03/21/09 Magic Western - 25th Anniversary Celebration - updated 05/11/09

[magicron]

Before getting into the actual trip report, here’s a bit about the preparation for our trip. Since my mom lives in Florida 6-7 months out of the year, we’ve grown accustomed to 2-3 day stops at WDW at least once a year, sometimes twice. So, we’re definitely Disney fans -not just the stories and characters, but the brand, itself. If you’ve been to the parks, and then go to your regional amusement park, you know there’s a huge difference in the way Disney does things. From the way they treat their guests to the way they load the rides, it’s always done first class, and with precision.

About this time last year, we started thinking about our upcoming 25th wedding anniversary this year. Rather than the two of us going away for a week, we chose to make it a special family trip. We had already been thinking going on a Disney Cruise someday, and decided this was the perfect excuse to do it. So the cast is me, DW, DD13, and DD9. Late Spring last year, we booked Category 8, Deluxe Oceanview room, assigned room 7014 at time of booking. I don’t think the extra $$ will be worth paying for Verandah room. Years ago, before kids, we cruised on RCCL and Princess, and felt that we really weren’t in the room much. We waited until this past Christmas to tell the kids.

The DIS boards have been a great source for research. It’s amazing how many months I’ve poured over these boards to find information to plan our trip. BTW, now that I’ve done it, I laugh a bit at some of things people worry and fret about (me included), that really don’t much matter once the cruise gets going. Still, it’s good to have a plan, and research so as not to say later…”I wish I’d have known...”.

So here was the plan:
Fly from Ohio to Tampa, Florida the Thursday before the cruise. Stay with my mom for two nights, before driving about 2-1/2 hours to the Cape. Drop off rental car at Budget, take shuttle to the terminal.

Key West: No plans. Maybe rent an electric car to drive around, but will wait to see what it’s like when we arrive. My kids found that there are a couple geo caches in Key West, so perhaps we’ll look for those if we have time.

Sea days. Hang by the pool. We’re not sure how we’ll balance family time, kids club time, adult time, but plan to all eat dinner together in the dining rooms, and go to the main show as a family each night. We’ll figure out the kids clubs as we go.

Grand Cayman: booked 3 hour Stingray City excursion directly with Captain Marvin’s (10-1pm time slot), thanks to the recommendations here and on cruisecritic. We want to stop at 7-mile beach for waverunners and lunch, and during e-mail correspondence with the folks at Captain Marvin’s, they said they would drop us off on the way back to town.

Cozumel: Booked Dolphin Swim (directly) at Chankanaab, 2pm (local time) slot. Originally, we tried to be cheap by just booking the kids, but learned that DD9 needed an adult present. Given that the Dolphin swim qualifies for free admission to the park, and a free transportation deal if all four of us participated, it was just about the same for all four of us to do it, rather than only three of us. We thought about Paradise beach for water sports but realized we would have to move quickly to get the Dolphin swim in, and then move on. Plus, if we do two things in GC, perhaps we should slow it down a bit for Cozumel.

Castaway Cay. No plans. Probably just a beach day. Maybe waverunners if we weren’t able at GC. Kids can do activities with their clubs if they want to.

After the cruise, we’ll drive to my mom’s place for a couple nights before heading back to Ohio on Monday.

Coming up next…day one!

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Can't wait to hear more!

We are looking into the March 20th, 2010 Western cruise so I am REALLY interested reading about your experiences!!!

 

[O2BONDCL]

i can't wait to hear more about your cruise! We were on the 21-27 as well! Looking forward to hearing what you did!

 

[magicron]

Sorry for the delay...it's tough getting back to reality! Here comes day one; I hoped to add photos but, rather than delay further I'll try to post some later.

Day1 – Saturday, March 21, 2009
We arrived in Florida, Thursday evening, as planned, stayed at my mom’s for two nights, and left Sarasota on Saturday morning around 8:15. We were all excited to see the Magic as we approached the Cape Canaveral area, around 11:00am. It was an easy stop to gas up the car, and turn in at Budget. Luckily there was a shuttle just loading up; no line, no waiting.

We got to the pier, and were met by porters ready to take our luggage. We go in the terminal and up the escalator for check-in. We are directed to check-in towards the left -maybe a 10 minute wait in line to check-in. The terminal is a-buzz with people, anxiously waiting to board, getting pictures with characters, etc. We got boarding group 12. While checking in, the host tells my wife she can go to the other side of the terminal to get DD9 registered for her club.

Tip: the kids club check-in line was rather long. Split up when checking in: one parent go to check-in, the other to the kids club line. It was a good 20-30 minutes in the kids club line – but we since we were in group 12 we had time. You can take care of this onboard too – but we figured we’d go ahead and get this out of the way now.

Around 11:15-11:30 they called the first boarding group. We get through the kids club line, then go get our pictures taken for boarding. By the time we’ve done this and get a family picture with Mickey, it’s time for our group to board (around noon). Our family is introduced as we board the ship…a nice touch.

We are directed to Deck 9 to Topsiders, as Parrot Cay is full. We had no preference, really. And in hindsight, after seeing the deli sandwiches and pizza available on deck 9, the kids would have been happier with that, instead of the Topsiders buffet. We noticed right away the obsession with hand wipes each time we entered the dining rooms. As someone who has worked as a counselor at church camp in the summer, this looks like a great idea to bring to camp.

We eat lunch, explore the ship a bit, then go check out our room. It’s a nice room, deck 7, forward, portside. Nice big porthole. Split bathroom is a nice feature, since there are four of us. Room location was great…off the beaten path at front of the ship. It’s close to the elevators and stairs so we could easily get to deck 9 pools, or to deck 5 Oceaneer’s lab. Even though it’s near the elevators, the room was always quiet – no one running up and down hallways, etc.

We brought a change of clothes for the pool, but in all the excitement of touring the ship, the kids clubs, etc, we really didn’t have time to swim. We meet Edson, a really friendly OQ counselor who is from Brazil; my DD13 has been taking Spanish for two years, so they have a brief chat. We stopped in at Oceaneer’s lab (OL), for DD9 to check out. We give her check-in/check-out privileges, but we are issued a pager that tells us when she leaves. Very good control at checking kids in at out at OL.

Safety drill, and sail away party, and then we’re moving. It’s a great feeling after months of planning, not only to be on the ship, but finally cruising. There are plenty of people along the shore waving to us as we pull away from the cape.

It’s about time to get ready for Animators at 6:00, so we change (cruise casual) and head down for dinner. We’re at a table of 8, seated with another family of four, with kids with similar ages to ours. Our server is Diana, from Peru, and assistant server Elandi from South Africa, nice young ladies who made it clear that they expect feedback each night so they can improve; they tell us that their goal is to provide excellent service, and want to know right away if they are not meeting that goal. We’re out of dinner shortly before 7:30.

We go as a family to watch Mickey Mania, one of the family gameshows, at 7:30, then to the opening night show in the WD theater at 8:30. It starts with a quick orientation by our Cruise Director, Christiaan, then on with the show. Main attraction is a comedian, Dan Friesen, and juggler Max Winfrey. A good first night show - solid comedy entertainment, appropriate for a family audience.

Show ends around 9:30, so the kids decide to check out their clubs: DD13 is in OceanQuest (11-13) DD9 is in Oceaneers lab (8-10). DW and I go Rockin’ Bar D for Magic Quest and Match your mate. Our team just about won Magic Quest, but the winning team pulls it out at the end.

The seas are just a little rough for the evening, with moderate waves of 8-12 feet. At the evening show the captain says things should smooth out after midnight. Even, so it’s not too bad.

We’re all back to the room by about 11:30. My daughter is running track at school this year, and needs to get up in the morning to run before breakfast and our stop at Key West. A good first day…and as you can tell, we tried to do just about everything.

 

[cindy18]

Ron, how is it that we had the same dining rotation and never saw each other at dinner???? It felt great to read this post this morning since our first day was so similar to yours (you didn't mention the Dis meet!!!). I still can't stop laughing whenever I think about the Match Your Mate game. I've told so many people about that night and how hard we laughed. Sitting here on a Saturday morning, knowing that the Magic is in port and getting ready to head back out....sigh.

 

[magicron]

Forgot to mention the DIS meet. DIS meet on day one, on deck 10. About 8-10 families made it. This gave the kids a chance to meet some of the people they would later see in their clubs. Melissa hands out lanyard name tags for everyone in our group; she took it upon herself to go through the meet thread and find everyone's name. This was very nice, as it was easy to identify the group throughout the week. We decide that our next meeting will be Monday afternoon (sea day).

Speaking of laynards...if you're not a Castaway Club member, you'll pay $8.50 per laynard in the terminal. Castaway Club members get their own, for free. So if it's not important to you that you have the DCL logo on the laynard, find something cheap at home. The laynards do come in handy. I put my KTTW card, name tag (see above), and for excursions put my drivers license and a credit card in it; I never carried my wallet off the ship. In fact, I think I think I left my wallet in the stateroom almost the entire cruise.

Another interesting thing is that my daughter wore her school team sweatshirt when boarding. We had two people come up to us: one person graduated from the same school system, and lived about 20 minutes up the road from us. Another family came up to us; their kids are too young for school yet, but they live in the same elementary school area that we live in. Small world. We found this throughout the cruise, wear a college team tee shirt, and you'll easily meet people with some association.

Photo with Mickey in the terminal

Photo of us sailing away. It was fun to see the people in the restaurants and park waving to us.

Obligatory, muster drill photo

I'm working on day two! Stay tuned.

 

[MelissaE1]

Oh boy, a TR from our cruise! When I logged on it was advertised in the "last post" section of the front page, so I had to come check it out. Now I get to relive the trip and also see what another family was doing during the same time on the same ship. It's fun to get a totally different perspective.

We also met people in the terminal (in line for Minnie) that live right near us, how funny. In four cruises we've never been to Match Your Mate or Magic Quest. Guess we need to get with it!

Did you like the "community table"? We've always been seated at a table for four, but I think it might be nice to try it with another family. (DH does not, lol.)

My DD10 recognized your DD9 from the pic... she said they played "Scene It" together. I think they won hats.

Nice job...looking forward to the next installment!

 

[frdeb1999]

Nice start! Looking forward to more!

 

[Tiggerfan14]

looking forward to the rest of your TR we are doing the same cruise for our 25th in october! can't wait to hear everything

 

[magicron]

Day two-
Sunday March 22nd
DW and DD13 get up around 8:30 to run, shower, then all of us go to Topsiders for breakfast. We’re not stopping at Key West until 11:30, so we have time to take it easy this morning. The captain announces that we had a make an emergency stop around 3:00 in the morning at Port Everglades, so a passenger can get leave the ship for medical attention. They are trying to make up the time, and expect we’ll still arrive on time.

We dock at Key West, and we’re off the ship soon after. It’s a little windy today, and a little chop in the water, so some of the water sports excursions are canceled for the day. We are not affected, as we really don’t have much of a plan for Key West: just walk around a bit, maybe rent an electric car, drive to southernmost point, etc. There are a few shacks on the pier renting bicycles, electric cars/golf carts, jet skis, etc. I check at one of the electric car shacks, and we can get a 4-seater for the day for about $130, so we go for it. There’s stretch golf cart at the end of the pier to take us to our cart, and soon we’re on our way. Drove on Duval Street, then on to the southernmost point,. Tip: If you rent an electric car, be sure to have some quarters for parking meters. We spent time finding a parking place, and once we did, we were scrambling for quarters. We get our picture taken at the southernmost point sign, and stop by the Hemingway house (but didn’t go in, it was about $12 for adults, $6 for kids).

DD13 has a GPS and has done a little bit of geo-caching, but it’s still a bit new to us all. She found on the internet that there are a couple geo-caches at Key West, so we drive over to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, where one is hidden. GPS tells us we’re about 10feet away from it, off a path a bit into the woods. I get a long stick to poke around the ground cover…no telling what might be hiding there. We search for a few minutes, but can’t find it. Along comes another guy with his GPS, looking for the same cache. He’s not on the ship, but just down from Ft. Lauderdale for the weekend. He can’t find it either. We’re ready to give up, when a DCL family of three comes over with their GPS. None of us can find the cache. On our way out of the parking lot, we see a group of 4 DCLers with their GPS heading to the same place we were. No luck. It was funny, that many people looking for the same thing at the same time. If you’re wondering “what is geocaching?”, you can read all about it at http://www.geocaching.com . It turns out there are caches on Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay, but we didn’t have time to pursue those.

We stop to do a little shopping at Del Sol, and at the Blond Giraffe for some key lime pie and the famed chocolate-covered key lime pie on a stick (yum!). Since we ate a late buffet breakfast, we didn’t eat lunch. This was our snack, as we have early seating dinner at 6:00. By about 4:30 we’re ready to get back on the ship, with a stop for ice cream snack on deck9 – ok so we had two snacks in lieu of lunch, we’re on vacation! One by one, we start heading back to the cabin- I believe I went to the hot tub at Quiet Cove for a little bit. We certainly don’t need all four of us in the cabin at the same time trying to get cleaned up and dressed for dinner.

We’re at Parrot Cay tonight -6:00 at Parrot Cay (BTW, our rotation this week is APLLAPL). Our drinks are quickly brought to our table: Elandi already knows our routine. Tonight’s dinner has a Carribean theme, and I found the food tonight to be a bit better than last night. I’m not really a food snob – I can find something, and this is also a good time to try something new. I believe this was the night I got a crab dip appetizer with a few tortilla chips – very good. I can’t remember exactly what I had each night. I do remember that DD13 had some kind of Caribbean chicken, and really enjoyed it. Our tablemates didn’t show – perhaps they didn’t like us, and asked to change their seatingJ. It looks like the dining room is about 3/4 of normal, so the service is much faster tonight. Since we don’t leave Key West until 7:30pm, I suppose some of the early seating folks are not on the ship yet.

We were out by 7:00, so this gave us some time to sit on some chairs on deck 4 to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, the sun set behind some clouds, so it’s not spectacular night to watch the sunset. Over on the starboard side, we can see the crowd of people at Mallory Square watching the sunset. When we left there around 4:30, things were just starting to get set up for the evening, so we missed out. We went as a family to see “Who wants to be a mousketeer?”. It was fun, but none of us were selected to play. They hand out numbers to each person on the way in, and then chose contestants by calling off a number.

Max Winfrey, primarily a comic juggler, is the entertainment in the WD Theater. I was skeptical as to whether or not he could carry the show for the full 60 minutes, but he did a good job, and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.

Sometime along the way we I’m sure we stopped in some of the shops – there’s a deal for a free pin with purchase, and there are three different pins for the week. DW bought a nice Mickey bathing suit. We stopped by shutters at some point during the evening to check out some of the pictures.

It’s 9:30. We all go back to the room to change. The kids are headed to their clubs for a few hours. Since we have a sea day tomorrow, we can all sleep in a bit, so we let the kids stay out to around 12-12:30. And, tonight we set our clocks back an hour, as we’re moving into the central time zone. OQ club will be making pizza tonight at 10:30, and then exclusive (and free) time in the arcade at 11:30. OL will break up the boys and girls to hang out in the lab, then have pizza & ice cream at 11:15. DW and I go to see comedian Don Friesen at 10:30 in Rockin’ bar D. This is an adult-only show, however in true Disney Style, it’s PG, maybe PG-13 at worse – but nothing raunchy. DW and I go up to deck 9 for a couple slices of pizza, and then back to the cabin; the kids aren’t too far behind. And so, day two comes to an end – it’s a good thing we have that extra hour of sleep, and don’t need to be up for anything tomorrow.

 

[pamrob]

subbing . . enjoying your report

 

[PrincessBelle39]

subbing . . enjoying your report

Me too.

 

[kileybeth]

Yeah, a western trippie! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[gomagic]

Day two-
Sunday March 22nd
DW and DD13 get up around 8:30 to run, shower, then all of us go to Topsiders for breakfast. We’re not stopping at Key West until 11:30, so we have time to take it easy this morning. The captain announces that we had a make an emergency stop around 3:00 in the morning at Port Everglades, so a passenger can get leave the ship for medical attention. They are trying to make up the time, and expect we’ll still arrive on time.

We were on the same cruise and wondered what our tablemates were talking about when they mentioned that the ship stopped at Port Everglades during the night. Obviously my mom and I must have been somewhere where the announcement could not be heard.

 

[skiingwife]

Great report. Keep it up. I especially enjoy hearing about the ocean quest activities and the night time shows and game shows. Thanks

 

[mackeyapp]

Great report to date! We are going on our first cruise in June so I am hanging on your every word.

 

[magicron]

Day 3 - Monday, March 23, 2009

(I had to dig out my Navigators, so I could remember the details. That, and getting pictures uploaded, makes it hard to update quickly)

Today is our first ‘sea day’. I look forward to these, since we don’t need to be any place at a certain time. We take our time getting up this morning, though DD13 and DW get up to run. We go up to Topsiders for breakfast. It’s a beautiful day – bright sunny sky, and comfortable temperature. The seas are relatively calm, 4-8ft, just a little breezing, but deck 9 is very comfortable.

After breakfast we head up to deck 9 to claim a spot by the Goofy pool. We are able to claim two chairs, but it would be nice if people would take their towels with them when they are done with the chairs, so we know they are no longer being used. Bar service is a tad aggressive; seems like about every 5-10 minutes there’s another person checking on us. But, eventually they wear us down, and we order a couple smoothies around lunchtime. Our plan for the day is to hang out by the pool, and read a book. The kids spend some time in the pool or the hot tub. I thought about going to the DVC presentation, but got too comfortable hanging out by the pool, and didn’t go -maybe next time.

Around noon, it starts clouding up, and rains. We take this time to head for cover and get some pizza and soda. By the time we’re done, the sun is back out, and there are now plenty of deck chairs available. CMs have cleared the towels from the chairs and straightened them, back to original condition. We have no trouble getting 3 chairs together – the kids are coming and going to clubs/deck activities, so no need to tie up two chairs for them.

The kids stop in on their clubs throughout the day, but perhaps for an hour or two at a time. They each have activities on the sports deck, DD9 is making flubber in OL in the afternoon. In the afternoon, David leads the kids in some line dancing by the Goofy pool. Minnie and Donald show up to participate. This was very well done; all the kids looked like they were having a great time, and those in the pool could also participate. David did a great job teaching kids all the steps and moves.

We get some ice cream and cookies (from Cove Café) for a mid-afternoon snack, and then start heading to the room around 4:30. Tonight is formal night so we get cleaned up, dressed up, and then out for a few pictures before dinner at Lumiere’s.

Our tablemates are back with us tonight. Turns out they stayed a bit longer at Key West, so were not able to make it for dinner last night. We change our seating just a bit to make it easier for the ladies to talk to each other, and the men talk to each other. In hindsight, perhaps we should have arranged our seating at the table to make it easier for the kids to chat with each other, too. The dining room is much more crowded tonight, so we probably were done around 7:15 or so.

Don Friesen, the comedian on the big show Saturday night is performing a ‘family show’ in Rockin’ Bar D at 7:30, so we go to that as a family. It was a good show, and appropriate material for families. Then it’s on to the Golden Mickey’s at 8:30 in the WD theater - a great Disney production, with appearances by many of the classic Disney characters, and stories.

We all go back to the room to change; the kids are off to their clubs for a couple hours. DW and I go to Rockin’ Bar D to see juggler Max Winfrey, probably with a stop before to shutters and to one of the shops to buy a photo album and pick up our free pins.

Tomorrow is Grand Cayman day. We need to be ashore, and in town by 9:30am, so we call it a night around 11-11:30. Sea days are a nice chance to relax, and enjoy the ship. Today was a great day!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

really enjoying your report ....looking forward to next installment

 

[TammyNC]

Great report, can't wait for more.

 

[40-Something Kid]

This is very helpful. Thanks to you, we now plan to get an electric car in Key West. That looks so fun and practical!

You write very well, by the way.

I would love to hear more, if you are up to it. We are on the 16 May Western on the Magic.

Thank you, FSK