March 30, 2012 - Disney Magic Cruise

[madancer]

Me, (38), husband, (43), and two dd (9), and (7) will be on this cruise. So excited! This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise. We've been on the 3-night Bahamas, and the 7-night Eastern Caribbean. It looks like we may be in port with the Fantasy at Grand Cayman and Cozumel. That will be exciting!

 

[brat5063]

Really the Fantasy ship will be at the sane ports we are?!?! I'm new to cruising, but won't that make our ports more crowded? I guess other cruise lines could be there as well. I just assumed the fantasy would always be a day behind us in what they are doing.

 

[LV Disney Fan(atic)]

We (my sister and I) came across POFQ by accident - it was not represented well in the UK 2010 brochure, they only showed pictures for Riverside. We were going to stay at Pop, but after reading that it was likely to be the home of the 'Pop Warner' kids during our stay, we went looking for something else.

I found POFQ on the US WDW site - I saw the pool and the crocodiles and knew we HAD to stay there!! POFQ is the smallest resort and it is so easy to get around - nowhere is 'too far' from the buses, food court or pool. The buses are shared with Riverside but POFQ gets picked up first so you always get a seat, and going home you get dropped off first - that's so good when your feet are about to fall off!

You can also use the River Boats to get to Downtown Disney - it was much quicker and nicer than the buses IMO.
But we chose POFQ again because it's the cheapest moderate and we get free dining and I like that it has a fridge included so we can store drinks and snacks in it for later.
Also, it has been refurbed since December so I can't wait to see the new rooms and this time it will be warm enough to swim!

Thank you for the review and the pictures! Sounds like we made a good choice. Let me know if there's anything you want us to check out for you while we're there.

It's funny. We have been searching so many other cruises, because I think we all fell in love with cruising, not just DCL, and as we all know, we can cruise for a lot less on other lines..... but Jeff finally admitted he wants to do DCL again while Ally is still so into the characters. Then we will try another line, but something tells me that we will still come back to Disney from time to time....

We've been on Carnival and RCL and enjoyed them both but our hearts belong to DCL. I told DH I'm happy to cruise other lines as long as I never have to see a Disney ship in port with us if we're not on it - I think it would depress me too much.

Me, (38), husband, (43), and two dd (9), and (7) will be on this cruise. So excited! This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise. We've been on the 3-night Bahamas, and the 7-night Eastern Caribbean. It looks like we may be in port with the Fantasy at Grand Cayman and Cozumel. That will be exciting!

Really the Fantasy ship will be at the sane ports we are?!?! I'm new to cruising, but won't that make our ports more crowded? I guess other cruise lines could be there as well. I just assumed the fantasy would always be a day behind us in what they are doing.

According to cruisett.com (great website for ship and port schedules, although our itinerary is pretty new and not showing yet), we'll be in Key West by ourselves, in Grand Cayman with the Disney Fantasy, and in Cozumel with FIVE other ships (the Fantasy, 2 RCL ships and 2 Carnival ships). That's going to be a really crowded port!

 

[brat5063]

5 boats in Cozumel?? That's 4 boats to many. That's at least 15,000 people in one port. Its going to be a very crowded day. I am hoping to do an excursion to see the ruins.

 

[BigHugsForEeyore]

.

 

[karajeboo]

Me, (38), husband, (43), and two dd (9), and (7) will be on this cruise. So excited! This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise. We've been on the 3-night Bahamas, and the 7-night Eastern Caribbean. It looks like we may be in port with the Fantasy at Grand Cayman and Cozumel. That will be exciting!

I just checked times and it looks like we get into GC at 7:30 but the Fantasy won't come in until 10:30, so we'll see her when we get back tot he ship I guess..... Then in Cozumel we come in at the same time, but aren't there two different ports there? So we may be at different locations....

According to cruisett.com (great website for ship and port schedules, although our itinerary is pretty new and not showing yet), we'll be in Key West by ourselves, in Grand Cayman with the Disney Fantasy, and in Cozymel with FIVE other ships (the Fantasy, 2 RCL ships and 2 Carnival ships). That's going to be a really crowded port!

That will be crowded!!! Especially if those other ships are mega ships!

The Magic and the Fantasy will be in two ports together, at the same time?! You know what that means, don't you?

HORN BATTLE!!!

Bring it on!

I agree! I don't care if the Fantasy DOES have 5 different tunes, you can't beat the original!!!!

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have added your thread to the cruise meet list

 

[BigHugsForEeyore]

.

 

[karajeboo]

Sarah - I have stayed at CSR several times and I think you will like it. I do recommend requesting a building near the lobby though as this resort is HUGE and if you are stuck on the other side, it is literally a 15 minute walk to the lobby......

Just back from a 4 night DISmoms trip to BWV and had a BLAST!!! Now back to normal for awhile........

 

[BigHugsForEeyore]

.

 

[karajeboo]

I'm wondering how early we will need to book shore excursions if Cozumel really will be that crowded?

Also, has anyone sailed the Western before? Any ideas for excursions?

 

[karajeboo]

He hadn't updated the list when I started a TR for the same dates so I asked that the two threads be merged....

 

[BigHugsForEeyore]

.

 

[karajeboo]

Oh wow, I just realised two threads have been merged into one - I thought I had come to the wrong place to start with!

Just popping in to say: 300 days to go! OK, that sounds like AGES now I've written it like that...

Which means that tomorrow we will be in the 200's!!!!!

 

[karajeboo]

289 days!!!!!!

 

[karajeboo]

285! Ugh, I hate to wish time away but.......

 

[kikids]

Hello Everyone, we are excited to be on this cruise-we were on the Dream recently and booked a floating future reservation. Got the kids school calendar yesterday for 2012 and had to decide between spring break cruises, either this one or the Wonder MR. After much research this seemed like the better choice for us.

This is our third cruise, have done four nighters on the Wonder and Dream so this is our first 7 night cruise and we are very excited about it. I have already printed info on all of the excursions and am in the process of highlighting the ones that look most interesting.

Our daughters will be 12 and 9 (almost 10) at cruise time. With prior cruises they have enjoyed emailing and snail mailing other cruisers their age ahead of time and have really made some good friends to hang out with on the ship and even keep in touch with afterwards.

Regarding the FE, we have done it twice in the past, will probably participate this time as well. It is lots of fun!

It's nice to see this board getting started, look forward to more posts from everyone.

Cindy

 

[kikids]

So indeed it seems that as of the current itinerary, the Magic will be docked with the Fantasy at both Grand Cayman and Cozumel. My question is, what will Disney do about the excursions? Will they offer more or more spaces in the current excursions? B/C isn't that a lot of people fighting for 'limited availability'? Does anyone know if that has ever happened before where perhaps the Dream and Magic/Wonder have docked together at a port? I know that a lot of ships can dock and any given port, just wondering if it makes a difference when it's two Dis ships and Dis sponsored excursions.

At least our ship leaves one day earlier than the Fantasy so we can register for excursions one day sooner. I think I'll make a countdown ticker for that!

 

[karajeboo]

Cindy-

We loved the FE on our last cruise and once we get a little closer I will have no problem coordinating it again.

My Ally is 10 and will turn 11 on the cruise (she just had her 10th birthday on the last cruise!). She also enjoyed getting to know other cruise kids ahead of tine by email. I will pm you Allys email address.....

I think someone posted that we will be in Cozumel with the Fantasy but I didn't realize they are in Grand Cayman as well? I'm really excited to see her in port when we leave......

I doubt we will book any excursions thru DCL as they seem to be quite a bit higher than going thru independent bbookings. In fact, we've already booked an electric car for Key West for the day. Thinking of beach or dolphin swim in cozumel and snorkel in Grand Cayman..... We are trying to hire a private boat in GC with another family we met on our last cruise..... Not much more than a group excursion.....

We didn't plan any excursions ahead of time on the Eastern so this time we are trying to before selective. I think because the Eastern ports are so beautiful we didn't plan on anything else. But the Western ports are just flat. So not as much to see there....