1st time Cruise Review -- Magic Western April 7 - 14th, 2007

[GONETODISNEY]

Our first Disney cruise trip report -- April 7-14, 2007

Our list of travelers include: Myself (almost 40), DH (40 haha) DS(11) DS(8)

My Thoughts on Embarkation
Our Magic cruise began when we arrived at Port Canaveral utilizing Disney's bus transportation from the airport at about 12:00. As we pulled into the port, we were turned around and parked in a parking lot. Apparently a piece of luggage in the cruise terminal had been found suspicious. We sat on the bus for 1 1/2 hours. But, we had it good -- in air conditioning with cartoons playing. Many other passengers waited in the hot sun. The port authority brought us water and later snacks(chips and fruit) when we were moved to an unused cruise terminal. I do not blame Disney for this inconvenience, and it was handled OK. I do think that they could have been more forthcoming with informational updates during this time. After standing in line to check-in for about 20 minutes, actual check in was swift and easy. We were handed our Keys to the World (ship) card and finally at 5:00 pm we boarded the ship. I cannot describe to you how nice it was to hear them say, “Please welcome the _______ family!”

Stateroom 2083
Our stateroom was nice sized for my family of 4. The pull down bed worked wonders for separating my 2 sons. The split bathroom design should be on every cruise ship as it made family living in the stateroom much more comfortable. One person could be in the bathroom while another was showering in the other part. Each day our stateroom was cleaned twice. In the morning beds were made, etc. At night it was again cleaned and towel animals left much to the delight of my sons ages 11 and 8. We enjoyed exchanging pleasantries with our stateroom host, but did not get to know her well. We never wanted for anything, though, and once when the air conditioning was not working, I called and within 10 minutes they were in our room fixing the problem. We booked a category 12 guarantee inside stateroom and were upgraded to a category 10 inside room. We have had a balcony on our previous cruise, but we did not miss it this time. We rarely spent time in our room and when we did return to the room at night, the boys were asleep within minutes. The beds were so comfortable and being able to pull the curtains provided my Dh and I some measure of privacy.

Lifeboat Drill Includes Dolphins!
One fun note -- during our delayed life boat drill, a pod (is that correct?) of about 12 dolphins swam up right in front of us. We were all amazed watching them being so playful, that we didn’t pay much attention to what the crew was trying to tell us. Thank goodness nothing happened during our cruise that included having to know that information.

Now My Pants Won't Fit -- Dining
Meals were fantastic! Breakfast was usually at the buffet at Topsiders and was delicious. Lunch was usually hamburgers, pizza by the pools. By the way, free sodas on Disney. How cool is that? We also had coffee, tea and other offerings available right on deck 9. Why don’t other cruise lines do this? We enjoyed this so much! Dinner in the rotational dining rooms was amazing. Each meal was served hot and cooked to order from an imaginative menu. Definitely more gourmet than what this southern girl was used too. Our favorite was animators palate where the walls changed from black and white to color. Although the meals lasted 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours, my sons were never bored. Our head server took great care to keep the boys entertained. We had Sanjeev and Katerina as our waiters and they were highly efficient and very nice to us. When we were unsure what to order, Sanjeev helped us choose and we were always pleased. Our dining room manager, John, was a hoot. Each night we were entertained with stories from him. He even had a spoon contest with my sons to see how many spoons they could balance on their nose and chins. We dressed for Formal night in suits for the boys and a black dress for myself -- much like I would wear to church. Casual nights I allowed the boys to wear jeans and a polo shirt and capris for myself. We always enjoyed getting our pictures taken after dinner, so much so that I spent a small fortune on pictures!

Kids Club and the Boys = Private time For Me & DH
My sons attended the kids club only 3 times during the cruise. Not because they didn't want to, but rather that there were so many things to do on the cruise together as a family. We enjoyed our port days and on sea days we watched movies, played games, and enjoyed down time at the pool. The pool was crowded, but not unbearable even though the mysterious chair hogs were out in full effect. My sons enjoyed kids club and each time I picked them up they couldn't stop raving about how much fun they had. Especially with the animation classes with Don Ducky Williams. The last night of the cruise they attended the farewell kids program where the kids were given t-shirts and graduation hats with Mickey ears attached. The show was brief and entertaining. The clubs were well supervised and controlled. Kudos to Disney for creating a kids club I felt safe leaving the kids at!

Shows
After each meal we looked forward to going to the Walt Disney Theater for the nights show. Each show was top quality much like a Broadway style show. My favorite was of course Disney Dreams although the Cinderella based production was great too. Don't miss these shows!

Key West
Our first stop was Key West. We chose to walk around and do some shopping. We went to the aquarium which was enjoyed by the kids. We watched them feed the nurse sharks in the small tank and attempt to feed the bull sharks in the large outside tank. They were not hungry though and refused to eat. We were not terrible impressed with Key West, although I understand that it is more of an adult town. We saw many stores with t-shirts with naughty sayings and even drug paraphernalia in the windows. Not a huge deal, we just slid the kids away from these sight and continued our journey. We stopped for key lime pie at the Blond Giraffe and returned to the ship in time for dinner.

Grand Cayman and the Stingrays
We also visited Grand Cayman where we swam with the stingrays. We enjoyed this very much although parents of young children should be cautioned that the experience can be overwhelming to small kids. Large creatures coming at you can be scary! We were taken aboard a catamaran out to Stingray City which is situated on a sandbar, so that you can stand and enjoy the stingrays. Sometimes, however, a wave would lift the kids off their feet making it hard for them to know where the stingrays were. We fed them squid and enjoyed the feeling of their vacuum like suction eating from our hands. Grand Cayman was beautiful and I would like to return there again to spend more time there some day.

Cozumel Mexico
We also did the Atlantic submarine adventure at Cozumel Mexico. This was a nice trip for a very hot day. We enjoyed the novelty of being on a submarine and the views were quite nice, but once done there's no need to do again. After the excursion we did some needed shopping at Los Cinco Soles, which had everything we needed to bring back home to family and friends. We also stopped at a silver jewelry store and bought a ring for my DH and an amber bracelet for myself. We knew not to accept their original prices and we bid them down until we found something that was acceptable for both of us. It ended up being more that 1/ 2 of their original asking prices! I love my bracelet and enjoy wearing it often.

Sunburns in Paradise -- Castaway Cay
Castaway Cay was the highlight of the trip -- nice beach day and great snorkeling. The barbecue meal served there was fantastic -- we had ribs, hamburgers, salads, and fresh fruit. We mailed some post cards from the post office there for our friends. Be aware, that it takes quite awhile to receive these. We’ve been back a week now, and they have not yet received them. We really stayed at our umbrella close to the snorkeling lagoon the majority of the time at Castaway Cay. Each time myself and the kids went into the water, an hour had passed when we got out. Our day was gone before we knew it. We Got back on the ship around 3:00 complete with our newfound sunburns, even though we applied sunscreen often. We had a fantastic time at Castaway cay and would love to return there again.

Scurvy Pirates Are We
Pirate night was so much fun for our kids and us! We all dressed in our pirate pirate best before we went to dinner. Our pictures that night all show us in our pirate outfits--it’s a sight to see.! Unfortunately, that night we had somewhat rough seas. My oldest son was not feeling well from all the tossing and turning and he missed the pirate party. My DH stayed in the stateroom with him while myself and my younger son went to deck 9 for the party. We enjoyed the show and my son danced his heart out ! Since we had missed the Sail away party due to the bomb scare, I was determined that we would hang in there to see Mickey make his famous dash to the stage to save the ship from Captain Hook. We enjoyed the show and the fireworks were great. The line for the pirate buffet was long, so after we took some pictures, off we went to bed. My son was tired from all that hard partying and eating was out of the question.

Sad News -- Debarkation
Although we hated to leave our Disney vacation, our last night came too soon. We placed our luggage outside our stateroom and off to sleep we went. The next morning we went to breakfast at topsiders -- it looked as though most people were following the recommended suggestion to eat in the dining room you ate at the night before, but not us. -- We never seem to follow the rules. (wink wink) Since we had a 6:30 pm airplane flight home, we were not in a big hurry to get off the ship. We finished eating, picked up our Christmas cards from shutters and headed back to our stateroom to pick up our luggage. Debarkation was smooth and nothing like the nightmare of our previous Carnival cruise. We found our luggage, went through the required customs check point and was off the ship in 20 minutes.

We will always have great memories of this cruise! We had a great time with the characters, delicious food, and great entertainment. We would not hesitate to choose Disney Cruise Line again!

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them. I have so much more to say, but it would take forever to write and of course, the kids won't give me that much computer time. Oh well, Ask on....

 

[MagicMe]

Sounds like you had an absolutely wonderful time! I can't wait for my next DCL cruise!!

 

[Babs417]

Good going

 

[LITTLEKID58]

TFS

 

[veccfam]

GonetoDisney: We also sailed on the April 7 Western trip with a 7 and 11 year old. It was our first Disney cruise, and clearly the best cruise I've been on, particularly great with kids. They really couldn't find a thing to complain about. Everything was very well done. I agreed 100% with your comments. We too were a little disappointed with Key West. Not much there for the kids and getting abit run down. Great Pie & loved the living statue on Duval. Glad we got to experience it anyway. Found Grand Cayman to be a beautiful, peaceful island. The color of the water was amazing. We were taken back by the BBD rum place, signs and statue, that we happened across as soon as we left the pier. If you saw it, you know what I mean. If you didn't, I need to use acronyms or it would not be allowed on the board. My 7 year had a BBD coaster placed under her chocolate milk at Breezes - a family place! And, the acronym was spelled out. Cozumel was the place to shop. Very reasonable. Also, went to paradise beach. $8.00 per person for all water sports/toys, etc. Great burrito, as if I needed to eat more! You said it all on Castaway Cay, great beach, fine sand, perfect day, just a great ending to a great week. OK, just one thing to complain about. As you noted, some of our fellow cruisers were quite inconsiderate in the chair saving department. At the pool and the Disney Theater. I sat at the Goofy pool and watched a group of 5-6 lounges in a row go untouched for a couple of hours. Apparently, a group just put down towels and bags down to reserve them in case they might want them later in the day. How rude! In the Disney Theater, there were people saving entire rows of seats for people who were apparently too busy or important to arrive early like the rest of us. Hard thing for Disney to police, but a little effort should be directed to it. Some people just forget that the world doesn't revolve around them and need to be reminded. All in all, it was a great trip, and we will be back on a Disney cruise again. My 11 year old wants to be old enough for the stack next time. Works for me.

 

[GONETODISNEY]

Veccfam,

Glad to hear your family enjoyed the cruise as much as we did. We saw those signs in Grand Cayman and worried about what else was in store for us, but everything else was fine. We did some shopping for t-shirts, etc but that's all we had time for after our Stingray Adventure.

Chair hogs -- one morning we went to breakfast early on a sea day and watched people come lay down their towels and/or bags and then leave. They would sometimes go eat breakfast and return, but more often than not, didn't return for the entire 2 1/2 hours we were at the pool. In the theatres, it was a constant. At times there were no seats left in the theatre - especially for the Twiced Charmed show - and yet people were still saving seats. I did see some workers question the chair hoggers about the seats, but when they said the people would be right back, the workers let it go. During Twice Charmed I watched it repeatedly, and watched one mother and daughter not be able to find seats at all-- thanks to the chair hoggers. We always arrived early and had no problem finding our seats. The shows were fantastic.

Overall, we absolutely loved our Disney cruise, and if it fit into our schedule, we'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[Caitsmama]

Thanks for the mini report! I love reading about first timer's trips - as we are cruising for the first time this dec!
Thanks for sharing!