NY to Castaway Cay May 25th Magic TR- updated June 9th!

[scootersjunk]

This is our first Disney cruise. We have done a few Disney trips. I love walking down Main St and feeling the magic! We saw the advertisement for DCL on TV when we were staying on Disney property and I said we MUST do it! Fast forward 5 years and our dream is about to become a reality!
Our family:

me-Stacey, 39, an avid Disney fan. I have wonderful memories of gathering around the TV every Sunday night at 6pm and awaiting the Wonderful World of Walt Disney with my siblings and cousins. I could hardly wait to see Tinkerbell come across the screen and tap her magic wand! Took my first trip to WDW when I was 19. I was completeing my degree in nursing and working 3 jobs to save for my trip! I moved to Florida (from Canada) after graduating and lived there for 2 years. Lots of WDW trips then! Ended up moving home and marrying my high school sweetheart, Greg.

DH-41, Greg, he just goes along for the ride, never gets too excited. He is pretty great!

DS-13, Drew, knows everthing, sporty & smart.

DD- 9, Grace,the princess, ever helpful, and social

Our travel itinerary:
May 22- leave from Canada, drive to Bangor, Me
May 23- drive to Boston
May 24- drive to NY
May 25 (Day 1)- Sail away! Dreams do come true!
Day 2- at sea
Day 3- at sea
Day 4- Nassau, Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim (me & DD, boys are not interested, what?!)
Day 5- Castaway Cay- Couples Cabana Massage, Palo!
Day 6- WDW! Heading to AK first for EE, Safari and then to MK for Space Mtn, Splash mtn, a dole whip, and Wishes! (and a lot in between!)
Day 7- at sea
Day 8- at sea, Palo brunch
Day 9- NY

I am beyond excited![/FONT]

I will be on board with my friend, Rick. I will keep a lookout for you

 

[disney debi]

Can't wait to read your trip report. We are sailing this cruise in august (our first disney cruise as well). Sounds like you have some wonderful plans. Have a great trip!

 

[teetee6263]

Can't wait to read your trip report. I wanted to book this cruise, but didn't want daughter to miss school, turns out since no snow days were used shes off the 25th, 28th, 29th & has a trip on the 1st. She would have only been missing 2 days. Think we might head out to the city & take a ride on the Circle Line to see you sail away.
Have a great trip!

 

[st8y]

The traffic into NYC was horrible! Sometimes I'm pretty glad to be a country girl! We made it to our hotel about 3 hrs after we anticipated! We have an awesome view of the NYC skyline.

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Took the subway to Times Square.

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[NJMermaid]

Curious to see how tomorrow goes for you. We are on the June 15,NYC cruise to nowhere, and I am becoming very excited to hop on the Magic in NYC. Hope you have a great trip.

 

[Jillpie]

Great report! How did you post pictures from your iPhone, I'd love to know! Have a great trip!

 

[st8y]

We are here!! The Manhattan traffic was horrendous! The Magic was just coming into port as we were getting here at 11:45. Parking was easy,$280 for the 8 night stay. Our first glimpse of the ship :

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The port has all the Disney touches... Music, decorations, and Mickey hands!

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Check-in was very quick. We have boarding pass #9 with an anticipated boarding of 1 pm.
The port is a hive of excitement!

 

[KristiMc]

How exciting! What was your port arrival time? Just wanting to see if it seems to be tied to your boarding number.

 

[Fatima1922]

Were there any upgrades available at port?

 

[ksloane]

Wooohoo! Love the touch of Disney at the terminal. Have a great time and can't wait to read all about it!

 

[brookelizabeth]

ENJOY YOUR TRIP! Bon voyage!!

 

[st8y]

Sigh. We are enroute to home. Had such a great time aboard the Magic. I must say the best thing about DCL is the attention to detail - from the soft Disney music playing to the friendly staff to the towel animals. As they said in one of the shows- it's like being on a magic carpet ride, in Cinderella's castle, and on a pirate ship all at once. I'll work on my trip report over the next few days!

 

[tracylmartins]

Can't wait to hear about it! We are on the 6/22 sailing from NYC and it is our first Disney cruise as well.

 

[ksloane]

Sigh. We are enroute to home. Had such a great time aboard the Magic. I must say the best thing about DCL is the attention to detail - from the soft Disney music playing to the friendly staff to the towel animals. As they said in one of the shows- it's like being on a magic carpet ride, in Cinderella's castle, and on a pirate ship all at once. I'll work on my trip report over the next few days!

Can't wait to read it. Be sure to come over here and link us to it!

Can't wait to hear about it! We are on the 6/22 sailing from NYC and it is our first Disney cruise as well.

I'm on the same cruise. Have you joined our meet thread (yes, I'm too lazy tonight to go look and see). If not, you should!

 

[st8y]

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, we were waiting at the pier. Time went pretty quickly. It was so exciting!

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All aboard! We boarded just a little after 1pm. We walked into the atrium as they announced our names. It was pretty magical. Our rooms were ready so we went directly there to drop off our carry-on. We were in stateroom 2633, a split bathroom, inside stateroom. It was aft, just a few doors from the elevator. It turned out to be a great location as the restaurants and the drink station are all aft so it was a quick elevator ride.
We met our host, Albert who was awesome all week. My son thought he was pretty cool. He made some great towel animals and always called us by name.
We then went to Topsider's for our first meal. It was good!

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I was feeling very overwhelmed- wanting to see and do everything right away. And I didn't have a clue how to get anywhere. we realized quickly that everything is posted at the elevators for easy access.

We explored the ship and I unpacked our stuff. There was lots of room to put everything away. In all the excitement I totally missed the DIS meet and only met one DIS member the whole week!

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[st8y]

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Yay! We are so glad to finally be on board!

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Soon it was time for the sail away party. I had my DOTD in hand! We were on deck 10, starboard (I just had to google that- I forgot my nautical right & Left).They gave us plastic Mickey hands to wave.

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There were many news helicopters hovering around the ship! It made an exciting atmosphere!

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We danced our way out of the harbour!

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[st8y]

Turns out starboard was the way to go! Lady Liberty herself was just ahead!

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Soon it was time for the first show of the cruise- All Aboard!

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(PS- there is absolutely no photography allowed in the theater. I stole this image from the internet!)
Max Winfrey, a comedic juggler was also in the show

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DS thought he was very funny. He literally juggled the kitchen sink!

We had the late dinner seating and our first restaurant was Lumiere's, table 62.

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We had the Sea Bass which was melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

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We met our tablemates who had two daughters the same age as my kids. And the adults were all in similar fields of work! Disney magic! We looked forward to seeing them each evening and our DDs became very good friends.
Our servers were Raquel from Portugal and Natalie from Trinidad. They were absolutely wonderful. Our table always seemed to be the last to leave as we had so much fun with them!
My DD was feeling a little seasick this night and seemed to be "off" for the first couple of days. She is usually very outgoing but seemed a little nervous (I think the lifeboat drill may have scared her). She came around after I told her that Disney has boats that follow the Magic just so we would be extra safe. A little white lie but it worked!

 

[st8y]

DH & I woke around 8am. He went to the fitness room & I went for a little run on deck 4. I'd like to say that this happened every morning but I lost my motivation early! We then had breakfast together at Topsider's. I enjoyed the oatmeal with berries, flax, walnuts, & sunflower seeds every morning!
The kids were just waking up when we returned to the room (the benefits of the dark inside room!)
We hung out by the pool most of the day. It was a little rough as we were skirting a tropical storm. The pools were like wave pools later in the afternoon!

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DH & I went to a margarita/tequila tasting. It was fun. Let's just say the ship was really rocking after that!

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DD spent some time at the club. She made some flubber. DS played dodge ball which he "owned", apparently (lol).
The show tonight was Twice Charmed- a twist on the Cinderella story. I was amazed at the lighting, the costumes, the singing, the theater....everything!! The Fairy God mother's voice was angelic.

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Our dinner was at Animator's Palate, formal attire.

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[NJMermaid]

Thanks for posting this,I am looking forward,d to the Mickey Hands waving goodbye in the harbor.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Joining in! Looks great so far!