Disney Magic June 19-24, 2023, 2 Stops at Castaway Cay from Miami - Trip Report COMPLETE

[Clarkson U]

Hello! Welcome to my trip report for this 5 Night sailing on the Disney Magic from Port of Miami. This sailing took place from Monday, June 19 to Saturday, June 24, 2023. This was a sailing with 2 stops at Castaway Cay, one stop at Nassau and Silver Anniversary at Sea celebration.

Frequent DISBoard readers will recognize that I was part of a triple trip report on the Disney Magic from May 5, 2023 for the first sailing after dry dock that had its share of challenges. Here is a link to that trip report for review and I will reference it periodically during this trip report. https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...om-san-juan-–-5-13-may-2023-complete.3919629/


We were 2 adults on this sailing in an Inside Stateroom 6515. This is a sideways inside stateroom. On our May sailing, we were 4 adults, DW, DH, and DS x 2. We also didn't know anyone else on this sailing whereas on the May sailing we knew that @Calantha and @auntlynne would be sailing.

Who:
We are 49F (turning 50 on this sailing) and 48M sailing on this celebratory sailing.

Itinerary:

June 19: Port of Miami
June 20: Castaway Cay #1 - Optional Dress Up, Shimmering Seas Celebration with Fireworks
June 21: Nassau
June 22: Castaway Cay #2 - Pirate Night with Fireworks
June 23: Day at Sea
June 24: Port of Miami

Dining Rotation: RLAAR

Sunday, June 18th:
It was Father's Day, so we had breakfast with the boys in Orlando (21/18) and then finished the drive to Miami. From Orlando (near UCF) we took Route 520 to I-95 and stayed on I-95 all the way down to Miami. Fortunately, we didn't have much traffic for the drive and only hit some heavy rain as we were getting into Miami.

On the way, DW realized that she had no belt for the sailing, so we stopped at a Kohl's in Melbourne, FL. We got the belt for $20, but then as we went out to our car, found a $50 bill next to my car. With no other car next to me on that side, I was happy to have found $50. It made the belt free!

We arrived into Miami around 2:30 pm. We were staying at the W Miami on Brickell Ave very close to the Port of Miami. The W Miami is a great hotel. Very modern and clean and safe. It has hotel rooms on one side and residences on the other side. We had a balcony that gave us a view of the port of Miami. We could also see the drawbridge on Brickell Ave coming up and down from our balcony and enjoyed watching that for a while. Some really large private yachts coming through that area.

We found fellow cruisers who were staying at the same hotel, at the Intercontinental, JW Marriott and Hyatt Regency all right there and all within less than 1/2 mile of each other.

We checked in, gave our car to valet parking (there goes that $50) and then went exploring. We explored the hotel first and then grabbed our umbrellas and started walking around downtown Miami. Around dinner time we found the Whole Foods and decided that we would have that for dinner. We purchased large salads from the cold bar and some tofu and veggies from the hot bar. We decided to skip dessert since we knew we would eat plenty on the ship. It had stopped raining and we had a large one-bedroom suite for a room so we decided to bring the food back to our room and enjoy that while we watched some TV.

We went back out after dinner to walk the other direction from our hotel and found a food truck park in the church parking lot next to our hotel and also say the Mandarin Oriental and a few other hotels and buildings. It started raining a little bit later in the evening so we can back to the room and ended up going to bed early knowing tomorrow would be a busy day.

 

[Clarkson U]

Monday, June 19th - Embarkation Day!

We got up early to see if we could see the Magic from our Balcony. When we got up around 6 pm we could see only the top of the Magic from our balcony.



Here is another view from our balcony as well:



We decided to go out for another walk and see what else we could see of the port from a different vantage point. We went to Bayfront Park, SkyWheel Miami and the Bayside Marketplace.

We decided to go back to Whole Foods for breakfast so after our morning walk we went there. We got banana, greek yogurt and coffee for breakfast. We just enjoyed it at Whole Foods as it was hot and humid outside. We stopped at CVS on the way back as I needed a nail clipper.

Got back, got dressed and packed up our bags. By 10:30 we headed down to the hotel lobby, checked out and waited for our car so we could make the less than 2 mile drive to the cruise terminal. On our way to the DCL port, we made a wrong turn and had to make an extra loop to get to the right entrance. In Miami, DCL does not have its own terminal, it uses one of the NCL terminals.

We had a 11:15 PAT and were BG 5. We got to the port at 10:50, dropped off our luggage, went to the parking garage across the terminal. It was $22/night so we paid that upfront and then parked our car. We headed to the terminal and when we got there they were allowing anyone with an 11 am or 11:15 PAT to enter.

We did our online check, inquired about an upgrade (there was one for a HA Verandah room on Deck 7 AFT for $238 but we decided to pass) By 11:10 we were waiting in the terminal to board the ship. DCL Guest Wifi was not working in the terminal and DCL apologized for that but said we would have to wait until we got on the ship to connect to the app.

We were on the ship at 11:45 am, entering via Deck 3 - which was different than in May from San Juan when we entered the ship on Deck 4. We went right to Guest Services, where the host recognized us from the May sailing. We ordered the 25th Anniversary DCL wireless speaker and then went up to Deck 9. The line to enter Cabanas before Noon was long but within 5 minutes it was gone as they opened up Cabanas. After lunch, we went to the D-Lounge. At the D-Lounge, we were able to change our Palo time to 10:00 am and we were able to confirm that my request for a specific server had been granted already. David was the new Palo manager (we had Luca on the last sailing) and we met Alexander from the MDR management team. Alexander would turn out to be our restaurant manager for each night in MDR. We then went to Quiet Cove pool and went swimming. The water was the perfect refreshing temperature and water levels were good. We stayed in the pool until a little after 1:35 pm when it started to storm and they asked us to leave the pool. We were joined by one other couple for a little bit in the pool. When we got out of the water and dry we went to our stateroom.

Stateroom 6515 is Deck 6 Forward, inside stateroom, sideways room.

We got our luggage right away, met our Stateroom host, Saddam from India who was very nice and knowledgeable about the ship. We ordered our Platinum gift of Prosecco to be delivered to the stateroom and unpacked. We had our Prosecco and unpacked by 3 pm. The only thing I noticed about our stateroom on this first day and throughout the sailing is that it had very poor wifi connection to DCL Guest wifi. (the free stuff). We each poured a glass and started walking the ship. We were eager to check out the ship given some of the challenges we had faced in our previous sailing just 6 weeks ago.

Right away we noticed that hallways and elevator lobbies were much colder and as I would expect on a typical DCL sailing. We sat in the Soul Cat Lounge with our glass of Prosecco, picking activities on the app and waiting for our safety drill. We went to our assembly station and met some first time cruisers so it was nice to chat with them and share with them some of the things we love about being on the ship (it turns out we had the same dining rotation/times so we saw them often which was really nice).

After the safety drill, we decided to skip the sail away party as it was going to be indoors as it was very stormy and rainy outside. We got dressed for dinner, went to GS to load some gift card to our account (Thank you BJ's for discounts on Disney GC) and also went to say hi to Brent (one of the GS Managers whom we met last sailing).

We had dinner at Rapunzel's, table 84 which gave us a clear view of the stage (not as close as @Calantha had last sailing but still a good view of the stage area).



It was nice to see our server again. We had a different asst server and head server this sailing, but the old asst server and head server all came back to see us and say hello as they were all in Rapunzel's also. For dinner we had Bruschetta (made vegetarian), Chilled Mango and Papaya Soup, I had the Spinach, Sweet Potato and Lentil Dahl and DW had the vegetarian paccheri pasta dish. We also had one plate of Indian vegetarian food to share - which this night was Chana Masala, and Aloo Gobi along with rice and tortillas. For dessert, we had an Apple Caramel Sundae (due to allergies for DW) and I had the fresh fruit Sabayon.

After dinner, we had some items we wanted to Pixie Dust so we went out and did that! We also took character phots with Mickey and Donald dressed in their 25th Anniversary outfits. We decided to skip the show as it was Taylor Mason and while we like Taylor we had just seen him 6 weeks back (this would become a theme for this sailing). We went to a learn to draw Mickey Mouse and then turned in early to bed for our first day at Castaway Cay tomorrow.

 

[Clarkson U]

Tuesday, June 20th - Castaway Cay #1

I should mention from Monday, that in our stateroom we did receive our CC gifts - we got our 2 Platinum lanyards, the Mickey Beach Towel, the wet/dry bag and the larger beach bag. We did not get our 25th Anniversary print on Monday.

Last night we hung our room service tag out for morning coffee delivery. We got coffee for 2 and nothing else from room service. They arrived on time at 6:30 AM and I signed for it along with leaving a tip as well.

We started the morning enjoying coffee in our room and watching the move Brave, which we had never seen from start to finish. Around 7:15 in the morning my 25th anniversary speaker was delivered. I knew it would be today in the morning as I had to pick a day/time for the delivery as you have to be present in your room to receive the speaker.

Then at 7:30 am we went to Cabanas for breakfast.

At 8:15 am in the morning we were off the ship and on Castaway Cay. I had gotten a t-shirt from CC that was one size to small and I still had the tags on it. So I went back to CC and sure enough they still sell the same shirt, same price and with the tags on mine, the manager allowed me to exchange it. The manager also let me know that a sweatshirt I saw in Mickey's Mainsail the night before was only available in Small or XSmall. I would need at least a Large.

After grabbing a few beach chairs, we went and rented a 2-person pedal boat. It was $18 for 30 minutes. We did not reserve it in advance, we just walked up and rented it as they had plenty available. We pedaled out to the Magic and got a great view of the ship that we had never seen before at CC. Then went out to the island reef, saw lots of birds and then came back. It was very tiring for sure. We probably ended up with the boat for closer to 35 minutes but since no one else had one out I don't think it was an issue.

From there we went into the water at the family pool and enjoyed some water time. It was not hot like bath water so it was a refreshing swim in the salt water.

We decided at 11:30 am, that we would go back on the ship. We ordered Greek Salads from Room Service as well as Spinach, Feta and Mushroom Panini from Daisy D-Lite.

Then we went swimming in the adult pool.

By 3 pm, we were showered, out of the pool and dressed for the day on the ship. We went to Soul Cat Lounge for DCL Trivia followed by 25th Anniversary Crafts. While there we had Jazz 75 (DW) and I tried the Jubilee by the Sea which is the 25th Anniversary drink.





The Jazz 75 is good as always (we really liked that on the first sailing back in May) and it still does not disappoint. It is citrus infused Manhattan Gin with Champagne on top. The Jubilee has a slight grape-y flavor and not a drink I would ever order again. Similar to the Encanto drink on the May sailing, this is a one and done drink for me.

We decided to dress up for dinner - as it was Optional Dress up night.

We were in Lumiere's for dinner. We had Deep Fried Brie, DW had the farmhouse salad as that is her most favorite DCL salad, vegetarian French Onion soup (ordered the night before at dinner) and for dinner we had Indian Vegetarian food. We skipped dessert as we were very full. Also, at dinner I ordered the Double Crowned drink. It is Crown Royal, Chambord, Cointreau, Cranberry Juice, Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice on a cranberry sugar rim. It was delicious and one I would order again.




Right after dinner they did the 25th Anniversary Soiree. This was done in the Lobby Atrium right in front of the Lobby entrance to Lumiere's. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy came down the staircase from Deck 4 to Deck 3. The Cruise Director and Captain were also present. They were also giving out free drinks during this time (similar to the Captains reception on longer sailings). The Soiree was short and at the end they let you take pictures with the characters on your own phones.



After dinner we decided not to see the show, which was Tangled We decided to go up to Cove Cafe and read for a while. We read while I enjoyed a cold brew coffee. At 10:15 they did a small show up on Deck 9 followed by 25th Anniversary at Sea fireworks. The fireworks were shorter than the pirate fireworks but I would consider them nicer or more elegant fireworks. When that was over, we decided to head to bed as we were tired.

After dinner, I should also mention that we received our 25th Anniversary Mickey Print.

 

[Clarkson U]

Wednesday, June 21, 2023 - Nassau

I woke up early and went to the fitness center at 6 am. If anyone is curious, there were about 5 people in the fitness center at that time. After some time on the treadmill, I went out on Deck 9, grabbed a cup of coffee but could not see the sun rise as it was a little cloudy this morning. We were still pulling into port at Nassau.

Went back to my stateroom and got ready for the day. Went to Cabanas for breakfast at 7:30 am.

After breakfast, we made our way off the ship in search of some wifi. We found a Starbucks very close once off the port (it is a new Starbucks for sure) along with many other fellow cruisers. We sat for a few, surfed the web, read a few emails and then headed for our walk to the Bahamas Rum Cake Factory. I should say there were 5 ships in Port today - 2 Carnival ships, the Magic, one Royal ship and one NCL ship. It was busy.

The Bahamas Rum Cake Factory is about 3/4 mile walk down Bay street. Basically, come out of the port, find Bay Street and turn left. Keep walking until you see it on your right hand side. It was a popular stop with tours also.

We sampled some rum cake there and then purchased a number of the smaller rum cakes (6 oz cakes) to give away as gifts and for us to enjoy. Each 6 oz rum cake is $7 if you buy one separately. A pack of 6 is $37.99, but a pack of 4 is $22.99. I wanted 12 rum cakes - so logic would say go with the pack of 6 - but that makes it more expensive. So instead I brought them up to the counter in packs of 4 and told her I have 3 packs of 4 rum cakes each. That was the most economical way to purchase the rum cake. No issue bringing them back on board if any one is wondering. They are vacuum sealed in a bag so they stay good for a while. We came back on the ship by 10:45 am, relaxed for a bit and had an early lunch.

Our excursion meet up time was 12:15 in Fathom's on Deck 3 Forward. We did a DCL excursion called Ardastra Gardens and Wildlife Conservation Centre (N16) at $79/adult.

We took a small bus/larger van that was fully air conditioned to the gardens - about 15-20 minutes away. They showed us some sights on the way there. We had to take all of our belongings with us off the bus as they said a different bus would be coming back for us later in the day. They gave us a bottle of water when we arrived and you definitely needed it as it was hot. They also had restrooms on sight for anyone that needed to use them. We were given a guided tour of the gardens, though one could purchase tickets on their own and walk the gardens on their own without a guided tour. I personally think the guided tour was the better option here.

Once at the gardens, we got to learn about its history and mission. We got to learn how they got many of these animals and what they do to help them survive and multiply. We saw a Pink Flamingo show and even had the optin to interact with the flamingo's afterwards and take pictures - we also saw Macaw, monkeys, snakes, parrots, raccoons to name a few. One fun fact - the Bahamian Raccoon does not carry rabies. I thought that was an interesting fact. Try that piece of trivia out on your friends!

We boarded our transportation back and arrived back at port at 3:30. All aboard was 4:45 so we had some time. The port area has been redone and is now much nicer than before. This port area reminded me of the port area in Aruba on our Magic sailing in May - small little buildings with different ships inside and a nice paved walkway. It looked inviting and safe whereas in previous stops in Nassau we tried to avoid that area completely.

We got back and got ready for dinner. After getting ready, we headed up to Signals bar on Deck 9 for happy hour - starts at 5 pm and is 30% menu drinks with a few exceptions. I got a Re-fashioned and DW got a Pinot Grigio wine. The Re-fashioned is port wine and whiskey. Both were very good. From there we went down to Animator's Palate for dinner. Tonight was the regular rotational AP dinner menu.

For dinner, we enjoyed black truffle pasta pursettes (our favorite item on DCL period), Butternut squash soup, DW had the Haloumi parcels and I had the black bean chipotle cakes - both of which were delicious. For dessert, we shared the best dessert in the MDRs which is the Lemon Ice Box Pie. It did not disappoint.

As dinner winded down, we played some games with our server team. They had a game for us and we brought a game for them to try - make a square out of 5 random pieces. They did not successfully complete the square tonight so we will try again tomorrow they said.

Tonight's show was Twice Charmed which we also skipped. We did Family time game show in the D-Lounge after dinner, then went back to our room to finish watching Brave and then went to Bed.

A couple of other notes - now that we are 2 full days on the ship - many of the issues we noticed back in May on the first sailing after dry dock are gone. If we had not gone in May and just on this sailing I would consider this a normal DCL sailing. Cold AC in most places, most things working as they should, a very responsive staff to anything that is not working. For example, we noticed this morning that the USB chargers in our room were not working. I called GS and let them know and when we got back on the ship at 10:45 am - there was already a message to say please test the USB ports as maintenance says they are fixed. This is what I would typically expect from DCL. Not what we got back in May.

Also, in May it was typical to have water drip upon you from the ceiling in common areas. This time around, we did not have that happen in any common area at all. I specially went back to spots on Deck 4 near the WDT entrance where this happened to myself and @Calantha on the last sailing and never noticed any dripping. We did not have any elevator buttons go dark on us. Also, the AFT elevator furthest starboard side was fixed for our sailing and finally working - which it was not working prior to dry dock or right after dry dock. Additionally, we noticed that the hole in the wall below Pinocchio's Pizzeria on Deck 9 was also now fixed. they also were doing a lot of the standard maintenance, painting and clear coating that I have come to expect on every DCL cruise. I was actually very happy to see that.

The only thing they could not fix was the strength of the DCL Guest Wifi connections in our stateroom. They were never able to get that during this sailing. If we went out in the hallway or forward elevator lobby it was fine but most of the time it was not connecting in our stateroom.

Our server team on the Magic was awesome which is why we requested our server. He is quick and has us out of dinner most nights well before 7:30 pm - and we don't feel rushed with our food delivery etc.

Tomorrow is our second stop at CC and also DW's milestone birthday!

 

[Calantha]

So glad to hear about your trip and that things were better!

 

[Clarkson U]

Thursday, June 22, 2023 - Castaway Cay #2

Today is DW's milestone birthday and also our second stop at CC. We were both up early and went up on Deck 9 to get some coffee and just sit and relax. It was raining early in the morning while we enjoyed our coffee but also saw maintenance/cleaning crew trying to keep the deck dry as a losing effort as the rain water was coming onto the decks and flowing into covered areas much faster than DCL could soak it up. Fortunately, the rain did not last long and was done before 8:00 am.

At 8 am, we went down for sit down breakfast and our server happened to be working breakfast so when he saw us, he took us over to his section for breakfast which was nice.

After breakfast, we got changed and were off the ship around 9:30 am. We took the tram to Pelican Point Stop and from there decided to walk to Serenity Bay. We walked around, found the bar area with a patio overlooking the water. We sat there in Adirondack chairs enjoying the sunshine and peacefulness of the water. It was nice to just relax out there.

We took the tram from Serenity Bay back to Pelican Point stop at 11 am. We browsed the shops on our walk back to Cookies BBQ for lunch. At 11:30 we went for lunch. We went and got veggie burgers (or so we thought) but as we were walking back to our picnic table with food, our restaurant manager, Alexander stopped to talk to us. He then questioned if we were vegetarians and I said yes and we got veggie burgers. He said those are not veggie burgers and asked to take our trays. He then cut into the burgers and sure enough they were not veggie burgers. He apologized and said he would have this taken care of. About 5 minutes later he brought us out veggie burgers and said the servers got confused as to what burger was where. Along with the Spicy Black Bean Veggie burgers with avocado, along with vegetarian empanadas and some fresh cut watermelon for lunch. We then took a leisurely walk back to the ship and were on the ship by 12:30.

We did some swimming in the adult pool and met a few other couples in the pool as well. Then we got dressed with our pirate t-shirts and were at Signals bar for 3 pm. The other day, we had heard about a Macallan sampler tasting and today we decided to do that. It was around $65. We got 4 different Macallan's to try and it was fun to do this.



It was fun to do and there was enough liquor there that DW and I shared this tasting. After this we went for Bingo at 4:30 pm where we did not win but still had fun playing. Then we were off to Animator's Palate for a second night in a row for Pirate night.

For dinner we had vegetable samosa, then DW had the chilled mango soup, while I had the carrot and ginger soup, DW had the vegetarian noodle stir fry and I had the falafel dish. Both were very good. For dessert we shared the Bananas in Paradise. We also got a celebratory cake for DW's birthday.

Here is the samosa:



and DW's birthday celebration:




After dinner, we did go to WDT tonight as they were showing the new movie, Elemental tonight. It was a good movie and glad I got to see it. After the movie, we went up on deck to see the pirate show and fireworks. It was definitely packed on the open decks for this entertainment.



After the pirate show, we went back to our stateroom only to find another surprise - this time from Guest Services in our stateroom.


It was nice and completely unexpected. Brent the GS manager had done this for us and we knew he was working evenings so we went down to GS just to say thanks to him for this nice surprise. While there I noticed some Pirate decor and here is a pic:



We then went to Krazy Karoke for 18+ until we got tired after 11:30 and went up to bed. We knew tomorrow would be fun and relaxing as it was our day at sea and palo brunch day!

 

[Pinky3]

Did you happen to purchase the wifi package? How is it on the Magic?

 

[Clarkson U]

Did you happen to purchase the wifi package? How is it on the Magic?

Hi. On this sailing we did not purchase the wifi package. On our Magic sailing in May, I did end up getting internet package for one day and it worked great. On this sailing, DCL Guest Wifi did not work that well in our stateroom or in selected areas of the ship and it seemed like if DCL knew they have an issue they are trying to fix. It was mentioned by different staff, that they apologize for the internet on this sailing. That being said, I think they will fix it and the wifi will be good for ship wifi. I don't think it is ever great as it is still using ship wifi and that has its' limitations.

 

[Clarkson U]

Friday, June 23rd - Day at Sea

We got up at 6:30 and went up to deck 9 - but due to it being cloudy we could not really get a good glimpse of the sunrise. We stayed up on deck 9 just relaxing until 7:30 am when we went to Cabanas. We only went to Cabanas to see if they have Churro Waffles. Luckily for us, they had churro waffles. Now we have Palo Brunch at 10 am so we literally had one small Mickey Churro waffle and nothing else from Cabanas.

We had learned from our May sailing on the Magic to be sure we don't schedule too much or eat too much around Palo. This time we decided to aim for 10 am spot knowing that we can basically skip breakfast and then be hungry for this food. We also made sure not to schedule any drink tastings after Palo as we had done that in May and that was a big mistake.

Before 9 am - we went back to our room, got dressed for Palo and then went up to Palo for the Art of a Theme Tour on the Magic. Nic from England was giving the tour and I could already tell this would be a much better tour than the one we had from Lily from Argentina back in May. In May, Lily spent a lot of time telling her story. Nic was already spending time telling the ship's story and the interesting facts about the ship. Nic did a great job and was very informative. Unfortunately, we had to leave before Nic could finish the tour as we had Palo for 10 am. Now I will say, we have done these tours on multiple Disney ships and I have rarely ever seen one finish in the 45 minutes to an hour that is allocated on the schedule for it. The first one we had on the Wish went almost 2 hours - which was fine by us. So we had let Nic know in advance we would leave at 9:55 am from where she was on the tour - which for us was on Deck 5 midship. One neat thing I learned was if you go to the Forward/Aft stairwells on the Magic - as you go up higher decks the art work in the stairwell is more finished/more complete. That was neat to see after that throughout the ship. Now I am curious if it that way on other ships as well?

We went to Palo - where we were rapidly seated at a table by the window. This is the view from our table.



We each had a cup of coffee to start and then a vegetarian cheese platter along with some different breads to start with. Our server suggested that we pour balsamic over the parmesan cheese and that elevated those flavors to another level. We had some parmesan with and without balsamic and honestly I would only want that with balsamic going forward. We also had a truffle cheese on our board and a pecorino romano cheese. Finally we had some almonds, some olives and some peppers on our board. DW said the marinated olives were great.

From there, DW ordered Poached Egg on English Muffin with Spinach, Asparagus with Mornay Sauce. She loved it. I had blueberry pancakes which were also delicious. After these breakfast foods were done, we ordered our complimentary glass of champagne to go with the rest of the meal.

I got the celery soup - which we learned can easily be made vegetarian as it is made without sausage or chicken stock. So I ordered that and it was delicious - now I like celery and its flavor so if you don't really like celery this was definitely a very celery forward bowl of soup.




From there we ordered one pizza - that was half grape and gorgonzola and half goat cheese and sun-dried tomato.


Both sides were good but we definitely preferred the grape and gorgonzola over the one on the menu.

After that, DW had the eggplant made vegetarian and I had the wild mushroom ravioli.

Then for desser, DW had the Panna Cotta and I decided to venture out and try the Limoncello torte (pic below)



After Palo (we finished up around Noon) we went back to our room, changed clothes and then went to a DVC presentation at 12:30 pm. We didn't buy into DVC but we did get a $50 OBC for attending the presentation which was a win in my book. Then we went to Fathom's for a 2 pm towel folding and after that was done we made our way over to the Soul Cat Lounge, where we enjoyed a Jazz 75 for two and then played Disney Food Trivia. While this might have been our best trivia score ever (14) someone else got a perfect 20/20.

Then we went up to our room to start packing up some stuff. We ordered our pictures and played shuffleboard before dinner which tonight would be in Rapunzel's. I also went to GS and added additional gratuity to my server and asst server as well as our asst server from the May sailing who even on this sailing treated us like she was serving our table at times or anytime we saw her in Cabanas or sit down breakfast. Along with the typical gratuity envelope we also took this opportunity to give the Restaurant Manager, the Head Server, our Server, our current Asst Server, our prior Asst Server and our prior Head Server all a rum cake that we had picked up on Wed in Nassau. Something that they would never buy for themselves but they hopefully would all enjoy.

For dinner, we had a very typical final meal for us - but not typical for Rapunzel's. On many sailings that are longer sailings or when we have been on the ship just recently like in this case, we use the last night if it is a standard rotational menu to then pick our favorites and enjoy those. We of course let our server and head server know in advance (the day before) so they can be prepared.

For tonight's dinner we had Black Truffle Pasta Pursettes, Deep Fried Brie, Vegetarian French Onion Soup, DW had the Farmhouse Salad and Potato Crepes off the Rapunzel dinner menu while I had the Chili Tofu Ramen with extra tofu off the dinner menu. for dessert, we ordered Pan Fry Bread, Creme Brule Cheesecake and our server brought us a Lemon Ice Box Pie (we did not order) as he knew that was our favorite MDR dessert on the ship. It was a great last meal and combined with the 8 nights we did in May, it truly felt like a solid 13 nights with many of these great people. We truly understand why folks like B2B2B sailings or just much longer sailings. There is a connection there with the people that you don't get on shorter sailings.

After dinner, we skipped Disney Dreams the musical show in the WDT and instead went swimming up on Deck 9. After that we finished packing as we are just going to carry our 2 pieces of luggage off the ship tomorrow morning after breakfast. So our luggage did not need to be out by 10 pm and we did make sure to let our stateroom host know that we had no luggage to put out so he was not waiting on it. After packing, I sat down to do our last ritual on the last night of our cruise, before bed, which is the DCL Survey. After completing the survey we went to bed.

For anyone wondering, the Prosecco we got on Thursday, we still did not open so we decided to just take it off the ship with us and declare it if asked by Customs.

 

[Clarkson U]

Saturday, June 24th - Port of Miami
We got up early and we had pulled into port when we got up at 6 am. We got ready and dressed for our 6:45 am breakfast in Rapunzel's. It was nice to see our server team and others one last time.

We had coffee, juice, pancakes and DW had eggs for breakfast with hash browns for both of us. We were done before 7:30 am with breakfast and went back up to our room. We had left with the room occupied sign on the door.

We finished up. took our luggage and walked off the ship before 8 am. No one in customs asked us any questions and we walked out to the parking garage, loaded up the car and headed back on the road to home.

about 7 hours later we arrived at home and that was the end of the trip.

We would agree that this was the type of DCL cruise we would expect and so we were glad to see that after a challenging cruise on the Magic in May, that we were able to have a cruise that was as expected in June.

I did get personal (paper) schedules/navigators for this sailing and have given them to Scott Sanders for his website. The link to those navigators if anyone is interested is here: https://disneycruiselineblog.com/20...-2-stops-at-disney-castaway-cay-june-19-2023/

I hope you enjoyed reading our trip report. If you have any questions, I am happy to do my best to answer them.

Thanks!

 

[Judybf55]

Hi thank you for your thorough report. Can you tell me the server‘s name that you like and requested?

 

[JM_97]

Thanks for the report. This sounds like the perfect itinerary and good to hear that the previous issues were fixed.

 

[3 Hobbits 2 Disney]

Thanks for your efforts!

 

[mekay1012]

Love your report! Can you tell me how far of a walk Starbucks is in Nassau? That will be a nice treat for my 18 year old!

 

[Clarkson U]

Love your report! Can you tell me how far of a walk Starbucks is in Nassau? That will be a nice treat for my 18 year old!

With the new port construction it was literally a straight shot from getting off the ship and pier right out to the primary street.

It’s on the corner of Bay Street and Charlotte St. Charlotte St was what we picked up at the end of the pier area and walked to Bay Street. It is less than a 10 minute walk if you walk slow.