First Cruise - Disney Magic - eastern Caribbean - May 7, 2011

[Canadian Girl 77]

Since I had so much fun doing a travel report last time, I figured I'd start early this time!

The players are me (33) and my husband (33). We have one child - DD aged 6.

We booked our first cruise last weekend after much debate about Disney versus Royal Caribbean. The decision was clear when we realized the kid was too small to ride Flow Rider which she was desperate to do. So, we booked. At one point I was the evil person with a hold on several room types - the "last" interior room and the "last" category 9. We went with the 9 but all we could get was guaranteed.

We're going to tack on a couple of extra days to the start of the vacation. Just not sure what to do - do we do Disney (as usual) or try Universal? It is an ongoing debate.

Day 1 - Travel
Day 2 - Travel, Universal...
Day 3 - Universal
Day 4 - Universal
UNIVERSAL photo dump
Day 5 - Cape Canaveral and the Disney Magic
Day 6 - Sea Day
Day 7 - Sea Day
Day 8 - St. Maarten
Day 9 - St. Thomas
Day 10 - Sea Day
Day 11 - Castaway Cay
Day 12 - Disembarkment
Day 13 - Back home!
Final thoughts: Lessons Learned

 

[miabellarose]

Wow! I'm first! I'm excited to follow along since I will be doing the Eastern in May 2012.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Subbing to hear the plans...thinking about an Eastern in 2012

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

Today I logged on to the website to update our flight information. We're going to arrive on the Wednesday before the cruise and leave on the Sunday morning after we get back.

We're still discussing what we'll do in that time.

But I was able to actually get a Palo reservation on embarkment day at 7:30 pm. I sure hope the kids clubs are open then. Just thought of that potential issue. Hmmmm. Last week there were no reservations so it seems that things change all the time.

And we got an 11:30 time slot to board. Yeah!

 

[miabellarose]

You have less than 2 months before your trip

 

[wilma-bride]

Not long to go. Looking forward to hearing about it - we are on the Eastern in October

 

[mandymouse]

Hey Canadian Girl 77, I'm sailing with you on the Disney Magic and I can't wait

We've booked Palo Brunch for the first morning, and Palo Dinner for the last evening, and we're hoping to book High Tea once onboard

I look forward to reading more about your plans

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

March has gone by so quickly! I'm starting to feel as though it will be cruise time before I know it!

We've firmed up our before plans now. We've got an early morning flight out of BUF to MCO. We should be there by 9:30 am. We're going to stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for 3 nights. Try the whole Universal experience since DD has become a fan of Harry Potter. We'll book some sort of shuttle or taxi to take us to Port early on the Saturday morning. The goal is to be at port by 10 am.

On our return we're going to rent a car and drive back to Orlando. Not sure what we'll actually do on the Saturday but we'll spend the night at the hotel in the airport before catching an early flight home on the Sunday.

The rough outline has been made - we have hotel reservations (except for Saturday night at MCO but that is just because I've been too lazy to get out my purse)

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

In one month we will be in Orlando. Not quite on the ship but at Universal Studios. Which begs the question - how will we get from Universal to Port Canaveral? Any recommendations?

 

[kdwebb]

You are so lucky! DH and I visited HP at US last summer and loved it! I'm still craving a butter beer! Staying at Hard Rock will get you into it an hour early and you definitely want to take advantage of that to avoid the crowds!

Have fun! We are on the Magic for our first cruise ever in less than three weeks.

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

Just booked the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport for the Saturday night. We have a Sunday morning flights.

Booked on hwww.lastminutetravel.com and got it thanks to other DISers.

 

[LuvEeyore]

Let us know what you think of the Hyatt!!

 

[Tanzanite]

We have heard nice things about Hyatt hope to try it next year on our 2 cruises we sail on Fantasy 7 day then get off over night next day Dream 5 days it seems so far away cant wait to hear about your trip.

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

So, I finally got off my butt and booked our excursions. I booked the three of us on the French Riviera Beach Rendezvous in St. Martin. And I booked floaties and the Stingray adventure for Castaway Cay. At least I think I booked the Stingray. I kept getting error messages and it seemed to be confirmed and then unconfirmed for no apparent reason. But it is in my itinerary now so let's assume it is booked.

We'd like to go to Coral World but are considering doing that on our own. I have a few days to decide.

 

[Rebecky]

I'm curious to see what you think about Coral World. Thinking of doing that combined with a city tour when we go next year. Looking forward to hearing all about your cruise!

 

[Lauralooneyfordisney]

I will be interested to see how your first cruise went too.

 

[sdjen]

Enjoying your TR so far. Cannot wait to hear what you think of the excursions you do on the Eastern. My dd will be 6 on that trip so your advice will be very helpful. We are going on an Eastern in February of 2012 because we had so much fun on the Western in Feb of 2011. You are going to have so much fun!

I can highly recommend the Hyatt. We had a late flight on the day we got off the Magic and got a day room. YOu are right in the airport and have access to all of the shops and restaurants in the airport. Also, the pool at the hotel is nice and the rooms are really nice. You won't be disappointed!

Cant wait to hear more after your trip.

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

Our vacation began at about 6pm on Tuesday when we left home and drove to our hotel by the Buffalo Airport.

Despite our numerous visits, south of the border, I actually got a little lost on the way to the hotel. Hailey was lucky I didn’t call off the whole vacation after she encouraged me to “make a map in your head” so that I wouldn’t get lost. Despite our little detour we weren’t that late. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and had dinner at Max’s Bar and Grill. They have delicious chicken fingers (a tempura batter)! We set an early wake-up call and went to bed.

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

Our flight to MCO left BUF at 6:50 am. So, we got to that airport at around 5:15 am. We took the Holiday Inn shuttle with a flight crew. Hailey was so tired! We had paid the extra $10 to Southwest to guarantee our presence in the A line. That was money well spent. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Orlando a little early – around 9:30 am. We were met by a driver from Tiffany. There was little problem finding him – we kept missing each other. Thank goodness for cell phones. Our luggage was quickly collected at we were checked in at Hotel Rock by 10:30 am. We were actually in our room, unpacking by 10:45am! We loved the room – it was gorgeous and spacious. Made me a little nervous about how small it might make our room on the cruise feel.

We decided to have a quick swim in the pool before heading to the parks. It was gorgeous but I was surprised at how shallow the pool was. It was also a little confusing to find our way to the top of the slide. But there were lots and lots of loungers. Hailey loved the pool! She was obsessed! Even when we got to the parks she kept reminiscing about how much she loves the pool at Hard Rock.

Our first stop was Universal Studios Orlando. I had bought our 3-day tickets online. I was a little surprised to discover that the printout from my printer was the final pass that we would use for the next three days. But, I guess that why I got to save $30.

Our first destination was Shrek 4D. I was surprised that the pre-show actually scared Hailey. She is normally unshakeable. The girl usually has no fear. And then we went on Jaws. This also terrified the kid. I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that she thought they’d bring in a real man-eating shark for an amusement ride when she thought the real movies featured actors actually being eaten by sharks. Although, that didn’t concern her. We also went on Men In Black Alien Attack, The Simpsons Ride, E.T. Adventure and Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster. Hailey loved the Woody Coaster so much! We ended up letting her ride it all by herself. Over and over and over and over and over again. We finally dragged her away from the coaster. Steve and I ended up using Child Swap to go on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. At this point it was almost 4 pm! Thanks to our residency at Hotel Rock we were able to skip the lines on every ride.

We headed over to Islands of Adventure for the rest of the day. We quickly walked through Seuss Landing so that we could visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This area was surprisingly uncrowded. We ended up checking out the shops – Zonko’s, Honeydukes, Owl Post, and Dervish and Banges. We also lined up and watched the Ollivander`s show – twice. Hailey really wanted a wand and we hoped she would get picked so that we wouldn’t have to spend hours analyzing the different wands. Alas, she was not chosen so we spent at least an hour wand shopping. She ended up getting the October wand. We also rode Flight of the Hippogriff several times. And of course, we went on the truly fabulous Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Such an amazing experience. We had to wait 30 minutes for the ride. You need at least that long to truly experience Hogwarts. We had a blast wandering around Hogsmeade. We had a really late lunch/early dinner at Three Broomsticks. We shared a mug of frozen Butterbeer and a glass of Pumpkin Fizz. Steve liked the butterbeer. Hailey didn’t like it. I only liked to frothy topping. Only Hailey enjoyed the pumpkin fizz. The park closed at 7 pm. Just before closing we returned to the hotel and went swimming!

We had a late, light dinner at The Kitchen. As we got off the elevator we literally ran into Homer Simpson. During dinner we were visited by none other than Scooby Doo. After dinner we went right to bed. I didn`t set a wake-up call for the next morning. I figured we all needed the extra rest.

 

[Canadian Girl 77]

We took it easy on Thursday morning. This meant we didn’t get to Islands of Adventure until almost 9:30 am. We decided to start at Marvel Super Hero Island. Steve and I went on The Incredible Hulk Coaster (thank you Child Swap) followed by a couple of spins on Storm Force Accelatron. We also went on The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman. We decided to skip Doctor Doom’s Fearfall since neither Steve or I was interested in that ride. We didn’t go on any of the rides in Toon Lagoon. Hailey had no interest in the water rides and neither did the adults.

We couldn’t pass on Jurassic Park River Adventure though. Hailey also got to go on Pteranodon Flyers twice. The ride boasted a ten-minute wait. We had lunch at Mythos Restaurant. It was okay. But really, it wasn’t anything special.

After lunch we tried to go on Poseidon’s Fury but it was closed down. And The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was insanely busy! We went on all the rides in Seuss Landing from the Caro-Seuss-el to The Cat in the Hat to One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish to both versions of The High in The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride.

We spent a small fortune on Harry Potter merchandise before leaving the park for the day. Hailey convinced us to buy her a set of Gryffindor robes. Steve really sold me when he pointed out the robes cost the same as the princesses dresses which we’d spoiled Hailey with in the past. And this would work much better for Halloween.

We wanted to have dinner at Margaritaville in Citywalk. However, it was crazy busy so we ended up dining at Pat O’Brien’s. We had an early night because we wanted to be up early to take adventure on Early Entry to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.