Ski-and-Sea
DIS Veteran
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- Mar 30, 2006
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Heres another August double dip trip report ALL COMPLETED
aka the rock star and royalty cruise
.
This was DCL cruise #5 for us (me, DH, DS (11) and DD(10)) and we were curious to see the changes on the Magic since her drydock last fall.
The New Navigators bring the magnifying glasses. Wow, the font size must be something like 2!!!!! I understand DCL wanting to save money and resources by cutting down on the size of the navigator, BUT WE BABY BOOMERS DONT WANT TO BE REMINDED WE NEED READING GLASSES!!!!!!!
Yikes, since we get our navigators after diner when it is dark outside, I found it really hard to read them. I like the TV Guide style grid, but please make the font size bigger!!!!
The big jumbo screen on deck 9 very, very nice. Great for those super crowded deck parties where youre always at the back of the crowd and cant see the stage. I was surprised to see DCL play TV shows from the Disney Channel. I think there should just be a continuous loop of Disney movies.
Cruise Director Andy .yes, its the former bing-king Andy from Australia. He makes a terrific cruise director. I have nothing against previous CDs, but they always were a bit too formal and not approachable. Andys got that aura around him. Hes high energy and truly loves his job. It was a great pleasure listening to his daily announcements about upcoming activities. And you gotta love the ciao for now he says at the end of every announcement.
One funny memory of Andy was at the captains reception night where the senior officers were standing near guest services. The captain was standing by himself, whereas Andy had a crowd around him.
Yes DCL, youve got a real gem and do everything you can to make sure Andy stays for a loooooong time. Put him in DCL advertising (wait no, dont do that, it will just drive up demand for future cruises thus increasing our prices).
Oceans Quest .whoever designed this area must have cruised many times with children ages 10-14. Its a great concept. Its located on deck 2 that housed conference rooms. Its not that big in terms of square footage. Much smaller than the Oceaneers Lab. And 1/3 is taken up by the pilot simulator machine.
Speaking of which ..the pilot simulator is a cool machine. There is a large control panel that you sit in front of, then there is a large screen that shows where you are going. There is a sign up sheet if you want to use it.
The funniest thing is when you have docked successfully the screen says the ship is undamaged. Id like to see what it says when you crash the ship into the pier.
All that said, my kids absolutely adored Oceans Quest. They enjoyed playing with the other kids and the counselors are terrific. My kids played video games there as well as board games like monopoly and even connect-four.
New Castaway Club gift terrific. The mesh bags are fantastic. Must have been designed by a staff member who cruises with their kids. Those mesh bags are perfect for storing wet bathing suits when youre on excursions or are at CC.
So onto embarkation day .we wore our Verandah man Creations-designed t-shirts on the plane and to the port. I got stopped at the airport asking where I got the shirts. Same again at the port.
Our DCL bus broke down on the way to the port. Got about 2/3 of the way there when suddenly the bus pulls over to the side of the road. The driver announces that the engine overheated. Rats. We had to wait about 15 minutes for another bus to come pick us up.
So after a brief interruption we finally made it to the port. It was so nice to see so many DISers wearing their shirts. It really does give you that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that there are so many others that you know on the ship, even if you only know them by their DIS name.
After boarding the ship we were guided to Parrot Cay. Had a lovely lunch. Saw plenty of DISers. Then off to the room. Big smiles as we see we already have fish mail and someone put black Mickey ears over the room #. Too cute.
A week before the cruise I shipped of box of snacks, soda, etc to be delivered to the room. It was supposed to be a big surprise for the family. I had read others say it got delivered to their room even before their luggage arrived.
So we open the door to the room and ..no package ..moment ruined. Our castaway club gift was there as well as a cheese platter ordered by our TA. But no box.
Talk about taking the wind out of the sails. Im beginning to worry I addressed the box to the wrong location or its still at the warehouse. All kinds of negative thoughts.
But time for the DIS meet. By now not only am I worried about the missing box but Im feeling very tired after having gotten up at 3:30am to leave the house at 4:10am to catch a 6:55am flight. Will never, never, never, never, never again book a flight the same day as the cruise. Did I mention never again?
So I wasnt feeling as sociable as I normally am. But it was great to put faces to names. Asked fellow DISer if the box he shipped was in his room. He said, no, which made me feel better.
Oppps .time for the lifeboat drill. Like the new lifevests. Dont feel like youre in traction anymore. Headed down to deck 4 and passed cruise director Andy running up the stairs. Passed on a quick congratulations on his promotion. We saw him on the Wonder in August 2005.
(boy, Andy was promoted to assistant cruise director in 2004, promoted to cruise director in 2006, by 2008 hell be running DCL).
Returned from lifeboat drill and guess what MY PACKAGE IS THERE IN THE ROOM!!!!!! Im sure everyone onboard heard my cheers. Everything in the box is fine, other than some chocolate cookies had melted (memo to myself dont pack chocolate when shipping in the summer)
Sailaway party most of that day was overcast and starting to look a bit threatening. But in true DCL style, the clouds parted and the sun came out for the sailaway party.
I packed some bubbles to blow at the sailaway party. Memo to myself .dont do it again. The bubbles just blow right back into your face leaving your skin sticky and a yucky taste in your mouth.
Back to our room to unpack. Watched a small coastguard boat escort us out of the channel. Amazing how many boats conveniently sail right in the path of the Magic. The coast guard boat sped up to these boats and gave them the boot.
Sunday ..Castaway Cay Part 1
Woke up to a very overcast day. Bummer. But seeing the Flying Dutchman is just too cool for words.
One of the best things about doing a double dip cruise is that you get to try all the other Castaway Cay things that you ordinarily dont have time to.
So I asked the kids what different things they wanted to do on CC. BIKE RIDING!!!!!
Now we actually planned in advance to go bike riding on the first CC day and Mother Nature obliged by giving us cloudy cool weather to ride a bike.
First, we dropped our stuff on beach chairs. We always go to almost the end of the family beach not too far from the hair braiding station. Plenty of chairs there.
I highly recommend to everyone whos going on a cruise in the future and whos been to CC many times to try bike riding. I once read that DCL only uses 5% of the island. So riding a bike is a great way to see the rest of the island.
Also, you get to ride over to Serenity Bay and see what it looks like. With two kids aged 10 & 11, its going to be a long time before we get to actually use Serenity Bay, but it was sure nice to get a peek at it.
Then you get to ride the bike path beyond Serenity Bay. Thats where you discover that CC is mostly an impenetrable wall of jungle growth. Wow. Theres some inland lakes but mostly just a solid wall of vegetation.
Heres view of the bike path.
And heres a view looking back towards the ship.
Anyone know what that tall wooden structure is in the middle of CC? Looks like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
When you are on the bike path, watch out for running crabs. Literally. We stopped at a scenic rest stop and the kids saw little crabs running on the sand. Man, these things are speedy. No way you could snap a picture. And they are so funny running sideways.
DCL nicely puts water stations at regular intervals. I made sure we stopped frequently to drink.
We also did the second bike path loop off the airstrip. We liked the warning sign that said not to touch the plants because they might be poisonous. Never heard of poison wood before.
So all in all, a great way to spend a morning at CC. Extra benefit, you have an excuse to grab some extra cookies at lunch.
Saw the teens doing the wild side excursion. They parked their bikes and got to take a hike on a restricted area of CC. No fair.
Oh, by the way .I never knew that beyond the hair braiding station there are some Bahamian shops. Clothes and other items. DH and kids bought shirts. Boy, you learn something new every day.
For future double dippers when you sail away from CC you dont get the Mickey hand waves from the CMs on the island. I always enjoy that and was quite disappointed not to be able to shout See Ya Friday.
Lunch at CC was very good. New kind of chicken. Very juicy I was worried it would be rather dry. DH said the barbecued ribs were tasty.
Monday ..Day at Sea.
Another cloudy day. We knew from the Navigator that between 8-9am we would be close to Cuba. This time we brought binoculars to look. Could have used a stronger pair. Always amazed how mountainous Cuba is. Unfortunately it was rather hazy so it was hard to really see.
Kids went off to play in arcade or go to Oceans Quest. So I grabbed a book and headed over to the adult pool. Which was absolutely packed. Wow, standing room only in the pool and chairs all occupied.
Fortunately I was on the side of the ship with Cove Café so I decided to check it out. Ive heard so many good things about it. I dont drink coffee but I do love a good cup of tea. I got directed to the CM who is the tea expert. Learned a lot about teas and the history of the tea trade. Ordered the English breakfast blend.
Your tea comes in this really cute black cast iron teapot with a flat lid. The strainer is inside the pot. I also got a square mug. Never drank out of a square mug. Wasnt sure to drink from the corners or in the middle of the sides.
Tea was quite tasty much more robust than your typical English breakfast blends.
Inside the Cove Café it is absolutely freezing so I sat outside. I wish DCL would make that area non-smoking. Had a couple of smokers nearby.
One of the CMs brought out some pastries to go with the tea. Wow these were absolutely yummy. And filling.
So had my tea and broke out my book. Look out and noticed the weather is looking rather stormy and we can hear thunder in the distance.
Finished my tea and headed back to the room where DH was lounging on the verandah. Thats DHs favorite thing to do on a cruise. Wow, the thunder is getting stronger now and I can see flashes of lightning. We can also see rain in the distance.
Cruise director Andy comes on the PA and announces that people outside have 15 minutes before the rain starts.
Yeah, it started pouring. Fortunately Bingo was on in the afternoon. So DS and I headed down. DD had fallen asleep so DH stayed behind with her.
It was spa bingo. Didnt win any rounds of bingo but I did win a spa treatment. A scalp massage. So at least I didnt walk away empty handed.
Monday was formal night and I must say that so many people looked absolutely magnificent all dressed up. DH didnt look out of place wearing a tux. Only negative was the long lines to take pictures. Why doesnt DCL boost the air conditioning in the atrium on deck 3. It gets so hot waiting in line.
Also it can be frustrating if you happen to be in line behind a large group of people who not only want a group photo but also all kinds of individual photos of everyone in the group. We waited 45 minutes to get our picture taken in front of the Mickey statue.
Fortunately we had a DISer in front of us (hi poohjen).
Oh, and speaking of photographs ..in five cruises with DCL, I have never bought so many 8x10 photographs. My advice to everyone is to budget that you will be buying the 8x10 packages. It seemed like more and more DCL photographs are in the 8x10 size rather than the smaller one.
But I will say that the quality of the photographs was outstanding. Good lightening and good posing. Ive got many photos that could be our Christmas card photo this year.
Tuesday ..Costa Maya.
Rats, another cloudy day. And the seas were a bit on the rough side. DCL announces that several excursions are cancelled due to rough surf.
Let me say right off the bat that Costa Maya is not for everyone and you need to be realistic about your expectations. And yes, DCL is aware that people are so-so about Costa Maya
Costa Maya is NOT a resort by any means. Its rustic, its primitive, its up-and-coming. The vendors are extremely aggressive.
If you are going to be bothered by this than stay on the ship or do an excursion and return to the ship.
If youre going to venture on your own then go with a sense of adventure. Take some risks .nothing venture, nothing gained. You might be surprised.
Our goal was to be beach bums that day. Find a nice, quiet, family-oriented beach. If we found one, great, otherwise we would just spend time swimming in the pool at the pier.
I spent a lot of time researching beaches in Costa May. I feel that if I find a great thing to do because somebody posted it on a message board, then I should do the same back.
The reviews on the Uvero beach excursion were universally negative. Everyone said the better beaches are in the town of Majahual (pronounced MA ha wall). It is a five minute taxi ride from the pier.
You get dropped off at the top of Majahual Avenue. The advice I read is to walk along Majahual Avenue and look for whatever beach looks appealing to you.
I will tell you, Majahual Avenue is the avenue of aggressive vendors. Wow. Be warned everyone people will come right up you offering goods for sale, places to eat, excursions, lots of stuff. It can be quite unsettling.
So heres what you do Tell the guy that you are on the way to .and mumble something incoherent so as to look like you are going someplace specific while still being able to look around and scope things out.
Another strategy is to politely tell people that you will come back later in the day. DH did this and even both my kids got into doing it.
One thing you will notice is that there are wandering dogs in Majahual. But they look well fed and in good health. We did pass an adorable puppy that was tied to a leash. DD had to stop. We ran into another family from the Magic whos stateroom is a few doors from us. The mom found a broken coconut shell and poured bottled water into it and fed it to the puppy.
As you are walking down Majahual Avenue the beaches will be on your left. The first beach is Tequilla Beach which I read caters to a more youthful crowd.
Nope, not for us.
The place I read to go to is called Pez Quadro. It is a hotel/restaurant/beach club owned by a young Italian man (think tall, dark and handsome). It is literally at the end of Majahual Avenue. So you get rewarded for walking all the day down fending off the vendors.
The general idea is that you rent a beach chair and then you can sit on their beach. We were the first ones there so we got lounge chairs for free.
Let me tell you, these lounge chairs were super comfortable. Way more comfortable than the DCL beach chairs (which I think are actually quite uncomfortable on Castaway Cay).
The beach is beautiful. What is really interesting about Majahual is that the reefs are located offshore and act as breakers for the waves. So the water inside the reefs is tranquil and placid.
WE LOVED THIS BEACH!!! The water is clear, warm and not too deep. There are sand bars located right off the beach but there are paths to walk through them.
Heres a picture of what Pez Quadro looks like from the street.
Another thing to look for that I read on message boards look for a bar that has swings instead of bar stools.
Heres a picture of DS and DD at the bar.
Heres DD with a conch shell she found
And a view of the Magic .
Now there isnt much in the way of snacks to buy. People do come around selling some snacks but if you know your kids are going to get hungry then bring food from the ship.
There are also a few vendors that come around selling wares but they are extremely polite.
It was absolute heaven. And around lunchtime the sun came out. The Magic was the only ship there that day so things never got really crowded. I had to laugh looking out in the water and seeing DD and DS happily playing ball with a bunch of other kids. Behind them was a young couple whose DCL excursion got cancelled. They were arm in arm doing the gazing into each others eyes romantic thing.
If you like Mexican food then I strongly suggest eating lunch at the restaurant. Be warned the service is slow. But the food was fantastic. We started with nachos. Boy, they make fantastic tortilla chips in Mexico. Then onto steak fajitas. We only ordered one dish as we werent sure DD and DS would like it.
They loved it .we had to order plenty more. Fantastic guacamole. We did not eat the lettuce and sliced tomatoes that came with dish as the advice is not to eat washed vegetables to avoid Montezumas revenge. Which was shame because the veggies looked great.
Lunch (including beer) came to $50.
I read good things about the shrimp fajita though we didnt order it. Now I wish I had. During our meal some of the elementary school child had returned from school and were walking down the street. They looked really cute wearing blue and white uniforms. I resisted the typical tourist urge to snap a picture.
One thing to watch out for when youre swimming in Majahual . all the small boats carrying people doing snorkeling excursions or people on Waverunners will pass by you awfully close because its the only way they can go. So keep an eye out when you are swimming.
The boat drivers and people guiding the wave runners were extremely courteous to people in the water. Also they are very friendly so make sure to wave.
After lunch we spend more time on the beach. I read my book while DH took both kids out to explore the far reefs. They never made it that far but had a fun time doing so.
One more thing about Pez Quadro, they played terrific music on the loudspeaker. None of that awful pop/hip-hop stuff played at your typical beach resort/bar. The music had that very distinctive South American style that I cannot describe in words. There is a soul to it that we dont hear in the U.S.
I am kicking myself for not asking the owner for the names of the CDs he played.
All too quickly it was time to head back to the ship. We stopped at some vendors as DD wanted to buy some jewelry. One guy was willing to swap the DCL beach hat I was wearing. But I bought it several years ago and I dont know if DCL still sells it so I said no.
The vendors are easy to haggle with.
Other restaurants in Majahual that got good comments on message boards are the Cats Meow and Tappas.
So Costa Maya ended up being the surprise treat of the cruise. We all got badly sunburned as we didnt think the sun would come out. It did, rather strongly.
I asked our head server (who is Italian) what Pez Quadro means in Italian. Loosely translated it means picture frame.
I heard good things about the Mayan ruins tour. I know a lot of DISers did the David and Ivan tour. They all said the tour guides provided tons and tons of information. People also advised to bring lots and lots of bug spray on the tour. It also rained on them at one point.
In fact, it actually started raining as the ship was getting ready to leave.
Oh, one funny thing about Majahual. The pier isnt very big (compared to Cozumel). In fact, the Magic is longer than the pier. So two local guys in a small boat sail up to the front of the Magic and catch the ropes to tie down the ship.
So basically, DCL throws the ropes to these two guys in a SMALL boat, who then ride over to two people sitting on the pier, throw the rope to the people on the pier, who then secure the ropes.
This process doesnt always work smoothly. DCL CMs were able to throw the rope to the two guys in the boat. But it took a couple of tries for the two guys in the boat to throw the rope up to the people on the pier. Too funny.
So at the end of the day the Magic sails off to Cozumel. Which Im told is a 3-4 hour car ride from Costa Maya. It took the Magic overnight to get there.
Cozumel
Yes, again another cloudy day. What is going on? At least the seas were calm.
We were still tending off the ship. Bad news for us buuuuuut good news for those sailing later in September/October because word is that the Punta Lungosta pier should be operational by then. It looks absolutely fantastic and the workers looked like they were putting the finishing touches on.
Speaking of which .I guess Cozumel doesnt own the latest in piling machinery. Rather than a mechanical machine (which Ive seen in use at the New Jersey shore) some unlucky fellow operates the pile driver by hand. Which basically means he pulls and drops a rope that lifts the pile driver up and down. It is very loud. Oh, and no worker is wearing protective ear gear.
We, along with some other DISers, had a three reef snorkeling excursion booked with Eagle Ray Divers. Ive read nothing but wonderful things about this company.
Bad news is that our excursion started at 9am and the first tender doesnt leave the ship until 9am. Yikes. So we got up early to be on the first tender.
I must say that the area of Cozumel near the piers looks in fantastic shape tremendous rebuilding from the hurricane. I was surprised how well it looked. And looks so metropolitan compared to Costa Maya.
There were a total of 12 people on our snorkeling excursion all from the Magic. There were four kids my two and two boys from another DIS family. Bernando was our guide that day along with the boat pilot and another gentleman whose name I never really was able to make out.
Bernando showed us a map of the Cozumel reefs and pointed out the three we would be visiting. We would sail to the furthest one first then make our way back.
It took 90 minutes to get to the first one. Sodas/beer/water was provided along with some cookies. It was on the boat ride that we could really see the damage from the hurricane. Trees stripped bare of their leaves only the ground vegetation is green.
We passed all the resort beaches of Cozumel. Most of them have been completely stripped of their sand, leaving exposed rocks and little beach. We tried guessing which resort is which. We were able to identify the beach where DCL does its beach break the giant inflatable icebergs in the water were a good clue.
So, made it to the first reef Columbia. Water depth is 10-20 feet. Heres the really neat thing. There is quite a strong current off Cozumel so unlike snorkeling at Castaway Cay where you have to swim to find the fish, here we just go into the water and floated with the current. The boat actually followed us around.
Bernando pointed out different types of fish for us. I will admit that we didnt see either the quantity or variety of fish that probably existed prior to the hurricane. Also, the cloudy weather cut down on visibility.
But we still had a blast and did see a lot of fish including small stingrays and sea turtles.
After about 45 minutes it was time to get back on the boat and onto the next reef. Except that we were allowed to climb the rope ladder onto the roof of the boat and jump into the water.
Can you imagine anything more appealing to kids!!!!!! (and a few adults in our group).
My kids actually like jumping off the roof better than the snorkeling.
We also got to eat some watermelon and bananas. Boy, the bananas sure are sweeter than what we get at home.
Off to the next reef the famous Palancar. Here the water is much deeper. The reefs are bigger here. Saw plenty of scuba divers down at the bottom. Wow sure want to learn to Scuba dive.
Heres something interesting. Again we floated with the current over the reefs. When suddenly the water got extremely cold!! Brrrrrrr. Not tropical at all. Im thinking Im going to head back to the boat if the water is this cold.
Then suddenly the water got warm again. Then youd do further along and again it would alternate between warm and cold. Somebody suggested underwater fresh water streams.
Didnt see as many fish as were snorkeling at the top of the water Im sure the scuba divers saw plenty.
Again, after returning to the boat, the kids got to jump off the roof into the water.
Then it was time for lunch. We sailed to an extremely small pier near a beach resort. Bernando took our lunch orders and ran over to the resort restaurant. Then we all got off the boat and walked along the beach to the restaurant.
Again, fantastic Mexican chips and salsa on the table. I didnt want to eat the salsa but it sure looked good. Lunch came quickly. After all the snorkeling I was hungry for a hamburger so thats what I ordered. Burger was good French fires were very tasty.
So after we ate we walked on the beach back to the boat and sailed to the next reef. I never did get the name of this reef but its very close to where Eagle Rays marina is located.
The water was not as deep but wow, what a current. It was like you were flying. In fact, I turned around so I was floating feet first. Again, not too many fish, but saw the biggest lobster I have ever seen. The antenna had to be a couple of feet long.
Oh, and we saw flying fish .wow. They look like they are running on the surface of the water.
Then all too quickly it was time to return to the marina. We took a group photo of everyone and said our goodbyes.
Eagle Ray called ahead and got taxis for us.
Heres something funny. All of us took different taxis on the way over and each of us got charged a different price for going the exact same distance. Gotta love Mexico for that.
By now its close to 4pm and the last tender was 5:30pm. So not much time for shopping. Stopped at a few stores near the pier and DD got a small necklace.
After spending so much time in the water we were feeling rather grungy and wanted to get back on the ship and shower.
What is with these tender boat pilots????? Seems like they excelled at bumping and scrapping the tenders against the Magic.
Sooooooo Wednesday is Pirate Night. I made all of us matching black t-shirts with a red iron-on design on them. We also wore black pants and the kids were adorned with all kinds of pirate gear they bought at Walt Disney World last year.
We stood in line to get our pictures taken with Jack Sparrow. Yes, hes quite good. Has the mannerisms and accent down. While we were in line someone nearby dropped something that shattered. This was near the Magics shops. Without missing a beat Jack shouted, you break it you bought it.
This is when I discovered I was a victim of a pirate curse. My camera battery, which performed beautifully all day long on our snorkeling excursion, decided at that very moment to expire. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Had our picture taken with Jack. Then time for dinner. Stopped and talked with cruise director Andy, who was dressed as a pirate. He looked so cute and Im there with a dead camera battery. Cursed again.
Had dinner in Lumieres, which is an interesting restaurant to have your pirate dinner in considering the contrast with everyone dressed as pirates.
By the way ..I saw lots and lots of people wearing really neat black pirate shirts that they bought in either Cozumel or Costa Maya. My advice to people who dont want to spend money on a pirate costume is to take the time around the shops and look for pirate t-shirts.
We had the 8:15pm dinner seating and dinner ran really late. We didnt get up to the pirate party until about 10pm. Yup, deck 9 and deck 10 are packed with people. Fortunately the kids were able to squeeze through on deck 10 and had a good view.
Heres a case where the big screen works out really well as everyone can see it.
Came in late for the show. Was there some kind of story line to it? I remember last year on the Wonder that the CMs brought a couple of dads onto the stage for some kind of contest and there was some kind of story to the show.
At least we got to see Mickey zip down to the stage. And the fireworks were really nice.
Having just finished dinner we had no desire to eat the pirate buffet. But we took a look at the buffet and admired it. I had to laugh earlier in the day when cruise director Andy mentioned on the PA system that after the fireworks there would be the pirate party buffet and joked that we would all be absolutely ready to eat again.
(little rant here .. I think its a terrible waste of food Id rather see a selection of pirate-themed dessert platters and ice cream rather than a big meal).
Thursday ..day at sea
Hooray the sun is shining. The day before I saw cruise director Andy and mentioned that its been cloudy every day of this cruise. He said he will send the assistant cruise director out to do a sun dance.
Guess the dance worked!!!!!
After breakfast the kids wanted to go to the arcade but they needed more arcade cards. So I went up to get some. Which at that point I look at the people getting their hair braided and suddenly realized I completely forgot I booked DD to get her hair braided early that day and we missed it.
Ooopps. Just have to do it on CC the next day.
I convinced DH to come to the Quiet Cove to have some tea with me. So we did. Got my cup in a normal round cup this time. But the cup just sucked the heat out of my tea. Lesson learned dont pour out entire contents of the tea pot right away.
At this point in the cruise we had heard that Slash, the guitarist of Guns and Roses was onboard with his family. And that the Saudi Royal family was onboard, but they left to go home when the ship was in Cozumel.
Another DIS family told me exactly how Slash is dressing on the cruise. I was describing this to DH. When guess what .who walks by arm-in-arm with his wife. I was actually facing the wrong way when DH looks up and kicks my foot under the table.
That was my only time seeing Slash onboard. DH saw him later that day coming down the stairs from deck 9 to deck 8.
It was a cute topic to talk with the CMs onboard whether or not they saw Slash or the Royal family.
Later in the day the kids and I wanted to play final jackpot bingo. I knew from prior cruises that its best to buy your bingo cards in advance. So right after lunch I headed over to buy the cards.
Guess what .finally met the infamous PIKEY. I had to mention that he has quite the following on the DIS boards. He immediately saw my Crusin Castaways t-shirt and mentioned our group. I said that Verandah Man made them. Pikey knew immediately who I was talking about.
We had a nice discussion about his being part of the family entertainment staff. Hes very humbled about being able to do this and not just be the DJ. He also mentioned that he will be rotating between the Magic and the Wonder.
He said this about those who attended the adult club parties you guys would go the opening of an envelope.
Next, time for the big DIS group photo. Thanks to Chuck for paying the sitting fee.
Advice for other DIS groups wanting to book a group photo .make sure Shutters checks that there isnt something else scheduled to take place in the location where you want to take your group photo. Turned out there was some kind of family putting tournament taking place in the atrium on deck three exactly where we wanted to take our photo.
All of us who showed up had to stand around doing nothing waiting for this golf game to finish up. Honestly, the photo shoot took all of five minutes to finish. Whereas we waited 15 minutes waiting for this golf game to finish. Folks, the golf game could have been temporarily stopped while we did the photo.
Oh oh .jackpot bingo has started. Fortunately I had my bingo cards already in my hands. So the kids and I rushed into the Walt Disney Theater and grabbed some seats. The first game was already a few numbers in so we saw down quickly and caught up.
Didnt even get remotely close to winning any games. Boy some of those games went fast with winners calling out just after a few numbers were called.
Pikey did a good job as bingo caller. As had Kaz earlier in the week. We are still partial to Andy as bingo-king, he will always be the best in our book.
Oh, speaking of bingo the free spa treatment I won at bingo was only available on port days. Yikes. Called the spa and really the only day I could book was early Friday morning.
Yes, finally in this cruise the kids got to swim in the goofy pool. Can you believe that? We feel the best time to swim in the goofy pool is from 5:00-6:30pm when most kids are eating.
Is it me, or was that barrier at the top of the Goofy pool always there? It helps keep naughty kids from launching themselves from the Goofy stage into the pool.
And many thanks to the parents who were actually IN the goofy pool with my kids. I was sitting on a lounge chair reading so I couldnt always look down into the pool. But knowing there were adults actually in the water meant that any rough housing couldnt get out of hand.
Not that it mattered, the few kids in the pool were delightful.
Semi-formal night at dinner. Lines werent as long for pictures as Formal Night. Got our picture taken with Minnie.
Friday .Castaway Cay do-over
Another sunny day .wow. After breakfast I went to get my scalp massage. To be honest, the scalp massage isnt something I would pay for myself but it was nice all the same. First a conditioner was put in my hair. The CM mentioned it is good for the damage done by salt water and chlorine. I asked if it would work on childrens hair since DD spends so much time in chlorine pools that her hair feels like straw and actually was tinted green at the ends.
CM says it would work on kids.
Massaging the head feels a bit strange its more of a relaxation massage. But the neck and shoulder massage felt great. The CM discovered a nice knot in my right shoulder Ive had lingering muscle problems in that shoulder from a serious ski accident 18 months earlier. CM worked his magic and massaged out the knot.
Then back to the room where we got ready to get off the ship. Our first goal was getting a picture taken with Jack Sparrow near the Flying Dutchman. We missed that on the first CC day because we didnt know he would appear so early in the morning.
So off the ship right away .in fact a little too early for Jack Sparrow. So we grabbed towels from the CM, grabbed a glass of juice that was being offered, said hello to cruise director Andy and waited in line to get our picture with Stitch in front of the post office.
Then off to stand in line waiting for Jack Sparrow. Exactly where is that location?????? Had to ask CMs. Response was just over the bridge. Headed over there. Noticed a few people milling about. Asked if they are waiting for Jack. Yup somebody in the know said this is where the pictures were taken on Sunday.
Jack is late showing up. Kids were convinced he would come off the ship and over the bridge. Nah he showed up from a restricted part of the island. I just happened to be glancing in the right direction with the video camera ready to go in my hand. So I shouted Jacks here and started filming.
Jack walks by me and jokingly pushes away the camera. Looks cute when watching the clip.
Heres Jack with DD & DS
We were 4th or 5th in line so it went quickly. DH, meanwhile, took all our stuff and found chairs on the family beach in almost the exact same spot we had on Sunday. Went snorkeling right away. Wow, surprisingly large numbers of fish out there. And some are big. Didnt see Barry the barracuda. Did see a large stingray swimming by rather fast looked like he/she was playing hookie from Castaway Rays.
Had the scare of the cruise at lunch that day. Have any of you ever seen a Disney character at Cookies during lunch? We were seated at the long single row of tables on the left hand side. Im knee deep in polishing off some ribs when DS, sitting across from me, looks up and says, hey, theres Mickey.
I respond, where and turn around. Only to find Mickey standing directly behind me breathing down my neck.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I am so lucky a four-letter word did not emerge from my mouth.
Mickey felt really bad about startling me after my heart started beating again, I said to Mickey that it wasnt a big deal.
Hey, has anyone seen the Castaway Cay cats lately? We were wondering if they ever returned to the island after the hurricanes.
After lunch DH and the kids went to sail on a Hobie Cat. I actually find that a little boring because the winds arent very strong in the sailing bay so you really cant do too much with the sailboat.
So I sat and read my book. Boy, its getting hot out there and the sun is shifting around and Im losing my shade. Time to start moving the chair around.
Were always those families that stay at CC until the lifeguards boot you out of the water. In fact, DD was one of the last ones out of the water. Suddenly she called out in pain. She said she felt a pain on her inner thigh and it hurts and is stinging.
Sure enough there was a mark. DH scoops her up and carries her over to the first aid station. Doc says its a jelly fish sting. He puts some cream on it and says DD should take a soak in the tub.
Back onto the ship. I know from past cruises that you do not have to personally attend the disembarkation session you can watch replays on TV (shhhhh .you didnt hear this from me).
Leave it to cruise director Andy to make even that boring disembarkation speech actually interesting to listen to. I had no idea it took DCL several years to get all the necessary permits and permission to do the Pirate Night fireworks. He mentioned that we should keep all our shampoos, etc, in our rooms even though our luggage gets taken away at 11pm. He said when you retrieve your luggage in the port to just open your luggage and stowe away all those liquids and gels.
Worked out well.
So onto the final dinner of the cruise. This time I actually ordered two entrees. Glad I did as I ordered the chicken Wellington as the second dish and it was quite tasty. Ive never had chicken Wellington and Im actually going to try cooking it at home (emphasis on try).
Oh, I have to mention at this point that our stateroom host was outstanding. Linden from the Philippines. He was rather shy and reserved. Man, he did a great job cleaning the room. Always folded up the clothes that we just left lying around.
And his towel animals were magnificent though we did have to ask him what animal it was one night (it was a dinosaur hmmmmm). We definitely gave him an extra tip. He mentioned he enjoyed tending to us as we were always smiling whenever he saw us.
So our cruise sadly comes to a close. Wow, what a week. Yes, we booked a phantom date in December 2007 waiting for the 2008 dates to come out. We asked around what rumors the CMs are hearing for 2008. They are all hearing nothing so sounds like it will be a typical eastern/western rotation. One rumor they are hearing is that the long awaited announcement of building new ships might happen in 2007 and that it will be TWO new ships, both slightly bigger than the Magic/Wonder.
I think this special western itinerary was terrific. I think DCL should do double dips to Castaway Cay in the future. Even DCL refers to it as double dip cruises.
Some final thoughts was it just me or did almost all the CMs seem so friendly and nice. No matter where you were on the ship you were greeted by smiles and hellos. The CM loved hearing about what we did on the stops.
DH got into a long conversation with the CM in charge of the bars. Hes trying to get more international liquors so that CMs from different countries can make their own favorite drinks from their country using the right ingredients. The roadblock is finding distributors in the U.S. that can import the alcohol.
Like many others that have posted, we all regret that we didnt get to meet all the DISers onboard. I would suggest having 2 separate DIS meets. One on embarkation day and one later in the week.
It wasnt until I saw our group photo that I realized how many of you I passed so often during the week.
And I didnt take enough photos. Yes, the dead camera battery didnt help. But Ive got to learn what other DISers do and take photos of everything.
And many thanks to all the DISers for making this cruise truly magical and memorable. I, too, booked this cruise right when the itinerary came out and we waited so long we risked setting our expectations too high.
It wasnt perfect, there were little issues here and there, but all in all the wait was worth it.
I usually cry when I first see the ship, this time I cried as we were leaving.
To be continued in August 2008 .(Slash, you can stay home).
This was DCL cruise #5 for us (me, DH, DS (11) and DD(10)) and we were curious to see the changes on the Magic since her drydock last fall.
The New Navigators bring the magnifying glasses. Wow, the font size must be something like 2!!!!! I understand DCL wanting to save money and resources by cutting down on the size of the navigator, BUT WE BABY BOOMERS DONT WANT TO BE REMINDED WE NEED READING GLASSES!!!!!!!
Yikes, since we get our navigators after diner when it is dark outside, I found it really hard to read them. I like the TV Guide style grid, but please make the font size bigger!!!!
The big jumbo screen on deck 9 very, very nice. Great for those super crowded deck parties where youre always at the back of the crowd and cant see the stage. I was surprised to see DCL play TV shows from the Disney Channel. I think there should just be a continuous loop of Disney movies.
Cruise Director Andy .yes, its the former bing-king Andy from Australia. He makes a terrific cruise director. I have nothing against previous CDs, but they always were a bit too formal and not approachable. Andys got that aura around him. Hes high energy and truly loves his job. It was a great pleasure listening to his daily announcements about upcoming activities. And you gotta love the ciao for now he says at the end of every announcement.
One funny memory of Andy was at the captains reception night where the senior officers were standing near guest services. The captain was standing by himself, whereas Andy had a crowd around him.
Yes DCL, youve got a real gem and do everything you can to make sure Andy stays for a loooooong time. Put him in DCL advertising (wait no, dont do that, it will just drive up demand for future cruises thus increasing our prices).
Oceans Quest .whoever designed this area must have cruised many times with children ages 10-14. Its a great concept. Its located on deck 2 that housed conference rooms. Its not that big in terms of square footage. Much smaller than the Oceaneers Lab. And 1/3 is taken up by the pilot simulator machine.
Speaking of which ..the pilot simulator is a cool machine. There is a large control panel that you sit in front of, then there is a large screen that shows where you are going. There is a sign up sheet if you want to use it.
The funniest thing is when you have docked successfully the screen says the ship is undamaged. Id like to see what it says when you crash the ship into the pier.
All that said, my kids absolutely adored Oceans Quest. They enjoyed playing with the other kids and the counselors are terrific. My kids played video games there as well as board games like monopoly and even connect-four.
New Castaway Club gift terrific. The mesh bags are fantastic. Must have been designed by a staff member who cruises with their kids. Those mesh bags are perfect for storing wet bathing suits when youre on excursions or are at CC.
So onto embarkation day .we wore our Verandah man Creations-designed t-shirts on the plane and to the port. I got stopped at the airport asking where I got the shirts. Same again at the port.
Our DCL bus broke down on the way to the port. Got about 2/3 of the way there when suddenly the bus pulls over to the side of the road. The driver announces that the engine overheated. Rats. We had to wait about 15 minutes for another bus to come pick us up.
So after a brief interruption we finally made it to the port. It was so nice to see so many DISers wearing their shirts. It really does give you that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that there are so many others that you know on the ship, even if you only know them by their DIS name.
After boarding the ship we were guided to Parrot Cay. Had a lovely lunch. Saw plenty of DISers. Then off to the room. Big smiles as we see we already have fish mail and someone put black Mickey ears over the room #. Too cute.
A week before the cruise I shipped of box of snacks, soda, etc to be delivered to the room. It was supposed to be a big surprise for the family. I had read others say it got delivered to their room even before their luggage arrived.
So we open the door to the room and ..no package ..moment ruined. Our castaway club gift was there as well as a cheese platter ordered by our TA. But no box.
Talk about taking the wind out of the sails. Im beginning to worry I addressed the box to the wrong location or its still at the warehouse. All kinds of negative thoughts.
But time for the DIS meet. By now not only am I worried about the missing box but Im feeling very tired after having gotten up at 3:30am to leave the house at 4:10am to catch a 6:55am flight. Will never, never, never, never, never again book a flight the same day as the cruise. Did I mention never again?
So I wasnt feeling as sociable as I normally am. But it was great to put faces to names. Asked fellow DISer if the box he shipped was in his room. He said, no, which made me feel better.
Oppps .time for the lifeboat drill. Like the new lifevests. Dont feel like youre in traction anymore. Headed down to deck 4 and passed cruise director Andy running up the stairs. Passed on a quick congratulations on his promotion. We saw him on the Wonder in August 2005.
(boy, Andy was promoted to assistant cruise director in 2004, promoted to cruise director in 2006, by 2008 hell be running DCL).
Returned from lifeboat drill and guess what MY PACKAGE IS THERE IN THE ROOM!!!!!! Im sure everyone onboard heard my cheers. Everything in the box is fine, other than some chocolate cookies had melted (memo to myself dont pack chocolate when shipping in the summer)
Sailaway party most of that day was overcast and starting to look a bit threatening. But in true DCL style, the clouds parted and the sun came out for the sailaway party.
I packed some bubbles to blow at the sailaway party. Memo to myself .dont do it again. The bubbles just blow right back into your face leaving your skin sticky and a yucky taste in your mouth.
Back to our room to unpack. Watched a small coastguard boat escort us out of the channel. Amazing how many boats conveniently sail right in the path of the Magic. The coast guard boat sped up to these boats and gave them the boot.
Sunday ..Castaway Cay Part 1
Woke up to a very overcast day. Bummer. But seeing the Flying Dutchman is just too cool for words.
One of the best things about doing a double dip cruise is that you get to try all the other Castaway Cay things that you ordinarily dont have time to.
So I asked the kids what different things they wanted to do on CC. BIKE RIDING!!!!!
Now we actually planned in advance to go bike riding on the first CC day and Mother Nature obliged by giving us cloudy cool weather to ride a bike.
First, we dropped our stuff on beach chairs. We always go to almost the end of the family beach not too far from the hair braiding station. Plenty of chairs there.
I highly recommend to everyone whos going on a cruise in the future and whos been to CC many times to try bike riding. I once read that DCL only uses 5% of the island. So riding a bike is a great way to see the rest of the island.
Also, you get to ride over to Serenity Bay and see what it looks like. With two kids aged 10 & 11, its going to be a long time before we get to actually use Serenity Bay, but it was sure nice to get a peek at it.
Then you get to ride the bike path beyond Serenity Bay. Thats where you discover that CC is mostly an impenetrable wall of jungle growth. Wow. Theres some inland lakes but mostly just a solid wall of vegetation.
Heres view of the bike path.
And heres a view looking back towards the ship.
Anyone know what that tall wooden structure is in the middle of CC? Looks like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
When you are on the bike path, watch out for running crabs. Literally. We stopped at a scenic rest stop and the kids saw little crabs running on the sand. Man, these things are speedy. No way you could snap a picture. And they are so funny running sideways.
DCL nicely puts water stations at regular intervals. I made sure we stopped frequently to drink.
We also did the second bike path loop off the airstrip. We liked the warning sign that said not to touch the plants because they might be poisonous. Never heard of poison wood before.
So all in all, a great way to spend a morning at CC. Extra benefit, you have an excuse to grab some extra cookies at lunch.
Saw the teens doing the wild side excursion. They parked their bikes and got to take a hike on a restricted area of CC. No fair.
Oh, by the way .I never knew that beyond the hair braiding station there are some Bahamian shops. Clothes and other items. DH and kids bought shirts. Boy, you learn something new every day.
For future double dippers when you sail away from CC you dont get the Mickey hand waves from the CMs on the island. I always enjoy that and was quite disappointed not to be able to shout See Ya Friday.
Lunch at CC was very good. New kind of chicken. Very juicy I was worried it would be rather dry. DH said the barbecued ribs were tasty.
Monday ..Day at Sea.
Another cloudy day. We knew from the Navigator that between 8-9am we would be close to Cuba. This time we brought binoculars to look. Could have used a stronger pair. Always amazed how mountainous Cuba is. Unfortunately it was rather hazy so it was hard to really see.
Kids went off to play in arcade or go to Oceans Quest. So I grabbed a book and headed over to the adult pool. Which was absolutely packed. Wow, standing room only in the pool and chairs all occupied.
Fortunately I was on the side of the ship with Cove Café so I decided to check it out. Ive heard so many good things about it. I dont drink coffee but I do love a good cup of tea. I got directed to the CM who is the tea expert. Learned a lot about teas and the history of the tea trade. Ordered the English breakfast blend.
Your tea comes in this really cute black cast iron teapot with a flat lid. The strainer is inside the pot. I also got a square mug. Never drank out of a square mug. Wasnt sure to drink from the corners or in the middle of the sides.
Tea was quite tasty much more robust than your typical English breakfast blends.
Inside the Cove Café it is absolutely freezing so I sat outside. I wish DCL would make that area non-smoking. Had a couple of smokers nearby.
One of the CMs brought out some pastries to go with the tea. Wow these were absolutely yummy. And filling.
So had my tea and broke out my book. Look out and noticed the weather is looking rather stormy and we can hear thunder in the distance.
Finished my tea and headed back to the room where DH was lounging on the verandah. Thats DHs favorite thing to do on a cruise. Wow, the thunder is getting stronger now and I can see flashes of lightning. We can also see rain in the distance.
Cruise director Andy comes on the PA and announces that people outside have 15 minutes before the rain starts.
Yeah, it started pouring. Fortunately Bingo was on in the afternoon. So DS and I headed down. DD had fallen asleep so DH stayed behind with her.
It was spa bingo. Didnt win any rounds of bingo but I did win a spa treatment. A scalp massage. So at least I didnt walk away empty handed.
Monday was formal night and I must say that so many people looked absolutely magnificent all dressed up. DH didnt look out of place wearing a tux. Only negative was the long lines to take pictures. Why doesnt DCL boost the air conditioning in the atrium on deck 3. It gets so hot waiting in line.
Also it can be frustrating if you happen to be in line behind a large group of people who not only want a group photo but also all kinds of individual photos of everyone in the group. We waited 45 minutes to get our picture taken in front of the Mickey statue.
Fortunately we had a DISer in front of us (hi poohjen).
Oh, and speaking of photographs ..in five cruises with DCL, I have never bought so many 8x10 photographs. My advice to everyone is to budget that you will be buying the 8x10 packages. It seemed like more and more DCL photographs are in the 8x10 size rather than the smaller one.
But I will say that the quality of the photographs was outstanding. Good lightening and good posing. Ive got many photos that could be our Christmas card photo this year.
Tuesday ..Costa Maya.
Rats, another cloudy day. And the seas were a bit on the rough side. DCL announces that several excursions are cancelled due to rough surf.
Let me say right off the bat that Costa Maya is not for everyone and you need to be realistic about your expectations. And yes, DCL is aware that people are so-so about Costa Maya
Costa Maya is NOT a resort by any means. Its rustic, its primitive, its up-and-coming. The vendors are extremely aggressive.
If you are going to be bothered by this than stay on the ship or do an excursion and return to the ship.
If youre going to venture on your own then go with a sense of adventure. Take some risks .nothing venture, nothing gained. You might be surprised.
Our goal was to be beach bums that day. Find a nice, quiet, family-oriented beach. If we found one, great, otherwise we would just spend time swimming in the pool at the pier.
I spent a lot of time researching beaches in Costa May. I feel that if I find a great thing to do because somebody posted it on a message board, then I should do the same back.
The reviews on the Uvero beach excursion were universally negative. Everyone said the better beaches are in the town of Majahual (pronounced MA ha wall). It is a five minute taxi ride from the pier.
You get dropped off at the top of Majahual Avenue. The advice I read is to walk along Majahual Avenue and look for whatever beach looks appealing to you.
I will tell you, Majahual Avenue is the avenue of aggressive vendors. Wow. Be warned everyone people will come right up you offering goods for sale, places to eat, excursions, lots of stuff. It can be quite unsettling.
So heres what you do Tell the guy that you are on the way to .and mumble something incoherent so as to look like you are going someplace specific while still being able to look around and scope things out.
Another strategy is to politely tell people that you will come back later in the day. DH did this and even both my kids got into doing it.
One thing you will notice is that there are wandering dogs in Majahual. But they look well fed and in good health. We did pass an adorable puppy that was tied to a leash. DD had to stop. We ran into another family from the Magic whos stateroom is a few doors from us. The mom found a broken coconut shell and poured bottled water into it and fed it to the puppy.
As you are walking down Majahual Avenue the beaches will be on your left. The first beach is Tequilla Beach which I read caters to a more youthful crowd.
Nope, not for us.
The place I read to go to is called Pez Quadro. It is a hotel/restaurant/beach club owned by a young Italian man (think tall, dark and handsome). It is literally at the end of Majahual Avenue. So you get rewarded for walking all the day down fending off the vendors.
The general idea is that you rent a beach chair and then you can sit on their beach. We were the first ones there so we got lounge chairs for free.
Let me tell you, these lounge chairs were super comfortable. Way more comfortable than the DCL beach chairs (which I think are actually quite uncomfortable on Castaway Cay).
The beach is beautiful. What is really interesting about Majahual is that the reefs are located offshore and act as breakers for the waves. So the water inside the reefs is tranquil and placid.
WE LOVED THIS BEACH!!! The water is clear, warm and not too deep. There are sand bars located right off the beach but there are paths to walk through them.
Heres a picture of what Pez Quadro looks like from the street.
Another thing to look for that I read on message boards look for a bar that has swings instead of bar stools.
Heres a picture of DS and DD at the bar.
Heres DD with a conch shell she found
And a view of the Magic .
Now there isnt much in the way of snacks to buy. People do come around selling some snacks but if you know your kids are going to get hungry then bring food from the ship.
There are also a few vendors that come around selling wares but they are extremely polite.
It was absolute heaven. And around lunchtime the sun came out. The Magic was the only ship there that day so things never got really crowded. I had to laugh looking out in the water and seeing DD and DS happily playing ball with a bunch of other kids. Behind them was a young couple whose DCL excursion got cancelled. They were arm in arm doing the gazing into each others eyes romantic thing.
If you like Mexican food then I strongly suggest eating lunch at the restaurant. Be warned the service is slow. But the food was fantastic. We started with nachos. Boy, they make fantastic tortilla chips in Mexico. Then onto steak fajitas. We only ordered one dish as we werent sure DD and DS would like it.
They loved it .we had to order plenty more. Fantastic guacamole. We did not eat the lettuce and sliced tomatoes that came with dish as the advice is not to eat washed vegetables to avoid Montezumas revenge. Which was shame because the veggies looked great.
Lunch (including beer) came to $50.
I read good things about the shrimp fajita though we didnt order it. Now I wish I had. During our meal some of the elementary school child had returned from school and were walking down the street. They looked really cute wearing blue and white uniforms. I resisted the typical tourist urge to snap a picture.
One thing to watch out for when youre swimming in Majahual . all the small boats carrying people doing snorkeling excursions or people on Waverunners will pass by you awfully close because its the only way they can go. So keep an eye out when you are swimming.
The boat drivers and people guiding the wave runners were extremely courteous to people in the water. Also they are very friendly so make sure to wave.
After lunch we spend more time on the beach. I read my book while DH took both kids out to explore the far reefs. They never made it that far but had a fun time doing so.
One more thing about Pez Quadro, they played terrific music on the loudspeaker. None of that awful pop/hip-hop stuff played at your typical beach resort/bar. The music had that very distinctive South American style that I cannot describe in words. There is a soul to it that we dont hear in the U.S.
I am kicking myself for not asking the owner for the names of the CDs he played.
All too quickly it was time to head back to the ship. We stopped at some vendors as DD wanted to buy some jewelry. One guy was willing to swap the DCL beach hat I was wearing. But I bought it several years ago and I dont know if DCL still sells it so I said no.
The vendors are easy to haggle with.
Other restaurants in Majahual that got good comments on message boards are the Cats Meow and Tappas.
So Costa Maya ended up being the surprise treat of the cruise. We all got badly sunburned as we didnt think the sun would come out. It did, rather strongly.
I asked our head server (who is Italian) what Pez Quadro means in Italian. Loosely translated it means picture frame.
I heard good things about the Mayan ruins tour. I know a lot of DISers did the David and Ivan tour. They all said the tour guides provided tons and tons of information. People also advised to bring lots and lots of bug spray on the tour. It also rained on them at one point.
In fact, it actually started raining as the ship was getting ready to leave.
Oh, one funny thing about Majahual. The pier isnt very big (compared to Cozumel). In fact, the Magic is longer than the pier. So two local guys in a small boat sail up to the front of the Magic and catch the ropes to tie down the ship.
So basically, DCL throws the ropes to these two guys in a SMALL boat, who then ride over to two people sitting on the pier, throw the rope to the people on the pier, who then secure the ropes.
This process doesnt always work smoothly. DCL CMs were able to throw the rope to the two guys in the boat. But it took a couple of tries for the two guys in the boat to throw the rope up to the people on the pier. Too funny.
So at the end of the day the Magic sails off to Cozumel. Which Im told is a 3-4 hour car ride from Costa Maya. It took the Magic overnight to get there.
Cozumel
Yes, again another cloudy day. What is going on? At least the seas were calm.
We were still tending off the ship. Bad news for us buuuuuut good news for those sailing later in September/October because word is that the Punta Lungosta pier should be operational by then. It looks absolutely fantastic and the workers looked like they were putting the finishing touches on.
Speaking of which .I guess Cozumel doesnt own the latest in piling machinery. Rather than a mechanical machine (which Ive seen in use at the New Jersey shore) some unlucky fellow operates the pile driver by hand. Which basically means he pulls and drops a rope that lifts the pile driver up and down. It is very loud. Oh, and no worker is wearing protective ear gear.
We, along with some other DISers, had a three reef snorkeling excursion booked with Eagle Ray Divers. Ive read nothing but wonderful things about this company.
Bad news is that our excursion started at 9am and the first tender doesnt leave the ship until 9am. Yikes. So we got up early to be on the first tender.
I must say that the area of Cozumel near the piers looks in fantastic shape tremendous rebuilding from the hurricane. I was surprised how well it looked. And looks so metropolitan compared to Costa Maya.
There were a total of 12 people on our snorkeling excursion all from the Magic. There were four kids my two and two boys from another DIS family. Bernando was our guide that day along with the boat pilot and another gentleman whose name I never really was able to make out.
Bernando showed us a map of the Cozumel reefs and pointed out the three we would be visiting. We would sail to the furthest one first then make our way back.
It took 90 minutes to get to the first one. Sodas/beer/water was provided along with some cookies. It was on the boat ride that we could really see the damage from the hurricane. Trees stripped bare of their leaves only the ground vegetation is green.
We passed all the resort beaches of Cozumel. Most of them have been completely stripped of their sand, leaving exposed rocks and little beach. We tried guessing which resort is which. We were able to identify the beach where DCL does its beach break the giant inflatable icebergs in the water were a good clue.
So, made it to the first reef Columbia. Water depth is 10-20 feet. Heres the really neat thing. There is quite a strong current off Cozumel so unlike snorkeling at Castaway Cay where you have to swim to find the fish, here we just go into the water and floated with the current. The boat actually followed us around.
Bernando pointed out different types of fish for us. I will admit that we didnt see either the quantity or variety of fish that probably existed prior to the hurricane. Also, the cloudy weather cut down on visibility.
But we still had a blast and did see a lot of fish including small stingrays and sea turtles.
After about 45 minutes it was time to get back on the boat and onto the next reef. Except that we were allowed to climb the rope ladder onto the roof of the boat and jump into the water.
Can you imagine anything more appealing to kids!!!!!! (and a few adults in our group).
My kids actually like jumping off the roof better than the snorkeling.
We also got to eat some watermelon and bananas. Boy, the bananas sure are sweeter than what we get at home.
Off to the next reef the famous Palancar. Here the water is much deeper. The reefs are bigger here. Saw plenty of scuba divers down at the bottom. Wow sure want to learn to Scuba dive.
Heres something interesting. Again we floated with the current over the reefs. When suddenly the water got extremely cold!! Brrrrrrr. Not tropical at all. Im thinking Im going to head back to the boat if the water is this cold.
Then suddenly the water got warm again. Then youd do further along and again it would alternate between warm and cold. Somebody suggested underwater fresh water streams.
Didnt see as many fish as were snorkeling at the top of the water Im sure the scuba divers saw plenty.
Again, after returning to the boat, the kids got to jump off the roof into the water.
Then it was time for lunch. We sailed to an extremely small pier near a beach resort. Bernando took our lunch orders and ran over to the resort restaurant. Then we all got off the boat and walked along the beach to the restaurant.
Again, fantastic Mexican chips and salsa on the table. I didnt want to eat the salsa but it sure looked good. Lunch came quickly. After all the snorkeling I was hungry for a hamburger so thats what I ordered. Burger was good French fires were very tasty.
So after we ate we walked on the beach back to the boat and sailed to the next reef. I never did get the name of this reef but its very close to where Eagle Rays marina is located.
The water was not as deep but wow, what a current. It was like you were flying. In fact, I turned around so I was floating feet first. Again, not too many fish, but saw the biggest lobster I have ever seen. The antenna had to be a couple of feet long.
Oh, and we saw flying fish .wow. They look like they are running on the surface of the water.
Then all too quickly it was time to return to the marina. We took a group photo of everyone and said our goodbyes.
Eagle Ray called ahead and got taxis for us.
Heres something funny. All of us took different taxis on the way over and each of us got charged a different price for going the exact same distance. Gotta love Mexico for that.
By now its close to 4pm and the last tender was 5:30pm. So not much time for shopping. Stopped at a few stores near the pier and DD got a small necklace.
After spending so much time in the water we were feeling rather grungy and wanted to get back on the ship and shower.
What is with these tender boat pilots????? Seems like they excelled at bumping and scrapping the tenders against the Magic.
Sooooooo Wednesday is Pirate Night. I made all of us matching black t-shirts with a red iron-on design on them. We also wore black pants and the kids were adorned with all kinds of pirate gear they bought at Walt Disney World last year.
We stood in line to get our pictures taken with Jack Sparrow. Yes, hes quite good. Has the mannerisms and accent down. While we were in line someone nearby dropped something that shattered. This was near the Magics shops. Without missing a beat Jack shouted, you break it you bought it.
This is when I discovered I was a victim of a pirate curse. My camera battery, which performed beautifully all day long on our snorkeling excursion, decided at that very moment to expire. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Had our picture taken with Jack. Then time for dinner. Stopped and talked with cruise director Andy, who was dressed as a pirate. He looked so cute and Im there with a dead camera battery. Cursed again.
Had dinner in Lumieres, which is an interesting restaurant to have your pirate dinner in considering the contrast with everyone dressed as pirates.
By the way ..I saw lots and lots of people wearing really neat black pirate shirts that they bought in either Cozumel or Costa Maya. My advice to people who dont want to spend money on a pirate costume is to take the time around the shops and look for pirate t-shirts.
We had the 8:15pm dinner seating and dinner ran really late. We didnt get up to the pirate party until about 10pm. Yup, deck 9 and deck 10 are packed with people. Fortunately the kids were able to squeeze through on deck 10 and had a good view.
Heres a case where the big screen works out really well as everyone can see it.
Came in late for the show. Was there some kind of story line to it? I remember last year on the Wonder that the CMs brought a couple of dads onto the stage for some kind of contest and there was some kind of story to the show.
At least we got to see Mickey zip down to the stage. And the fireworks were really nice.
Having just finished dinner we had no desire to eat the pirate buffet. But we took a look at the buffet and admired it. I had to laugh earlier in the day when cruise director Andy mentioned on the PA system that after the fireworks there would be the pirate party buffet and joked that we would all be absolutely ready to eat again.
(little rant here .. I think its a terrible waste of food Id rather see a selection of pirate-themed dessert platters and ice cream rather than a big meal).
Thursday ..day at sea
Hooray the sun is shining. The day before I saw cruise director Andy and mentioned that its been cloudy every day of this cruise. He said he will send the assistant cruise director out to do a sun dance.
Guess the dance worked!!!!!
After breakfast the kids wanted to go to the arcade but they needed more arcade cards. So I went up to get some. Which at that point I look at the people getting their hair braided and suddenly realized I completely forgot I booked DD to get her hair braided early that day and we missed it.
Ooopps. Just have to do it on CC the next day.
I convinced DH to come to the Quiet Cove to have some tea with me. So we did. Got my cup in a normal round cup this time. But the cup just sucked the heat out of my tea. Lesson learned dont pour out entire contents of the tea pot right away.
At this point in the cruise we had heard that Slash, the guitarist of Guns and Roses was onboard with his family. And that the Saudi Royal family was onboard, but they left to go home when the ship was in Cozumel.
Another DIS family told me exactly how Slash is dressing on the cruise. I was describing this to DH. When guess what .who walks by arm-in-arm with his wife. I was actually facing the wrong way when DH looks up and kicks my foot under the table.
That was my only time seeing Slash onboard. DH saw him later that day coming down the stairs from deck 9 to deck 8.
It was a cute topic to talk with the CMs onboard whether or not they saw Slash or the Royal family.
Later in the day the kids and I wanted to play final jackpot bingo. I knew from prior cruises that its best to buy your bingo cards in advance. So right after lunch I headed over to buy the cards.
Guess what .finally met the infamous PIKEY. I had to mention that he has quite the following on the DIS boards. He immediately saw my Crusin Castaways t-shirt and mentioned our group. I said that Verandah Man made them. Pikey knew immediately who I was talking about.
We had a nice discussion about his being part of the family entertainment staff. Hes very humbled about being able to do this and not just be the DJ. He also mentioned that he will be rotating between the Magic and the Wonder.
He said this about those who attended the adult club parties you guys would go the opening of an envelope.
Next, time for the big DIS group photo. Thanks to Chuck for paying the sitting fee.
Advice for other DIS groups wanting to book a group photo .make sure Shutters checks that there isnt something else scheduled to take place in the location where you want to take your group photo. Turned out there was some kind of family putting tournament taking place in the atrium on deck three exactly where we wanted to take our photo.
All of us who showed up had to stand around doing nothing waiting for this golf game to finish up. Honestly, the photo shoot took all of five minutes to finish. Whereas we waited 15 minutes waiting for this golf game to finish. Folks, the golf game could have been temporarily stopped while we did the photo.
Oh oh .jackpot bingo has started. Fortunately I had my bingo cards already in my hands. So the kids and I rushed into the Walt Disney Theater and grabbed some seats. The first game was already a few numbers in so we saw down quickly and caught up.
Didnt even get remotely close to winning any games. Boy some of those games went fast with winners calling out just after a few numbers were called.
Pikey did a good job as bingo caller. As had Kaz earlier in the week. We are still partial to Andy as bingo-king, he will always be the best in our book.
Oh, speaking of bingo the free spa treatment I won at bingo was only available on port days. Yikes. Called the spa and really the only day I could book was early Friday morning.
Yes, finally in this cruise the kids got to swim in the goofy pool. Can you believe that? We feel the best time to swim in the goofy pool is from 5:00-6:30pm when most kids are eating.
Is it me, or was that barrier at the top of the Goofy pool always there? It helps keep naughty kids from launching themselves from the Goofy stage into the pool.
And many thanks to the parents who were actually IN the goofy pool with my kids. I was sitting on a lounge chair reading so I couldnt always look down into the pool. But knowing there were adults actually in the water meant that any rough housing couldnt get out of hand.
Not that it mattered, the few kids in the pool were delightful.
Semi-formal night at dinner. Lines werent as long for pictures as Formal Night. Got our picture taken with Minnie.
Friday .Castaway Cay do-over
Another sunny day .wow. After breakfast I went to get my scalp massage. To be honest, the scalp massage isnt something I would pay for myself but it was nice all the same. First a conditioner was put in my hair. The CM mentioned it is good for the damage done by salt water and chlorine. I asked if it would work on childrens hair since DD spends so much time in chlorine pools that her hair feels like straw and actually was tinted green at the ends.
CM says it would work on kids.
Massaging the head feels a bit strange its more of a relaxation massage. But the neck and shoulder massage felt great. The CM discovered a nice knot in my right shoulder Ive had lingering muscle problems in that shoulder from a serious ski accident 18 months earlier. CM worked his magic and massaged out the knot.
Then back to the room where we got ready to get off the ship. Our first goal was getting a picture taken with Jack Sparrow near the Flying Dutchman. We missed that on the first CC day because we didnt know he would appear so early in the morning.
So off the ship right away .in fact a little too early for Jack Sparrow. So we grabbed towels from the CM, grabbed a glass of juice that was being offered, said hello to cruise director Andy and waited in line to get our picture with Stitch in front of the post office.
Then off to stand in line waiting for Jack Sparrow. Exactly where is that location?????? Had to ask CMs. Response was just over the bridge. Headed over there. Noticed a few people milling about. Asked if they are waiting for Jack. Yup somebody in the know said this is where the pictures were taken on Sunday.
Jack is late showing up. Kids were convinced he would come off the ship and over the bridge. Nah he showed up from a restricted part of the island. I just happened to be glancing in the right direction with the video camera ready to go in my hand. So I shouted Jacks here and started filming.
Jack walks by me and jokingly pushes away the camera. Looks cute when watching the clip.
Heres Jack with DD & DS
We were 4th or 5th in line so it went quickly. DH, meanwhile, took all our stuff and found chairs on the family beach in almost the exact same spot we had on Sunday. Went snorkeling right away. Wow, surprisingly large numbers of fish out there. And some are big. Didnt see Barry the barracuda. Did see a large stingray swimming by rather fast looked like he/she was playing hookie from Castaway Rays.
Had the scare of the cruise at lunch that day. Have any of you ever seen a Disney character at Cookies during lunch? We were seated at the long single row of tables on the left hand side. Im knee deep in polishing off some ribs when DS, sitting across from me, looks up and says, hey, theres Mickey.
I respond, where and turn around. Only to find Mickey standing directly behind me breathing down my neck.
Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! I am so lucky a four-letter word did not emerge from my mouth.
Mickey felt really bad about startling me after my heart started beating again, I said to Mickey that it wasnt a big deal.
Hey, has anyone seen the Castaway Cay cats lately? We were wondering if they ever returned to the island after the hurricanes.
After lunch DH and the kids went to sail on a Hobie Cat. I actually find that a little boring because the winds arent very strong in the sailing bay so you really cant do too much with the sailboat.
So I sat and read my book. Boy, its getting hot out there and the sun is shifting around and Im losing my shade. Time to start moving the chair around.
Were always those families that stay at CC until the lifeguards boot you out of the water. In fact, DD was one of the last ones out of the water. Suddenly she called out in pain. She said she felt a pain on her inner thigh and it hurts and is stinging.
Sure enough there was a mark. DH scoops her up and carries her over to the first aid station. Doc says its a jelly fish sting. He puts some cream on it and says DD should take a soak in the tub.
Back onto the ship. I know from past cruises that you do not have to personally attend the disembarkation session you can watch replays on TV (shhhhh .you didnt hear this from me).
Leave it to cruise director Andy to make even that boring disembarkation speech actually interesting to listen to. I had no idea it took DCL several years to get all the necessary permits and permission to do the Pirate Night fireworks. He mentioned that we should keep all our shampoos, etc, in our rooms even though our luggage gets taken away at 11pm. He said when you retrieve your luggage in the port to just open your luggage and stowe away all those liquids and gels.
Worked out well.
So onto the final dinner of the cruise. This time I actually ordered two entrees. Glad I did as I ordered the chicken Wellington as the second dish and it was quite tasty. Ive never had chicken Wellington and Im actually going to try cooking it at home (emphasis on try).
Oh, I have to mention at this point that our stateroom host was outstanding. Linden from the Philippines. He was rather shy and reserved. Man, he did a great job cleaning the room. Always folded up the clothes that we just left lying around.
And his towel animals were magnificent though we did have to ask him what animal it was one night (it was a dinosaur hmmmmm). We definitely gave him an extra tip. He mentioned he enjoyed tending to us as we were always smiling whenever he saw us.
So our cruise sadly comes to a close. Wow, what a week. Yes, we booked a phantom date in December 2007 waiting for the 2008 dates to come out. We asked around what rumors the CMs are hearing for 2008. They are all hearing nothing so sounds like it will be a typical eastern/western rotation. One rumor they are hearing is that the long awaited announcement of building new ships might happen in 2007 and that it will be TWO new ships, both slightly bigger than the Magic/Wonder.
I think this special western itinerary was terrific. I think DCL should do double dips to Castaway Cay in the future. Even DCL refers to it as double dip cruises.
Some final thoughts was it just me or did almost all the CMs seem so friendly and nice. No matter where you were on the ship you were greeted by smiles and hellos. The CM loved hearing about what we did on the stops.
DH got into a long conversation with the CM in charge of the bars. Hes trying to get more international liquors so that CMs from different countries can make their own favorite drinks from their country using the right ingredients. The roadblock is finding distributors in the U.S. that can import the alcohol.
Like many others that have posted, we all regret that we didnt get to meet all the DISers onboard. I would suggest having 2 separate DIS meets. One on embarkation day and one later in the week.
It wasnt until I saw our group photo that I realized how many of you I passed so often during the week.
And I didnt take enough photos. Yes, the dead camera battery didnt help. But Ive got to learn what other DISers do and take photos of everything.
And many thanks to all the DISers for making this cruise truly magical and memorable. I, too, booked this cruise right when the itinerary came out and we waited so long we risked setting our expectations too high.
It wasnt perfect, there were little issues here and there, but all in all the wait was worth it.
I usually cry when I first see the ship, this time I cried as we were leaving.
To be continued in August 2008 .(Slash, you can stay home).
