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

[my3m]

 

[magicron]

Day 4- Tuesday, March 24th
We had an excursion scheduled for Stingray City (booked direct with Captain Marvin’s); It’s their half-day tour that goes from 10am-1pm. We need to be downtown at their office by 9:30; ship time and local time are the same. I’ve read plenty of stories about not being able to tender at GC due to high waves, so it seemed like I felt every wave as we approached GC early in the morning – wondering if they were too high to be able to tender today.

We got up and were out the door by around 7:30 for breakfast at Topsiders. Our plan was to be ready to tender by 8:30. It was announced that tenders were beginning, so I could relax a bit, knowing that we were going to be able to spend the day at GC. The weather was great – just a few clouds, and a little breezy.

The tender process was very easy, and very organized. See the following link with my response to another thread regarding tendering at GC. Short version: we waited about 15 minutes to tender, and we were not treated like 2nd class citizens because we were doing GC on our own.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2158137


We were ashore by around 8:45 or 9:00, and had plenty of time to get checked in at Captain Marvin’s downtown office, and shop for some tee shirts. Our group hopped on a small bus around 9:30 to head to Captain Marvin’s boats. The driver mentioned that as of a few months ago, Captain Marvin no longer goes out on the tours. He’s in his 90s, up to a few months ago he would go out on the full-day tours.

We boarded our boat, with about 30 passengers. It was about a 25 minute boat ride out to Stingray City sandbar. A diver, with video camera, was on board, and took video of each group on the boat. We arrived at Stingray City, where there were probably 6-7 other boats already docked. Seeing others already in the water takes away a lot of the fear of jumping in with the Stingrays. Even so, it is a bit unnerving at first to have stingrays, with maybe 4-5 foot wingspan, swimming by you. The waves were a little choppy. The guide mentioned that yesterday they were not allowed to go out to Stingray City. The water, when still, is about waist high on adults, but the occasional wave could go overhead of a child. The guides caught Stingrays and brought them up for everyone to hold, feed, or get their picture or video taken. They do not take photographs; the videographer does capture footage of each group interacting with the Stingrays. We brought disposable underwater cameras to take photographs. After about 20-30 minutes, we got back on the boat and made two snorkeling stops at a couple coral reefs. Tip: Don’t take your jewelry with you snorkeling. One lady in our group lost a diamond earring while snorkeling. We had to wait for the videographer and guide to look for it – miraculously one of them found it in about 5 minutes. We made two snorkeling stops, very similar to each other. I wondered if the choppy waves changed the plan from where we were supposed to go. Even so, we had some good snorkeling and had a great time.

One of the guides gave us a large conch shell to take with us – problem was I could smell it in my beach bag by the end of the day, and when we were checking in to tender back to the ship, it appeared they were checking bags and not allowing these to leave GC. I was ready to get rid of it anyway, as it would have smelled up our stateroom the remainder of the trip. We left it at GC.

On the boat ride back to Captain Marvin’s house, the videographer played the video footage. He handed out business cards for those interested in ordering, with DVD being shipped home. BTW, I e-mailed the video company after I got home, and ordered the DVD. It was $65, including shipping cost, and arrived within a couple weeks of our cruise. This will be a nice keepsake of our trip. The folks at Captain Marvin’s did a great job on the tour, and were very helpful answering all my questions via e-mail before the trip. If you’re thinking about Stingray City, even if you don’t end up using them, I’m sure they can help you decide whether or not this is tour is something you want to do.

Once we were ashore, we loaded onto a small bus, and the driver dropped us off at Calico Jack’s (at recommendation of the driver). Based on my research, I was thinking we would go to Marriott Courtyard, but decided to give Calico Jack’s a try. It was 1:00 by now, so we really only have a couple hours, since last tender is at 4:30. Our objective was each lunch, rent some jet skis, and enjoy 7-mile beach for a bit. There was a water sports rental company right next to us, so before we sat down to eat, I made a reservation for a jet-ski for 2:00. It was $95 for half-hour; it wasn’t real crowded for jet skis so the operator said we could probably go 10 minutes extra, as long as no one was waiting.

I wanted to take the kids on jet-skis sometime during the cruise. Based on our plans for Cozumel, it didn’t look feasible there. Castaway Cay looked like more of an organized tour, rather than just playing on jet-skis. Plus, I didn’t want to save it for the last day, in case weather prevented it. I figured it best to work it into our stop at GC.

Calico Jack’s is an outdoor bar/restaurant. We sat down and ordered some drinks and a couple orders of chicken fingers and fries; again we tended to eat a big breakfast (buffet at Topsiders), and with early dinner seating, we ate light lunches.

I took each of the kids out on the jet-ski for about 15 minutes; that was about enough time for them to get the gist of it. DW was sitting on the beach watching us – we didn’t rent chairs, since we wouldn’t be there very long. The kids walked out into the water with their snorkeling gear for a bit, and then around 3:00 we decided it was time to head back to town. We boarded a van (taxi), and another DCL family shared the ride back to town. I can’t remember now, but seems like it was $5 per person back to town. I noticed there was also a DCL tour group on the beach, and they were starting to leave around the same time – you can pick out the DCL tour groups by the colored Disney character stickers they are wearing. Perhaps they were part of a DCL beach break excursion. We enjoyed our short time on 7-mile beach.

When we got to town, we took a few minutes to buy some tee shirts, and then got on the tender back to the ship. I didn’t want to be on the list tender at 4:30, or worse, miss it. When we got back on the ship, we went up to deck 9 for ice cream, and were able to watch the tenders coming back to the ship. Sure enough, 4:30 was the last one back, and very soon after, the ship left GC. Hope no one missed that last tender!

We took turns heading back to the room to clean up and get ready for dinner. Dinner tonight is at Lumiere’s, casual. We had another great dinner, and it was becoming easier to talk to the other folks at our table; family ages and stage in life were similar. We’re not necessarily outgoing people, but we enjoyed spending dinner with another family.

At 7:30 , we went to the family show at Rockin’ Bar D: Heath Hyche. He is a very funny ‘physical/prop/character’ comedian. He mentioned Red Skelton as a main inspiration. We all enjoyed it. Then it was time for 8:30 show “Twice Charmed” in the WD Theater. This was a very nice, and original, Disney production. Good story, well done.

The kids went to their clubs for a couple hours. OL (8-10 years) had a scavenger hunt, of sorts, looking for items for their upcoming talent show at 10:45. The talent show was basically letting the kids dress up, sing and dance to some songs from High School Musical. There was a well-crafted story on the scavenger hunt about trying to find some items that had been shipped for the scavenger hunt. They built the suspense with the kids as though there was a risk of canceling the talent show if they were not able to find everything, or if the shipped items had not arrived. This activity really gave me some good insight into the thought and planning that the counselors go through to prepare for an activity. They weren’t just a bunch of babysitters – rather many activities were well-scripted, complete with counselors playing a certain role or character. I also noticed this one night when we picked up DD9 from the ‘campfire’ – one of the counselors was telling campfire stories, dressed to play a certain role.

It was about 11:30 by now, and time to get to bed. It was a full day on GC, and full evening of activities, and we’re looking at another full day in Cozumel tomorrow, and the infamous Pirates In the Caribbean Party tomorrow night.

Hope to get this TR wrapped up this week! Thanks for watching!

 

[magicron]

Day 5 – Cozumel
We scheduled a dolphin swim directly with Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab Park. We were scheduled for the 2:00pm “Dolphin Swim Adventure”. I knew this might be a little tight, needing to get back by 6:00 for early seating, but calculated that we could make it. The plan for the day was to go to Chankanaab Park for the day, hang by the beach, get a snack, do a little snorkeling, and then go for our dolphin swim. BTW, we purchased some snorkeling equipment last summer; this made it nice to be able to snorkel whenever we wished, without thinking about how much it would cost to rent, etc.

One wrinkle to our plan: ships time and local time were going to be different. Christiaan reminded us to stay on ships time and not pay attention to local time. This meant that our dolphin swim would actually be taking place at 3:00 ship time – this could be really tight getting back. Based on my research I was under the impression ship time and local time would be the same in Cozumel, as others had reported it this way. Perhaps with the U.S. adopting an earlier daylight savings time, this put us out of synch with Mexico – at least that was my logic for it. You may want to research this a bit yourself before scheduling excursions at Cozumel.

We took our time getting up and to breakfast. DW and DD13 got their run in this morning, and then we went to Topsiders for our daily breakfast buffet ritual. We walked ashore around 10:00, and spent about a half hour shopping for tee shirts. I noticed a small coast guard ship at port, perhaps it’s always there, but with the recent unrest in Mexico, this made me feel that the rest of the island was likely being safely patrolled.

At the end of the shopping area there is a taxi stand, where a man brings up the next taxi, and shows the price list for various places. This makes communication with the driver easy, and the taxi stand gives you the security that you’re dealing with legitimate taxis. I was not buying all the hype about not being safe in Mexico: the media goes way over the top on this kind of stuff and Cozumel is a rather remote tourist area of Mexico. Turned out I was right. I never felt unsafe in the least bit, during our day in Cozumel.

The dolphin swim we scheduled included free transportation to Chankanaab; when we arrived at the park there were attendants available to take care of the voucher exchange with the driver. No problem. Our dolphin excursion also included free admission to the park – which is normally $16-17 per person. We stopped and let the kids get their pictures taken with parrots on their heads – a funny memory for $5 each. Chankanaab is very nice; but if you’re looking for a swimming beach, this may not be your best choice, as entrance into the water is a bit rocky, with handrails to assist when entering and exiting the water. Even so, there’s a pool area.

My new plan was to check with Dolphin Encounter to see if we could move our time up to 12:00. This was my original plan a few months ago, but that time slot was full. I went to the check-in desk, and told them about the difference in ships time; they were able to accommodate us at 12:00, though they were running about 30 minutes behind. Good thing we rescheduled, as perhaps the 2:00 would also have been running behind.

We walked on down to the beach and snorkeling area and claimed a couple wooden chairs with grass umbrellas – no fee to rent. One of the restaurants offers bar service, so waiters checked with us for drinks or food – we’re weren’t hungry yet. I went to the snorkeling equipment hut to rent some vests – I believe they were about $5 each. The water was a little choppy (a common theme on this cruise), I felt it was much safer for the kids to have these on. There were several cruise ships at port today, and a few of their tour groups snorkeled near us.

By this time it was about time to check in for our dolphin swim. After a brief orientation with the trainer, we went to our designated area. They split the group up into groups of about 8-10; I noticed that the ‘cruise ship’ groups were separated from those who scheduled directly. One of the guys in our group guessed they did this so that those who scheduled with the cruise ship wouldn’t find out how much less the rest of us paid – just a theory.

We got in the water. You stand on a metal ‘grate’ platform, where the water is about waist high on adults. Everyone has a life vest on, and parts of the swim the group is out away from this platform. The swim is very well organized – they keep things moving. As two people are getting ready for one thing (dolphin push or pull), others take their turn ‘shaking hands (fin)’with the dolphin or holding the dolphin. A photographer takes video and still pictures of each participant. It was a great experience to be that close to the dolphin and interact – we really enjoyed it. After getting out of the water, the guide takes the group to a little room to watch the video. It’s amazing that within about 10 minutes of the swim being over, they have the video ready to preview, complete with music, etc. Probably half our group skipped out on the preview. Following the preview, we’re led to the gift shop where our photos are developed and ready for viewing – I think we each had about 4 large pictures. The DVD is $40, not bad. The pictures are about $120. They never say the price, rather type into on a calculator, and then show us the number. I told them I didn’t need all 16 pictures, that I only need four. They came back with another offer – 8 pictures and the DVD for $115. We took it. I suppose we could have gotten the price lower with only four pictures, but we felt that the eight pictures were good enough. Bottom line, don’t take the first price, negotiate down to the pictures you actually want. Regardless, I thought it was great marketing/sales to have the DVD and photos ready within just a few minutes of the dolphin swim.
We went back to our chairs, and gathered up our stuff, then over to a restaurant for some nachos and soda. There was a line of taxis in front of the park; we shared a taxi back with another DCL family. They picked up free tee-shirt vouchers on the pier to cash in at Chankanaab; we missed that. Once back to the dock, we spent a few minutes looking through some of the shops. Back on board for ice cream snack on deck 9, then our usual clean-up rotation to get ready for dinner. Oh yeah, they had churros at the pizza station – I didn’t see them any other day, or evening.

Dinner tonight was in Animators. We dressed up for pirate night, though I was a bit surprised that not many others did. I would guess about 10% dressed up; others improvised with the bandana on the table. After dinner we got our picture taken with Jack Sparrow; it appeared to me that maybe more of the 2nd seating folks were dressing up for pirate night – or maybe it just looked near the photo areas.

Tonight’s event in the WD theater was the movie “Race to witch mountain”. This turned out to be a nice relaxing way to enjoy the evening before the pirate party. Following the movie, we went to deck 9 for the pirate party. It was a lot of fun, and a bit reminiscent of the sail away party. Fireworks were a nice touch, and there as a dessert buffet set-up for the end of the party.

By now, it was getting to be around 10:30. I can’t remember if the kids went to their clubs for an hour or so. Soon after we were in bed for the night. Today was another great day – we did a lot, even though we spent most of the day at Chankanaab. Tomorrow is our 2nd sea day, we’re looking forward to relaxing a bit.

 

[mommyofthreeboys]

Great updates!!!

I really want to swim with the Dolphins!

 

[Keggy]

THe dolphins sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[kittyscrap1]

Magicron....where are you? Great TR! Nice to see a Western. Look forward to the rest. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Momfromva]

My family and I were on this cruise too, Magicron! I am really enjoying reliving the cruise. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your cruise.