11/11/06 Magic "Double Dip" Report

imlazar

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
Messages
584
Greetings all, we're just back from the Magic and I thought I'd post my report while memories are still pretty fresh in my head (and while my desk still feels like it is rocking with the waves).

So...here goes.

Background: this was our 2nd cruise, our boys are 6 & 3 (will be 4 in Jan).

Friday:
Flew to Orlando via Southwest, rented a car from Budget and drove to the Radisson at the port. Kept the car overnight to run some errands and had dinner at Zachary's next to the Radisson. Zachary's is very good, reasonably priced diner greek diner food. The Radisson on the other hand... This was our second stay, the first one back in September of '05 was great. This one was horrible. We had room 104, next to the mechanical room, so our room had what sounded like a 747 engine running next to it all night long. We didn't really notice the noise until we tried to go to sleep, but it kept me up until 2:00 AM or so. In addition, there was a wedding and a bunch of 20-somethings out late drinking and making all sorts of noise outside our door. When we checked out I complained about the noise from the mechanical room, the response from the desk clerk was "well, most folks are only complaining about the partying". They didn't offer to do anything about it. Also the room wasn't very clean, and only had one bar of soap for two sinks, and one tiny garbage can.

Friday got progressively worse for us. Before turning in for the night at 10:00 or so PM, I checked my home voicemail and found a message from Cruiseline Formalwear that my credit card had been declined for one of the three tuxes I rented for the cruise. I called my credit card company to find out that they had suspended the card because of the three separate charges from CLFW, the first two went through, the third was blocked because it triggered a security alert. I called the number left by CLFW only to get a message that they were only open M-F from 8-5. So here I was wondering if I was only going to have two tuxedos waiting for me and if I would have to explain to my 6 year-old that he didn't have a Tux, and with no way to contact anyone at CLFW before going out on my cruise. I was utterly shocked to hear that they didn't process my order until the day before my cruise even though I had made my reservations weeks ago.

Saturday, November 11:

I ran the van over to Budget around 9:00 AM and waited about 30 minutes in line to return it, before walking back to the Radisson. We had breakfast at the Radisson buffet, which was utterly horrible, unless you like stacks of dirty dishes, poor service, dried out eggs, and fruit that doesn't get washed. We then went out front at 10:45 to catch our 11:00 shuttle and ran into a mob scene. It looked like the shuttles were overbooked, we finally got on one at about 11:20.

We finally got off the shuttle around 11:30 and went into the cruise terminal. We had registered on-line so check-in was a breeze, about a 15 minute wait on the Castaway Club line, which had a far longer line than the first-time cruiser line. Apparently more than half of this cruise were club members, probably due to the itinerary which included two stops at Castaway Cay. As club members we all got lanyards with two castaway club pins, one to keep and one to trade.

While I waited to check-in my wife took the kids to wait for the kids club check-in line. Again we had registered on-line but the line was huge, and wasn't moving very much. After I caught up to my wife I checked with a Disney cast member to see if we could check in on the ship, he told me we could at the oceaneer club, and that it would probably be a lot faster.

We then boarded the ship, I'd guess around 1:00 or so, and went immediately to guest services to check our tuxes. A wonderful cast member called housekeeping and found out in about five minutes that three tuxedos were indeed on-board for us.

After that bit of good news we went to Pirate Cay for lunch. When we arrived we were told that it was full, but then they let us in anyway and it was about half-full, so I assume the just wanted to keep the buffet from becoming over-crowded. We went here instead of Topsiders since there was more room for our stroller and carry-on bags.

After lunch we went to our room (6512, Category 8 Portal, sleeps 4) and dropped off our stuff, then over to the kids club where we signed our kids in and collected pagers and wrist tags, which now include a transmitter (waterproof) about the size of a small pack of matches. Disney said they were trying these out, it looked like they were having some glitches as the kids had to scan them several times to enter/exit throughout the cruise. Also the transmitters are bulky, especially for smaller wrists. My younger one wanted his off almost as soon as we left the club. Fortunately we could slip it over his wrist, so we took it off when he wasn't in the club. My older one didn't like it, but tolerated it. The club reps did say that they would go with a smaller design once they were happy with the system.

After that we booked our excursions, then went to the room just in time for our stateroom host (Donovan) to deliver THREE TUXEDOS!!!! Hallelujah. We also discovered the Castaway Club goody bag, which consisted of three beach bags (two meshed), cups, suntan lotion, a door magnet, disinfecting wipes, and wrist-bands (I might be missing something else).

After a bit of relaxing it was time for the safety drill, then the launch party which the kids loved. We had a great view of a number of ships as we went out of PC, including the Carnival Glory which left just before us.

After that it was time for out 5:30 dinner in Animators Palette, with our wonderful servers Mladden from Croatia, and Collin from Trinidad Tobago. Then a bit of wandering around before the opening show. The opening show was very good, Rich Papura was the comedian/magician, well...let's just say he was a comedian. His magic acts were something you could find in a dimestore, and I'd seen most of his tricks at the Magic Forest kids amusement park in Lake George NY in past years. They also had a juggler who was great, the kids really liked it.

Sunday

Sunday was just amazing, we arrived at Castaway Cay to nearly perfect weather, sunny, high 70's to low 80's, and crystal-clear water. We spent all day on the beach, using the inner tubes and floats, and just playing in the water and the sand. Lunch at the BBQ joint was outstanding, just some of the best food of the trip. I just can't say enough great things about Castaway Cay, it was the reason why we double-dipped and it was even better than I thought it would be (we missed most of castaway cay during our first cruise due to some family confusion and very high heat that made the kids want to go back to the ship). Sunday dinner was at Parrot Cay. After that we saw Rich Purpura's full show, which was decent, but he summed it up best when after blowing a trick that involved about 15 long minutes of passing a tick-tac container around he said "if I was good, I'd be on land". His show was a real disappointment.

Monday
Monday was our first day at sea. After a great breakfast at Topsiders we hit the Mickey Pool for about an hour before it was closed for cleaning due to someone doing something they shouldn't have been doing in the pool. There were numerous kids in the pool without swim diapers who looked far too young to have been toilet trained (if you have a swim diaper on, you can only go in the left ear which has water fountains). One thing different about the Mickey Pool this year, the area around the pool is now full of water (around the ears) and there are fountains that randomly shoot water. I don't remember seeing this last year, perhaps this was something added in dry-dock? After the pool closed we tried the goofy pool for a bit, then lunch at Topsiders, then bingo at the Promenade lounge, then back to the room to crash before the formal dinner at Lumieres. After that it was time for the Golden Mickey's, which are always a tremendous show.

Tuesday
The room is still rocking as I type this, the sea legs are pretty bad right now. Anyway, Tuesday was Costa Maya, along with the Norwegian Sun and an RCL ship. Costa Maya is a very small shopping village, and with three ships in town it was JAMMED. One passenger I saw in the elevator described at tourist hell. After about 30 minutes we had all had enough and we went back on the ship. The kids hit the Mickey pool. One interesting note, we were parked directly across from the Norwegian ship, all along the deck you could see folks staring at the Magic and photographing it. It is quite apparent when you put the Magic up next to other ships how much more charming it is. Dinner that night was back in Animator's Palette, followed by "Twice Charmed" which was just an amazing show. You must see this show.

Wednesday

Wednesday was Cozumel. After breakfast at Topsiders we went on the Ocean's Quest partially submerged submarine tour of the lagoon. This was a fantastic excursion, very well organized, with a professional staff and a great ship that even included a half-way decent bathroom. It was near the international terminal, so we were taken by taxi and got to see a bit more of the island. After returning to Punta Lagosta we shopped a bit and had lunch at Viva Mexico, about six blocks north of the port, near the main town square. The port is now completely rebuilt and the ship docked directly at the port. Across from us docked a Princess ship, which looked to be slightly bigger, but again, the upper decks were full of Princess passengers staring at the activities on the Magic.

After lunch we returned to the Magic where my kids finally made it into the kids clubs. My younger son enjoyed the club when he wasn't in need of a nap, my older one didn't really like being there alone and generally didn't last more than 45 minutes or before paging us.

After that it was time for the pirate party, which as always was a blast. It started with dinner. After dinner we saw Andy Ford's family show (the juggler and Rich Purpura left in Cozumel and were replaced by Ford and Taylor Mason). Ford was awesome, sort of the British Robin Williams and he did a lot of fun stuff with the kids.

After that, we went to the showing of "Santa Claus 3 - The Escape Clause" in the Walt Disney Theater (a very good movie IMHO and I haven't seen the first two). After that we went to deck 9 for the pirate party, but it was too loud for the kids and at 10:15 PM they were ready for bed. We were able to watch the fireworks show from our starboard side forward cabin).

Thursday

This was another sea day, but unfortunately it rained lightly throughout the day. The kids spent the morning at the mickey pool, and the weather did clear up a bit in the afternoon. After the pool got too cold we spent about an hour at Ocean's Qwest, which is primarily for teens, but they did have several open times during sea days. They also spent some time at the kids clubs while the wife and I just lounged around, I did sneak a few laps in the Quiet Cove pool, which is something I didn't get to do on our first cruise.

The kids club did the graduation ceremony on thursday instead of Friday so as not to interfere with the 2nd day at Castaway Cay. Oddly I heard parents complain about this. The graduation ceremony was really nice and the kids had a blast with Mickey and Minnie.

Thursday's dinner was semi-formal, and was followed by our all-time favorite Disney performer, Taylor Mason, performing in Rockin Bar D. If you ever have the opportunity to see him, jump at the chance, he's a ventriloquist who does about the funniest family act we've ever seen, our kids LOVE him. After his show he took pictures with the puppets and the kids.

After Mason we went to see Disney Dreams, which we had seen before and we loved, again it was a fantastic show that paid tribute to some of the best disney musical numbers including songs from Lion King, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Mermaid.

Friday
The day started off with a character breakfast at 8:00 AM which gave us a chance to get the kids back on schedule before heading home.

After breakfast it was back to Castaway Cay, the weather was a bit overcast and cooler than Monday, but it was another fantastic day at the beach. The kids even spent some time in Scuttle's cove, with their favorite game being "how wet can you get" when the kids get to douse the counselors with buckets of water. I stopped in for a bit and saw Lilo dancing with the kids as well. I do want to say what an outstanding job the counselors do with the kids. This has got to be just a very hard job, and the counselors for the most part really put a lot of effort into giving the kids a lot of attention and making them happy. This to me continues to be most amazing aspect of Disney cruises.

Note - the post office on Castaway Cay only takes cash, we found this out the hard way when we tried to buy some stamps to take home.

After a depressing return to the ship, we had dinner at Animator's Palette, enjoyed the international celebration, picked up pictures and gifts at shutters and the gift shops (which are just crazy on Friday night), then headed off to see the final show, which was a great mix of Ford, Mason, and Disney songs. Mason had the crowd in stitches with a skit that involved bringing audience members up to work his puppets while he made them talk, given the audience members don't know how to move the mouths smoothly he made the voices fit the movements, leading to a stuttering sumo wrestler and a constipated pig among other puppets.

After that it was time to pack, take care of last minute items, fill out forms and comment cards, and get everything out in the hall by 11:00 PM for delivery to the port in the morning.

Saturday, November 18th
As I write this it is almost 11:00 PM and I've been up since about 6:30 (after going to be about 12:30 this morning). Our sit-down breakfast was scheduled for 6:30, and there was no way were getting the kids up that early so we let them sleep in until 7:30 before heading off to Topsiders, which was open until 8:30. Topsiders had the full buffet minus smoked salmon and the omelet bar, so we left our room about 10 minutes to 8:00 for the last time, had breakfast, and then disembarked. Topsiders was very crowded, but the extra sleep was worth the crowds. Afterwards we disembarked, picked up our bags, and cleared customs in about 10 minutes. Our got us to the Hertz line where we caught a shuttle to Hertz and then back to the airport for our flight home.

A word about Hertz, I booked Hertz for the trip home since Budget was sold out at time of booking. The wait at Hertz to get my car was about 5 minutes, it was nowhere near the zoo that Budget is on a Saturday morning. Hertz is about 10 minutes from the port.

But..if you are going to Orlando, note that Hertz is off the airport, so you have to take a bus back from the Hertz facility to the airport, plan for an extra 20 minutes for that ride, plus carrying bags from the car to the bus (they have free carts). Or you can drop you family & bags off at the airport, then return the car. The worst thing about Hertz is the bathroom at the Canaveral facility, it was utterly disgusting and lacked basic things you'd expect to find, such as soap.

So now I'm home, and depressed as all heck that it is over, but secure in the memory that we booked for January of '08 before leaving.

Now if only Disney would bring back the double-dip itineraries in '08!!!!
 
Fantastic report!!! As a June double dipper, you sure brought back some great memories for me. Thanks!
 
Thanks for the report!

Did you see lots of fish on the Cozumel excursion? We have been thinking about it but I keep hearing how the hurricane really destroyed a lot of the reef.
 
Did you see lots of fish on the Cozumel excursion? We have been thinking about it but I keep hearing how the hurricane really destroyed a lot of the reef.

The first 20 minutes out toward the reef were pretty quiet, once we reached the reef there were a lot of fish, and we even saw a barracuda briefly. They throw pieces of squid into the water to attract fish as well.

The area around the reef is very crowded with tourists, we saw almost as many snoklers and scuba divers as we did fish. At one point I went above deck to take the kids to the bathroom and it looked like there were at least half a dozen snorkling excursions around us.

The trip was fine for our kids (6/3), but if they were older and could swim, I'd think snorkling would have been better.
 

We were on the same cruise. Enjoyed your report. Thanks for sharing.

Woody
 
Thanks for your report....it's fun to see what others did on the same cruise!

Regarding Costa Maya; our tour guide (Ivan) was telling us that the 'created' port of Costa Maya is a bit overwhelming for the nearby villages and they will be working very hard to keep up with the progress. Many of them are only just now learning English (David & Ivan have been giving English classes), and only know the words that pertain to what their jobs are. The next 5 to 10 years will see huge changes in the area.
 
When we were at Costa Maya back in August we heard that in the winter months that three ships can be docked at the port at the same time.

That many people at one time will definitely overwhelm Costa Maya.

We were so lucky the Magic was the only ship there when we went.

And yes, in about 10 years we will hardly recognize the place.
 
Regarding Costa Maya; our tour guide (Ivan) was telling us that the 'created' port of Costa Maya is a bit overwhelming for the nearby villages and they will be working very hard to keep up with the progress. Many of them are only just now learning English (David & Ivan have been giving English classes), and only know the words that pertain to what their jobs are. The next 5 to 10 years will see huge changes in the area.

It does seem that Costa Maya is trying to become the next Cancun, they also got swamped being the alternative port after Cozumel was severely damaged last year (by Phillip I think?).

I talked to a few folks who took a short cab to Majuhal and went to the beach there, they seemed to mostly enjoy it though even there they had to deal with pushy people trying to sell them things. However it was far less crowded than Costa Maya from what I heard.
 
I am someone that is extremely uncomfortable with aggressive selling and such (didn't get off at nassau last year for this reason) but enjoyed Costa Maya. We went right on past the commercialism of the pier and took a cab to the fishing village and spent the biggest part of the day. We LOVED it. There was alot of selling--bracelets, necklaces, bananas, nuts, cigars, you name it--but they weren't overly aggresssive--just said no and they moved right on. We loved Samuel at this Tapa's Bar place and enjoyed the homemade salsa and chips and DH liked the Mexican beer. It got crowded after lunch when two other boats came to port but we pretty much had it to ourselves before lunch. Warm water, clear, chairs right on the water--just a lovely place. DH would like to buy property there, in fact. I imagine it was what FLorida must have looked like a century ago. I think it will be a shame to see it become overdeveloped. Just coming into port was a beautiful sight--miles of trees and beach--that's all. Extremely different than my impression of Cozumel coming in.
 
I am excited to read your report- I was also on that cruise and we had a MAGICAL time! I am so depressed today! The weather was wonderful, the food was great and the entertainment was nice. I also had the 5:30 APL rotation which was the best IMHO. I loved Costa Maya- we swam at the pool and I got a massage by the beach for 25 dollars- what a bargin! I also really enjoyed Cozumel- we did the Dolphin Encounter which which was a great experience. And who can beat 2 days at Castaway- it was like a dream!
 
:cool1:
We were on that cruise with you and also had 5:30 dinner rotation with Collin and Mladden !!!!!!!! We had to be next to you in the dining room. There were 6 at our table myself, DH, DD14, DD5, and my parents. What a wonderful week we had!!!!
Were your boys wearing the skeleton pirate masks????????????????
 
joycepa said:
:cool1:
We were on that cruise with you and also had 5:30 dinner rotation with Collin and Mladden !!!!!!!! We had to be next to you in the dining room. There were 6 at our table myself, DH, DD14, DD5, and my parents. What a wonderful week we had!!!!
Were your boys wearing the skeleton pirate masks????????????????

that was us!! Did they sing happy birthday to your younger daughter one night?
 
I like the idea of the locator bracelets for the kids. My daughter didn't like wearing it at first, but got used to it after awhile. I thought it looked funny in the pictures especially formal night. We did keep reminding her to put her hand over it, but it showed in a couple. If they go with this setup they should have a removable wristband.
 
imlazar said:
It does seem that Costa Maya is trying to become the next Cancun, they also got swamped being the alternative port after Cozumel was severely damaged last year (by Phillip I think?). . .

You're probably thinking of Wilma.

Woody
 
that was us!! Did they sing happy birthday to your younger daughter one night?


It was my older daughters 14th birthday on our first Castaway Cay day!!!!!!!
They sang to her that night. :cloud9:
We had the greatest week. I didn't want to get off the ship.
 
woody73 said:
Double AMEN -I am sorry to see that DCL is not offering this option again in 2007 - will have to see what fall 2008 brings....

Thanks for your report. :wave2:
 


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