11/26/05 - Trip Report

[jjbescher]

DISCLAIMER: This being my first ever trip report, I will try to do my best. We have no kids and tried to stay away from most of the kids activities and areas. We did not get very many formal pictures taken and only went to two shows. We did not get to see any of the comedians. Pictures, I hope to have posted at some time. However, I had shoulder surgery so I do not know when I will be able to get to them. Please feel free to ask questions. I will try to answer them as openly as possible.

Notes: Our Room Hostess was Nathalie from St. Vincent
Head Server was Aleksandra I think from somewhere in Russia Area(Maybe LisaRae will remember)
Server was Densak from Thailand
Asst. Server was Sophie from France
We had Late Seating. (More on that later) It was at 8:30 LAPLAPL.

Day 1 - Coming Very soon....

jon

 

[jjbescher]

Saturday November 26th, 2005

CAST:
Me (30)
DW (30)

We woke up early to finish packing the last minute things. We got the car packed and headed to drop off the car. Halfway there, I stupidly forgot my sunglasses in our other car. I got dropped off at the airport and got our bags checked in by the skycaps. We then went through airport security and then waited for our flight. I decided to look for some sunglasses and found a cheap pair. Well the pair was definitely cheap because they broke later that day. The flight was fine.

We decided to use Disney Transportation this trip. It was Excellent and definitely worth money. We checked in at the desk, got onto the bus and then got driven to port. The only bad thing is something was wrong with the video and was showing the top half on the bottom and the bottom half on the top. Although I knew most of what they were saying, it would have been nice to see it and get even more excited for the cruise.

We finally arrived at the terminal and the Disney Magic was as beautiful as I remembered it. We got in line to go through security and got number 9 boarding card. We arrived at port around 11:30 and got on the boat around 12:30. The only issue I have with the boarding process is the photographers slow everything down. If they would be put at some other points on the ship, it would allow everyone to board that much quicker and those that want photos can go while there room is getting ready. The port was already decorated for the holidays.

We were going to go eat at Parrot Cay for lunch, but the line was long and they just opened Topsiders for Lunch. So we took the elevator and had a great lunch outside in the beautiful Florida Weather. We then walked around the boat and went to the pool and waited till our room was ready. We got to our room 2150 on Deck 2. It was an Outside Stateroom with a large porthole. It did not have a steamer trunk. It was a very nice room and spacious enough for 2 Adults. We did not have a problem with our Door Sign. It was magnetic and very small. Also, since we were at the very Aft of the boat, no one really walked by it.

We then met our room hostess and asked her about filling our cooler with ice and essentially flat out refused. At 3:00 we had our disboard meet at that goofy pool. Highly recommend getting a room for the meet, very confusing and too many distractions to do it at the pool. Met a lot of nice people and we traded magnets. We then had to go get ready for the muster drill. After the drill we went up and got ready for the Sail-away party which was awesome. I always love seeing the Port Canaveral staff send us off waving their Mickey Hands.

After the sail-away party, we went back to the room and took a nap. We wanted to make sure we saw the Christmas tree lighting. With all the College Football going on, I had to go to Diversions and watch some football. NC State won, YEAH!!! , and became eligible for a bowl game. The tree lighting was very nice and I am glad we went. We then changed and headed to Lumiere’s. We then met one of the couples that would be our table mates for the week long cruise. They were B and S and live in Wisconsin. The other couple were Lisa and Steve from the Disboards, but they were celebrating there 12th anniversary at Palo’s. Dinner was excellent, however the service was a little slow. We just figured it was the first night and they were just getting used to us, we were wrong.

After Dinner, we tried to catch the end of the Comedy skit, we were late(Would not be the last time). So we decided to head to Diversions and watch some football. Since we had a long day, we decided to go to bed.

Day 2... Hopefully soon...

 

[jjbescher]

Day 2 – First Day at Sea.

Woke up nice and refreshed and we headed up to Topsiders for Breakfast. Sat out on the deck and had a wonderful breakfast. I would like to thank Timon and DarkRobe for telling me about the Chocolate Croissants, THEY WERE AWESOME.

We had some time to waste because we wanted to go to the DVC Member Celebration. Since we joined on our last cruise, it would be our first member celebration on DCL. Before we went, my DW got us signed up for Gingerbread making which was on Monday. I also made sure I got reserved for the Galley Tour. Always wanted to do it on our last two cruises and never got the chance.

The Member Celebration was nice. We got some more food(Chocolate Croissant) and got some new hats and lanyards(to keep our KTTW card in) They had some trivia and answered some questions. We ended up winning two water bottles, which we used a lot on the trip.

After the Member Celebration it was time to go to the pool. It was nice because there were not too many people there and the sun was going in and out. We decided to eat lunch on the pool deck. DW ended up going to Goofy’s Galley and I went to Pluto’s. The food from both places was very good. After a while at the pool we decided it was time to take a nap. We wanted to stay out at night and since we had late dinner we thought we should get our rest.

We woke up in time to go meet with one of the DVC representatives to talk about adding on. We ended up adding on and still need to send in the papers. On the way back we decided to stop in and watch the Golden Mickeys. I am not a person to watch shows, however, my DW is. I decided to be nice and watch it. Overall, It did not having me looking at my watch that much. Too me, the premise was similar to Fantasmic. From a scale of 1 – 10, I would give it a 6. Remember, Getting an 8 – 10 out of me means the show blew me away. I would give the new show at MGM, Lights Motor, Action an 8.5. That is more my style. So a 6 means it kept my attention and I did not fall asleep.

After Golden Mickeys, we got all Dressed up, Myself in a suit and my DW in a nice black dress. We went early and the line to get the picture in front of the Xmas tree was awful. However, we had no problem getting a picture with Captain Tom. We then watched some Family Karoake and decided it was time to go to Dinner. We were at Animators Palate tonight and since I saw the twice already, it was more of a background then anything for me. I still think it is awesome and love the idea of getting a show during dinner. Dinner was pretty good for me and DW ate what she got. Nothing appealed to me for Dessert. We did not got out of Dinner till around 10:20 and we rushed to get our picture taken in front of the Xmas with the DCL Photographer.

We decided to call it another early night since we missed Rich Purpura because we were at dinner too late.

Day 3…Coming Soon…

 

[jjbescher]

Day 3…Second Day at Sea.

Day 2 Things Forgotten. I forgot to tell you about our Towel Animal. Probably because we had no clue of what it was. Also forget, I was made to watching Finding Nemo(The end of it).

We woke up early again and went and got a very small breakfast because today was out Character Breakfast. However, that was not till 9:45. After a quick snack at Topsiders, I went and reserved a spot for Margarita and Tequila tasting for 4:00.
We then went to the pool and hung out till we had to get ready for Character Breakfast. Our Character Breakfast was at Parrot Cay, where I think they all are. Breakfast was good and the show Chip and Dale was pretty good. However, we almost got skipped my Mickey. He was behind us and then all of a sudden he was on the other side of the room. We told ALL of our servers including our Head Server and Mickey ended up coming to our table. Our Tablemates Steve and Lisa and us were not leaving until we got our picture with Mickey.

Since breakfast took so long we took a nap and then went to make our Gingerbread house. The Head pastry Chef showed us how he made his and then gave us the icing and let us go. It was a lot of fun and I could see and hear the kids have a lot of fun.

After Gingerbread making, we decided to try Bingo. At $35 for six tries at each game and each game only being three to four slots, it is not worth it. However, I did not learn from my first lesson and went and tried the last game.

Well, I had to leave Bingo early and go to Margarita and tequila tasting. For $15, you get three shots of Tequila and two small sips of different kinds of Margarita. It was very interesting to learn about Tequila and what to look for on the bottle. I think I was drunk the rest of the night.

Well, Tonight was also the Castaway Club Reception at 5:00. The food in the re was great, especially the Jalapeno Poppers. We sat with our table mates during the reception. We then went and saw Twice Charmed. This show was a 1. I was asleep by the first act. Even one of our table mates did not like it. After that little nap, we went back to the room and napped for a little before Dinner.

Tonight we ate at Parrot Cay. Dinner was ok. Not the best I had from Disney, but definitely edible. However, tonight I think I was missing Asparagus from my dish. I normally would not care about a vegetable, but I actually like Asparagus. This would not be the first time something was missing from my dish. More to come later. Once again, we were one of the last tables out of there. We made sure to tell our waiter that we wanted to be done by 9:45 so we would not miss any of Pirate Night.

Being Monday Night, they showed MNF on the Dumbotron. It was AWESOME. It was the first time they showed it and it had Deck 9 and 10 full. Only stayed up through the first half since we had a long day St. Maarten coming.

Day 4…

 

[jjbescher]

Day 4…

This day we have been waiting for. It is time to finally get off the boat. Although, I love the sea days, it was nice to finally see land and be on it. We got woken up early because of the noise from the engines and being so close to them while docking. It really was not that bad. We went up to topsiders and had a quick bite to eat. We took some pictures of the Island while we were docked. We were doing separate shore excursions this time. I was doing the 12-Metre Regatta and my DW was scuba diving using Dive Safari’s, which was booked through Disney.

We met at 8:15 in Diversions for the 12-Metre Regatta and then got led off the boat. I think this was one the best excursions that I ever did. It was the people from the Disney boat and then the other two boats were from another boat. We were on the Star and Stripes. We ended up getting 2nd out of the 3 boats. After the racing they brought us back to their shop, so we could buy pictures and souvenirs and give us some punch. Then they brought us back and to the dock they picked us up at and I went back to the boat. Since I had a while till DW came back, I went to the pool and then went back to the room to rest. When she came back we too the water taxi over to the shops in Phillipsburg. We were going to go over to Marigot, but decided it was not worth the trouble.

We wanted to find lunch on the Island, so we found a little restaurant on the beach called Barefoot Terrace. The food was good and I thought priced reasonably. After lunch we decided to do a little shopping. Since we were not really looking for anything we decided just to walk around and see what we would find. While looking at map to find out where we were, I saw a little store called Planet Paradise. It is owned and operated (Which I found out) from the Nick Malay, who worked and designed Yoda for the first three of the Trilogy. I had to check it out and I am glad I did. While looking at the pictures and getting ready to buy them, Nick Malay offered to sign and dedicate the pictures that I was going to buy. If I go back to St. Maarten, I will definitely want go back to his store.

Bored with shopping we took the water taxi back and got back to the boat. The pool was calling our name, so we decided to layout and do nothing for awhile.

Tonight was Pirate Night. We were not going to dress up, decided we needed room for Scuba Equipment and Alcohol. However, our tablemates and fellow DISers, Steve and Lisa did dress up. We made sure to remind our server that we wanted to see the beginning Pirate and not miss any of it. Well, they were definitely faster, but half the group ended up missing dessert so they could see the beginning. My DW went up early so she could tape it. I decided I wanted to stay and try the Banana Fosters. I wish I missed it. It was nothing great and I really wanted to see the whole show. I ended up seeing most of it.

After the party we ate some dessert and decided to head down to Rockin’ Dar D and see what was going on for Krazy Karaoke. Well, it turned out it was the first night they were trying out a new system and Pikey was stuck up there for while trying to entertain us while they were getting out the kinks. It turns out only a couple of people sang and it turned out to be very slow.

Day 5.. Hopefully coming sometime this week. If not, will be after Xmas.

jon

 

[LuvEeyore]

Thanks for the great trip report so far. Look forward to reading the rest.

 

[lisarae]

Good start Jon! I hope to get my trip report done during the Holidays when I'm "working." Our building is going to be without power, so NASA is sending us to another buidling with laptops to work at, although we will not have network capability, so I guess I'll be using WORD and saving it to a USB stick. But, hey, pay me to write my trip report; I won't complain.

I hope you are feeling better each day, Jon. You are in our prayers every night.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your report.
LisaRae

 

[oybolshoi]

Hi, Jon!

I'm glad to see you enjoyed the 12-metre regatta when you were in St. Martin. I was reading through my October trip report and saw that you had posted that you guys were going to try it. I totally agree that it was one of the best excursions we've ever tried!

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

Brenda (oybolshoi)

 

[MSWint]

The only issue I have with the boarding process is the photographers slow everything down. If they would be put at some other points on the ship, it would allow everyone to board that much quicker and those that want photos can go while there room is getting ready.

If you stay in the middle lane while boarding, you will skip the pictures ... pictures are on the left and right side of the gangway, just go up the middle if you don't want pictures.

 

[soleilmagie]

While looking at map to find out where we were, I saw a little store called Planet Paradise. It is owned and operated (Which I found out) from the Nick Malay, who worked and designed Yoda for the first three of the Trilogy. I had to check it out and I am glad I did. While looking at the pictures and getting ready to buy them, Nick Malay offered to sign and dedicate the pictures that I was going to buy. If I go back to St. Maarten, I will definitely want go back to his store.

Where is it located? I know someone who will want to go there next January...

 

[jjbescher]

Where is it located? I know someone who will want to go there next January...

When they get the map, have them look for it. I know he was in the middle of moving his shop. He was moving it to the main strip.

jon

 

[chuck2534]

Could someone explain the door magnets and trading them??? I do not even remember seeing them..... is it possible that mine was swiped off the door b4 we got to the room?? I did not even recall seeing people up on the deck trading them

thanks!!!

 

[jjbescher]

Could someone explain the door magnets and trading them??? I do not even remember seeing them..... is it possible that mine was swiped off the door b4 we got to the room?? I did not even recall seeing people up on the deck trading them

thanks!!!

Door Magnets: it is something that people do. There are multiple threads on the Door Magnets.

This was something we decided to do during our DisMeet. We had everyone that wanted to participate get 5 magnets from their hometown area and we traded them. We did not trade the door magnets.

Hopefully this clears things up.

jon