Just returned from the 9/11 Magic

[mrsltg]

Hi All-

I am home from the 9/11 Magic. All in all it was a good vacation. The ship is beautiful, but there is definitely room for improvement! Embarkation/disembarkation were painless, shows were really good for the most part, service was excellent, senior crew was informative and pleasant, and food was fine (far from "excellent"). Ports were changed a couple of times, but that was ok by us as it was done with good reason. We made it to Castaway Cay which was nice (unfortunately brown due to Frances).

As I said, it was a good vacation. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Erin

 

[NancyDVC]

Hi Erin,
Glad to hear you got home safe!
We had a ball! My Mom and DBF (Disney best friend Diane) absolutely loved the verandah and would have spent more time there if I let them. We enjoyed every minute and that included the 48 hours I spent in the stateroom on 'isolation' because of a GI upset!
Met some great folks, both from this board and non techie ones!

I cried when we boarded the ship and they announced our names and again when we left today. Happy tears the first tiem and sad ones the second.

TTFN
Feel free to ask questions!

 

[dis4me]

Hi Erin Just curious What were some things you thought could be improved. I am partial to DCL but when friends ask I am always looking for an opinion of someone else.
You can PM me if you don't want to post.
Thanks
Glad you enjoyed the cruise and got to Castaway Cay

 

[pvangordon]

Welcome back, fellow 9/11 cruisers - DH and I just returned tonight and thought we had a wonderful vacation. I'll post my review shortly (or a link to my blog once it's updated).

In general, everything was very good, except for very noisy neighbors and a couple of issues with guest services. Also, I agree that the food was acceptable but nothing particularly outstanding. Of course, that didn't stop us from eating round the clock! DH also felt the dining room service wasn't quite as good as we had on the Wonder last year.

More to come later...feel free to ask questions too!

P.S. Anyone still feeling like they're swaying back and forth?

 

[ThreeSmiths]

I just stopped rocking about three hours ago!

 

[aaronamy]

Hi everyone! Not so glad to be home but I guess if I was on vacation all the time then it wouldnt be vacation. I had a wonderful time, it was our 2nd time with Disney and I have cruised on two other lines and Disney wins hands down. As far as the food is concerned Palos is AWESOME and the other restaurants do a pretty good job considering the number of people they are cooking for. I am also always amazed at how clean the ship is. And our wait staff was great this time I would have taken our head server home with us if I could but I suppose his wife and children would not like that.

 

[Mattnlaura]

WOW, waht a trip!!
Mystery cruises are the best. We had an excellent time. The overnite in san juan provided some great entertainment at senor frogs, we got to party with our new crew friends. By 2am senor frogs was 95% crew, and it was packed. Sanjeev and Kendall were fantastic in the dining room. Anne Marie was superior in palo, she told me i was an angel and proceded ot shine my halo!! Raymond was fantastic as our room host. Did anyone et to the British pub night on friday night, now that was funny!!
If antone reads this on board, tell Jez and Linda and May inthe pub That Matt and Steve said high..

 

[pvangordon]

Just finished my review and posted it in the Trip Reports forums. It's more than 24 hrs since I got home and I'm still rocking back and forth. I keep snapping my fingers at DH and asking for another drink, but he just gives me funny looks.

 

[ldb1030]

I'm still rocking also!
Woke up in the middle of the night and swore my bed was swaying!!

Mattnlaura- we had Ann-Marie at Palo also! She was wonderful!

I'm starting my PDD now! (post disney depression)

 

[HookedonMagic]

Hey MattnLaura,

We had Sanjeev and Kendall, as well! They were great, as were our tablemates. We were the last to leave the dining room almost every night! And we really enjoyed the food. Sooooo much better than on Mariner of the Seas in March! I'm afraid to step on the scales. Palo brunch, with Kristoff as our server, was absolutely fantastic, too!

Lisa

 

[pvangordon]

We had Kristof as our server at dinner (Emmanuel for tea and brunch). Kristof had a great accent that I could have listened to for hours. He made everything sound so good - once he was done going over the specials, I asked him to do it again! (j/k)

 

[scrapperjill]

We had Kristof also...for both dinner and brunch. He was wonderful...As was the whole Palo experience. Can't wait to read some trip reports.

 

[Mattnlaura]

Hooked, which seating did you have??
We had the late seating and were at the table for 4.

 

[HookedonMagic]

We had late seating, as well, and were at a table for 10 (table 47.) There were 9 of us...three women travelling together, two young men who work for Disneyland (they won the cruise) and two couples. We were the younger couple. Small world, eh?!

 

[WorknFires]

We had Anne-Marie for brunch and dinner. She's definately one of our "wow" moments. I've had Kristoff before, very nice. This was a very interesting trip.

I think they need to add another "more educational" wine tasting for more "experienced" wine drinkers even for an additional cost. My DH could've taught that one, heck I could've too and I don't even drink wine. But he was very pleased with one of the wines (the 2nd can't remember what it was) and my mom (less-experienced wine drinker) was pleased with the tasting just as it was. I loved the little pins. LOL

I would have enjoyed the cruise much more if I hadn't had to watch so much CNN to find out what was going on at home (as many of you know, Ivan struck Mobile Bay while we were between Puerto Rico and the Bahamas) The only bad thing was the computer virus that wiped out our contact w/ home on the 2 days that we needed it most but I understand that it wasn't a problem they could prevent and the credit was nice.

All and all, I was pleased with our cruise, altho now I have to take another western... what a hardship! We booked for 2006 since we've already made plans for DL & an Alaskan cruise for 2005.

Love to all, wish I'd met more of you!

Cheryl