Chunkymonkey and Chubbyhubby's MAGICal 1st Disney Cruise - a May 2015 Trip Report! COMPLETED

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 25, 2015

• #1

Hi Everyone!!
Welcome to my TR for our very first Disney Cruise on the Disney Magic!

I'm Su-Lynn (on the right in the pic above), aka Chunkymonkey. I am a somewhat veteran of the Disboards, having a few TRs and PTRs under my belt for WDW vacations over the past 6 years. I haven't done a TR in a while because life kinda took over and I also have a travel blog which I have been posting our vacation trip reports on over the past few years. My blog is really an outlet for me to document our travels, mainly to Hawaii, but also WDW, and more exotic trips like Singapore and Bali. I'm 39 years old and work in IT. I love to travel and eat, especially when it involves Disney and Hawaii!

My DH, Chubbyhubby, aka Steve, is the love of my life. We've been married for 6 years and have had the opportunity to celebrate 3 anniversaries at WDW. He's also 39 and works in financial services. He loves to travel too and although he says the Disney trips are primarily MY idea, I think he secretly loves them, especially the thrill rides like Expedition Everest and Space Mountain.

We live in New Jersey, although we used to live in New York City for many years. I still tell people I am from New York because that's where I grew up and really where my heart is.

Here's us on the very non-thrilling but totally fun Peoplemover at MK:

Our most recent Disney vacation in May included a 5-night Bahamian Cruise on the Disney Magic from May 10-15th and it was amazing. I loved every minute of it and thought it would be best to preserve the memories by writing a new TR on the Disney Cruise Line Forum!! This was followed by a wonderful week at WDW where we experienced Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival and Star Wars Weekends for the first time. I will post the WDW leg of the trip on the regular WDW trip report forum.

I have a little trip PTR here but it was posted on the WDW pre-trip reports. Here's a summary of how this trip came about:

Steve and I booked a week-long WDW trip in May mainly because of Star Wars weekends. Obviously, we are fans of Star Wars so we were excited to experience this event first-hand. Then, Steve's brother said he wanted to take a family trip and a Disney Cruise was one of the options. Steve's family lives in California, and though we get to see them once or twice a year, I know it's definitely not enough. This was a great way to experience our first Disney Cruise and spend some quality family time together. Since we would be in Florida anyways, we decided to add on a Disney Cruise from Cape Canaveral to our trip and shift our dates at WDW a bit. The 5-night Bahamian cruise on the Magic worked with everyone's dates the best, and before we knew it, we were all booked on the cruise!

There were 8 of us in total on the cruise: Steve and I, Steve's brother, Mike, Mike's wife Sandy, their daughter Maddie (4), Steve's other brother Jimmy, and their parents. We were all booked in verandah staterooms on deck 6. Let the party begin!!

Here's all of us from a recent trip to Taiwan:

Since this was everyone's first Disney Cruise experience, we didn't know what to expect! I tried to do my research before the trip - but even I was surprised at how much fun I had. To tell you the truth, I wasn't a fan of boats before. I get seasick and thought being stuck on a boat sick would not be a good start to our vacay, but the magic of Disney made our experience AMAZING and I would not hesitate to go on a Disney Cruise again! I loved the MAGIC and can't wait to experience the other ships as well!

Here was the itinerary for our cruise:

Hope you are all onboard!

(BTW, I will be posting a version of this TR on my blog as well, but with much less Disney detail...my blog readers are not necessarily Disney fanatics like I am so I try to appeal to a more general audience. I also miss the camaraderie of the Disboards therefore decided to do my TR here as well.)
​

 

Last edited: Jul 28, 2015

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 25, 2015

• #2

Table of Contents

• Introductions

• Day before cruise and Embarkation Day Part 1
• Embarkation Day Part 2: Stateroom 6118, Sail Away with Mickey
• Embarkation Day Part 3: Stateroom Door decor, Lumiere's, exploring the ship

• Key West Day Part 1: Meeting Anna and Elsa, Princess Gathering, Breakfast at Cabanas
• Key West Day Part 2: Exploring Key West on our own walking food tour
• Key West Day Part 3: Animator's Palate dinner with Drawn to Magic show

• Day At Sea Part 1: Brunch at Palo, magical moments, secret spaces.
• Day At Sea Part 2: Senses Spa, dinner at Carioca's

• Nassau Bahamas Part 1: Tru Bahamian Food Tour Part 1
• Nassau Bahamas Part 2: Tru Bahamian Food Tour Part 2
• Nassau Bahamas Part 3: Pirate Night Dinner at Lumiere's
• Nassau Bahamas Part 4: Pirate Party and Fireworks!!

• Castaway Cay Part 1: Castaway Cay, Serenity Bay
• Castaway Cay Part 2: Till we meet again... plus characters!

• Disembarkation: Last breakfast, parting ways...THE END

• Cruise Epilogue...and Best Of list!

Visit my new TR for the land portion of our trip at WDW!

Visit my new PTR for my 40th Birthday celebration on board the Disney Fantasy and a week at Walt Disney World!

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2017

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #3

Pre-Embarkation Day:

We flew down on Jetblue from Newark airport to Orlando the day before the cruise. Our flight was short and sweet. I love direct flights!

I had booked us 3 rooms as the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport. 2 of the rooms were "free" as Steve and I both have the Hyatt visa credit card so we get an annual free night. This was a good way to use the free night as rates were hovering around the 180 USD range...fine for a deluxe resort but not an airport hotel. We booked the 3rd room with a refundable rate and we were set! We were all going to meet up at the Hyatt. We arrived first, with Mike, Sandy and Maddie arriving from San Jose later in the day and Steve's parents and other brother flying in from the Los Angeles area that night.

Our room at the Hyatt:

Here's an interesting little video about the Hyatt Orlando Airport I recorded with the time lapse setting on my new camera (Canon GX7). I didn't even know I recorded it because I had it accidentally on that setting, but it's pretty cool so I'll probably have to learn how to use it!

Orlando airport has many shops and a large food court, so it wasn't boring to spend the night there. We ate at my favorite fast food place, Chick-fil-a and shopped around the Disney stores. It's a good place to get some last minute shopping for Disney items you may want to have on your Walt Disney World trip! We used the pool and it was nice to enjoy the warm Florida air.

Pretty soon, Steve's brother Mike, his wife, Sandy, and our niece, Maddie, joined us! Yay!!

Fun with our niece, Maddie, at the airport:

Maddie loved the Disney stores!

Fun with Maddie in our room! Miss you Maddie!

We all had dinner in the food court and we ate ice cream from Carvel, which apparently is popular on the east coast, but the west coasters hadn't hear of Carvel! It's funny to me since Carvel was so popular when I was growing up...whoever had the Carvel ice cream cake for their birthday was COOOL.

I gifted everyone with some Disney t-shirts...they liked them!

My sister-in-law, Sandy, had gifted us with a tote bag of t-shirts and cruise necessities. It was so sweet that I didn't tell her I had already packed most of the items. LOL. In any case, we actually ran out of some items (like sunscreen!) so we were grateful for the thoughtful stuff. And the tote bag is super cute and I like that it has a zipper too!

Unfortunately Steve's parents and other brother, Jimmy, were delayed en route and their connecting flight left without them. They had to spend the night in Dallas, luckily paid for by the airline. They were to catch the first flight to Orlando the next morning and meet us at the Hyatt. Luckily as well, the Hyatt did not charge us for cancelling our reservation for the 3rd room with such short notice. Thanks Hyatt!

A note about Steve's dad: he's had a rough year. First he had a major open heart surgery last year, and seemed on the road to recovering well, but earlier this year he had a fall and suffered a stroke, we weren't sure he would make the trip but we were all crossing our fingers. Besides, I can't think of anything more relaxing than a cruise! He's had a ton of rehabilitation treatment and physical theraphy over the past few months. When we last saw him in February it was just after his fall and he couldn't walk and was having trouble doing mundane things, like eating with a fork and remembering the days of the week. When we saw him in May it was like night and day. He was walking on his own (although slowly and sometimes assisted), but he was able to do most things himself. Yay for dad!!

Needless to say, we were all worried about him but he's a trooper and they arrived early the next day, albeit very tired since they caught a 5:30am flight to make it to Orlando. Plus with the time difference, it was like the middle of the night for them!

Embarkation Day!

We woke up early to meet the parents who had flown in at 7am.Here was my embarkation outfit:

For breakfast I shared a breakfast bowl with DH from Panda Express. It was actually really good!

The day of departure, I had set up a private van service from Happy Limo to take all 8 of us to Cape Canaveral. This was a better option than paying for the Disney transportation as it is much cheaper for larger groups like ours. I paid I think about 155 each way for 8 of us, which would have cost 280 on the Disney buses. I also had a code from Mousesavers which saved us a few bucks too!

At 11:00am, our own private van picked us up from our hotel, and even included a grocery stop along the way. We were very happy (no pun intended) with Happy Limo and would use them again in the future. At the grocery store, we bought some snacks and a bottle of wine and we were ready!

All of us in the van, minus dad who was in the front passenger seat:

As we approached Cape Canaveral, the first sight of the Disney Magic is amazing!

At Disney's dedicated port at Cape Canaveral we went through a basic security screening (like TSA) and check-in for the cruise. Since we all completed online check-in and filled in all our forms, we were all pretty much ready to go as soon as we received our KTTW cards. They had even already called our boarding number when we arrived. We saw some characters while at the terminal but we didn't stop to take a picture...the line was a bit long and we knew there would be opportunities on board, plus we were too excited to stop!

We all kind of split up at this point, to meet again either at lunch or dinner since everyone had a separate reservation and were still working out their boarding times.

The Chunkies are eady to board!

Here's the door to board the gangway to the boat. Love the Mickey ears!!

Almost there!

Here's a little video I shot of us at the terminal approaching the entrance:

The ship is quite massive, with 11 decks. I am really impressed with the look of the Disney Ships. They look so stately and elegant. I much prefer their colors of navy, red, and gold, over the regular white which other cruise ships seem to favor. Before we boarded, our picture was taken and then you are free to walk up the gangway into the ship.

View from the gangway:

Ready to board!

First glimpse of the lobby atrium:

Video of us boarding the cruise ship including welcome announcement:

The lobby atrium was spacious and airy and decorated in neutral woods with lots of Disney charm:

Love all the subtle details in the decor.

Porthole windows. Love the round shape!

Lobby Atrium as seen from upper deck. (Deck 4)

The mid ship elevators were adorned with Mickey ears.

Since the staterooms were not ready until about 1:30pm, we used the time when we boarded (which was around 12:30pm) to make some reservations: Meet-n-greet for Anna and Elsa, as well as the Princess gathering. Most characters don't require tickets but since these are popular events, tickets from the Port Adventures desk are required.

Posing with Captain Mickey:

Our dining rotation was: LACLA which is code for Lumiere's, Animator's Palate, Carioca's, Lumiere's, Animators Palate. Seemed fine with us since we had never dined at any of these places before!

We decided to grab lunch while waiting for our stateroom to be ready. Cabanas is a buffet restaurant located on Deck 9 aft. We were pleasantly surprised at the offerings for lunch, which included lots of shrimp cocktail and stone crab claws.

We were happy with the variety of foods. Cabanas was crowded but not overwhelming so. We had a small carry on so we stopped by the room after lunch, and the room was ready! I'll show you our staterooms in my next post.

It was an excellent start to our trip and our boat hadn't even set sail yet! Coming up, I will show your our lovely stateroom and we set sail aboard the Disney Magic!!​

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2015

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #4

Embarkation Day Part 2:

When we left off, our stateroom was ready so we headed to drop off our stuff and prepare for the mandatory drill. At this point, I popped a Bonine thinking that it would help me when the ship started to move. Not sure if this was what initially helped but I felt fine throughout the entire cruise and only took the Bonine that one time!

We booked a verandah stateroom because I thought it would help me overcome seasickness - I never got sick but we really enjoyed our verandah!

Our stateroom was 6118 Deck 6 aft. It's right by the aft elevators and you can even see our door while waiting for the elevators or going up or down the stairs. Some people may find this location too noisy but we loved it. We like convenience and being able to walk out and immediately go up and down (especially to the drink station on Deck 9 aft) was really great for us. I did notice a bit of hall noise at certain times but it was more from people who were walking past our room and not from the elevators at all.

I was quite impressed when we first walked in. The stateroom was lovely! Am I easily impressed? I don't think so...but I know I love all things Disney!

Taken on the verandah:

The split bathroom:

I did think the bathrooms were tiny but I guess this is a standard of all cruise ships. I had a little hanging toiletry organizer so I hung it up in the bathroom on the towel rack. The rest of our stuff was in our suitcases and they were not here yet. I forgot that I had left our stateroom door decorations in the suitcases. Oh well, it would have to be done later I guess!

We were just a few doors down from Maddie's room, and Steve's parents, who were sharing a room with Jimmy, were way in the back of the ship. Their room was kinda neat because it had a slightly larger balcony overlooking the back of the ship (it had a solid white wall instead of clear glass though). I even had surprise decorations for everyone's stateroom but since I left it in our checked bags I'd have to get to it later.

After enjoying our room for a bit we got ready to check out some of the other parts of the ship before the mandatory drill.

We went to the Senses Spa open house to see if we could win any prizes (we didn't) but we did get to check it out at least!

Spa Treatment room (couples treatment):

Gym:

I know we just had lunch a short time ago, but we are big eaters...we eat ALL THE TIME. So it was natural for us to stop for some shwarma on Deck 9, even though we'd be eating dinner soon:

It was pretty good! I could get used to this.

We ate on Deck 9, which was pretty empty during embarkation:

Soon it was time for the mandatory drill. We were in section N...of course we somehow ended up mustering in section O, then walked over to P, and then finally found the right place to stand in N...I blame it on DH, who has an Ivy League education. *rolls eyes*

After the drill we made our way over to Deck 10 to get a good view for the Sail Away party. It was very exciting! I didn't realize this earlier, but the boat was already moving! It was cruising out of Cape Canaveral...and I didn't even feel it! I thought that this Bonine stuff must be REALLY working well.

The kiddie pool was put to good use at this time:

Getting ready for the Adventures Away Sail Away party!

We found a spot and got ourselves a very cliche frozen tropical drink to start the vacation...it was quite yummy. I don't usually drink these fancy drinks even though I used too...it's too much sugar for me.

Pretty soon the show was underway and the characters came out! Loved it!

I have a video with the Mickey horn blowing...we were officially on vacation!! Woohoo!!

Coming up, our stateroom door decor, and dinner at Lumiere's!​

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2015

mickeymouse108

Mouseketeer

Joined

Dec 5, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #5

Joining in on your disney cruise report looks like a great start.

 

SuperCalGal

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho

Joined

Jul 24, 2012

• May 26, 2015

• #6

Joining in also!!

 

disney2mom

Mouseketeer

Joined

Feb 3, 2010

• May 26, 2015

• #7

Joining! Looking forward to reading more, we will be on The Magic for the first time next March!!

 

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #8

Embarkation Day Part 2:

After the Sail Away party we headed back to the room. Our luggage had arrived! I quickly set off to unpack. I pack most of our clothes in packing cubes so I literally just had to take out the cubes. I did hang all of my dresses though as well as DH's dress clothes for Palo. We were going to Palo for brunch on our day at sea as well as dinner on our last night.

I was so happy my new suitcase fit underneath the bed for storage! For your reference it was 12 inches in depth and it fit with maybe an inch to spare. Whew!

I perused a lot of the Disboards cruise line forum to find tips for stuff we should bring...so we had the usual sanitizing wipes, fabreeze, downy wrinkle release, a 2 port USD charger for our phones and ipad...and even a handy laundry bag...I love this bag I picked up from www.hautelook.com a few weeks before our trip:

It came as part of a set of lingerie bags. I hung it up on the hook for the curtain dividing the stateroom. It was really invaluable and I highly recommend a dedicated laundry bag. Of course, it doesn't have to be as fancy as this...

I wiped down the room, sprayed downy on our hanging clothes to smooth out the wrinkles...laid out the toiletries...I'm more organized on this cruise than I am at home!

Now it was time to decorate our stateroom door! I got out the decorations I had been working on the week prior to our cruise. Here's what our stateroom looked like after I was done:

I also decorated mom and dad's door as well as Maddie's. It was a surprise for everyone! I didn't have too many pictures of everyone so their decor is kinda sparse...hopefully for the next trip I'll have more!

They were all inside their rooms when I did it, so they were surprised as they were leaving for dinner. LOL. I used magnetic tape to attach the frames to the door. Unfortunately the frame for Jimmy, Mom and Dad didn't really stick well, so their frame kept falling. They ended up displaying the frame in their stateroom instead.

It was already 5:30pm at this point, and we had the early seating at 5:45pm...time for dinner at Lumiere's! But first, a look at the view from our balcony...aaaaah it was so pretty. The weather was beautiful today...in fact, it was beautiful the entire trip. We were VERY lucky...calm seas, blue skies, and lots of sun (maybe too much as it got hot at ports!) every day.

We arrived on Deck 3 to the entrance to Lumiere's at 5:45 sharp. We were brought to our table, number 16. I gave Mom and Sandy some Mother's day cards...yes I remembered to call my mom too before we left port!

Us at dinner:

Mom, Dad and Jimmy:

Queen Elsa, Sandy and Mike:

I thought it was really cute Maddie brought her princess dresses to wear!

We were introduced to our waiter and assistant waiter, Zsolt and Gerado, respectively. They were super fun, extremely nice, and we all had a great time with them. Zsolt was from Hungary, and Gerado from Mexico. They were always so friendly even though they were crazy busy. Our head waiter was Branislav who was also a very nice guy although we obviously didn't see him as much as Zsolt or Gerado.

Gerado taking our drink orders:

I usually got an iced tea or cranberry juice with dinner...I am not a huge drinker (anymore, sigh...getting old) but we also had a bottle of wine to drink in our stateroom which was a very nice digestif before bed.

Lumiere's is a French-insipred restaurant. I started with the escargot which I thought was really good:

Escargot = snails, which I'm sure some of you may think gross but I think are delicious. They really just taste like a cross between a clam and a calamari to me, plus the delicious garlic butter it's baked in was so rich and yummy. I used the bread to soak it all up!

DH got the lobster and shrimp stack to start. He thought it was good too!:

(Note, DH and I usually share everything we eat, and most often will always order different things on a menu so we can have a variety of tastes!)

Then, French onion soup for me:

Tasty!

And a poached pear salad for DH:

For entrees, I got the tuna nicoise salad. It was really good! The tuna was very fresh, and it was served with lots of fresh veggies and a nice mustard-y dressing. It appealed to me most because of our heavy buffet lunch and shwarma snack.

DH got the chateaubriand, which is just a beef tenderloin:

It had mashed potatoes and a demi-glace. It was ok, but tenderloin is not my favorite cut of beef, I much prefer a sirloin or ribeye. This reminded me of wedding reception food. LOL.

During entree service, Maddie started to get tired and she fell asleep on her mommy's lap. Here's Zjolt who tried to entertain her but guess she was not interested. Think the excitement of the day tired her out!

We did the early seating because we thought it would be nice for Maddie to eat early...in retrospect I'm not sure it was the best choice because we forgot they would be on California time, and 2:45pm PST either means a really late lunch or really early dinner...and she wasn't having any of that...she fell asleep through dinner a few times. It was only towards the end of the cruise that I think she adapted to the time change!

DH and I didn't really mind the early time. We eat at ANY time, really, so early or late didn't matter with us! Early was nice because you got to watch the later show and then get a late night snack...but sometimes we just weren't as hungry at 5:45pm either...so I think they are pros and cons of each seating but I think on our next cruise we may try the late seating to see if we prefer it.

Time for dessert! I got the Grand Marnier souffle. I thought it was really good! The souffle had more of a denser texture than souffles I've had but I still thought it was yummy, especially with the creme anglaise sauce:

DH got the Sweetheart trio:

I liked my dessert better

Guess what, we had a birthday!! Steve's dad's birthday was actually 2 days prior to the cruise. But we celebrated on the cruise too! Everyone came out and sang happy birthday and brought him a chocolate cake!

Maddie woke up just in time to get a Mickey bar!

After dinner, we decided to do some exploring...I liked how everyone just kind of splits up and does their own thing and we all regrouped for dinner...there was something for everyone to do and we could all go at our own pace. We wanted to watch the show at 8:30pm in the Walt Disney Theater but we had some time to kill.

We checked out the trivia they were having at O'Gill's pub.

There was a small buffet of bar food like wings and nachos:

We went to Fathoms where they were having Jackpot Bingo! Mom, Dad and Jimmy were there playing!

I don't think they won that night...

I really liked the porthole window seats outside of Fathoms. I think they are so cute (warning, I love anything round so you'll hear this a lot about portholes)!

Soon it was time for the first show in the Walt Disney Theater! We loved all the entertainment on board the ship and never missed a show, except the magician on pirate night since we were resting up for the pirate party! Everyone else decided to call it a night but Jimmy caught a bit of the show too.

The All Aboard with Mickey show was really cute. After the show we decided to head back to the room, but first we needed a late night snack...chicken fingers and fries, which totally hit the spot.

We refilled all our water bottles and went back to our stateroom. Hello towel animal!

We met our lovely stateroom hostess, Inka, who is from Thailand. She loved our stateroom door decor! She said that everyone who passed by stopped to look at it and she said even the other hostesses stopped to take pictures too. Awww.

I just love how everyone is so nice and super sweet, and it's really such a small world too. Earlier that day, I forgot to mention we went to make some reservations for beverage seminars...we never went to anything because they were all either too late or conflicted with something we already had. But the person ( I think his name was Bagus, but I am not 100% sure) we spoke to just happened to be Indonesian so we told him we went to Bali in November...turns out he used to work at the exact same resort we stayed at! So we talked about Bali and how great the resort was. He was really nice and we wanted to catch him later (he worked at Keys in the evenings) but we never really got to go to Keys ...in fact, there are so many things and places to go on the ship that we never made it to all of them...I guess it's time to book another cruise.

It was a great first day on the Disney Magic! I can't wait to see what else the Magic had in store for us!​

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2015

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #9

mickeymouse108 said:

Joining in on your disney cruise report looks like a great start.

Click to expand...

Thank you!! Welcome!! We loved the cruise!

SuperCalGal said:

Joining in also!!

Click to expand...

Thank you!! Welcome to my TR!!! Thank you for reading!

disney2mom said:

Joining! Looking forward to reading more, we will be on The Magic for the first time next March!!

Click to expand...

Welcome!! Thanks for reading! You will love the Magic!!

 

jhoannam

Planner-aholic

Joined

May 12, 2014

• May 26, 2015

• #10

Loving the details.

 

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #11

jhoannam said:

Loving the details.

Click to expand...

Thank you and welcome!!

 

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 26, 2015

• #12

Day at Port: Key West Part 1

We slept very comfortably our first night. The boat really does rock you to sleep! I was getting used to the tight quarters but found the balcony very nice when we needed a breath of fresh air. And the view just cannot be beat. I loved looking at the endless ocean...I'm a Pisces after all!

View the next morning:

Today we will be docking at Key West - I'd never been so was looking forward to eating some key lime pie! But since we wouldn't be there until around noon, we still had a bunch of stuff to do on the ship! It is odd but I wake up early when on vacation...when in fact I can barely wake up for work...must be the excitement of the day, but we were up by 7am. Everyone else was on California time and were still asleep!

BTW, the Navigator text messaging feature was working on this sailing, but it was horrible! Messages were never received until hours later and the app said users were "away" when they in fact were logged in and on the app. It was useless so we resorted to using the wave phones. Luckily we were still in the US so regular texting worked today. In addition, I signed up for the free 50 MB of data, but that was literally gone in 15 minutes....I forgot to turn off some of the automatic updates on our iphones before so it just used up all of our data like that!! Next time we'll remember to do so!!

First that morning, we decided to work off all the food we ate and were going to eat by going to the gym. The gym was well equipped and I was surprised the gym even had foam rollers - which is something a trainer at my gym at home taught me how to use. It really helps with muscle soreness and tight muscles to get you ready for your next workout! I'm far from being a gym rat (in fact I don't like it), but I have to go to stay somewhat less "chunky" and more "monkey". It gets harder and harder the older I get...sigh.

Lots of people had the same idea as us:

DH was still working out when I left the gym, I passed by the Cove Cafe and got myself a real latte. I never really like the coffee-flavored water they serve on the self-service station, both on the ship and at WDW resorts. I needed the real thing...I got a punch card too!

Cove Cafe exterior:

A real iced latte!

We had a busy morning we had to get ready for...a meeting with the princesses! First, Anna and Elsa, then the Princess Gathering in the lobby atrium. Anna and Elsa were meeting in Animator's Palate. When we got there at our designated time, there was already a line. The cool blue lights of the restaurant lent to the Frozen theme.

Line to meet Anna and Elsa:

Our picture!

Anna and Elsa were really sweet. They asked if we were love experts and I told them, just barely.
I showed them my Alex and Ani bracelet with their faces and Anna asked if I talked to them. I said only when company's overdue.

I didn't love the setting as much because the dim blue lighting in Animator's Palate didn't lend itself to nice pictures. Even the photographer's picture was kinda wonky and the flash went off in our faces making us just look pale blue. I didn't purchase any of the pictures from Shutters...I just didn't like any of them!

Right after our meet n greet with Anna and Elsa, we had some time before our princess gathering appointment to grab breakfast. We went up to Cabanas and enjoyed the view.

I could get used to this view every day!

Then we went back down to meet the princesses. Today it was Belle and Cinderella.

The line was not as long as Anna and Elsa.

I know I'm wearing a rather shapeless muumuu, but it was hot and I wanted to be comfortable in Key West! Maybe I should have worn something else since it does look rather like a potato sack, but hey, I was comfy!

We passed Captain America right by Preludes. His line was super long! Longest that I had seen on the ship the entire cruise! Maybe they should have had tickets for him too. Must be the popularity of the Avengers movie which had just come out May 1st. We saw it right before we left on the cruise but we were going to see it again while on the Magic! Super stoked about that.

Captain America was really popular:

Soon we were docked at Key West. Here was the view from our balcony. (FYI we were portside.)

Such a beautiful view!

Since they had already started serving lunch at Cabanas, we thought, ok let's grab more food. So back to Cabanas we go! (Warning: we are endless pits, if you are scared of lots of food pics you can disregard my next 428 posts).

When they gave us clearance to leave the ship, we called everyone else and told them we planned to start walking around Key West. No one else had really made any plans or booked anything and they were just getting around to waking up and getting a bite to eat. They all said they may look at doing a trolley tour later which we weren't really interested in so we decided to just meet up back on board the ship later.

We were so excited! Our first port of call, Key West! Coming up I will detail our afternoon in Key West doing our own little food tasting tour!​

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2015

cheermom2four

DIS Veteran

Joined

Apr 24, 2015

• May 27, 2015

• #13

Just love this TR so far!!! Cant wait to read the rest as we will be on the Magic in FEb for our first cruise!!

 

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 27, 2015

• #14

Day at Port: Key West Part 2

We finally got to disembark onto Key West...it was a beautiful day, but very hot! We started by getting a picture of us in front of the Magic. Sorry, most of our pics are going to be selfies. I'm too lazy to get someone to take a picture of us...

We began by walking to the main street in Key West...the big one with all the bars and restaurants...forgot it's name but just follow where everyone goes! I had made a small list of things I wanted to try...but we kept the plan open and just walked around, stopping in places that we found interesting.

There is a lot of art around Key West and a few museums which seem nice. We didn't stop in them though.

Thought this was a very nice looking Coast Guard building:

Our first stop was a Key West institution...for drinking...the famed Sloppy Joe's Bar.

We went in just to look around and stopped at the bar for a Sloppy Rita, which is just a margarita on the rocks served in a plastic cup.

We listened to live music while we drank, tipped the bartender, and headed on out to our next destination!

KEY LIME PIE!!! Finally, I get to taste some good key lime pie! This stop was at the Key West Key Lime Pie Co.

Beautiful interior:

We got a slice of the regular key lime. We are purists when it comes to trying house specialties.

Sorry for this slightly blurry picture of the key lime but it's probably in my rush to actually eat the pie and not just take pictures of it:

How was it? DELICIOUS. Best key lime pie we had! I like that it tasted homemade, there was a tart sweetness to the filling and the crust was buttery and crumbly. Loved it!

We were contemplating getting another slice, but there were still other things and more key lime pie I wanted to try that day...so we moved on.

Next stop was Peppers of Key West, which is a place that sells different hot sauces. They range from very mild to weapons-grade spicy. Yes they have a sign that says weapons-grade spicy. DH loves anything spicy so he was up for a tasting. I can usually hold my own when it comes to heat but I prefer to have my taste buds intact so I did most of the tasting and declined the few, super hot sauces.

Interior of Peppers of Key West:

We started the tasting with some mild sweet chilli, and other fruity concoctions. They weren't spicy at all really, just a bit of kick. Soon we moved on to more "buffalo wing" style sauces, then we got into the island caribbean spicy, then exotic asian spicy, then it was all just spicy fire!!

Think we tried over 20 sauces! We bought a couple that we liked the best. I actually really like the name of this sauce:

And told you they have weapons-grade sauces!

After Peppers, we wanted to let our mouths cool down a bit so we took a walk around. Love all the island and Cuban-inspired scenes.

Since we were only 90 miles from Cuba, I thought having some cuban coffee would be good, so we went to a little kiosk that got some really good reviews. It's called Cuban Coffee Queen. With a name like that, they must have some pretty good cafe con leche, no?

Cuban Coffee Queen shack:

We got an iced cafe con leche, and one of their cuban sanwiches...think the one we got was the Del Castro.

The iced coffee was DELICIOUS! They even used COFFEE ICE CUBES in it. I love that attention to detail. Iced coffee, lattes, etc, are my most favorite drink...and I love when they are made well!!

The sandwich was pretty good too! The roast pork was juicy and the bread was hot and toasty. It was actually really large, so DH and I split half of it and wrapped the other half to eat later.

Next, up more key lime pie! This was at Kermit's Key Lime Shoppe

The slice we shared was good, but we preferred the Key West Key Lime Pie Co. better...it just had a more handcrafted taste that we liked better. But Kermit's is good too and I'd be happy with a slice of it right now...or any time!

We went to Key West Rum Distillery...we walked around and had a small taste of their rum. DH bought a small bottle for one of his coworkers.

It was really hot at that point so we headed back to the ship...along the way I snapped these scenes from around Key West:

Finally we were back at the Magic! Such a nice sight!

I did a panorama of the Magic. It came out a bit wonky but the sun was so bright that I could barely see the the screen of my phone.

Back on the Magic we changed and went to the adult pool! It was so nice to be out of the heat. Everyone was still on their trolly tour at this point so we would just meet up at dinner.

We found a nice spot in the shade and relaxed there and in the pool before it was time to get ready for dinner!

Coming up, dinner at Animator's Palate!!​

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2015

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 27, 2015

• #15

cheermom2four said:

Just love this TR so far!!! Cant wait to read the rest as we will be on the Magic in FEb for our first cruise!!

Click to expand...

That is awesome! Thanks for reading! Hope you love the Magic as much as I do!

 

lorimay

Strolling along...

Joined

Dec 11, 2008

• May 27, 2015

• #16

Enjoying your report!
I actually love your blue dress.
Can I asked where you got it? It will be perfect for a lazy sea day while cruising thru Hawaii.
Thank you!

 

chunkymonkey

DIS Veteran

Joined

May 27, 2009

• May 27, 2015

• #17

Hi lorimay! Thank you! I actually got my dress on a trip to Bali last year...it's by an Australian company called Mist. I actually got a few dresses from them, they are all flow-y beach-y dresses. I tried looking for them online but they seem to be sold only in SE Asia and Australia. Too bad because I think they are really cute.

Are you cruising through Hawaii on the Wonder? I've been so intrigued by that cruise now since I love Hawaii so much!

 

Last edited: May 27, 2015

lorimay

Strolling along...

Joined

Dec 11, 2008

• May 27, 2015

• #18

chunkymonkey said:

Hi lorimay! Thank you! I actually got my dress on a trip to Bali last year...it's by an Australian company called Mist. I actually got a few dresses from them, they are all flow-y beach-y dresses. I tried looking for them online but they seem to be sold only in SE Asia and Australia. Too bad because I think they are really cute.

Are you cruising through Hawaii on the Wonder? I've been so intrigued by that cruise now since I love Hawaii so much!

Click to expand...

Shucks!!! Yes, they are!
Yes, we are sailing out of Honolulu on Sept. 17th. I can't wait! We will be at Aulani for 5 days before.
We haven't been to Hawaii in 28 yrs. (honeymoon) so really looking forward to going back.

 

disney2mom

Mouseketeer

Joined

Feb 3, 2010

• May 28, 2015

• #19

Love all of your pics and your TR so far, can't wait to read more! Are you having post-cruise blues yet?? I was literally depressed for weeks after we got back home from our first cruise on the Dream. Only 289 until we are on the Magic!!

 

SuperCalGal

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho

Joined

Jul 24, 2012

• May 28, 2015

• #20

chunkymonkey said:

(Warning: we are endless pits, if you are scared of lots of food pics you can disregard my next 42 posts).

Click to expand...

I love food pics! You are my type of gal. Key West looks awesome, I'd love to rent a beach house and spend a week down there.