June 1st Magical Mexican Cruise

[SplashMountainManiac]

Hey everybody. We just returned home from an absolutely incredible cruise. I will be starting a very long and detailed trip report soon but if you have any questions now I would be happy to answer them. A few big things that might be asked, check in at the port begins at 10, but they let everyone inside and into the line by 9:45; the cruise director is Brent and will soon be Christiaan; unless the weather changes soon bring warm clothes for the sea days, it was frigid. They did an incredible job with this cruise and if you are going, you should be very excited. More soon to come.

[helenb]

I have a question about the weather. Other people have said it was cold, but I have checked the weather in the ports, and the lows (for the middle of the night) were in the 70s. When you say it was frigid, what temperatures are we talking? For us, 70s is nice and warm!!!

[always_learning]

My sister is leaving in the morning for this cruise! This might be a silly question but once you leave the ship for your excursion can you bring bottle water off the ship for when you are exploring.

I can't wait to read how your trip went!

[jfletcher]

Can't wait to read more. We're going 7/6. I'm also interested in hearing about the weather. All along I'd been worried it was going to be too hot.

[dizneygirlz3]

Yes you can bring water bottles off the ship to your excursions. As for the weather. We were on the 6/1 cruise and it was a bit chilly at sea maybe mid 60's, but the ports were warm. Our stateroom was chilly too at times but I am used to Bakersfield Ca. which is in the 100's in the summer. So even 70 degrees can be chilly for me... At the ports the weather was perfect, even a bit warm in Cabo. I recommend bringing a light sweatshirt or two for everyone and you should be fine and also one pair of light sweat pants. You are going to have a blast it is an amazing vacation....

[ayumac]

70s is nice and warm!!!

Dear helenb,
I think 70's in CA (or Pacific side of the Americas) is considered "chilly". If it is 80-86F, we would say "nice and warm", but not hot. 90 and above are HOT. I think it is because our air is extremely dry. I went to Cabo in June, 2007, it was in 80's and was nice, but the ocean was toooo cold to even get our feet wet. Pools were great since they were heated. :santa:

Dear SplashMountainManiac,
I cannot wait for your report. Longer the better!:flower1:

[always_learning]

Yes you can bring water bottles off the ship to your excursions. As for the weather. We were on the 6/1 cruise and it was a bit chilly at sea maybe mid 60's, but the ports were warm. Our stateroom was chilly too at times but I am used to Bakersfield Ca. which is in the 100's in the summer. So even 70 degrees can be chilly for me... At the ports the weather was perfect, even a bit warm in Cabo. I recommend bringing a light sweatshirt or two for everyone and you should be fine and also one pair of light sweat pants. You are going to have a blast it is an amazing vacation....

Thank you for the water answer! I am always teasing my sister about being chilly when it's 70*...she lives in Pasadena.

[SplashMountainManiac]

When I say frigid I mean high 50's with a wind chill. The ports are warm but at sea is cold. Once you get into Cabo it is very warm, but heading to Cabo and heading back were freezing, jeans and sweatshirt weather. Along with handing out towels by the pool they were handing out full size blankets. The ocean temperature, from my understanding, was comfortable for swimming in the Riviera.
You can take water and any packaged un-opened food off the ship. No unopened food is allowed especially in Cabo where they have an inspection station.

[SplashMountainManiac]

Just a qualification of the weather:
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[KalieElizabeth]

dear lord are those blankets?
was it that cold?
wow..okay then if i go i need to remember to dress warm!

[SplashMountainManiac]

This was on the very last sea day and I spent most of the day inside. It may have just been the weather during our cruise, but the sea days were by no means warm. But with Disney being Disney, they made sure that plenty of activities took place inside, I never felt any lack of things to do even with the weather.

[SplashMountainManiac]

So here it goes. I hope this will be a nice not often seen perspective on the cruise. I am 18 so this TR will include details on the Stack, not often seen in trip reports. This is going to be long and detailed, but if I leave anything out do not hesitate to ask.
Traveling on this cruise was my mom, my dad, and myself. This was our fourth cruise on Disney, but first on the Magic. We are from the Orlando area and decided that, even though we live 45 minutes from Port Canaveral, it would be great to fly across the country for our first trip on the Magic, lol. We began our journey on the Thursday before the trip. We dropped our car off at Continental airport parking
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and headed to the place where so many cruise vacations start, the Hyatt at the airport. Our flight was leaving at 6:00am for Atlanta and we don’t like driving to the airport and parking the car at 3:00 in the morning. We were checked into a wonderful atrium view room, and then popped downstairs for a moment to finish buying postcards for the Disboards meet.
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After this we quickly returned to the room and tried to get some sleep for our early morning. This of course failed miserably, I got the most sleep that night with about an hour and a half. Almost no sleep, and a three hour time difference, what fun, lol.
So the next morning we got out of bed around 4 am, every alarm we own was set but this was completely unneeded as our excitement already woke us up. We headed downstairs to the almost deserted check-in desk, and were finished almost immediately. We were so glad to have traded in our miles for first class seats as, aside from the service and the leg room, we were bringing four bags weighing over 50 pounds. Saved about 300 dollars in excess bag charges by being in first. Went through a nonexistent security line and were soon on the monorail heading to our gate. http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk216/flcoasterdude/P5300018.jpg

[omgbrittx]

great report. im glad ure going into detail on a teens point of view because ill be visiting the Stack and would like to see some of that report :]]

[JLDSMD]

Hey everybody. We just returned home from an absolutely incredible cruise. I will be starting a very long and detailed trip report soon but if you have any questions now I would be happy to answer them. A few big things that might be asked, check in at the port begins at 10, but they let everyone inside and into the line by 9:45; the cruise director is Brent and will soon be Christiaan; unless the weather changes soon bring warm clothes for the sea days, it was frigid. They did an incredible job with this cruise and if you are going, you should be very excited. More soon to come.

How early were you lined up outside the terminal?

Do you line up right by the doors or is it aways away?

Do the porters take your luggage early or does someone need to stay with it?

Thanks in advance for the answers.

[SplashMountainManiac]

We never had to line up outside the terminal. When we arrived at 9:45 the doors were already open and the porters were taking luggage in. You can always be dropped off right at the door, they don't hold you outside the secure areas like in Port Canaveral. So if you get there really early you can stand right outside of the terminal doors.

[andriade]

So, if we lined up around 10:00 a.m. do you think we would get one of the earlier boarding times?

[jlima]

So, if we lined up around 10:00 a.m. do you think we would get one of the earlier boarding times?If you get there at 10 am you should be able to walk right in. The Castaway Club lines were REALLY long and I've seen other trip reports that some repeat cruisers got into the normal check-in lines and moved through faster. After you check in, walk to the west end of the terminal (where the kids club check in and the actual boarding/security area is); as you pass through one set of double doors, this is where we received our boarding cards; we didn't get them when we checked in. We got to the terminal before 10:30 and by the time I got the boarding cards we were in group 5 . . . but we were still on board befor 12:15.

[andriade]

If you get there at 10 am you should be able to walk right in. The Castaway Club lines were REALLY long and I've seen other trip reports that some repeat cruisers got into the normal check-in lines and moved through faster. After you check in, walk to the west end of the terminal (where the kids club check in and the actual boarding/security area is); as you pass through one set of double doors, this is where we received our boarding cards; we didn't get them when we checked in. We got to the terminal before 10:30 and by the time I got the boarding cards we were in group 5 . . . but we were still on board befor 12:15.

Thanks for the info! We are still torn on what to do. I am not sure if I would rather wait until later to board or not. My kids will not make it waiting around for 2 hours. I know I may not have a choice in that though. I also want to change my Palo reservations so I feel the need to get there early. I still have a few weeks to decide.

[SplashMountainManiac]

After a very long break in working on this the posts should be coming much faster.

The gates were completely empty, no one else was crazy enough to fly out at 6am. http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk216/flcoasterdude/P5300022.jpg
We stopped and grabbed some quick snacks and then got on the plane. After settling into our large comfy seats and getting our first round of drinks we were off to Atlanta.
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As a very rare treat, we actually arrived on time in Atlanta. As a second rare treat, our departure gate was next to our arrival gate, that never happens, lol. We grabbed some breakfast at the omelet place upstairs, since we had about an hour and a half before the LA flight boarded.
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The flight for LA left right on time, two on time flights through Atlanta is a miracle. Lunch was served shortly after take off and the flight flew by because we were on a former Delta Song plane that had personal video screen with 10 movies, 1000’s of mp3 files, games, live tv, and a flight tracking screen.
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Before we knew it the plane was pulling up to the gate in LA. We got into LA around 11:45. Our bags came straight out of the baggage claim and we went across the street to the shared van pickup area.
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We arranged all of our ground transportation with Prime Time shuttle, as they served Port of Los Angeles as well as the airport. It didn’t take too long for the shuttle to arrive, but we were the first ones onboard meaning we had to circle LAX 3 times before heading out for Long Beach.

[anewmac]

Loveing it so far.... cant wait for the next installment! :)

[andriade]

More More More!

[SplashMountainManiac]

We were lucky enough to have a couple onboard heading to the Monarch of the Seas at Port of LA so we got a sneak peek of the port two days before sailing out. After a quick stop there we headed right into downtown Long Beach and we were the first to be dropped off. We decided to stay at the Hyatt in Long Beach both because my mom had stayed there for work, and because we found an incredible deal where we could get on the concierge level for just a little extra a day, taking away the need to find a place for breakfast every morning.
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We got to the hotel around 1:30 and our room wasn’t ready so we just waited and waited and waited. The hotel has a beautiful lobby with three story windows overlooking the harbor, a very nice outdoor pool area, a restaurant, and a Starbucks in the lobby.
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We finally got into our room at 4, an hour after check in, but it was well worth it when we saw our view. We were given a room on the 16th floor looking out over the ocean, rainbow harbor, and the Queen Mary. For a hotel room, the Hyatt was awesome. The room was very spacious, well decorated, and very well maintained. Throughout our time at the hotel, we had wonderful experiences with the staff.
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After getting all of our luggage we walked down the hall to explore the regency club. They had a computer for free internet, soda and bottled water all day, hors d'oeuvres at night and breakfast in the morning.
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We quickly flipped through some of the Long Beach brochures to find some place to eat, and decided that Stefano’s pizzeria across the street in rainbow harbor sounded good.
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Let me remind everyone that brochures lie, a lot. I can definitely unrecommend this dining experience. But we were dead tired after a long day and a time change so we didn’t feel like moving, everyone lived so I guess it was a success, lol.
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After dinner we walked around the harbor for a while enjoying the cool night air and then headed back to the hotel and almost immediately collapsed into bed.

[anewmac]

Awww You should have gone to the yardhouse... Great food! Lots of adult beverages also but over all the food is to die for.. you were in my old stomping grounds! Im from San Pedro! Cant wait to hear more :)

[Zoiebear]

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!!! Just curious how much the conceirge is at the hyatt? I always do the cheapie way to save money for shopping, so I have never experienced the conceirge level of service.
Stacie

[SplashMountainManiac]

I believe we booked concierge for around $170 , but we got lucky. According to the website it usually goes for around $280.

[BelleEm2]

Wow! I just stayed at the Hyatt in Long Beach in April, on a trip completely unrelated to Disney. The hotel is absolutely gorgeous, as is the area. I loved the little moat thing going around the hotel. I never quite figured out what it was, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the park next door to the hotel. And the arena thing that had whales all over the outside, that I was convinced was the famous Long Beach Aquarium until I walked over there and found out it wasn't. And the Queen Mary was wonderful. We took the haunted tour, and it scared me half to death when it probably shouldn't have. :rotfl: And as someone else said, the Yard House was wonderful as was the place next door in Shoreline villiage... Tequila Jack's, I think. There was also an amazing Spanish Restaurant up the block that we visited several times.

Anyway, now that I've bored you with the details from my trip to Long Beach, I cannot wait to hear about your cruise! :lmao:

[SplashMountainManiac]

It's still coming, I haven't given up yet.

[SplashMountainManiac]

Bump. It's still coming.