April 5-12 Western Magic (w/photo & navigators link) FINISHED - updated 5/5/08

[frdeb1999]

Beautiful pix PoohMania!!

 

[jollytammy]

Super pictures! They were wonderful! Thank you for sharing

 

[AnnMarie3]

Hi Pooh Mania,
I don't think we were on the same Captain Marvin's trip. We had more people on our trip, probably 30-40. It was dh, ds 12, and me.

I do remember seeing your beautiful family on formal and semi-formal nights. We were in front of you to have our portraits done with our family (me, dh, ds, and dd4.) Everyone remarked how lovely you all looked..I'll try and post a photo of us eventually.

Ann Marie

 

[NenaCruise]

Metzfan and I had the same servers and they were really slow...My mom is a diabetic...we could not get the early seating despite being waitlisted. She was dizzy one evening and asked for some orange juice or to have her meal quickly and they didn't get it done. I finally spoke with the headserver and after that my mom got her food quickly but we all at our table had to wait and wait and wait.....not personable with my son at all...He was the baby at our group at the table...just turned 10 and still into his kids menu and coloring sheet....we had to remind them every night to give us a kids menu and crayons for him to color. We also ate two nights away from the table...to be honest with you...it was bliss. Our servers the first time were great....the 2nd time they were not too bad either....this time I was disappointed but I'm hoping my NOv. cruise will be different.
Amazingly my server on RCCL last year was as impressive as my first servers with Disney...I think it depends on how new they are....I did not think to ask our servers this time around how new they were. I know they were concerned about having a good recommendation....that just makes me think that they probably had bad ones before.
HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pooh Mania I saw your family too on the ship I'm surprised you were not part of our fish extender group or were you?

 

[nzdisneymom]

Pooh Mania -- thanks so much for sharing your pictures - and I'm looking forward to reading more of your trip report! You have such a beautiful family - and the smiles on your children's faces - WOW -- it is obvious that your children had an amazing trip!

 

[Dreamfinder2]

Pooh Mania, this is good, good stuff. Thanks for sharing!

 

[karasdad]

We were on the same cruise, also Asian family with two girls, 4 & 6. saw you ahead in line at the golden Mickey's pic line with Donald and Daisy duck. Great trip log too.

 

[2*geminis]

Looking at your photos makes me wish the next 6-months away even more.

 

[MadiMouse]

Great report! You have a beautiful family.

 

[pooh_mania]

Sunday, April 6, 2008 Key West – We have been to Key West on a different cruise and went on a glass bottom boat excursion. The family enjoyed it, but I was sea sick for most of the trip. Since this was our first DC, we decided to stay-on board and enjoy the less crowded areas..

We ate breakfast at Lumiere’s with nice servers. I ordered a Denver omelet and the kids had pancakes. I forget what DH had. I hate to say it, but I thought the breakfast was pretty bad! I’ve had better food at McD’s. It was quite a disappointment. Plus breakfast was a bit slow, so I felt like I was missing out on other activities for a mediocre breakfast.

DH had a 9:30 massage appointment that I booked on embarkation day. He headed off for his relaxation treatment. The kids wanted to go to the club for Flubber making at 10 AM. So I dropped them off and had some time alone!! I homeschool my DD, so free ALONE time is few and far between. I was at a loss for what to do with my new found freedom. I love to watch the ocean and hear the waves so I headed to the deck 4 lounge chairs. They were relaxing and the view breathtaking. I was feeling a bit guilty as several joggers kept passing by on the deck. So I decided I should at least make a meager attempt at some exercise after the greasy breakfast.

I put on my gym shoes and started walking around deck 4. Well they were doing maintenance several different areas on the deck, so it was a constant game of Human Frogger (that really ages me!!). After 20 minutes of dodging various obstacles I decided to head up to the fitness center. A treadmill was open and the view was spectacular. Right when I was thinking, “does it get any better than this?” I realized that I was thirsty, really thirsty as I was exercising pretty hard. Well there are tiny cups for water, but I wanted more. Eventually I was parched, so I gave up the treadmill to run down to deck 9 to fill my large cup with water. By the time I got back to the fitness center the treadmills were all taken, so I settled for an elliptical machine. I didn’t stay long because soon my DH was out from his massage. Advice: BRING YOUR OWN WATER to the fitness center if you like to stay hydrated.

DH & I changed into swim wear and headed to Quiet Cove. We found two cushioned loungers portside that were in the sun, behind the Plexiglas, but still getting a nice breeze. It was so peaceful that I fell asleep for a short nap while DH read his book. This was the most ideal way to spend a morning!!

Around 11:30 we picked the kids up from the club and headed to lunch at Parrot Cay. It was an American buffet lunch. I don’t recall anything specific, but it was good. After lunch the kids played in the Mickey pool and slide for a while. It was less crowded because many people were preparing to disembark in Key West. In my photo album there is a picture of the kids all alone in the pool, that’s almost unheard of! Unfortunately our fun was soon cut short because someone had a potty accident in the Mickey pool and a CM told us that they were closing the pool to clean it. What a bummer!! I really wish people would abide by the rules and not let diapered children in the pool. It really unfairly ruins it for a lot of people. We headed back to the stateroom and gave the kids a shower and put them to nap. DH was still so relaxed from his massage that he wanted to nap too.

I decided to venture into Key West while they were all sleeping. I only had one goal – frozen key lime pie dipped in chocolate on a stick!! I was a lady on a mission. On my mission, I accidentally ran into Kino’s Sandals!! What good fortune! So I stopped in to buy 4 pair of sandals. As I was coming out the sandal shop I was trying to get my directions straight when I spotted IT…the Blonde Giraffe!! I raced over to indulge in my very first key lime pie on a stick. I have to say, it lived up to its reputation. It was really delicious, especially as I roamed the hot Key West streets. I browsed a bit more, found some things at the Life is Good store for DH and kids and headed back to the ship. I returned to a dark stateroom and 3 sleeping beauties.

I wanted to take a shower so I grabbed a change of clothes and ran up to the spa. MORE ADVICE: try the showers in the spa!! Just stop by the spa desk and ask for a locker key. You have to give them your KTTW card until you return the locker key. It was great water pressure and more room than the cabin showers. They have robes, slippers, shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and towels available but no wash cloths. (Men-skip this part, women - bring your razor! I kept forgetting mine! I showered up there every day while the kids napped so by the 3rd day it was getting ugly. ) I was able to get my shower in without waking my crew. By the time I returned to the room, they were starting to stir.

At 5:15 we headed down for dinner. Donald was scheduled at 5:15 in the lobby, so we decided to wait in line. It was a special bonus when Donald showed up with Daisy! Then we headed to Animator’s Palate for dinner. Again, we had very hard working servers, but we were just a table to them.

My DS decided to be not so “D” and was punished by going to bed early. This was a big deal because Goofy’s PJ party was from 7:15-8:45 for the 5-7yr olds. DD was able to go to the party. She was late getting there and missed the big appearance by Goofy, but she did get to color her own pillowcase. When I picked her up, the CM gave me an uncolored pillowcase for DS, which was nice. Because of DS’s bedtime punishment we missed the show for Freddy Fusion and John Charles.

After the kids were put to bed, DH and I took turns roaming the ship. I browsed through the shops and Shutters. Of course, every night I also downloaded all my photos on to the laptop, and then backed them up on another portable hard drive. I know that sounds like overkill, but you will understand if you’ve ever had a hard drive failure. Pictures are so important for me to help trigger the memories of the fun things we did. And I want my kids to look back on the pictures and recall the memories too. So having backups of backups is important to me.

One thing that I found odd is that some character meet times are so late! Dopey was 9:30-10 that night, but no other time earlier that day. That is just way too late for my crew. At home we are in bed by 8 PM. We are more flexible on vacation, but for the benefit of everyone (including all the other passengers) I need to get my kids to sleep so they aren’t in meltdown mode later. Trust me; I wish more kids napped! I witnessed plenty of meltdowns of children who were just over tired from all the magical fun!

…next a Day at Sea

 

[Pinky3]

Pooh Mania: Your photos are beautiful. Could I ask what type of camera you have?

 

[bellebud]

i'm loving your tr!! Your kids are SO cute and look so handsome and beautiful in their formal wear! We've never cruised before, and I have a cat 9 cabin booked for next summer (7 day western too!) Your cabin looks great!! I plan on spending our port days mainly on the ship to enjoy the pools and uncrowded conditions. On regular sea days, we'll probably avoid the pools, from what I read about how crowded they are.

For your semi-formal night (in your pics), did you dress basically the same on formal night? Meaning, I thought when I looked at your pic and saw the caption "semi formal" that you all look very formal (and very nice!!) and is that the norm for semi formal? DH is going to HATE dressing up at all, but I don't want us to miss anything, and although I don't like dressing up myself, it seems like if everyone's doing it, it would be fun and the kids would enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing your vacation w/ us!

 

[pooh_mania]

Pooh Mania: Your photos are beautiful. Could I ask what type of camera you have?

I have an older Canon S2IS. I love it! It is the step between a point and shoot and a digital SLR camera. I am very picky about cameras and did a lot of research before purchasing. I have been so happy with it and highly recommend the newer Canon S5IS or the Canon S3IS. Several people have bought them based on my recommendation and area also happy.

 

[pooh_mania]

For your semi-formal night (in your pics), did you dress basically the same on formal night? ... and is that the norm for semi formal?
Thanks for sharing your vacation w/ us!

No, it is definitely not the norm for semi-formal night!! It was just my decision to put the formalwear back on so that we could get the photos with Formal Mickey and Formal Minnie on the semi-formal night. Trust me, DH and kids were not thriled about getting all dressed up, but now they love to look at the photos. Plus, they know that it is so much easier to let Mommy get the photos she wants and be done with it, or I'll keep talking about it until they cave in!

Have fun!

 

[pooh_mania]

Monday, April 7, 2008 – Day at Sea, Formal Night, The Golden Mickey’s Show

We started the day with our Character Breakfast in Parrot Cay – Mickey’s Island Jam. As mentioned in a previous post, this is NOT a photo opportunity. It is a bit of chaos as the characters make a couple of group appearances during the breakfast. They have the kids up and down out of their seats, dancing around, and then the characters leave and the kids return to their tables. No sooner are the kids finally interested in breakfast, but the characters reappear and get the kids back up again! The poor servers have a heck of a time trying to maneuver between all the chaos. I really felt bad for them during this breakfast. I personally did not enjoy this breakfast and did not think it was really that great for the kids either. I am sure everyone has their own experience of it, and I’m sure some people really enjoyed this breakfast experience.

After breakfast the kids wanted to head to the Lab for Nestlé’s Jr. Chef cooking baking at 10:15 (good marketing Nestle! ). After dropping the kids off, DH and I stop by Shutters to see photos and pick the best ones. We followed the advice learned on DIS and bought a package right away. I mistakenly thought that I could have them re-print a photo in the size I wanted, so I bought the all 6x8 photo package. It was around day 2 when they explained that the photos are ONLY printed in one size. So of course, in the brilliant Disney marketing machine logic, they print some photos in 6x8 and others in 8x10. So I would have to guess that most people who want a photo package, buy a combo package that includes a certain number of 6x8 and 8x10 photos. I tossed the photos that I definitely did not want to keep (closed eyes, weird expressions). I purchased the photos that I wanted. And I stacked the remaining “maybe” photos together.

I tried to make a stop at Shutters each day to see the photos taken, buy, discard, and stack my photos. It turned out to be so helpful to do that, so by the end of the cruise I knew how many photos I could still pick out for my package. I ended up trading a few early photos for better photos later in the week. For example, we had several different pictures taken with Donald, Daisy, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, etc. By the end of the week, I realized that I preferred the formal pictures near the end better than the casual early shots. I guess mainly because our outfits coordinated better in style and color in the formal pictures. At the end of the cruise I saw several people who must have stacked their photos all week and then they had a TON to sift through and make decisions about when it was quite busy and crowded. I simply had to make a decision about the few last shots near the end.

After Shutters, DH and I went up to deck 4 for a jog. Then he headed to the fitness center for a quick workout. I have NO recollection of what I did with a second day of FREE time to myself, but it must have been relaxing! We picked the kiddos up at 11:45 and headed to the Asian lunch buffet at Parrot Cay.

I was quite disappointed in this lunch. I wish we would have headed up to deck 9 for some pizza and burgers instead. I love most Asian food, but this was just too institutionalized and definitely “cafeteria” quality Asian food. There was a stir fry station where you could take a bowl, pick out the vegetables and meats (shrimp, chicken or beef) that you wanted in your stir fry. Then a CM asks what kind of noodles you want (pasta type Asian noodles, or rice noodles) and what kind of sauce (teriyaki, spicy, garlic and maybe one other kind of sauce). Then you get a number and go back to your table and wait for the CM to deliver your cooked stir fry. Well, honestly I waited what seemed like FOREVER for the stir fry to arrive, although it was probably only 10 minutes. By the time it came, I was no longer interested in it. I was surprised because the meats were already pre-cooked. So that kind of stir fry should really only take a couple of minutes to throw over the fire. As I write this trip report, it just dawned on me that the portable cook-tops they used may not have gotten hot enough for real stir fry and been the cause of the delay. The stir fry was inedible for me. It was so greasy and soggy. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to some good vegetables.

Honestly I am not a huge vegetable eater. I try to cook them occasionally, and I definitely try to get the kids to eat them. And even I noticed that there was a BIG lack of vegetables at all the meals!! I recall one dinner that listed asparagus as a side item. It came with 2 very small stalks of asparagus! The dinner salads were very small too. In fact my DS6 could easily eat 2 salads as an appetizer! There is fresh fruit available on-board which is at least better than nothing.

Back to lunch – the lunch food itself was a big disappointment, but the highlight was meeting Enika from Hungary our assistant server. She was great!! We even mentioned her in our customer service survey so that hopefully she’ll eventually get promoted to a server! She was so attentive to us, interactive with the kids, etc. It was at this lunch that made me realize how short changed I felt with our dinner serving team. Enika kept bringing us Diet Cokes throughout our lunch. She made sure the kids’ waters were full. And she was removing used plates before we knew what happened. She was just darn good!! At dinner, our assistant server would often let our first Diet Coke glasses go empty and just leave them empty. Around the arrival of our main course, he would ask us if we’d like another drink. Well honestly, since I hadn’t eaten dinner, YES I would like another Diet Coke please! I felt like it was the kind of restaurant that charges drinks by the glass, so they ask eat time before offering to bring another. Again, I think he was new so I tried to let it go and not worry about it too much. Most times we had to take the lid off the kids’ water cups and leave them visibly empty and ask for someone to give them more water. I guess that Disney has spoiled me into expecting first class service and I come to expect it everywhere in the magical world of Disney. Enough of that rant….

After lunch we wandered the ship as a family. This translates into Mom taking a million pictures of the kids and Dad at various “I-must-document-this” locations throughout the ship! The kids returned to the club from 1:30-2:30 for “Lava Flow”. This is a very messy activity where the kids build their own volcano and then watch it erupt. When I went to pick the kids up, the lead CM was making his volcano erupt red lava that SPRAYED ALL OVER the ceiling! Of course the kids LOVED it. As a mom all I could think of is “what a mess that will be to clean up!” After volcanoes it was naptime for DS, DD, and DH!

During the volcano and nap time, I had time to attend some adult classes. The first was the Art of Disney Entertaining class - Cake and Plate decorating. It was kind of fun to see them add the little decorations to the plate and see how it took an ordinary dessert and made it look first class! This was an adult only event, and I was glad to see the CM working at the entrance of the event politely turning people away who came with children. A tip – they handed out copies of recipes at the different Art of Entertaining classes!

I also attended the walking tour of the ship called “Art of the Theme Show Ship Tour. For a first time DCL traveler, I enjoyed learning some history of the making of the Magic ship and how some of the details were selected for the décor of the ship. At the end of the tour, the CM leading it opened it up to questions for the guests. She said, “Ask any question you ever wanted to know about the Magic, crew life, etc.” So I got the ball rolling by asking, “How many hours a day do you work?” I believe she said 9-12 hours per day, 7 days per week, and no days off during her contract which lasted 3 months. She then answered several more questions about life as a crew member. It was quite fascinating and there’s no way I am strong enough to work on a cruise ship!!

After nap it was time to get ready for Formal Night dinner and the Golden Mickey’s Show. My DD7 does NOT Like to wear dresses. So she was not thrilled to be wearing a super fancy dress! On the other hand, DS6 loves to wear his tuxedo and has even asked to wear it to school (silly boy). We all donned our formal wear and headed to dinner. Again, dinner was not a memorable event so I don’t have much to report about it. Sorry!

After dinner we shopped, took some photos and then headed to the Golden Mickey’s show. Again, I didn’t read my Navigator close enough. From 8:15-8:30 they have the “Red Carpet Arrivals” outside of the theater. Here they take live video of an MC interviewing kids coming to the Golden Mickey’s and they broadcast the video inside the theater. We were already seated in the theater, and didn’t have a chance for the kids to get on the big screen! It was so adorable to see the different kids interviewed and on screen. Maybe next time we’ll try to get the kids on the “Red Carpet Arrival” video.

This was the first Broadway style show of the week and it did not disappoint! The show was captivating and entertaining. All members of our family enjoyed it! The show finished at 9:15 and then it was time for bed for DS6 and DD7. It’s a bummer that Mickey came out at 9:30 PM, Chip N Dale at 9:45 PM and Goofy at 10 PM for photos! That was too late for these kids.

...coming up next Grand Cayman and the Stingray City excursion!

 

[bellebud]

still enjoying!

 

[dmi188]

Nice trip report! I am reliving the trip with you. Our asst. servers also left glasses empty. And even tho I stated on the first night that I would always get iced tea, he only brought it without asking the last night.

I am thinking part of the problem is that we do not drink charged beverages. They know there is no extra tip for them, so they worry about those ordering wine, smoothies, coffee drinks etc. That will boost their tip.

 

[FIREFIGHTERMICKEY]

yOUR PICS ARE NOT WORKING.

 

[SUSIEQ]

Thanks for the info
If you could share info the soft side cooler you used that would be most helpful

Yes, please tell us about the cooler!

 

[pooh_mania]

Yes, please tell us about the cooler!

I bought a 24-pack sized Polar Bear cooler. You can buy them at several different online retailers. Specific bag details can be found at their website:

polarbearcoolers dot com

I don't work for them, I just wanted to let people know how awesome the bags are!! They don't leak or sweat, and they keep ice for several days when indoors. It kept our things ice cold for our whole day excursions. Plus, it doesn't look like a cooler, so I am hoping to use it this summer at the fitness center pool where outside coolers are not allowed. I just want to take some cold water to the pool, but instead they want me to pay $1.50 per bottle! What is silly is that I can bring my own water go to work out at the same location. Go figure.