Pirates in the Caribbean - At Year's End

[PE_TCR]

This is my first attempt at a trip report so please bear with me. There is so much that happened wit this trip that I feel like I need to share.

A little bit about me. My name is Brian. I am 36 and a middle school Physical Education teacher is a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My wife (Debbie) was a traffic reporter at the big FM radio station in Milwaukee before they changed formats and let every on-air personality go. Now she is a long term Spanish substitute teacher at a middle school in a different school district. We got married this past Valentine's Day and since we have both lived on our own before getting married we didn't need anything for the house so we registered on disneyhoneymoonregistry.com and almost everyone used it. That left us with money left over from out land/sea trip for our honeymoon. We went out our honeymoon over spring break and agreed that a 3 day cruise is way too short. So we booked another one for the 7 day cruise that left on Dec. 26. We planned on leaving Dec. 24 and going to EPCOT on the 25th for the candlelight processional. The going to the ship on the 26th. This would give us a little extra time in case the Wisconsin weather went bad.

This is a trip that almost never happened.
We found out in August that we were expecting a baby. However, we realized that this would mean we couldn't cruise because Debbie would be almost 7 months pregnant. We held onto the reservation just in case. Well about 6 weeks later we found out the baby had not developed a heart and we had a miscarriage at about 9 weeks. The silver lining was the cruise was back on.

Then fast forward to October. My grandmother's health took a turn for the worse. The doctors said she might make it through the holidays but not to make any plans just in case. Well at the end of October my grandmother (age 93) passed away.
Then a week before our cruise my other grandmother (age 95) went into the hospital. The last day of school (Dec. 22) my dad called me at school and said I should go see her before we left. I asked how serious it was because we hadn't started packing yet and I had 3 appointments the only free day we had before we left. All he said was I needed to make time. As soon as I got home from school Debbie and I went to my parent's place to get directions and asked my mom if she wanted to go with us. She said no she would go the next day. We pushed her to go with us for some reason and she agreed. After a 2 1/2 hour drive to Illinois we got to the hospital we got to the room where my uncle told us she had passed away just 15 minutes before we got there. We were about to cancel the cruise when my uncle told us that they couldn't get the family to Illinois until Jan 2 because of some medical issues with my aunt and a surgery she had just had. The rest of the family insisted we go on the cruise. We talked things over with my mom on the drive back and decided to still go on the cruise. When we woke up the next morning the news predicted a major ice storm for Dec 24th. Yep- the day we were supposed to leave. I decided to go to the gym and work out to clear my mind a little. When I was done my dad called and told me that the airlines were allowing Milwaukee passengers to change flights with no charge due to the weather. I got on the phone right away and got a flight for that night at 6:20. I called Debbie and told her to start packing because we had about 3 hours to pack for the trip. I packed a lot the night before so when I was done I booked a room at the Hyatt at the Orlando airport. We left pretty early for the airport. I knew it would be crazy so we got there about 3 hours early. As soon as we got to out gate they told us the weather coming out way delayed out flight that was coming from Phoenix. The new flight time was at 7:20. Well it started snowing HARD at 6:30. We should have been gone by then. Well we finally boarded the plane at 7:40. We sat on the plane for about 15 minutes and the pilot came over the speakers and told us the runways had just been closed. They hoped they would be opened in 45 minutes. We waited at the end of the runway for 50 minutes while they plowed them. The at about 8:30 we got clearance to take off. We found out we were one of 5 planes allowed out that night. Boy were we happy when we got into the air. We finally landed about 11:45 local time and just crashed in out room.

I feel like I have already written a book and I haven't even gotten to our pre-cruise part. I will continue this later tonight or tomorrow. Hope you enjoy it.

[HunterB]

Brian,
That is such an amazing story. I am sorry to hear about your grandmothers. I am sure their spirit was on the cruise with you and that is why we had a week of beautiful weather. It was a bubble of hot weather the entire week. It was cold when we got there and cold when we left. We also were on that cruise.

I filmed the entire week including the Pirate night and the New Years eve fireworks. I met my wife 12/31/88 at a party and we have been together ever since. We celebrated our 21st anniversary together. If I ever have the time to edit the footage I will send you a copy. It is in HD so it is about 50 GB of video that I need to go through. I filmed the entire Pirate night with Mickey flying over my head from the stack (I was the geek on deck 10 with the camera-LOL).

I can't wait to read the rest of your story.

hb

[PE_TCR]

Don't want to spoil a later event from my story but did you get video of the suprise we had leaving Castaway Cay? I filmed it but the video showed up as a green screen and no picture at all :(

[jessrose18]

popcorn::subscribing

[praisehisname]

Joining in!

[HunterB]

Wasn't that amazing? It was so windy that day. Did you have the Sony camera? I think I walked past you. :rolleyes1

[PE_TCR]

After our series of events leading us to Orlando we were very happy to be waking up at the airport Hyatt. We went to the small gym at the hotel and had a little workout before we proceeded to the Magical Express. Since we changed flights we had our bags with us as we headed to the busses and we began the Disney experience for real now! The ride to the All-Star Movies resort was great. We called home and found out the airport had been opening and closing all morning and we were now here in the high 70s headed to Walt Disney World.
When we got to the resort the room was ready so we went right to the room and of course we had the furthest building and the third flood to top it off. We really didn’t care because we were finally here. We had no real plans for the day so we dumped our bags in the room and headed to Downtown Disney to explore.
The first thing we did was walked through Downtown Disney right to Bongos. Debbie’s family is Cuban so this is a must-stop place to eat when we come to Disney. We both had the Sandwich Cubano. Debbie substituted fried plantain chips for the fries. We both got a Materva as well and I had to get a Mojito. It was a great way to start our Disney vacation.
We continued making our way back through Downtown Disney. My sunglasses had broken on the flight over so I went into several shops to look for new ones. However, I did not want to spend $200 for sunglasses. I wear mine so often and doing so many different things they never last long. After all the specialty shops I finally found an inexpensive pair (by Disney standards) at the Wonderful World of Disney. I also had to get a nice workout shirt that I liked and a set of Mickey ears for my car. I was only going to get the sunglasses but then realized if I spent a little more I would qualify for the Disney Rewards Visa discount. That was all the reasoning I needed. Now you are starting to see how I think as well ;) After shopping for a bit we came across some traditional Christmas Carolers singing next to the store and sat down and just watched and listened to them for a while.
It was starting to get a little bit chilly so we headed back to the room. We had dinner reservations at Narcoossee’s later that night anyway. After a short nap we got ready to go out to eat and took the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom where we hopped onto the monorail to the Grand Floridian. We got there early so we could explore a little and check out the gingerbread house. We also watched a big band play in the lobby for a bit and had fun watching the people get pictures with Santa. We did notice Mickey had a longer line. I wonder how Santa felt about that. We started walking to Narcoossee’s and got there a bit early. We decided to sit on the pier and relax. As soon as we sat down music started playing and we got to watch the castle freezing over at the Magic Kingdom. We had an amazing view. As soon as it was done we were ready to eat.
We walked into Narcoossee’s and we were given a paged. I love to cook so it was nice to watch the kitchen in action. Debbie thought so too until she saw one of the chefs grab a lobster, shove the thermometer into the tail, and then throw it (literally) into the steamer. Of course the lobster was still alive. Luckily we were called to eat right away. Narcoossee’s is amazing. The bread was great and I ordered the fried calamari and Debbie had some crab cakes. They were both amazing. Then a server came to our table and brought us each a Caesar salad. We hadn’t ordered it but we just thought maybe it came with the meal. It tasted great. Then our waitress came by and did a double take. She asked how that happened and we said we wondered the same thing. She said Merry Christmas with a smile and talked to the table next to us. Well a minute later they had their Caesar salads delivered to their table. Both tables looked at each other and just started laughing. The waitress said she would not charge us for the salad. For being so nice about it she was well compensated later. For the main course I ordered Yellow Finned Tuna and Debbie ordered the tilapia. Her tilapia was perfect! When I ordered the tuna my waitress told me it would be a whole fish – head and tail. That was fine with me but what came out I was not expecting at all. The drop the fish in a fryer and bring the fish out on the plate standing up like it was swimming (see the picture). It tasted wonderful but the initial shock made us both laugh. When I was done there was a head, tail, and bones. I would recommend it to anyone who likes seafood. What happened next amazed both of us. We were so full we skipped desert!
We took the monorail back to the TTC and a bus back to the resort where we went to bed ready for our next day. Christmas Day at EPCOT!

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[E&BMom]

Hey Brian! :wave2:So glad you decided to start a tr because I'm always too lazy. WE had fun on the cruise with you guys and we're already missing it :[


We were at Epcot on Christmas Day too!
I'll be reading for sure!
Kim

[JerseyPride]

Enjoying your trip report so far, Brian... Look forward to reading more.

[TotallyAngelic]

Wow .... great title.

Sorry to hear about your sad losses leading up to your cruise. Really enjoying your repor so far.

[PE_TCR]

Well the name was my wife's idea. It became the name of our group for the cruise as well.

[PE_TCR]

Sorry for the delay. We got almost 12 inches of snow today and things have been crazy. I promise I will have the Christmas Day report up tomorrow with pistures.

[MagicMe]

Geez you really needed this trip!!!!

Sorry to hear about your losses. So glad you made it out of the airport!

[PE_TCR]

We woke up nice and early to begin out Christmas Day at EPCOT. We took the bus EPCOT. We got there and were in time for rope drop. We had never actually been to a rope drop before. We always go to early extra magic hours so we usually just walk in and go right to the rides we want with no waiting. This time we got to wait for the rope to drop. We got to see several of the characters playing around. Then came the National Anthem. I am an Air Force veteran so maybe I notice these things a little more but I was surprised that less than half of the men in the crowd removed their hats for the playing of out National Anthem. Some may have been from other countries but not half of these people. It just seemed a little disrespectful. But that’s just my opinion. After the rope drop we briskly walked to Soarin’. I left Debbie at the main entrance as I got the Fastpass. When I came out to find her she was gone. I looked all around the entrance and even went back to the area between Innoventions since we agreed we would try to get to Test Track right away. I still couldn’t find her. I went back into The Land to find her chatting it up with one of the cast members. We told the cast member that it looked like it was going to rain so we were going to head right aver to Test Track before they closed it. She said good idea and showed us the fastest way to Soarin’. She even took down one of the ropes for us. We followed her since we thought there might be a shortcut the way she was showing us but nope. She directed us right to the line for Soarin’. Well we hustled it over to Test Track and had no wait at all. The last two times we were there it was closed for various reasons. We finally got to ride it. Once that was done we headed right to The Sum of All Thrills. We decided I would design the first ride. Of course I did the fighter jet. We had a blast and got right back in line. The wait was probably about 20 minutes so it wasn’t bad at all. Debbie then designed her ride and since we had learned the tricks from the first time we were able to get the wildest/highest scoring ride possible. If I can load the ride onto here I will. We then went to Mission Space. It is one of my favorites and we always make sure to ride it. When we were done it was just about time to ride Soarin’ so we took a ride on Living with the Land then hopped on Soarin’. We then went to Mission Space (one of my favorites) and got a Fast Pass. On the way out we noticed the percussion group was banging away on the garbage cans so we stayed for the little concert. Being a Drum and Bugle guy I always love watching these guys. When they were done we headed back to Mission Space after looking around the shops a little. The line was a bit longer than usual because one of the simulators was temporarily out of order. I guess they had to clean up a little.
After a few rides we decided to head over to the World Showcase. We were getting a little hungry but we had a big dinner planned so we decided to snack a little. One of my favorite snacks is the schoolbread from Norway. So we stopped there to ride Maelstrom and get a schoolbread. Then we headed over to Japan so Debbie could get some sushi. I had one of the sushi rolls and we had taken care of our cravings. After our snacks we decided just to explore a little. That is when we started running into the storytellers. The first one was in England. He was going a little quick because it looked like rain. We got our picture with him right before the rain started. Once it started it came down pretty hard. We headed into France to catch the movie and wait out the storm. When we came out we headed over toward Canada where Off Kilter was playing. I had heard them at EPCOT before as well as at Irishfest here in Milwaukee. Debbie is also a huge fan so we listened to them play their entire set. After that we went to see O’ Canada and torture ourselves by walking past Le Cellier. It is by far our favorite place to eat but there were no reservations to be had on Christmas  When we came out Pere Noel was starting his talk and we had fun listening to the Canadian Christmas traditions. We continued walking around and came to a mariachi band outside of the Mexico pavilion. Of course they finished by playing and singing Feliz Navidad. Next was the story of the Monkey King at China. We didn’t catch all of it but it was really good and had a great message. Then we ended up in Italy where we heard my favorite storyteller. La Befana was great. She is a witch that was asked by the three wisemen to join them to go see baby Jesus but decided not to go. So now every Jan 6th she goes into houses of children and leaves them gifts hoping maybe she will see the face of the baby Christ.
Then we had our dinner at Chefs de France. This was part of the Candlelight Processional Package. The mean was amazing. I started out with lobster bisque and Debbie had the French onion soup. Then I had the beef tenderloin while Debbie had the duck. Both were truly magnificent. For desert I had the crepes and Debbie had her favorite, crème brule. Right after that we went to see the Candlelight Processional. Neither of us had ever seen it before. I can say I think everyone must see this at least once in their lifetime. It is an unbelievable show. We happened to have Edward James Olmos as our narrator. I have heard from many people that he is one of the best narrators one can ask for. At the start of the program he announced that this was an emotional performance because it would be his last. He had been narrating for the past thirteen years and became very close with Roy Disney. He felt that with Roy’s passing this was the best time for him to close out his run as a narrator. The show was truly moving and the director was the best I had ever seen. She had complete control of the entire orchestra and choir. I had as much fun watching her as I did enjoying the rest of the show. We did have a little guilty pleasure during the show. We had fun watching for and counting the people who were passing out while singing. They have cast members whose job it is just to watch for people who pass out then try to get them without disrupting the show. After the Candlelight Processional we jogged all the way around the pavilion to our reserved seating for Illuminations. We made it just in time. The show was the regular Illuminations but at the end they had a special ending. They did fireworks coordinated to the song “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” It was amazing and a little tough. I played that sound for my grandparent’s 50th anniversary and they always talked about it. It was also the last song they played at my grandma’s funeral in October. Once Illuminations was over he headed to ride Soarin’ once more since extra magic hours had just opened. We had never waited in the regular line before and kind of enjoyed the games they had on the wall while waiting in the queue (that term is especially for Michelle). When we finished the ride we decided to head to The Sea with Nemo and friends and just look around. I enjoyed watching the rays that seemed to be in a playful mood. I watched them while we waited to see Turtle Talk with Crush. This was the first time we had waited to see this show as well. I must admit it was really good even though it is mostly for kids. We were getting a little sleepy so we decided to head out. On the way out we rode Spaceship Earth. We took the bus back to the room and Debbie fell asleep on my shoulder.
We straightened out our bags and got ready for bed. We had a wake-up call scheduled for early the next morning so we could get our rental car and head to port nice and early and get on the ship nice and early.
OR SO WE THOUGHT…………

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[IceSk8ersMom]

I am really enjoying reading your trip report. I have been to the candlelighting ceremony at Disneyland but never at Epcot. Thank you for sharing that experience. I cannot wait to read about your cruise adventures, because I will be cruising on the Magic this Christmas. I know that I still have awhile to wait, but reading trip reports help.
I am glad that you and your wife were able to take the trip. It sounds like you had a rough year and needed this time to recharge.
I too work at a middle school. I am an assistant principal. It is a difficult age, but oh so rewarding.
I cannot wait to read more. Keep the posts coming!

[Tinkerkell123]

I am so sorry to hear about your losses and am glad you got to go on your trip. Must have been meant to be! :) Subbing, and can't wait to read more... :surfweb:

[PE_TCR]

We woke up nice and early so we would be ready to go and get to the ship nice and early and relax and really start enjoying our vacation on the Disney Magic. I had called Avis the day before we left to arrange our pick-up from the All-Star Movies resort at 9:30. We got packed and went down to the lobby to wait for our ride. It was a bit chilly (about 45) out so Debbie waited in the lobby while I went outside to catch the ride. 9:30 came. 9:30 went. 9:45 came and there was still no ride. I called the Avis location that was supposed to pick me up directly and they said they don’t have any transportation available before 10:30. The person on the phone said we could get a cab but they would not pay for it. I didn’t want to get stressed out too much so I just talked to the Disney people and they got me a cab in under a minute. Well 5 minutes and $15 later we were at the Orlando Maingate Radisson. I found the Avis desk right inside the door. There were 2 couples in front of me. Well, the first couple spoke very little English and they wanted to change their reservation. From what I understood that wanted to make the reservation longer, change cars half way through the reservation, and not pay any more. They could not understand why they would have to pay more. Then when they found out they would have to pay the Avis insurance since they were from another country they were not happy. 50 minutes later they decided to stay with what they had reserved in the first place and come back later. Now just one more couple in front of me and we are on our way. Well this couple was from England so they spoke English at least. The problem- they had a discount voucher but it was a photocopy. The worked said they required the actual voucher. After several phone calls, faxes, and runs to the computer at the business center of the hotel they got their keys. However they wanted a GPS but had no idea how to use it. So the Avis worker had to explain all of the features of the TomTom. After another 45 minutes it was now my time to get my car. I had waited in line for over an hour and a half and the worker now tells me, “If I knew you just wanted to pick up a car you could have come to the front of the line.” The he says, “Let’s see which car we can give you.” Well the first three cars he looked up had no gas in them. Finally, he found two cars. He asked which one I wanted and started to tell me the features of each car. I said, “I don’t care. I am only driving it to Port Canaveral.” Then he said, “You should have come to the front of the line. I hope you don’t miss your boat. By the way my printer is down so I have to write out your rental agreement.” I had had just about enough of him so I just laughed and got ready to get the car. He pulled the car around and Debbie did a quick inspection, got in, and left. We were finally on the way to the ship. That lasted until we got onto the freeway. The moment we got onto the freeway we were at a crawl.
We planned on leaving at 9:30 and to the boat by 11:00. It was now noon. We were still in Orlando and we were going less than 10 miles per hour. It got to be 12:45 and we had finally gone the 6 miles to the Bee-Line. Let me say, I was starting to get worried. Luckily just before the Bee-Line was a 5 car accident that caused all the delays and that was now behind us. I was making pretty good time the rest of the way. We finally could see the port and our ship. It was still in port ;) I was now 1:45 and we knew we had until 4:00 but it was good to be there. All we had to do was drop the car off and get the shuttle to the port and we would be there. The Avis was about 5 minutes away. We pulled right in and followed the signs that said “Return Cars Here” (Remember this part) I went to turn in the keys. The worker behind the desk gave me a weird look and asked where I rented this from because they had no record of this car ever being rented out. I explained and he just said, “We will take care of it. The shuttle will be here in less than 5 minutes.” There was another family that arrived at the same time and they were headed on the Disney Cruise as well. We waited outside for about 10 minutes. 4 other cars came in to be returned and just liked up by the door. I guess they didn’t see that sign. Well the shuttle finally arrived. HOWEVER, since the cars were lined up in the wrong place it couldn’t get into the lot because these cars were blocking the entrance now. No one did anything and the shuttle driver had to move each car individually. This took another 15-20 minutes. We were finally all in the shuttle and ready to go. The driver just had to turn in the keys for the cars she moved. Well, remember that other family that was there when we checked in? They waited with us for 10 minutes for the shuttle than 25 minutes for her to move the cars. Now the dad looks at his wife and says, “I think I am going to go to the bathroom in case there is a long line at the terminal.” He then left and when the driver came back she asked where he went. We had to wait another 5 minutes for him to come back. When he got back on the shuttle I think the driver had started pulling away before his back foot had even entered the shuttle. God love her ;) After a quick ride to port we were finally there. I gave the porter a few bucks to take our bags and we headed to the Castaway Club line. It was empty. We checked in and then heard the words we had waited so long to hear - “The Disney Magic welcomes aboard the Marx family!” We had made it!!!

Our room was already ready so we dropped off our carry-on bags and headed to Topsiders to get a bite to eat. On our way to Topsider we walked by the pools. I stopped dead in my tracks and Debbie asked, “What’s wrong?” I said, “No way!” She got worried until I pointed and said, “That can’t be? Is it?” Debbie said, Holy crap.” We had just seen Tisa. She was in charge of the adult activities on our honeymoon cruise on the Wonder and we loved her to death. We now saw she would be in charge of the adult activities on this cruise too. Our luck was finally changing. We decided to eat and come back and say hi when she wasn’t as busy. Lunch was great. We walked back and talked to Tisa and after a few stories from our last cruise and a few embarrassing stories (We were on Match Your Mate) she remembered us. We went to our room to grab a sweatshirt and then back to deck 9 to get our spot for the Sail Away Party. The party was great and the drinks were just as good. After the party we went to the gym and got in a good workout. We had both started working out a few months before and wanted to get in a workout while we were still motivated and had time. After a good workout with an amazing view we returned to the room to change for the show and dinner. We then Aboard show and got a review of some of the entertainers. They looked like a lot of fun. It was now time for dinner. We would be at Parrot Cay.

We were a little worried about who we would sit with. Last cruise we were seated with 3 other couples. One couple was alright and we got to know them some. Another seemed like they never wanted to talk and the third couple spoke hardly any English. They were from Japan. We were shown to our table where a Japanese couple was sitting. We said, “Hello.” They smiled and nodded. This could be a long series of dinners. Our assistant waited, Jose, came by and took out drink orders and then Leroy came to take our meal orders. As soon as he left we saw two women coming toward our table. The sat down and introduced themselves – Michelle and Laura. Michelle would make our trip one we will never forget. We got really lucky! We had a great dinner. Debbie and I actually skipped desert again. We were stuffed and we were running a little late and wanted to make sure we saw Magicquest and Match Your Mate.

We made it down to the lounge in time and Tisa explained Magicquest. We matched up with a couple and their daughter who looked like she was MAYBE 18 but was drinking so she had to be over 21. We were doing really well and then the big item came out. Tisa said, “I want to see your number and a man wearing a bra.” Well this girl who was wearing a strapless top wasted no time and took off her bra, falling out of her top in the process. Debbie and I quickly looked away as she handed it to us and Debbie put it on me. We did well in the game but didn’t win. Match Your Mate was very funny as always but really can’t be mentioned in too much detail because it got very detailed. We headed back to our room after a full day and quickly fell asleep.

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[DMMarla07860]

love your report so far.

Tisa is awesome. I met her on my back-2-back cruise Feb/March 2009 and during the second week she named me party girl in Rockin' Bar D since I went every night:lmao:

[hollypoast]

Great start! We are your neighbors in Sauk City, WI (1/2 way between Madison & WI Dells) We cruise in February... trip reports like yours keep me going until our turn. Thanks!
Holly

[PE_TCR]

It’s great waking up on the ship! You really know you are on vacation when you wake up to the slight movement of the ship. We woke up and headed to Topsiders for a good breakfast. The server at the head of the line called down to the drink station and yelled, “Give this guy the drink of the day!” I asked what that was. He said, “Chocolate milk.” How could I refuse? After breakfast we headed to the spa for a quick workout. Debbie found her elliptical right away but the place was packed. There were no treadmills or bikes available. I was about to call it a day and skip working out until I remembered I could run on deck 4. It was actually a lot of fun jogging while the ship was sailing. There is no better view in the world than jogging on a cruise ship. After the jog I returned to the room. Debbie was just about done getting ready for the day so I jumped into the shower so we could get up to deck 10 to watch us dock. After watching the ship pull in we headed down to Rockin’ Bar D to meet up with our tour group. We were going on the trolley tour of Key West. They cast member walked us to the trolley and we began our trip. It was a nice relaxing tour with some good information. It was a great way to get an overview of Key West and we could plan out our exploring on the trip. When we were finished with the tour we headed to the Cuban restaurant where the trolley dropped us off at. Debbie is Cuban so we had to see what they had. There wasn’t really anything of interest so we moved on. We decided to walk down Duval Street. The first place we really stopped was Jimmy Buffett’s Margaretville. We figured since we were there we had to have a margarita. It was a little pricey but well worth it. At that time we also found out the Packers were beating Seattle and beating them soundly. This would clinch a play-off spot for our beloved Pack so it was even better now. Our next stop was a Cuban store. I bought Debbie two t-shirts and she got a few small things for her family. We then continued on down to the southernmost point. We waited in line for 15-20 minutes to take our picture. I guess when you visit Key West for the first time you have to take the picture. We didn’t really have anything else to do so we gladly waited. The only thing else I really wanted to do was get a piece of Key Lime Pie dipped in chocolate on a stick. We saw the place on out tour and eventually found it after a few interesting turns. It was so rich so oh so yummy!
We now decided to try and catch the sunset on the pier. We had heard it is the best place in the world to watch it. We got down there and the crowd was crazy. The performers left a lot to be desired. We thought we would stick it out since we were here. Well that quickly changed. I decided to make a quick stop in the restroom. I took one step into the public restroom and saw it was overflowing and there was – well – all over the floor and walls. I quickly left and told Debbie. She said the women’s was the same way. With that we just decided to go back to the ship and watch the sunset from the ship. We wanted to avoid the rush, it was getting pretty cloudy, and we also wanted to catch the hypnotist for the 6:30 show. We got on the ship and went right up to deck 10. We found lounge chairs and lay back as we watched the sun set behind the clouds. Once the sun went down it got chilly and fast!
It was pirate night that night. We are huge fans (I have season tickets) of our local AHL hockey team, the Milwaukee Admirals. Well the jersey they wear looks like the skeleton of a pirate. I thought it would be nice to get some “formal” pictures with them on and it fit the night so that’s what we wore. We got great comments from everyone we came across. They really seemed to like the jerseys, especially the crew members. We headed to the show. I really liked it. Debbie was a little skeptical but I figured even if it was fake it was a really funny show. We got a few more pictures taken and went to Animators Palate for dinner. It was a great dinner. The servers were all dressed up and the atmosphere was amazing. Michelle also helped out right away by taking her rolled up menu and using it as a telescope searching for who knows what. After an amazing dinner we headed up to deck 10 to watch the Pirate Party. For some reason our table was always the last one served and the last one done so we were a little late but didn’t really miss much. There were no fireworks because we were going to have fireworks on New Year’s Eve. We later found out the boat is only allowed a certain amount of pyrotechnics onboard at a time. The party was great and we were headed to the Adult Cabaret show of Albert and Seymour. They are a hip hop comedy paid that was amazing! They truly were a highlight of the cruise. After we finished with the show we talked to the newlywed couple from Match your mate the night before. We share a few stories as we were taking the elevator together. Well they got out on the same floor. We started walking down the LONG hallway toward our room and they followed us. We got to midship and they followed us. We got closer to our room and we started laughing a little until we got to our room and the burst out laughing as they opened the door directly across the hall from us. We had a good laugh as we fell asleep and got ready for our next day. The first full day at sea.
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[PE_TCR]

Well we woke up a little bit later on our first sea day. We skipped breakfast this morning since we had a brunch scheduled at Palo. We went to the shopping session for Grand Cayman and Cozumel since there wasn’t anything else really going on until we had brunch. It was alright but even with the deals there wasn’t much in our price range. So we didn’t feel too bad leaving early to go to brunch. We had never been to Palo so we were excited. I had been reading the boards and almost everyone recommended brunch if you were only going to eat one meal at Palo. I was still not quite ready for what I experienced for the brunch. We started out with a short tour of what was available. I quickly went for the crab legs as well as some of the breads and cheeses. Debbie quickly found the caviar since she had never tried it before. I think she then wore out a path between our table and the table with the caviar on it. I really enjoyed the seafood and fruit. I think ordered the veal parmesan. It was delicious. Our server offered us some champagne and we both accepted. It was wonderful as well. Just after we had began eating we saw two very familiar people heading toward us. Sure enough, it was our table mated from Australia, Michelle and Laura. They were seated right behind us. This just added to the wonderful experience. I was getting full but I HAD to try some of the deserts. Debbie was feeling the same. Our server seemed shocked when I said I was done with the hot/ordered foods and Debbi declined all together. She was more than happy with the cold foods they had out. Then when we tried the deserts we knew we were going to be rolled out of Palo. I might remind you that Debbie and I started a workout/diet plan just before Thanksgiving. Well, we abandoned that for this meal. As we were finishing our server came back and asked if we would be coming for dinner. We told him we didn’t have any reservations. He asked if we had kids. We told him no. He quickly said that there was no reason for us not to come back then and we would regret it if we didn’t come for a dinner because it was by far the best meal on the ship. He was talking us into it. Well, then Michelle turned around and told us they had reservations for Wednesday night and she would love to add us to her reservations. Well, I walked up to the reception desk and we arranged to change her reservation from two to four. Debbie headed down to the spa while I was doing this because she was running a little late for a hair and nails appointment.
While Debbie was at her appointment I went to an Art if Entertaining session about deserts. I love to cook and I can spend hours watching the Food Network. This was great to have one of the main chefs cook up a chocolate soufflé right here in front of me. We got a sample and a small glass of wine that was paired with the desert. I am not a wine person but this wine was amazing with the desert. I guess they know what they are talking about. I then decided to go for a walk on deck 10. I didn’t feel like really working out and I wanted to get some sun so I just walked around the deck for a while and enjoyed the scenery. I took some pictures of Cuba that I thought Debbie would appreciate. When Debbie was done we relaxed and caught some rays and then went to see Alfred and Seymour for the family show. They were great again. It was then time to get formal pictures taken. We went to every photographer we could since we had a photo package. We figured the more pictures we had the better chance we would have a good one or two in there. While we were in line we met up with some a family from the boards here that we had met during out short meet on the first night. One of the daughters had been hypnotized the night before so we had a lot to talk about with that. They even agreed to save us a spot at the adult show that night since our table had a tendency to run late. We had another amazing dinner but Debbie thought she might be getting a little bit of a cold so she wanted to get to bed early. She told me to go to the hypnotist since I was really interested and we had some friends there anyway. I found our friends down at the show and the girl got chosen again to get hypnotized and the show was amazing. The guy from across the hall was also one of the people on stage. I laughed pretty hard that night. One part of the show he has everyone on stage convinced that the napkins he had were $100 bills. When she came back to our seats after the show she said, “What the hell are these napkins doing in all of my pockets.” It was another great day on the Magic!

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[E&BMom]

Oh my gosh Palo brunch is soooo yummy!!!! Great update. Can't wait to hear more!!!!!!

[PE_TCR]

We loved the brunch. Great way to spend an afternoon at sea.

[PE_TCR]

We had room service deliver our breakfast this morning since we had the first trip of the day. We had to be down in Rockin’ Bar D by 8:30. So we were awakened by the phone telling us our food was on the way. We ate as we got ready and headed down to Rockin’ Bar D. This is where we first met Louisa. She was one of cast members in charge of getting people to the tender boats at the right time. The tenders were running a little late so Louisa and Katrina started telling some family jokes. Well, Louisa pulled out her “Famous” joke. Why is Tigger so Dirty?

He plays with Pooh.

Well, after that I started talking to Louisa because everyone just started groaning at her. Being an elementary school teacher for the past few years, I actually appreciated the humor. I came to find out her parents are from England and she was born in the states because her father came here to play professional soccer. She also played college soccer. Since I played a year of semi-pro soccer while I was in the Air Force we had an instant connection and continued chatting whenever we saw each other for the rest of the cruise. We finally got onto our tender and took a short walk to the vans that waited to take us on our tour. We decided to take the Grand Cayman tour with a stop and the turtle farm.

The van ride was pretty good. We learned a lot about the island and the driver was pretty funny. Our first stop was Hell. The rock formations were alright and the gift shop was a typical touristy gift shop. He only took pictures. I am glad we stopped there but I don’t think we would go there again if we come back. Our next stop was the turtle farm. It was a lot better than I expected. They had a lot of different pools for different aged turtles. We found out that to get a turtle to calm down we had to face them away from the water and then pet under the turtle’s chin. We loved handling the turtles. We were then told that half of the turtles were released into the wild. The other half; well, they became turtle soup at the local restaurants. We were told to be back at the van at 11:00 so we got there a few minutes early. The driver then told us that he had made a mistake and we still had another 30 minutes. He said we could get into the Dolphin experience and watch for free so we did. It was interesting to watch the people who were doing that. At 11:30 we were back at the van and had another tour of the island back to the dock. We still had three hours before our next excursion so we decided to go to Margaretville here as well. This time we had a Cheeseburger in Paradise along with our margaritas. The good news we got there was on TV. They were playing the NHL network and we saw our Admirals won the night before so this made us feel even better. That feeling went back to normal when the bill came and because of the weakness of the US dollar our 2 burgers and drinks cost us about $60. We walked around a bit and checked to make sure where we had to meet for our tour. I am glad we did this because, due to the winds the tender docks we came into were closed and they moved the excursion tent to the other dock. We had plenty of time to get there so we walked around a bit more and got ready to go on our dive. We got to the excursion tent and filed out our waivers and got ready for our SeaTeck Helmet dive. I was really excited to try this but Debbie was a little cautious because she was worried about some claustrophobia.
Our guide took us on a short walk to the place we would get onto the boat that would take us out to the dive. On our ride they explained how the helmets worked. Basically, the helmet had three times the amount of air we needed at any given time. The air was also air-conditioned so that it was comfortable and it wouldn’t start to fog up. They also sold us some of the hand signals and once we got onto the dive boat the safety divers were introduced. I have never been a fan of water but knowing the physics of this I was comfortable and excited to go on this dive. I have trouble snorkeling but this was going to be different. They told us we could go down the ladder one at a time. It was about 30 feet down and we would each be escorted by a diver until we stepped onto the ocean floor. I got right in line before I started to chicken out. I was the second person onto the ladder. The waves weren’t bad but as I walked down the ladder the small movements on the surface were magnified by the length of the ladder. With the guidance of the diver I finally made it down to the ocean floor and it was 100 times better than I even imagined. The only sound was the air coming into the helmet. Fish were all around but not coming too close. There was a good sized coral reef near the ladder and I started taking as many pictures as I could. I kept looking up the ladder waiting for Debbie. Everyone had made it down and I finally saw her making her way down the ladder. It was taking a bit longer than I expected but she was down soon enough. Once we were down the lead diver gave us each some fish food from a tube he had with him and we got to feed the fish. He also showed us some unique fish and other animals around the coral. As we were walking I noticed Debbie stop and wave to the diver. I didn’t think anything of it until I saw the diver swim over and take his regulator and shove it up into Debbie’s helmet. I then looked up and saw another diver swimming after Debbie’s air hose. He quickly swam back and attached it and Debbie gave thumbs up. The lead diver motioned to her asking if she wanted to return to the surface and she signaled no. We continued our walk on the ocean floor. We got some more fish food and what seemed like a few minutes (but was actually about 30 minutes) the diver took our picture and signaled it was time to return to the surface. We climbed the ladder and when we got to the top the divers apologized for what happened. I guess a grain of sand lodged in the sleeve that connects the hose and it popped off. It happened once on the ladder and they thought they fixed it. That’s what took her so long to get down. Then it happened again when I saw it. They said it does happen but not frequently. Debbie noticed because things went silent and her helmet started to fog up. Then the water level started to rise a little bit. Once the hose was reconnected everything returned to normal and she had a wonderful time. She even said she would love to do it again. It started to rain and we were headed back to the dock. After we got to the dock we passed a few VERY LONG lines for other ships and went to the Disney line which had two tender boats ready to take passengers. We were back on the Magic in a few minutes.

We got changed and went to see Twice Charmed. It is a great show. We didn’t see it since we were on the Wonder last time. After the show we went to the sports bar to watch the start of the Wisconsin football game. They were huge underdogs against Miami but I went and had my Miller Light like any good Badger would do. After the first few series we headed to dinner where we shared our stories from the day with our tablemates. After dinner we went back to the bar to watch Wisconsin clinch the bowl victory and then went to go see David Morgan. He is a guy who uses a puppet for his act. It was alright but not quite up to the quality of the shows we had been seeing. I was glad when he was done because it was then country night. I knew they would be doing some line dancing and I am always looking for new dances for my students. The crew led a bunch of great dances and Debbie, Michelle, and I danced the entire night away. We returned to out room exhausted and ready for another fun-filled day to come.

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[PE_TCR]

I will post the dive pictures tomorrow. My friend has the cord to the underwater camera. I am picking it up tomorrow.

[PE_TCR]

Forgot my picture from watching the Badger game. Go Bucky!

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[E&BMom]

Great update. Louisa was soooo sweet! Can't wait to hear more!!!

[PE_TCR]

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[E&BMom]

Awesome pics!!! Need the next day.....:goodvibes

[PE_TCR]

I will try to get it up tonight :)

[myelton01]

Thank you for your indepth look at your trip! I'm not going on this exact trip but I have looked into it for our family, it's nice to know what to expect with Disney. :) I'm like everyone else now, waiting for the next part! :)

[PE_TCR]

We woke up and went to Topsiders again for breakfast. After a great breakfast and watching the captain dock the ship we headed to the Buena Vista Theater to meet our tour group. When we got to the theater we talked to a few cast members who said the tour we were going on is the one all the cast members wanted to go on but it took too long so they never got to go on it. We were going on the Four Elements Tour. Our group had to wait a little because as soon as the ship was cleared to disembark another ship started docking so the pier was closed until they were secured. It wasn’t too much longer until we were cleared to leave again. We walked off of the ship and went to a tender ship to take to the mainland. It was about 30 minutes to the mainland and it was a little choppy. Debbie and I didn’t really have a problem with it (Debbie fell asleep) but there were a few people on the ship who took advantage of the seasick bags they were passing around. We docked and met our guides. Once we got to our van we learned out guide’s name was Juan-Carlos. We also found out he spent some time in Green Bay. So we had some common ground. Once Debbie spoke to him in Spanish we were all set. It was about a 20 minute drive to the place we would have our tour. We got out of the van and waited to find out what we would be doing first. After a few minutes Juan-Carlos came back and told us we would be biking first. He then told us that cameras were not allowed on the bike or zip-line portions due to safety concerns. This meant we would only have pictures if we purchased them from the tour company. Sorry to say we don’t have many pictures, but we do have a lot of wonderful memories. We all got bikes and helmets and started out on our short bike ride. The ride was maybe a third of a mile and when we parked the bikes we were told about the local area. We would then be taken to a Mayan Shaman who would perform a blessing over us in Mayan. They used some smoke and scents and it was a great experience. It was also explained it was not really a religious ceremony but a spiritual one. We were told that the blessing was for protection of our family and friends for the upcoming year and that everyone we came in contact with would also have this protection for bad events. Given the past few weeks this seemed like a wonderful idea! After the blessing we returned to the main staging area. We had done two of the elements (land and fire/spirit) and next was water. We walked to a clear Cenote which is an area that has been warn away from limestone and filled with water. It was crystal clear. We were given snorkel gear and allowed to snorkel in this amazing area. As I stated earlier I am not one for snorkeling no I just did some swimming while Debbie and the rest of the group did some snorkeling. While we were doing this Debbie and I got to talk to two other couples in the group. One was from Georgia but originally from Oklahoma. Since I was stationed there we had something in common to start talking. The other couple was from Michigan. These two couples met several years ago on a Disney cruise and had been traveling ever since. After the first Cenote we walked to another one where there was more snorkeling and for those who wanted to do something different, there were some tubes. Obviously I chose the tubes. It was great to just lie in the tube and relax and Debbie had fun following a turtle around a bit. After about 20 minutes we got out of the water and headed to the zip-line. I am also afraid of heights but I was really looking forward to this. The first zip-line was over one of the Cenotes and a good warm-up. We had a stick to brake us but we really didn’t need it because they had people running a breaking system. The second zip-line was a bit longer. It was probably about 300 feet and we got a good speed going. Then it was on to the final zip-line of the day. W had to climb a 5 story tower to do this. This is where I started to get nervous. The others were after a hike up a hill. This one was a climb and I got a little nervous. I got to the top and hooked in and just lifted my feet and had a blast. This one was closer to 1000 feet long and a pretty good drop. It was one of the most amazing things I have done (next to that dive). Debbie loved it just as much as I did and we want to do another zip-line trip as soon as we can. After our four elements were covered we were led back to the main meeting point where they had a lunch made for us. It was authentic Mexican cooking. The food was fresh and some of it was picked from the garden we were eating next to that morning. It was the perfect ending to an amazing tour. We then made our way back to the port in our van. During the ride we got to know this other couple even more. I found out one of the ladies was an administrator at a middle school. Juan-Carlos then got to our parking lot. There were not any parking spots so he just pulled into the entrance and parked the van. He said everyone else could wait. Things are a little different down in Mexico we were finding out. JC told us we had about 15 minutes before the tender ferry would be boarding. I saw a sporting goods store so I went in to look and see what they had. I walked out with a great pair of soccer goalkeeper’s gloves for a great price. We then met the group to board the ferry and said good bye to JC. It was a non-eventful ride back to the port but we did chat some more with the couples we met and they invited us to join them for drinks back on the ship. Once we boarded the ship we changed and went to meet for drinks. We had some great conversation and they invited us for more drinks later before dinner. They even called us later in the afternoon to make sure we knew we were invited so we met them in Diversions and had a great time chatting and sharing stories. Dinner was at Palo. It was truly amazing as always and there wasn’t a regular show that night so it was nice and relaxed. Our server was nicknamed Big Daddy and he made everything that much better than we had expected. Our dinner was with Michelle and Laura and we could not have asked for better people to share our evening with. At the end of dinner we all had the chocolate soufflé. Big Daddy then came out with one of each of the remaining deserts and said we had to try them. We were so full we asked if he could split them and we would bring them back to the rooms. He said sure and came back with double deserts. He said the chef said his artwork could not be cut in half and we had to each take a desert so he made extras for each of us. It’s those special touches that will have us coming back on Disney for all of our cruises. After dinner we went to see the Livin’ Large show put on by the crew. It was another great day and we were sad because we knew the cruise was coming to an end.

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[sdjen]

Thanks for the trip report - I am really enjoying reading it. Keep the details coming!

[wld4mky]

Just jumped on to your trip report. So sorry to hear of the rocky start you had. Many sympathies to you and your family. We are going on our first cruise in Feb. and I love hearing about other peoples experiences. Thank-you for taking the time to write it. :thumbsup2

[PE_TCR]

Sorry for the delay. I got a little cold and had 2 soccer games that started at midnight last week. The I had a short weekend road trip to San Antonio to watch the Milwaukee Admirals play some hockey. The next one is ready though. Hope you can forgive the tardiness ;)

[PE_TCR]

Waking up for our final full sea day on the Magic we knew it was going to be a late night so we slept in a little bit longer than normal. We planned on it being a nice relaxing day. The first thing we did was go to the Theater Q&A. Debbie directs the play and musical at her old high school so this is something we had to see. We had a really good time and Debbie even got a private tour backstage. After that, Debbie had an appointment to get her nails touched up because they were chipped away at during the Four Elements tour. While she did that I went to another Art of Entertaining presentation. This one was a main entrée. It was just as fun as all of the others. The food was really good as well. We met up after I went to see another Q&A. This one was about the making of the Magic and how the crew ran the ship. Once we met up we went on a galley tour. Here is a hint for you. This is not listed on the navigators but if you go to any of the Art of Entertaining sessions they will tell you when it is and where to get your tickets. The tour was short but was fun and I am glad we did it. We also got some chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. YUMMY! We then decided to just lay out on the ship and get some sun. It was a great way to spend the last day of the year. We planned on going to the Theming of the sip tour. As we were taking one last lap of deck 10 before we went on the tour we ran into Kim and her husband. They were part of our DisBoards meet group. It was a small group but a very friendly one. We sat down and chatted with them for a while and really enjoyed the company. After we left them we both turned to each other and said, “I wish we could have gotten to know them even better earlier on the cruise.” We really enjoyed their company and were hoping to get to see them a little more before the end of the cruise. Debbie wanted to get a little time in the Rain Forest Room. We missed the tour (which was well worth it) so she headed down to the spa while I went and passed out our Fish Extender gifts. We gave out Wisconsin Pencils and Cheesehead erasers. It was fun seeing some of the other door decorations. When I got back we got ready to go to Dreams. It is by far our favorite show on Disney Cruise Lines. It didn’t disappoint. We then headed down to Diversions to meet our new group for a drink before dinner. They had requested a song for us. Each night one of the couples had danced to a song and I guess this night was our turn. Since one of the guys favorite character was Jimini Cricket he requested “When You Wish Upon a Star.” The group was floored when we told them that that was our wedding song. That caused them to buy us a drink. We then headed down to dinner. We had special menus ready for us when we sat down. Michelle was right behind us and she was sure ready for New Year’s Eve. She had the glasses and hat all ready to party. We both had the lobster for dinner. It was a pretty easy choice. Dinner was great as always and the warm chocolate lave cake was a great way to end the meal. We all decided to dress down a bit and meet to ring in the New Year. We went up to deck 10 and found a good spot to watch the big screen. A countdown was started at noon and we were getting close. We sang, danced, and had a lot of fun watching people. As it got closer the free champagne was brought around and we grabbed a few glasses. Then we noticed Jose (our server) serving some more food. He set the tray down and had some fun partying with us for a bit. The closer it got to midnight we started seeing land. We figured out it was Miami. We were just off the coast and making circles. Later we found out we had to be close to a port when lighting fireworks just in case something went wrong. 5-4-3-2-1 Happy New Year! Pictures were taken, hugs exchanged, dancing, singing, it was a blast. We stayed around deck 10 with Michelle and Laura some more and had an amazing night. There is no better way to ring in the New Year than on the Disney Magic at sea. We finished the night by taking some pictures with our favorite crew members then headed back to the room.

[PE_TCR]

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[jns]

and a happy new year to you too
really enjoying your report and photos
thanks for sharing