A kid lost their shoe again...our Southern Caribbean Adventure!

[Kari0180]

And we're back!

Life has been a little crazy so I'm a little delayed in writing this report, but I still have all my notes and photos and am excited to share our Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Magic! So first up are our introductions!


I'm Kari and with me as always is my DH, Bill. We live outside of Minneapolis, MN. By day, I work in the veterinary field and DH is a photojournalist for a lifestyle show. We also have a vlog, KABI Treks that keeps us busy. In addition to this report, we also vlogged our cruise and I will attach those videos as I go along. This was our 15th Disney Cruise and our 2nd time on The Magic. I've been wanting to do a Southern Itinerary for a really long time, so I was very excited when I convinced DH to do this cruise. The cruise left from San Juan, Puerto Rico, we had stopped in San Juan on a previous cruise in 2019 and loved it, so we decided to fly in a couple of days early to enjoy San Juan!

Our itinerary:
Wednesday, October 29th-Leave Minneapolis, arrive in San Juan
Thursday, October 30th-Food Tour in Old San Juan
Friday, October 31st-Embarkation Day
Saturday, November 1st-St. Kitts
Sunday, November 2nd-Saint Lucia
Monday, November 3rd-Barbados
Tuesday, November 4th-Dominica
Wednesday, November 5th-Antigua
Thursday, November 6th-Day at Sea
Friday, November 7th-Debarkation Day, fly back to Minneapolis

What are we waiting for? Let's get this report started!

 

[Kari0180]

Day 1, Travel Day

Our travel day actually started the night before, we packed up our "kids", our dog, Morty and our cat, Hef and took them to DH's dad's house. We grabbed some dinner with dad and then spent the night at his place since our flight was so early, and he was our ride. We had a very uncomfortable night of sleep (not a fan of the bed). I think in the future, we either just need to stay at our place and leave our house very early or spring for a hotel at the airport because we both only slept for a couple of hours.

The next morning, FIL dropped us off at the airport, it was really early when we arrived, so check-in and getting through security were super quick! We found our gate and then grabbed some breakfast. Chik-fil-a was close and the only thing open at the time, so that's where we went.



We both went with the chicken biscuit combo; I had mine with a vanilla cold brew and DH got a coke. Once we finished eating, we headed to our gate until it was time to board our flight.

There was no direct flight (on any airline) to San Juan, so we had to deal with a layover at JFK. We had a pretty uneventful flight to JFK, it took a little bit to get off the plane, but once we did, we located our next gate and then headed to find some lunch. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just grabbed food from the places closest to the gate. DH went with a Reuben from a deli and a grabbed a burger and fries from Shake Shack. I don't have any photos because my food took FOREVER! By the time I got my food and met back up with DH, he was already done eating and they were getting ready to board the plane. I had to scarf my food down but managed to eat everything with a little time to spare before we got on the plane. Again, our flight to San Juan went really well and before we knew it, we were in paradise!

Once off the plane, we grabbed our bags and made our way to the Uber pick up. Once there, we met up with another couple who were also from Minnesota and going to be on our cruise, they were also staying at our hotel, I'll call them M & M. We had some small talk before their Uber showed up and shortly after ours did too and we were headed to our hotel.

We were staying at the Caribe Hilton; this was the hotel that Disney uses for Puerto Rico cruises, we booked independently and not through Disney. There were A LOT of us staying at the hotel. Thankfully, we made it to the hotel at a quiet time and only had 1 person in front of us in line to check in. At check in, we were upgraded from a regular room, to an ocean view. We got our wrist bands and headed to our room. I really liked our room, I forgot to take a picture of the room, but did grab one of our view.

We didn't really have any plans for this evening, and we were pretty tired, so we decided to do some exploring around the hotel.
As I mentioned, we were really tired, we decided to just grab a quick bite at the pool bar before turning in for the night.

Menu from the pool bar

I went with the Rotisserie Turkey Wrap. I really enjoyed this, there was good flavor in the wrap and the French fries were perfect, crispy on the outside! I didn't get a photo of DH's food, but he got the Tripleta Sandwich, he really enjoyed it. While we were eating, we came across our first of many kitties

After dinner, we headed back up to our room to get ready for bed. We had an early day the next day and were very excited about what was to come!

Up Next: A food tour in Old San Juan

 

[Kari0180]

Our Travel Day video if you're interested

 

[DCL58]

Following along. We were on the 8 night on the Fantasy in 2019 that stopped in San Juan too! I remember watching your YouTube videos from that sailing.

 

[Kari0180]

Following along. We were on the 8 night on the Fantasy in 2019 that stopped in San Juan too! I remember watching your YouTube videos from that sailing.

That was such a fun cruise, one of our favorites! It was after that cruise that I became obsessed with wanting to do a southern itinerary, took a few years, but so worth it!

 

[Kari0180]

Warning: This post is heavy on food and drink porn, proceed with caution, especially if you're hungry!

Day 2: It's Food Tour Time

We had a good night's sleep and woke up refreshed from our long day the day before. I will say, it was so hot in San Juan. I was messaging with one of my coworkers and at 8am, I told her that it was already 83 degrees with a real feel of 90! When we booked our hotel room, I also booked breakfast for us each morning, so we headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. With our pre-paid breakfast, we had access to the full buffet, we had a hot bar, pastries, also a create your own omelet and a waffle bar. It also included a beverage, they had both mango and guava juices, which I was very excited about.

My plate of bacon, eggs, roasted potatoes, an egg bake, cheese, and pineapple. I wasn't a fan of the eggs or the egg bake, but I loved the potatoes, and the fruit was super fresh. I also grabbed an omelet, which was delicious, but it was huge, I couldn't finish it. After breakfast, we grabbed an Uber to take us to Old San Juan, it wasn't too long of a ride, about 10 minutes. What were we doing in Old San Juan, we were doing a food tour! We arranged a tour through Spoon Food Tours, and we were super excited. We've done a couple of other food tours in the past and loved them, it's not only the food, but also a great way to learn about the culture and history.

We arrived a little early, our tour was supposed to start at 10:00 and we arrived about 9:30. We decided to walk around the area while we were waiting.


We came across Castillo San Felipe del Morro and the cemetery. We made a mental note to possibly go visit after our tour. We visited Castillo De San Cristobal in 2019 and had a great time, this area looked really neat. Sadly, we didn't get back to explore, maybe another time. At 10:00, we headed to our meeting place, the Totem Pole in Plaza Del Quinto Centenario.

The plaza area was pretty empty; we kept looking to see if there was anyone else waiting to do our tour, but it didn't look like it. We saw our guide coming so went to meet her and found out that we were the only ones on our tour, so we were getting a private tour! Our Spoon guide was Gia and she was phenomenal! Gia started our tour giving us the history of San Juan, about Columbus and Ponce de Leon, about the forts on the island and even a little history about Hurricane Maria that hit the island in 2017. The picture of the Totem pole doesn't show it well, but it's actually created with a bunch of pottery fragments, the hurricane took a lot of the fragments off, but the Totem pole still stands.

It was then time to head to our first food stop

With every stop, we were treated to a beverage and some type of food. At Don Ruiz, we of course had some coffee

DH doesn't drink coffee, but they were nice and made him a "iced" chocolate, you can see a little of it in the background. We were also served a Mallorca, which was a ham and cheese pastry, topped with powdered sugar

This was delicious! It was the perfect blend of sweet/savory, and it was a fairly large portion! Gia talked to us about how Mallorca is a popular pastry in San Juan and she also gave us history on Don Ruiz coffee as well. We then made our way to our next stop with Gia stopping on occasion to tell us some more history or about a different restaurant/food/beverage. We walked by a bar that is in the top 10 beer bars in the US, Gia told us about all the different beers on tap and all the specialty drinks they make with beer. We then made it to our second stop

This was such a cute little place, we grabbed a table and were served our next dish

We were served Arroz Mamposteado, this was a pork and rice dish and oh my goodness, this was so good! A lot of pork is consumed in San Juan and there are so many different ways to serve it. The pork was crispy, and the rice had so much flavor. Everything we had on our tour was great, but this was my favorite dish served!

Along with our pork and rice, we were served a Sangria, but since we were in Puerto Rico where rum is king, our Sangria also had rum in it. It was fantastic, I love Sangria normally, but I never thought about adding rum to it, it actually made the Sangria a little lighter and so refreshing on this super-hot day!

I've reached my photo limit, post to continue...

 

[Kari0180]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone had a nice celebration! We kept things pretty simple this year, made crab and shrimp for NYE, drank some wine. Yesterday, we saw the new Avatar movie in 3D (the movie was okay, but sooo long). We might go check out the Ice Castles this weekend, but not sure yet. I hope everyone has a great weekend! But now, back to the report...

Day 2, Food Porn continues...

Our next stop was the Hotel El Convento, their restaurant was this beautiful open-air patio, I could've spent all day here, it was beautiful. Once we were seated, we were served a Mahi Mahi Ceviche

This was served with taro chips. There was a ton of fish in this ceviche, and it was so good! It was perfect for this incredibly hot day! I'm usually not a huge fan of anything with taro, but these chips were really good, and they didn't fall apart when scooping up the ceviche.

The beverage served with this was a watermelon mojito and this was the most amazing cocktail! The fresh watermelon chunks with the mint really made the drink. While we were enjoying our ceviche and mojito, Gia took the time to talk to us about rum. Of course, everyone knows about Bacardi, but she let us know that the locals aren't fans and most locals won't drink it

These are the two rums that the locals drink and use in their drinks in San Juan. Gia let us know that Don Q also had a rum tour that was far superior to Bacardi. We looked into doing the tour later that day, but unfortunately, the English-speaking tour was happening during our food tour. But something for us to think about if we get back to San Juan.

It was time to head to our next stop, along the way, we walked past the Governor's residence

It's the white building at the very end of the street. This is also what was also known as the umbrella street years ago. They don't do the umbrellas anymore which made me sad, I was hoping to see them again. The street is now behind a barricade with police everywhere. They now have some lights up, but it's not the same. I asked Gia why they didn't have the umbrellas anymore and she said it was in response to the protests that happened in 2019. We were in San Juan October 2019, and they still had the umbrellas up, but they weren't the colorful ones, they were for the children's hospital.

I managed to find the photo we took; you can see the barricade (and a police officer) in the background. I remember we were wondering what was with the barricades and the officers and now we know. We continued walking toward our next restaurant and as we were walking, we saw a lot of people in the streets talking and it was a little off. Gia then informed us that the power had gone out, a lot of places have generators, but some don't and those were the people hanging out in the streets.

We arrived at our next restaurant, and it looked like it was a victim of the power failure, it was closed, nobody inside, doors were locked. Gia was trying to keep her cool, but you could tell she was a little freaked out about what to do next. She asked us if she could have 10 minutes to find out another place for us to go. We said of course and to take her time. She walked us over to a little park, known as Pigeon Park to explore while she made a couple of phone calls.



If you're not a fan of pigeons, you probably won't like this park. We enjoyed walking through the small area and looking at all the Pigeons. There was a booth where you could pay to buy some food for them, but it wasn't open yet. After a few minutes, Gia found us and let us know she had found another place for us, it was going to involve a little bit of walking, but that it would be worth it. But first, we would be stopping at what was supposed to be our last stop.

We would be getting our dessert first. They had such a selection of Paleta's, it was really difficult to choose. DH picked his immediately, but I really had a tough time, in the end, I made my decision

I went with a strawberry mojito and DH went with a strawberry/mango. They were so good! Since it was really hot, these really hit the spot, but we had to eat them fast because they were melting very fast! Once we got our Paleta's, we started our walk to our final spot.

 

[Kari0180]

Day 2, part 3-The food porn is coming to a close

We finally made it to our final destination

Remember that beer bar that I mentioned at the beginning of our tour? Since we seemed so excited about it, Gia contacted them to see if we could do our final stop with them and they said yes. We headed in and took a seat while Gia arranged grabbed our food and drink

Man, I love me a good Cuban, and this didn't disappoint. Since this was a beer bar, the mustard in the sandwich was a beer mustard. The bread was a little sweeter, but it really fit with the other flavors in the sandwich.

Our drink was a Passion Fruit Beermosa, made with their passion fruit beer, we both really enjoyed this drink, it balanced well with the sandwich. As this was our final stop, our tour was over, and we had to say goodbye to Gia.

Our thoughts on our Spoon Food Tour...it was phenomenal! We were the only 2 people on this tour and we've had tours before where if there aren't enough people, they cancel the tour. We were so thankful that they still did our tour. As for Gia, she was amazing, she provided so much information about the city, the history and of course the food and drink. Gia knew everyone, at one point, she let us know that her nickname was the "mayor of San Juan" because she knew everyone and everyone knew her. I would highly recommend this tour (and Gia, if you're lucky enough to get her). They offer other tours too and if I ever get back to San Juan, I hope to check another one out.

After we parted ways with Gia, we decided to head back into La Teberna Lupulo for a couple more drinks. We were pretty full, but decided to split a couple more cocktails because they sounded so interesting

We started with a couple of margaritas; the frozen margarita was made with Dwayne Johnson's tequila.

Since we were in San Juan, we had to get a Pina Colada. I had a lot of these during our trip, but this is actually the only one I took a photo of. I liked the flavor of this, but I would've preferred it frozen over on the rocks. During our time at La Teberna Lupulo, we met a couple from Nashville, they were just wrapping up a 1 month stay in San Juan, they told us about all the places they went and the things they had done. We told them about heading out on The Magic the next day. At this point, we were full, both of food and beverage, and as I mentioned a couple of times, we were hot! We called for an Uber and headed back to our hotel. Once we arrived, we went through the few shops, then we noticed a little garden area, so we went to explore the area. There was a little fishpond with turtles and ducks swimming and there were so many iguanas wandering around


As we walked to our room, we noticed the hospitality desk at the hotel was open and there was a very large line. We were wondering why there were so many people in line (more on that later) but headed to our room. We took some time relaxing and then decided to hit up the pool area. We spent a lot of time in the pool and then headed into the ocean, the water felt really nice and we had a great time. We had plans this evening, so we decided to grab dinner again from the pool bar. DH stayed behind to get our food, and I headed up to the room to shower and change. It was pretty good timing, I was finishing getting ready, DH had returned with our food.

I was still pretty full from our food tour, so I wasn't that hungry. I went with the nachos, the photo doesn't do this justice, this was a huge portion! I really enjoyed these, I only wish there was an option to add a protein, I would've enjoyed them more with some meat. Even still, I couldn't finish these, they were a very large portion.

DH went with the fish tacos, it came with 3 tacos and some chips and salsa. He really enjoyed these; the fish was cooked well and was a large portion for each taco. It was almost time for us to head to our next activity, but I realized that we hadn't received our letter about our pickup time and what to do about our luggage. It was our first time using DCL transportation not at Disney, so I just assumed it would be the same procedure. I went back to my email and read that we were supposed to stop by the hospitality desk to get our letter...oops. Thankfully, the desk was still open, and we were able to grab our letter. Unfortunately, it was a first come, first time situation, we were on the 12:45 bus, our port arrival time was 12:30, so we wouldn't even leave the hotel until after our port arrival time, kind of a bummer, but oh well. A note to future Kari, read your email and don't assume things will be like taking the bus from Disney World . I went to the front desk and asked if it was possible to get a late checkout, we were able to get a 1pm checkout which really helped us the next day

Our final activity for the evening was that someone from our Facebook group arranged a meet and greet at our hotel bar. There was a decent turnout, and we enjoyed all of the conversations that we had. M & M were also there, and we wound up being the last groups at the meet and greet, we had a great time talking with them! We headed up to bed because next up was Embarkation Day!

 

[Kari0180]

Our vlog of Day 2

 

[Kari0180]

Before I jump to Embarkation Day, I just wanted to share our trip to the Ice Castles yesterday. The Ice Castles have been in Minnesota for the last few years, the last couple of years, they've been at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. We had a great time, the formations are beautiful, and we had a lot of fun going down the ice slide! A little collage from our visit

If you're lucky enough to have one of these by you (I know that they're in different cities), I recommend checking them out. But back to our regular report!

Day 3: Embarkation Day

Today was finally the day we've been waiting for; this was another trip we booked on opening day, and we finally made it to Embarkation Day. I always have to take a photo of the final countdown

I love to see which characters show up! We got ready and headed down to breakfast, I had the exact same breakfast as the day before, so no photo. The restaurant was a lot busier on this morning; there was a line out the door! We were behind another group from our cruise, 2 friends that traveled together, we had talked with them the night before, they asked us if we wanted to dine with them to help get seated quicker, we said of course and had a nice breakfast with them. After we finished eating, we were headed back up to our room when we noticed that the lobby was insanely packed with people. They were all dressed in Disney gear, our first impression was that they were going on our cruise, but as we were filling our water bottle, we talked with one of them and it turns out, they were on the cruise that just disembarked, they were staying at the hotel post-cruise, but there weren't any rooms available for them yet, so they were just hanging out and waiting.

We still had like 3 hours until our bus would pick us up, so we headed back up to the room just to relax before our adventure started. When we got back to our room, our bags were still there, this was a little surprising because bag pick up was supposed to be at 9 and it was now 10. At 10:30, there was a knock on our door, I thought it was someone coming to pick up the bags, but it was one of housekeeping managers asking if we were vacating the room soon. I let him know that we requested and were granted a late check out of 1:00 and that we wouldn't be leaving the room until about 12:30. He checked a little list he had and apologized for disturbing us, I asked about our bags because they still hadn't been picked up yet. I was told not to worry, that there were 384 rooms occupied by people embarking the Magic and it was just taking longer to get everyone's bags. Our bags were finally picked up around noon, because of this, I was grateful for our late checkout, I would've felt nervous leaving all of our stuff behind if we had to leave our room at 11.

Finally, it was time to get on our shuttle, there was a long line of people waiting, we spent the time chatting with our breakfast buddies (spoiler, this was the last time we saw them, we didn't see them again for the rest of the cruise) before boarding the bus and headed to port. The bus ride was only a few minutes and before we knew it, we were seeing the Magic!

There wasn't a really good place at port to take a good photo of the ship, this view from our bus was the best we could get at the time. We headed inside, went through security and got in line to get checked in, we didn't have to go to a desk like previous cruises, they checked us in while we were in line. It seemed a little clunky, but we finally got through, at this point, it was open boarding, so we were able to get directly on the ship. The main difference about sailing out of San Juan was that you got on the ship via deck 1, while there were still cast members announcing your arrival, it didn't have the same effect as when you enter via deck 3 and you wander through the atrium as your name is announced.

It was about 1:15 when we got onboard, our room was on deck 2, we debated hanging around a few minutes to drop our stuff off at our room but decided to go to lunch first. This is where DH and I have a major difference about cruising, DH likes to eat in the dining room (on the Magic, it was Rapunzel's Royal Table) and I prefer to eat at Cabanas or Marceline Market. He doesn't ask for a lot, so I agreed to go to Rapunzel's for lunch. There weren't any solo tables available, so we were seated at an 8 top with 3 other couples, nobody really talked, so it was kind of awkward. We ordered our food and first up were our appetizers

I went with the Beef Empanada, I really like this, the chimichurri sauce isn't too spicy and brings a good flavor to the empanada.

DH went with the mixed green salad with balsamic dressing. I was a little surprised with his choice. DH is normally a die-hard Thousand Island guy, if he can't have that dressing, he won't eat a salad. He said it was okay, that it was just a salad.

Next up for me was the Leek and Potato soup, I really enjoy this soup, which is odd because I normally don't like any type of potato soup, but this soup is really good, I always have to get this soup!

DH got the Seafood and Chicken Gumbo; he always enjoys this as well.

We both went with the Sliced Roasted Beef Sirloin, we both really enjoy this meal, but neither of us are big fans of the sides, the potato is always dry, and the green beans are just meh. We passed on dessert because we just wanted to get going. And this is why I'm not a big fan of Embarkation Day lunch, it just takes too long, also the menu hasn't changed in a long time, it's always the same thing. I'm advocating for Marceline Market on our next cruise, I'm too impatient

After lunch, we headed to our room, we were in room 2511, a standard inside stateroom. I've mentioned this in previous reports, but we like the inside staterooms, DH swears he gets the best sleep because the room is pitch black. We're never in our room except to sleep and shower and the money we save helps pays for the excursions we want to do. We've had verandahs on previous cruises, and we never use them.

Nothing fancy but works well for us! No luggage yet so we couldn't unpack, we did a quick tour of the room and then headed out to explore. We went up to the pool decks, it had started raining, but thankfully, we were enough under cover to still walk around. We went to the bar and grabbed our first drink of the day

This was the Captain's Curse, it had Bacardi, gin, cranberry juice, and Sprite. We both enjoyed it, I'm not a huge fan of gin, but if it's in a mixed drink, I don't mind it. I will say, I really like the edible straws, I always looked forward to seeing what flavor I would get. We continued exploring the ship, but now it was really raining! It would come and go, but when it started, it would pour. It was then time for the muster drill, thankfully, our muster station was inside the Walt Disney Theater. The drill was pretty painless and then we were released to go to the Sail a Wave party.

To be continued...

 

[Kari0180]

Embarkation Day, part 2

We headed up to deck 10 to get our spots when it started raining again, after a couple of minutes, there was an announcement that the party was moving indoors to the atrium. After a mass exodus downstairs, we found a place on deck 5 to watch the show.



It was interesting watching the party from indoors, it wasn't the same, due to the small space, but I think they did a pretty good job. We were still excited for our vacation to begin! After the party, since we were on deck 5, we decided to explore the Oceaneer's Club and Lab since they were in the middle of open houses.

I love Andy's room, they did such a good job with theming!


With me being a huge Marvel fan, I had to take photos of Mjolnir and Iron Man's suit. We crossed over to the lab (I love the little walkway) and walked around, they were getting set up for some activity

If you know anything about me, you know that I love me some trivia. With this being a Halloween on the High Seas cruise, we had some special trivia to fit the theme. For our first trivia of the cruise

Haunted Mansion Trivia!! I was so excited to play this, Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite attractions and I thought I knew enough to do really well. which we got an 18 out of 20, but not enough to win. After trivia, we realized we were finally sailing, so we headed to deck 4 to take a look. We came out just in time to sail past Old San Juan

And we had to get a selfie as we sailed away

Hit my photo limit, more to come!

 

[Kari0180]

Embarkation Day, part 3

We had a little time to burn before our next event, so we went down to our room, thankfully, our luggage had arrived. I spent a little time unpacking and decorating our door


I've only recently gotten into the magnet decorating, the magnets with our names and the Up balloons were delayed in their arrival for our cruise on the Treasure, so I was happy to finally put them on my door. I also love our magnets that show our cruises, it's a great way to reminisce!

Our Embarkation Day was also Halloween, so most of the Halloween on the High Seas activities were taking place on this evening. One of the announcements made earlier in the day mentioned that there was a pumpkin carving contest in Cabanas where the pumpkins were carved by the crew and we could vote on the winners. We've never done the trick or treating before, but decided, why not? We decided to start in Cabanas since we had other plans and just in case the lines were long, we could see the pumpkins. There was a decent line when we got up there, but it moved pretty quick, we were given our bags and got our first fistfuls of candy. It was then time to look at and vote on the pumpkins

There were so many pumpkins! Some were basic, others were really creative! We voted for our favorites before moving on. We never found out who the winners were, I don't know if this was posted somewhere and we didn't see them or if it was just shared with the crew. We still had a little time to kill, so we decided to do some more trick or treating, we hit up Fathoms, the Walt Disney Theater and the D-Lounge to collect some more candy. It was then time for us to head to Palo for Prima notte. Once we checked in, we were given a glass of sparkling wine while we waited to be seated. Once everyone arrived, we were escorted to the private dining room for our experience.

I've discussed Prima notte in my other trip reports and this was the same, so I won't be as detailed. Once we were introduced to our sommelier, our journey through Italy began

We started with the yellowfin tuna with biscotti

Next up was the Potato Gnocchi with Pine Nuts and Basil Pesto Prosecco Wine Sauce. This is my favorite, this little bite is so good!

Our third course was Snake River Farm Wagyu Beef. The only time I've eaten Wagu is at Prima Notte, but man, it's so good. I only wish we'd get a larger serving.

For dessert, we enjoyed a Blood Orange Chocolate Mousse atop a Dusted Chocolate Disc. This was the perfect dessert to end the night. The bitterness of the dark chocolate blended with the wine perfectly.

I didn't get individual photos, but these were all the wines that were served with our experience. We always enjoy Prima Notte, I enjoy it best on the classic ships, I really like the private dining room. There were only 12 of us, so in between courses, we had some great conversation. Half the table, we never saw again, but a couple of the groups we were talking to, they either wound up being on excursions with us or we'd see them around the ship or at trivia, so that was really nice!

After we were done with Prima Notte, it was time to head down to dinner, our first dinner was in Lumiere's, and it was my favorite menu! We were shown to our table, and we were seated at a table for 4, no tablemates for us. DH was so sad, he really likes having tablemates (I think he's just tired of talking to me at the end of the day). We met our dining team and placed our orders. First, our appetizers came out

We both got the Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp. The lobster is just a tiny bite, but that, and the shrimp are always really good.

We also split the Breaded and Deep-Fried Brie. We each get one piece and it's the perfect amount. I love the how the sharpness of the brie is complimented by the orange and cranberry chutney!

Next up was our soup course

We both went with the French Onion Soup. We enjoy this soup, but the cheese/crostini gets smaller and smaller each time we order. When we first started cruising, the soup was overflowing with cheese, now there's barely any. But it still tastes really good, I just want more cheese!

 

[Kari0180]

Embarkation Day, Part 4

We were boring this evening, and both ordered the same thing for our main course

We got the Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak, normally we really like this, but on this night, it was kind of meh. It just didn't have any flavor, even with the bearnaise sauce, it was just bland. We had to make up for our disappointing steak with dessert

We both got the Grand Marnier Souffle, this is my favorite dessert in the main dining rooms. I love this, I really wanted to order 2, but I behaved, I just stuck with the one

DH also had to get the Creme Brulee, this might be his favorite dessert, he said it was okay this evening, not as great as usual, but he still enjoyed it!

After dinner, we headed toward Fathoms for the evening entertainment. On our way, we ran into M & M, they were also at their own table and asked if we would like to join them at their table for dinner. We were very excited about his (especially Bill), so we made arrangements to figure out how to get us on their rotation and at their table the next day.

Once in Fathoms, we found a couple of seats. We were introduced to our host for the cruise, Hannah. The first game we played was Heard That. The room was split in half and when a sound was played, you needed to run up and hit a buzzer. If you were correct, you got the point and then you got to stay next to the buzzer for 2 more questions. If you were able to answer 3 in a row, you got a keychain.

This was where DH became a little famous, we were seated right in front of the buzzer and at first, nobody from our team was going up, so DH went up and then won a keychain, sit back down, go back up again, win a key chain, over and over again. We kept giving everyone on our team a key chain. At the end of the game, our team won 19-9, of those 19 points, DH scored 10 of them. We had a great time playing this game, met a lot of people and had a lot of laughs.
Our evening ended with the Halloween party, it started with a fun show put on by some of the entertainment crew.

They were then going to have the costume contest and dance party; however, we were exhausted and we had a very busy day ahead of us, our first port stop and excursion!

Up Next: St. Kitts and oh my goodness, a kid lost their shoe!

Our videos for Embarkation Day

 

[Kari0180]

St. Kitts, part 1

After a fabulous night of sleep, we got up and got ready for the day. We had made it to our first port stop, St. Kitts. This was our second time here, our first time was in 2019, so it had been several years. We had a port excursion that was leaving pretty early, so first we had to head up to Cabanas for breakfast. Along our way, we had to say hello to the island

We had a perfect, sunny day, but again, it was so hot! I was very happy that we would be in the water for our excursion. We went to Cabanas and grabbed some breakfast

Both DH and I pretty much got the same thing, one of each of the egg's benedict (ham and salmon), bacon and a hashbrown. I also got a chocolate chip muffin. This was pretty much our breakfast every morning, we both love benedicts, but only get them on DCL!

It was then time to head to the Walt Disney Theater to meet up for our excursion. At check in, DH was recognized for his performance in Heard That and had a good laugh about his score! Check in was smooth and after only a few minutes, we were making our way down to Deck 1 and off the ship. We booked our excursion through DCL; we were doing the Catamaran Fantasea. As we were escorted to the catamaran, we were stopped for a little bit waiting to get clearance. I took this time to start applying sunscreen, others did the same.

We were stopped right in front of this sign; a lot of people were taking photos of the family. After about 10-15 minutes, we started moving again and after a few minutes' walk, we were brought to our Catamaran.

As we boarded, we were asked to remove our shoes and place them in the baskets before getting onboard but if you were wearing water shoes, you could keep them on. I was hoping for a place in the shade, but those spots were already taken, so we made our way up front. We wound up sitting about where the people in the photo are. Once we were settled, we got a safety briefing, were told how the day was going to go. They let us know that there was an open bar, but no alcohol would be served until after we went snorkeling. With all that behind us, we were off!

We'll see you soon, Disney Magic! We had a fantastic sail to our first stop; there was beautiful scenery along the way.


We were all checking out this house on the hill, one of the crew members let us know that the person who owned the house owned a construction company and designed the place for their family. The driveway was just insane, I couldn't imagine driving that!

Around this time is the event that inspired the title of my trip report. We're sitting up front, taking in the views, the atmosphere, the weather when all of a sudden there was a blood-curdling scream, followed by more screaming, all of us jumped up, trying to figure out what was happening, the crew start running forward. Did someone fall overboard, like we all thought? Nope, a little boy who was sitting on the net and playing with his water shoes, dropped one of the shoes in the water. I can't even tell you the amount of screaming and crying that was going on with this family over a shoe. I felt like my heart stopped, talking with some others later, they all felt the same, we seriously thought someone went overboard or worse. The boy kept carrying on, the dad was mad, the sister started crying and saying how she didn't want to be there anymore and wanted to go home, the mom was holding the crying boy, it was a whole scene. For the rest of the cruise (and honestly, we're still doing it), anytime we heard a crying child, we'd say, "a kid lost their shoe again".

After about 45 minutes, we made it to our snorkeling cove, we got a safety briefing, were handed our mask and fins and hit the water. I was a little surprised that they didn't have any vests to give us, they had pool noodles, but those had run out by the time it was our turn to go in the water. I consider myself a fair swimmer, so I wasn't too concerned, but if you aren't the greatest swimmer, I'd be a little worried since the water is pretty deep.

A quick before we hit the water selfie. We were given the option to either go down the stairs or jump off the back. I played it safe and took the stairs, DH jumped off the back. Unfortunately, DH was bad and didn't take any photos with his camera, so if you want to see the fish, I recommend you watch our excursion vlog, I'll link it at the end of this post! The water was so refreshing and there were so many fish, we had a great time! After about 35-40 minutes, we were called back onboard, where they were now serving rum punch and beer along with the other beverages. It was also time for lunch, a buffet was set up, and we went up to get some food!

We had some salad, BBQ chicken, rice and beans, a cheesy macaroni bake and sweet potato cake for dessert. We really enjoyed everything on our plate, it all had good flavor and for the fact that it was made a while ago and then kept warm, the food didn't taste too dried out. After everyone was served, it was time to head to our next stop, we were headed to St. Kitts sister island, Nevis for a beach stop. We made it to our next stop, Pinney's Beach and made our way off the catamaran again.

They pulled up right to the beach and let us off. They couldn't stay on the beach, so they sailed out a little way. I don't have any photos of the beach itself, but it was a nice beach. They had several loungers in shade huts for us to relax in, we were pretty much the only people there, so space wasn't an issue. Our crew brought drinks onto the beach, so if we were thirsty, drinks were available. I applied more sunscreen, and we hit the water. We spent the next hour floating and drinking more rum punch. We met a family from Green Bay and enjoyed talking with them. They had been upgraded to concierge a few weeks before our cruise...for free. They had no idea why; they were contacted by Disney and asked if they wanted to upgrade, who would say no to that? As someone who would love to sail concierge, but will never have the money to do so, it was nice to hear about their experience and pick their brain about the offerings in the lounge.

Soon, our Catamaran came back, and it was time to get back on board. Once we were seated, I noticed something, I was burnt, not just a little burnt, but lobster red burnt. I still don't know what happened, I was so diligent in applying sunscreen. The only thing I could think is that it was windy and I was using spray sunscreen, so it's possible the sunscreen was going into the wind and not on me. For our sail back, I made sure to cover myself with towels. My legs were burnt the worst. To this day, I have the weirdest patches of now "tan" skin on both legs, it still looks very strange.

I've hit my photo limit, so more to come!

 

[Kari0180]

St. Kitts, Part 2

When I last left off, we were sailing back toward port, the catamaran had now turned into a party boat. The crew was playing music, and a lot of people were up dancing. Even though I was starting to feel my burn, we were having a good time. One of the crew members came around with the St. Kitts flag and were taking photos, so we had to grab one

Before we knew it, we had arrived back at port and our excursion had ended. We had so much fun and if in St. Kitts again, there's a real possibility that we would do this again. But I would use lotion sunscreen and make more of an attempt to stay in the shade! Before heading back onboard the Magic, we decided to explore the port area a little

DH found this shirt amusing. He thought it fit me well, he's not wrong, I probably could sleep all day! We hit up a few of the shops, I found a sweatshirt that I liked, and we purchased some chocolate for my mom. On our way out, we had to grab another photo in front of the St. Kitts sign

Man, you can really see the sunburn in this one We then headed back on the ship, I headed to the shower and took the coldest shower that I could and applied after sun care, DH went up to grab us a snack, eating chicken tenders and fries in bed helped, but man, I was hurting! Our excursion was a long one and by the time we got back onboard, we didn't have much time before the show.

Our show was the first of the Broadway style shows, Twice Charmed. This was only our second time on the Magic, so only our second time seeing this show. I didn't really remember much about it except that it was a twist on Cinderella. I really enjoyed it, the actor who played the fairy godfather was hilarious!

After the show, we headed to O'Gills Pub to play our first round of music trivia, first up, 70's music trivia. We ordered the drink of the day, Cool Breeze and played some trivia. I always join the Facebook group for our cruise and shortly before the cruise, someone had posted asking if anyone wanted to join them to play trivia. I had commented that I would love to, but to be warned, I can get very competitive. We didn't wind up joining with the original poster, but D replied to my message and asked if we wanted to join her and her husband A for trivia. And that's what we did, A knew a lot of the 70's trivia and we did well, we scored 31 out of 40, but not enough for the win!

It was then time for dinner, as I mentioned previously, another couple M &M, invited us to join them at their table for dinner as they also didn't have tablemates. Earlier in the day, they were able to go to Guest Services and get us switched to their table and dining rotation, so we would now be dining in Rapunzel's Royal Table. We were escorted to our table and met up with M &M. Tonight, was formal night, but we stopped dressing up a few years ago, so we were just cruise casual. Tonight's we were having a "surprise" birthday party for Rapunzel. We had a large pillar behind our table, so we had a pretty poor view of the stage
During a break from the show, we were served our food, somehow, I didn't get any photos of the appetizers, probably because I skipped appetizers. DH did get the Royal Marinated Salmon which he really enjoyed and the Grilled Knockwurst Sausage, which he liked, but not as much as the salmon.

We both got the Baby Romain Leaves; this was basically a Ceasar salad with shrimp. We enjoyed the salad and the shrimp, but the bread wasn't that great. The dressing on the salad was a little overkill; the lettuce was drenched in it.

We also had the Wild Mushroom Soup, this was good, but we both really love mushrooms. If you're not a huge fan of mushrooms, it probably wouldn't be for you, it was very heavy on the mushroom flavor.


We split 2 entrees, the King Frederic's Grilled Sirloin Steak and the Oven Roasted Tom Turkey Breast. This was the second steak that really struck out with me, it just wasn't good, the sides were kind of dry, just disappointing. However, I really enjoyed the turkey, the meat was moist (sorry, I know some people hate that word) and I loved the potatoes and stuffing

For dessert, we both got the White Chocolate Bread Pudding. This was very disappointing; bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts and this just wasn't very good, the bread pudding itself was undercooked and by the time it was served, the ice cream had melted all over the place.

I hit my photo limit again; I'll finish up dinner and our evening another time!

 

[Kari0180]

St. Kitts, part 3

DH went with the blueberry streusel cake
He enjoyed the blueberry flavor, but said it was really heavy and dry. He was only able to eat half of it.

During our meal, Rapunzel came around and talked with everyone at the table, I was able to get a photo

I was very happy to get a photo; Rapunzel is my favorite princess. I loved that she came around to all the tables and talked with us and would take photos.

During all of dinner, I was hurting, my skin felt like fire and all I wanted to do was take some Advil and go to bed and DH was exhausted from our day too. So, we skipped the evening entertainment, (I don't even remember what it was) and headed to bed.

Our cute little towel animal for the night

Our vlogs for the day

Up Next: St. Lucia

 

[Kari0180]

My goodness, I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I last wrote anything. Life's been a little busy, but I'm going to work really hard to get this trip report finished. Part of my absence was due to us doing our first side by side on The Destiny and The Dream. We had a very relaxing trip and I'm hoping to get that report started shortly. But enough about my tardiness and back to the report!

Saint. Lucia, part one

We woke up to another beautiful, sunny day. We had another excursion planned and after my sunburn the previous day, I was relieved that we weren't going to be on the water. We originally had a tour planned that I was so excited about, honestly, it was probably the excursion that I was most excited about. Unfortunately, about 2 weeks before our cruise, we received notification that our excursion was cancelled, and we had to pick a new one. A lot of the excursions were cancelled, (more on that later), and there wasn't a lot left to choose from. We looked at companies outside of Disney, most of those companies also didn't have anything offered. We thought about not doing an excursion at all and just exploring the port, but we've never been to St. Lucia and we both wanted to do something. We wound up picking an excursion that seemed okay and booked it.

Our first stop that morning was Cabanas for some breakfast

As usual, I went with my egg's benedict and some other sides. DH's plate looked very similar to mine, minus the fruit. After breakfast, we headed back to the Walt Disney Theater to check in, we were in the Donald group on this day. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long before we were escorted off the ship and to our bus.

Hello, Saint Lucia! Our excursion was called Soufriere Island Delight. The write up mentioned a "drive-in" volcano and visiting a plantation. We had a short walk through the port and then boarded our bus. One of the couples that we met in Prima Notte was on our excursion, so it was nice to have someone to talk to since it was a long bus ride. Shortly after leaving, we made a "stop" to get some photos of the Magic in port.

We weren't allowed off the bus to take any photos, so thank you to the woman seated across from me who took this photo. Joining us in port was a NCL ship, but I'm not sure which one. We then started the drive, now Saint Lucia is VERY hilly, and also has a lot of sharp turns and narrow roads. There was a lot of honking, feeling like you're about ready to fall out of your seat and also hoping that the bus was going to make it up some of the hills. Our guide told us that most vehicles need their brakes replaced every few months there due to the roads . We drove by some banana plantations and learned about how they grow and pick the bananas on the island.

Eventually, we made it to our first stop which was a scenic overlook. There was also a bar, a gift shop and a couple of other vendors. We also had the opportunity to try banana ketchup, it was an interesting taste, not bad, just not my thing. We had a few minutes to look at everything and take a couple of photos


A rare photo of DH on his own. He's always behind the camera, or it's a photo of the two of us. After our 10 minutes were up, we boarded our bus again and headed to our next stop, which was another scenic overlook, this time of the Pitons. We had another few minutes to take some photos and do some more shopping. The Pitons were beautiful; we had an amazing view from where we were.

 

[Kari0180]

Saint Lucia, Part two

It was then time to head to the volcano! As I mentioned, the write up about the excursion mentioned a couple of times about it being a "drive in" volcano. Both DH and I (and others in our excursion) took this to mean that we were literally driving inside a volcano. That is not what that meant, basically, it's a caldera, similar to Yellowstone and Santorini (which we had just seen in May). So, the write up was a little misleading, but we rolled with it. Once off the bus, we had a guide walk us over to some sulfur pits. If you've ever been to Yellowstone, the sulfur springs looked (and smelled) very similar. The guide gave us some information about the springs, gave us some time to take photos and brought us back to the bus




Back on the bus, it was time to head to our final stop, the Morne Coubaril Estate. Once we arrived, we were escorted to a couple of tables for lunch. We were then served some ground apple juice

This was interesting, you could taste apple, but it was very gritty. I'm not sure if I liked it or not. Lunch was served buffet style, there were a lot of options, I grabbed a little bit of everything to try.

I really enjoyed everything on my plate. The only mistake I made was that I tried some of DH's sauce with my fish not realizing it was hot sauce, man, that burned! After lunch, we were taken on a tour of the plantation, learning about different parts of it

I love me some pretty flowers! First up, they took us to a replica cabin and talked about how the workers lived and worked. Next, a demo of extracting sugarcane juice, they used a donkey for this part

I felt bad for the donkey, he seemed so sad. We were able to go up to him and pet him, he was very friendly. We were then taken to another building where we were shown how they extract the beans from cacao and how they begin the chocolate making process. Things got kind of strange at this point in our tour, we had a guide leading us and once we got to the cacao building, another guide more or less pushed ours out of the way and completely took over, he then took us back to the donkey and the sugarcane. It was a little weird. not sure what happened to the other guide. We were then shown a demonstration on opening coconuts, and we were able to drink from the coconut and eat the fruit if we wanted.

My coconut wasn't ripe enough yet to eat, but I ate a couple of pieces.

The plantation had some beautiful views. After the coconut, we were led back to the entrance, there were a couple of shops and bathrooms that we could use before we headed back on the bus for our return to port. We were told it would be about an hour drive back to port.

We learned earlier in our drive why a bunch of the excursions in Saint Lucia were cancelled, the island was having an election on Tuesday and on the day, we were on the island (Sunday), both parties were having demonstrations. A lot of businesses chose to close this day so the employees could take part. On our drive back, we saw so many vehicles loaded with people either wearing yellow or red, music blaring, all having a great time. There was so much traffic, it took us closer to 90 minutes to get back to port. We were lucky though, a couple of people we talked with later in the evening got even more stuck than we did. Our trivia friends even had crew from the Magic contacting their tour because there was concern that they wouldn't make it back in time .

 

[Kari0180]

Saint Lucia, part three

I didn't have room for this photo in my last post, but I have to share it even though it's a little out of place. We drove past this church on the way back and it was so beautiful, I loved the blue!

We eventually made it back to port and thankfully, we still had some time to do some shopping and exploring. I spent a small fortune on a Christmas ornament (but it's so beautiful and I love it)! And then we headed back to the ship, but first a couple of photos


What did we think of the excursion? It was okay, I think I was disappointed mainly because I was so excited about our original excursion and this one just couldn't compare. It was also A LOT of driving, I think most of the day was on the bus versus actually exploring/experiencing the island. This excursion is definitely a one and done for us, but I hope to visit Saint Lucia again, it was a beautiful island!

Once we were back onboard, we headed to the lobby for a very important photo opportunity. One of the best things about the Halloween on the High Seas sailings is the opportunity to have photos taken with the Sanderson sisters, the line wasn't too terrible and before we knew it, we had our photo

While we were waiting, there was a very cute moment between Daisy (I'm sorry, Sarah Sanderson) and Donald. Donald kept coming over and waving to and blowing air kisses to Daisy, it was adorable! We were lucky enough that Donald was still hanging out when we were done with our photo, so we were able to grab a photo with him

After our photos, we went to our room, changed into our swimsuits, and headed up to the pool. We had a couple of drinks and spent some time cooling off, it was so refreshing! Before we knew it, it was evening and time to head into the Walt Disney Theater.
Zak Mirz was the entertainment for the evening, he had a great show! It was then time for 80's music trivia

We once again paired up with D & A and we got a perfect score! But the dang dance off tie breaker did us in again. I still think we were robbed and should've won. A went up to represent our team and did a great job, he even started dancing with the woman from one of the other teams, but it wasn't good enough . I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I hate the dance offs, just give us a tie breaker question!

It was time for dinner and due to us switching our dining rotation, we were once again in Lumiere's. Since we had just dined there a couple of nights prior, both DH and I decided to branch out and try some new stuff. I'm missing some photos, but in addition to our normal appetizers, DH also tried the Duck Confit, he enjoyed it, me I don't like duck, so I didn't bother to try. We also branched out, skipping our normal French Onion soup and trying the Potato and Leek soup.

I really liked this; it was very flavorful. DH decided to try the Farmhouse Salad

He thought it was okay, as he likes to say, "It's just a salad". For our mains, DH got the Crispy Roasted Duck Breast.

He really enjoyed this, once again, I really dislike duck, so even this photo grosses me out . I had the Ahi Tuna Nicoise salad. Somehow, I didn't get a photo of this. I liked this salad a lot, but the potatoes in it were a little strange compared to the other ingredients.

We ended our evening losing to Brainteasers trivia and playing Majority Minds (which we've never been good at)! Then, it was time for Match Your Mate, which is our favorite, as always, it was a very entertaining show! And then it was time for bed, another day and another island to explore!

Up Next: Barbados

 

[Kari0180]

Our Saint Lucia vlogs