MickeyD
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2005
- Messages
- 821
Background:
This was our fourth DCL cruise, third on the Magic. Sailing were, myself (on the lower 40 side), dh (also on the lower 40 side), and ds (16).
I will try and break it down so you can skip to parts you want to read about, and I will try and keep it all within this thread. I will warn you though: I don't mince words, if I found something offensive or distasteful, I will say so. No pixie dust here. :
Embarkation, or "How to cook a tourist in less than two hours"
Living on the West Coast definately merits a flight in day prior, so we booked our flights arriving Friday night. We were going to use Marriott points to stay at the new Residence Inn, however, with the fires in Orlando closing the roads intermittently, felt safer staying in Orlando for the night and driving to port in the morning. We still used Marriott points, but stayed at the Fairfield Inn. It was a nice hotel and offered a pretty good buffet in the morning. The buffet was very crowded and helped to prepare us for the crowds to come.
Since dh travels so much with work, we also had a free Avis rental and preferred membership, so picking the car up Friday night was a breeze.
We drove to port about 9:30, stopped at the grocery store for a few items, dropped off the rental car and took the Avis shuttle to port-arriving about 10:45. Check in was a breeze as well since we are Castaway Club members. We ended up with boarding number 5, which if you have read the others trips reports you know this ended up meaning zilch in the long run.
We had quite a good gathering of Dis-ers at the model ship, and since quite a few of us were wearing bright green, we had people timidly approach and ask if we were with the Dis boards.
Well as you already read, they evacuated the building and we were sent over to the far end of the parking lot to bake for a couple of hours until they could clear the building. On the plus side, this gave us some time to get to know some more of the people we would be sailing with for the next week.
Overall impressions: Since I have sailed Disney before, I know how painless embarkation can be. I don't hold it against Disney, they were being safe. That said, this is Disney and they could at least have covered areas in their parking lot and serve cold water instead of warm water to baking tourists! The part that got me was the couple that demanded, and I mean demanded that the cast members let them on the ship! They even strode up to the security and demanded it. How can some people be so full of themselves?
Stay tuned for Ports: "wet and wild days"...
Lisa
This was our fourth DCL cruise, third on the Magic. Sailing were, myself (on the lower 40 side), dh (also on the lower 40 side), and ds (16).
I will try and break it down so you can skip to parts you want to read about, and I will try and keep it all within this thread. I will warn you though: I don't mince words, if I found something offensive or distasteful, I will say so. No pixie dust here. :
Embarkation, or "How to cook a tourist in less than two hours"
Living on the West Coast definately merits a flight in day prior, so we booked our flights arriving Friday night. We were going to use Marriott points to stay at the new Residence Inn, however, with the fires in Orlando closing the roads intermittently, felt safer staying in Orlando for the night and driving to port in the morning. We still used Marriott points, but stayed at the Fairfield Inn. It was a nice hotel and offered a pretty good buffet in the morning. The buffet was very crowded and helped to prepare us for the crowds to come.
Since dh travels so much with work, we also had a free Avis rental and preferred membership, so picking the car up Friday night was a breeze.
We drove to port about 9:30, stopped at the grocery store for a few items, dropped off the rental car and took the Avis shuttle to port-arriving about 10:45. Check in was a breeze as well since we are Castaway Club members. We ended up with boarding number 5, which if you have read the others trips reports you know this ended up meaning zilch in the long run.
We had quite a good gathering of Dis-ers at the model ship, and since quite a few of us were wearing bright green, we had people timidly approach and ask if we were with the Dis boards.
Well as you already read, they evacuated the building and we were sent over to the far end of the parking lot to bake for a couple of hours until they could clear the building. On the plus side, this gave us some time to get to know some more of the people we would be sailing with for the next week.
Overall impressions: Since I have sailed Disney before, I know how painless embarkation can be. I don't hold it against Disney, they were being safe. That said, this is Disney and they could at least have covered areas in their parking lot and serve cold water instead of warm water to baking tourists! The part that got me was the couple that demanded, and I mean demanded that the cast members let them on the ship! They even strode up to the security and demanded it. How can some people be so full of themselves?
Stay tuned for Ports: "wet and wild days"...
Lisa
if I had to pay full price! The only really interesting part is the cell that you go in. They have you put on earphones and then they darken the room (and I mean dark ) What happens is a recording starts and it is a reenactment of a pirate mutiny. The spooky thing is: you can actually feel the breath of the captain on your neck. I swear I thought someone was going to reach out and grab me during one chase part (clean up, aisle two please). 
We got to spend a couple of hours at the beach and then we raced back along shore for a bit then headed back to shore. John told us that we had the misfortune to pick a day with beautiful weather (read: no waves to jump). Darn it Disney can't you change the weather in port to accomodate these excursions? 
I have to say, and both dh and ds agree; this excursion was the highlight of our trip.
Ok, I know, wah wah...I still got to spend the day at CC. The weather turned out beautiful, despite the rain storm that blew through in the am. It was very hot and humid though and by 2:00 I was on the ship and looking for my ds. Yes, ds had disappeared again, this time to the teen beach. The fact that Disney has a seperate beach for teens, one for families, and one for adults is something that has brought us back four times. Everyone can do their own thing. 
The food was on par with the dining rooms. so not sure what all the hype is about?? I did try the chocolate souffle and thought it "ok". Certainly not "to die for". I much prefer the chocolate lava cake on the Captain's Gala menu. So flame me if you must, I think Palo is highly overrated and wouldn't waste my money on it again.
What can I say? I am full blooded German with a hot temper. It wasn't so much just her that pushed her way in either, she brought along three of her companions along with beer glasses and the like. It was when she went to light up a cigarette that I looked over at hubby and got the A-ok to light into her. 
Honest, I was very polite. 
Lisa, Fabulous job with the reports. Sorry, I missed you. Hope you had fun.
