The Greatest Trip Report EVER!!! 11/26/05 Magic

[DaMayor]

Disclaimer : Greatest Trip Report EVER doesn't come with a 100% money back guarantee

Cast:
Me (30)
Myself (30)
I (30)

Cruise history
6 Carnival
First Disney

11/25/05
Flew red-eye on Song from LAS to MCO non-stop. First flight on song...very impressed, but since it was a red eye flight, there wasn't much to do except try to catch a few zzzz's or listen to their MP3 collection. I do like however that you can make your own playlists.

11/26/05 - Embarkation Day
Arrived in Orlando about 5:40am...can't I hit the snooze button just one more time. Got first bus to Port Canaveral and arrived at terminal around 10:30am and on the ship by around noon. Room on deck 6 wouldn't be ready till 1:30pm so I lugged my carry-on around into Parrot Cay for a nice lunch.

Mini rant coming

Now, when I had booked the cruise, I said I wanted late seating with as many adults possible. When I got my Key To The World Card at the terminal it did have LAPLAPL as my dinner rotation and considering my documents said "second" seating, I assumed this would mean 8:30pm (the so called adult seating). Imagine my surprise and somewhat anger when I get into my cabin and see my seating for 6:15pm. I marched into Rockin Bar D and in the calmest voice possible (remember I'd been up pretty much for over 24 hrs now) said "why would you put a single 30 yr old at the kiddie seating?" I also reminded him that 6:15est/ast is 2:15pst for me. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like eating dinner at 2:15 in the afternoon. He changed my seating to 8:30pm, but here's where the other problem occured. I was at a table for 8 which had 5 seats and 3 people (me and a very nice couple from Georgia, Jessica and Alex). Are you confused yet? Table of 8, seating for 5, 3 people!?!?! This was my major gripe of the cruise, Disney doesn't have a clue how to handle seating assignments, Carnival wins hands down in this category.

Mini Rant Over

The rest of day 1 was pretty much a blur since all I really wanted to do was get a good night's rest. The DIS meet was very fun. I had a minor blonde moment because I thought the Green Mickey Swatches meant the watches from the 80's, so I kept looking for these on members wrists, DOH!

Days 2&3 (Days at Sea) coming soon

Matt

 

[Ker-Bear]

looking forward to the rest of your trip report

 

[DiaLady]

Golly! I didn't realize you'd had no sleep at the meet You didn't even look tired! Can't wait to hear the rest . ..

Theresa

 

[DaMayor]

11/27/05 - 1st day at sea

Started my first of many mornings in the rainforest room. I think everyone should buy the week long pass for $75, it's SO worth it. I really enjoyed the mild sauna room and, of course, the heated tile loungers. From there I went out to the Cove Cafe for a "wake me up", Bailey's & Hot Chocolate

It's very strange for a west coast boy to have NFL start at 2pm ship time, but it was nice in the case because it gave me time to do what I wanted before settling in at Diversions.

I attended the first of 3 Cruise Staff lunches at Parrot Cay. These are designed for single parents or people traveling by themselves. I also made sure to pick up my ticket for Thursday's galley tour.

Tonight was formal night, everyone looked very nice and I enjoyed the show in Animators Palate. Let me say this now about the food on Disney, and remember I'm comparing this to Carnival and the fact I live in Vegas...but I thought the food on Disney was just fair. It's not that I had anything bad, but with the exception of brunch at Palo and the crepes at lunch on the 2nd sea day, nothing blew me away either.

I finished off my night by seeing Rich Purpura's adult comedy show. In my opinion, he was the funniest of the 3 comedians on board that week.

11/28/05 - 2nd day at sea

Not much today. The highlight of the day for me was the Tequila & Margarita tasting. Only about 15 people came for this (a sign to come for all adult activities)

A big area in which Carnival & Disney differ is activities during the day. Carnival has a lot of activities going on during the day on the pool deck (games, ice carving, etc..) Disney pretty much says "do your own thing", which for most adults is lay out at the pool all day, which would be all well and good except when you're going at 30 knots, it tends to be a wee bit cold. On the sea days, the adult pool turned into the "unintentional wave pool"

Tonight also was the first theme night, 60's...attended by a whopping DOZEN people. Why you ask? Because for the first time, they showed Monday Night Football on the Jumbotron. They kept the pool bars open until 1:30am, smart move on their part.

Day's 4&5 (St. Martin & St. Thomas) coming soon

 

[Michelle2]

I didn't realize you had no sleep either. We went on that exact red eye from Las Vegas on Song just the night before! (We left on the 24th after Thanksgiving with family at about 11:00) We needed all afternoon on the 25th to sleep it off! LOL I was very impressed with Song too. I am very sad that it will be no more in a few months.

I remember you telling us about your frustrations with being sat at the early rotation. I wish that could have been more pleasant for you, and with more adults. I agree about the food too. It was ok, but not much blew me away either. I am pretty picky though, and I did like it all, especially the chicken parmigiana at Palo brunch and some of the desserts! Yuummmmm

 

[DaMayor]

Day 4 11/29/05

This was my first time ever in St. Martin, so I wanted to see as much as the island as possible. I was very lucky to hire a cab driver to take me over to Marigot and let me walk around, have a drink and then take me back to the Dutch side and the ship. Cost...$30!! And he didn't even wait for other people in the van...how cool is that?

Before dinner, they showed Chicken Little in the WD Theatre. I actually thought this was a cute movie, some very funny adult humor moments.

I had to skip desert at dinner tonight so I can shove my way into deck 10 for the Pirates party. This is the one major disadvantage of the 8:30 seating. You better eat quick or hope the wait staff is quick about delivering the courses. After the Pirates party, I went back to Rockin Bar D for the only adult karaoke of the cruise. Just when I thought the crowd size couldn't get worse than 60's night...oh...was I wrong...6 people! That's right...6! You know things are bad when they are giving away shots for people that get up and sing.

Day 5 11/30/05

I had been to St. Thomas back in 1994 for my "senior trip" The only thing I did in St. Thomas was take the tram to the top of the mountain. The rest of the time was spent on the ship sun bathing and hot tubbing.

Tonight was 80's night. Finally some people showed up for this one, mainly because the next day was at sea.

Days 6&7 (At sea & Castaway Cay) soon

Matt

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Matt

I just had to read your trip report when I saw "The Greatest Trip Report Ever" as the title of your thread!!!!! .....so sorry to hear about the lack of activities for singles on your cruise....you need to come on the 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise in September 2006...most of us were on either the May Repo or the August Repo cruises and we are a great bunch of people. I was on the May Repo cruise and we had so many activities planned that I needed a vacation to recover from my 14 days on board the Magic!!!!!!

Can't wait to hear about the last few days of your trip!!!!

 

[staceymerrill]

it was a very good trip report....best ever....not sure

 

[Kimmielee]

Matt, by the sounds of your trip so far... I get the impression that you wouldn't do a Disney Cruise again?