7/29/06--Western Magic Trip Report

[AshburnMom]

This is going to be long, but I'll split it up. First I have to say that even my husband thought that this was the best vacation he had ever been on. We just LOVED it!! It was our first cruise ever and I can't wait to do another one!

Our group consisted of 11 people:
Me
DH
DS--10yo
DD--7yo
My mom
My sister
BIL
DNiece1--15
DNiece2--12
DNiece3--9
DNephew--6

First of all, my mom and my family spent a week before the cruise at New Smyrna Beach, about 45 minutes north of Cape Canaveral. Just an FYI—we found this to be a wonderful family beach. It had beautiful soft, white sand, the beaches had lifeguards, and they were not crowded at all. If you are looking for more excitement, Daytona was the next town north. The timeshare was Friday to Friday. On Saturday, we headed down to Port Canaveral to see the Magic off on their July 22 cruise. We had dinner at Fishlips and waved to passengers, knowing that next week it would be us. It was actually a lot of fun.

Friday
My sister and her family showed up on Friday (7/28) and we all spent the night at the Hilton on Cocoa Beach. I got a rate of $108 (including tax) from AAA, which I thought wasn’t bad. On the way down, we stopped at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and saw about 20 manatees swimming at the manatee viewing area. I was so excited. There were even a couple of baby manatees there. We then stopped at Ron Jon and went onto the hotel. The hotel was fine—we were on the first floor off the lobby. The rooms were very nice and the bed was wonderful—in fact, it was the most comfortable bed I’d ever slept in in a hotel (it was better than my bed at home!). It rained that afternoon so we spent only a little time walking the beach.

Saturday
Sat am we were up and ready and headed down to Port Canaveral. We got there a little before 10am and the security guard didn’t make it clear where we were to go. We ended up looping around and getting in line to turn left into the terminal. After dropping our luggage off, DH and BIL parked the cars in the lot that’s only steps from the door of the terminal. They seemed to be taking forever to get into the terminal after parking so we headed in without them. It turns out they were bundling up any food to try to prevent ant infestation. Unfortunately…my sister's car did get ants , mostly because it is a 5-year old car that has been eaten in. Our van was only 4 weeks old and didn’t have enough crumbs to be of interest. If our van hadn’t died the month before, we would have had the same problem. Moral of the story—vacuum and clean out your car before you leave it in the terminal lot.

We were given boarding card #3 and the terminal wasn’t all that busy at that hour. The ladies (me, mom, and my sister) checked in quickly and easily, while the men and kids got in line for the kid’s clubs—that took longer, but wasn’t all that bad. We were able to move DD from the 5-7yo group to the 8-9yo group with no difficulty. Her birthday was <3 months away, she is going into 3rd grade, and her cousin is in the older group.

Our dining rotation turned out to be PLA. Many months ago I had called DCL and requested APL, but PLA turned out to be fine. First, it gave us an extra 15 minutes to get our acts together for dinner, and I ended up liking Parrott Cay best of all the restaurants. I loved the décor and the atmosphere.

At 11am, Goofy showed up, and at 11:30, Minnie came. Right after we got our pix taken with Minnie, they started boarding (11:45). We got on in minutes and our families’ names were announced on the ship. The ladies headed straight to Rockn’ Bar D to get Palo reservations since we couldn’t get the night we wanted for dinner online and we couldn’t get brunch at all. The men took the kids to Parrott Cay for brunch. We ended up getting Palo brunch and dinner reservations for the days and times we wanted with no difficulty .

After brunch (with those huge shrimp and great dessert bar!), everyone headed up to the pool. The kids had bathing suits to change into and I wandered around taking pix and snooping. We went down to the room around 2 and all of our luggage arrived by around 3. Some of my sister's luggage arrived quite late (around 5ish). I unpacked some, and at 4 we had the fire drill. That took about 15-20 min and then it was time for the Sail Away Celebration. That ended around 5 and the captain announced that the ship wasn’t leaving for another 30 min or so—they were waiting for a bus to arrive. We ended up leaving around 5:20-5:25, so we did get to sail by Fishlips, wave to the people eating there, and just get out of the port when we had to leave for dinner.

Our servers were Trifonio (from Goa, India) and Michelle (from Capetown, South Africa). They were both great . Trifonio was very quiet and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of him at first, but he really was very nice and great with the kids. Peter was handed the kid’s menu and wasn’t all that interested in what was on it. I asked if he could have an adult menu and he was in heaven. Unfortunately, both Jim and Peter get motion sickness and the trip across the Gulf Stream was rocky—enough that both of them ended up leaving dinner. Trifonio says that it’s always like this, but by 10pm, it will settle out for the rest of the cruise (which it did).

However, after that, Peter automatically got the adult menu. I have never seen that child eat SO MUCH. He had appetizers, full adult entrees, and dessert every night (and didn’t gain an ounce).

(Actually, as an aside, none of us gained any weight (and we all ATE!). I gained the most (1.5 lbs). I think with all the running up and down stairs, and all over the ship and ports, we burned off most of what we ate.)

The evening show at 8:30 (All Aboard Let the Magic Begin) was good, but it seemed long, probably because I was so tired from such a long day.

More to come...

 

[PoohJen]

Yayyyy! Great beginning!!! I love a good, long trip report!!! We had Trifonio too in Nov '06 - yes, very quiet and very nice! He ran into us in St. Thomas port day and stopped to chat.

thanks for posting about the ants! drat, one more thing to do!!!! I wouldn't have thought of that, and hadn't heard that as a problem in the terminal parking lot.

You got there at 10 and got Group 3??? I'm so confused, I thought the terminal only opened at 10. I will need to recheck my times. Still, you boarded at 11:45? That 's great!

Keep the report coming!!!

 

[AshburnMom]

Hi Poohjen--yeah, I was surprised we to #3 for boarding too, but the boarding went so fast, it wasn't like we really had to wait very long.

Sunday (7/30/06)

Sunday we were in Key West. We ate at Topsiders for breakfast and I finished unpacking. We also ate at Parrott Key for lunch before we went ashore. We didn’t book an excursion and just walked around town. I haven’t seen a lot of enthusiastic reports for Key West but I liked it. It was hot (around 90F), but we live outside of Washington DC where it is hot and oppressively humid all summer, so it wasn’t any worse that what we are used to.

We went to the Pirate Soul Museum (used a buy 1 get 1 free adult admission coupon that was online). The kids loved it—it was pretty good for a pirate museum . After that we wandered down to the Key West Winery and sampled key lime, pina colada, and mango(?) wines . They were good, but we didn’t buy anything. We then went next door to the Blond Giraffe and had key lime pie on a stick.

We wandered over to Duval Street and passed Sloppy Joes (the old and new bars). I wanted to stop at Margaritaville and ran into the store and bought a T-shirt (had a 20% off coupon that I got online).

Our next stop was Hemingway’s house (used a buy 1 get 1 free adult admission coupon that was online), which everyone loved. It is a large, simple house that is on a beautifully landscaped, tropical yard across the street from the lighthouse. Of course, the highlight was the cats. We saw only about 10 (the others were probably hiding in some cool spot), but we were able to see the 6 toes quite easily on kittens that were asleep on top of each other in a cage in the shade. We were told that we could pet the cats, but not pick them up.

At this point, it was starting to get late and we looked down the street and could see the southernmost point marker. We headed back down Duval to Front Street and ran into the Tortuga Rum Cake store and bought a 6-pack of rum cakes for gifts. We left port around 7, which was disappointing. Other places I read said that the ship was in port until 10ish and I thought we could hang with the crowd in Mallory Square to watch the sunset, but we left before then.

I decided that since I was still awake at 10:30 (amazingly), I wanted to go see the 10:45 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean II (POCII) . Jim and Peter had already seen it once and I really wanted to go. I talked Linda into going and we were amazed at how full the Walt Disney Theater was for a movie that late at night. It was better than I expected and we got back to the room at 1:15 and crashed.

Next installation coming soon!...

 

[sherry]

Thanks so much for posting a trip report. My dh and I leave on 9/9 for his 50th birthday. It's a western and I love reading what other people have done.

 

[Momtravels]

We are also from Northern Va. and sailed on the 7/29 Western. It was our third Disney cruise, but first time on the Magic. Glad to hear your family had a wonderful time. It was an awsome cruise for us as well!! Lots of similarities, we also arrived at 10:00 a.m. and received boarding card #3. We may have been following you in Key West The Blond Giraffe was wonderful and we also enjoyed Hemingway's house after our key lime pie on a stick. I have visited Key West three times, and try as I might, never made it to Hemingway's house, so I was thrilled to finally visit.
You are so right,it was hot but the humidity wasn't too much worse than home!! We had some problems with the A/C and humidity in our stateroom and it took until Wednesday until they moved us, otherwise a flawless trip for us. Can't wait to read the rest of your trip report.

 

[tjeagle]

Lovin' your report!

 

[AshburnMom]

On to Monday (7/31/06)...

After becoming comfortable with the ship, we decided to give DS unmonitored in and out of the kid’s club. He was so much happier . My sister had already done that with DNiece2 and she moved DNephew from the 5-7yo group into the 8-9yo group. I was surprised they did that with a 6 ½ yo, but it made it much easier for my sister and BIL to not have 4 kids in 4 different groups, and he was much happier.

We were in room 2618 (2614—Mom, DNieces 1 and 2; and 2616—My sister, BIL, DNiece3 and DNephew). THis location was SO convenient because it was in the aft starboard side of the ship, right by the elevators and steps. It made it easy to run up to restaurants and the theatre, and down to catch tenders or debark from the ship. The problem was that it was under the galley and above where you catch the tenders. It could get noisy some mornings. Elsa (from the Philippines) was our stateroom hostess—she was very sweet and made some adorable towel animals.

Monday we were at sea and we scheduled our Palo’s brunch that day at 10:30. DH and BIL decided that they wanted to go see POCII at 9am with some of the kids and backed out of brunch (what WERE they thinking!?!?) . My sister, Mom, and I went and our server was Alex (from Croatia). Of course, he was superb and the food was fantastic !

DD beeped me half way through brunch (I should have given DH the beeper since he had already seen the movie), and wanted to leave the kid’s club. They were up on deck 10 in the sun and heat, but I convinced her to stay a little longer and sit in the shade with some other kids, but call if she is totally miserable. Alex held the kitchen off a bit with our main dish until I got back. About 20 minutes later, the head server told my sister and I that someone was here to see us so we head off to find out that BIL was there with DD, DNiece3, and DNephew. They also wanted to leave and beeped him. OK—now to finish brunch in peace.

My sister, Mom, and I went to the shopping seminar in the afternoon, which I totally hated. I naively thought it would be info on local crafts and jewelry. Instead it was a canned presentation to push all the expensive jewelry outlets at the ports. There was even a generic movie with Robin Leach to show on every cruise ship out there. Hated it.

We then wandered over to the art auction, had a cosmo, and watched (while sitting on my number—didn’t want any misunderstandings ). Some of the art was lovely, but it was VERY expensive.

DH went to the beer tasting seminar at 4pm. Since he brews his own beer, he found this fun. We then got dressed for formal night and went down to get a slew of pictures taken. We ran over to a photographer who had a short line, but he couldn’t take a picture of all 11 of us. So instead, he took pix of the smaller groups—families, kids, with Gramma. (I’m sure the people behind us in line were ready to kill us). We then got a quick picture with the Captain (who looked stiff and uncomfortable—probably not his favorite part of the job), and then the whole group of us in front of the Mickey statue in the lobby. This came out great and was worth the wait. On top of it all, we were only about 5 min late for dinner.

We ate at Animator’s Palate, which was delightful. After that, I quickly got out of my dress and heels and ran off to the Golden Mickeys. It was fun and entertaining, but I liked other shows better.

More soon...

 

[AshburnMom]

Tuesday (8/1/06)

Tuesday we were at Grand Cayman. We had booked a 7:30 DCL excursion for the Island tour and then a stop at Stingray City. Armand was our tour guide who drove about 25 of us around in an air-conditioned bus. He drove through Georgetown, past the Governor’s residence, the Old Homestead, and on the Hell. Hell is an area of presumably volcanic rock formations that is interesting and it has a gift shop—we stopped for about 20 minutes.

After that we stopped at the Turtle Farm, which the kids loved. The shells of these turtles were absolutely beautiful. They also got to hold the turtles, which were fairly large (shell about 1 foot wide). We were there about 30 min, which went fast. There is a tremendous amount of development going on in GC, which the locals are not happy about. They already had traffic issues in Georgetown.

Next we were on our way to Stingray City—probably the highlight of the cruise. BIG HINT: if you get motion sickness, take the Dramamine or meclizine NOW. The 30-minute ride out on the boat to the sand bar was a little rocky and everyone in our group did fine going out. However, on the ride back, the rocking hit critical mass and both DS and DNiece1 were sick on the way back to shore. (DH had already taken a meclizine on the ship, so he was OK).

REGARDLESS—this was a fantastic experience. The boat pulled up next to a bunch of other boats on this sandbar that had stunningly beautiful blue water. We brought our own snorkels and masks, which I was glad. I knew ours fit and I knew they were clean. DH used his new prescription mask for the first time and was actually able to see these beautiful creatures. DD was nervous and either stayed on DH's back or sat on the boat and watched. The crew of the boat was great—they made sure you got to experience what you were comfortable doing. I got to feed squid to 2 stingrays, hold one, and we got our pix taken in the classic poses. We were there at least 45 minutes. It was totally awesome!!

Armand drove us back to the tendering site and we decided that we had enough time to tender back, change clothes, and eat lunch before heading back in to do some shopping. We found that the shopping was either typical cheaper souvenirs, or very expensive. I did find a coupon on the internet for 10% off at the Blue Iguana Souvenier store, which is right near where you catch the tender (and yes, we did find things to buy there).

Tendered back, showered, and dressed for Palos. Put the kids in their clubs and we headed up at 6pm. We requested Alex again since we liked him so much for brunch. This time the men were with us and they soon realized what they missed when they skipped brunch. We ate, and ate, and ate. Alex ordered chocolate soufflés for all of us, then put 3 more desserts on the table. I was in pain by the time the meal was over (but it was a good pain ).

Got out of my dress and heels, and ran over to see Twice Charmed—loved it!

Ok—this is going to sound crazy, but I kept worrying about when I was going to get the laundry done. I was wide away at 3:15am and thought I’d probably get up around 5:30 to do it, and then decided—since I’m awake now, might as well get it started. OBVIOUSLY, there wasn’t a soul anywhere in the halls and the laundry room was empty. Once I got it started, I fell right to sleep and woke up when the machines said that they would finish. I was all done by 5:30. Jim was stunned to find clean, folded clothes in the drawer the next morning. He thought Elsa was a real miracle worker! I told him it wasn’t Elsa—I was the (drowsy) laundry fairy.

More soon...

 

[AshburnMom]

Half way through the week...it went so fast!

Wednesday (8/2/06)

Today we were at Cozumel. We did the DCL excursion of the Cozumel ruins (San Gervasio) and the stop at Play Mia beach. We opted to do excursions where we actually saw the island and something unique to the place we were visiting instead of going straight to a beach for a couple of reasons. First, the 6 kids were between 6 and 15 years old and were old enough to get something out of it, and secondly, we had just spent a week at the beach the week before. A Florida beach isn’t the same as a Caribbean beach, but we had already gotten plenty of sun and didn’t need.any more full days of sun.

We tendered to the Punta Longosta pier—or what’s left of it. Actually, they are working very hard to get this repaired and our tour guide, Ruben, said that they hoped it would be ready for cruise ships in November. The pier and the shopping area were new since Jim and I were there in 1994. We got on a large, air-conditioned tour bus and our guide was Ruben. He was wonderful. He is part Mayan and very proud of his culture and heritage. He gave us a very detailed tour of San Gervasio, which was quite interesting. I think having a tour guide was important to getting a full understanding and enjoying the site. The kids all did fine and weren’t horribly bored. We had taken books out of the library on the Mayans before we left for the cruise. We also saw an iguana in a tree. There were about 8-10 shopping stands there too. We then drove to the far side of the island—the beaches are beautiful but a lot of the sand was washed away in the hurricane last year.

The bus then came around to the other side of the island to Playa Mia. This was my least favorite part of the trip. We were given water or soda on the bus and coupons for drinks at the beach (DH and I got beer, the others got water). They had a restaurant and we ordered cheese quesedillas. The guacamole was fantastic—I never thought I liked it until I ate it there. In hindsight, it would have been quicker to do the buffet. The beach was jammed packed . The sand was also rougher and rockier than FL or Grand Cayman. It’s the beach where many cruise ships drop their people and there were 4 ships in that day. There were also several shopping stands at the beach. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend on the beach, but again, we had enough sun. We really wanted to see the ruins.

Back at the pier, we walked around and shopped a little more. We got out of the Punta Longosta area and headed toward the center of town. We soon came across an alleyway with shops that were much cheaper than the pier area and we got T shirts and a hand-painted plate. We headed back to the ship and were aboard around 3:45pm.

I’m probably going to get attacked for this, but I was expecting more from the pirate show. It was fun and cute, but it was just like the Sail Away party, except with pirate costumes. I was hoping for something more “piratey”—maybe Minnie is taken “hostage” (stands in a corner—nothing upsetting to kids) by pirates and Mickey and others save her, then celebrate. I don’t know—just my opinion. Fire works were great.

More soon...

 

[sillykidsmom]

I’m probably going to get attacked for this, but I was expecting more from the pirate show. It was fun and cute, but it was just like the Sail Away party, except with pirate costumes. I was hoping for something more “piratey”—maybe Minnie is taken “hostage” (stands in a corner—nothing upsetting to kids) by pirates and Mickey and others save her, then celebrate. I don’t know—just my opinion. Fire works were great.
More soon...

We were on the Magic 7/15-7/22 and I have to agree with you about the Pirate party. The kids did have fun, for the first 30 minutes of dancing but after that they got bored real quick. For some reason I remember the Pirate Party being different on the Wonder last year. It seemed more action packed without all the dancing. Oh well now I know to skip it next time and get some well deserved sleep after a day in Cozumel.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

We were also on the same cruise as you. You describe everything so well ! We also did the GC Island tour without the stingray part. I loved the Turtle farm, kinda wished we stayed could have stayed longer...even held a turtle in my hands too!

Thanks for sharing all your memories, can't wait to read the rest.

 

[Babs417]

Were did you get your pescription mask? Our kids loved pirate night. Iguess it is what you make of it. Sometimes sleep is best. Nice report.

 

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing

 

[AshburnMom]

Hi Babs417--
My husband has wanted (really NEEDED) a prescription mask for years. He decided that since we would be snorkeling several times on the cruise, it was time to actually get one. I ended up looking up Scuba stores in the phone book and online for something local. Surprisingly, there was one the next town over. We live outside Washington DC in VA, so I was surprised a scuba store was so close--we are not near water. He just had to bring in his glasses prescription and pick a mask. It took about 2 weeks to come back. The kicker was the price--about $225. We decided to do it since he loves to snorkel and it was well worth it. He snorkeled at Castaway Cay for almost 3 hours.

 

[AshburnMom]

I found that the second half of the week on our cruise just FLEW. It was suddenly over before we knew it.

Thursday morning, my mom, my sister, and I did the Behind the Scenes: Stageworks, which was very interesting. The director, Keith Davenport, has a pretty impressive background. He explained how they could build a state-of-the-art stage with all the bells and whistles on it that they wanted when they were building the ship. Most theaters on Broadway or the West End are too old to have a lot of the things that the Walt Disney Theatre has.

We got to see backstage, and they dropped one of the 3 “lifts” or sections of stage that drop down to change scenery or move characters. It’s about a 15-foot drop! I had new concern for the actors that night in Disney Dreams when they were spinning around on stage with one or two of the lifts down. I could also see why they prohibit flash photography (not that it stopped some people)—it could potentially disorient the actor, which could be dangerous in a situation like that.

Some costumes were also out for us to see—the wardrobe woman estimated that Belle’s dress for Disney Dreams weighed about 40 pounds. It was made with 100 feet of material and weighed a ton when you lifted it.

That afternoon we did a Galley tour, which was also very interesting. It’s hard to believe that the people working in the galley can produce such wonderful meals every day for so many people (and the crew of 960). They all work very hard.

We had semi-formal night at Animator’s Palate, which was very nice. Trifonio brought over 3 extra lobsters that he got his hands on. We then had some more pix taken—including the “cheesy cruise pix” (as I call it—the one in front of a pix of the ship), which came out quite well (for our family) and I totally love, as did our pix with formal Donald (we love Donald).

I loved Disney Dreams—that and Twice Charmed were my favorites.

I'll finish up next time!

 

[AshburnMom]

OK--I'm finally wrapping this up...

Friday (8/4/06)

In all honesty, Castaway Cay was the stop that I was least looking forward to. I know that everyone raves about it, but I kept thinking it was just another beach. By the time the day was over, I decided that I needed at least another day there. It was fun to see the Flying Dutchman in port, especially after just seeing the movie a few days earlier.

We got to the far side of the beach (near the restrooms) pretty early and snorkeled for about 90 minutes. DD got much more interested in the snorkeling when we finally found lots of fish and the Mickey statue.

I brought about 6 inflatable rafts or rings from home and we all used them, which saved us some money.

DD and DNiece3 got her hair braided; DD cried through the second half of the braiding, but it came out very cute and she was happy she had done it. Lunch at Cookies was delicious. I was stuck on the beach (OK—I was lying on a float relaxing) while the men and the older kids went snorkeling again.

DNiece1 came back from the teen excursion and had a really great time. She went kayaking and they found a small shark away from the beach. They also rode their bikes around the island, then ate and swam together. When the guys came back, my sister and I went back to the ship (~3:30) to shower and start packing. The day went too fast—I wanted to explore the island, but it will have to wait until next time.

My sister and I skipped the show (Remember the Magic) and continued packing—which took longer than I thought it would (too many souvenirs!). Actually, most of our group decided to see the movie “Cars” instead, which was playing at the Buena Vista Theatre. At 8:30, my sis and I went up to Shutters to resolve our photo purchases (and check reprints and other pix that we asked them to adjust). It was the perfect time to do it because most everyone was either at the show or eating. DS wanted to see POCII again, which started at 10:45, and DH agreed to let him see the first 30 minutes—then to bed.

Saturday (8/5/06)
Saturday it was sadly all over. We ate breakfast at Parrot Cay, said goodbye to Trifonio and Michelle (and gave them their tips), and went back to Shutters to pick up the last of the reprints (and got a complimentary pix of the Magic and the Flying Dutchman!). We grabbed our stuff and headed out. It was so easy to find our luggage, go through the immigration and customs line, and in no time, we were outside. The cars were parked only a few feet from the door to the terminal, which made it easy to hit the road (after my sister cleaned her car of ants). The week went SO FAST and was so wonderful—can’t wait to do it again!

 

[lindaso]

Great trip report!! Thanks so much for taking the time to write it...I really enjoyed reading it.

 

[king974]

I will be travelling with a group of 10 family members. Will we all be able to dine togther?

 

[AshburnMom]

Hi king974--
Yes, that should be no problem as long as they know you are traveling as a group. We had 3 cabins and the reservations were linked. They combined tables so that all 11 of us were always together at dinner. When we showed up for brunch one day at Parrot Cay, several of the servers said they would have to split us up since we were such a large group, but our head server was working in that room and saw us. He found a table that kept us together. There are quite a few large groups traveling together so it should work out just fine.