Do you know where the kids are? Our first cruise with teenagers. Magic Feb, 2014

That is so weird that they had the beds made up for the night when you arrived. I have never seen that in any of our cruises before.

hmm - don't know why it was like that? The one great thing about the first time cruising - nothing to compare to so we had no idea if this was 'normal' or not. :thumbsup2
 
hmm - don't know why it was like that? The one great thing about the first time cruising - nothing to compare to so we had no idea if this was 'normal' or not. :thumbsup2

That's true :). Now next time you cruise - if the beds are not down it will be odd to you.
 
Day 3 - Feb 3, continued....

Let's see if I can finish off our first day on the ship today....

As DH and I were checking out our room the kids decided it was time to head off on their own. We let them know to be back in the room by 3:30 so that we would be ready for the safety drill at 4pm.They went off to Vibe and wandered around the ship (this is what I was told later) My son in true boy fashion explored the ship from top to bottom and knew his way around by the end of the night, could tell us where all the stairs led to and which one to avoid :thumbsup2

John and I headed out to see if Vibe was open, and we were happy to see that it was open and we could take some photos (Bethany has told me over and over again, that pictures does not do Vibe justice - it is much bigger and 'cooler' than what the pictures make it look like)






Little hard to see because of sun, but this is the smoothie and drink bar.


Once we were done taking some photos - no site of the kids at this point, we decided to continue exploring the ship and take some more photos. I was surprised at just how few people were around yet at this point.

We love all the artwork displayed and took lots of photos - I won't share all of them but I will share a few favorites



Once we had walked around for a bit we headed back to our room to see if our bags were there.
We were very happy to see that yes our bags had arrived. We decided to unpack. I was quite happy with the amount of cupboard space. We had no problem unpacking all our stuff and we had lots of room left over, which was nice.

As we were in the room both kids came back. We discussed going to that night's show as we waited for the drill to start and I was happy that everyone decided to go :) I was not really expecting my son to go since he is not really into these kind of things so it was nice that we all went.

Our show for the night was



As we were finishing our unpacking it was time for our safety drill. This was a new experience for us :) Was not too bad other than that I forgot to swipe my room key as we lined up so we had to be 'called' to CM. Oops!

Once that was done we headed to the upper deck for the sail away party. Now I got to see just how many people were actually on board! Though it was not an awesome show or anything - we had fun, it was just fun to know that we were almost on our way!



And then it was time to go.... off goes the special horn and away we go!



Continued in next post... not sure how many photos it will allow...


 


Day 3, Feb 3, continued... again! ;)

And off we go....



I knew I wanted to be at the front of the ship, just in case we would see dolphins so we headed to the front. It was great watching everything and though we did not manage to get pictures we did see dauphins! :thumbsup2





It was very windy...


Once we were out at sea we realized it was time to go to the theatre. My son John had wandered off but had told us he would meet us at the Theatre by 5:45. So we headed down to


And found seats. Unfortunately for me the theatre is in the aft of the ship and boy could I feel the ship moving! I was starting to feel pretty nauseous but was hoping I would feel better soon. John and the kids joined me after grabbing some drinks and ordered some popcorn (is it just me or is it a little crazy that they charge you for popcorn??) :confused3

We enjoyed the show. DS liked it too, which was great as this ended up being the only one he saw. By the end of the show, I was not feeling well and now neither was DS John. We went outside to walk around for a bit and John went up to vibe for a bit. We were eating at Animator's Palette that night so he agreed to meet us there soon.


We headed to Animator's and low and behold - I could feel the ship moving! Arg! I was feeling quite ill by now but was determined to go to dinner. This was the one restaurant that I did not want to miss.

We waited in line for a bit and just before heading in, John joined us. He said he was not feeling very well either but was hoping to tough it out for dinner.


As this was our first dinner with our serving staff, it took a bit for them to get themselves organized on my dining preferences. After the first night they told me it would be easier as the chef would then know and could make stuff not on the menu for me. That first night I ordered off the menu.

As we were waiting for dinner, son John was getting sicker. He went outside to clear his head but it was not helping. Every time he came back and sat down he started feeling sick.



Just as our appetizers were being delivered he said he couldn't do it anymore, he needed to leave. Since I was not feeling well either I decided to go with him. We tried standing outside for a bit but it was not better so we eventually decided to go back to our room. DH and Bethany stayed at the table though Bethany said she was starting to feel pretty ill too. :sick:

According to my DH, I was looking pretty green by this point and he was getting worried. I took John back to the room and he laid down. I sat outside hoping it would help. John gets kind of panicky when he gets sick so he was starting to get anxious and upset, starting talking about not liking this and not wanting to be not he ship anymore, which of course had me kind of concerned!

The serving staff was wonderful - they packed up our food and delivered it to our room. Both John and I tried to eat but just couldn't stomach anything. So sad, because it was really good! I am very thankful that neither of us ended up having any issues with vomiting (sorry if that is more info than you want!) We were just very nauseous, and headachy and dizzy.

As we were both just sitting/lying down my DH came back to the room. In the end he was the only one to make it through the meal. Bethany managed a few bites of dinner but then had to leave because she was not feeling good either, she was able to just go outside and got better almost right away. John went and talked to customer service and they handed him some "sea calm" pills. DS took 2 right away and after about 10 minutes started feeling better so he went up to Vibe. Got to love resilient kids!!
I took 2 as well (found out later we should have only taken 1 - oops!) It took about 20 minutes and then I started feeling slightly better - but I was very very tired. Meds tend to have a strong effect on me so I don't take them often so by taking 2 pills, I took a strong dose and it had quite the effect on me!

I decided that I would push through - I didn't want to spend our first night in our room! I was determined to go enjoy as much as I could and hoped that maybe walking around would help.

So off we went to walk around. It was still very windy outside but we walked for a bit and then I thought I might be able to walk indoors for awhile so we headed over to After Hours, the adult area. We didn't stay anywhere because I was starting to fall asleep from the the meds but we did enjoy checking out all the different area, and I was looking forward to feeling better and being able to really enjoy everything!





I finally decided to stop being tough and head to bed!
We were in bed around 11:30 pm and at this point the kids were still out. I was really hoping they would know to be quiet when they came in - we had not really discussed that part!

They came to the room at around 1 am. Bethany was nice and quiet - we didn't hear her but John came in about 10 minutes after her and accidentally turned on all the light! :eek: I remember waking up a little to my DH telling him to turn off the light :) After that I am happy to say that I slept and slept well. The motion of the ship did not keep me up. Yay!

Up next.... Day 4 - Feb 4 - Nassau.....

 
I'm loving this! We are going in May, and I was excited to read a trip report with older kids in it.
And I can relate to feeling sick on boats. I am so excited about May....yet I dread it so bad......til I get excited again......til I think about the nausea......:sad2:
 
I'm loving this! We are going in May, and I was excited to read a trip report with older kids in it.
And I can relate to feeling sick on boats. I am so excited about May....yet I dread it so bad......til I get excited again......til I think about the nausea......:sad2:

So glad you are enjoying my report so far :goodvibes We had a lot of fun and it turned out to be a holiday that was enjoyed by everyone. My kids favourite part was having more freedom than on other holidays :)

I hope you don't have issues with nausea - it really is no fun! I was not surprised that I had problems since I have issues when driving, flying or anytime that I can't see the road properly - even night driving can get me sick. :( BUT most people do not have any problems. I will say that the pills that they have on the ship really work well. Our stateroom was mid to forward on the ship and that really helped - no one but me could feel the ship moving in our room. :)

So fun to have a cruise to look forward to - we are back in our cold and snowy winter land now, sure wish I had another cruise coming up! :goodvibes
 


Great report so far. I'm sorry you felt sick! I tend to get motion sick very easily and just recently started taking ginger pills to prevent nausea. Have you ever tried that before? It's Mythbuster tested! ;)

Looking forward to more. :)
 
Great report so far. I'm sorry you felt sick! I tend to get motion sick very easily and just recently started taking ginger pills to prevent nausea. Have you ever tried that before? It's Mythbuster tested! ;)

Looking forward to more. :)

Thanks! :goodvibes
Yes it was no fun being ill that first night. I really hated to miss the AP show - gives me a good reason to cruise again though! ::yes::

I have not tried taking ginger pills but I have taken ginger gravel (gravel is an anti nausea over the counter medication in Canada) I had even taken some that day but it was making no difference.

On planes and for long car rides I have often drank ginger tea and sometimes that has helped. I'll have to look into actual ginger pills though and see if maybe that will make a difference? Boy that would be awesome if it did! :thumbsup2
 
Joining in! We are going on the Magic in April for four nights. This will be our second Disney cruise.

Great start. Love all your pictures.

How long did you have to wait before you boarded the ship. We have an check in time similar to yours and was curious. We got in the 30s boarding number last time and waited for over an hour.

DS is so excited about the aqua dunk. DH and I will probably try it once. Not a big fan of closed in spaces. Will have to remind DH to take his glasses off! So glad your contacts didn't come out all the way.

So sorry you got sick. I did the first night of our last cruise and it wasn't fun! A waiter recommended that I eat a green apple and drink ginger ale. According to him your body gets low on acid when you get sea sick. It worked. I started feeling better and got on my Dramamine.


Can't wait to read more. Looking forward to your Nassau day.
 
Reading about your family experiencing the Atlantic Ocean was touching. I've lived on the East Coast my whole life, only a couple hours from the beach for most of it. I love the ocean -seeing it, swimming in it, scuba diving in it, sailing on it. The beach, not so much.

Great report. I can't wait to read more and experience the Magic through your account and pictures.
 
I'm loving this! We are going in May, and I was excited to read a trip report with older kids in it.
And I can relate to feeling sick on boats. I am so excited about May....yet I dread it so bad......til I get excited again......til I think about the nausea......:sad2:

I start taking Bonine (Meclizine) the day before we travel and each morning at sea. The pills you can get on the ship (Sea Calm) do the trick too.
 
That sucks that you all were feeling sick. I use bonine, which is probably what they gave you and I swear by that. I take it once a day and rarely have any issues at all!
 
Reading about your family experiencing the Atlantic Ocean was touching. I've lived on the East Coast my whole life, only a couple hours from the beach for most of it. I love the ocean -seeing it, swimming in it, scuba diving in it, sailing on it. The beach, not so much.
Thanks :goodvibes It really was a great experience for them and I loved getting to experience it through their eyes.

Great report. I can't wait to read more and experience the Magic through your account and pictures.
Thanks! More coming soon :)

I start taking Bonine (Meclizine) the day before we travel and each morning at sea. The pills you can get on the ship (Sea Calm) do the trick too.
Yup, the sea calm from the ship worked well. I have only ever heard of Bonine here on the boards - I'm thinking maybe it is only available in the US? If/when we cruise again I will be talking with my Dr. and I will mention this for sure - hopefully I can get this or something similar that will help cause it sure would be nice to not deal with it again.

Enjoying your trip report. We're headed on the Magic at the end of the month with two teenagers.
So exciting to be going on a cruise - so much to look forward to!

Joining in! We are going on the Magic in April for four nights. This will be our second Disney cruise.
Hi and welcome! Will this be your first time on Magic? We loved it and the fact that it was a smaller ship we found out had its benefits

Great start. Love all your pictures.
Thanks! :goodvibes

How long did you have to wait before you boarded the ship. We have an check in time similar to yours and was curious. We got in the 30s boarding number last time and waited for over an hour.
Once they started boarding we were in line and on within about 15 minutes. Pretty sure they started loading around noon? Can't remember exactly now though?? :rolleyes1

DS is so excited about the aqua dunk. DH and I will probably try it once. Not a big fan of closed in spaces. Will have to remind DH to take his glasses off! So glad your contacts didn't come out all the way.
Thanks - me too! I had brought an extra pair just in case but I was glad to not have to use them. I have to say though that the enclosed space was not really noticeable other than when you first step in and they close the door - my DD did not like that part but then it is over so fast that you really have no time to think about the enclosed space part. Now, if we had done this multiple times, maybe we would have noticed it more? :confused3

So sorry you got sick. I did the first night of our last cruise and it wasn't fun! A waiter recommended that I eat a green apple and drink ginger ale. According to him your body gets low on acid when you get sea sick. It worked. I started feeling better and got on my Dramamine.
Definitely no fun being sick! Even harder when I'm ill but then have to help one of the kids still too. I tried ginger ale but it is too sweet for me so I end up with a different kind of sick feeling from that. Never tried an apple - I'll keep that in my list of home remedies! :goodvibes Dramamine - This is something you get in the US I take it? We have gravel but it never helped me this time.

Can't wait to read more. Looking forward to your Nassau day.
Coming soon!

That sucks that you all were feeling sick. I use bonine, which is probably what they gave you and I swear by that. I take it once a day and rarely have any issues at all!
I never read the label but on the ship they call it 'sea calm' Pretty sure Bonine is in the US only as I have never seen it in Canada, but I will most certainly be talking to my Dr. about it if/when we cruise again! :)
 
Day 4 - Feb 4 - Nassau

After a good nights sleep - so glad I was able to sleep! John and I were up pretty early. I think we were up around 5:30am. I know it was before the sun came up so we got dressed and headed up to watch the sun rise.



Looked like it was going to be another beautiful day.
It was still really early and though we thought we would grab breakfast we didn't realize that Cabanas did not open till 7:30 and Lumiere's till 8am. We did manage to find a little something at Daisy Delights, fruit for me, not sure what DH had but it wasn't a lot. We figured we would be ok with the small bite to eat before getting a larger breakfast later on.

We decided to go walk around the quiet ship and check out a few more spots and take some photos.





We couldn't decide what to do for breakfast but we were close to Lumieres so we thought we would go there. I figured that it would be easier for me to order something instead of hoping that a buffet would have something for me to eat. In the end this was a mistake.
We went to Lumiere's and John ordered eggs benedict - his favourite on holiday breakfast (like so many others I know! LOL) The only thing they could do for me was oatmeal -which was fine but they had no real toppings for it and no soy milk. So I ended up with oatmeal with a little bit of walnuts and I asked for a bowl of fruit - should have asked for 2 because there was not a lot of fruit in the bowl.It was a pretty formal feeling breakfast which left us feeling a little uncomfortable - we are pretty casual people :)

Once we were done breakfast we headed back up to the top to see if we could see Nassau yet.
John asked if we should see where the kids were but I figured they were probably still sleeping and would call on the wave phone if they needed something.Funny how quickly I stopped worrying about them on the ship! :rotfl:
We got out side and yes, there was Nassau - Let me tell you, with the sun shining and seeing the new place for the first time was just jaw dropping to me. Once again, brought tears to my eyes (can you tell I'm a bit emotional? LOL I cry at everything!)



It was neat watching them pull into dock



Bethany called us on the wave phone just as we finished taking photos so we headed back to the room.

Once there we found both kids awake and unsure what to do ;) So we gave them the go ahead to get breakfast. Off they went to Cabanas and John and I made coffee.
John and I are what I affectionately call coffee snobs - him more than me! LOL So before we left we had big discussions about what we do coffee wise. We have never liked disney coffee (sorry disney!) and the coffee on the ship was no exception so I'm glad we brought our own.
We bought a small kettle, a travel mug that was also a coffee press and our own handheld coffee grinder.

So we made coffee and went out on the verandah to enjoy and watch as we docked.


The kids came back at this point and were happy to inform us that they had a great breakfast. They seemed to enjoy the pastries the most :goodvibes Though they said they had good eggs too.
Bethany then reminded me that we had not decorated our door yet! Oops! so we got out our stuff and got our door decorated.




Not sure what happened at this point but things did not go according to plan. I thought I had informed everyone that I wanted to get off the ship early so that we could go do our sight seeing and be back on the ship around lunchtime and miss the heat of the day and not have to worry about getting food. I had not booked an excursion ahead of time because through research I found out it would be way cheaper to do this on our own. Not sure if DH forgot or what but he decided that we did not need to rush off the ship so we did not get off as early as I intended. We did enjoy our coffee though!
The kids were not real happy to be just sitting in the room waiting.


We finally managed to get going. It was about 10am.

Up next - our fun?? in Nassau.....
 
Your so lucky that ur teens joined in the club stuff... Back in 2007 my girls didn't and they regret it now. I do understand why they didn't back then but really wish they would have.
 
Your so lucky that ur teens joined in the club stuff... Back in 2007 my girls didn't and they regret it now. I do understand why they didn't back then but really wish they would have.

It was the thing they were looking forward to most :) They were pretty lucky too thought that the group they were with was really friendly and they all had a lot of fun. The CM's had said that many times the kids do not really get into things right away and so it can be really quiet in Vibe but my DD is super social so there was no way she was letting things be quiet - they all were friends by the end of the first night. They had an 'icebreakers' function scheduled at 10pm the first night on the ship and my DD said there were about 14 kids there and by the time that was done they were happy to hang out. My son found someone just as into video games as him and on the first night they were already playing on the Wii together.

Both my kids keep asking to go again - but by the time we have saved up for another trip neither of them would be in teen clubs anymore :)
 
Day 4 - Feb 4 - Nassau, continued

At about 10am we were ready to head off the ship. Before we left on our trip I had looked into what we might want to do in Nassau. Having never been before but hearing and reading a lot of people say they spent most of the time on the ship I figured we did not want to do anything too long and I was hoping to not do anything to costly. In the end we decided that we would go to Ardastra Garden and Zoo. I decided not to book this as an excursion from Disney as the cost for the 4 of us through disney was almost triple the price! I had read that getting a taxi was easy and that you could spend a couple hours at Ardastra and then head back to the ship. Easy right? :rolleyes1

Well first we needed to get off the ship! LOL I don't know why I found this so difficult but I go completely turned around as we made our way to the bottom. Good thing DH and kids have a good sense of direction, I just followed along. It felt like we were winding around this and that but that could have just been because I was lost :rotfl: We got off the ship, and stopped to take in the site of the ship and standing next to it. Boy does it look HUGE when you are on the ground!

We walked down the pier and found the perfect spot for the first photo



Not exactly sure why we didn't get a family photo, I know there were people around asking us if we wanted them to take our photo but we didn't do it :confused3

We then headed down the pier. We proceeded to run into the sales people. Let me tell you I really, really don't like pushy sales people. Some guy, very politely asked to speak with me. As I stopped he proceeded to give his spiel about driving us to all the sites and just how low it would cost. Once I realized what the was, I said no thanks and proceeded to continue on our way. BUT the guy started following us and then was yelling at me - "what will your kids remember -you going to deny them everything!" and a whole lot more stuff like that. Needless to say it got me quite angry and honestly a little anxious. I don't like people who won't leave me alone, it makes me feel threatened. DH doesn't like it either so it kind of left us feeling a little out of sorts.

As we left this area and kind of followed the crowd through the doors. I really didn't have my bearings yet so I was pretty overwhelmed trying to figure out what and where we were suppose to go. Member how I said I get anxious about new situations - well this was really pushing me over the top. So I'm a little unclear where we were but I do know there was an information desk in the room. I headed over to the desk to ask about the Ardastra garden's and how to get there. The lady there was very helpful - game me a brochure about the garden and said all we needed to do was go out the door and get a taxi. Easy right?
I also asked her about prices. She said the taxi was $6 per person (I think - now I'm not sure anymore!) and the admission to the garden was $15 per person. That ended up being a little more than what I saw online before we left.

We walked out into the outside area of that room and again those fun overwhelmed feelings overtook me! All of a sudden there is all this yelling - taxi! taxi! need a taxi! and someone constantly coming up to us asking us if we wanted a ride to ..... (fill in the blank) I'm desperately trying to get my bearings, the kids are just being kind of quiet and trying not to get in the way (cause when I'm stressed like that I can get kind of cranky! ;) ) DH is just kind of following along. So I told this person, no don't need anything. Kind of walked down the way a bit to get out of the crowd and stopped so that DH and I could talk.

We talked for a bit about cost, made sure the kids still wanted to do this, which they did. And by that point I figured out that the person who was yelling about taxi's was just getting everyone organized so that they could fill up a taxi with people all going to the same place. AH - that made me feel better. So we approached the person and let him know where we wanted to go and within a few minutes we met our taxi driver - and we were on our way. :goodvibes

Now for some of you it may not be a big deal but for us that taxi drive was quite an adventure. Not only do they drive on the other side of the road but I swear there were no traffic lights or really any rules to how to drive around! Our driver gave us the history of Nassau as he drove (he told us later that in order to drive a taxi they have to go to school and learn all this info) BUT the crazy thing was, every intersection we came to he just honked and nudged his way into traffic :drive: Kind of freaky, let me tell you!

We did see some cool site along the way. But he said everything so fast that I really had no time to write out what we saw (or remember later)






I did love all the different coloured building and it made me think that I would like to come back one day and take a tour and learn more about the history of Nassau.

After about 15 minutes we arrived at...



Continued in next post
 
Day 4, Feb 4 - Nassau, continued

So we made it to Ardastra



Paid our driver. DH asked about how we get back again (good thing, cause I never even thought to ask how we get back again!) and he gave us his card and said to have them call him when we were ready to go.

We went to the gates, paid to get in and found out they were just finishing the show. Shoot! It was around 11am now and when I checked the map it said next shows were not until 1pm. That meant 2 hours in the heat. And it was hot already! We had brought some water bottles, but I was already a little concerned about waiting that long, not having any food and being in the heat. BUT I didn't want to miss the birds and the show - it was the whole reason we went!

So we started wandering around. Beautiful gardens and lots of fun animals in the zoo.



Found some flamingos just wandering around - and had the kids pose with them (LOVE that they still will do silly things like this!)








It took us about an hour to cover the entire place. Still had an hour to wait till the feeding birds and then the show afterwards. The kids went and found some shade and benches around the show ring to sit and relax. Everyone kind of got grumpy at this point. Being hot, tired, and probably a little hungry was not helping. But instead of trying to cheer everyone up I decided to just go wander around on my own for a while. I really enjoy being in places like this and so not having grumpy kids with me let me enjoy the peace and beauty of this place.

I even managed to catch this photo....







I took lots of photos - too many to share :)

I headed back to where the kids and DH were hanging out and then it was time to go and feed the Lorry birds.

This was A LOT of fun! We have never fed birds before. DH did not join us in the cage - he does not like birds up close and personal like that :) but the kids and I went in.

They handed us apple slices and we were suppose to hold them up and let the birds come to us. Apparently they are suppose to 'work' for their food.

The first time one landed on us it caught us by surprise and feeding that first bird was quiet the experience! but after the first one, we got the hang of it and then we had a lot of fun feeding them. Kids said the best part was having multiple birds on them at one time. And of course, they made comments about - we should get a bird! :goodvibes









After we were done we had about 30 minutes until the show. We went back to the arena area to wait. The show is trained Flamingos! Very cool. They are trained to march, stop, and about face.




Show was about 15 minutes long. Once that was done we were ready to head back to the ship.

We called for our taxi driver to come get us and in about 10 minutes he was there and off we went. Much shorter drive back to the ship - guess the way there he took the scenic route :)

We headed back into the buildings. Again, not sure where this was but there were a few shops (not the straw market) but it was much cooler in there so we wandered around for a bit.

DH and I found some local coffee.



And they had these little pots of jam, so I had to get one.



And I found a Christmas ornament. I have started collecting ornaments on our trips so I was really happy to find this



Now we were ready to head back to the ship and get some lunch.

Up next - too late for lunch!

 

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