March 2002 Cruise
Dad, Mom, Ryan, David Jr. and Stephanie took another cruise on the
Disney Magic during spring break 2002 (March 16-23, 2002). We were in 2
adjoining
category 6 rooms (6120 & 6122) on the port side of the ship.
Interesting events
- Our flight out of Des Moines was scheduled for 8:15 am on Friday,
March 15th. Due to some mechanical problems, we did not take off
until 11:00. We missed our 10:00 +/- flight from St, Louis to
Orlando. We ended up taking a flight that took off at 7:30 pm.
We had planned to go to Epcot on Friday, but we missed that.
- The ship was scheduled to leave port on Friday afternoon at 5:00.
Due to some repairs to damage caused by a funnel fire, we did not
leave port until 9:30.
Mom's post on the discussion board the day
after we got back:
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We
back!!!
We
are back from our March 16th cruise. It was great
seeing the faces behind the screen names. Our table
mates were DIS board members, KathyTX from Texas. It
was like were cruising with old friends!
The trip had a rough start with our plane being
delayed in Des Moines for 3 hours. The entire plane
missed their connections in St. Louis. Our TA was at
our gate in DM and was in touch with DCL and
American.(She was leaving on her trip and was
surprised our plane was still there!) We ended up
flying FIRST CLASS out of St. Louis at 7:00 PM. We
told the kids, don't get use to this. We thought that
was nice since we spent 7 hours in the St. L airport
and had to miss spending our day at Epcot.
We arrived at the Airport Hyatt at 10:30 PM. Our
luggage was waiting for us, it was on the 1:30 PM
flight out of St. L. The Hyatt is getting more and
more cruisers spending the night before sailing. They
said they had a record number or rooms of DCL
cruisers.
We arrived at the port a little before noon. We were
on the ship close to 1:00 PM. Our luggage was close
behind. All 7 checked bags were in our possession by
1:45 PM. That was a record. We had a great view of the
new Carnival Pride, what a beautiful ship!
The funnel problem did disrupt the first 2 days (Sat.
& Sun.) but all was well by Mon. The captain did a
great job keeping us all informed of what was going on
the entire cruise. We sailed late, 9:30 pm so our
children got to experience sailing at night.
The wind, oh that wind. This was my 11th cruise, 4th
on Disney but I never experienced gale force winds
until this cruise. It was also a lot cooler than I
expected. The weather did warm up nicely in St.
Maarten and St. Thomas. Castaway was great but the
weather was not the best. We had overcast skies and a
delay in docking because of a nasty storm. I heard one
report of waterspouts in the storm so I am glad we
were a little bit late. People were on the island just
a little after 10:00 AM. The water temp at Castaway
was a lot cooler than in August. So if you want warm
water at Castaway Cay and warm temps I suggest summer
cruising. We also felt the ship didn't feel as packed
during this cruise as in August. The ship did have
2500 people but our August cruises felt a lot more
crowded. Maybe people spent more time indoors?
I thought the food was the best we ever had. Our
serving team was also the best we ever had. Gonzalo
head server, Aleksandra server, Dennis her asst.
I can't report back on Palos or the spa area. We never
do those and I will not pack our workout clothes since
we never did that. And as usual I overpacked but this
time of year I was not sure if we needed hot hot
clothes, or clothes with sleeves etc.
I did have one small problem with our shower in our
room, luke warm water and low water pressure. The
handle on the shower control was also loose. I
reported it to guest services and it was quickly
fixed. I wondered if the previous cruisers just lived
with it? If you have a problem report it because it
will get fixed. Our room host did a great job. He made
sure our small cooler was filled with ice twice a day
and that I had lots of the wonderful choc. mints left
on my pillow!
My husband and I felt the immigration in St. Thomas
was a JOKE. The officials did not even read our
passports or the kids birth cert's. Our 9 year old was
off schedule the whole day because of the early
morning waking. If they are going to do this for
security then take it serious or else drop it. I will
be sending our congressman a letter about it.
We are looking forword to trip No. 5 next March 15th.
We are looking forword to the western cruise for a
change of scenery. We even met people who are going
again next Spring Break. Hopefully next year we will
leave on time and won't have gale force winds! Happy
Cruising to all and don't stress yourselves out on
trip planning. This trip taught many people to go with
the flow! Relax you are on vacation mon
Kathy |
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Day 0 (3/15/2002) - we flew to Orlando on Friday. We stayed in
the airport Hyatt.
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Disney
Vacation Web Site
