Barely live from the March 22-29 Magic

dlf246

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 3, 2005
Well it's about time for a barely live thread. I say "barely", because there are no promises for how often we post, because I am not good with computers and am paying by the minute when on board! Also no pictures as I do not own a laptop. But I do pledge to try to post some afterwards.

This thread is a eensy weensy payback for the tons and tons of help I have gotten from all you Dis'ers. THANK YOU!

And because there are so many outstanding trip reports out there (Timon, and whatever happened to Tenorator?, wake up wake up wake up tenorator and go on another cruise!

excuse me, back to regular programming. Because of so many outstanding reports out there, I specialize in ONLY reporting differences, and very novel tips. (I take credit for the suggestion in 2006 to bring a windsock to castaway cay to put on your umbrella so you can spot it easier).

We leave in 1 hour to fly to Orlando for DCL stay at airport. We will never, ever, never, fly the same day... because 6 cruises ago, we flew into Seattle, and got stuck at the customs (Canada) and literally walked up to an empty cruise terminal. We walked over to the gangway, which had one person, who took us aboard and then pulled up anchor and left. TOO CLOSE!!

Our outstanding cast includes meself, DW (don't dare ask age), DD18, DS16, DD7.

So if you paid attention, you will probably not hear from us until we have noted a smattering of changes, differences, and other things to cheer about!
 
Oh and one more thing. Our cruise meet thread was started 2 years ago by Gimpeaux. We were on the same spring break western Magic in '06. He left many posts, until poof, early last year no more. I have sent emails via disboards... no response. If someone can rouse gimpeaux, it would sure be nice to know if he and family are ok.....
 
Where does one begin.... This is wonderful!!!

You will notice from our signature that I have done mulitiple cruises on Princess and Royal Caribbean, but doing a SECOND cruise on the Magic, is much better. We had a great time first time, but this time, we are so much more relaxed, and practically doing completely different things. Not by design. For example, last night, I realized that I was looking at the prints on all the stairways, even taking some pics. Last time, hardly glanced. We never, ever swam in Quiet Cove last time, it is great.

I never do sail away parties, and the one this time, was very good. Spending more time on the balcony.

Now onto differences:

1) it is so, so true what other recent trip reports have said. There seems to have been a large exodus of servers/asst servers. We ask for different past servers, and all seemed to have left in past year. Wait staff seems green, but hey, no problem.

2) Food itself seems to be excellent still. Not superb except in Palo :love: , and buffet food is good to very good. One thing that hasn't changed..... cannot believe it, the choc chip cookies are still always overcooked. Why, why, why,

Hey dlf246, you are supposed to just report differences...

oops sorry


On with the differences...:rolleyes1

3) For just our second cruise in 8, we have to periodically retreat from our veranda due to cigarette smoke. There are frequent smokers 2 rooms down each direction... Now this is NOT a DCL thing, this is just the luck of the draw. will it keep us from DCL? of course not. And no, we'll probably still pay big bucks for a veranda....

4) I see Brent in officer's uniform all over, but never introduced.... strange seeing him in the shadows, with Christiaan (sp?) as CD, who by the way is doing great.

5) I am not going to post about the dining rotation change. Looonnnng thread about this elsewhere. Just my opinion: I would avoid stressing about it IF you are arriving at port by noon. Just go to Rockin Bar D like I did on embarking and change your Palo as you prefer. (Me I am a escargot fan, and changed my ressie to keep me at Lumiere's first night)

6) the CM tell me that they have always had foosball tables, but I sure don't remember from '06

7) I don't know if this is a difference.... but no reports of engine trouble.... I plan to ask an officer when I next can ask one. Kinda a touchy subject for me... I had a very pleasant, courteous thread inquiring about this in early March which the Powerful moderators :worship: closed since DCL had assured them that the problem was fixed. But was it???? or do they need to close the newer thread....?!

For those of you about to get on the Magic, You are about to have a fantastic time!!!

Don't forget, there are no promises of further posts on this barely live thread....
 
Looking forward to your report - post when you can!

I remember foosball tables in Dec. 2005 - my boys had a blast playing with some other kids.
 


it is so, so true what other recent trip reports have said. There seems to have been a large exodus of servers/asst servers. We ask for different past servers, and all seemed to have left in past year. Wait staff seems green, but hey, no problem.

Yep. Just got off the magic on Saturday and had a new assistant server - she was nice but very shy. Almost every server we had the whole time told us this was their last contract. Our dinner server was sick on Friday/Saturday and so had a server from Palo sub for him. The sub told us that the reason for the mass exodus was the euro exchange rate. He told us to expect more servers from Asian and Latin American countries and less servers from European countries.

4) I see Brent in officer's uniform all over, but never introduced.... strange seeing him in the shadows, with Christiaan (sp?) as CD, who by the way is doing great.

Christiaan was great! From something he said at the Castaway Club meet, it sounds like he reads the board. (Hi Christiaan!) His mom was on our cruise - met her at the cc meet.
 
Well we will be on the boat next week, but a couple thoughts:

1) - the cookies at the food place at Castaway Cay are usually the best by far...we have been to CC 7 times on four cruises.

2) - No real need to change that Palo ressie...you can actually order a meal off any of the 3 base menus from the wrong restaurant if the entree you want is being served elsewhere that night...thus, the escargot are safe.
 
Ok guys. I walked up to a junior officer (2 bars on this white coat) a little while ago, and said we need an absolute definitive answer: is there or is there not engine trouble on the Magic. He said absolutely not. When I raised the question of the recent Magic getting to CC late, he said it was only due to weather.
 


That is actually true as I understand it. We have friends who are cast members. There was a problem w/one engine a few weeks ago, but that was repaired...they were late one time last week, but it was weather related...if there were engine problems, they likely would have been late across the board.
 
So sorry I messed up :worship:

On another thread about question of engine trouble there were protests that I had possibly asked not a junior officer, but a no nothing non-officer... well...

At the captain's reception, I was too chicken to ask the captain about engine trouble. But I went to the officer who had the most bars (had 3 bars AND a ball like thing) on his epaulet (sp?). I asked him who was there from engineering. He looked carefully around and apologized and said there was noone. Then I identified myself as from DisBoards :cool1: and said we need a final answer on whether "all 5 engines were functioning fully"? He seemed to pale a bit. And then smiled and said 4 engines were doing just fine. And then seemed to look away like "no more ?". But as a loyal Dis'er, I felt compelled to at least ask, so we will have no delays in getting to ports? And he said no with finality. That was the best I could do, folks. :confused3

Icepadman, I hate to tell you this, but this seems to affect eastern cruises more.

One last thing though, I hope you all notice the tons of posts emphasizing that the weather was awful that week, so probably they're still right blaming weather mostly.

Now enough about engines. No more posts, no more posts, no more posts about engines.....
 
Well, I have to sadly report on the biggest difference ever. We were not able to tender into Grand Cayman. In all of our cruises this was a first. But hey, that is life on a cruise ship.

One strange thing: The announcer said that the port was closed to all 6 ships, but an hour later we saw some tenders going to and fro from a Celebrity ship... Still, I have total confidence in our captain (and port authorities).

Haven't heard yet whether we will arrive in Cozumel earlier.
 
We had this happen in 2005 and 2006...the first year we were out of luck, but we were able to dock in 2006...the catch is that there is a second better protected docking location to the east of the pennisula where Georgetown is located. Once we were bussed to the town, we could see the waves crashing in to the city center.

Chuck:cool1:
 
Some of the ships use their own tenders and not contracted ones. Don't know if that makes a difference.
 
Well, I have to sadly report on the biggest difference ever. We were not able to tender into Grand Cayman. In all of our cruises this was a first. But hey, that is life on a cruise ship.

One strange thing: The announcer said that the port was closed to all 6 ships, but an hour later we saw some tenders going to and fro from a Celebrity ship... Still, I have total confidence in our captain (and port authorities).

Haven't heard yet whether we will arrive in Cozumel earlier.

So what happens when a ship cannot port or have guests go ashore by tender? Do they go ahead and sail for the next port or do they just hang out in the area for the day and the guests just have a sea day? Sorry you all missed Grand Cayman.
 
I am becoming very worried .it seems each trip something is wrong. I have never heard of so many port misses. This is a first. What gives?
 
The seas have been especially rough the last week or two. It's not usual, so I wouldn't worry.

Actually, in St. Thomas, we walked around for an hour, then got back on the ship and enjoyed the ship to ourselves! That was wonderful!
 
So sorry I messed up :worship:

Now enough about engines. No more posts, no more posts, no more posts about engines.....

Icemanpad is right....the ship can run just fine on four engines. It has been for awhile....I was on the ship when it was operating only 4 engines and been "chased" by a Cat.1/2 hurricane.
 
I am becoming very worried .it seems each trip something is wrong. I have never heard of so many port misses. This is a first. What gives?

Just got off the Magic last week (3/15/08 - 3/21/08) and the rough seas were due to a storm front that passed by St Thomas. We ended up chasing the storms path to Castaway Cay and arrive 2 hours late to the Cay. The captain allowed the Magic to remain 1 hour extra to make up the time lost due to the rough seas (15 to 20 foot seas). It is all a matter of luck as to weather you have good weather or not on your particular cruise. As Christian (cruise director on the Magic) stated during the ride to Cay), just make a deal with King Triton for calmer seas. :rotfl2:
 
Our seas were actually 20-30 foot swells. Isn't that swell?

It was so cool to see the Goofy pool - it was a wave pool Wednesday night with more water splashing out of it than remained in it! We walked deck 10 from one side to the other going to Palo. Could hardly walk straight!
 
I am becoming very worried .it seems each trip something is wrong. I have never heard of so many port misses. This is a first. What gives?

King Triton gave us his blessing 2 weeks ago. We were on the last Western and couldn't have asked for better weather. We never had higher than 4-8 foot waves the entire week.
 

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