August 7, 2004 Magic...who's going?

[jeanneg]

Hi Anna,
great to hear from you!

If anybody wants to get an update on some of the things that are going on right now, please check the 10/2 cruise meet thread ("Antigua or Bust" started by papa).

best wishes to all you landlubbers!

Jeanne

 

[eye R.N.]

We made it home around 3AM. No weather delays, but a couple of accidents slowed us down.

 

[FLGalInTN]

Anyone make it back yet?

Our flights out of MCO were cancelled due to the devastation of Hurricane Charley but we were lucky to get a rental car at Melbourne Airport. We drove home to Tennessee and got in around 1:00 this morning.

Driving back through Orlando was awful. The damage from this hurricane is unbelievable. MCO was closed and all of Orlando is without power. There were roofs torn off houses, trees down everywhere, and metal signs ripped to shreds. We knew it was going to be bad when we were told Friday afternoon that Disney World was closed and that our arrival in Port Canaveral would be delayed. For awhile CNN was blacked out onboard (coincidence?) but after we were finally told about the magnitude of Hurricane Charley, the news coverage continued. Many were glued to their televisions and checking out the storm via the Internet.

The Magic stopped at Freeport, GBI, to take on fuel due to the closure of Port Canaveral. We stayed there around 4 hours re-fueling and waiting out the storm. We arrived at PC at 9:00 and but were not allowed to disembark until 11:30. My only complaint was that we were told nothing about why it was taking so long to disembark. No one knew that PC was without power and the baggage was being sorted by hand. There were lots of very hot, anxious, antsy people wedged into the atrium and all over levels 3 and 4. Everyone was on their cell phones scrambling to get flights, cars, and hotel rooms to wait this thing out. It wasn't until I called Northwest Airlines that we knew our flight was cancelled and the airport was closed. We were told by NWA that it would be Tuesday at the earliest before we could get a flight out. I scrambled and started calling rental car companies to secure a car for the drive home. The nearest full-size car available was at Melbourne Regional Airport. We got a taxi as soon as we got off the ship. It took us about 12 hours to drive home.

I realize now how incredibly lucky I am to be sitting home in my nice, comfortable house right now. We had a terrific cruise. Getting home wasn't easy but at least we have our home and family intact. Many in Florida aren't so lucky. We saw hundreds and hundreds of trucks and emergency responders from all over the southeast heading south on our trip back up I-75. May God be with the people of Florida who have been affected by this terrible storm.

Hoping that everyone gets home safe,

Cynthia

 

[eye R.N.]

Lots of trucks heading down to help. I'll have to admit I was very happy to see our car in the parking lot at Canaveral.

 

[jeanneg]

Got in around 11pm last night......bad traffic and devastation in the Daytona area. Otherwise the journey was quite smooth with the exception of a few patches of very heavy rain in FL and GA.

Cynthia:
Where were you all week....did you try to make the sailaway? I realize there was some confusion as to exactly where we were supposed to meet. Were you the one going on the 5-star voyage to St John? If so, what was your opinion? I'll post more on that later, but I did not feel it was a Disney quality excursion. I saw quite a number of people totally freaked out by the jellyfish and both my daughter and I got stung (very small and not serious, but unpleasant nonetheless). Will post more about this later.

 

[wendym]

We're home too! Arrived back in Aberdeen at 10am this morning. We were very lucky to get our flights although check in took 3 hours. I felt so sorry for the workers at the airport and my first question was always if they and their families were ok - from their reaction I think I was one of the few to ask about them. It was the people on the cancelled friday flights that had it worse with British Airways - they had to go standby and may not get back until tuesday.
I think another reason for the delay in leaving the ship was immigration. All non US citizens and a lot of the crew have to clear that before anybody can leave. As we are from the UK we usually have to be up at 6am to go through it - this time they couldn't get on board until 9.30am so everything took longer. Also the people sitting the atrium didn't help matters - it really blocks things up if people stay there which is why Brent kept asking them to move. We found a seat in Diversiosn and stayed there until about 11.20am when we left - going to the Walt theatre was not an option with the hand luggage!
Best wishes to all.
Wendy

 

[MBFergie]

Sorry I didn't get to hook up with anyone. As I expected my kids and I were dancing away at the sailaway party and before I knew it the party was over.

We had a great time and has arrived home safely. I for one enjoyed the extra few hours on the Magic Saturday. We played ping-pong with out the wind blowing the ball away every minute.

Did any of you do the night clubs. Tim and I were on the dance floor every night. On the last night we went to the pub night and I was the embarassed gal in pink bouncing up and down during the bonnie lies over the ocean song. The skit they did was sooo funny!

We booked onboard again but for a phanton date. I was shocked how many dates were already sold out in 2005. Every week that would have worked with school and sport schedules was already booked. We are going to reschedule for Summer of 2006. Not in August though! I felt very safe on board with the hurricane out there but was a bit freaked out about my family, friends and dog back home. My internet charges were high, and thank god for instant messanger. I had various friends call my parents to tell them our status since $7 a minute to call was a bit high for my wallet.

 

[luv2boys]

Glad everyone had a good time and back home. Just a FYI, that Nicholas' MRI is on Tuesday at St. Jude. We will be there all day, so I will let you know how it went on Wednesday. Thank you to those for the prayers!

Amy

 

[wendym]

You will be in our prayers all the more on Tuesday Amy.
Wendy

 

[FLGalInTN]

Jeanne - I tried to find everyone during the sail-away but I think I was a bit late. I got caught up in the fun and dancing (I might have been bumping into Marie for all I know) and by the time I realized I should be looking for people we were already out of the port chasing after the Carnival Glory. I was a bit disappointed in the 5-star St. John excursion. DS really enjoyed the bouncy boat ride (up until the poor little girl right across from us on the boat tossed her cookies) and I thought St. John was beautiful. The snorkeling time was much too short for my taste and the jellies were a bit disconcerting (DS was totally freaked out). Not much you can do about jellies other than try to avoid them. They are to be expected this time of year. I think DH and I are going back to the USVI though not on a cruise (probably rent a condo or stay at the Westin on St. John).

Wendy - We stayed out on deck 4 watching the offloading of the luggage and then later sat down on the aft stairs between decks 3 and 4 to wait it out. I was starting to think that some of those people in the atrium might lose their cool. A few announcements from the crew about what was going on might have helped calm some tempers. We drove past the airport on our way home in the rental car. It looked so eerie and dark with absolutely no planes in sight.

I did finally meet Shelley and Denise very briefly when I recognized Shelley's name at a DVC presentation on Thursday(we are now DVC members ). I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet and get to know everyone.

The family is unanimous - we loved the cruise and would do it again in a heartbeat. DH is totally addicted to Palo and cruising (and has the waistline to show for it).

Cynthia

 

[jeanneg]

Cynthia:
We made it to Rockin Bar D several evenings, but didn't go to the British Pub nite. I was the one on the 5-star who moved to the rear of the passenger section just behind where the crew made their announcements. I saw one little boy who freaked out so badly because of the jellyfish that his dad had to bring him out of the water. I think my husband only lasted a few minutes and then went back on the boat. I was the one with the 4 older kids....we swam to the beach and had a great time, but I absolutely HATED the boat ride there and I thought they should have warned you about the jellyfish. Is there a particular season when they're plentiful because I never encountered a problem like that before?
I also thought the crew was rather sullen and looked so bored with their jobs.......not what you would expect from a Disney vendor.

We didn't disembark until after noon. We found some wonderful comfy chairs on deck 5 and caught up on our reading. The drink station on 9 was open and Scoops had a selection of whole fruits.
When we finally made our way to the atrium they were serving warm chocolate chip cookies. The rush was over and we breezed through luggage and customs. A CM spotted us on Deck 5 and said that we had the right idea....apparently it was a madhouse down below, but we missed it all.

Amy: prayers and pixie dust to you and Nicholas.

 

[gometros]

Glad you guys made back safely. We were wondering how Charley would affect the cruise. From what Wendy tells us, you had great weather the whole week, excpet that the parasailers were grounded at CC.

Amy - we're thinking of you guys up here in NY too. Please let us know how it goes.

 

[wendym]

Cynthia
So glad you joined DVC - I am sure you will enjoy it! We were spoiled at Diversions while waiting to get off as Ben (the landlord!) kept us all up to date.
Jeanne - Deck 5 sounds a great place to wait it out. However I hope we don't need to do it again - twice out of four cruises is enough - the first was on our first cruise when somebody had a heart attack at castaway cay and we had to wait for a helicopter to airlift the gentleman - luckily he was ok.
Wendy

 

[luv2boys]

Nicholas' MRI was unchanged, but it is a cyst on top of the tumor. Will have another MRI in December. Go back tomorrow to meet with psychologists to talk about school issues.

What is going to happen to this group since the cruise is over?

 

[DisneyCruiseluvr]

Nicholas and his family are will be in our prayers for sure.

We got home last night and it feels so weird to be back. It felt like this vacation was never going to end! We were away for 12 days and that was just the right amount of time. Not too short and definitely long enough.

We stayed at The Beach Club Resort until Tuesday. We asked a few castmembers around the parks how they were fairing after the storm and they shared some of these stories with us. Gas stations either didn't have power or they didn't have any fuel. Shipments of all kinds couldn't be delivered. Some grocery store shelves were empty. Some people weren't going to have their power back for at least another week. Yesterday, we were told that there wasn't one bag of ice to be found in Orlando.

We feel very blessed to have had such a wonderful vacation and we will also be keeping the people who are struggling in Orlando in our prayers as well.

 

[wendym]

Amy
All our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Wendy and Doreen

 

[sbennett]

Amy,
Likewise Nicholas will remain on our prayer list here at church and in our own personal prayers as well.

Shelley

 

[jeanneg]

Ditto for us, Amy.........we trust and pray all will go well for Nicholas.

 

[eye R.N.]

Taylor is leaving tomorrow with my brother and some cousins, Andy & I will depart on friday to salvage what we can from my parents home. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I expect this won't be easy.

Amy as always your family is in our families prayers.

 

[jeanneg]

Whoa, Denise, did I miss something? Were your parents affected by the storm? If that is the case, I'm so sorry. Of course we will keep you in our thoughts and prayers. Have a safe journey,
Jeanne