FLVacationGirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2007
Just a mini-trip report detailing our cruise on the Magic!
Mid-May 2015, I got a call from my mom and step-dad saying they had a surprise. ‘The surprise…’, joked my step-dad said, ‘is that you answered the phone!’ Hahahaha. (Normally I miss so many calls just being busy with work and the kids and I end up calling them right back.) Then they went on to say that they wanted to take my family and all of my sibling's families on a Disney cruise! As you can imagine, this was a lot to take in and I spent the next 8 months being pretty shocked. We disembarked our big family cruise exactly 2 weeks ago and I’m still in shock that it happened.
The first thing we did was to start deciding on a date. We had 24 people going, ranging from 1 – 76 in age, and a few families had tight windows of when they could go based on work conflicts or rules from their children’s dance instructors, like that they could only miss 2 classes for the entire year. We narrowed it down to January 2016 and my mom and step-dad had a 7 night in mind. After pricing out the cruise for 24 and airfare for 20 Canadians and also 1 Canadian and 1 New Zealander living in Australia, I actually talked them into doing a 5 night. The price for a 7 night for 24 people made me feel sick to my stomach and I wasn’t even the one paying!
We decided on a 5 night on the Magic as I had been on the Dream previously and had heard great things about the smaller ships, especially the Magic. I suggested an itinerary with only 2 ports so we could have some relaxing sea days. A few people wanted more ports but when we were on the cruise everyone agreed that our itinerary was perfect. Day 1 Miami, Day 2 Sea, Day 3 Cozumel, Day 4 Sea, Day 5 Castaway Cay, Day 6 Miami. The placement of the sea days ended up being especially perfect as it gave us some downtime between busier days.
The most stressful part of planning for my mom and I was getting all of the flights booked and deciding on pre and post-cruise transportation. Originally we were going to have a few families go to my mom and step-dad’s Florida house the week before the cruise to visit and the rest of the families arrive in Miami the night before the cruise and then they would stay at their house after the cruise. We booked 3 hotel rooms in Miami early on knowing that there was a marathon that weekend and 6 ships leaving the Port of Miami that Sunday but airfare to Miami was pretty high. We eventually ended up having those 3 families land in Fort Myers and 2 stayed in a hotel and one at their house with the rest of us. They had 16 people in their house pre-cruise and 18 after! Trying to figure out car rentals was even more stressful. The plan was for my mom and step-dad to drive their vehicle and park at port and they were going to rent the rest of us cars to get there and back. We found that renting a car and getting to the cruise in Miami didn’t seem really straightforward. The first car rental place close to the port that I called said they didn’t have shuttles to the port and we would need taxis. In the end, my mom and step-dad decided to get a charter bus to pick us up at their house and do the round-trip. This immediately reduced my mom’s stress and increased everyone’s excitement. No driving, no getting lost, no dropping off people and luggage then dropping off the car and shuttling/taxiing back x4 or 5 cars. And this meant we got to spend 2.5 – 3 hrs on the bus together, pre-cruise, to get extra pumped up.
The night before the cruise felt straight out of Home Alone. Cousins everywhere, luggage everywhere. We were eating Chinese food instead of pizza but the vibe was exactly the same. We were joking that we were happy that no one’s name was Kevin. My brother-in-law of course had to scream, ‘KEVIN!’ in a Catherine O’Hara voice on the bus. A few head counts were done. We all made it!
This cruise was the first cruise for 18 people in our group. My family of 4 had one 3 night DCL Dream cruise under our belt and my mom and step-dad had done one RCI cruise and 8 Princess cruises. I ended up being our family cruise director and spent the whole 8 months happily explaining everything to everyone. And getting thanked weekly by everyone for planning this trip. Are you kidding me, I’ll plan a trip like this anytime. My pleasure, haha. And this was pretty funny because these were the same family members who tried to talk me out of going on multiple Disney vacations. This trip was something that I never in a million years would have thought would happen. Who takes 24 people on a Disney cruise? The funny thing too was that even though I was the big Disney World fan in the group, at one point, before final payment, I had tried to talk my mom and step-dad into switching the cruise to RCI or NCL. DCL had made a few changes since we booked, including the new alcohol policy, no more signing pillow cases/photo mats, etc. As well, the Canadian dollar was atrocious. A Disney cruise was expensive enough as it was, never mind converting to Canadian. In the end, they considered it too but wanted to keep it a Disney cruise.
Which brings us to day 1.
Mid-May 2015, I got a call from my mom and step-dad saying they had a surprise. ‘The surprise…’, joked my step-dad said, ‘is that you answered the phone!’ Hahahaha. (Normally I miss so many calls just being busy with work and the kids and I end up calling them right back.) Then they went on to say that they wanted to take my family and all of my sibling's families on a Disney cruise! As you can imagine, this was a lot to take in and I spent the next 8 months being pretty shocked. We disembarked our big family cruise exactly 2 weeks ago and I’m still in shock that it happened.
The first thing we did was to start deciding on a date. We had 24 people going, ranging from 1 – 76 in age, and a few families had tight windows of when they could go based on work conflicts or rules from their children’s dance instructors, like that they could only miss 2 classes for the entire year. We narrowed it down to January 2016 and my mom and step-dad had a 7 night in mind. After pricing out the cruise for 24 and airfare for 20 Canadians and also 1 Canadian and 1 New Zealander living in Australia, I actually talked them into doing a 5 night. The price for a 7 night for 24 people made me feel sick to my stomach and I wasn’t even the one paying!
We decided on a 5 night on the Magic as I had been on the Dream previously and had heard great things about the smaller ships, especially the Magic. I suggested an itinerary with only 2 ports so we could have some relaxing sea days. A few people wanted more ports but when we were on the cruise everyone agreed that our itinerary was perfect. Day 1 Miami, Day 2 Sea, Day 3 Cozumel, Day 4 Sea, Day 5 Castaway Cay, Day 6 Miami. The placement of the sea days ended up being especially perfect as it gave us some downtime between busier days.
The most stressful part of planning for my mom and I was getting all of the flights booked and deciding on pre and post-cruise transportation. Originally we were going to have a few families go to my mom and step-dad’s Florida house the week before the cruise to visit and the rest of the families arrive in Miami the night before the cruise and then they would stay at their house after the cruise. We booked 3 hotel rooms in Miami early on knowing that there was a marathon that weekend and 6 ships leaving the Port of Miami that Sunday but airfare to Miami was pretty high. We eventually ended up having those 3 families land in Fort Myers and 2 stayed in a hotel and one at their house with the rest of us. They had 16 people in their house pre-cruise and 18 after! Trying to figure out car rentals was even more stressful. The plan was for my mom and step-dad to drive their vehicle and park at port and they were going to rent the rest of us cars to get there and back. We found that renting a car and getting to the cruise in Miami didn’t seem really straightforward. The first car rental place close to the port that I called said they didn’t have shuttles to the port and we would need taxis. In the end, my mom and step-dad decided to get a charter bus to pick us up at their house and do the round-trip. This immediately reduced my mom’s stress and increased everyone’s excitement. No driving, no getting lost, no dropping off people and luggage then dropping off the car and shuttling/taxiing back x4 or 5 cars. And this meant we got to spend 2.5 – 3 hrs on the bus together, pre-cruise, to get extra pumped up.
The night before the cruise felt straight out of Home Alone. Cousins everywhere, luggage everywhere. We were eating Chinese food instead of pizza but the vibe was exactly the same. We were joking that we were happy that no one’s name was Kevin. My brother-in-law of course had to scream, ‘KEVIN!’ in a Catherine O’Hara voice on the bus. A few head counts were done. We all made it!
This cruise was the first cruise for 18 people in our group. My family of 4 had one 3 night DCL Dream cruise under our belt and my mom and step-dad had done one RCI cruise and 8 Princess cruises. I ended up being our family cruise director and spent the whole 8 months happily explaining everything to everyone. And getting thanked weekly by everyone for planning this trip. Are you kidding me, I’ll plan a trip like this anytime. My pleasure, haha. And this was pretty funny because these were the same family members who tried to talk me out of going on multiple Disney vacations. This trip was something that I never in a million years would have thought would happen. Who takes 24 people on a Disney cruise? The funny thing too was that even though I was the big Disney World fan in the group, at one point, before final payment, I had tried to talk my mom and step-dad into switching the cruise to RCI or NCL. DCL had made a few changes since we booked, including the new alcohol policy, no more signing pillow cases/photo mats, etc. As well, the Canadian dollar was atrocious. A Disney cruise was expensive enough as it was, never mind converting to Canadian. In the end, they considered it too but wanted to keep it a Disney cruise.
Which brings us to day 1.
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I'm here following along! Can't wait to read along with your trip report!
