Seven Days With The Mouse
Cruise Week recently sampled Disney's new seven-day Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Magic. We report on what's changed in the onboard experience since our previous visit, and how the seven-day differs from shorter cruises.
The Ship Facilities: Even though the ship is just over four years old and travels exclusively in the Caribbean with a lot of youngsters on board, the maintenance is impeccable (our traveling companions compared the maintenance very favorably to a ship they had been on a month before that was less than a year old). There's nary a chipped glass, piece of litter, or frayed carpet or upholstery to be found. There are always crewmembers making sure everything is completely shipshape.
By now it's well known that all suites and outside rooms feature two bathrooms, but it bears repeating in the sales process, since it's so appreciated by families.
Unique Aspects: When Disney entered the cruise industry, they introduced a unique dining concept--a different dining room every night. On this seven-night cruise, each person rotated among the three restaurants--Lumiere's, Animator's Palate, and Parrot Key--on a pre-determined basis, eating in two of them twice and one three times.
Ports of Call: On the 7-night Eastern Caribbean sailing, there's an extra day at sea and additional ports of call are St. Thomas and St. Martin. While the ship did stay in port until 11PM in St. Martin, it appeared few took advantage to go ashore for dinner.
When we first went to Castaway Cay, Disney's private island, it resembled a new subdivision, with everything bulldozed and then replanted with seedlings. We're happy to say the island has matured into a tropical paradise. Plus, families appreciated that the ship docks right at the island, so there is no tendering back and forth.
Entertainment Galore: For evening entertainment, in addition to the three previous productions, Disney has added a welcome aboard show featuring a comedian/magician, a deck party (for late night in St. Martin), a quiz show: 'Who Wants to Be a Mousketeer,' and a farewell variety show.
Who's On Board: Virtually everyone on board our recent seven- night cruise to the Eastern Caribbean was traveling with kids-- whether they were family or friends. 1,500 guests were under the age of 18 with 1,200 under 13. And Disney has activities galore to cater to them. Even on the one rainy day at sea, there were enough diverse activities scheduled to prevent anyone from overly missing deck time--dispelling any doubt about whether there would be enough to keep families entertained on a seven- nighter versus the shorter sailings.
-- Cruise Week 9/4/02