6/13/2009 Western on Magic

[ruley3]

Thanks - Good to know. I have never cruised anything but Disney! Maybe if I EVER meet Mr. Right, confused: = me holding my breath) we can go on one for a honeymoon!

Mr Right will still choose Disney!!!

 

[ruley3]

Ok so I gave up on cleaning for today!

 

[Diane71969]

Mr Right will still choose Disney!!!

I should have said that when I find Prince Charming - HA HA

 

[Disney Fans]

They were offering 20% instead of 10% and $400 obc vs the normal $200. I am not sure which dates that included but it is def a good deal that way!

cool!!!

 

[Disney Fans]

Ok so I gave up on cleaning for today!

Me too! But I did plant a flowers!

 

[Disney Fans]

I love FE shopping!!!

I haven't started yet!

 

[Disney Fans]

CC is CruiseCritic.com which is a huge and very active site for all things cruising. It tends to be more active for the other mass market lines (NCL, RCI, Carnival, etc) but is a good resource for general cruising questions as well as port of call informatinn.

Good to know.

 

[djd7292]

Wow... you people have been busy! I have only been gone a day & 1/2 & had soooo much to catch up on.

We did another road trip; this time to Purdue Univ. Jayde drove 1/2 both ways & did awesome...looking forward to her road test on Mon. Unfortunately, Purdue will be 1 less Freshman Fall 2010. I was not impressed (I like smaller colleges).

Plans for weekend ~ Sat, new cable & internet installed; Sun, Easter dinner & celebrating 4 bdays (2 nieces, a nephew, & me). Off work until Wed & Jayde is on spring break all week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

[BethA]

Just a warning... we did RC out of NJ (bayon) It was HORRIBLE! Would not recommend it! It surely wasn't Disney!

We have done 3 cruises on RC. No it is NOT disney. We did not enjoy the shows in the evening-fell asleep 3 times! There were 2 comedians that were hilarious though! The service is far below what we experienced on DCL. BUT, they had the rock climbing, minigolf, family karaoke every night that was not thousands of little ones singing Disney songs. The promenade was nice, better shopping and many food alternatives, and a larger room service menu-which they charge for now. The pools were also much larger and the deck parties were fun. The other plus was the price. For what we paid for a cat 3, I could get 2 suites on RC-okay the suites only have 1 bath, but they do have a great concierge lounge with free drinks-and the casino--here come the flames-I know it seems people here are anti casino, but my mom and my older son enjoyed it. We did not see it changing or detracting from the atmosphere, as people say here.

I prefer DCl, but with the same shows for years it does get repetitive. I am very anxious for the new DCL ships because of that.

 

[momtomari]

might change my flight comming in so we can get to the boat earlier. orginally i booked through southwest and they only offer 1 stop flights, so i wouldnt be getting into mco until 12:50 i just decided to look on nwa and i can get a nonstop flight getting in at 10a.m.

 

[nikkistevej]

Just a warning... we did RC out of NJ (bayon) It was HORRIBLE! Would not recommend it! It surely wasn't Disney!

We also did RC out of Baltimore- a 5 day to Bermuda- definately wasn't Disney!! However I would do one of their new monster ships when they come out.

 

[nikkistevej]

Wow... you people have been busy! I have only been gone a day & 1/2 & had soooo much to catch up on.

We did another road trip; this time to Purdue Univ. Jayde drove 1/2 both ways & did awesome...looking forward to her road test on Mon. Unfortunately, Purdue will be 1 less Freshman Fall 2010. I was not impressed (I like smaller colleges).

Plans for weekend ~ Sat, new cable & internet installed; Sun, Easter dinner & celebrating 4 bdays (2 nieces, a nephew, & me). Off work until Wed & Jayde is on spring break all week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Have a great birthday!!!

 

[nikkistevej]

We have done 3 cruises on RC. No it is NOT disney. We did not enjoy the shows in the evening-fell asleep 3 times! There were 2 comedians that were hilarious though! The service is far below what we experienced on DCL. BUT, they had the rock climbing, minigolf, family karaoke every night that was not thousands of little ones singing Disney songs. The promenade was nice, better shopping and many food alternatives, and a larger room service menu-which they charge for now. The pools were also much larger and the deck parties were fun. The other plus was the price. For what we paid for a cat 3, I could get 2 suites on RC-okay the suites only have 1 bath, but they do have a great concierge lounge with free drinks-and the casino--here come the flames-I know it seems people here are anti casino, but my mom and my older son enjoyed it. We did not see it changing or detracting from the atmosphere, as people say here.

I prefer DCl, but with the same shows for years it does get repetitive. I am very anxious for the new DCL ships because of that.

I didn't care for my RC one too much, it left from Baltimore in November(cold!!) and it was an older ship.
I liked the casinos too, we also had a great time putting a few bucks in the slots at night after the shows.
I have also been on 2 Carnival ships, and we had an awesome time on both, but I went with my mom, her sisters, my sister and female cousins, so no kids or husbands, I don't know how these other cruise lines would be with kids.

 

[nikkistevej]

might change my flight comming in so we can get to the boat earlier. orginally i booked through southwest and they only offer 1 stop flights, so i wouldnt be getting into mco until 12:50 i just decided to look on nwa and i can get a nonstop flight getting in at 10a.m.

That sounds good!! I am getting to the ship as early as possible, last time we weren't there until late, and I felt rushed and I felt we missed out on some port stuff because then we just wanted to get on the ship.

 

[Morgey24]

We have done 3 cruises on RC. No it is NOT disney. We did not enjoy the shows in the evening-fell asleep 3 times! There were 2 comedians that were hilarious though! The service is far below what we experienced on DCL. BUT, they had the rock climbing, minigolf, family karaoke every night that was not thousands of little ones singing Disney songs. The promenade was nice, better shopping and many food alternatives, and a larger room service menu-which they charge for now. The pools were also much larger and the deck parties were fun. The other plus was the price. For what we paid for a cat 3, I could get 2 suites on RC-okay the suites only have 1 bath, but they do have a great concierge lounge with free drinks-and the casino--here come the flames-I know it seems people here are anti casino, but my mom and my older son enjoyed it. We did not see it changing or detracting from the atmosphere, as people say here.

I prefer DCl, but with the same shows for years it does get repetitive. I am very anxious for the new DCL ships because of that.

We have done Royal Caribbean 5 times because of the price/value relationship. The sports activities are fabulous, as is the ice rink and promenade on the larger ships.
On the room service, they have actually reduced their offerings from what they used to have, but they only charge a room delivery charge (believe $3.95) for orders in the wee hours (post midnight to before breakfast) because so many tipsy folks (or flat out drunken folks) were coming back to their cabins at 1 or 2am, ordering everything on the menu and then pretty much passing out and either not accepting the food or just wasting it. I actually think it is a good way to handle it and make people stop and think twice. (One could argue that the tipsy brain is still going to do it but then the cruiseline does recover some of the cost of the food.)

 

[Morgey24]

might change my flight comming in so we can get to the boat earlier. orginally i booked through southwest and they only offer 1 stop flights, so i wouldnt be getting into mco until 12:50 i just decided to look on nwa and i can get a nonstop flight getting in at 10a.m.

Momtomari:
Are you flying out of Columbus or Cleveland? (or somewhere else) Both of these cities have nonstops the morning of the flight (Columbus at 7am and Cleveland at 8am). If you are already holding Southwest flights it is easier -- and free -- to reticket on Southwest.

I'm a cautious gal by nature when it comes to flying to something you absolutely have to get to on time -- a cruiseship perhaps! Whenever I have something "big" (wedding/cruise/etc) I always fly up on the last flight the day before even if it means landing at midnight because we have to leave after work. I'd personally rather get the travel stress over with and a good, hard night's sleep. I don't care who you are, packing and schlepping and security and wondering if your bags are going to make it and transfers is stressful. So we go up the night before and get a good night's sleep and then start the adventure (hint: I book a real reservation someplace acceptable and then two days before Priceline bid a in 3 1/2 or 4 star category at a price point slightly lower that I have a hotel booked for. If my bid gets accepted I can cancel the other reservation; if not I'm still ok.)

 

[BethA]

we always fly the day before a cruise. We have had too many bad experiences with flights overbooked bad weather, and people forced to get off-most of those wih usair. since we have started to fly SW, we have been lucky, but you never know when some difficulty will arise.

 

[BethA]

the RC cruises we did were on the Navigator and Mariner-both larger than the Magic. They also had the ice show, inline skating, dodgeball tournaments-a lot of activities for the older "kids" and teens. Brandon did not do any kids activities so I can't say how that was-he played a lot of minigolf, swam, did the rock climbing. They also had Johnny Rockets and a large arade. On the Enchantment-about the size of the Magic-they only had the rock climbing, but the pools were still larger. They did not have a movie theater. On the larger ships we were on they used a conference type room to show a few movies, but had a good selection of in room movies. The service is not the same, but the price makes it worth it. On DCL you feel like the CM try to get to know you-we did not experience that at all. We always (well except one bad experience) look forward to dinner with our servers on DCL. On RC we did not care if we ever saw them again-no personal service.

 

[djd7292]

Have a great birthday!!!

Thanks, my actual bday isn't until April 28. It is just easier celebrating them all at once.

 

[nikkistevej]

Momtomari:
Are you flying out of Columbus or Cleveland? (or somewhere else) Both of these cities have nonstops the morning of the flight (Columbus at 7am and Cleveland at 8am). If you are already holding Southwest flights it is easier -- and free -- to reticket on Southwest.

I'm a cautious gal by nature when it comes to flying to something you absolutely have to get to on time -- a cruiseship perhaps! Whenever I have something "big" (wedding/cruise/etc) I always fly up on the last flight the day before even if it means landing at midnight because we have to leave after work. I'd personally rather get the travel stress over with and a good, hard night's sleep. I don't care who you are, packing and schlepping and security and wondering if your bags are going to make it and transfers is stressful. So we go up the night before and get a good night's sleep and then start the adventure (hint: I book a real reservation someplace acceptable and then two days before Priceline bid a in 3 1/2 or 4 star category at a price point slightly lower that I have a hotel booked for. If my bid gets accepted I can cancel the other reservation; if not I'm still ok.)

We always fly in a day early too, I am nervous about that as well, on my first cruise, my sister and I flew in the same day, and we almost missed our flight in Baltimore, and literally had to run through the airport(this was before 9/11- because now if security saw anyone running through the airport they would probably shoot them- LOL)anyway, they were actually holding the plane for us- it was crazy!!!! Never again!