We set sail on the Disney Magic from Oct 22-Oct 29th and had a fantastic time! Our ports of call were in the Eastern Caribbean: St Maarten, St. Thomas/St. John, and Castaway Cay, which is Disney's private island in the Bahamas. We had been anticipating this trip for some time! We pulled Jackson out of preschool the week prior to leaving to ensure that we would all be healthy and thankfully it worked! We left out of Port Canaveral and made a stop in St. Augustine on the way down. We have been wanting to get to St. Augustine for awhile, so it was nice to be able to spend a little bit of time there. The architecture is just beautiful and we had perfect weather for lunch/stroll around town before heading for Port Canaveral. When we arrived at the port, Jackson go VERY excited and wanted to get on "Mickey's boat" immediately. We didnt have to wait at all to board and when we got on board, they announced us and clapped as we boarded. Then they had a fun deck party with music,dancing, streamers, characters, etc.
The ship was great-Of course, Jackson LOVED all of the elevators and lights. There was a certain part of the ship that was designed to look like NYC at night and Jackson would go there and dance, run around, and just have a blast. We had to go see "the lights" at least once a day! Our room was great-we sprung for a balcony and it was a pretty spacious room. We ended up being seated with a family from Long Island who had a 2 year old and they couldnt have been more different from us...but we really got along great and had a great time at dinner every night. One thing we did was bring Jackson's portable DVD player to dinner at night and put in on for the last 30 minutes or so of our 2 hour dinner-It was a lifesaver and really allowed for us to enjoy all 4 courses every night.
The food ranged form pretty good to really good-definitely a few steps above typical cruise food. We really enjoyed our time spent on the ship. Here is a recap of our cruise:
Day 1 (day at sea): We had the breakfast buffet, swam in the pool, played in the kids playroom (it had a giant treehouse/slide), watched Disney movies, etc.
Day 2: (day at sea) We had breakfast, then put Jackson in the kids nursery and I had a facial, Justin had a hot stone massage, we had a great long nap, played in the pool again, and took Jackson to his very first movie theater experience to see Cars 2 at the theater on the ship. He did great and lasted about 1/3 through the movie before losing interest. I am glad we didnt spend $$ on the movie since he didnt stay for the whole thing! This was also the day that we had Halloween on the ship and dressed up and took Jackson trick or treating. There was also a fun Halloween deck party that we went to and danced with the characters. Jackson was Lightining McQueen from the movie "Cars", I was Snow White, and Justin was Mr. Incredible. Jusitin's costume was a hit-I think a lot of the kids thought he was a real Disney character. It was a lot of fun!
Day 3: St. Maarten: When we arrived, it was cloudy skies. We decided to go into the town to check it out and wait for the sun to arrive-big mistake! We got into the city and it began to downpour! We huddled in a dumpy shop until we decided to brave the monsoon and made our way back to the boat. Right about the time we made it back (10 mins or so), the rain quit and the beautiful sun came out. We got back on the ship and changed into bathing suits and headed out to the beach. We rented some chairs/umbrella and swam in the water for a while. We then ate at the Hard Rock Restaurant across the street and got some cool new T shirts before headed back to the boat. After naps, we went back into St. Maarten for some shopping and chocolate. It turned out to be a really beautiful day!
Day 4: St. Thomas/St. John: This was our favorite day. The weather was perfect and this was our favorite island. We were off the ship early and headed to the sky lift, which took us up to a wonderful overlook called Paradise Point. Jackson loved the skylift, as it was like a giant glass elevator. we took some photos and then did a little shopping before heading back to the ship to change into bathing suits. I had researched different beaches to try and we decided on Magens Bay. Wow, that was a great decision!! This beach was absolutely breathtaking and we got to see much of the island on the cab ride there. At the beach, it was still crystal clear water and amazing views. It rivaled some of the beautful beaches in Hawaii. We both agreed that it was the most beautiful Caribbean beach that we had been to. Jackson had a BLAST playing in the water. He is definitely a water baby. We had a wonderful beachside lunch and then headed back to the ship for naps. While me and Jackson were sleeping, Justin went back into town and did some shopping for souvenirs. We left port around 3 pm that day, and we witnessed several people who missed the boat and were left standing helpless as the boat pulled away. I felt so sorry for them!
Day 5: Day at Sea: We mainly spent the day relaxing. We went to the pool, splash pad, and played in the kids club with Jackson. I got fire and ice manicure at the spa, which was fantastic! We enjoyed a nice leisurely day on the boat.
Day 6:Castaway Cay, Bahamas: This day was our 5 year wedding anniversary! We had another beautiful morning and we set out bright and early to claim a spot on Disney's private island. We thought the island may be crowded, but it was not at all! It was so spread out and well organized. They had 2 family beaches and one private beach, along with water slides, splash pad, etc. We put our beach chairs in the water and let Jackson play. Then we took Jackson for a stroll to the splash pad and he had a ball. They had a beach bbq buffet for lunch, which was really fantastic. It was well organized and not busy/crowded at all. About this time, the skies turned cloudy so we took our sleeping boy back to the ship and laid him in the bed for naptime. That evening, we fed Jackson early and put him in the nursery so that we could have our upscale dinner at the special adults-only restaurant, Palo. I didnt have super high expectations for the restaurant since it was on a cruise ship, but it was Ah-mazing!! Our server was top notch and the food was out of this world. I would put his restauraunt up against any fine dining restaurant in Charleston and that is saying a lot! They really made our anniversary dinner so special and it was wonderful to have a much needed "date night' with Justin. My only regret is that we didnt eat at this restaurant more than once. Jackson did wonderfully in the nursery and was a happy boy when we picked him up.
Day 7: Back to reality-We had a nice breakfast with our new friends and then headed to disembark the ship. This was by far the easiest and most smooth process of all of the cruises that we have been on. We stepped out into Port Canaveral on a dismal and dreary day but we hit sunshine as we made our way back home. I think it's safe to say that we were all ready to come home and put our feet back on dry land. It took me about 2-3 days to adjust from the vertigo of the ship. We had such a wonderful vacation and enjoyed every minute of it!
