A Magical Trip from the Lone Star State - Oct 13 2012 Sailing

[jenseib]

I am loving your excursions. The turtle picture with your Mom cracks me up. I love your pyramid pictures.

 

[vleeth]

Just read the whole thing...love it!

 

[llqool]

How long was the walk from the dock at Costa Maya? Ive heard that's a super long pier. I'm also bringing my mom, and she doesn't do stairs, either . We have booked a private excursion to the ruins, just a bit worried about the logistics. I told the tour operator about my mom (she's slow, but not immobile) and they say not to worry, but I'm a little nervous about logistics.

 

[ukintheus]

How long was the walk from the dock at Costa Maya? Ive heard that's a super long pier. I'm also bringing my mom, and she doesn't do stairs, either . We have booked a private excursion to the ruins, just a bit worried about the logistics. I told the tour operator about my mom (she's slow, but not immobile) and they say not to worry, but I'm a little nervous about logistics.

I am hopeless with distances but my Mum didn't have a problem with it and she can get winded at times due to heart problems. The ruins were fine, the ground can be a bit uneven, I just kept my eyes open to point it out to her as her eyesight isn't the best either! LOL There were some roots that are exposed and a couple of places where the path has rocks. I think it is fine for an older person, even if they aren't as good at getting around as they used to be.

 

[Hampering]

Enjoying this trip report so far ! On the Magic Dec 8th and soaking in as much as I can !!!

 

[ukintheus]

Oh! Met Becky on formal night.
Dena

I just now figured out who Becky is! Glad you got to meet her! I looked for her, and even asked one of the entertainment girls about her, but they didn't know who she was.

I am loving your excursions. The turtle picture with your Mom cracks me up. I love your pyramid pictures.

LOL - she was less than thrilled...to say the least!

Just read the whole thing...love it!

Thanks...I am going to try to get some more done today.

Enjoying this trip report so far ! On the Magic Dec 8th and soaking in as much as I can !!!

Not long for you! You will love it!

 

[dsrose345]

On Dec 8th as well and am getting so excited reading your report!! When you went by 7 mile beach how did it look? That is where we have booked our GC excursion. Did anyone go to Jungle Beach on Costa Maya? Can't wait to hear how Cozumel was.....

 

[ukintheus]

On Dec 8th as well and am getting so excited reading your report!! When you went by 7 mile beach how did it look? That is where we have booked our GC excursion. Did anyone go to Jungle Beach on Costa Maya? Can't wait to hear how Cozumel was.....

7 Mile Beach is beautiful, you can't beat it for a beach day...other than probably Castaway Cay

 

[ukintheus]

We woke up while they were docking in Cozumel at about 7:30 am and ordered coffee & juice from room service.

Mum wanted to get her hair trimmed and had an appointment at 9 am in the salon... she and Mo left early to see if they could start a bit early so that we could try and squeeze into Lumieres for Breakfast before it closed at 9:30 am.

Scott and I walked up to the salon to see what was going on ...

They weren't ready, and it was going to be hit or miss if they made it, so we headed down to Lumieres to get a table. Mum & Mo showed up right at 9:30 am just in time!

I had eggs benedict.

Scott had an omlette...but I'm forgetting which one....

After breakfast we made a quick stop at our room to grab our day bags...they were doing a lifeboat drill outside of our verandah...

We headed off the ship to do a little duty free shopping.

Because we had an excursion scheduled for a little later we decided to hit the duty free that is right at the end of the pier called Dufry. I hadn't done any research on prices...but we knew what we wanted I know what we pay at home so we figured we'd take a look....we thought the prices were good. We bought a litre of Ketel 1 vodka for $17.50, a litre of Balvenie 12 year old Double Barrel Scotch for $39.95, a litre of 1921 reserva tequila for $39.00 and a litre of Captain Morgan Private Stock for $17.50. We walked around and looked at some of the other shops, but nothing was screaming at us to buy it.

Mum gave this guy a dollar...so Scott felt obligated to take his picture...e

We walked back along the pier to the ship and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading out for our excursion.

 

[dort]

Love reading your trip report, going on my first Disney cruise on the Magic on 12/1!! Can't wait

 

[Goofysrus]

I love your report! We're also living in the Houston area. Just curious about the pier in Cozumel. Is it the one closer to the shopping? I'm not sure if the Magic always uses the same dock. We leave on Nov. 10!!!! Super excited!!

 

[ukintheus]

I love your report! We're also living in the Houston area. Just curious about the pier in Cozumel. Is it the one closer to the shopping? I'm not sure if the Magic always uses the same dock. We leave on Nov. 10!!!! Super excited!! �� Thanks for all the great pics! Can't wait to hear about your excursion! I think we're on the same cruise meet???in February....

We docked at Puenta Lagosta Pier...I don't know if the Magic always docks there or not? All of the shopping in the shopping "insert" in the navigator was to the left once you got off the ship. Yes, we are on the Feb 5th sailing next year

 

[ukintheus]

We headed up to our favorite snack spot of Goofy’s Galley where we had a really good lamb and couscous wrap and an egg and bacon wrap.

Back in our room, and I snapped a few photos while we were killing time on the verandah...

These guys were available to take you along the pier...I don't know how much as we didn't use them...but we saw plenty of people that did.

We headed to Sessions to meet at 12:45 pm for the Nautilus Submarine tour.

So.....the story behind this next photo is that Mum and Mo were checking out this area while they were waiting for the hypnotist to start the night before...and Mum saw people laying in these porthole windows and wondered how comfy they were...does she LOOK comfy???

It cracked me up that she wanted to try it...and that photo still literally makes me laugh out loud to look at it!!!!

We only had to wait a short while in Sessions...

There were only 8 of us that were on this excursion from the ship...there had been an earlier one as well....so as soon as we all got there they took us down to the end of the pier and put us in a taxi to go the short distance to the Nautilus dock.

The cab driver was funny, he cracked a few jokes along the way...including this one...."It's my first day....hey! See this red light...."

We proceeded to drive right through it!!! I know that the "no rules" applies...I'm just glad we didn't have to go far!

There were lots of other people at the Nautilus place for the tour so the submarine was almost full, I think there were only 2 free seats....and I "think" it held 48. They did a good safety briefing in Spanish and English before we were taken outside where they snapped a quick photo that they show you for purchase right after you get off the submarine. It was a 15 min boat ride out to the area where the submarine surfaces and it was a nice breezy ride that was enjoyable.

We past right by the Oasis of the Seas....WOW That is a MASSIVE ship!!

Once at the area where you board the submarine they gave us all the opportunity to stand up to watch the sub surface which was pretty cool! You could see the white shape of it under the water...and then it appeared!

 

[ukintheus]

The boarding procedure was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I had been nervous about Mum being able to get down the steps but she made it easily and soon we were all seated peering out of the port holes.

They gave us another quick talk about safety and what we could expect...

We had chosen this trip because Mum doesnt swim and so we felt that this would be something we could all do together where Mum could participate and see what we had been seeing while snorkeling. The glass of the submarine is fairly thick and so pictures weren't the best.

The best parts we saw were the school of sardines...the large school of some other type of fish....

also...a lobster in a rock formation....the photo below...if you squint....close one eye...peer reallly hard....LOL It's just above the right shoulder of the Captain....level with his ear....see it?? Seriously...it IS there...

We ended up at the wall where the ocean surface drops off dramatically.
The nicest coral was right around that area. Total depth that we got to was between 107 and 108 feet.

Soon we were heading back...they basically turn around at the wall and you come back the way you came...but facing the other side. Soon we were back on the surface. We climbed out of the sub...again, no problemo for Mum....and onto the boat to take us back to the Nautilus pier.

They passed around some kind of punch while we were on the way back...I don't remember what it was...and I didn't have any... They gave us our photo to look at...but between the eyes closed and/or not looking in the right direction it was hardly a "keeper" family portrait!... No pressure at all to buy it...which was nice.

Once back at the Nautilus office someone took us outside and they had taxis waiting to take us back to the ship. We were back about 3:30 pm and we stood on our balcony watching all the stragglers come along the pier. All aboard was at 3:45 pm and there were quite a few people still walking back. Finally at about 4:15 pm a ferry pulled up and dropped an entire ferry full of people that were obviously coming back from an excursion that had run late. I felt sorry for them, as you could tell there were some people who were really nervous by their speed walking back to the ship. Eventually everyone made it back onboard and we left at about 4:45 pm.

This is where they put the gangway for the Magic...

I had a Sea Breeze (DOTD) but didnt really care for it while we were sailing away. Never one to quit... we opened some wine instead...ahhh...sitting on the verandah sipping a cold glass of wine...it truly is one of my favorite things to do....SOOOOOO relaxing....

Mum & Maureen and I went to the Walt Disney Theatre to watch the Disney Dreams show. It was the first time I have ever seen it, and it's by far my favorite show that I've seen on any of the ships so far. I really loved it.

Scott passed on the show, but went and watched this show instead...

Tonight is lobster night...Captain's Gala....get the BELLY READY!!!

 

[llqool]

I meant to ask...how was the water temperature in Grand Cayman? That is our one real "water" day, since we're also going to Stingray City and snorkeling (still afraid of how the kids -- and I -- will react to those rays!). I don't like cold water, I'm hoping the western Caribbean is still fairly warm in early November...we went to CC in mid December a few years ago and it was way too cold for this Florida girl!

 

[vleeth]

Great update

 

[Ajojo]

Loving this report so far!

We will be leaving in a week! What was the weather like at the ports?

 

[ukintheus]

I meant to ask...how was the water temperature in Grand Cayman? That is our one real "water" day, since we're also going to Stingray City and snorkeling (still afraid of how the kids -- and I -- will react to those rays!). I don't like cold water, I'm hoping the western Caribbean is still fairly warm in early November...we went to CC in mid December a few years ago and it was way too cold for this Florida girl!

The water was perfect! I am a huge wimp about cool water too! We've done that same excursion in late November and the water was cool, but not unbearable. CC was too cold for me on that same trip. It was sunny though, that can make all the difference IMO.

 

[Goofysrus]

We docked at Puenta Lagosta Pier...I don't know if the Magic always docks there or not? All of the shopping in the shopping "insert" in the navigator was to the left once you got off the ship. Yes, we are on the Feb 5th sailing next year

Thanks for the info on the pier! I can't help myself from reading and planning. Someone's got to do it! I love the pics of your Mom in the round window. She looks too cute!!

 

[ukintheus]

Great update

Thank you!

Loving this report so far!

We will be leaving in a week! What was the weather like at the ports?

Grand Cayman the weather was perfect...warm but not too hot and partly cloudy, Costa Maya it was very warm, the tour guide told us the heat index was over 100 at the ruins, but it was really humid too. Cozumel was overcast, probably the coolest of the days we were at port, but again, nice temps.

The Navigators had the following: All aboard: High 82, partly cloudy, Sunday: High 82, mostly cloudy, Monday: High 84, Partly cloudy, Grand Cayman: High 88, Partly cloudy, Costa Maya: High 89, Partly Cloudy, Cozumel: High 84, overcast, Friday: High 86, Partly cloudy.

Thanks for the info on the pier! I can't help myself from reading and planning. Someone's got to do it! I love the pics of your Mom in the round window. She looks too cute!! ��

I love the planning! To me it's "almost" as good as the trip!