A "Magic"-al 10-Day Christmas Cruise (12/16/06-12/26/06)
- Thread starter yargrnhoj
- Start date
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
December 15th dawned with our bags packed, the fish fed, the iron and stove off (checked and double-checked), and the five of us ready for 10-nights in the Caribbean. The plan was simple. Pick up the kids from school at 11:30, grab some lunch from McDonald's and wait for our limo to the airport which was due arrive at 12:15, giving us plenty of time to make our 3PM flight to Orlando, even if the weather turned bad in Chicago, as it is prone to do in mid-December.
What's that they say about 'best laid plans of mice and men'? Our eldest son decided to try a complicated maneuver aboard his roller skates during P.E. class (probably something intricate like standing up) and ended up crashing to the floor. We received the call at 11AM that he had injured his back and had the wind knocked out of him. With visions of the emergency room dancing in our heads, we went to his school to get him. He was in some pain, but the nurse felt there was nothing seriously wrong, so gave him some ibuprofen (well, it was really Tylenol, but it's too hard to spell acetometaphin) and went off to McDonald's to grab lunch. He was feeling better by the time we left Mickey D's, so we grabbed some extra medicine, an ice pack, picked up his brother and returned home to wait for the limo.
The limo was late, throwing us into a panic that I had either forgot to reserve a car, or got the date wrong. I rushed to reboot the laptop we'd shut down for the trip just as the limo pulled into the driveway. We gathered up our five bags and three children, hopped in the super-stretch and headed off to O'Hare. After a quick 45-minute ride on the expressways, we reached the airport, checked our bags and breezed through security, leaving us two hours to kill. (We purposedly had scheduled the car early in case of bad weather that day in Chicago). We went up to the Admiral's Club, had a drink and read our books. While checking the flight departure times (half-hour delay already for our flight), we ran into Mike Ditka, former coach of the Chicago Bears, and he gave Alexander an autograph which we will frame when we get home.
Mike Ditka's autograph to Alex
The flight left almost an hour late. Two of us had been upgraded to first class and Alexander won the coin flip with his brother to see who would accompany me in first class while Janie and the other kids would sit in steerage. We boarded the flight and were on our way to Orlando. The flight was uneventful; a little bumpy so the captain left the seat belt sign on most of the way, but no major issues. We landed in the airport and then had to wait almost 40 minutes in a crowd for our bags to arrive. It seems to take longer each trip. But, all five bags arrived without an issue, and we went off to check in at the Hyatt for the night. After check in, we grabbed a bite to eat at the Macaroni Grill, then went back to our room, repacked our overnight bag for the next day and drifted off to restless sleep. None of us slept much as we dreamed of the 'uncharted magic' to come.
What's that they say about 'best laid plans of mice and men'? Our eldest son decided to try a complicated maneuver aboard his roller skates during P.E. class (probably something intricate like standing up) and ended up crashing to the floor. We received the call at 11AM that he had injured his back and had the wind knocked out of him. With visions of the emergency room dancing in our heads, we went to his school to get him. He was in some pain, but the nurse felt there was nothing seriously wrong, so gave him some ibuprofen (well, it was really Tylenol, but it's too hard to spell acetometaphin) and went off to McDonald's to grab lunch. He was feeling better by the time we left Mickey D's, so we grabbed some extra medicine, an ice pack, picked up his brother and returned home to wait for the limo.
The limo was late, throwing us into a panic that I had either forgot to reserve a car, or got the date wrong. I rushed to reboot the laptop we'd shut down for the trip just as the limo pulled into the driveway. We gathered up our five bags and three children, hopped in the super-stretch and headed off to O'Hare. After a quick 45-minute ride on the expressways, we reached the airport, checked our bags and breezed through security, leaving us two hours to kill. (We purposedly had scheduled the car early in case of bad weather that day in Chicago). We went up to the Admiral's Club, had a drink and read our books. While checking the flight departure times (half-hour delay already for our flight), we ran into Mike Ditka, former coach of the Chicago Bears, and he gave Alexander an autograph which we will frame when we get home.
Mike Ditka's autograph to Alex
The flight left almost an hour late. Two of us had been upgraded to first class and Alexander won the coin flip with his brother to see who would accompany me in first class while Janie and the other kids would sit in steerage. We boarded the flight and were on our way to Orlando. The flight was uneventful; a little bumpy so the captain left the seat belt sign on most of the way, but no major issues. We landed in the airport and then had to wait almost 40 minutes in a crowd for our bags to arrive. It seems to take longer each trip. But, all five bags arrived without an issue, and we went off to check in at the Hyatt for the night. After check in, we grabbed a bite to eat at the Macaroni Grill, then went back to our room, repacked our overnight bag for the next day and drifted off to restless sleep. None of us slept much as we dreamed of the 'uncharted magic' to come.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Having slept poorly the night before, we were all in a Grumpy mood when morning came. I dressed and put out luggage out in the hall for the Disney Luggage Fairies(TM) to take our bags to the Magic and then grabbed the boys to set off in search of breakfast. The plan was to repeat an early-morning Cinnabon fix that had worked so well on the last Disney cruise, but alas, the Cinnabon was not to be found, replaced by a Krispy Kreme. That would not do, but spirits were brightened by the sight of hot Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits, a treat not found in northern Illinois, but sorely missed since our move from Georgia. So five biscuits and two sodas were ordered. The server asked whether we wanted them as a combo or with a combo. We told her 'no' and she laughed. It was apparently an early morning for her as well.
The kids sat on the balcony overlooking the airport atrium eating their biscuits while Janie and I finished prepping, and then it was off downstairs to check in. Janie was getting nervous because the bags had not yet been collected and dreams (nightmares) of 10 days about the ship in the same pair of clothes were haunting her. We met the DCL representatives downstairs and have to admit the 'magic' had not made its way to the airport that morning. The first person looked at our tickets, wrote down our Hyatt room numbers and send us into see another person. This lady must have been new or poorly trained because she had no idea what to do. She complained about the fact the first rep. had already taken our voucher and marked us off. We guessed she had some script -- do 'x', then 'y' then 'z' and she was lost because 'x' and part of 'y' were done already. Anyway, eventually she sought help from a co-worker and we were assigned to the Donald Duck bus. I was regretting not coming down sooner so we could have been 'Capt. Mickey' again as we had been last time. It was cool being the first bus to the port last time.
After sitting and standing for about a half-hour, Donald was called and we queued for the buses. After encountering another Grumpy castmember who barely spoke to us as she led us to the buses, we began to 'wonder' when the 'Magic' would begin. But soon we were on our bus and the DCL
video with Mickey and his pals was playing and we began to get into the spirit. As we cleared the bridge and caught sight of the Magic waiting for us, Rebecca cried out 'there's Goofy hanging from the ship' and we were ready to go!
We were assigned boarding group 5 and went to check-in. The Castaway Club lines were rather long, but we met a couple from Wisconsin who were familiar with the Chicago area and talked to them while waiting. Turns out they had family back where Daddy was from in Pennsylvania as well, and so queue the 'It's a Small World' song and we talked about places we'd been until it was time to check in. We ran into them several more times during the cruise, but since I am so bad with names, I just referred to them as 'Wisconsin'. Check in took longer than expected due
to a problem matching up my name with my passport. (Apparently "J. R." was confusing to the DCL cast member). But soon we had our Key to the World cards, our Castaway Club lanyards and pins and we went to find our kids who had found a place to watch cartoons.
We have to say we love the new boarding system. Last cruise, we had arrived on the first bus and ended up standing/sitting in line the entire time until we could board once other people started showing up. This time, we sat down in some chairs, the boys played Nintendo while Rebecca watched cartoons. Rebecca caught sight of her first character for the trip, Sailor Goofy and I took her over for a picture. She was a little scared, but warmed up. I took Thomas and Rebecca over to guest services, picked up the kids club pager and got Rebecca's wristband and Thomas' card stamped for the kids club and bought a couple of sodas at the little shop. One less thing to do once we got on the ship! Soon Disney was announcing the first people to board and calling numbers. When group 5 was called, we headed through the Mickey ears, showed our passports and swiped our KTTW cards for the first time! We skipped the embarkation photos since we have those from other cruises and we were not planning to buy that many photos anyway and walked up to be announced: "The Gray Family, on their Third Disney Cruise".
I once caught a girl "this big"...
First order of business was lunch since Chick-Fil-A biscuits can only sustain you for so long. On our other cruises, we had done Topsider's, so we opted for Parrot Cay buffet this time. Our first taste of all-you-can-shovel-down-Disney-Magic-food-food-food was great as we piled
our plates high and emptied them. Janie had spied a dessert with her name on it on the way in and circled back to grab the first of what would be many yummy desserts on this cruise
With time to kill until our room was ready, we headed to Guest Services. We had two staterooms and needed spare keys to each and Janie and Rebecca wanted to do Tea with Wendy. So we got that taken care of and the Guest Services castmember recommended tickets for the gingerbread
house building, so we got those as well. With still a little time to kill, we took a quick walk around the ship to show it to our daughter and got to
our rooms right after 1:30. The kids slipped into their swimsuits and we went upstairs for some pool time.
After swimming, we headed back to the rooms. Janie decided she wanted to try to change our dining rotation from LAPL so we wouldn't be in Parrot Cay for both formal nights, so we went down to Beat Street. After a bit of a language barrier (the castmember didn't get why we wanted to change seatings since we were already early seating), he changed us to APL and told us to be at Animator's Palette at 5:30 for dinner. We visited the
kid's club so Rebecca could see what was what and then went back to the rooms.
Our luggage began arriving around 3PM, so we started to unpack. We met Dee and her son Keith from the DISBoards as they hung the beautiful Cinderella stocking she had decorated for us on the fish outside our door. We raced to unpack as much as we could before the Boat Drill and
mostly finished before we had to don our life jackets and walk down to Animator's Palate, where our station 'S" was located. I recall thinking that
in the event the ship was sinking, the thought of walking DOWN to an inside location would not feel very comforting to me. We finished unpacking after the drill and went up to Deck 9 for a drink and the sail-away party.
It wasn't much longer before the crew started counting down and we heard the melodious sound of 'When You Wish Upon a Star' from
the forward funnel and we were on our way!!
With our seating change, dinner was now at 5:30, so we headed down to our rooms around 5PM to change for dinner. We headed to Table 62 of Animator's Palate and met our servers, Steve and Johnathan. We hit it off right away, except for a small problem where Rebecca had ordered
cranberry juice and Johnathan brought chocolate milk. Funny thing however, is for the rest of the cruise, Rebecca ordered chocolate milk for dinner -- it was like some serendipitous mistake where she learned she could have chocolate milk for dinner. First night in Animator's was not the 'show' night, which Steve said they were saving for later in the week.
After dinner, we stopped at the pin station in the lobby and bought one of the limited edition pins and a pirate pin and we hung out in the lobby for the tree lighting at 7:45 before heading to the theatre for the 'All Aboard' show with Rich Purpura and Michael Harrison. We had seen both of these guys on our cruise four years ago and they really need to get a new act -- we remembered most of the tricks and jokes from the last cruise!
As none of us had slept much the night before and we had an early morning Character Breakfast, we called it a night after the show and headed back to our staterooms. We were greeted with our first towel animal, the perfect touch for our first night on board and we all hit the hay to dream of two magical days at sea to come after a stop in Key West tomorrow.
Our first towel animal
The kids sat on the balcony overlooking the airport atrium eating their biscuits while Janie and I finished prepping, and then it was off downstairs to check in. Janie was getting nervous because the bags had not yet been collected and dreams (nightmares) of 10 days about the ship in the same pair of clothes were haunting her. We met the DCL representatives downstairs and have to admit the 'magic' had not made its way to the airport that morning. The first person looked at our tickets, wrote down our Hyatt room numbers and send us into see another person. This lady must have been new or poorly trained because she had no idea what to do. She complained about the fact the first rep. had already taken our voucher and marked us off. We guessed she had some script -- do 'x', then 'y' then 'z' and she was lost because 'x' and part of 'y' were done already. Anyway, eventually she sought help from a co-worker and we were assigned to the Donald Duck bus. I was regretting not coming down sooner so we could have been 'Capt. Mickey' again as we had been last time. It was cool being the first bus to the port last time.
After sitting and standing for about a half-hour, Donald was called and we queued for the buses. After encountering another Grumpy castmember who barely spoke to us as she led us to the buses, we began to 'wonder' when the 'Magic' would begin. But soon we were on our bus and the DCL
video with Mickey and his pals was playing and we began to get into the spirit. As we cleared the bridge and caught sight of the Magic waiting for us, Rebecca cried out 'there's Goofy hanging from the ship' and we were ready to go!
We were assigned boarding group 5 and went to check-in. The Castaway Club lines were rather long, but we met a couple from Wisconsin who were familiar with the Chicago area and talked to them while waiting. Turns out they had family back where Daddy was from in Pennsylvania as well, and so queue the 'It's a Small World' song and we talked about places we'd been until it was time to check in. We ran into them several more times during the cruise, but since I am so bad with names, I just referred to them as 'Wisconsin'. Check in took longer than expected due
to a problem matching up my name with my passport. (Apparently "J. R." was confusing to the DCL cast member). But soon we had our Key to the World cards, our Castaway Club lanyards and pins and we went to find our kids who had found a place to watch cartoons.
We have to say we love the new boarding system. Last cruise, we had arrived on the first bus and ended up standing/sitting in line the entire time until we could board once other people started showing up. This time, we sat down in some chairs, the boys played Nintendo while Rebecca watched cartoons. Rebecca caught sight of her first character for the trip, Sailor Goofy and I took her over for a picture. She was a little scared, but warmed up. I took Thomas and Rebecca over to guest services, picked up the kids club pager and got Rebecca's wristband and Thomas' card stamped for the kids club and bought a couple of sodas at the little shop. One less thing to do once we got on the ship! Soon Disney was announcing the first people to board and calling numbers. When group 5 was called, we headed through the Mickey ears, showed our passports and swiped our KTTW cards for the first time! We skipped the embarkation photos since we have those from other cruises and we were not planning to buy that many photos anyway and walked up to be announced: "The Gray Family, on their Third Disney Cruise".
I once caught a girl "this big"...
First order of business was lunch since Chick-Fil-A biscuits can only sustain you for so long. On our other cruises, we had done Topsider's, so we opted for Parrot Cay buffet this time. Our first taste of all-you-can-shovel-down-Disney-Magic-food-food-food was great as we piled
our plates high and emptied them. Janie had spied a dessert with her name on it on the way in and circled back to grab the first of what would be many yummy desserts on this cruise
With time to kill until our room was ready, we headed to Guest Services. We had two staterooms and needed spare keys to each and Janie and Rebecca wanted to do Tea with Wendy. So we got that taken care of and the Guest Services castmember recommended tickets for the gingerbread
house building, so we got those as well. With still a little time to kill, we took a quick walk around the ship to show it to our daughter and got to
our rooms right after 1:30. The kids slipped into their swimsuits and we went upstairs for some pool time.
After swimming, we headed back to the rooms. Janie decided she wanted to try to change our dining rotation from LAPL so we wouldn't be in Parrot Cay for both formal nights, so we went down to Beat Street. After a bit of a language barrier (the castmember didn't get why we wanted to change seatings since we were already early seating), he changed us to APL and told us to be at Animator's Palette at 5:30 for dinner. We visited the
kid's club so Rebecca could see what was what and then went back to the rooms.
Our luggage began arriving around 3PM, so we started to unpack. We met Dee and her son Keith from the DISBoards as they hung the beautiful Cinderella stocking she had decorated for us on the fish outside our door. We raced to unpack as much as we could before the Boat Drill and
mostly finished before we had to don our life jackets and walk down to Animator's Palate, where our station 'S" was located. I recall thinking that
in the event the ship was sinking, the thought of walking DOWN to an inside location would not feel very comforting to me. We finished unpacking after the drill and went up to Deck 9 for a drink and the sail-away party.
It wasn't much longer before the crew started counting down and we heard the melodious sound of 'When You Wish Upon a Star' from
the forward funnel and we were on our way!!
With our seating change, dinner was now at 5:30, so we headed down to our rooms around 5PM to change for dinner. We headed to Table 62 of Animator's Palate and met our servers, Steve and Johnathan. We hit it off right away, except for a small problem where Rebecca had ordered
cranberry juice and Johnathan brought chocolate milk. Funny thing however, is for the rest of the cruise, Rebecca ordered chocolate milk for dinner -- it was like some serendipitous mistake where she learned she could have chocolate milk for dinner. First night in Animator's was not the 'show' night, which Steve said they were saving for later in the week.
After dinner, we stopped at the pin station in the lobby and bought one of the limited edition pins and a pirate pin and we hung out in the lobby for the tree lighting at 7:45 before heading to the theatre for the 'All Aboard' show with Rich Purpura and Michael Harrison. We had seen both of these guys on our cruise four years ago and they really need to get a new act -- we remembered most of the tricks and jokes from the last cruise!
As none of us had slept much the night before and we had an early morning Character Breakfast, we called it a night after the show and headed back to our staterooms. We were greeted with our first towel animal, the perfect touch for our first night on board and we all hit the hay to dream of two magical days at sea to come after a stop in Key West tomorrow.
Our first towel animal
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
We pulled into Key West fairly early Sunday morning, but our excursion wasn't scheduled until the afternoon, so we had some time to spend in the morning. First order of business was breakfast, and this morning was our scheduled character breakfast in Parrot Cay. This had put a crimp in our plans since we had originally planned to sleep in this morning, but instead needed a "Mickey Wake-Up Call". After getting all "neat and pretty", we headed downstairs, where Johnathan greeted us and took us to our table. The breakfast was 'okay', but it was pretty much just the standard breakfast menu. For some reason we had it in our heads the character breakfast had better food, but we are probably confusing it with the umpteen character breakfasts we've done at Walt Disney World.
The waiters got into the act by making napkin hats for everyone and then the main characters started coming by: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Dale. We did't see Donald, Chip or Goofy, but we also didn't hang out and wait for all of the characters. The whole thing felt a little rushed because we were mostly done with our meal before the first character came by and then they came in pretty close succession after that.
Alex acting "goofy"
All of us with Minnie
Alex happy to see Minnie as I line up Rebecca
The kids and Dale
Thomas as Robin Hood
Rebecca as Minnie
Thomas, Rebecca and Pluto
After breakfast, we considered getting off the ship and doing some shopping in Key West, then coming back for our excursion but decided that was too much trouble. We would regret that decision later. But most of us headed up to the pool area. (Thomas decided to go check out Ocean Quest and the Lab. It was a great time to go to the pool because no one was there and Rebecca had the Mickey slide all to herself. Janie, Alex and I relaxed while Rebecca played in the pool. I picked up a couple of coffees from the Cove Cafe for Alex and I, but I wasn't impressed with them. They were a little bitter for my taste, and for the amount they were charging, I needed Starbucks quality. I didn't go back to the Cove Cafe for the rest of the cruise to see if the coffee got any better.
Rebecca in the Mickey pool
Rebecca's first time down the slide
Rebecca coming off the slide
Alexander not happy to be taken away from his book
We grabbed lunch by the pool after Thomas joined us and then headed down to Diversions to wait for our excursion to leave. We had decided to do the Pirate Soul Museum and Shipwreck Historeum this time. On our last cruise, we had walked the length of the island ourselves so we had pretty much seen everything so we didn't want to do a tour and our other excursion choices were limited with a four-year-old. As we waited in Diversions, the skies which had been threatening earlier opened up and it began to rain fairly hard. We had made a decision not to bring our ponchos to save luggage space, figuring most of our excursions were including a beach trip anyway, so we'd be in swimsuits. We were regretting that decision as we walked off the ship.
But the rain let up for our walk to the Pirate Soul Museum and we just dodged some small sprinkles and some large puddles to get there. The museum was quite nice and set the tone well for the day. There were a lot of great artifacts and information about pirates and I think Alex and Thomas learned a few things, which is always good. One of the highlights is a special room where they take you inside, turn off all the lights and give you headphones. Then you sit and hear the tale of Blackbeard's murder while sitting in complete darkness, complete with sound effects of guns firing, explosions and the like. We thought Rebecca would be scared but the only thing she wanted to be sure of was that the arm around her shoulder was her mother's and not someone else's!
Alex found a cheap hook to go with his Capt. Hook costume in the gift shop and then we were walked over to the Shipwreck Historeum. It started to rain harder as we went inside. This museum was not as impressive. First, the 'actor' who was playing the owner of the warehouse was incredibly boring. Monotone, no voice inflection at all, which made us just want him to stop talking. The artifacts here were nothing special. We had been looking forward to climbing to the top of the tower, and we did, but it started to rain really hard while we were up there, so we came down quickly.
The Magic from the tower
The view from the top of the tower
It was raining incredibly hard as we came out of the historeum so we ran to the local shop to try and stay dry. We had two goals for today -- get a piece of key lime pie and buy some rum cakes. We decided to just go and get wet so we headed out in search of the key lime pie place on the map DCL had given us. We got to what appeared to be the right location on the map, but didn't see any restaurants, so we gave up on the pie and headed down to the Tortuga Rum Cake company. We sampled rum cakes while we dried off and then bought a rum cake assortment and an original rum cake to enjoy when we got home. Then we walked through the rain back to the ship. We were completely soaked, as were everyone else. But we were all in pretty good spirits. The woman in front of me shook water on me and then profusely apologized, but I explained to her I couldn't get any wetter. Another guy asked if it was still raining, because he couldn't tell anymore because he was so wet. Thankfully, DCL had towels for us at the dock and we dried off a little and headed to our rooms to shower and change.
With some time before dinner, Rebecca wanted to go to the Kids Club, so we took her down there and Alex and Thomas went to the Ocean Quest open house. They played for awhile and then met us at Parrot Cay, where we were having dinner tonight. It was the standard Parrot Cay "Island Menu" tonight for us. I had both the Chicken Wings and Crab Martinique as my appetizer and skipped the soup/salad tonight. My entree was a plate of baby back pork ribs with prickly pear barbeque sauce and these were quite yummy. The desserts did not jump out at me tonight, so I went with the ice cream sundae with double fudge bar and it was an excellent choice.
Rebecca had been complaining about the lack of Princesses on the cruise (having seen none at the character breakfast), so she was delighted to run into Belle outside Lumiere's as she was preparing to enter for the French Dinner. Rebecca ran up and said 'hello' and gave Belle a hug. Peter Pan and Wendy were going to be in the atrium soon, so we hung around and were one of the first people in line to see them, which made Rebecca even happier. After Peter Pan came a visit with Princess Aurora and that allowed us to check off 'meet Princesses' on Rebecca's list of things to do. (Go to pool - check. Go kids club - check. Meet Princess - check. It was a good day for Rebecca.)
Rebecca meeting Belle
Rebecca greeting Peter Pan and Wendy
A picture with Wendy and Peter Pan
Rebecca and Sleeping Beauty
Since we'd seen Michael Harrison on a previous cruise, we decided to skip his show that night. Janie took the boys to see "The Guardian" in the Walt Disney Theatre. I didn't go because I have a rule to skip Kevin Costner movies and with Ashton Kutcher in this one as well, it was a definite "Must Miss" for me. Rebecca was complaining she wanted to go back to the kids club so I took her back there, then went down to Diversions to watch some of the KC-San Diego game and have a beer. As the game was winding down, I saw that Minnie was going to be doing pictures, so I picked up Rebecca and we went and got our picture taken with Minnie.
Minnie, J. R. and Rebecca
Rebecca and I headed back to the room after seeing Minnie to watch "The Polar Express". It was also showing up on the big screen and we went up there, but it was a little chilly and there didn't seem to be anywhere to sit because we were arriving late. I wish they would come up with a way to allow more people to experience the movies on the big screen, but we didn't want to have to stake out a place an hour in advance. They were serving popcorn, so I grabbed a box and headed down to the room where Rebecca and I watched the movie. Janie and the boys arrived shortly after and the boys went to their room for the night and the rest of us finished the movie and went to bed.
Towel animal #2
The waiters got into the act by making napkin hats for everyone and then the main characters started coming by: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Dale. We did't see Donald, Chip or Goofy, but we also didn't hang out and wait for all of the characters. The whole thing felt a little rushed because we were mostly done with our meal before the first character came by and then they came in pretty close succession after that.
Alex acting "goofy"
All of us with Minnie
Alex happy to see Minnie as I line up Rebecca
The kids and Dale
Thomas as Robin Hood
Rebecca as Minnie
Thomas, Rebecca and Pluto
After breakfast, we considered getting off the ship and doing some shopping in Key West, then coming back for our excursion but decided that was too much trouble. We would regret that decision later. But most of us headed up to the pool area. (Thomas decided to go check out Ocean Quest and the Lab. It was a great time to go to the pool because no one was there and Rebecca had the Mickey slide all to herself. Janie, Alex and I relaxed while Rebecca played in the pool. I picked up a couple of coffees from the Cove Cafe for Alex and I, but I wasn't impressed with them. They were a little bitter for my taste, and for the amount they were charging, I needed Starbucks quality. I didn't go back to the Cove Cafe for the rest of the cruise to see if the coffee got any better.
Rebecca in the Mickey pool
Rebecca's first time down the slide
Rebecca coming off the slide
Alexander not happy to be taken away from his book
We grabbed lunch by the pool after Thomas joined us and then headed down to Diversions to wait for our excursion to leave. We had decided to do the Pirate Soul Museum and Shipwreck Historeum this time. On our last cruise, we had walked the length of the island ourselves so we had pretty much seen everything so we didn't want to do a tour and our other excursion choices were limited with a four-year-old. As we waited in Diversions, the skies which had been threatening earlier opened up and it began to rain fairly hard. We had made a decision not to bring our ponchos to save luggage space, figuring most of our excursions were including a beach trip anyway, so we'd be in swimsuits. We were regretting that decision as we walked off the ship.
But the rain let up for our walk to the Pirate Soul Museum and we just dodged some small sprinkles and some large puddles to get there. The museum was quite nice and set the tone well for the day. There were a lot of great artifacts and information about pirates and I think Alex and Thomas learned a few things, which is always good. One of the highlights is a special room where they take you inside, turn off all the lights and give you headphones. Then you sit and hear the tale of Blackbeard's murder while sitting in complete darkness, complete with sound effects of guns firing, explosions and the like. We thought Rebecca would be scared but the only thing she wanted to be sure of was that the arm around her shoulder was her mother's and not someone else's!
Alex found a cheap hook to go with his Capt. Hook costume in the gift shop and then we were walked over to the Shipwreck Historeum. It started to rain harder as we went inside. This museum was not as impressive. First, the 'actor' who was playing the owner of the warehouse was incredibly boring. Monotone, no voice inflection at all, which made us just want him to stop talking. The artifacts here were nothing special. We had been looking forward to climbing to the top of the tower, and we did, but it started to rain really hard while we were up there, so we came down quickly.
The Magic from the tower
The view from the top of the tower
It was raining incredibly hard as we came out of the historeum so we ran to the local shop to try and stay dry. We had two goals for today -- get a piece of key lime pie and buy some rum cakes. We decided to just go and get wet so we headed out in search of the key lime pie place on the map DCL had given us. We got to what appeared to be the right location on the map, but didn't see any restaurants, so we gave up on the pie and headed down to the Tortuga Rum Cake company. We sampled rum cakes while we dried off and then bought a rum cake assortment and an original rum cake to enjoy when we got home. Then we walked through the rain back to the ship. We were completely soaked, as were everyone else. But we were all in pretty good spirits. The woman in front of me shook water on me and then profusely apologized, but I explained to her I couldn't get any wetter. Another guy asked if it was still raining, because he couldn't tell anymore because he was so wet. Thankfully, DCL had towels for us at the dock and we dried off a little and headed to our rooms to shower and change.
With some time before dinner, Rebecca wanted to go to the Kids Club, so we took her down there and Alex and Thomas went to the Ocean Quest open house. They played for awhile and then met us at Parrot Cay, where we were having dinner tonight. It was the standard Parrot Cay "Island Menu" tonight for us. I had both the Chicken Wings and Crab Martinique as my appetizer and skipped the soup/salad tonight. My entree was a plate of baby back pork ribs with prickly pear barbeque sauce and these were quite yummy. The desserts did not jump out at me tonight, so I went with the ice cream sundae with double fudge bar and it was an excellent choice.
Rebecca had been complaining about the lack of Princesses on the cruise (having seen none at the character breakfast), so she was delighted to run into Belle outside Lumiere's as she was preparing to enter for the French Dinner. Rebecca ran up and said 'hello' and gave Belle a hug. Peter Pan and Wendy were going to be in the atrium soon, so we hung around and were one of the first people in line to see them, which made Rebecca even happier. After Peter Pan came a visit with Princess Aurora and that allowed us to check off 'meet Princesses' on Rebecca's list of things to do. (Go to pool - check. Go kids club - check. Meet Princess - check. It was a good day for Rebecca.)
Rebecca meeting Belle
Rebecca greeting Peter Pan and Wendy
A picture with Wendy and Peter Pan
Rebecca and Sleeping Beauty
Since we'd seen Michael Harrison on a previous cruise, we decided to skip his show that night. Janie took the boys to see "The Guardian" in the Walt Disney Theatre. I didn't go because I have a rule to skip Kevin Costner movies and with Ashton Kutcher in this one as well, it was a definite "Must Miss" for me. Rebecca was complaining she wanted to go back to the kids club so I took her back there, then went down to Diversions to watch some of the KC-San Diego game and have a beer. As the game was winding down, I saw that Minnie was going to be doing pictures, so I picked up Rebecca and we went and got our picture taken with Minnie.
Minnie, J. R. and Rebecca
Rebecca and I headed back to the room after seeing Minnie to watch "The Polar Express". It was also showing up on the big screen and we went up there, but it was a little chilly and there didn't seem to be anywhere to sit because we were arriving late. I wish they would come up with a way to allow more people to experience the movies on the big screen, but we didn't want to have to stake out a place an hour in advance. They were serving popcorn, so I grabbed a box and headed down to the room where Rebecca and I watched the movie. Janie and the boys arrived shortly after and the boys went to their room for the night and the rest of us finished the movie and went to bed.
Towel animal #2
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Monday was the first of three planned sea days for the trip and we planned to take advantage of our time aboard the Magic. We got up at our leisure today with no prompting from Mickey and had breakfast at Topsider's.
Alex and Thomas headed to Ocean Quest, where they were going to stay until lunch. Rebecca wanted to go to the kids club and since we had the Castaway Club reception at 11, we decided to take her down there.
That left us with some extra time, so we went to see the Art of Entertaining -- "The Appetizer" in Studio Sea. Artur Bukalo, a chef for Epcot events was on board the ship and showed us how t make a delicious Avocado Mango Crab Meat Salad. The appetizer was wonderful and one we will definitely try at home, and the wine they served us, called "Conundrum" was very good and we said we'd be looking for it when we got back.
The Castaway Club reception was on Beat Street. The place was pretty crowded. We remembered our last cruise when we were in Diversions and there was hardly anyone there. At that time, they served you alcoholic drinks and a nice appetizer. This time, it was Mickey Rice Krispies and sodas. I guess as the CC gets larger, they have to scale back what they do. They played a little trivia game to try to get people to mingle. It was reasonably successful, but would have been more so it they had given us name tags where we could have put where we were from on them to help with breaking the ice. At the end of the reception, they had a drawing to win Castaway Club clocks and Janie's name was the first one selected.
Castaway Club Clock Janie won in drawing
We picked up the kids for lunch and then we went down to the gingerbread house building in Studio Sea. This was a bit disorganized. They were about 15 minutes late getting started and we felt a little rushed to finish with Natalie calling out "15 minutes left", "10 minutes left". We could have used more time, but we all enjoyed decorating the house and it sat in our room until the last day of the cruise.
Our house in pieces
The construction crew
Thomas concentrating on his design while Rebecca supervises
Thomas decorating
Alex enjoying himself
The finished product
Janie and Rebecca had "Tea with Wendy" at 4PM which Rebecca enjoyed. Alex headed off to the Stack for "Gender Wars" and Thomas went to the lab for "Computer Madness". I went back to the room to read a book and relax.
We all reconvened at 5PM to get ready for dinner. It was our first formal night, so a bit more of a production than usual. I'd rented a tuxedo from DCL and the boys wore white shirts and ties. Rebecca had a red Christmas dress from last year to wear. We went downstairs to get photos taken before our dinner in Lumiere's.
All of us around the tree
Rebecca looking off into space
The evening show was the "Golden Mickeys" and were were sure if we would like this one or not, but we decided to go and were glad we did. It was very funny and the kids seemed to really enjoy it as well.
After the show, we took Rebecca back to the Club for free time and movies. Thomas went to the lab and Alex headed up to the Stack to watch Monday Night Football -- the Bangles vs. Colts. (No, this is NOT a typo on my part -- the Navigator had the game listed as the Bangles playing the Colts. I know Indy has a bad rush defense, but I think they can take an 80's girl group, although Susanna Hoffs always seemed a little tough. We laughed because we could totally see someone asking Brent or another Aussie cast member who was playing and them saying "the Bengals" and having it sound like "the Bangles" and a non-American football fan typing it up that way)
Janie and I went to Rockin' Bar D to have a drink or two. The house band 'NTWINE' was playing. They were okay. They played and sang with a lot of energy and were really trying though and we enjoyed listening to them. We stayed around for Michael Harrison's caberet show and he was extremely funny. We hadn't been that impressed with him first night, so maybe he just plays better when he can do adult humor, or maybe it was the two Johnny Walker Black's I had. Probably a little of both, but we were rolling in the aisle the entire show.
We gathered the kids after the show and headed off to bed to get ready for our second day at sea.
Limited Edition Lithograph drawn by Don "Ducky" Williams given to all holiday cruisers
Alex and Thomas headed to Ocean Quest, where they were going to stay until lunch. Rebecca wanted to go to the kids club and since we had the Castaway Club reception at 11, we decided to take her down there.
That left us with some extra time, so we went to see the Art of Entertaining -- "The Appetizer" in Studio Sea. Artur Bukalo, a chef for Epcot events was on board the ship and showed us how t make a delicious Avocado Mango Crab Meat Salad. The appetizer was wonderful and one we will definitely try at home, and the wine they served us, called "Conundrum" was very good and we said we'd be looking for it when we got back.
The Castaway Club reception was on Beat Street. The place was pretty crowded. We remembered our last cruise when we were in Diversions and there was hardly anyone there. At that time, they served you alcoholic drinks and a nice appetizer. This time, it was Mickey Rice Krispies and sodas. I guess as the CC gets larger, they have to scale back what they do. They played a little trivia game to try to get people to mingle. It was reasonably successful, but would have been more so it they had given us name tags where we could have put where we were from on them to help with breaking the ice. At the end of the reception, they had a drawing to win Castaway Club clocks and Janie's name was the first one selected.
Castaway Club Clock Janie won in drawing
We picked up the kids for lunch and then we went down to the gingerbread house building in Studio Sea. This was a bit disorganized. They were about 15 minutes late getting started and we felt a little rushed to finish with Natalie calling out "15 minutes left", "10 minutes left". We could have used more time, but we all enjoyed decorating the house and it sat in our room until the last day of the cruise.
Our house in pieces
The construction crew
Thomas concentrating on his design while Rebecca supervises
Thomas decorating
Alex enjoying himself
The finished product
Janie and Rebecca had "Tea with Wendy" at 4PM which Rebecca enjoyed. Alex headed off to the Stack for "Gender Wars" and Thomas went to the lab for "Computer Madness". I went back to the room to read a book and relax.
We all reconvened at 5PM to get ready for dinner. It was our first formal night, so a bit more of a production than usual. I'd rented a tuxedo from DCL and the boys wore white shirts and ties. Rebecca had a red Christmas dress from last year to wear. We went downstairs to get photos taken before our dinner in Lumiere's.
All of us around the tree
Rebecca looking off into space
The evening show was the "Golden Mickeys" and were were sure if we would like this one or not, but we decided to go and were glad we did. It was very funny and the kids seemed to really enjoy it as well.
After the show, we took Rebecca back to the Club for free time and movies. Thomas went to the lab and Alex headed up to the Stack to watch Monday Night Football -- the Bangles vs. Colts. (No, this is NOT a typo on my part -- the Navigator had the game listed as the Bangles playing the Colts. I know Indy has a bad rush defense, but I think they can take an 80's girl group, although Susanna Hoffs always seemed a little tough. We laughed because we could totally see someone asking Brent or another Aussie cast member who was playing and them saying "the Bengals" and having it sound like "the Bangles" and a non-American football fan typing it up that way)
Janie and I went to Rockin' Bar D to have a drink or two. The house band 'NTWINE' was playing. They were okay. They played and sang with a lot of energy and were really trying though and we enjoyed listening to them. We stayed around for Michael Harrison's caberet show and he was extremely funny. We hadn't been that impressed with him first night, so maybe he just plays better when he can do adult humor, or maybe it was the two Johnny Walker Black's I had. Probably a little of both, but we were rolling in the aisle the entire show.
We gathered the kids after the show and headed off to bed to get ready for our second day at sea.
Limited Edition Lithograph drawn by Don "Ducky" Williams given to all holiday cruisers
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Our second consecutive day at sea was reserved as a relaxation day for us. Janie and I had brunch at Palo planned for 11AM, the first of two brunches we had scheduled for this cruise. We made sure the kids had breakfast and then the boys headed off to Ocean Quest while Rebecca went off to the "Secret" Verandah on Deck 7 Aft where the 3-4 year olds were playing games.
Then Janie and I headed down to Studio Sea where Chef Bukalo was making a Sauteed Duck Breast. I had duck the night before in the dining room, but this one was better. Very tender and delicious. I didn't care as much for the wine today and didn't even catch the name of it.
Janie and I knew we'd be regretting having the duck with Palo brunch to come. We headed up, got our complimentary glass of champagne cocktail and Gemma showed us around the buffet. We filled up on crab legs and seafood mousse and shrimp and all of the delicious seafood items and almost didn't order an entree. But I said 'almost'. Janie ordered the grape and cheese pizza and I had the grilled tilapia and both were wonderful. But the best part was, of course, the desserts. Tiramisu, pies, white chocolate mousse, mocha mousse .... it was all absolutely delicious and we were glad we had several days until the next formal night or our formal attire might not fit!
We let the kids eat lunch in their respective kids clubs since we had our brunch and we went up to relax by the poolside. It was really hot today and we moved around a few times looking for a breeze. Alex joined us after he had lunch in the Stack and we settled down over by the Goofy pool. Thomas and Rebecca had wanted some 'club' time today, so we just let them stay in the clubs and play until it was time to pick them up for dinner.
Dinner was in Animator's Palate and tonight was "show" night. We dressed in our tye-dye T-shirts and headed down for dinner. Rebecca was very excited by the show, watching all the cartoons change colors and kept calling out as one of the cartoons changed. "There's Belle". "There's 101 Dalmatians", etc. Cute. Annoying, but cute.
After dinner, we were going to go see Rich Purpura's family cabaret show, but instead just went back to the room and then went down to see Robert Wilde. Wilde is a comedian and a juggler and was pretty funny. The boys enjoyed him, but his humor was a little over Rebecca's head.
After his show, we headed up to Deck 9 for the Tropicalifragilisticexpialidocious Deck Party. Rebecca wanted to dance at first, so I took her out for some dancing and Janie joined us, but we couldn't get the boys to come out and dance. They just stood along the railing and were looking pretty bored. Eventually, Rebecca tired of spinning, soo when the dessert buffet opened at 10:30, I went down and grabbed a plate of goodies and brought it back for us and that perked them up and then went and got their own plates. We enjoyed our desserts and then called it a night.
Towel Animal #4
Then Janie and I headed down to Studio Sea where Chef Bukalo was making a Sauteed Duck Breast. I had duck the night before in the dining room, but this one was better. Very tender and delicious. I didn't care as much for the wine today and didn't even catch the name of it.
Janie and I knew we'd be regretting having the duck with Palo brunch to come. We headed up, got our complimentary glass of champagne cocktail and Gemma showed us around the buffet. We filled up on crab legs and seafood mousse and shrimp and all of the delicious seafood items and almost didn't order an entree. But I said 'almost'. Janie ordered the grape and cheese pizza and I had the grilled tilapia and both were wonderful. But the best part was, of course, the desserts. Tiramisu, pies, white chocolate mousse, mocha mousse .... it was all absolutely delicious and we were glad we had several days until the next formal night or our formal attire might not fit!
We let the kids eat lunch in their respective kids clubs since we had our brunch and we went up to relax by the poolside. It was really hot today and we moved around a few times looking for a breeze. Alex joined us after he had lunch in the Stack and we settled down over by the Goofy pool. Thomas and Rebecca had wanted some 'club' time today, so we just let them stay in the clubs and play until it was time to pick them up for dinner.
Dinner was in Animator's Palate and tonight was "show" night. We dressed in our tye-dye T-shirts and headed down for dinner. Rebecca was very excited by the show, watching all the cartoons change colors and kept calling out as one of the cartoons changed. "There's Belle". "There's 101 Dalmatians", etc. Cute. Annoying, but cute.
After dinner, we were going to go see Rich Purpura's family cabaret show, but instead just went back to the room and then went down to see Robert Wilde. Wilde is a comedian and a juggler and was pretty funny. The boys enjoyed him, but his humor was a little over Rebecca's head.
After his show, we headed up to Deck 9 for the Tropicalifragilisticexpialidocious Deck Party. Rebecca wanted to dance at first, so I took her out for some dancing and Janie joined us, but we couldn't get the boys to come out and dance. They just stood along the railing and were looking pretty bored. Eventually, Rebecca tired of spinning, soo when the dessert buffet opened at 10:30, I went down and grabbed a plate of goodies and brought it back for us and that perked them up and then went and got their own plates. We enjoyed our desserts and then called it a night.
Towel Animal #4
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Wednesday had us pulling into St. Maarten in the early morning, but our excursion was not planned until the afternoon, so we had some time so spare. We ate breakfast in Lumiere's, then went to see if we could change our excursion.
We had the "Afternoon Beach Bash" planned, and although we knew about St. Maarten's 'clothing-optional' beaches, we assumed Disney would not schedule this family excursion for one of these. Steve had told us at dinner the night before that this was not the case. We were not happy Disney had not called this out specifically when we booked our excursion (and it did not appear on our confirmation), so we went to the Excursion Desk to cancel. The cast member initially said there was nothing we could do, but I persisted that we would not be taking our four-year-old to a clothing optional beach and if we had wanted to see clothing-optional bathers, we would have booked on Carnival. (We really aren't prudes, but the conversation about nude sunbathing was one I didn't want to have with my 13-year-old.)
The cast member then asked what we wanted to do and we asked if we could change excursions and he was amiable then. (I think he thought we just wanted a refund at first). So we chose to do the Island and Butterfly Tour instead.
Calm clear waters as we approach St. Maarten
Early morning in St. Maarten
Sailboat in the harbor in St. Maarten
We went upstairs and spent some time at the pool and had lunch before we had to meet for our excursion. We got off the ship, climbed on a bus and were taken on a tour of the island. The tour guide was very informative, telling us a lot about both the Dutch and French sides of the island and it was an enjoyable 25-minute ride to the Butterfly Farm.
We were greeted by a fantastic local guide named Beverly who took us on a tour of the butterfly house. Rebecca became fast friends with Beverly, holding her hand as she talked about the butterflies. Beverly asked who Rebecca belonged to, because she was going to be staying on the island. We took pictures of the butterflies, enjoyed a glass of rum punch (plain punch for the kids) and boarded our bus back. Beverly gave Rebecca a butterfly ring as we boarded the bus, which was incredibly nice of her.
Rebecca with Beverly at Butterfly Farm</TD></TR>
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Caterpillar on St. Maarten
Butterfly landing on Alex
On the way back, we stopped in Phillipsburg for awhile. We needed to find a restroom so we headed over to the air-conditioned mall which was a tourist trap. We bought a bottle of water and then went to the open market in search of T-shirts. Janie found one she liked and the woman offered us 3 for $10 so Alex and Rebecca bought T-shirts as well. Then it was back on the bus to go back to the ship.
Fort on the hill from Philipsburg
Philipsburg mall
We stopped at a scenic overlook on the way back and Janie and the boys got out to take some pictures. Rebecca and I stayed on the bus because she had fallen asleep, which made the ride back very relaxing for both of us.
Overlook on st. Maarten
Alex at overlook on St. Maarten
Cruise ships in port from the overlook
Janie and I had dinner in Palo tonight, so Thomas and Rebecca went off to the kids clubs to have dinner and Alex ate up on Deck 9. Janie and I had a light snack since we'd skipped lunch.
Janie, Alex and I went to see the early show, which was illusionist Mike Super. We aren't big fans of illusionists, but Super certainly had us scratching our heads and wondering how he had managed to pull off the tricks he had. Alex went up the Stack after the show and Janie and I changed and went to Palo.
Palo was wonderful as always. I had the grilled mushroom to start and Janie had the calamari and both were great. Janie had Penne Arrabbiata and our server talked me into the filet mignon, and I was very happy she had as it was perfect. Neither Janie nor I are fans of the chocolate souffle (I know, heresy), but her tiramisu and my cappucino cheesecake were more-than-adequate replacements.
Unfortunately, the dreaded pager went off as the desserts were served. I should have taken the advice Michael Harrison gave me earlier in the week and reversed the battery. Rebecca wanted to come out of the club. I called down and told them we were finishing up at Palo's and would be down in 15 minutes and they had no problem with that. So we finished dessert and headed downstairs.
Alex and Thomas wanted to do "Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer?" so Janie picked them up and they went over to Studio Sea while I went to get Rebecca. When I got to the Lab and went to pick her up, she screamed and cried that she didn't want to leave the lab, probably because Mrs. Claus was starting telling stories now. I figured she had called because they were transitioning from the club to the lab and she didn't want to be in the lab. So I spoke to the counselor and I told Rebecca she could stay and she went back to story time and I joined the others in Studio Sea.
Coming in late was a lucky accident as I got #21 and that was the first number called to be in the 'hot seat'. I took Thomas up with me and gave him the spotlight and Asst. Cruise Director Ray began asking us questions. We breezed through the first four, with Thomas turning out to be my savior as he knew the caterpillar was a character in "Alice in Wonderland", having read the book. Our last question was about where "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" premiered. I had no idea, so we did the 50-50 and it came down to New York and London. I was pretty sure it was NY, but we asked the audience and they agreed, so we made that our 'final answer' and won! We won a couple "Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer" pins and a paperweight.
Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer paperweight
After sitting down and watching the next couple win, my pager sounded again and I headed back to the Lab to see what was wrong with Rebecca now. Apparently she had bumped her head when another girl had kicked her coming off one of the beanbags. I picked her up and met the family back in Studio Sea and we headed for the rooms to go to bed.
We had the "Afternoon Beach Bash" planned, and although we knew about St. Maarten's 'clothing-optional' beaches, we assumed Disney would not schedule this family excursion for one of these. Steve had told us at dinner the night before that this was not the case. We were not happy Disney had not called this out specifically when we booked our excursion (and it did not appear on our confirmation), so we went to the Excursion Desk to cancel. The cast member initially said there was nothing we could do, but I persisted that we would not be taking our four-year-old to a clothing optional beach and if we had wanted to see clothing-optional bathers, we would have booked on Carnival. (We really aren't prudes, but the conversation about nude sunbathing was one I didn't want to have with my 13-year-old.)
The cast member then asked what we wanted to do and we asked if we could change excursions and he was amiable then. (I think he thought we just wanted a refund at first). So we chose to do the Island and Butterfly Tour instead.
Calm clear waters as we approach St. Maarten
Early morning in St. Maarten
Sailboat in the harbor in St. Maarten
We went upstairs and spent some time at the pool and had lunch before we had to meet for our excursion. We got off the ship, climbed on a bus and were taken on a tour of the island. The tour guide was very informative, telling us a lot about both the Dutch and French sides of the island and it was an enjoyable 25-minute ride to the Butterfly Farm.
We were greeted by a fantastic local guide named Beverly who took us on a tour of the butterfly house. Rebecca became fast friends with Beverly, holding her hand as she talked about the butterflies. Beverly asked who Rebecca belonged to, because she was going to be staying on the island. We took pictures of the butterflies, enjoyed a glass of rum punch (plain punch for the kids) and boarded our bus back. Beverly gave Rebecca a butterfly ring as we boarded the bus, which was incredibly nice of her.
Rebecca with Beverly at Butterfly Farm</TD></TR>
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Butterfly on St. Maarten
Caterpillar on St. Maarten
Butterfly landing on Alex
On the way back, we stopped in Phillipsburg for awhile. We needed to find a restroom so we headed over to the air-conditioned mall which was a tourist trap. We bought a bottle of water and then went to the open market in search of T-shirts. Janie found one she liked and the woman offered us 3 for $10 so Alex and Rebecca bought T-shirts as well. Then it was back on the bus to go back to the ship.
Fort on the hill from Philipsburg
Philipsburg mall
We stopped at a scenic overlook on the way back and Janie and the boys got out to take some pictures. Rebecca and I stayed on the bus because she had fallen asleep, which made the ride back very relaxing for both of us.
Overlook on st. Maarten
Alex at overlook on St. Maarten
Cruise ships in port from the overlook
Janie and I had dinner in Palo tonight, so Thomas and Rebecca went off to the kids clubs to have dinner and Alex ate up on Deck 9. Janie and I had a light snack since we'd skipped lunch.
Janie, Alex and I went to see the early show, which was illusionist Mike Super. We aren't big fans of illusionists, but Super certainly had us scratching our heads and wondering how he had managed to pull off the tricks he had. Alex went up the Stack after the show and Janie and I changed and went to Palo.
Palo was wonderful as always. I had the grilled mushroom to start and Janie had the calamari and both were great. Janie had Penne Arrabbiata and our server talked me into the filet mignon, and I was very happy she had as it was perfect. Neither Janie nor I are fans of the chocolate souffle (I know, heresy), but her tiramisu and my cappucino cheesecake were more-than-adequate replacements.
Unfortunately, the dreaded pager went off as the desserts were served. I should have taken the advice Michael Harrison gave me earlier in the week and reversed the battery. Rebecca wanted to come out of the club. I called down and told them we were finishing up at Palo's and would be down in 15 minutes and they had no problem with that. So we finished dessert and headed downstairs.
Alex and Thomas wanted to do "Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer?" so Janie picked them up and they went over to Studio Sea while I went to get Rebecca. When I got to the Lab and went to pick her up, she screamed and cried that she didn't want to leave the lab, probably because Mrs. Claus was starting telling stories now. I figured she had called because they were transitioning from the club to the lab and she didn't want to be in the lab. So I spoke to the counselor and I told Rebecca she could stay and she went back to story time and I joined the others in Studio Sea.
Coming in late was a lucky accident as I got #21 and that was the first number called to be in the 'hot seat'. I took Thomas up with me and gave him the spotlight and Asst. Cruise Director Ray began asking us questions. We breezed through the first four, with Thomas turning out to be my savior as he knew the caterpillar was a character in "Alice in Wonderland", having read the book. Our last question was about where "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" premiered. I had no idea, so we did the 50-50 and it came down to New York and London. I was pretty sure it was NY, but we asked the audience and they agreed, so we made that our 'final answer' and won! We won a couple "Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer" pins and a paperweight.
Who Wants To Be A Mouseketeer paperweight
After sitting down and watching the next couple win, my pager sounded again and I headed back to the Lab to see what was wrong with Rebecca now. Apparently she had bumped her head when another girl had kicked her coming off one of the beanbags. I picked her up and met the family back in Studio Sea and we headed for the rooms to go to bed.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
If it is Day 6, then today must be St. Lucia. This is the only day we planned to be apart as a family, with Janie and the boys heading out on the Brig Unicorn, which was featured in "Pirates of the Caribbean" while Rebecca and I head to the beach. We originally didn't plan it this way, but Thomas really wanted to go on the Unicorn and we couldn't book the Cruise to the Pitons we had originally decided upon, so we decided to give Thomas what he wanted and Rebecca and I would go relax.
St. Lucia from our verandah
St. Lucia from our verandah
St. Lucia from our verandah
St. Lucia from our verandah
So Janie and the boys headed off to their excursion after breakfast at Topsider's and Rebecca and I hung out in the room watching 'Playhouse Disney' until it was time for us to go. The guys and Janie boarded the Unicorn right off the dock and then headed out to sea. Each of the boys got a opportunity to "pilot" the ship before they disembarked for some time on the beach.
The Brig Unicorn from the parking lot
The Magic from the Brig Unicorn
Thomas at the wheel
Thomas enjoying himself
Thomas realizing the camera is on him
Alex at the wheel with an authentic pirate on the cellphone behind him
Thomas on the beach at St. Lucia
The Brig Unicorn from the beach
Rebecca and I, on the other hand, headed over to Rodney Bay, grabbed a couple of loungers and an umbrella and relaxed. Rebecca mostly played in the sand and went out in the water a little with some friends she had made. The experience could have been more relaxing, but we kept being bothered by locals trying to sell us stuff. Don "Ducky" Williams was on our bus to the beach and back and we had the opportunity to say "hello". I would have liked to talk to him some, but figured he was on an excursion, too, and probably wanted to relax.
A view of the water from the beach in St. Lucia
A shot of the fort overlooking Rodney Bay
Janie and the boys got back first and ate and then went to the pool. Rebecca and I came back about an hour after them and grabbed some food and ice cream for Rebecca from Deck 9 (since I had promised her ice cream on the way back so she wasn't upset over the wait for the bus).
St. Lucia from our verandah
St. Lucia from our verandah
St. Lucia from our verandah
St. Lucia from our verandah
So Janie and the boys headed off to their excursion after breakfast at Topsider's and Rebecca and I hung out in the room watching 'Playhouse Disney' until it was time for us to go. The guys and Janie boarded the Unicorn right off the dock and then headed out to sea. Each of the boys got a opportunity to "pilot" the ship before they disembarked for some time on the beach.
The Brig Unicorn from the parking lot
The Magic from the Brig Unicorn
Thomas at the wheel
Thomas enjoying himself
Thomas realizing the camera is on him
Alex at the wheel with an authentic pirate on the cellphone behind him
Thomas on the beach at St. Lucia
The Brig Unicorn from the beach
Rebecca and I, on the other hand, headed over to Rodney Bay, grabbed a couple of loungers and an umbrella and relaxed. Rebecca mostly played in the sand and went out in the water a little with some friends she had made. The experience could have been more relaxing, but we kept being bothered by locals trying to sell us stuff. Don "Ducky" Williams was on our bus to the beach and back and we had the opportunity to say "hello". I would have liked to talk to him some, but figured he was on an excursion, too, and probably wanted to relax.
A view of the water from the beach in St. Lucia
A shot of the fort overlooking Rodney Bay
Janie and the boys got back first and ate and then went to the pool. Rebecca and I came back about an hour after them and grabbed some food and ice cream for Rebecca from Deck 9 (since I had promised her ice cream on the way back so she wasn't upset over the wait for the bus).
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Since it was Pirate Night, we came back to the room to get dressed. Thomas had been a pirate for Halloween and we brought his costume. Janie made Alexander a pirate jacket and he had bought a hook on Key West. Janie made herself a pirate costume as well. Rebecca was going to rewear her Tinkerbell costume from two Halloween's ago, which we figured was close enough to a pirate outfit. As for me, since I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, I close to dress as a Pittsburgh Pirate, wearing a Pirates batting practice shirt and cap and then went down for dinner.
Rebecca upset over something
Pirate Minnie in the lobby
Alexander, Thomas, Rebecca and Pirate Minnie/FONT]
Dinner was a pirate theme and our servers were dressed up as pirates as well. I had the "Pearls of the Caribbean" (Crab, shrimp and salmon in couscous), a salad and "The Black Pearl's Oven-Roasted Beef Tenderloin". By now, Steve knew just how I liked my steaks and it was perfectly done. Dessert was the "Shiver-me-Timbers White Chocolate Cheesecake".
Alexander and our assistant server Johnathan
Thomas in his pirate bandana
Rebecca doing her best Tinkerbell impression
Rebecca, much happier
After dinner, we headed down to get a picture taken with Jack Sparrow. Alex wanted to play bingo next, so we headed off to find where the bingo was being played. The navigator said Promenade Lounge, but they were line dancing in here, so eventually we found someone to tell us it was in Rockin' Bar D. This was one of many "mistakes" we found in the Navigator's on this voyage, something we hadn't noticed on our first trips. Bingo was a lot of fun even though we didn't win anything. The most fun was throwing our expired bingo cards at the callers. "Bingo Revenge!"
Janie and the kids with Captain Jack
We had some extra time before the pirate party, so we decided just to go up on Deck 10, have some drinks and relax. The kids were pretty tired, but wanted to see the fireworks, so we let them nap a little before the party. As a result, we stayed up on deck 10 rather than coming down to the party, which regretted a little because the party looked like a lot of fun. But we had a pretty good view of Mickey coming down the zipline to take on Captain Hook and the fantastic fireworks show. It was a little cold up on deck 10, so we needed to cover up our pirate costumes.
Alex ready for a party
Rebecca being shy
Thomas smirking at his brother
The pirate party
The pirate party
Rebecca catching a nap
The party on the big screen
After the fireworks, it was time for bed. The boys and I grabbed some various desserts from the buffet laid out on Deck 9 and took them back to the room for all of us to enjoy before bedtime.
Rebecca upset over something
Pirate Minnie in the lobby
Alexander, Thomas, Rebecca and Pirate Minnie/FONT]
Dinner was a pirate theme and our servers were dressed up as pirates as well. I had the "Pearls of the Caribbean" (Crab, shrimp and salmon in couscous), a salad and "The Black Pearl's Oven-Roasted Beef Tenderloin". By now, Steve knew just how I liked my steaks and it was perfectly done. Dessert was the "Shiver-me-Timbers White Chocolate Cheesecake".
Alexander and our assistant server Johnathan
Thomas in his pirate bandana
Rebecca doing her best Tinkerbell impression
Rebecca, much happier
After dinner, we headed down to get a picture taken with Jack Sparrow. Alex wanted to play bingo next, so we headed off to find where the bingo was being played. The navigator said Promenade Lounge, but they were line dancing in here, so eventually we found someone to tell us it was in Rockin' Bar D. This was one of many "mistakes" we found in the Navigator's on this voyage, something we hadn't noticed on our first trips. Bingo was a lot of fun even though we didn't win anything. The most fun was throwing our expired bingo cards at the callers. "Bingo Revenge!"
Janie and the kids with Captain Jack
We had some extra time before the pirate party, so we decided just to go up on Deck 10, have some drinks and relax. The kids were pretty tired, but wanted to see the fireworks, so we let them nap a little before the party. As a result, we stayed up on deck 10 rather than coming down to the party, which regretted a little because the party looked like a lot of fun. But we had a pretty good view of Mickey coming down the zipline to take on Captain Hook and the fantastic fireworks show. It was a little cold up on deck 10, so we needed to cover up our pirate costumes.
Alex ready for a party
Rebecca being shy
Thomas smirking at his brother
The pirate party
The pirate party
Rebecca catching a nap
The party on the big screen
After the fireworks, it was time for bed. The boys and I grabbed some various desserts from the buffet laid out on Deck 9 and took them back to the room for all of us to enjoy before bedtime.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Day 7 found us pulling into the island nation of Antigua shortly before sunrise. We had a beach excursion planned for the day, so that meant we needed our pal Mickey to wake us up pretty early so we could get some breakfast. The Magic was docked in St. John, the capital of Antigua. The beach we were heading to was only supposed to be a 25-minute bus ride, so we expected to have a good amount of time to sit on the beach and relax today.
We had to meet in Rockin' Bar D for our excursion at 9AM. After the 25-minute bus ride, we landed on the beach. We got off to a rocky start as we paid for our umbrella when we arrived and then were harassed to pay for it again until I finally had to go up front and speak to one of the other employees. Luckily, he understood customer service and said "if he says he paid, then he paid" to the other guy.
We had at least three people selling bracelets, two trying to sell watersports and two others who were selling who knows what. Janie wanted to rent a jet-ski, but the price was too high. We figured it would go down later in the day, but by the end of the day, the kids were having so much fun in water and the sand that we didn't bother asking again.
View as the Magic pulls into Antigua
Mountains from the beach
Thomas and fellow cruisers building sand castles
Thomas pouring water into his moat
Alex swimming
Rebecca in the ocean in Antigua
Lunch was a buffet at the beach that was included in the excursion. The buffet included barbequed chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs and pasta salad as well as drinks. It was very good and great to have a different type of food than we had been eating on the ship all week.
After lunch, we went back to the beach for a while. Thomas was working with some other shipmates on a sand castle and Rebecca was playing in the water with a friend she had made. We hung around the beach until around 2 and then caught a bus back to the ship. Due to holiday traffic, the ride back took almost 40 minutes and we were caught in gridlock quite a few times. We were really glad we were not trying to come back on our own. Our late arrival back meant we missed the paper plane making, so we all just showered and hung out waiting for dinner.
Tonight's dinner was semi-formal attire and was "Prince and Princess" and we were back in Animator's Palate. Rebecca loved the Princess menus. We wish we had thought to ask Steve if we could keep one of them. We were hoping one of the Princesses would make a surprise appearance in the dining room, but no such luck. Janie ordered "Cinderella's Slipper" for dessert to go and Rebecca was upset she hadn't ordered one as well.
Cinderella's Slipper Dessert
Cinderella's Slipper Dessert
The evening show was "Twice Charmed", one Rebecca had really been looking forward to. This was a fantastic show that we all enjoyed.
We were all pretty tired and had an early morning tomorrow due to U.S. immigration and an early excursion, so we decided to call it a night after the show.
We had to meet in Rockin' Bar D for our excursion at 9AM. After the 25-minute bus ride, we landed on the beach. We got off to a rocky start as we paid for our umbrella when we arrived and then were harassed to pay for it again until I finally had to go up front and speak to one of the other employees. Luckily, he understood customer service and said "if he says he paid, then he paid" to the other guy.
We had at least three people selling bracelets, two trying to sell watersports and two others who were selling who knows what. Janie wanted to rent a jet-ski, but the price was too high. We figured it would go down later in the day, but by the end of the day, the kids were having so much fun in water and the sand that we didn't bother asking again.
View as the Magic pulls into Antigua
Mountains from the beach
Thomas and fellow cruisers building sand castles
Thomas pouring water into his moat
Alex swimming
Rebecca in the ocean in Antigua
Lunch was a buffet at the beach that was included in the excursion. The buffet included barbequed chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs and pasta salad as well as drinks. It was very good and great to have a different type of food than we had been eating on the ship all week.
After lunch, we went back to the beach for a while. Thomas was working with some other shipmates on a sand castle and Rebecca was playing in the water with a friend she had made. We hung around the beach until around 2 and then caught a bus back to the ship. Due to holiday traffic, the ride back took almost 40 minutes and we were caught in gridlock quite a few times. We were really glad we were not trying to come back on our own. Our late arrival back meant we missed the paper plane making, so we all just showered and hung out waiting for dinner.
Tonight's dinner was semi-formal attire and was "Prince and Princess" and we were back in Animator's Palate. Rebecca loved the Princess menus. We wish we had thought to ask Steve if we could keep one of them. We were hoping one of the Princesses would make a surprise appearance in the dining room, but no such luck. Janie ordered "Cinderella's Slipper" for dessert to go and Rebecca was upset she hadn't ordered one as well.
Cinderella's Slipper Dessert
Cinderella's Slipper Dessert
The evening show was "Twice Charmed", one Rebecca had really been looking forward to. This was a fantastic show that we all enjoyed.
We were all pretty tired and had an early morning tomorrow due to U.S. immigration and an early excursion, so we decided to call it a night after the show.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Day 8 of our Disney Cruise found us docking in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. This, unfortunately, meant an early morning wake-up call for immigration. (For those who do not know, since you are entering a U.S. port from a foreign port, all passengers, including U.S. citizens, have to show their passports to Homeland Security). You had to clear immigration by 8:30. We were up early and went to the theatre around 7. The process was pretty painless -- they walk you into the WD Theatre and you sit for a while, then they lead you down to the front and you show your passports to the officer. They stamp your hand on the way out to show you have cleared immigration.
After that, it was off to breakfast. We decided to have breakfast in Parrot Cay this morning since we were already on Deck 3. It's a buffet and pretty much the same food as upstairs.
Our excursion for the day was the Skyride to Paradise Point, which opened at 9AM. (Even though our tickets said to meet there at 8AM). We decided to disembark after breakfast and thought we'd wander the shops at Havensight Mall where we docked. Unfortunately, nothing opened there until 9. We were getting rather annoyed by all of the people asking us if we needed a taxi or wanted to take a tour of the island -- at least six stopped us before we even got out of the mall area.
We walked around for a little while and then went over to the Skyride. We ran into Kat from the DISBoards and her daughter and we rode to the top of Paradise Point with them. Once at the top, we headed to the observation deck for a beautiful view of the harbor with the ships docked and Charlotte Amalie. There was a short 'nature walk' to do, which worked off some of the dessert from the night before. We stopped and looked at the parrots, but didn't stay for the parrot show. Thomas found a T-Shirt he liked with a picture of all of the islands we had visited and bought that and then we queued up with Kat and went back down on the skyride.
View of the skyride from the Magic
Close-up of the skyride
Thomas on the way up the skyride
View from the top of Paradise Point
Close-up of the Magic from Paradise Point
Charlotte Amalie from Paradise Point
Rebecca and Thomas at the observation deck
Rebecca in the West Indies
Since we hadn't done any shopping yet, and since getting a taxi cab didn't seem to be a problem we decided to hop an open-air cab in Charlotte Amalie. The cost was $20 for the five of us. After a quick trip into town, we began browsing the stores.
The shops were predominantly what you would expect in a Caribbean port -- hundreds of jewelry stores, a couple of liquor stores and some souvenir shops. Rebecca found some earrings she liked and we bought them for her as her reward for being good (by four-year-old standards) on the cruise. Janie didn't find anything in her price range, which given the cost of the cruise, was pretty low, unfortunately. After eight days on the cruise ship, the Wendy's and the call of a Frosty was enticing, but we resisted and hopped a cab back to the ship. Had it been a McDonald's, we might have gone for it.
After grabbing some lunch from the buffet (yummy baked potato bar), Janie and the kids went to see "The Santa Clause 3" while I headed down to Diversions for a drink.
Janie dropped Thomas and Rebecca off at the kids clubs and met up with me for "Crusin' for Trivia" in the Promenade Lounge. Another Johnny Walker Black for me, a Black Apple Martini for Janie and a virgin daiquiri for Alexander made trivia much more interesting.
We ended up with 23/25 right and tied with a bunch of others for first place. Alexander didn't know who was the voice of the Prospector in "Toy Story 2" so we lost out on winning the "big prize" (which wasn't that big). If only we had guessed 'foot' instead of 'hand' for the body part with the most bones.
Alex wouldn't go line dancing, so he headed up to Deck 10 to watch the sail-away. Janie wanted to get her picture of Capt. Tom out on the overlook, but he wasn't out there today. It was quite interesting to watch the crew try to "unparallel-park" a huge cruise ship. (We were docked between an RCL and Celebrity cruise ship.)
Slowly, the captain used the side thrusters to push away from the dock and then bring us out alongside the RCL "Adventure of the Seas". We waved farewell to the cruisers on the other ship and they waved back to us as the Captain played "When You Wish Upon A Star" as we backed out into the bay. The RCL captain returned the call on his horn, which sounded so weak as opposed to our musical tribute. As one fellow passenger said as their horn went 'honnnk' -- "Sorry, I don't recognize THAT song". The Captain turned the ship around and we headed out to open water.
The view out to sea as the Magic heads out of St. Thomas
Thomas was playing basketball on the Wide World of Sports Deck (well, he was standing around as other kids shot hoops), so he came over and joined us and we headed down to get Rebecca and get ready for dinner.
Tonight was the casual dining "Master Chef" menu and we were in Parrot Cay. Alexander was going to order the 'roughy' until we told him it was fish and he hates fish. Later, he wanted to know what the 'terrine' was and we told him it was fish. He asked Steve and Steve said he'd bring Alex a plate of 'orange roughy' for dessert. Alex declined.
The evening show was the 'vocal talent of Paris Bennett and Bianca Ryan'. Paris had apparently been on 'American Idol' and Bianca on some show called 'America's Got Talent', which we'd never heard of. We aren't "American Idol" fans, so we decided to skip the show.
Rebecca wanted to go the the kids' club again and they were making Flubber in the Oceaneer Lab and Thomas wanted to do that, so we sent them back to the kids club and took Alex to Rockin' Bar D to see John Charles' cabaret show.
Charles claimed to do 'musical comedy' so we thought we'd check it out. He was marginally funny, although he tended to suffer from "Saturday Night Live Syndrome" in which he let the joke go on too long, singing entire songs rather than just doing the funny part and moving on. Most of his jokes were too dated for the kids in the audience (Neil Diamond, Beatles and Dylan references, for example). We decided we'd go back for his adult show, since those are usually funnier as the artists don't have to avoid being rude.
Alex decided he wanted to go see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" in the theatre, so we said good-bye to him and went down to the lounge to have a drink before the Crew Talent Show. The Crew Talent Show was very funny. Some of the acts were a little off, but knowing these guys were not professional actors and actresses, they were quite talented and amazing. I loved the comedian trying to duplicate the illusionist's act from the day before and not quite getting it right and the "History of Dance" from one of the show cast had us rolling in the aisles. But the best part of the night was watching the crew tell us what they would be "if they were not upon the sea". It takes a big man to wear a tutu on stage is all I can say, and Brent is a bigger man than I.
After the crew talent show, we went to see John Charles' adult cabaret and this was a huge mistake. If Janie and I hadn't ordered drinks, we would have walked out after five minutes because apparently Mr. Charles didn't think that people might see both of his shows. He did the exact same songs and jokes as the earlier show. He didn't even listen to the audience and launched into his Neil Diamond even though no one called out for him to play Neil Diamond and that was when we left. Very disappointing performance.
It was close to midnight, so we went to get Rebecca from the club where she was lying down watching "Finding Nemo", picked up Thomas from the lab and went upstairs. Alexander was already in bed, so we said goodnight and got ourselves into bed as well.
After that, it was off to breakfast. We decided to have breakfast in Parrot Cay this morning since we were already on Deck 3. It's a buffet and pretty much the same food as upstairs.
Our excursion for the day was the Skyride to Paradise Point, which opened at 9AM. (Even though our tickets said to meet there at 8AM). We decided to disembark after breakfast and thought we'd wander the shops at Havensight Mall where we docked. Unfortunately, nothing opened there until 9. We were getting rather annoyed by all of the people asking us if we needed a taxi or wanted to take a tour of the island -- at least six stopped us before we even got out of the mall area.
We walked around for a little while and then went over to the Skyride. We ran into Kat from the DISBoards and her daughter and we rode to the top of Paradise Point with them. Once at the top, we headed to the observation deck for a beautiful view of the harbor with the ships docked and Charlotte Amalie. There was a short 'nature walk' to do, which worked off some of the dessert from the night before. We stopped and looked at the parrots, but didn't stay for the parrot show. Thomas found a T-Shirt he liked with a picture of all of the islands we had visited and bought that and then we queued up with Kat and went back down on the skyride.
View of the skyride from the Magic
Close-up of the skyride
Thomas on the way up the skyride
View from the top of Paradise Point
Close-up of the Magic from Paradise Point
Charlotte Amalie from Paradise Point
Rebecca and Thomas at the observation deck
Rebecca in the West Indies
Since we hadn't done any shopping yet, and since getting a taxi cab didn't seem to be a problem
we decided to hop an open-air cab in Charlotte Amalie. The cost was $20 for the five of us. After a quick trip into town, we began browsing the stores. The shops were predominantly what you would expect in a Caribbean port -- hundreds of jewelry stores, a couple of liquor stores and some souvenir shops. Rebecca found some earrings she liked and we bought them for her as her reward for being good (by four-year-old standards) on the cruise. Janie didn't find anything in her price range, which given the cost of the cruise, was pretty low, unfortunately. After eight days on the cruise ship, the Wendy's and the call of a Frosty was enticing, but we resisted and hopped a cab back to the ship. Had it been a McDonald's, we might have gone for it.
After grabbing some lunch from the buffet (yummy baked potato bar), Janie and the kids went to see "The Santa Clause 3" while I headed down to Diversions for a drink.
Janie dropped Thomas and Rebecca off at the kids clubs and met up with me for "Crusin' for Trivia" in the Promenade Lounge. Another Johnny Walker Black for me, a Black Apple Martini for Janie and a virgin daiquiri for Alexander made trivia much more interesting.
We ended up with 23/25 right and tied with a bunch of others for first place. Alexander didn't know who was the voice of the Prospector in "Toy Story 2" so we lost out on winning the "big prize" (which wasn't that big). If only we had guessed 'foot' instead of 'hand' for the body part with the most bones.
Alex wouldn't go line dancing, so he headed up to Deck 10 to watch the sail-away. Janie wanted to get her picture of Capt. Tom out on the overlook, but he wasn't out there today. It was quite interesting to watch the crew try to "unparallel-park" a huge cruise ship. (We were docked between an RCL and Celebrity cruise ship.)
Slowly, the captain used the side thrusters to push away from the dock and then bring us out alongside the RCL "Adventure of the Seas". We waved farewell to the cruisers on the other ship and they waved back to us as the Captain played "When You Wish Upon A Star" as we backed out into the bay. The RCL captain returned the call on his horn, which sounded so weak as opposed to our musical tribute. As one fellow passenger said as their horn went 'honnnk' -- "Sorry, I don't recognize THAT song". The Captain turned the ship around and we headed out to open water.
The view out to sea as the Magic heads out of St. Thomas
Thomas was playing basketball on the Wide World of Sports Deck (well, he was standing around as other kids shot hoops), so he came over and joined us and we headed down to get Rebecca and get ready for dinner.
Tonight was the casual dining "Master Chef" menu and we were in Parrot Cay. Alexander was going to order the 'roughy' until we told him it was fish and he hates fish. Later, he wanted to know what the 'terrine' was and we told him it was fish. He asked Steve and Steve said he'd bring Alex a plate of 'orange roughy' for dessert. Alex declined.
The evening show was the 'vocal talent of Paris Bennett and Bianca Ryan'. Paris had apparently been on 'American Idol' and Bianca on some show called 'America's Got Talent', which we'd never heard of. We aren't "American Idol" fans, so we decided to skip the show.
Rebecca wanted to go the the kids' club again and they were making Flubber in the Oceaneer Lab and Thomas wanted to do that, so we sent them back to the kids club and took Alex to Rockin' Bar D to see John Charles' cabaret show.
Charles claimed to do 'musical comedy' so we thought we'd check it out. He was marginally funny, although he tended to suffer from "Saturday Night Live Syndrome" in which he let the joke go on too long, singing entire songs rather than just doing the funny part and moving on. Most of his jokes were too dated for the kids in the audience (Neil Diamond, Beatles and Dylan references, for example). We decided we'd go back for his adult show, since those are usually funnier as the artists don't have to avoid being rude.
Alex decided he wanted to go see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" in the theatre, so we said good-bye to him and went down to the lounge to have a drink before the Crew Talent Show. The Crew Talent Show was very funny. Some of the acts were a little off, but knowing these guys were not professional actors and actresses, they were quite talented and amazing. I loved the comedian trying to duplicate the illusionist's act from the day before and not quite getting it right and the "History of Dance" from one of the show cast had us rolling in the aisles. But the best part of the night was watching the crew tell us what they would be "if they were not upon the sea". It takes a big man to wear a tutu on stage is all I can say, and Brent is a bigger man than I.
After the crew talent show, we went to see John Charles' adult cabaret and this was a huge mistake. If Janie and I hadn't ordered drinks, we would have walked out after five minutes because apparently Mr. Charles didn't think that people might see both of his shows. He did the exact same songs and jokes as the earlier show. He didn't even listen to the audience and launched into his Neil Diamond even though no one called out for him to play Neil Diamond and that was when we left. Very disappointing performance.
It was close to midnight, so we went to get Rebecca from the club where she was lying down watching "Finding Nemo", picked up Thomas from the lab and went upstairs. Alexander was already in bed, so we said goodnight and got ourselves into bed as well.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Finally, it was the day before Christmas. With no activities planned for the morning, there was no need for a Mouse wake-up call and we all slept in.
Janie and I had brunch plans with some of our fellow DISBoards cruisers at Palo, so the only order of the morning was feeding Rebecca and getting her to the kids club. The boys decided they were going to go do the Mickey 200 and then go Cruisin' for Trivia again before heading to Ocean Quest. We dropped off Rebecca and dressed for Palo.
A group of us from the DISBoards had the private dining room at Palo for brunch thanks to Mary Ann. 12 of us spent the morning talking about our cruise, eating some wonderful food and even more wonderful desserts.
Janie ordering while I try to figure out how to politely reach for more pizza
Me eating while Janie wonders how I can eat so much food
Members of the DISboards posing after brunch
At 1:15, Janie and I went to the Napkin Folding session we'd missed earlier in the week. It was good, but a pair of unaccompanied children slowed down the session. First, they were goofing off and making a lot of noise, so we had to change seats. (And then they moved to near where we were so they could see better). This was listed as an "adult" activity, probably because of the difficulty and these two could not follow the directions well, so they kept calling the cast member over to have her help them with their folding, which meant she had to rush back to move on with the next set of directions. I know many may disagree with me, but if the activity is listed as "Adult Exclusive", then Disney staff should turn the kids away at the door. We did not bring our sons because it said it was an 'adult' activity in the navigator.
The boys wanted to do the Family Towel Folding at 2PM, so I went off to the stateroom to begin doing some packing to make it quicker the next day. The plan was to meet back at 2:30 to pick up Rebecca and take to see Santa.
We picked her up and when we got to the Santa line (which stretched all the way from the lobby to the Promenade Lounge), she said she wasn't feeling well. She was a little warm and we asked her if she wanted to see Santa or go lie down in the room and she said she wanted to lie down.
I took her back to the room (destroying my plans to have a beer and watch the Bears game), gave her a children's Tylenol and turned on 'Lilo and Stitch' on the TV and we both took a nap. The only disappointing thing is Rebecca never got her 'gift from Santa'. We assumed there would be an opportunity for her to pick it up (it was a Pooh pillow), but apparently if you didn't wait in line for Santa, you didn't get one. But the second Santa visiting from 4-5:30 and she didn't wake up until 4:45 and we had to get ready for dinner since it was formal night.
While Rebecca and I were napping, Janie and the boys went to see Don "Ducky" Williams and learn how to draw. Alex created the first-ever fanged Mickey Mouse, but Janie did much better.
Alex watches on as Thomas tries to learn to fold a towel
Janie's Mickey Mouse
Thomas' Mickey Mouse
Alexander's Rendition of Mickey Mouse
After the animation class, the boys headed off to Ocean Quest while Janie went martini tasting. She had her first taste of a "real" gin martini (shaken, not stirred) and decided she'd stick to her appletinis and chocolate martinis instead.
When she returned to the room, we began getting ourselves all spiffed up for the second formal night. Rebecca was wearing her brand-new dress we'd bought her for Christmas Eve and was very excited. Janie wanted to get some photos taken since we were not pleased with the ones from the first formal night. (Quite frankly, we weren't pleased with much of the photography from Shutters this time. Part of it was our fault because getting three kids to all look the same direction and smile is difficult, but the photos seemed a lot more rushed on this cruise than in the past, with the photographers spending less time making sure everyone was lined up properly.) But our formal photos came out better on this night, although we still have to teach Alex how to smile and not smirk.
Dinner was a special menu and finally had the lobster Janie and I were looking forward to. We were disappointed they had waited for Christmas Eve as that meant we'd have to skip the roast turkey in order to have the lobster, but we can cook turkey any time we want at home.
Janie was prepared to ask for the 'surf-and-turf' on this trip, but she didn't have to, as Steve suggested adding a steak to the plate because he felt the lobster 'wasn't enough'. (On our last cruise, Janie and our female tablemate ordered lobster and our server did not suggest 'surf and turf' to them. But when I ordered the lobster, he offered it to me and also to our male tablemate. Both the ladies then also asked for steak.)
The boys also had the lobster (sans the steak) and the lobsters were tender and delicious. We finished off the meal double chocolate yule logs and the bottle of Asti we had ordered for the evening.
Menus for the night:
After dinner, we went to the shops for a little while as Rebecca had some money to spend for being good at school prior to the cruise. She bought a Princess stamp set and a Minnie Mouse dressed as the 'redhead' from Pirates of the Caribbean. 'Redhead' would sleep with her for the rest of the cruise and accompany her on the plane home. Alex bought a Pirates toy set and Thomas a toy gun. Those would need to go in the checked luggage, I think.
After shopping, it was time for "Disney Dreams". Rebecca needed another Princess fix and she was not disappointed.
After the show, we headed down to the atrium to hear Mrs. Claus read a story and some of the cast from the show sing "T'was the Night Before Christmas", which was very enjoyable.
Then we headed to Deck 9, grabbed some drinks and watched the "Parent Trap" on the Dumbotron. The boys had been asking to go to the arcade, so I bought them a card and they played games for awhile before we headed back downstairs for the dessert buffet at Lumiere's at 11:15. Even though we had only had dessert a few hours before, it didn't stop us from piling our plates with more chocolate and pies and cakes. The strawberries and bananas dipped in the white chocolate fountain were a highlight of the evening.
It was time to retire to the staterooms as the clock nearer midnight. Disney greeted us with a selection of chocolates in our stateroom, which was a nice touch. We had brought gift bags for each of the kids, and since we wouldn't be seeing Alex in the morning because he had an excursion, we gave them their gifts to open. We had bought books for Alex and Thomas and had gotten each of them a DCL sweatshirt earlier in the week. Rebecca got a DCL Princess sweatshirt as well as a Barbie doll and clothes. The rest of our presents and Santa's would be opened upon our return home. We tucked Rebecca and Barbie and "Redhead" into bed, said goodnight to the boys, and with visions of Castaway Cay dancing in our heads, settled ourselves down for a short winter's nap
Candy from DCL
Janie and I had brunch plans with some of our fellow DISBoards cruisers at Palo, so the only order of the morning was feeding Rebecca and getting her to the kids club. The boys decided they were going to go do the Mickey 200 and then go Cruisin' for Trivia again before heading to Ocean Quest. We dropped off Rebecca and dressed for Palo.
A group of us from the DISBoards had the private dining room at Palo for brunch thanks to Mary Ann. 12 of us spent the morning talking about our cruise, eating some wonderful food and even more wonderful desserts.
Janie ordering while I try to figure out how to politely reach for more pizza
Me eating while Janie wonders how I can eat so much food
Members of the DISboards posing after brunch
At 1:15, Janie and I went to the Napkin Folding session we'd missed earlier in the week. It was good, but a pair of unaccompanied children slowed down the session. First, they were goofing off and making a lot of noise, so we had to change seats. (And then they moved to near where we were so they could see better). This was listed as an "adult" activity, probably because of the difficulty and these two could not follow the directions well, so they kept calling the cast member over to have her help them with their folding, which meant she had to rush back to move on with the next set of directions. I know many may disagree with me, but if the activity is listed as "Adult Exclusive", then Disney staff should turn the kids away at the door. We did not bring our sons because it said it was an 'adult' activity in the navigator.
The boys wanted to do the Family Towel Folding at 2PM, so I went off to the stateroom to begin doing some packing to make it quicker the next day. The plan was to meet back at 2:30 to pick up Rebecca and take to see Santa.
We picked her up and when we got to the Santa line (which stretched all the way from the lobby to the Promenade Lounge), she said she wasn't feeling well. She was a little warm and we asked her if she wanted to see Santa or go lie down in the room and she said she wanted to lie down.
I took her back to the room (destroying my plans to have a beer and watch the Bears game), gave her a children's Tylenol and turned on 'Lilo and Stitch' on the TV and we both took a nap. The only disappointing thing is Rebecca never got her 'gift from Santa'. We assumed there would be an opportunity for her to pick it up (it was a Pooh pillow), but apparently if you didn't wait in line for Santa, you didn't get one. But the second Santa visiting from 4-5:30 and she didn't wake up until 4:45 and we had to get ready for dinner since it was formal night.
While Rebecca and I were napping, Janie and the boys went to see Don "Ducky" Williams and learn how to draw. Alex created the first-ever fanged Mickey Mouse, but Janie did much better.
Alex watches on as Thomas tries to learn to fold a towel
Janie's Mickey Mouse
Thomas' Mickey Mouse
Alexander's Rendition of Mickey Mouse
After the animation class, the boys headed off to Ocean Quest while Janie went martini tasting. She had her first taste of a "real" gin martini (shaken, not stirred) and decided she'd stick to her appletinis and chocolate martinis instead.
When she returned to the room, we began getting ourselves all spiffed up for the second formal night. Rebecca was wearing her brand-new dress we'd bought her for Christmas Eve and was very excited. Janie wanted to get some photos taken since we were not pleased with the ones from the first formal night. (Quite frankly, we weren't pleased with much of the photography from Shutters this time. Part of it was our fault because getting three kids to all look the same direction and smile is difficult, but the photos seemed a lot more rushed on this cruise than in the past, with the photographers spending less time making sure everyone was lined up properly.) But our formal photos came out better on this night, although we still have to teach Alex how to smile and not smirk.
Dinner was a special menu and finally had the lobster Janie and I were looking forward to. We were disappointed they had waited for Christmas Eve as that meant we'd have to skip the roast turkey in order to have the lobster, but we can cook turkey any time we want at home.
Janie was prepared to ask for the 'surf-and-turf' on this trip, but she didn't have to, as Steve suggested adding a steak to the plate because he felt the lobster 'wasn't enough'. (On our last cruise, Janie and our female tablemate ordered lobster and our server did not suggest 'surf and turf' to them. But when I ordered the lobster, he offered it to me and also to our male tablemate. Both the ladies then also asked for steak.)
The boys also had the lobster (sans the steak) and the lobsters were tender and delicious. We finished off the meal double chocolate yule logs and the bottle of Asti we had ordered for the evening.
Menus for the night:
After dinner, we went to the shops for a little while as Rebecca had some money to spend for being good at school prior to the cruise. She bought a Princess stamp set and a Minnie Mouse dressed as the 'redhead' from Pirates of the Caribbean. 'Redhead' would sleep with her for the rest of the cruise and accompany her on the plane home. Alex bought a Pirates toy set and Thomas a toy gun. Those would need to go in the checked luggage, I think.
After shopping, it was time for "Disney Dreams". Rebecca needed another Princess fix and she was not disappointed.
After the show, we headed down to the atrium to hear Mrs. Claus read a story and some of the cast from the show sing "T'was the Night Before Christmas", which was very enjoyable.
Then we headed to Deck 9, grabbed some drinks and watched the "Parent Trap" on the Dumbotron. The boys had been asking to go to the arcade, so I bought them a card and they played games for awhile before we headed back downstairs for the dessert buffet at Lumiere's at 11:15. Even though we had only had dessert a few hours before, it didn't stop us from piling our plates with more chocolate and pies and cakes. The strawberries and bananas dipped in the white chocolate fountain were a highlight of the evening.
It was time to retire to the staterooms as the clock nearer midnight. Disney greeted us with a selection of chocolates in our stateroom, which was a nice touch. We had brought gift bags for each of the kids, and since we wouldn't be seeing Alex in the morning because he had an excursion, we gave them their gifts to open. We had bought books for Alex and Thomas and had gotten each of them a DCL sweatshirt earlier in the week. Rebecca got a DCL Princess sweatshirt as well as a Barbie doll and clothes. The rest of our presents and Santa's would be opened upon our return home. We tucked Rebecca and Barbie and "Redhead" into bed, said goodnight to the boys, and with visions of Castaway Cay dancing in our heads, settled ourselves down for a short winter's nap
Candy from DCL
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
After a late night on Christmas Eve, we were not in any hurry to rise and shine, but with the thought of a day at Castaway Cay, we were up early and ready to go. Janie couldn't sleep so she went and got the boys and they had an early breakfast. Rebecca and I joined them just as they were finishing up at Topsider's.
Alexander had to be at The Stack by 9AM for his teen excursion so he went and dressed and headed out. We hung around the room for awhile taking pictures of the Flying Dutchman outside our window.
The Flying Dutchman from the verandah of stateroom 7618
The Flying Dutchman and Castaway Cay
A closer view of the Flying Dutchman
Thomas with the Flying Dutchman in the background
Janie waiting to go ashore
Rebecca's ready for Castaway Cay
It was a good thing we stuck around the room, too, because Alexander came back shortly before nine and needed his parental permission form signed to allow him to leave the ship without us. We didn't understand why they didn't give it to us with his waiver and were glad we were still in the room. We decided to go down and hang out on deck four for a while and watch the staff unload the ship while we waited for the signal to go ashore and take some pictures.
Workers tie down the Magic on Castaway Cay
The Christmas Tree on Castaway Cay
Finally the call from Brent came and we joined the throng crowding down the stairs to Deck 1. As we waited in line to key out, Jack Sparrow came rushing by us, scaring Rebecca a little. Soon we were off the ship and on the island. We ran into Alex with a group of teens heading off for their "Wild Side" excursion. The winds were too high for kayaking, so they were going to snorkel and do relay races and play games. Cast members were serving egg nog and Christmas cookies just as you got off the ship and Rebecca and I grabbed Rice Krispies Snowmen to eat later. Thomas and Janie joined us shortly and picked up Rice Krispies Santa stockings.
Rice Krispies treats served on Castaway Cay (slightly melted)
Janie and I had never been to the adult beach on two previous trips to Castaway Cay, so the plan was to drop off Thomas and Rebecca at Scuttle's Cove while Alex was on his excursion and then head to Serenity Bay. We dropped them off just as the club was opening at 10 and caught the tram to the adult beach. We grabbed a hammock, an umbrella, a lounger and a couple of Konk Koolers and relaxed for a couple of hours. The water was beautiful and a couple of crabs came out to entertain Janie.
The view from Serenity Bay
Crabs on the beach
At about noon, we'd had enough of the heat (no wind on the adult side of the island) and figured since it was Christmas Day, we should go find our family. We realized we had a slight logistical problem in that we told Alex to meet us on the family beach when he was done with his excursion, but forgot to give him a specific location. But he managed to find us in the gift shop where Janie was buying a T-Shirt and a polo for me.
Then we went and picked up Rebecca at Scuttle's Cove, Thomas from Monstro Point, found some chairs on the family beach for our stuff and went to get food at Cookie's BBQ. Alex and I were not hungry so I went to relax on the beach under an umbrella while Alex went off into the water. Janie, Thomas and Rebecca joined us after lunch and then went off to play in the surf themselves.
Thomas spent his afternoon digging in the sand while Rebecca played with Alex and Janie in the ocean. Janie and Alex tried to see if there were any Jet-Ski openings, but there were not. I guess it wasn't meant to be for this cruise.
Looking out at the surf from my lounger
Thomas digging a hole
By 3PM, we were hot and tired and decided to head back to the ship. We gathered our belongings and just caught the tram to save ourselves some walking.
The Magic and the Flying Dutchman
Snowfall on Castaway Cay
The kids at the tree on Castaway Cay
Alex and Thomas took Rebecca up to the Mickey pool when we returned for one last time, where she met up with Kimberly, "Tink&Cinderella's" daughter and they played for awhile. The Mickey slide was closed, however, which was disappointing as she wanted to take one last slide down the slide before we left. Janie and I took the opportunity to finish up packing so we didn't have to do it after dinner, which would allow us to celebrate our last night on the ship.
Since we were ready early, we took the opportunity to walk around the ship and take some of the pictures we had been meaning to take, but hadn't gotten around to yet.
Thomas does his toy soldier impression at the gingerbread house
The kids posing at the lobby tree
The kids on stage in Rockin' Bar D
Janie thinking about all the Black Apple Martinis she had in Rockin' Bar D
Alex, Thomas and Rebecca at the "Mickey wheel"
Waiting for dinner outside Animator's Palate
We picked the kids up shortly after sail-away and changed for our final dinner. Tonight was casual dining with the "'Til We Meet Again Menu" in Animator's Palate. I had the cheese dip and chicken tenderloins for an appetizer, the bisque as my soup and, at Steve's recommendation, the Seafood Linguine Pasta. The appetizers were wonderful, but the soup was lacking something. The pasta was okay, but not excellent -- a little too blah for a cruise celebration.
Dessert was "Chocolate Decadence" which Janie and I split. It was a white chocolate mousse as well as chocolate cake and it was truly decadent. Thomas had asked Steve what "Baked Alaska" was and found out when the servers came in with flaming trays as part of their farewell celebration. Steve brought a piece of Baked Alaska to Thomas to go with the Chocolate Decadence he had ordered, which was very nice of him. We said our farewells, tipped Stephane, Steve and Johnathan and left the dining room full and content. We gave Steve and Johnathan an extra cash tip as a Christmas present because they had been so wonderful all week.
DCL scheduling messed with us again on this day. We would have liked for Rebecca to be part of the 3-4 year olds caroling at 7:30, but rehearsals started at 7:00 and we didn't get out of dinner until almost 7:30. We do wish they would think a little more about early dinner seating times and conflicts with activities. The boys still had points to spend on their arcade card so they headed to the arcade to play some games and then they were going to see the evening variety show, which was "Remember the Magic" featuring John Charles and Taylor Mason. We'd had enough of John Charles already so we headed up to the room to drop off the camera and some photos we had bought.
As we were hanging out in the room, we could hear a ship's horn going off. I opened up the window and saw a sight that totally made our vacation. Right outside our window, passing in close proximity, was the Disney Wonder, on her way out to sea. Captain Tom sounded "When You Wish Upon A Star" and the Wonder responded in turn to cheers and hooting from both ships. Unfortunately our camera doesn't take good night photos, and we couldn't get a good picture.
The Disney Wonder passing us on its way out to sea
Better picture of Disney Wonder from DISBoards' NejTheLion
Rebecca "really, really, really, really wished she could go to the kids club", in her words, so we dropped her off at the Oceaneer's Club and went to have a drink or three. We ended up in Diversions, where Janie's Miami Dolphins were going to be playing the New York Jets. We grabbed a couple of chairs near the big screen. Janie got the bartender to make her a chocolate martin, I had a beer and we settled in to watch the game.
A few drinks later, some of the crew came in for "pub night" where we sang "My Bonnie lies under the ocean" where all the guys had to stand on words that started with "M" (for Man) and all the women had to stand on words that started with "B" (for, well, I don't know) and Homer Simpson's "DOREMI-BEER" (DOH - The stuff that buys me beer. RAY - The guy who sells me beer. ME - The guys who drinks the beer. FAR - A long way to get beer. SO - I'll have another beer. LA, la, la, la beer. TEA - No thanks, I'm drinking beer. and that brings me back to DOH!). After that, a different cast of crew repeated the skit from the talent show the night before. It wasn't quite as funny the second time, probably because we knew what was coming. After that, we were done for the night, so we turned in our pager, picked up Rebecca, found the boys and went off to bed for the last time aboard the Disney Magic.
Alexander had to be at The Stack by 9AM for his teen excursion so he went and dressed and headed out. We hung around the room for awhile taking pictures of the Flying Dutchman outside our window.
The Flying Dutchman from the verandah of stateroom 7618
The Flying Dutchman and Castaway Cay
A closer view of the Flying Dutchman
Thomas with the Flying Dutchman in the background
Janie waiting to go ashore
Rebecca's ready for Castaway Cay
It was a good thing we stuck around the room, too, because Alexander came back shortly before nine and needed his parental permission form signed to allow him to leave the ship without us. We didn't understand why they didn't give it to us with his waiver and were glad we were still in the room. We decided to go down and hang out on deck four for a while and watch the staff unload the ship while we waited for the signal to go ashore and take some pictures.
Workers tie down the Magic on Castaway Cay
The Christmas Tree on Castaway Cay
Finally the call from Brent came and we joined the throng crowding down the stairs to Deck 1. As we waited in line to key out, Jack Sparrow came rushing by us, scaring Rebecca a little. Soon we were off the ship and on the island. We ran into Alex with a group of teens heading off for their "Wild Side" excursion. The winds were too high for kayaking, so they were going to snorkel and do relay races and play games. Cast members were serving egg nog and Christmas cookies just as you got off the ship and Rebecca and I grabbed Rice Krispies Snowmen to eat later. Thomas and Janie joined us shortly and picked up Rice Krispies Santa stockings.
Rice Krispies treats served on Castaway Cay (slightly melted)
Janie and I had never been to the adult beach on two previous trips to Castaway Cay, so the plan was to drop off Thomas and Rebecca at Scuttle's Cove while Alex was on his excursion and then head to Serenity Bay. We dropped them off just as the club was opening at 10 and caught the tram to the adult beach. We grabbed a hammock, an umbrella, a lounger and a couple of Konk Koolers and relaxed for a couple of hours. The water was beautiful and a couple of crabs came out to entertain Janie.
The view from Serenity Bay
Crabs on the beach
At about noon, we'd had enough of the heat (no wind on the adult side of the island) and figured since it was Christmas Day, we should go find our family. We realized we had a slight logistical problem in that we told Alex to meet us on the family beach when he was done with his excursion, but forgot to give him a specific location. But he managed to find us in the gift shop where Janie was buying a T-Shirt and a polo for me.
Then we went and picked up Rebecca at Scuttle's Cove, Thomas from Monstro Point, found some chairs on the family beach for our stuff and went to get food at Cookie's BBQ. Alex and I were not hungry so I went to relax on the beach under an umbrella while Alex went off into the water. Janie, Thomas and Rebecca joined us after lunch and then went off to play in the surf themselves.
Thomas spent his afternoon digging in the sand while Rebecca played with Alex and Janie in the ocean. Janie and Alex tried to see if there were any Jet-Ski openings, but there were not. I guess it wasn't meant to be for this cruise.
Looking out at the surf from my lounger
Thomas digging a hole
By 3PM, we were hot and tired and decided to head back to the ship. We gathered our belongings and just caught the tram to save ourselves some walking.
The Magic and the Flying Dutchman
Snowfall on Castaway Cay
The kids at the tree on Castaway Cay
Alex and Thomas took Rebecca up to the Mickey pool when we returned for one last time, where she met up with Kimberly, "Tink&Cinderella's" daughter and they played for awhile. The Mickey slide was closed, however, which was disappointing as she wanted to take one last slide down the slide before we left. Janie and I took the opportunity to finish up packing so we didn't have to do it after dinner, which would allow us to celebrate our last night on the ship.
Since we were ready early, we took the opportunity to walk around the ship and take some of the pictures we had been meaning to take, but hadn't gotten around to yet.
Thomas does his toy soldier impression at the gingerbread house
The kids posing at the lobby tree
The kids on stage in Rockin' Bar D
Janie thinking about all the Black Apple Martinis she had in Rockin' Bar D
Alex, Thomas and Rebecca at the "Mickey wheel"
Waiting for dinner outside Animator's Palate
We picked the kids up shortly after sail-away and changed for our final dinner. Tonight was casual dining with the "'Til We Meet Again Menu" in Animator's Palate. I had the cheese dip and chicken tenderloins for an appetizer, the bisque as my soup and, at Steve's recommendation, the Seafood Linguine Pasta. The appetizers were wonderful, but the soup was lacking something. The pasta was okay, but not excellent -- a little too blah for a cruise celebration.
Dessert was "Chocolate Decadence" which Janie and I split. It was a white chocolate mousse as well as chocolate cake and it was truly decadent. Thomas had asked Steve what "Baked Alaska" was and found out when the servers came in with flaming trays as part of their farewell celebration. Steve brought a piece of Baked Alaska to Thomas to go with the Chocolate Decadence he had ordered, which was very nice of him. We said our farewells, tipped Stephane, Steve and Johnathan and left the dining room full and content. We gave Steve and Johnathan an extra cash tip as a Christmas present because they had been so wonderful all week.
DCL scheduling messed with us again on this day. We would have liked for Rebecca to be part of the 3-4 year olds caroling at 7:30, but rehearsals started at 7:00 and we didn't get out of dinner until almost 7:30. We do wish they would think a little more about early dinner seating times and conflicts with activities. The boys still had points to spend on their arcade card so they headed to the arcade to play some games and then they were going to see the evening variety show, which was "Remember the Magic" featuring John Charles and Taylor Mason. We'd had enough of John Charles already so we headed up to the room to drop off the camera and some photos we had bought.
As we were hanging out in the room, we could hear a ship's horn going off. I opened up the window and saw a sight that totally made our vacation. Right outside our window, passing in close proximity, was the Disney Wonder, on her way out to sea. Captain Tom sounded "When You Wish Upon A Star" and the Wonder responded in turn to cheers and hooting from both ships. Unfortunately our camera doesn't take good night photos, and we couldn't get a good picture.
The Disney Wonder passing us on its way out to sea
Better picture of Disney Wonder from DISBoards' NejTheLion
Rebecca "really, really, really, really wished she could go to the kids club", in her words, so we dropped her off at the Oceaneer's Club and went to have a drink or three. We ended up in Diversions, where Janie's Miami Dolphins were going to be playing the New York Jets. We grabbed a couple of chairs near the big screen. Janie got the bartender to make her a chocolate martin, I had a beer and we settled in to watch the game.
A few drinks later, some of the crew came in for "pub night" where we sang "My Bonnie lies under the ocean" where all the guys had to stand on words that started with "M" (for Man) and all the women had to stand on words that started with "B" (for, well, I don't know) and Homer Simpson's "DOREMI-BEER" (DOH - The stuff that buys me beer. RAY - The guy who sells me beer. ME - The guys who drinks the beer. FAR - A long way to get beer. SO - I'll have another beer. LA, la, la, la beer. TEA - No thanks, I'm drinking beer. and that brings me back to DOH!). After that, a different cast of crew repeated the skit from the talent show the night before. It wasn't quite as funny the second time, probably because we knew what was coming. After that, we were done for the night, so we turned in our pager, picked up Rebecca, found the boys and went off to bed for the last time aboard the Disney Magic.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
The occupants of rooms 7618 and 7627 are awakened for the last time by their friend, Mickey Mouse. Somehow, Mickey's cheerful banter just doesn't seem as cheerful as the thought of leaving the Magic and returning to the cold midwest awaits our castaways.
We packed the last of our items, did a quick check of the staterooms, closets, drawers and bathrooms and trudged reluctantly down to Animator's Palate for our final Disney Magic meal. Steve and Johnathan greet us for the last time and serve us our coffee, juice and soft drinks.
It appears Disney is preparing us for our return to Chicago as the temperature in the restaurant was freezing -- even colder than the night before when I had to go back to the room for sweatshirts.
We ordered our breakfasts and ate our last dose of Magic food. We said goodbye to "Tink&Cinderella" and family, gathered our bags and headed off to the lobby. They weren't letting anyone off the boat yet, so we sat down up on deck four and waited. Once the gangway was down, we headed downstairs, waved final goodbyes to Brent and the crew and stepped off the Magic back into the terminal.
It took a while to find our bags as they were scattered on both sides of one of the tables, then we had to wait for a porter to help us with the seven pieces of luggage. But finally we had everyone and everything and joined the customs line.
After a short wait, we were off to the American Airlines check-in. They had our boarding passes printed, tagged our luggage and we were on the first bus out to the airport. Alexander and I were upgraded again and we gave their tickets to my wife and Thomas so they could have first class on the way back.
The bus driver kindly skipped showing us the DVC hard-sell video and instead showed us a Christmas 'House of Mouse' video. (If only he hadn't kept interrupting it to ask us to look for alligators or dolphins on the side of the road, which no one saw.)</
Forty-five minutes later, we were rolling into the airport. It was only 9AM and we had six hours to kill before our flight home. (We had been booked on a much earlier flight that AA cancelled, so we ended up with a later departure than planned.) We looked around the shops for awhile, had some lunch at Chili's and then boarded our plane and returned home to Chicago.
We packed the last of our items, did a quick check of the staterooms, closets, drawers and bathrooms and trudged reluctantly down to Animator's Palate for our final Disney Magic meal. Steve and Johnathan greet us for the last time and serve us our coffee, juice and soft drinks.
It appears Disney is preparing us for our return to Chicago as the temperature in the restaurant was freezing -- even colder than the night before when I had to go back to the room for sweatshirts.
We ordered our breakfasts and ate our last dose of Magic food. We said goodbye to "Tink&Cinderella" and family, gathered our bags and headed off to the lobby. They weren't letting anyone off the boat yet, so we sat down up on deck four and waited. Once the gangway was down, we headed downstairs, waved final goodbyes to Brent and the crew and stepped off the Magic back into the terminal.
It took a while to find our bags as they were scattered on both sides of one of the tables, then we had to wait for a porter to help us with the seven pieces of luggage. But finally we had everyone and everything and joined the customs line.
After a short wait, we were off to the American Airlines check-in. They had our boarding passes printed, tagged our luggage and we were on the first bus out to the airport. Alexander and I were upgraded again and we gave their tickets to my wife and Thomas so they could have first class on the way back.
The bus driver kindly skipped showing us the DVC hard-sell video and instead showed us a Christmas 'House of Mouse' video. (If only he hadn't kept interrupting it to ask us to look for alligators or dolphins on the side of the road, which no one saw.)</
Forty-five minutes later, we were rolling into the airport. It was only 9AM and we had six hours to kill before our flight home. (We had been booked on a much earlier flight that AA cancelled, so we ended up with a later departure than planned.) We looked around the shops for awhile, had some lunch at Chili's and then boarded our plane and returned home to Chicago.
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
I sent the personal navigators from our trip to www.castawayclub.com and they now have them posted if you want to see some of the kids activities. Have fun on your cruise!
yargrnhoj
<font color=red>Eviltwin or<br><font color=darkblu
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2002
- Messages
- 3,341
Awesome report, JR! You left out the time you spent in the Brig, but we'll let that go!
I AM going to find the "Mickey Jail" on my next cruise.
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