Southern Caribbean experience

[brentm77]

I don't usually do trip reports, but wanted to share some thoughts from a fantastic Southern Caribbean cruise on the Magic this past week.

Dominica is a hidden gem. While the capital isn't the usual upscale touristy area, it was lively, authentic, and really interesting. The highlight was the rainforest. It was absolutely stunning and so different than anything else we have done in the Caribbean. The people were nice. It was a great change from the usual stops.

The catamaran and snorkel adventure in Aruba was a bit of a letdown. The sunken ship was cool, but too chaotic for my wife to feel comfortable. The second stop was some of the worst snorkeling I have done. On the bright side, the views while sailing were wonderful. I'm not sure there were many better options either.

Puerto Rico rocks. I love it here. Old San Juan is almost like exploring old cities in Europe, with a vibrant local twist. The beaches and water are gorgeous. The people we have met have been so kind. I would love to do a whole week here. There were a lot of locals on the ship, which was great.

The Magic is showing its age more than I remember from two years ago. It's a great ship still, and I wouldn't hesitate to sale her again, but I think Disney needs to give her more attention. The AC in the public areas of the aft was clearly still broken (as reported by someone here weeks ago) and there was also leaking from ceilings in the aft public areas (also reported here). There were a few other things that needed some work too. Overall, not bad for a 25 year old ship, just slightly below what I expect from DCL.

Our stateroom wasn't cleaned to the normal standards and the bathroom sort of stunk like urine too. I could have said something, but I really liked our host and it really wasn't worth it to me.

I think I continue to tire of the menus a bit. Particularly the desserts. But, we had the best serving team we have ever had. Gabriel in particular made great recommendations and brought me an Indian dish every night once he found out I liked Indian food. I stopped ordering off the menu and just ate that. It was fantastic and was a nice change.

Palo for dinner was the best meal we have had in a long time, on a ship or at home. The server was amazing and hit it out of the park with his recommendations. You could really tell the difference when eating freshly cooked meals versus pre-plated food. Even the two souffles were so much better than the MDR version. I ordered off the prefix menu, which I think helped kick it up a notch too. We also had a beautiful view of Dominica as we sailed away just after we were seated, due to some excursions getting back pretty late. It was a magical night that was worth every penny to us.

Tangled was great, again. We didn't see any other shows, but instead enjoyed the ship and adult areas.
They had blueberry soft serve, which was new to me, and very good.

Overall, the DCL product is still fantastic, but I am ready to try some other lines. We were set to do so last year and this year, before plans had to change. But we will get to try Celebrity in Alaska in August. I can't wait to see if we can get what we like from DCL (which is mostly non-Disney specific stuff), with a bit of a discount and new menus and itineraries, or if it will just make us ready to come back home to Disney.

We will be on the Wonder next week for the first time. I'm excited to try a new ship.

In the end, it was the relaxing trip my wife and I needed. We are super grateful to have been able to take it and the new itinerary was a great change.

 

[auntlynne]

I’ll be curious to hear what you think of Celebrity in Alaska. We were going to do that in 2020, but changed our mind before the pandemic could change it for us all.

Very glad to hear you had a good respite.

For specifics, what did your server recommend at Palo? I have somewhat fallen into a pattern ordering the same things.

And I have tired of DCL menus, too.

My sister did the catamaran and snorkel in Aruba. The sunken ship part was not great, but the part near Boca Catalina Beach was very good, per her report. Do you think you got a poor snorkeling site with limited coral and fish or was it more about the weather and sea conditions?

Thanks for reviewing.

Haha - just noticed another avatar for you. Maybe not a blueberry soft serve?

 

[brentm77]

I’ll be curious to hear what you think of Celebrity in Alaska. We were going to do that in 2020, but changed our mind before the pandemic could change it for us all.

Very glad to hear you had a good respite.

For specifics, what did your server recommend at Palo? I have somewhat fallen into a pattern ordering the same things.

And I have tired of DCL menus, too.

My sister did the catamaran and snorkel in Aruba. The sunken ship part was not great, but the part near Boca Catalina Beach was very good, per her report. Do you think you got a poor snorkeling site with limited coral and fish or was it more about the weather and sea conditions?

Thanks for reviewing.

Haha - just noticed another avatar for you. Maybe not a blueberry soft serve?

Ha - the avatar is a close up of a door magnet I made. The full version is of my wife and me, with me holding a strawberry banana swirl, which is my favorite. But they only had banana with chocolate this time, which was also great.

At Palo, I had the plate of calamari and jumbo shrimp to start, which was freshly breaded and fried, and better than anywhere else I have tried it. I also had the Osso Bucco and armaretto souffle, plus half of my wife's chocolate one . My wife loved the fresh mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes and said her steak was great. I also had a zero proof drink that went great with the meal.

For snorkeling, the second stop was nearly void of any sea life. I saw a stingray, but almost nothing else unfortunately. It sort of ended on a sour note too, because they played music so loud on the way back that we kept getting decibel warnings on our watches, and my ears hurt the rest of the day. I know I'm getting old, but I don't think it was at a level that any young person could enjoy either. But after hearing of one person's experience with the beach transfer there (too hot, no chairs or shade, etc.) I wasn't too disappointed with our choice.

 

[emilymad]

What tour did you do in Dominica?

 

[brentm77]

What tour did you do in Dominica?

We just did "Easy Dominica," which was a 3.5 hour tour of the island, with a very easy hike down to a waterfall. It included a stop at the gardens, where they showed us some of the native plants and the endangered parrots. The drive to the rainforest is long and curvey, so bonine is recommended. It felt like a good length and we had a great tour guide who gave a ton of interesting information.

 

[brentm77]

Dominica rainforest.

 

[Cfabar1]

I wonder how much longer the Magic and Wonder will be around.... We have booked the Magic for 2024 and are likely to book the Wonder for 2025 just to make sure we can experience them before they go away....

 

[tvguy]

Dominica is on my list to places to visit. It was scheduled to be a port on my first cruise in 1980, but that was a few months after Hurricane David destroyed much of the island. We cruised by close enough to see the destruction, but could not dock.

 

[brentm77]

Dominica is on my list to places to visit. It was scheduled to be a port on my first cruise in 1980, but that was a few months after Hurricane David destroyed much of the island. We cruised by close enough to see the destruction, but could not dock.

It's unfortunate how often the island gets hit. You can tell it takes a toll because it's so expensive to rebuild every couple of decades.

 

[holula]

I wonder how much longer the Magic and Wonder will be around.... We have booked the Magic for 2024 and are likely to book the Wonder for 2025 just to make sure we can experience them before they go away....

I’m planning Wonder for 2025 again instead of the Treasure now. She’s my favourite and I’ll be so sad when she does get retired.

@brentm77 I sooooo agree about the jumbo shrimp and calamari and it’s a good size portion of it too. That’s my go to at Palo.

 

[anjuan]

Thanks for the report! We'll be on the Magic in 9 days! Really looking forward to Palo on pirate night.

Also great to hear about Dominica as we'll be going there later in the summer.

 

[Intr3pid]

Congrats on the Southern Caribbean trip!

We have been trying to do the ABC islands as well as the farther southern islands of Barbados/Grenada etc for the last couple of years. They remind us of what the Eastern/Western Caribbeans once was. Exotic, warm, and not as touristy.

The issue has been the ships that most cruise lines send on these itineraries. It's usually the older fleet - which makes sense as the demand is less when these itineraries take longer than a week out of Florida (or you have to fly to San Juan). But the ship's age - without meaningful refurbishments - is a deal breaker for us.

Celebrity Beyond is doing these itineraries now, so we might give it a shot.

Did you try a day pass at any of the resorts in the islands? To make a beach day out of it?

 

[auntlynne]

Congrats on the Southern Caribbean trip!

We have been trying to do the ABC islands as well as the farther southern islands of Barbados/Grenada etc for the last couple of years. They remind us of what the Eastern/Western Caribbeans once was. Exotic, warm, and not as touristy.

The issue has been the ships that most cruise lines send on these itineraries. It's usually the older fleet - which makes sense as the demand is less when these itineraries take longer than a week out of Florida (or you have to fly to San Juan). But the ship's age - without meaningful refurbishments - is a deal breaker for us.

Celebrity Beyond is doing these itineraries now, so we might give it a shot.

Did you try a day pass at any of the resorts in the islands? To make a beach day out of it?

I’ve been watching Captain Kate McCue’s YouTube videos - which include stops at several of the places you’d like to see. They are the ~week cruises out of Fort Lauderdale. Some are fortunate enough to visit Bonaire. They look like a nice Southern Caribbean option to the longer ones.

(I cruised for 14 nights in NCL Jade out of Tampa with 10 ports. I think a nice ABC cruise, two days down and two days back, on a newer Celebrity ship would be great.)

We did the 8-night DCL RT San Juan to Southern Caribbean. That’s when my Disney cruise-loving sister realized she did not need Disney prices when doing port intensive itineraries.



Hope you get there someday. I enjoyed ABC ports more than the more Northern/ Eastern Caribbean ones.

 

[brentm77]

Congrats on the Southern Caribbean trip!

We have been trying to do the ABC islands as well as the farther southern islands of Barbados/Grenada etc for the last couple of years. They remind us of what the Eastern/Western Caribbeans once was. Exotic, warm, and not as touristy.

The issue has been the ships that most cruise lines send on these itineraries. It's usually the older fleet - which makes sense as the demand is less when these itineraries take longer than a week out of Florida (or you have to fly to San Juan). But the ship's age - without meaningful refurbishments - is a deal breaker for us.

Celebrity Beyond is doing these itineraries now, so we might give it a shot.

Did you try a day pass at any of the resorts in the islands? To make a beach day out of it?

Thanks!

I would love to do the ABC islands as well.

We had a day pass scheduled at the Marriott on Curaçao, but I had an uneasy feeling about how informal my booking was when I called the front desk, so I emailed them about a week before the cruise and Marriott confirmed they had an event there that day and would not let me in on a day pass. Many took a taxi to a Mambo beach and really liked it too. We ended up shopping and exploring there instead, which was fun, plus we had a great time sitting up top the ship in the afternoon, looking out over beautiful water and drinking piña coladas. We had much of the area to ourselves, which felt a lot like being at the resort by the beach anyway. We were focused on relaxation, rest, and destressing on this trip, so it was great.

 

[brentm77]

I sooooo agree about the jumbo shrimp and calamari and it’s a good size portion of it too. That’s my go to at Palo.

It was seriously good. I almost didn't order it, since it is such a common dish, but it was much better than I have had elsewhere. The shrimp was nearly the size of the lobsters they serve in the MDR too, and really good.

 

[o&smom]

I don't usually do trip reports, but wanted to share some thoughts from a fantastic Southern Caribbean cruise on the Magic this past week.

Dominica is a hidden gem. While the capital isn't the usual upscale touristy area, it was lively, authentic, and really interesting. The highlight was the rainforest. It was absolutely stunning and so different than anything else we have done in the Caribbean. The people were nice. It was a great change from the usual stops.

The catamaran and snorkel adventure in Aruba was a bit of a letdown. The sunken ship was cool, but too chaotic for my wife to feel comfortable. The second stop was some of the worst snorkeling I have done. On the bright side, the views while sailing were wonderful. I'm not sure there were many better options either.

Puerto Rico rocks. I love it here. Old San Juan is almost like exploring old cities in Europe, with a vibrant local twist. The beaches and water are gorgeous. The people we have met have been so kind. I would love to do a whole week here. There were a lot of locals on the ship, which was great.

The Magic is showing its age more than I remember from two years ago. It's a great ship still, and I wouldn't hesitate to sale her again, but I think Disney needs to give her more attention. The AC in the public areas of the aft was clearly still broken (as reported by someone here weeks ago) and there was also leaking from ceilings in the aft public areas (also reported here). There were a few other things that needed some work too. Overall, not bad for a 25 year old ship, just slightly below what I expect from DCL.

Our stateroom wasn't cleaned to the normal standards and the bathroom sort of stunk like urine too. I could have said something, but I really liked our host and it really wasn't worth it to me.

I think I continue to tire of the menus a bit. Particularly the desserts. But, we had the best serving team we have ever had. Gabriel in particular made great recommendations and brought me an Indian dish every night once he found out I liked Indian food. I stopped ordering off the menu and just ate that. It was fantastic and was a nice change.

Palo for dinner was the best meal we have had in a long time, on a ship or at home. The server was amazing and hit it out of the park with his recommendations. You could really tell the difference when eating freshly cooked meals versus pre-plated food. Even the two souffles were so much better than the MDR version. I ordered off the prefix menu, which I think helped kick it up a notch too. We also had a beautiful view of Dominica as we sailed away just after we were seated, due to some excursions getting back pretty late. It was a magical night that was worth every penny to us.

Tangled was great, again. We didn't see any other shows, but instead enjoyed the ship and adult areas.
They had blueberry soft serve, which was new to me, and very good.

Overall, the DCL product is still fantastic, but I am ready to try some other lines. We were set to do so last year and this year, before plans had to change. But we will get to try Celebrity in Alaska in August. I can't wait to see if we can get what we like from DCL (which is mostly non-Disney specific stuff), with a bit of a discount and new menus and itineraries, or if it will just make us ready to come back home to Disney.

We will be on the Wonder next week for the first time. I'm excited to try a new ship.

In the end, it was the relaxing trip my wife and I needed. We are super grateful to have been able to take it and the new itinerary was a great change.

So sad to hear the AC and water leaking from the ceiling are still issues. We cruised in October on the WBPC cruise. So hoped they would have figured it out by now. I felt that the Magic was great and that she deserved better than whatever was going on.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

We were on that sailing too, and LOVED Dominca. We did the Waterfall Wonders tour, which went to 4 of them . Absolutely amazing. Just fair warning - if you use crutches or a cane, it's really hard. My son uses forearm crutches, and the rocks made it really hard for him - he got to 2 of them, but didn't go to the last 2 (he was really afraid of falling - uneven, slippery steps)

 

[anricat]

The Southern Caribbean itineraries are my absolute favorites and Dominica was a highlight for us when we went a couple years ago. Absolutely a stunning place and we can't wait to go back. Antigua is another Southern island we just absolutely love.

Agree with you on Palo on the Magic. We were BLOWN AWAY by Palo dinner on the Magic when we sailed recently. We always felt sort of meh about Palo dinner and didn't really get it. We just went because it's free for us being Platinum and we were sort of burned out on brunch (which we've typically preferred) but we will have to definitely go for dinner again!