Our "Magic is now a Memory...

[FOJMO]

We just disembarked yesterday from our week aboard the Magic (Western).

Had a WONDERFUL time. LOTS of kids aboard this time. I know I am one that will be glad to not hear kids running up and down the hall 24/7-- LOL. Seems like they just cannot walk... just RUN!

We had good weather (very HOT). A little bit of a downpour on Wednesday, late afternoon, in Cozumel. Got a bit too much sun earlier on Wednesday at Mr. Sancho's beach in Cozumel.

Speaking of Mr. Sancho's -- what a wonderful beach. Almost a private little beach with few people and great water. You can see clear down to your feet in 5-6 feet of water! And the bottom is so smooth.

To the contrary, Castaway Cay was anything but comfortable. Rocks, rocks, rocks on the bottom and very murky. Also unbelievably crowded. We ended up on the very end of the family beach, where the teen beach and the family beach meet. Perfect place to park under an umbrella and away from the crowds.

We really loved the ports of call on the Western. Didn't care at all for the ports of call on the Eastern. Grand Cayman, Key West and Cozumel all very clean and attractive. We rented an electric car for 2 hours in Key West and got to see areas that it was too hot to walk to.

ALSO, got to "sea" the premiere of "Finding Nemo" at 12:01 AM on Thursday night in the Walt Disney Theatre. What a great little movie. Everyone will enjoy it.

If anyone has any questions, I can try to answer for you. Let me know.

Had a wonderful time, but also glad to be home too. VAL

 

[jlawall]

Thx for sharing. What excursions or beaches, etc. would you recommend for the Western itinerary?

 

[dianthus]

So glad you had a great time on your voyage Val! Welcome back! Now you'll just have to start planning another one!

I have a few questions for you about the Key West Electric cars. We thought this would be fun way to explore Key West.
Who did you rent from & where are they located? Did you have good experience? How may people fit in one? Can 2 adults & 2 kids fit, or do we need 2 of them? Last question, how much were they to rent?

Thanks!

 

[OurDogCisco]

Welcome back home! Glad you like the port of calls. What did you do in Grand Cayman? Thanks for sharing.

Tina

 

[srschilke]

Val, I am glad you are back safely and had a great time. We did as well. Our vow renewal ceremoney was quite special, and there were many other great memories. It was nice to see you, Stu and Carly. And on Castaway Cay I saw Carly and Courtney.

It's not my thread, but I'll throw in my two cents for Stingray City as a must see in Grand Cayman. We had lousy weather, a cancelled excursion, then managed to get there only to be in six foot seas! It was still absolutely amazing. Get there if you can.

I also do NOT recommend the reef snorkel on Cozumel (Disney version). Too many people, too deep a reef. If we had it to do over we'd have done some research on places in Grand Cayman and Cozumel where you can snorkel right from the beach, and then gone there ourselves!

Val, we'll be cruising again in 18 months to 2 years. Maybe our paths will cross again!

 

[djs113]

Hey Val,

never caught up with you on the cruise.

We had a great time on Castaway Cay, did not feel rocky at all, and did not feel crowded. Wow, 2 sets of people, with 2 entirely different views on the same day.

We went to Stingray City in those huge waves. My DS (3) and I went in for a while, wife and DD never made it in. Too high and choppy for them.

Has a great time as well in Cozumel, and left loads of money there and in the shops in Cayman as well.

Can't wait to book the next one!

- David

 

[tezb]

We plan to go to Mr Sanchos...do you think teens will enjoy it? Also, did you notice anyone renting the ATV's? My son wants to do it.

dj2113....why was Stingray City choppy? Is it always like that? We plan to do that excursion and always heard it's usually calm out on the North Sound. Was the boat ride over choppy too? Just wondering if we should take precautions, like bonine for that excursion....

 

[djs113]

tez -

the captain said this was the first choppy week within 2003. Usually it is very calm.

The boat ride over was very choppy with 5-6 ft waves, 25% or so of the people on our boat were getting sea sick on the ride over and while anchored at sting ray city.

Some sort of cold front was developing off of Mexico creating a very windy scenario at Grand Cayman... thus the big waves.

DCL canceled their Stingray City excursions that day. I had booked it privately through Nativeway.

Don't worry, from what the captain said , it is never ever like this... we just caught a bad day at sea.

- David

 

[tezb]

thanks for the info David. We are booked w/ DCL so maybe they just don't take any chances. I wonder why Nativeway still took you guys out. Maybe they didn't realize it was that bad. Will take bonine anyway...better safe than sorry.

 

[FOJMO]

jlawall - The only formal excursion we took was (last minute) the Grand Cayman Island Tour. We only took it cause it was $27/person (the least expensive of the DCL tours). It was very nice -- you tour in a small, A/C bus to a Rum Cake store (rum is also available in addition to the cakes); the Turtle Farm (which was cute and I got to hold about a 30 lb. turtle); and the Town of Hell, which was interesting. Just about a 2 hour tour and then we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which is just across the street from the pier.

dianthus - We loved the electric cars, cause it was very HOT and we never would have gotten much past downtown Key West in that heat without it. We rented from Reef Mobile at the corner of Duval St. and Greene St. Here is their website --
www.reefmobile.com

Prices -
2 seaters - 2hr min. $29/hour; 1/2 day (4hr max) $89; full day (8 hr max) $119/day
4 seater - 2hr mn. $39/hour; 1/2 day (4hr max) $129; full day (8 hr max) $169/day

We rented for 2 hours (4 seater) and with tax and misc charges it came to $95.85. You sign a contract (which you get a copy of) and you also give them a credit card that they complete for $300 as a deposit, and they give that back to you when you return the car. You need a driver's license.

They give you a map and you can find beaches not too far away as well as the "Southernmost Point" of the US, and just plain sightseeing. Parking is minimal, though, so you won't find many places (plus you really don't want to waste your rent time in a parking place!). We're glad we did it and we even let our 17 yr old DD drive for a short distance. They don't go very fast, but then again, none of the traffic does.

OurDogCisco - we took the Grand Cayman Island Tour (see above)

tezb - Our DD (17) and her friend (F16) loved Mr. Sancho's beach. We took a taxi for $15/each way from the pier. Make sure your driver gives you that rate (or less) for up to 4 people TOTAL. One word of warning - both the taxi drivers we had went really fast! You can't tell how fast, though, cause both of their taxis had inoperative speedometers! Guess they don't want to miss out on any fares.

Anyway, Mr. Sancho's did not have the water trampoline that we were told they had, but they did have waverunners and ATV's, although I don't know how much they were. Our girls did the snorkeling, which was, I think, $6 for 2 hours. The food is in PESOS (our bill for a couple of plates of nachos, flautas, and quesadillas) was about $340 (Pesos) and was about $34 US. We learned that the US was about 10% of the Pesos. The girls said the little shopping tents they have there were cute and interesting but that the Mexican merchants were a little pushy and they would barter with you. You just have to know how to handle it. Just remember, anywhere in Mexico, only get BOTTLED WATER and nothing with ice in it. It was an extremely clean beach and the water was crystal clear and smooth to walk on. Tables, umbrellas, and beach chairs are everywhere. I will say that they put our umbrella "down" after a while saying it was too windy. But it "magically"went right back up as soon as we asked for a menu...

Susan - So glad I got to see you and I'm very happy that your vow renewal went well. We think we're going to maybe do something other than a cruise next time, though -- I think we're a little cruised out for a while. We're thinking of Hawaii with our DVC points in a year or so.

Dave - Sorry we didn't cross paths. We got to meet Beth and saw the Walt Disney Suite. Also met Barb (of Barb & Tony). I happened to sit next to her at the Internet Cafe, of all places. I saw her on the DIS board and asked who she was? She was doing a trip report.

Any other questions, let me know.

VAL

 

[dianthus]

Val~

Thanks so much for the info on the cars! They sound like fun!

It sounds like you had a great trip! Can't wait for November to come for ours!

~ Linda

 

[jlawall]

Thx Val,

Great tips!

 

[djs113]

Val,

my stateroom was right next to Beth/Tim's!!

We met on numerous occasions with Sara/Brian, Paul/Linda, Audrey/Bill, Beth/Tim, Kristen/Mike, and Sandy/Tom.

I guess thats about half the people in our Yahoo group.

We had a great time, and can't wait to go again.

- David