Disney Magic Trip Report - 7 Night Western - April 5, 2008

[johns107]

Pre-Trip Planning

Our family consists of:

Kim – me, 41
Patrick – husband, 46
Devin – son, 11
Haley – daughter, 5

We have visited WDW twice in the past six years. We wanted to do another Disney trip and we thought that the kids would be old enough to enjoy a cruise. And we thought a Disney cruise would be extra special. I thought that we should do a cruise only – I’m a big time planner and I just knew we would never be able to get to see/do everything we would want to at WDW in only 3 or 4 days. So we decided to do a 7 night cruise. Now where would we go? My husband and I have been on 2 RCCL cruises before we had kids – one to the Western Caribbean and one to the Eastern Caribbean. We enjoyed the Western more – it just seemed there was more to do in terms of the excursions. We’re not big shoppers, which seemed to appeal to more of those who do the Eastern. So Western Caribbean it was. We had originally planned to go in the summer of 2008, but after checking the DCL web site, found that Disney doesn’t do the Western Caribbean in the summer. This meant that we would have to take my son out of school again. This wouldn’t be a big deal – we had done it before, twice. He’s a good student so I really wasn’t worried about it. He’s a good student so I knew he’d get the work done that he would miss. We just had to make sure that he wouldn’t miss any standardized testing that was scheduled. So working around that, we came up with the week of April 5-12, 2008. This seemed so far away, but knew it would come up quick. I put a deposit down in August with AAA for a Category 5 stateroom. We felt this may be our only Disney cruise so we wanted to do it right.

After making the reservation, the travel agent suggested we get the passport process started ASAP. My kids had never had passports and my husband’s and mine were expired. AAA took our photos for free, I filled out all of the paperwork, and we all went to the post office to submit them. This was the end of August. I heard horror stories about people waiting months and months for their passports to arrive and being worried that they may have to cancel a trip. I was pleasantly surprised when my kid’s passports arrived less than 3 weeks later, and my husband’s and mine a week after that!

Both of the kids were extremely excited about the trip. But there was still a long way to go before we were close to going. They must have watched the DCL DVD a hundred times! Finally I told them I lost it! We figured once we got to the holidays the rest of the time would go relatively quick. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas , New Years. Their birthdays are in February and March. Then vacation would be just around the corner. And it did go fast.

I made our flight reservations in November. The travel agent suggested I book the first direct flight out the morning of our embarkation, which I did. This would come back to haunt me and would be probably the biggest mistake of our trip. But more about that later. We had our flights booked, our cruise paid for (or should I say charged) and now we just had to wait for April 5th to come along.

At the end of January, we were able to check-in, register for the kids clubs, and reserve shore excursions on-line. I read Birnbaum’s DCL guide and checked individual web sites to narrow down our excursion choices.

 

[johns107]

April 4 – Day before Embarkation

The day before we left for our cruise was a Friday and it was pretty much like any other day. My son went to school and I dropped of my daughter at preschool for the morning. They were excited of course and had been counting down the days until the cruise for several weeks now. My husband had taken the day off to help with any last minute pre-vacation things, like getting our dog to my parents’ house.

Since it was still pretty cold here in Pittsburgh, all of our summer clothes were packed away in the attic. I got them down about 2 weeks ago and went through everything to find out what we needed for the trip. So I was able to get almost everything packed the week before the trip. We each had a suitcase and then a garment bag to carry the fancy clothes. We also took a carry-on which held our bathing suits and the cameras. Each of the kids also took their backpacks with snacks and things to do on the plane.

I tried to get the kids to bed early since we had to get up at about 4:00 a.m. to make our 6:20 a.m. flight. They were asleep by about 9:00 p.m. I finally got to sleep after 10:00 p.m. (I was so excited). I woke up at about 1:30 a.m. and I don’t think I fell back asleep again. We got up at 4:00 a.m. and headed to the airport. I was glad that the kids had gotten enough sleep and wasn’t really worried about my husband and myself.

Next: April 5 – Embarkation – Port Canaveral

 

[johns107]

April 5 – Embarkation – Port Canaveral

We parked off-site at the airport and this was basically the last time we had to carry all of our luggage. I had placed the Disney luggage tags on our bags when I packed them. We checked our bags in curb-side and the next time we saw our bags was outside our stateroom. This was my daughter’s first time flying and the first time my son had flown since he was 2 and could fly for free. They both did great on the flight and we landed on time in Orlando at about 8:30 a.m.

There were lots of Disney greeters around directing you where to go after you got to the main terminal. We were told to go to the ground floor and check in with the Disney transportation desk which handles transportation to the cruise and the resorts. We checked in and were told to wait until our bus was called. The area that you wait in is an open area with lounge chairs. Outside we could see all the Disney buses waiting for passengers. Since it was still relatively early, we saw lots of the Disney resort buses arriving and taking passengers away, but only a few cruise line buses. But then we saw more and more and finally our bus was called.

We got on the bus and were driven to Port Canaveral which was about 45 minutes from the airport. They showed a program along the way to get you ready for the cruise. I saw the boat on the left as we were driving on the interstate. My kids saw it too, and to see them so excited made me want to cry.

 

[johns107]

I'm having some trouble inserting images into my text. Can anyone give me some help on how to do this? I'm pretty computer literate and have tried different ways to copy/paste photos but can't get it to work. Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GGBacha]

Hi! I'm enjoying your trip report!

I have just inserted photos into a photobucket account. After that it's pretty easy to insert the link to the photos. I always have to play around with it to remember which code to copy and paste.

Hope this helped a little!

Ginger

 

[johns107]

April 5 – Embarkation – Port Canaveral (continued)

We probably got to the port at about 10:45 a.m. and waited in line to get through security. After that is was up the escalator and into the terminal. The line for checking in was short and they had lots of “windows” open. I had already filled out all of the paperwork I could have online, so we were all checked in within 5 or 10 minutes. We would be in the 3rd group to board and were told they would begin boarding at 11:45 a.m. Mickey and Minnie were also in the terminal posing for pictures. My son got his picture with Mickey, but my daughter refused to get her picture taken with him. Did I mention that my daughter is afraid of the characters because they’re “too big”? So let’s take her on a boat filled with characters that she can’t get away from. I had hoped that she would mellow out about the characters so we could get some pictures of her to prove that she actually came on this vacation with us.

We then waited in line to get wristbands and our pager for the kids clubs. That line was much longer than the check-in line. Just after we got our stuff from the youth program, they began boarding. It wasn’t long until our group was called to get on the boat.

As soon as we went through the ears we found out how serious DCL is about preventing the spread of illness. There was a sanitizing station with antimicrobial wipes and hand gel. I’m all for this since I’m a microbiologist. I brought my own supply of Purell as well. During the entire cruise, before you entered any restaurant (sit down or the fast food ones by the pool), you were handed a wipe. There were wipe containers by the beverage and ice cream stations as well. And when you got back on the boat after getting off, there was a sanitizing station to greet you.

After sterilizing ourselves, we got our picture taken then onto the gangway to board. My son was wearing his Steelers shirt and one of the crew asked if we were from Pittsburgh. We said yes, and she said she was also from Pittsburgh. She announced the Doyle family was here and our vacation was officially underway!

We headed up to Topsiders Buffet for some lunch and then the kids really wanted to get in the pool. They had a great time. We went to the pools everyday (at different times from 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) and never found the pools overly crowded. We never made it to the adult pool. The Mickey pool was closed once when someone had an accident in it (then the Goofy pool got crowded) and once when we were at Castaway Cay they were replacing the spongy flooring around it.

At about 1:30 p.m. we were able to get into our room and get rid of our carry-on items and coats. My husband and I changed into shorts and we headed back up to the pools.

At 3:30 p.m. we headed back to our room to get ready for the mandatory lifeboat drill at 4:00 p.m. The lifeboat drill was really quick and I headed up to Deck 9 to get some drinks for us. By this time, I was soooo tired – I needed caffeine bad! I should have grabbed some streamers then because when we headed back up to the Adventures Away party, there weren’t any streamers left. But that was OK! It was pretty crowded on both Decks 9 & 10, but we squeezed ourselves in and had fun dancing as we waved goodbye to Port Canaveral.

After the sail away party we headed back to our room to do a “cheers” for our vacation. Every New Years Eve we get sparkling cider and we get out the fancy glasses and we do a “cheers” for the New Year. So I ordered a bottle of sparkling cider (and some fruit and cheese, too) for our room. Out on the veranda, we did a toast. All of our luggage had arrived as well!

At about this time, the jet lag/lack of sleep was starting to hit us hard, so we made the decision not to go to the opening show (“Let the Magic Begin”) or dinner at Lumiere’s. We had the second seating for dinner and we were just too tired. So we went up to the pool and got burgers and chicken tenders at Goofy’s. We usually ate up by the pool everyday for lunch. Sometimes if it was later in the afternoon, we brought the food down to our room to eat. I thought the food at Goofy’s and Pinocchio’s was pretty good for being basically fast food. And they sure go through a lot of it. And you never had to wait. Goofy’s had the burgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders, and tacos. Next door they had paninis, salads, and fresh fruit. Pinocchio’s had pizza. My husband ate lunch several times at Topsiders Buffet where they had a different theme/style of food each day.

After eating, we decided to check out the Oceaneer Club for my daughter and the Oceaneer Lab for my son. The OC was a kid’s dream. There was a pirate ship play area that kids could climb on. They had a big open area where the staff conducted scheduled activities. They also had another room with games and computers. In the OL there were lots of computers, a lab set-up, tables for playing games, a large TV screen, and a Wii game area.

After this we went up to Deck 9 to watch some of the Final Four games on the big screen. And we had our first ice cream of the cruise. My kids (and me, too) had ice cream at least twice a day – everyday on the cruise! As the cruise went on, we saw more and more people using the large beverage cups for ice cream instead of the smaller ones. This cut down on the number of return trips you had to make to get more!

It was only about 10:00 p.m. but stick a fork in us – we were done! Next time (and I know there will be a next time), we’ll fly in the day before so we would be more rested. I couldn’t wait to get into bed and let ship rock me to sleep. The kids complained that they weren’t tired, but they were asleep in just a few minutes, and my husband and I soon followed. We hoped a good night’s sleep would refresh us for the next morning.

Next: April 6 – Key West

 

[amy2girls]

great start!

 

[needAcruise]

Great post! Keep it coming!

I totally feel for you that first day on board. All that excitement can easily wipe out a full grown adult!

 

[kyirish25]

What a great first day! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

 

[Disney owl]

thanks for sharing

 

[johns107]

April 6 – Key West

Well, a good night’s sleep will do wonders for you! We were all rested and raring to go when we woke up Sunday morning.

I had ordered the continental breakfast the night before from room service and we ate it on the veranda. We usually got room service for breakfast when we wanted to get an earlier start to the day. On more leisurely mornings, we ate breakfast at Topsiders Buffet. We’re not big breakfast eaters anyway, so the continental breakfast suited us just fine. They would always call to tell us breakfast was on the way and they were always on time. And we just loved our veranda. I know we weren’t out there for hours at a time and it did increase the cost of our trip, but I’m so glad we got one. We would spend time out there in the morning eating or at sunrise. It was neat to be out there as we were pulling into port. My husband would sometimes have to leave the loudness and heat up around the pools and sit out on the veranda and read. But my favorite time was at night when it was pitch black out and you couldn’t see any light except for the stars and the moon.

After breakfast we all went our separate ways. We put both kids in the kids clubs, I went to play bingo, and DH went to watch National Treasure. I had just gotten my bingo cards when my pager went off – Just wanted to let you know that Haley is asking for you. Did I mention that my DD is scared of the characters? So when she found out that the characters could come into the kids club, she wanted no part of it. I took her a couple of other times, but I had to stay with her. And when I’d sneak out when she was making something, I’d get that same page: Just wanted to let you know that Haley is asking for you. So she and I went back to the bingo game. No winners for us. I took a picture of my DH in the portholes outside the Rockin’ Bar D.

As we were finishing our bingo game, I could feel the boat pulling into Key West. The water was so beautiful!

Since we had some time before our excursion, we decided to get our bathing suits on and head up to the pools for some lunch and swinmming. And dessert, of course!

We even played some ping pong!

We went on the Pirate Scavenger Hunt at the Pirate Soul Museum. It was OK. My DS really liked it. You had to find the answers to questions located on displays throughout the museum. Some of the very life-like displays scared my DD. After this, we got a cab and headed to the Southernmost Point.

Being off the boat gave a taste of what was to come - it was HOT! Being from up north, we’re not used to all this heat. But we always took plenty of water and sunscreen with us. We took the same cab back to the boat. We got some pictures with the characters or should I say my DS got some pictures with the characters. My DD didn’t want her picture taken with the characters. Here’s a picture of her on my DH’s shoulders crying while we wait in line for Chip and Dale.

After the character sightings, we head back to our room to get ready for dinner. We decide to skip the show (again). It’s a magic/comedy/music show and I didn’t know if the kids would be into this or not. So before dinner we went to Studio Sea. This became one of our favorite spots. It was a family bar where they held game shows each night. This night’s game was “Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer?”. It was a Disney trivia game based on the Who Wants to be a Millionaire game show. We didn’t get picked to sit on the hot seat, but we helped out the other contestants as best we could. After some more character pictures, it was off to Animator’s Palate for dinner. Our seating time was 8:00 p.m. which turned out to be much too late for our DD. She would make it through dinner but would usually be asleep by dessert. Although good thing she fell asleep this night because Mickey made an appearance at AP.

The food was great the entire week and our servers were good. They were concerned that our DD kept falling asleep after dinner. It didn’t bother us. The kids ate off the children’s menu – chicken tenders for my DS every night and my DD alternated between pizza and mac and cheese. And my son had a Mickey bar every night.

While my DH and DD went back to the room to get some sleep, my DS and I went back to Studio Sea for karaoke. My son is very into music and plays the guitar and he wanted to try karaoke, but the play list was full so we would have to wait for another night to hear him sing. It was mostly kids singing and they were doing a great job, but you may want to avoid if you don’t want to hear Fabulous at least a few times a night. We decided to turn in for the night.

Next: April 7 – at sea

 

[kyirish25]

I'm sorry your daughter is so afraid of the characters. That has to be tough. But that picture of her on your husbands shoulders is priceless!

I'm glad you and your son got some special time together at the end of the night. Treasure those as the grow older they will want to be far away from mom & dad.

 

[MaryAz]

Yay, I was hoping that you would keep going on your report. I am sorry that ur DD was scared, I think my girls may be as well. Ages 4 and 20 monthes. Great pics!
Mary
13 days until our first Disney Cruise!

 

[johns107]

This was the day of our character breakfast in Parrot Cay. You have your character breakfast the next morning after you eat dinner in AP the first time. It was a lot of fun! The characters don’t come to each individual table like the character breakfasts at WDW, but they were all dancing around and the kids could go up and dance with them. Of course, my DD spent some time underneath the table as well. The servers seemed more relaxed in this atmosphere and were much more outgoing with the kids at the breakfast than at some of the dinners. After breakfast, it was up to the pool. While we were at the pool I got some great pictures of my DS with different characters at the gazebo. I think the pictures I took in the gazebo during the cruise were the best character pictures of the whole trip.

And speaking of pictures, we bought a lot of the ones that the photographers took. We purchased the cheapest package and never thought that we would purchase all of the photos that were part of the package – but we did. And they were kind enough to upgrade us to the next package. And so on and so on! But we got some great pictures, especially on formal nights. I also like the fact that even though the ships’ photographers would take pictures of your kids with the characters, they always took time to let you take your own picture as well.

While we were getting some pictures near the gazebo, we saw a crew member braiding hair next to us. My DD said she wanted to get her hair braided which I was a bit worried about since she hates to have her hair combed. I only wanted her to get a few braids and the girl said she would just put a couple in before she had to go on her break. This was lucky for us since you have to make the hair braiding appointments as soon as you get on the cruise. I remember seeing something in the Navigator when we got on the boat that they would be taking reservations that first day for the rest of the week. Someone else came while we were there and they didn’t have an appointment. The girl told them there weren’t any slots available until Friday (this was Monday). So we were glad we could just get a few braids which was quite enough. Funny, but my DD didn’t complain about her hair being combed here! Here’s a picture of the new do!

We just basically hung around the pools all day. The kids wanted to go to the Quartermasters Arcade so we got a card for them to share and refilled it a few times over the course of the cruise. My DH and I just sat around the pool with our pina coladas soaking in the sun.

Tonight was formal night so we knew we had to get dressed up. We went to The Golden Mickeys show which was just great. I shouldn’t expect any less from Disney. Get to the show a little early because they have a red carpet show out in front of the theater when you arrive. I thought that they would maybe be interviewing the Disney characters, but they were interviewing a lot of the kids waiting to go into the theater. And then inside the theater they had the big screens showing them being interviewed. It was so funny. One of the actresses from the show was doing the interviews and she was just great. She asked them questions just like they do on the red carpet going into the Oscars! She would ask them about their dresses and who they came with and who they thought might win an award. Don’t miss it!

We had dinner at AP.

My DD didn’t make it to dessert again, so I had to eat her Mickey bar.

After dinner, my DS and I headed back up to Deck 9 to watch some of the NCAA Basketball Championship game on the big screen. Then it was off to bed. Tomorrow: Grand Cayman!

Next: April 8 – Grand Cayman

 

[johns107]

We woke up early on Wednesday and went up to the top deck to watch the boat pull close to Grand Cayman. This was the only port that we did not dock at since Grand Cayman is surrounded by a reef. There were several other cruise ships there as well. We were doing the Island Tour & Snorkel with the stingrays excursion in the morning. I think we ate breakfast at Topsiders and then headed off for our excursion. The tender ride to shore was only about 5 minutes long and it allowed you to get a great view of the ship. When I was previewing the excursions, I steered clear of any with long tenders. I had a bad experience on a previous cruise when we tendered from our ship to Cozumel on the way to Tulum. It was a long ride, there were lots of diesel fumes, and the tender was rocking. But no problems today.

The first stop on our tour was Hell. We can now say we’ve been to Hell and back, but that’s about it. I wasn’t too impressed. But if you look close, you can catch a glimpse of the devil.

After Hell, it was on to the turtle farm. They had lots of turtles and you got to see them up close and touch them and hold them if you wanted to.

At the time that we were there, they were moving some of the turtles from the large pond and they were lassoing them by the neck and then dragging them to another holding area. And some of the turtles would flip over on their backs and flap their flippers trying to right themselves. Some of these turtles were huge and this made for quite a bit of commotion. I’m sure there’s not an easier way to do this, but my kids both took notice of this.

After the turtle farm, we drove to a dock and got on a boat to take us to Stingray City. The boat ride took only about 20-25 minutes to get to the sandbar where the stingrays hangout. There were quite a few other boats there but each one kind of had their own area. There were quite a few stingrays around, but not nearly as many as when my husband and I had taken a similar excursion on a previous cruise. This was about 12 years ago, but the one thing I distinctly remember from when we were here before was that as you approached the sandbar, all that you heard were women screaming. There were so many stingrays that it was almost impossible to walk without stepping on one. I remember I didn’t stay in the water long back then. My daughter didn’t like them too much, but my son absolutely loved it! He kept trying to touch one, but they are so fast, but he finally did manage to touch one. I’m not sure of the name of the tour boat that we were on, but the two guys who ran it were great. One of them held a stingray while the other took pictures (with their fancy waterproof digital camera of course – more on this later) of each of your family member with it. Among our family, only my husband and I were foolish enough to fall for the old “kiss a stingray for good luck” line. But this was definitely the highlight of our time on Grand Cayman. We stayed at the sandbar at least 30 minutes, probably a little more, and then headed back to shore.

As we headed back to shore, I could notice that we were going back slower than when we came out. And I told you, they took some pictures of everyone with the stingrays. So the return trip was their chance to sell us the pictures. I can’t remember the price of the individual prints, something like the first print for $10, 3 for $25, or you could buy all of the prints for just $50. And there were quite a few groups on our boat, including us that bought the package – hook, line, and sinker! But I have to admit that the pictures came out great!

But they had a great set-up on the boat – they downloaded the pictures from their camera, previewed the pictures for you, and then burned you your own CD right in the Caribbean! And all the while I’m thinking I can’t believe we paid $50 for this CD, but at the same time I’m thinking what a great thing these guys have going – and why couldn’t I have thought of it! But they were really nice and they never pressured anyone into buying any of the pictures. After all those who wanted to buy pictures, had them, it was full throttle back to the dock.

After our excursion, it was back to the pool for the rest of the afternoon. We went to see the show “Twice Charmed” which we all loved, and then finished off the day at Parrot Cay for dinner.

Next: April 9 – Cozumel

 

[NZMUM]

Great report. Looking forward to more .

Tania

 

[johns107]

We started off with the buffet breakfast at Topsiders. Since our shore excursion wasn’t until after lunch, the kids went to their clubs and played for awhile. We did the Eco Park and Snorkel. We walked from the boat, across the pier, up through the transportation building, through a shopping area, to the “open air vehicle”. It was a large jeep with a tarp over the top. I’m glad there was some covering over head since it was very sunny and very hot. We were supposed to go to a nature park for a tour and then do some snorkeling. Our guide told us we could not snorkel at the park because the surf was too rough there that day. We drove for about an hour to a hotel. It was a really rough ride even though we were on well paved roads. The hotel was on the beach, but the beach was really rocky. There was absolutely no one to help us with the snorkeling. My son and I were the only ones to snorkel. It was almost impossible for us to walk in the water. After the snorkeling it was back on the rumble bus. We drove to the Eco Park to take the rest of the tour, which consisted of a small Mayan building, a crocodile lagoon, and a lighthouse. We did climb to the top of the lighthouse for a spectacular view. After coming down the lighthouse I was dreading getting back on the bus. I didn’t think my kidneys would survive the return trip. But we all made it back safely to the boat again. I would definitely recommend a different excursion.

There is a great photo op in the shops across the street from the pier. There’s a huge shark that you can crawl in and get your picture taken.

Our tour took a little longer than it was supposed to, so we got cleaned up and watched the remainder of the movie that was playing in the Walt Disney Theatre. It was also Pirate Night on board so many people were dressed in their pirate gear. We didn’t have any pirate clothes. I did bring along some eye patches, hooks, swords, earrings, and tattoos. But a lot of guests were dressed up. The characters were dressed as pirates, too. Captain Jack Sparrow was posing for photos and he was totally in character the whole time.

We went to Studio Sea which was hosting a game called A Pirates Life For Me. The hosts were really funny.

After the game, they were having Family Karaoke in Studio Sea. My DS really wanted to sing something so he got his request in really fast and he was the first singer called up on stage. He sang “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi. He did a great job!

Next it was on to dinner at Lumiere’s. Since it was Pirate Night, everyone including our wait staff was in a good mood. Everyone got bandanas to wear and tattoos to put on. The servers did a show and Pirate Mickey came in, too.

After dinner we rushed back to our room to get our pirate stuff and head up to Deck 10 for the party!

It was really fun! Everyone was dancing. The characters were on stage and our hero Mickey flies in to save the day. At the end of the show Mickey calls for the fireworks to begin. Even though it was a short fireworks display, it was really neat to see them going off above your head as you’re cruising along in the ocean. Only Disney could do it! They had a huge buffet set up also on Deck 9.

Then they showed Pirates of the Caribbean movies outside and in the theatre. We headed back to our room to get some much needed rest.

 

[TylerAggie]

I've really enjoyed reading your trip report and look forward to the next installment. Robin

 

[mackeyapp]

Having a great time reading your review!!! We are going on our very first 7 day western in June and (SSHH-our boys don't know). We are going to be in Disneyworld for Xmas and plan to tell them. I am totally absorbed since our boys are 11 and 12 and our Devin is 11. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[SCRAPBOOKQUEEN]

I love your report and all of your pictures. Your children are beautiful. It is making me very anxious for my trip. We leave three weeks from tomorrow and board the ship 9/1/08!!!!!! Keep the pictures coming!! Thanks.