06/24/2006 - Twice the Magic Trip Report

[SuJo]

My family and I just got back from the June 24th Double Dip and it was an amazing time. We met so many wonderful families from the DisBoards on this cruise that it really made this trip something special. I wanted to start writing up my trip report so I don’t forget anything so here it goes – beware it will be a long post as I love to talk (just ask the other Disers from the trip).

The cast members of this trip report include my DH-Anthony, our DD-12 and DD-8 and myself-Susan.

Day 1 – Friday June 23rd – Our vacation finally began on Friday morning as we flew out on Southwest Airlines from BWI. The plane was packed as it seemed that everyone in Baltimore decided to head to Orlando for the week. We arrived in Orlando at 11:35 and all 5 of our bags made it as well (I tried not to over pack but it didn’t work). After getting our luggage, we met up with our limo driver from Tiffany Towncar. I have used them in the past and have always had a great experience with this company. We had a nice comfortable drive to Cape Canaveral and the Radisson at the Port. This is a great hotel to stay at the day before your cruise. The rooms are big and the pool is great for the kids. We headed to our room and pulled out the swimsuits. I wasn’t sure if I was going swimming because we had a disboard meet by the pool at 2 but I wanted to be prepared to start working on that vacation tan. We headed down to the pool area and I put a green Mickey head sticker on my cover-up to help identify myself to the other Disers. It didn’t take long. We first met up with bartjwb. Their DD and our youngest DD had been emailing each other before the cruise. The two of them headed off and were together the rest of the night. My DH and I sat with bartjwb and had our first of many drinks for the evening. My DH went to the bar and started up a conversion with someone also waiting for a drink. We come to find out it was BethA’s DH that he was chatting with. So we added two more to the merry group. After a short time, Carole88 arrived with her two DD’s and DH. Our DD’s had been emailing her DD’s before the trip as well so they were all very happy to finally meet. We spent the next 4 hours getting to know everyone and enjoying a lot of beers and drinks from the bar. Around 6ish the DHs headed off to the local liquor store to get ready for the cruise. The rest of the families headed back to their rooms to clean up and have some dinner. We pretty much crashed after that as the beers and drinks at the bar had made us all sleepy.

End of Day 1

Day 2 – Saturday June 24th – Today was my DD’s 12th birthday and the day we set off on the cruise. Everyone was very excited. We put our suits on under our clothes so the girls could go swimming after we got onto the ship. I put on my lime green shirt so that other disers would be able to recognize me (little did we know that lime green is a very popular color for this summer). We headed down for a quick breakfast and to get a bell hop to help us with all our luggage. We met up with bartjwb and BethA as we waited for the 10 o’clock shuttle (which didn’t leave until 10:20). I also met bairdbeth for the first time as she was also waiting for the shuttle (our DD’s had played the night before but we hadn’t formally met). We arrived at the port around 11ish and went straight to the checked in counter. With all the registering that we did on line, check in at the port went very smoothly. After checking in with the ship, we headed over to the kids club check in corner. There was a little line but it moved quickly. I signed both girls into the clubs. I had originally planned to only let my DD-12 be able to check herself in and out of the clubs but after some persuasion from my DD-8 and the fact that her friend was also going to have this privilege, I decided to go ahead and let her have check in and out privileges (It ended up being a great thing). Carole88’s family was already there so we went over and sat on the couches with them, bartjwb’s family joined us as well. All of our DD’s were now best of friends so they were bopping around the terminal. I saw a strange woman in green glasses headed our way and I recognized her immediately as musicgirl (she had informed us on the boards that she would be wearing these interesting lime green sunglasses). We introduced ourselves as the Radisson crew and she pointed out some of the other disers from the board. Musicgirl had made everyone a magnet that was the lime green Mickey head with the words “Double Dip Cruise”, our DisBoard name, and “June 24, 2006”. It was really great to get this and put it on our door for other Disers to locate us. She also had made up a postcard magnet with the Double Dip Cruise and date. We each got one of these as well and put it on our doors. The boarding process started and we boarded with group 5. We walked on the ship and got our picture taken and headed straight up to the Mickey pool. It felt weird not having to run off and do Palo reservations or Spa reservations, I felt that I was missing something. We had a quick bite to eat at Pluto’s Dog House and the girls went in the Goofy pool as we waited for the Mickey slide to open. The deck was pretty empty and we got a table close to the pool. The girls were the first ones down the Mickey slide when it opened. While the girls swam, I walk around the ship to find the hair braiding stand. Here are some pictures of the boat:

This is the new jumbo TV by the Goofy pool. As you can see by the clouds in the background, we were worried about rain for the sail away party.

Here is the Mickey pool, pretty empty as you can see.

I ran into Carole88 and her family in the spa making reservations. I told her where the girls were sitting so that the DD’s could get together. As I was walking around the ship I ran into another fellow Diser, 1happyfam. We were both wearing green and we were looking at each other as if the other was wearing green on purpose. We introduced ourselves and I told her where we were by the Mickey pool. I headed back to the pool and met up with my family as well as the other Disers. The adults started talking about the various tasting that were to be held throughout the week (martini, wine, beer, and margarita). We decided to sign up for a few so Carole88 and I headed for guest services. On our way we noticed people waiting in the hallways for the rooms to become available. This was new to me. I was very surprised to see everyone hanging out by the elevators and not up on deck enjoying the first day on the ship. We made it down to guest services and signed up for the martini and margarita tasting and then headed back to the pool. At around 1:30ish the rooms were available so we headed down to see what was in the room. I had preordered two baskets for the girls from ThePerfectGift as well as stateroom decorations for my DD’s birthday. Both the baskets and decorations were in the room and my DD’s loved them. A big Thank you goes out to Shirley as the girls loved their baskets. The luggage wasn’t there yet so the girls started checking what was on the TV. My DH decided to head down to Diversions where they were having a Meet the Pub Master. BethA’s DH had informed the men about this gathering and they all headed off for the first of many drinking sessions in Diversions. I stayed in the room and unpacked the luggage when it arrived. I also put my door signs up so everyone would know we had arrived. I have to say that I really enjoyed decorating the door. I made signs/decorations for the different days during the week and it really made coming back to the room fun.

4:30 hit and it was time for our lifeboat drill. We put on our jackets and headed out to life boat drill station K. After the drill it was up to deck 10 and the Disboard meet. As musicgirl mentioned in one of her posts we ended up on the wrong side of the ship that we had originally planned but I think everyone found us as we were the group in lime green. This is when I met Princess VIJA, cykojoe, Tinky624, disgal, Minnie, dipdotdarlin, and many others. Here is a quick picture of some of the Disers:

It did start to rain but we hung in there and finished the party. It was now time to head down and get cleaned up for dinner. We had early seating so we needed to be ready by 5:45. We started at Parrot Cay for dinner and our servers were Raman and Oana. They were nice but nothing outstanding. You could really feel the boat moving as the storm had come in and made the seas a little rough. My DD-8 said she wasn’t feeling well so she didn’t eat much dinner. After dinner we headed to our first show, All Aboard Let the Magic Begin. It was a great show. After the show the kids headed to the kids clubs and we headed down to Rockin’ Bar D. We met up with BethA, Carole88, and bartjwb at bar. The group performing was the Breakers. We all got our drinks and waited for the game “Mate Your Mate”. BethA’s parents were on the ship and it was their 50th wedding anniversary. When the game started they were looking for 3 couples: the longest married (which BethA’s parents won hands down), the shortest married, and the craziest. BethA’s parents were great and you could tell by their answers that they really knew each other after 50 years. We had a great time listening to the questions and the answers that each partner gave. When the points were totaled, BethA’s parents won the game (I think they didn’t even miss a question). We hung out for a short while to listen to the band but then headed back to our rooms for a good night sleep. We were due at Castaway Cay in the morning.

End Day 2

 

[AAOSAM2]

Great report Can't wait to hear the rest. As we are going on the Sept double dip cruise.

 

[BethA]

GREAT report so far!!!
I love reliving the cruise through your posts.

Beth

 

[SuJo]

Before I start day three (or day two on the ship) I just wanted to say that the thing that made this cruise so much more fun than expected was all the new families we met on the Disboards (as you can see from my posts). My DDs were so busy with their new friends my DH and I actually had some time to ourselves and were able to hang out with other members from the boards. This really made the cruise that much more enjoyable.


A few things I forgot to put in the Day 2 post – First at the sail away party, Tinky624 handed out these great line green key chains to mark the Twice the Magic cruise. They were great and I have already put it on my key chain. That way I can look at it everytime I pull my keys out and remember what a great trip we had. Also at dinner they brought the birthday cake out and sang to my DD-12 for her birthday. She was very happy that they didn’t forget as she kept asking me if they were going to sing to her.

Day 3 – Sunday June 25th at Castaway Cay – We woke up in the morning with the ship docking at Castaway Cay. It has been so long since we have been back that we were all excited to get to the beach.

My DD-8 decided she wanted to get breakfast first so my DH and DD-12 headed off to the beach to grab some chairs and my DD-8 and I headed to Topsiders for a little breakfast. It was pretty crowded at the buffet as a lot of people had decided to grab a bite to eat before hitting the island. After breakfast we headed off the ship. We were told that the ship from the new Pirates movie was at Castaway Cay but we couldn’t see it as we headed to the island (we found out later it was behind the ship). We had just missed the tram so we decided to walk. On the way to the beach we ran into Mickey and Minnie and got some pictures with my DD-8. We walked along the beach until we found my DD-12 and DH. They were sitting next to Carole88 and bartjwb and their families. This worked out well since all the girls could play together. I had gotten the special 2-Day snorkel, float, and bike package for Castaway Cay so I grabbed a few strong men and headed over to Gil’s Fins and Boats to pick up snorkel gear and then the floats. With the floats we got 3 tubes and one raft. The kids grabbed the raft and headed out in the water. Needless to say we lost that raft shortly after that as the kids left it on the beach and someone nabbed it. We had 3 other floats so it really didn’t bother us too much but it was annoying that it went so early in the day. I had booked the Stingray excursion for 11:00 so at 10:30 we gathered up the crew and headed down the beach to Serenity Bay (which is where the excursion is near).

We were given a mask and snorkel and told to wait for the briefing. We ran into bairdbeth here with her DD. The briefing was about the stingrays, how big they get, facts about them, and to let us know that they did not have their stingers as they are removed. We were told that when we are in the water we need to shuffle our feet so as not to step on the rays. They had these really neat platforms that the stingrays would swim up onto and then we could feed them on the special Mickey Head plate.

(where did my hand go!!!)

My DD-12 would have nothing to do with this excursion. She sat on the beach and pouted the whole time. My DD-8 was scared at first but after a while I got her slowly into the water and she had a great time. This was a great way to interact with stingrays because you weren’t afraid of getting stung. Feeding them was really neat. They would swim right up and suck the food out from between your fingers; it was a strange feeling the first time. During the feeding session all of the stingrays were swimming around our feet and it felt neat.

They are very soft on the underside and would just sweep across your feet. After we were done feeding, we went to get our masks and snorkels. The stingrays keep swimming around my toes. I think because I had dark nail polish on and they thought it was food. Once we got our masks and snorkels we went out and swam with the rays. A bit of advice to anyone doing this excursion, interact with the rays during the feeding time because once they realize the food is gone they go away and want nothing to do with you. We could see them in the sand but they tried to stay away from everyone.

After the rays we headed back just in time to get lunch with Carole88 and bartjwb. We ate at Cookies and had cheeseburgers, ribs, and chips. The cookies were outstanding as usual.

We headed back to the beach where I decided it was time to snorkel. I hadn’t had a chance to go out and find the Mickey statue before so I thought I would give it a try. I put on my snorkel gear and headed out. There were no fish to be seen for a long time. I found the sunken ship, sunken submarine, various cannons, and another ship like structure. I swam everywhere and finally when I almost gave up, I found the Mickey statue close to the ship mast that is in the water. There were a lot of kids there and it was hard to see with the water all churned up. I headed back to shore and saw that a storm was around us. It was about 2:30 and we decided to head back to the ship so we wouldn’t get caught in the storm. Luckily for us it never hit, it stayed around the island but never passed over us. On the way back to the ship we finally saw the Flying Dutchman from the Pirates movie. Here are some pictures:

We went back and took showers to clean up from the beach. Dinner was at 5:45 at Lumiere’s and we had an appointment at 7:30 for the girls to get their hair braided. Dinner was great, as usually except the kids kept ordering stuff not on the menu. After a while Daman would ask at the beginning if he needed to run out and get a grilled cheese sandwich for my DD. After dinner I took the girls up to the hair braiding stand. They did really well this time as no one cried. My DD-8 still had conditioner in her hair from the shower so they had to try and rinse it out at the chairs. After the hairbraiding we headed over to the show which was the magician Mike Super with a juggler. We sat with BethA and bartjwb. BethA’s DH was picked to go up on the stage and help out with the unicycle trick. It was very funny and we told him that he should have kept the hair. After the show the girls headed to the kids clubs while my DH and I went to Studio Sea to watch Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer? As you enter the bar you are given a number. When the show starts a computer randomly picks a number. Every contestant in this show was a kid and each of them won. After the show we headed to Diversions and met up with BethA’s DH (he knows most of the bartenders on the ship), Carole88, and bartjwb. We had a lot of interesting drinks and shots at the bar that the bartender Jez had created. They were very tasty and packed a lot of punch. We stumbled back to our rooms and crashed for the night. Good thing the next day was a sea day.

End of Day 3

 

[1happyfam]

Susan- love the report so far.Great to hear what everyone did it's like reliving it. Come join the reunion thread on cruise meets. I love your pics!!

 

[Babs417]

Good job on your report. What kind of camera do you have pic were great.

 

[curlybop]

Great report so far! Excellent pictures also. Keep on going!!

 

[SuJo]

Babs417 - Before the cruise I went out and purchased a new camera because my was old and kind of clunky. I bought a Canon PowerShot SD600. It is a great small camera that has a huge display screen (one of the reasons I bought it). I have always had great pictures from Canon digital cameras.

Susan

 

[Babs417]

Susan thank you

 

[jlawall]

Great pics and trip reports so far! We were originally scheduled to sail with you but we switched to another line for this year. I love hearing about your trip and CC looks amazing. We will be returning to DCL next summer for a Med cruise! Keep those reports coming!

 

[SuJo]

Day 4 – June 26th At Sea – Today was our first day at sea and the kids were really looking forward to playing in the kids clubs. It was also our first day to sleep in as we weren’t in a rush to go ashore for any excursions or beach time.

(Trip report from DD’s) - The kids started out at the sports deck where the exercised with Goofy. Then they headed back to the lab and had free time. After a while a detective came in and they had to solve the mystery of who stole the pixy dust. They had to find clues around the lab that included a bag of lays, a diet coke can, and a power bar. Then they investigated them with detective equipment. They were able to determine it was one of the councilors, Brandy. It was her dog’s birthday and she wanted to fly home and see her dog. The girls headed back to one of the rooms and ordered room service (this seemed to become a habit with the girls once they found out the food was free).

My DH and I had Palo reservations at 11 for brunch. Carole88 and her DH were also scheduled for brunch at 10:30 so we were able to combine groups and have brunch together. This is the first time I have eaten at Palo’s and I have to say that the food there is amazing. They have 3-4 tables of cold brunch food (fish, cheeses, and desserts). Then you get to order from the hot food displays which included pizza, omelets, chicken, and pasta. My DH and I split a pizza and a steak and mushroom omelet, delicious. Next was the dessert table and if you like chocolate (I love chocolate) then this is the table for you. The table consisted of a variety of different chocolate dishes. I tried to sample as many as I could . It’s been a while since we have been able to go out for a nice meal with out kids and we had a great time getting to know Carole88 and her DH. The view from Palo’s is really nice as you can see the front of the ship. It was funny to watch people walk around in front of Palo’s because it is very windy up there and ladies really needed to watch their skirts. After rolling out from brunch we changed our clothes and relaxed up on deck 9 while we waited for the Martini tasting. The Martini tasting was at 4:00 down in Sessions. Attendees included Carole88 and her DH, BethA’s DH, and me and my DH (we also saw Musicgirl and a couple other Disboard members as well). The server from Cove Café was our presenter (I forget her name right now but I think it was something Mama) and she gave us background information on Martini’s, like where they came from, where they got their name, and what types of alcohol and mixes are used to create them. The first one we tried was the original dry martini (yuck). Needless to say this one didn’t go over well. Most of us ended up letting BethA’s DH have it. We then tried the dirty martini which also didn’t go over well and we gave those to BethA’s DH as well. Next was the Chocolate Martini which has always been my favorite drink (see chocolate note above). Lastly we had a Cosmopolitan. It was a great way to learn about the various types of gin and what makes a good Martini. I personally like the flavored martini’s over the original. Mama told us that each bartender on the cruise had their own special drinks and we should make sure we go and try them if we had a chance.

After the tasting (and a good buzz) we headed back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner. Tonight was Formal night and we needed to get the girls cleaned up and dressed for dinner. We found them hanging out in the room watching movies and eating popcorn. Our dinner was in Animator’s Palate. It was really neat to watch the room change colors. This is one of my favorite places to have dinner. Something new this time was that Sorcerer Mickey came out and did a parade through the dining room.

After dinner we tried to get a family picture with everyone dressed up in the Atrium lobby. Again there were long lines for pictures, since we had to stay to the end of dinner to watch the servers change color we now had to deal with the people with late seating getting pictures as well as everyone from early seating that was done with dinner. I guess of all the great things on the cruise the one bad thing that I didn’t like was all the lines for pictures. They had a lot of chances in the atrium with Mickey and Minnie, ship backgrounds, the statue of Mickey and the wheel but every time we went through this area it was packed. When we did finally get in line for a family picture in front of the railing it took almost 20 minutes. After the picture we ran back to the room to change our clothes and then headed to the theater for the “Golden Mickey’s”. I remember this show from the last time we cruised. It was cute. After the show we all headed to Rockin D Bar for the Golden Mickeys After Party with LIVE band and Mike Super. We enjoyed the band as we waited for Mike Super. We had a large Disboard group at this function with Carole88 and DH, BethA and DH, bartjwb and DW, and I think 1happyfam and DH were there as well. Mike Super is amazing, if you get a chance to see his show then do it. He did this amazing trick with three people’s wedding rings and interlocking them. We couldn’t see how he did this, it was pretty cool. After Mike finished the band returned. We stayed for one more drink and then called it a night. We were docking in Costa Maya the next day and needed to get some sleep.

End of Day 4

 

[bairdbeth]

Hi! We just got back last night late! How we miss the Magic! It was great to meet ya'll. DD enjoyed this cruise more than our first because she had friends this time on board. Tell your DD's that Taylor says "Hi!"

 

[Disney? Again?]

What great reports! It's like being there with you!

Suggestions for the door decorating? My husband's birthday is day 2 and we've never done that.

Thanks again! I am thrilled you had such a good time!

 

[SuJo]

Disney? Again? - As for door decorations. I created mine using Microsoft PowerPoint. I inserted a clipart picture of a birthday cake. I then did a google on Disney clipart. I found a bunch of sites that had really cool disney characters as clipart and was able to download them into PowerPoint. I also found the Disney font and used that to write on the picture. It is easy to download them from the web to your computer and most of the time you just double click the file you downloaded and it will be put into you Microsoft clipart/fonts. Hope this helps. I found magnetic paper at the local Giant (Xerox Color Injet Magnets). I like these better because they have glossy, water-resistant finish. I bought some on the web that were paper attached to a magnet sheet but I like the glossy better. You can probably google the Xeror Color Inkjet Magnets and see if someone sells them on line or check your local staples or grocery store. Let me know if I can be more help.

Susan

 

[musicgirl]

Hi Susan! I'm having fun reading all the reports!!! I think our group of disers get an A+ for the most trip reports!!!!

 

[tjeagle]

Great report! Looking forward to more!!

 

[SuJo]

Day 5 – June 27th Costa Maya – Today we are docking at Costa Maya. We had booked a tour thought David and Ivan so we need to be at the Cat’s Meow by 9am. We headed up to Topsiders to grab some breakfast and then headed off the ship. We brought a small soft sided cooler with some water and juice for the DDs. After walking off the ship we headed to the end of the pier, through the little market, and out in to the street where we could pick up a cab. The cab driver took us to the Cat’s Meow which is on Majahual beach (our cab fare was only $8 for the four of us). We arrived just before 9 and were the last ones there. They put us into groups of 10 and loaded us into air conditioned vans. We ended up in a van with cykojoe and his family. The drive took about 30 to 45 minutes through Costa Maya and neighboring towns. We arrived at the Chacchoben Ruins and we were given a chance to walk around the little shopping area and to use the facilities. This is also the time that we put on bug spray. It was very hot and muggy so we figured the bugs would be out in force. There were about 40 people in our group including cykojoe’s family and 1happyfam. We were given a bottle of water for the tour. Our tour guide was Ivan and he was great. He held us off to the side while the tours from the Disney Cruise arrived and started to head into the ruins. He wanted to give us some background information about the Mayans before we started and wanted the other tour groups to be out of our way when we got the ruins. The history was amazing and it really helped when we walked through the Ruins.

It was amazing to find out that this area had only been discovered in 1972 and was still in the process of being excavated. Most of the temples were still under a lot of earth, dirt, and trees.

As soon as we got to the top of this big hill so we could see temple number 1, the heavens opened and it poured.

We all huddled under trees to try and stay dry but it was a very large down pour. Once it let up we headed around the temple and down the other side. Ivan lead us through the streets of where the Mayan people would have lived and then back to the service area. It was a great experience and Ivan was an outstanding tour guide. Once back in the service area we dried off and got some water. We got back into our vans and on the way back to the boat our drive bought some pineapple from the locals selling it on the sides of the road (there were clusters of people selling food and water every few miles on the road to Chacchoben. The pineapple is sold with chili powder which you sprinkle on the top. I tried some with the chili powder but most enjoyed it plain. It was really fresh and tasted great. The van dropped us back at the dock rather than taking us back to the Cat’s Meow. It was still raining so we decided to just head back to the ship.

We went and took a show since we were sticky from the rain and bug spray mixture. We went up on deck 9 for a soda and to grab a snack before dinner. It was hard to find a table as it was pretty crowded. I guess the rain brought a lot of people back to the ship. Dinner was at Parrot Cay again tonight and our DD-8 decided to eat in the kids club. My DD-12 had dinner with us and then helped us get seats at the Twice Charmed show. Since this was a new show we wanted to get a seat. My favorite show from the last cruise was Hercules the Muse-ical. It was a great show and really funny. I guess I was expecting something similar. Twice Charmed was a cute show but I still think Hercules the Muse-ical was much better. After the show we headed down to Sessions to listen to the piano player. We had a few drinks at the bar and then I called it an early night as I was tired from all the walking around at the ruins.

End of Day 5

PS. I am heading out to the beach for the weekend and won't have access to my computer. When I get back on Sunday I will continue with the trip report.

Susan

 

[BethA]

Sue--how could you go to the beach and leave me with nothing to do all week-end?

Have a good time! I guess I'll have to wait for the rest. The pictures you took are great--do i really have almost the same camera? I guess it's the operator.

Beth

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Can't wait for more!

 

[carole88]

Hey Susan,

Have a great time at the beach! Wish we could go with you!