lbgraves
Little Cinderella's Mommy
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2003
- Messages
- 49,468
Cast - Mike (DH), Lisa, William 5, and Kaitlyn 3.
We drove to FL the previous Sunday and spent two days with family in Jacksonville before driving the WDW on Wednesday. We stayed at the AS Movie Resort in the Toy Story section for 3 night prior to the cruise and went to MK on Thursday. This was our first time going to anything Disney and first cruise. I am starting to post pictures to our webpage at http://community.webshots.com/user/lbgraves.
We woke up early Saturday morning excited about driving to The Magic. After a quick breakfast at the food court, we finished packing the car and left the All Star Movie Resort, WDW, and Orlando and headed to Port Canaveral. The excitement heightened as we approached the bridges which you are suppose to be able to see the ship from. Mike and I saw it!!! The kids kept asking where it was since they had missed it but we had them ready with the camcorder when we reached the top of the second bridge. Nothing seemed real after that point. We had been waiting for this moment for so long I dont think we could believe it was actually happening.
Mike dropped William and me off with the luggage in front of the terminal and a porter quickly came over to help us. I put on my DIS name tag and walked towards the entrance to wait for him and Kaitlyn to join us. I noticed a woman looking at me funny and then realized that she had to be a DISer trying to see my nametag. It was Kim with her family. We had already met a friend before even entering the terminal! I decided to get in line and have Mike catch up with us. After having our docs reviewed and entering the check in line, Kim and I commented on the fact that it was odd for people to already be in line to board at 10:30. We laughed and didnt think anything else of it. After checking in and walking around the terminal I took another look at the welcome information sheet. I was surprised to see that we would be boarding an hour earlier. I picked up our things and wheeled Kaitlyn to the line, where Mike & William could find us. We passed Kim on the way and told her the news. It turned out that we stood on the other side of the ribbon from another DISer. I heard someone call out to Dana. After she called him Tony I knew that they were with our thread and we chatted for the endless time we spent waiting. She was lucky to be near the front of the line. After the ears were opened, I met another DISer going by. Jo saw Williams Guest of Honor name tag and asked if I was Lisa. It turned out that I had also run into Julie a couple times but neither of us realized it until the next day. I thought it was funny that three of our families were wearing the same matching Disney T-shirt in different colors.
Walking towards the gangplank my stomach started turning flips and my eyes teared up with the excitement. My first view of The Magics atrium was breathtaking. Captain Mickey was just reaching the top of the stairway then stopped at the railing to wave to us. We went up to Deck 4 to greet him. He was quite taken with William and Kaitlyns ears and they were very happy to see him. We decided to go up to Deck 9 and get something to eat at Topsiders before exploring the ship. There were already a few kids in the Mickey Pool when we walked to lunch. The shrimp of course was excellent and Mike convinced me to try the Mango soup. A definite treat! It was only 12:30 when we finished eating and we went to find our stateroom. The hall was roped off but a host was walking by while we were standing there so I asked if we could please just leave our bags in the room. He checked with our Host and returned to take them from us asking us to wait until after 1:30 to return. It was much easier to navigate the ship without the soft sided cooler that was packed with beer, coke, and juice boxes.
We then went to the Oceaneers Club to check the kids in. Both of them liked the play area and William was quite taken with the counselor who helped us, Tracy. It took a little convincing to get him to leave. Our room was then ready and the kids changed into their swimsuits ready to head up to the Mickey pool. William loved it! Kaitlyn didnt care for the toddler ear but after we started playing with the fountains with her she settled down and started splashing around with the other kids. Another mom and I kept telling the bigger kids that it was for the non-potty trained and they quickly left. Kaitlyn had only been doing well with the PT for three weeks so we chose to start her out in a swim diaper to make sure she would adjust to the ship well.
I returned to the room to see if our luggage had arrived and found four out of five bags there so the unpacking began. I didnt think it was possible to find a place for everything, but considering one was a garment bag, one was HBA, and small one was just shoes for everyone it worked out. The kids clothes were missing and I decided that I wasnt going to stress about them wearing shorts to dinner for one night. Mike brought the kids back to the room to prepare for the lifeboat drill at 4:30. We went early and found that we were actually one of the last to report to our area. Poor Kaitlyn couldnt walk down the stairs with her life jacket on because the top of it covered her ears and she couldnt move her head at all. It came off after we were lined up. She is use to wearing a boat coat when we go boating but this was defiantly not quite the same. I believe she was beginning to dread the cruise thinking that she was going to have to wear this contraption the entire time like she does when we go out boating.
After quickly returning the life jackets to the room, we headed up to Deck 9 for the Sail Away deck party. The kids both got up on the pool cover right near the railing and watched the opening dance numbers not sure what to think. The dance floor was quickly filling up and I was glad that they were right up front where they should be able to see most of the activity. Kaitlyn ended up covering her ears and falling asleep on my shoulder while we were dancing. Im not quite sure how she was able to do that. Williams face lit up when Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Chip, and Dale came out and started dancing right in front of him. It wasnt until they brought out Mickey that I thought to try to wake up Kaitlyn while snapping pictures. She barely opened her eyes at first, then popped them open after seeing Mickey bounce by. William, who had been pretty stationary for the first few songs, came to life and danced right along with everyone from the song before the characters came out on stage until we returned to our stateroom. I will never forget watching him attempt to keep up with the motions to the entire song of YMCA. Unfortunately, Mike was on Deck 10 with the camcorder getting some great footage of The Magic sailing away at that point.
The Deck Party was a lot of fun. I met up with Linda and her family, Mary and her family (our tablemates for the cruise), Jo, and Kim. Mike ended up introducing me to Gordon, Lorraine, and Carly. They approached him since I somehow managed to get him to wear his nametag. The countdown and hearing the Magics horn was amazing!!! I was glad that my sunglasses hid the tears. Mike tapped my shoulder during Walking on Sunshine and pointed to the starboard railing. For some reason I was amazed to see that we were moving and screamed with joy. Mary looked at me and I told her to look over too. We were so happy to finally be cruising on The Magic after eleven months of chatting and planning.
We headed to our rooms at 5:30 after the party started to break up and got ready for dinner. The kids luggage was there so I quickly threw their bags into the drawers I had kept open for them and everyone got dressed. We found our way to Animators Palate and found the Campbells all settled in at Table 16. Our Server Rudy and Assistant Server Bayoki quickly introduced themselves and made their recommendations for dinner that evening. William was quite taken with Brian. Mary and I quickly found out that we did in fact have quite a bit in common, which made our husbands able to sympathize with each other. LOL! Devon and Kaitlyn sat next to each other and hit it off instantly. We probably missed most of the show because the conversation was entertaining and the food of course was incredible. I had the lobster and crab appetizer, Caesar salad, Sirloin, and cheesecake. We did stop to enjoy the main light show and the kids seemed to enjoy their view from our table of the cartoons showing on the screen in the corner. Nadege, our Head Server introduced herself during dinner and gave the kids their first trading card of Captain Mickey. She was very personable and seemed to go against the common experiences with head servers that I had read on the boards.
We went to Shutters and found an cute photo of Kaitlyn in the pool that afternoon so of course I had to get a package for the cruise. It turned out that we would not be disappointed with this decision. The Welcome Aboard Variety Show was very enjoyable. Both Chuck Gunter the juggler and Michael Harrison the ventriloquist were hysterical. Mike and I both had tears running down our face from laughing so hard. The boy Harrison chose to work with was great with the act and turned out to be traveling with Jos family. It turned out that he was very shy and his sister put his hand up. I wish that we had been able to enjoy both of their nightclub acts on the cruise but we were usually all worn out by that time.
One thing that surprised both of us was how much motion we felt from the ship rocking. The seas were 7 feet that first night. I was rocked to sleep quickly and aside from having to get up to put Kaitlyn back in bed a couple times, slept very soundly.
We drove to FL the previous Sunday and spent two days with family in Jacksonville before driving the WDW on Wednesday. We stayed at the AS Movie Resort in the Toy Story section for 3 night prior to the cruise and went to MK on Thursday. This was our first time going to anything Disney and first cruise. I am starting to post pictures to our webpage at http://community.webshots.com/user/lbgraves.
We woke up early Saturday morning excited about driving to The Magic. After a quick breakfast at the food court, we finished packing the car and left the All Star Movie Resort, WDW, and Orlando and headed to Port Canaveral. The excitement heightened as we approached the bridges which you are suppose to be able to see the ship from. Mike and I saw it!!! The kids kept asking where it was since they had missed it but we had them ready with the camcorder when we reached the top of the second bridge. Nothing seemed real after that point. We had been waiting for this moment for so long I dont think we could believe it was actually happening.
Mike dropped William and me off with the luggage in front of the terminal and a porter quickly came over to help us. I put on my DIS name tag and walked towards the entrance to wait for him and Kaitlyn to join us. I noticed a woman looking at me funny and then realized that she had to be a DISer trying to see my nametag. It was Kim with her family. We had already met a friend before even entering the terminal! I decided to get in line and have Mike catch up with us. After having our docs reviewed and entering the check in line, Kim and I commented on the fact that it was odd for people to already be in line to board at 10:30. We laughed and didnt think anything else of it. After checking in and walking around the terminal I took another look at the welcome information sheet. I was surprised to see that we would be boarding an hour earlier. I picked up our things and wheeled Kaitlyn to the line, where Mike & William could find us. We passed Kim on the way and told her the news. It turned out that we stood on the other side of the ribbon from another DISer. I heard someone call out to Dana. After she called him Tony I knew that they were with our thread and we chatted for the endless time we spent waiting. She was lucky to be near the front of the line. After the ears were opened, I met another DISer going by. Jo saw Williams Guest of Honor name tag and asked if I was Lisa. It turned out that I had also run into Julie a couple times but neither of us realized it until the next day. I thought it was funny that three of our families were wearing the same matching Disney T-shirt in different colors.
Walking towards the gangplank my stomach started turning flips and my eyes teared up with the excitement. My first view of The Magics atrium was breathtaking. Captain Mickey was just reaching the top of the stairway then stopped at the railing to wave to us. We went up to Deck 4 to greet him. He was quite taken with William and Kaitlyns ears and they were very happy to see him. We decided to go up to Deck 9 and get something to eat at Topsiders before exploring the ship. There were already a few kids in the Mickey Pool when we walked to lunch. The shrimp of course was excellent and Mike convinced me to try the Mango soup. A definite treat! It was only 12:30 when we finished eating and we went to find our stateroom. The hall was roped off but a host was walking by while we were standing there so I asked if we could please just leave our bags in the room. He checked with our Host and returned to take them from us asking us to wait until after 1:30 to return. It was much easier to navigate the ship without the soft sided cooler that was packed with beer, coke, and juice boxes.
We then went to the Oceaneers Club to check the kids in. Both of them liked the play area and William was quite taken with the counselor who helped us, Tracy. It took a little convincing to get him to leave. Our room was then ready and the kids changed into their swimsuits ready to head up to the Mickey pool. William loved it! Kaitlyn didnt care for the toddler ear but after we started playing with the fountains with her she settled down and started splashing around with the other kids. Another mom and I kept telling the bigger kids that it was for the non-potty trained and they quickly left. Kaitlyn had only been doing well with the PT for three weeks so we chose to start her out in a swim diaper to make sure she would adjust to the ship well.
I returned to the room to see if our luggage had arrived and found four out of five bags there so the unpacking began. I didnt think it was possible to find a place for everything, but considering one was a garment bag, one was HBA, and small one was just shoes for everyone it worked out. The kids clothes were missing and I decided that I wasnt going to stress about them wearing shorts to dinner for one night. Mike brought the kids back to the room to prepare for the lifeboat drill at 4:30. We went early and found that we were actually one of the last to report to our area. Poor Kaitlyn couldnt walk down the stairs with her life jacket on because the top of it covered her ears and she couldnt move her head at all. It came off after we were lined up. She is use to wearing a boat coat when we go boating but this was defiantly not quite the same. I believe she was beginning to dread the cruise thinking that she was going to have to wear this contraption the entire time like she does when we go out boating.
After quickly returning the life jackets to the room, we headed up to Deck 9 for the Sail Away deck party. The kids both got up on the pool cover right near the railing and watched the opening dance numbers not sure what to think. The dance floor was quickly filling up and I was glad that they were right up front where they should be able to see most of the activity. Kaitlyn ended up covering her ears and falling asleep on my shoulder while we were dancing. Im not quite sure how she was able to do that. Williams face lit up when Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Chip, and Dale came out and started dancing right in front of him. It wasnt until they brought out Mickey that I thought to try to wake up Kaitlyn while snapping pictures. She barely opened her eyes at first, then popped them open after seeing Mickey bounce by. William, who had been pretty stationary for the first few songs, came to life and danced right along with everyone from the song before the characters came out on stage until we returned to our stateroom. I will never forget watching him attempt to keep up with the motions to the entire song of YMCA. Unfortunately, Mike was on Deck 10 with the camcorder getting some great footage of The Magic sailing away at that point.
The Deck Party was a lot of fun. I met up with Linda and her family, Mary and her family (our tablemates for the cruise), Jo, and Kim. Mike ended up introducing me to Gordon, Lorraine, and Carly. They approached him since I somehow managed to get him to wear his nametag. The countdown and hearing the Magics horn was amazing!!! I was glad that my sunglasses hid the tears. Mike tapped my shoulder during Walking on Sunshine and pointed to the starboard railing. For some reason I was amazed to see that we were moving and screamed with joy. Mary looked at me and I told her to look over too. We were so happy to finally be cruising on The Magic after eleven months of chatting and planning.
We headed to our rooms at 5:30 after the party started to break up and got ready for dinner. The kids luggage was there so I quickly threw their bags into the drawers I had kept open for them and everyone got dressed. We found our way to Animators Palate and found the Campbells all settled in at Table 16. Our Server Rudy and Assistant Server Bayoki quickly introduced themselves and made their recommendations for dinner that evening. William was quite taken with Brian. Mary and I quickly found out that we did in fact have quite a bit in common, which made our husbands able to sympathize with each other. LOL! Devon and Kaitlyn sat next to each other and hit it off instantly. We probably missed most of the show because the conversation was entertaining and the food of course was incredible. I had the lobster and crab appetizer, Caesar salad, Sirloin, and cheesecake. We did stop to enjoy the main light show and the kids seemed to enjoy their view from our table of the cartoons showing on the screen in the corner. Nadege, our Head Server introduced herself during dinner and gave the kids their first trading card of Captain Mickey. She was very personable and seemed to go against the common experiences with head servers that I had read on the boards.
We went to Shutters and found an cute photo of Kaitlyn in the pool that afternoon so of course I had to get a package for the cruise. It turned out that we would not be disappointed with this decision. The Welcome Aboard Variety Show was very enjoyable. Both Chuck Gunter the juggler and Michael Harrison the ventriloquist were hysterical. Mike and I both had tears running down our face from laughing so hard. The boy Harrison chose to work with was great with the act and turned out to be traveling with Jos family. It turned out that he was very shy and his sister put his hand up. I wish that we had been able to enjoy both of their nightclub acts on the cruise but we were usually all worn out by that time.
One thing that surprised both of us was how much motion we felt from the ship rocking. The seas were 7 feet that first night. I was rocked to sleep quickly and aside from having to get up to put Kaitlyn back in bed a couple times, slept very soundly.
