7 Night Magic western- President's Week Cruise Pre-Trip Report

jasec2

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Joined
Feb 22, 2011
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277
Hello! I have been reading everyone's trip reports and love reading about experiences on the ships. I decided to start ours now since I am SO EXCITED about our first Disney Cruise!! My husband and I have cruised before on NCL and Princess but this is our first family trip and our first time on DCL. Here is who is going:
Grandma
Grandpa ( thanks to them for our cruise!!!)

Russell (35)
Jessica (34)
Brayden (4)
Justin (3)

My husband is excited about the cruise but is a little confused about my obsession with DCL. I tell them that this is (1) our first family vacation, (2) our first DCL experience and (3) our first vacation in 5 years. He still doesn't get it. Russell wants me to add that he is traveling with his in-laws and has his own set of concerns....
We have adjoining rooms (Cat 9). I think stateroom 6524 and 6526.
We have about 6 weeks to go and I am getting ready. I have my planning binder with all of my info on the ship, ports and (of course) FOOD!!! Even though I am looking forward to eating on the ship, my husband and I are on Weight Watchers. I have lost 30 pounds and my husband has lost 15 pounds. This is all in anticipation for the cruise so we can fit into out bathing suits and our formal wear.
The boys are excited as well. Brayden understands more since he is almost 5years old. He wants to go into the kids club badly. We will see how that goes. Justin is a little more hesitant. He is excited to go on "Mickey's Boat" but is concerned about where he will sleep and go to the bathroom!!!
We have requested our dining rotation to begin with Parrot Cay. We have told that we are waitlisted for this particular dining rotation so we will see.
We decided against doing the FE this round even though our Cruise Meet group is AWESOME!!!! I have found it a little overwhelming working ( I teach Special Education) and getting prepped for the cruise. Maybe next time. I am making magnets, shirts ( I will post how they come out) and I am making autograph books for the boys.
Ok, think that is it for now. I will post more as we get closer. Next step: Target tomorrow for some supplies ( i.e. SUNSCREEN as 3 out of 4 of us have reddish hair!!!!)
Jessica
 
You guys will have a great time! Don't try to overplan...just go and ENJOY! You'll be hooked and ready to book another cruise onboard. :)

Congrats on the weightloss!

Jill in CO
 

Subbing! We'll see you in a few weeks!

I'm sure my DD4 Alexandra (who is also closer to five) will find Brayden in the kids club and at our DIS meet. She's pretty outgoing and will be looking for buddies. DD6 Grace will be close behind. They are both very curious about "the Mickey boat" as well. Especially the "bunk" beds lol

I also opted to not participate in the FE because I am on the steering committee for our school's auction which is two weeks before the cruise. I'm knee-deep in planning for that and knew I wouldn't have time to get items organized.

I'm looking forward to meeting people from the FB group as well; everyone has been very nice and super helpful (esp. Maureen! Cheers to you!).
 
So I went to Target and stocked up on sunscreen and travel stuff but I couldn't find shirts to use for our family shirts!! I have a design ( from Marion here on the disboards!) to make matching shirts for the boys saying " My first Disney Cruise" and then matching "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" shirts for all 6 of us. I guess I will have to look in JoAnn Fabrics or AC Moore for some shirts that would work well with the iron transfers.

Michele- I felt bad about dropping out of our FE group but I felt I have so much going on right now I couldn't find the time to do it justice. My son's 3rd birthday is Friday so we are planning his party and Annual Review is starting at school so I am really busy there right now. Looking forward to meeting everyone also though!!
 
Hi Jessica! :wave2:
Looks like a great start! I just went through a bunch of sunscreen bottles today--looks like I may need to pick up an extra 1 or 2--it is expensive on the ship! Looking forward to meeting you and the rest of our group onboard--no worries about the FE for sure! It definitely shouldn't be a source of stress. Maybe you'll try it on your next Disney cruise :goodvibes
 
We took our first cruise 6 months ago and we had a blast. There is so much to do on the ship that you can feel overwhelmed at times. We did not make it to one show, which I feel bad about. Maybe we will in July. Just relax and go with the flow if you can. Happy Sailing!
 
So I tried to make our shirts for the cruise today and had a disaster. Obviously I can't read and didn't notice the big words at the top of the sheet INK JET PRINTER!! Used my hisband's laser printer and then couldn't get the backing off. I got two shirts for the boys to wear when they get on the cruise made and then quit out of frustration. Amy was kind enough to send me 5 more and I will try again. I was really looking forward to making the Jake and the Neverland Pirates shirts for the family. Can't wait to see my mother wearing a T-shirt. I don't know if she ever has!!! I REALLY need to figure out how to post pics so I can post that pic from the cruise!:rotfl:
 
Glad you're going to get a 'do-over' with the shirts--those transfers usually work great :) I can help you with posting a pic when the time comes, if you haven't managed to do it by then :goodvibes
 
Only 4 more days until we leave!! I have had our bags packed for the past week.:yay: My older son ( he is 4.5) is very excited. My younger guy (just turned three) is concerned where he is going to sleep!! I had to show him pics of his bed on the ship.
Our flight is 8:15 am from JFK so that means we are going to be getting up pretty early on Sat. morning. So excited!!!!!
 
Yay! Not much longer...you guys will have a blast!

Jill in CO
 
We got back from our cruise yesterday. as soon as I learn how to post pics, I will start on my trip report. Until then, just a few thoughts.
We LOVED the Magic. The CM's were super friendly and all were just great with my kids. The ship was very clean and issues ( no hot water in the shower) were taken care of right away. The transportation from the airport to the ship was good-just a bit of waiting on lines. It was nice to check in at the airport and then walk right onto the ship. Oour room was great for the kids. We really liked the split bathrooms and the tubs. We had an adjoining room with my parents and that helped a lot. The boys just went between the two rooms so it made getting ready easier. We spent a good amount of time in the room because we tried to do rest time everyday. It helped to make the boys less cranky.We found a Disney Candyland in the gift shop ( very reasonably priced) and ended up playing it everyday. (The boys are 3 and 4 1/2). The food was awesome. My parents were just off a Celebrity cruise and they felt the food on the Magic was better than on Celebrity. Of course the boys ordered chicken fingers or mac-n-cheese every night but they were happy.
The weather was fantastic. Sun everyday. No trouble getting into Castaway Cay either. I had been worrried about that. We absolutly ADORED CC. It was perfect for the boys. Brayden (4) and I went down the water slide about 6 times. The little guy loved the float we rented and he spent most of the day in it. Neither of them liked Spring-A-Leak. They said that it was for babies. The water was a little cool but not bad when you got into it. The food was good at lunch as well. The boys liked their hot dogs. I LOVED the Konk Kooler and had about 4 of them:cool1:
The only negative I had was not even about the cruise ship. It was the age of my younger son. He turned 3 in January and we thought he would be a good age for the cruise. While he did have a good time, he had issues with using the stateroom toilet and that caused some potty issues for us. He also had some MAJOR temper fits which I was not prepared for. I think he was overwhelmed with the whole thing. He enjoyed it but I wish we had maybe waited a year for him to go. My 4 1/2 year old had a wonderful time and was very well behaved. He loved meeting the characters and having his autograph book signed.
Ok, will start working on a real trip report once I learn about posting pics!
 
Hi Jessica!
So sorry we didn't get a chance to meet you in person on the ship--but it sounds like you had a great time (as did we!). The weather really was fantastic all week; I don't think it could have been any better!

Looking forward to hearing about your take on the cruise--I have started a trip report of my own on another blog, and will probably post it here on the DIS as well :)
 
Hi Maureen,
I know-I wish I had gotten to meet you too! I got so busy with the boys I didn't get to any of the meets! Can you tell me how to post pics here? Thanks!
 
Sure!

first you'll need to upload them to a photosharing site, like Flickr or Photobucket. Once you have the photos you want uploaded, there should be a 'share' button you can click for each one. Then you want to choose the option that says either "Forum" or HTML or BBC code, which will give you a link that you can copy. Then paste that link into your trip report here on the DIS and the photo should show up. You can either choose the "Thumbnail" size, in which case it will be small but folks can click on it for a larger photo, or if you choose "medium" there will be a better sized photo that just embeds into your text where ever you have clicked to paste it.

Hope that helps! You can get to Flickr from the link in my signature, it has some of the photos I took on our cruise :)
 

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