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| Mira with Minnie Mouse at the Oceanairre Lab (the onboard kids play facility) |
The Cook family took a wonderful vacation in early December. We took a cruise on the Disney Magic through the Eastern Caribbean. It was a vacation to remember! We left on Saturday, sailed until Tuesday morning, stopped at St. Maarten's all day Tuesday, sailed to St. Thomas and spent Wednesday there, then sailed until Friday where we stopped at Castaway Cay, a Disney-owned island. On Saturday morning we disembarked and headed home.
Here are many of the photos from our cruise. Below are many photos from our last night on the cruise. All the characters were available for photos. We had missed many of them during the week, so the girls were thrilled for one last chance to get photos with them. There were many more that I didn't post, including all the princesses, Micky Mouse, and Donald and Daisy duck.
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| Me, Mira, and Amelia with Minnie Mouse on the last night. |
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| Mira and Amelia with Tiana! She looked just like what you would imagine. |
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| Captain Hook and his cohorts posed for a photo. |
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| One of our best family photos. It's the last night of our trip. We are in front of a gingerbread house onboard. |
The cruise ship gives you a specific time and restaurant in which you have dinner. You rotate between three restaurants and eat at the same time every night. You have two waitstaff who rotate with you so they are always your dinner servers. It's a wonderful system! They get to know you so well and know your likes and dislikes. They always had our drinks ready when we got to the table and were very handy with a recommendation for dinner. We really loved our servers (below). Simoun (left) was from the Philippines and had been on the Magic for 13 years, with a few months off here and there. He hadn't spent a Christmas with his family in all that time. Samir (right) was 23 and from Germany. Such a nice man! This was his 1st contract with the Magic. He was going to be on the ship for 4 1/2 months, until mid-February! These people do not get one day off the entire time their contract runs. They certainly work hard for their money, but get wonderful tips at the end of the week from the families they serve.
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| This is Simoun (left) and Samir. They were our servers the entire cruise. |
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| On Castaway Cay, they had a dance party for the kids! Mira and Amelia loved it! |
Chris and Amelia make a sand castle. So did Mira and Amelia! Michelle stayed nice and sand-free on the lounge chair.
The family on Castaway Cay, the Disney-owned island.
Amelia on the aft (back) of the boat during lunch one day.
Mira and Chris at dinner before the Pirate Party. This party is a big deal and many people dress accordingly! Some people actually bring full pirate uniforms for this! It's held on the outside deck and was so fun! Everyone received a bandana, and they had fireworks at the end!
On St. Maarten, we rented a jeep and drove around the island. It was fun to see most of the island, and we had lunch at a great restaurant on the ocean. The girls were able to swim in the ocean on both the French side and the Dutch side of the island.
Above, the girls in the ocean on the French side, near the restaurant where we had lunch. Below is me and the girls at the same restaurant.
Here we are hanging out at the pool. There were three pools on the cruise ship. One for adults only (yeah!), one for kids who could swim, and a Mickey Mouse shaped pool for all other kids. The girls loved the Mickey pool and spent most of their time there.
Here I am with Mira and Amelia at the Tea Party with Alice. It was a lovely party in which Alice taught us all the proper way to serve and drink tea. Mira was picked to sit at the head table with Alice. That was really exciting for her!
Amelia met Belle on the second day. She loved seeing a princess up close!
The view from our room. We were lucky enough to snag a stateroom with a verandah. It was like having an extra room on the ship and made the ride more comfortable. We had a little seasickness on the first evening. Mira had the worst of it, and Michelle was queasy too. A little dramamine and some time to get used to the rocking, and we were fine after that. Everyone walked like they were a little tipsy for a couple of days!
This is the "Anchors Aweigh" party on the first day. It's when the ship sets sail. Everyone is out on the deck, celebrating the start of a wonderful vacation!
All in all, it was my favorite vacation. They have a great childcare system this is open from 8am until midnight. They entertain the kids all day long and constantly have fun activities to do. Mira didn't want to leave sometimes! It definitely allowed me and Chris plenty of alone adult time. We were even able to get off the boat on an island without the kids one day while they were in the Oceanairre Lab on the boat. It was so nice! If you are looking for a great trip, this is definitely the way to go. You really don't want for anything and don't have to do anything for yourself either. And the food is really, really delicious.
Bon Voyage!
