sauterelledesiles
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2008
I wrote this trip report, mostly for my kids and to go along the hundreds of pictures we took on the cruise, so it is not your usual trip report. Feel free to ask questions if you have any, I'll do my best to answer them.
Well, here goes nothing! We just got back from our eastern Caribbean cruise 3 days ago and although I thought about writing a trip report before we left and knew I would need to take notes, I have not, partly because of a rough start to the cruise. So, this trip report will have some info, but not as much as there could have been.
Introductions: Sailing with me, DW, was DH, DS1, DS2 and DS3. We are in our early 40s and the boys are 11, 9 and 5.
Experience: This was our first Disney cruise, but DH and Is 2nd cruise. Our first had been with Carnival over 10 years ago and was only 4 days in the Bahamas.
Setting: We sailed on the Magic for 7 nights from March 10th through March 17th 2012 with an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.
Stateroom: Because there was 5 of us, we booked two connecting staterooms on deck two. We had deluxe inside stateroom.
Pre-trip:
We booked our cruise on August 7th 2011. We had planned on cruising two years ago, but because of DHs job, had to change plans and ended up postponing our cruise until this year. When we decided on booking this cruise, we didnt contact any travel agent or make extensive research. We basically looked online on the DCLs website at the available cruises during the boys spring break and then picked up the phone and called DCL. We booked everything (air, airport to port transportation and cruise) through DCL.
I read as much as I could on the Disboards. I read about the eastern Caribbean itinerary. I read about the Magic. I took notes and felt I was as prepared as I would ever be.
DH travels quite a lot for his work, and of course, the week right before the cruise, he was out of town, leaving most of the packing up to me. He did fly back on Thursday to insure we would all be able to fly out of Houston together early Saturday morning.
Because we booked through DCL, we didnt get to choose which airline we were flying with, nor at what time the flights were. We ended up flying with Delta, with a connection in Atlanta. Delta charges $25 per checked bag for whoever is not a frequent flyer with a lot of miles. Since we didnt want to pay for 3 bags, we made the decision to check only one suitcase and me, DH, DS1 and DS2 would each have a carry on, plus one back pack. DS3 also had a small carry on.
For the whole week before the cruise, I had all the suitcases lined up in my room and filled them up a little at a time each day. My goal was to try to fit as much as I could in the carry-ons, just in case our checked suitcase didnt make it to the ship in time. We had a 50-minute connection in Atlanta. For those who have gone through that airport, you can all understand that 50 minutes is cutting it close. So, in our carry-ons, I packed 2 days worth of clothes, plus swimsuits and formal wear (excluding DHs jacket).
We also signed up to participate in the Fish Extender (FE) exchange through the Disboards, so I packed some of our gifts in the carry-ons, and some went in the checked suitcase.
Another thing I added in the suitcase were 3 white photo mats. I brought those to be signed by the characters and then be used to frame a souvenir picture from our cruise for each of the boys.
Friday March 9th
The kids were in school and DH was working from home, which allowed him to pack his suitcase before he officially started working and during his lunch time. We were successful in having only one checked bag and fit everything else in carry-ons!!!
We live about 50 minutes from the airport and since our flight was very early (5:55am) on Saturday, we splurged and booked two rooms at the Marriot Hotel at the airport for Friday night. That was a wise decision.
We left the house at around 6:30pm for the airport. We checked in the hotel, unloaded our suitcases and then DH drove the car to the long term parking lot, riding the shuttle back to the airport. As soon as we got into our rooms, we got into our PJs and got ready for bed.
Well, here goes nothing! We just got back from our eastern Caribbean cruise 3 days ago and although I thought about writing a trip report before we left and knew I would need to take notes, I have not, partly because of a rough start to the cruise. So, this trip report will have some info, but not as much as there could have been.
Introductions: Sailing with me, DW, was DH, DS1, DS2 and DS3. We are in our early 40s and the boys are 11, 9 and 5.
Experience: This was our first Disney cruise, but DH and Is 2nd cruise. Our first had been with Carnival over 10 years ago and was only 4 days in the Bahamas.
Setting: We sailed on the Magic for 7 nights from March 10th through March 17th 2012 with an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.
Stateroom: Because there was 5 of us, we booked two connecting staterooms on deck two. We had deluxe inside stateroom.
Pre-trip:
We booked our cruise on August 7th 2011. We had planned on cruising two years ago, but because of DHs job, had to change plans and ended up postponing our cruise until this year. When we decided on booking this cruise, we didnt contact any travel agent or make extensive research. We basically looked online on the DCLs website at the available cruises during the boys spring break and then picked up the phone and called DCL. We booked everything (air, airport to port transportation and cruise) through DCL.
I read as much as I could on the Disboards. I read about the eastern Caribbean itinerary. I read about the Magic. I took notes and felt I was as prepared as I would ever be.
DH travels quite a lot for his work, and of course, the week right before the cruise, he was out of town, leaving most of the packing up to me. He did fly back on Thursday to insure we would all be able to fly out of Houston together early Saturday morning.
Because we booked through DCL, we didnt get to choose which airline we were flying with, nor at what time the flights were. We ended up flying with Delta, with a connection in Atlanta. Delta charges $25 per checked bag for whoever is not a frequent flyer with a lot of miles. Since we didnt want to pay for 3 bags, we made the decision to check only one suitcase and me, DH, DS1 and DS2 would each have a carry on, plus one back pack. DS3 also had a small carry on.
For the whole week before the cruise, I had all the suitcases lined up in my room and filled them up a little at a time each day. My goal was to try to fit as much as I could in the carry-ons, just in case our checked suitcase didnt make it to the ship in time. We had a 50-minute connection in Atlanta. For those who have gone through that airport, you can all understand that 50 minutes is cutting it close. So, in our carry-ons, I packed 2 days worth of clothes, plus swimsuits and formal wear (excluding DHs jacket).
We also signed up to participate in the Fish Extender (FE) exchange through the Disboards, so I packed some of our gifts in the carry-ons, and some went in the checked suitcase.
Another thing I added in the suitcase were 3 white photo mats. I brought those to be signed by the characters and then be used to frame a souvenir picture from our cruise for each of the boys.
Friday March 9th
The kids were in school and DH was working from home, which allowed him to pack his suitcase before he officially started working and during his lunch time. We were successful in having only one checked bag and fit everything else in carry-ons!!!
We live about 50 minutes from the airport and since our flight was very early (5:55am) on Saturday, we splurged and booked two rooms at the Marriot Hotel at the airport for Friday night. That was a wise decision.
We left the house at around 6:30pm for the airport. We checked in the hotel, unloaded our suitcases and then DH drove the car to the long term parking lot, riding the shuttle back to the airport. As soon as we got into our rooms, we got into our PJs and got ready for bed.