"Witty Trip Report Title" 2 --Bigger, Longer, Uncut

[CRSNDSNY]

Thanks for including those screen grabs. That's helpful!
Can't wait to hear more!!!

 

[kgreenaz]

I'm really enjoying your trip reports. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We are taking our first cruise Feb 2015 and I feel like I have an idea about what will happen now. TRs like this are very helpful and I know they are time consuming. So big thanks here!



Kim

 

[nancipants]

So exciting! One cruise right after the other. Can't wait to see how this one went. (I was on the Magic from January 10 to January 12 and the weather was much better then. Hope it was the same for you!)

 

[Linda67]

Another thanks for the screen shots from the App, I haven't seen those before
What a great way to split up a B2B with a quick hop to Epcot

 

[MrRay]

Lunch in Cabanas was fantastic.


It's probably my favorite meal of the cruise. Last year when we got on we were so excited to see the ship that we rushed through lunch. We took our time this year. I also loaded up on things that I knew weren't going to be back for the rest of the cruise like lamb chops. I ate A LOT of Lamb chops.

Next we took a quick trip to La Piazza to sign up for a Mixology class. Disney has caught on to how popular these are. Last year I think there was only 3 or 4 and this year there was 8 or 9. Most take place in "Skyline" which we aren't huge fans of, it's a little too dark for the middle of the day, but we saw they were offering one in the "Meridian" bar between Palo and Remy on the first sea day. That sounded nice so we jumped on it, still only $15 a person thankfully.

We still had a bit more time before our room would be ready so we decided to spend it sitting on deck and enjoy the nice weather.



Jenna loves her soft serve...She was also very excited that this was the first time on the trip that it was warm enough for the ice cream to actually start melting.









We touched base with our families one last time and just relaxed in the warm weather until our room was ready.

1:30 came pretty fast...

 

[MrRay]

We were in room 8534, category 5b



It was just a few doors down from our room last year. It's on the Starboard side and right around the corner from the forward stairs. This is great placement for us because we can be in the adult area very quickly.

Nothing really unique about this room, identical to all the others in this category.

We watched some of the action on the pier and got settled what we could.


We also flipped on the TV to the bridge cam.

I had forgotten what glorious hi-definition it was, I really wish they would have added this to the magic during its refurb. It doesn't seem like it would have been that hard.

Around 3:30 I decided I wasn't getting through the lifeboat drill without more coffee so it was off to my favorite place on the ship...cove cafe.



We were in muster station H. Last year we were in the Walt Disney Theater. Not sure if they switched things around or just being 3 doors down put us in a different zone but we mustered to deck 4 starboard. We weren't going to complain about the heat but staring right into the setting sun for a half hour was a little uncomfortable. On the plus side if there was a real emergency we're probably first off the boat, so again...silver lining. We were also excited just to be there for the muster drill since on the Magic cruise we missed it entirely.

Oh and right next to our muster station was the infamous "emergency switch"... At least we'll know if it's a drill or not.


With the safety instructions out of the way we were ready for some fruity rum filled drinks and the excitement of sailing away.




I was trying to get some footage for a vacation video that we were making for ourselves so we stopped by the sail away party which was completely insane but full of excitement.



We pulled away at the usual time and were treated to a gorgeous sunset as we pulled out. The sun was warm, the music was blasting, and people were in great spirits.






We stayed up a lot longer than we did on that cold night we set sail on the Magic. The warm amber sun was dancing on the water making everything look incredible.

The funnel vision switched over to playoff football and we decided to get ourselves unpacked and ready for dinner.

This day could not have been more opposite from our first day on the Magic and we were loving every second of it.

 

[lorimay]

We are in the same room on The Fantasy this coming Saturday.

Glad you are getting better weather this time around.

We boarded The Magic a couple weeks after you came back and it was a bit chilly at Port Canaveral, but the rest of the cruise was pretty good. Sorry, you had the path of clouds following you.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Yay! Happy, sunny day!

 

[marquislaura]

Following along

 

[minniebeth]

Sorry the weather for your Magic cruise was less than ideal!
A day in Epcot between 2 cruises~
It looks like you were off to a great start on the next part of your journey!
A mixology class in Meridian sounds awesome! That was probably one of my all time favorite spots on the whole ship!!

Enjoying following along~

 

[MrRay]

Dinner was in Animator's Palate


We were seated with two other couples at table 33



It's right next to a server station and a main path to the kitchen so there was a lot of action going on. At one point I genuinely thought a whole tray was going to fall onto Jenna's head. The whole dinner was a little chaotic and took a lot longer than we were used to. Our servers seemed a little grumpy too. Things were great from the next day on so I think it was just the craziness of the first night.


We also quickly discovered the other disappointing side of back to back cruising that we hadn't considered. Even though we were on two different ships the menu's were virtually identical at dinner. At least we had a few nights of new menu's since the cruise was longer. But kind of a bummer.

We were also keeping a lookout for our server from the previous year. His name was Diartha and was absolutely incredible. He totally made the cruise for us. The crazy thing was that he could have been on any ship, or on leave, or in either of the other 2 restaurants but shortly after we sat down I saw him walk past our table. Jenna saw my face light up and knew immediately that he must have crossed behind her.

At the end of dinner we walked up to him, he gave us a good long look as we walked over clearly remembering us but couldn't quite pick out our names. Anyway it was great to see him, we shared a few laughs and kept checking in with him during the week. These pictures are from the last night but this seems like a good time to throw them in.





This was the night of Turtle Talk with Crush. Last year we thought it was a nice bit of distraction for the first night with new table mates. This year it jut seemed loud and a little annoying. Maybe we're getting old...

Anyway like I mentioned earlier there was playoff football this day and my team was playing the night game. We missed the first half to dinner but stopped by O'Gill's for the third quarter.



There was a good amount of people there rooting for both sides and great energy.



But who can pass up the opportunity to watch a game on the funnel vision in the middle of the ocean at night.

So we rode up to the pool deck for the fourth quarter.




It.Was.Awesome.

As the game was ending it was definitely time to sleep. It was great day and you could feel that there were a lot more to come...

 

[ilovebassets]

We spent 8 nights on the Magic in pretty rough weather. We even missed Castaway Cay because of it which meant we had five days at sea and only two port days. It's hard to deal with when you've been looking forward to vacation for so long. But we had a great crew. I've heard people just don't put in the effort for 3 and 4 day trips in the same way.

 

[JKSWonder]

I found this trip report, but then went back to read your first one.

You really got some great photos of everything! I never noticed that "emergency" and "normal" button. I'm going to have to point that out to my husband...that's just the sort of thing that would make him laugh.

We sailed the Fantasy in August 2012 (loved it!) and our next Fantasy cruise is this August. I'm already getting antsy, unable to wait, so reading trip reports is tiding me over for the next few months. Keep it coming!

 

[MrRay]

We woke up at 7:30 to the sun streaming in through our windows. Upon closer inspection it was warm and wonderful out.

One of our favorite things is to go to the hot tub early. The ship is incredibly empty and calm.

We had breakfast in Cabana's shortly after and spent most of the morning enjoying the warm weather. It was a gorgeous day.








We did a little sunbathing and then enjoyed some time on the verandah...



When we were out and about we couldn't help but notice how much work was being done to the ship. Over the course of the week we saw them completely strip and re-stain at least 3 of the wooden towel holders. The ship was looking tip top.



It was a rather uneventful and perfectly wonderful morning.

 

[shy555]

Sigh so relaxing

 

[MrRay]

Gearing up for our afternoon Mixology class we stopped off at my favorite place for some coffee.



We had noticed something the day before but were hoping that it was just a one time thing, weirdly the ship was only using generic "Disney Parks" napkins.



I thought it was particularly strange because on cruise last year we were in a bar one time and an officer came in and told the bartender to not use the DCL napkins but to put out nicer ones, so they clearly take napkins seriously. Napkins aren't going to ruin my vacation but just one of those odd things.

Anyway we arrived in the Meridian Bar about 15 minutes early because I keep forgetting that it only takes 3 minutes to walk everywhere. Two gentlemen were getting the class ready and didn't seem particularly thrilled to see us early so we walked around the sports deck for a bit.

Closer to the proper start time we returned and the class began promptly. This was the third time we have taken a Mixology class, one of which was just a few days prior, so we've got a pretty decent idea of how they work. This one was very different and not in a particularly good way.



We all stood in front of the bar where half of most of the drinks were already made. There were 5 different set ups. Our host gave a little introduction then passed around a rum runner to everyone that was already made. Somehow there was a discussion about the little martini glass drink which I can't even remember and we got to try that. He then let everyone come behind the bar one at a time to prepare one drink for themselves and if they chose one that he hadn't explained then he would talk about it for a minute.



The organization of this made little sense to us because the other drinks that we didn't ourselves make we didn't try so most of us ended up having only tried 3 of the 5 drinks.

I can't recall a time when we have ever complained about anything before. There have been times when we'll get food in a restaurant thats completely cold but we are too sheepish to tell anyone. But we love our Disney Cruise Line and don't want to see quality slip like this. So we went straight from the class down to guest services. The woman at the desk went in the back and called the assistant beverage manager. When she returned she relayed his comments about how sometimes if there are too many people the class needs to be altered a bit to accommodate it yada yada yada. For what it's worth there were more people in the class on the Magic. Anyway she said that he would get in touch with us later in the day.

We spent more of the day on our verandah and I was wondering if the guy was going to call our room. We started to forget about the whole thing and just enjoy the sunshine. We weren't trying to get something for free anyway, we just wanted to make sure that the quality maintains.

Dinner was in Enchanted Garden and it was formal night. Few people took advantage of "Optional Dress up Night" on the Magic but Formal night on the Fantasy was a very fancy affair. We spent some time in the lobby before dinner watching people have pictures taken. We were also delighted to find waiters handing out complimentary wine and beer roaming the lobby. Two of our dinner partners were at Palo that night so it was just us and one other couple.

I had a fear in the back of my head since we had gone to Guest Services earlier in the day and it was realized about 5 minutes after we got to dinner. Our Head Server walked over and said that she had heard that we had a bad Mixology class earlier in the day and we had to tell the whole story. Then she left and the Assistant Beverage Manager came over and we repeated the story again. If we were just sitting at a table of our family this wouldn't have been a big deal but in front of two people that we just met the day before it was Super Duper Awkward. Anyway he asked if we'd like to take another Mixology class to make up for it and we said ok but then he started racking his brain about other things that were available and suggested the chocolate and beverage tasting. That sure did sound exciting so we graciously accepted and he was off. Then just for good measure the Head Server came back to check in once more and we were finally done with that whole exchange. We apologized to our table mates who assured us it was fine but we did feel like a pair of lushes.

The rest of dinner was thankfully uneventful and lovely.

Jenna and I both work in entertainment and have a hard time sitting through any of the shows but a simple good comedian is just what we were looking for and thankfully this night there was one. He was a comedian/ventriloquist whose name escapes me but his stand up was very funny, the ventriloquism started off rocky but he finished strong. We had some good laughs and went to bed happy.

 

[TheHippie524]

Could it be Taylor Mason? I know he was on the Dream for awhile as the comedian/ventriloquist. I think he's great!

 

[MrRay]

Once again we were up on the earlier side.



It was another picture perfect day. We decided to have breakfast in Royal Court. On last year's cruise we had a lot of eggs florentine. It was on the buffet every morning and Jenna was looking forward to it this year. Sadly they don't seem to put it out anymore and instead just put out Eggs Benedict. So we learned quickly on this cruise to just go to Royal Court and they would make it for us.



We even had the same waiter a couple times so the explanation of it got easier.

My breakfast of choice was a buckwheat crepe. It's full of egg whites and spinach.


Since Jenna's was a special request and mine is apparently so unpopular that they don't make them in batches breakfast takes a little bit longer but is made completely to order, and that's just fine by us.

Most of the rest of the morning was spent sunbathing and enjoying the outside. I think we rode the Aquaduck. We would hop on right at 9 when it opened so we never had to wait in line.

We had a quick lunch at Cananas and headed to our newly scheduled Chocolate and Beverage pairing at Ooh La La.

When we walked in that had little tables set up. They had set up a table for each group that booked so you were only sitting with our party, most of which were two tops.





The beverages were...
Tattinger Champagne, I think the special one they had for the Inaugural Year of the Fantasy.


A Red Wine from the John Lasseter winery.


A 10 Year Port.


And a heavy duty whisky... If you order this at the bar it's $35 a pour. We had less than a full pour obviously but still fine to try.


Our host was very educated and well spoken. We would try a drink and he would talk about how it tasted and what it was doing to our mouths and then we would try some of the chocolate and he would talk about how the taste changed. It was a very classy affair and we were very pleased that we were able to take it. When the class was over the Assistant Beverage Manager emerged to check on us and just chat us up for a while. We assured him that everything was wonderful. This was the type of quality and guest service that we hope for from Disney.

The rest of the afternoon was spent by the pool enjoying the weather.

 

[Linda67]

I really am enjoying your TR.
Thanks again for the screen shots from the App. It seems like a really great idea to use in combination with the daily navigator and I love that you can check out the menus for your evening restaurant
Shame that your Mixology class didn't turn out so great.
Your were right to go and feedback to guest services on your experience. It's the only way that they can fix things for future guests
I don't think they should have mentioned it in front of the other guests at your table though, that would have made me feel super awkward
Great that your got to experience the chocolate tasting - we love this!

 

[lauralynn0612]

Love your TRs!
Really liking the App screenshots! I wondered what they would look like.
Your photos are great. Do you use any editing software?