service was excellent, the stateroom ample, the ship beautiful and the food far above expectations, there are simply too many screaming infants, unsupervised tots and parents who think a stroller is for clearing a path through a crowd. I would have liked to dance between the show and dinner, but the dance floor at the Promenade Lounge was constantly filled with hyperactive children bouncing off of each other. I find that a pity, because the band, Cocco Bella was very good, with a mix designed for adults.

All in all, I think we'll probably stick with the smaller Holland America ships, such as the Veendam.