jcarwash
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2008
- Messages
- 4,756
I hope this report provides the perspective of a first-time cruiser. I did so much research here on the DIS, and got so much helpful information here, that I felt somewhat experienced before even arriving...but there was still so much I learned and observed.
My party was a family of three...DH, DW, and DS (5).
Getting to and from port
We did the one-way car rentals. Thanks to the DIS my research showed rentals was a good way to go, and it worked out great.
We used Hertz from the airport to Cape Canaveral. The morning of the cruise I dropped off my family and luggage and the porter was super helpful -- told us how my wife could take my passport and check us in while I was returning the car. Returning the car to Hertz was fantastic. They took car of me right away, and their shuttle van driver was very friendly and informative. I was back at the port terminal within 20 minutes at the most. Cost of the rental, using a AAA rate, was $48 and included a child safety seat.
Upon returning from the cruise, we used Avis. Their shuttle took a really, really, long time to show up at the port terminal, and when it did arrive, not everyone who was waiting could fit. The driver was not helpful at all. Actually picking up our car at Avis was very fast, but dropping off the car at the airport was another wait. We stood at our car waiting, like all the other customers, for attendants to come and check us in. But one little bonus was the total price was $13 less than I was expecting. Looks like they did not charge me for the child safety seat - not sure if they forgot or what. Total cost was $35. I want to fill out a survey for Avis but they don't list anything on my receipt nor have I gotten any email yet. I guess they don't want to hear about it...
Country Inn & Suites
We stayed at CI&S in Cape Canaveral the night before the cruise. I used the Carlson Friends & Family code, (CARLSONF) which I don't think is valid anymore now, but it got us a $70 rate for a Kids Quarters Suite. There was absolutely no discussion of the rate or the CARLSONF code upon check-in. The hotel was very busy and the wait to check-in was a little slow.
Kids bunks and TV:
The room was very nice, with a separate bunk bed area and TV for kids. It's not a separate room but a divider wall. Overall the room was very spacious. We used the pool, which was very busy as there were tons of people staying to cruise the next day.
The complimentary breakfast was awesome -- huge variety of choices such as waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, along with breads, pastry, and cereal. Plus the breakfast room staff were very, very friendly, cheerful, and helpful. One tip though is to get to the breakfast as early as possible. We got there right at 7am and I'm so glad we did, because an hour later there was a line out the door for the breakfast items. One of the staff said there were 500 guests.
Beer on board
Also thanks to the DIS I learned about carrying your own alcohol on board. We drove down the street to Publix in Cocoa Beach and I bought a 12 pack of Yuengling. Almost all the beer at Publix is cold, with just a few warm cases. Since I didn't need the beer to be cold yet, I asked for a warm case of Yuengling and the guy was very helpful about getting me one from the back room. The 12 pack fit nicely into my carry-on bag.
The beverage cooler in the stateroom did an okay job of chilling the beer. Later I got ice from our stateroom hostess and I put the beer into the ice bucket inside the beverage cooler. I took a can to each dinner (except Palo). For Castaway Cay, I filled a small Ziploc bag with ice from the beverage station and took some cans in a small soft-sided cooler we had.
Boarding
So we did get to the port early, around 10am. Looks like everyone else does too because the terminal was really busy, but all you really do is sit around until 11:45 or so. We got boarding group 6.
Magic in port
The movies running on the TVs kept us occupied, as did Mickey and Pluto making appearances.
One thing I learned at the port was about the Mickey Bands for the Oceaneer Club/Lab. The Mickey Band is the waterproof electronic device that the kids wear for checking in and out. Most kids have them on their wrist, but I did see a few kids with them on their ankle.
The line at the port for the Mickey Bands was long all morning long, but at least it was something to do. I'm sure you can get the Mickey Bands on board too, but most everyone was in line to get them.
Tip: Once you enter the Mickey porthole and after they swipe your KTTW cards, there is a queue for family photos. As we got into the queue, we saw people skipping the queue and photos altogether by going to the far right. I think the "skip" queue was sort of hidden by a big sign about the family photos itself. If you're a frugal family like us, we weren't planning to buy the family photo anyway, so look for the line to skip! Plus the queue we were in was slooooow.
Maybe it was just me, but from reading the DIS I got the idea that getting on board was a mad rush and getting to eat was chaos. In our experience, boarding was pretty relaxing. After being announced, a crew member greeted us personally and asked if we were cruising for the first time. It looked like she was going to direct us to Parrot Cay for lunch, but when we asked about using the pool, she led us to the elevator and gave us directions to deck 9.
Once on deck 9, things were pretty quiet. We got sandwiches from Goofy's Galley and burgers and hot dogs from Pluto's Dog House. My son used the Mickey pool. Yes, the pool got busier as more people came on board, but the whole boarding/eating experience was really nice, I thought. We headed down to our stateroom a bit after 1:30.
Stateroom
We were on deck 2 in 2586, a category 9B, which seemed like a good location at midship on the Magic. Nice to have a porthole and split bath as we originally booked an 11C inside stateroom (on a guarantee/GTY) that has neither. Generally we liked and enjoyed the room. Our stateroom hostess, Nicol, was wonderful.
Stateroom 2586
There were some minor issues, which included: the door to the beverage cooler did not work well; it was damaged because it rubbed up against all the door hardware. Also, one of the wave phones had no signal and we had to get a new one delivered.
Porthole 2586
As for noise, each night between 10:30-11:30 there was a lot of noise from the Lumiere's galley above. There must be some kind of regular activity at that time. Also when going to sleep is when we really noticed the noise from the ship engines. But the noise from the galley and the engines did not give us cause to complain; it was tolerable in both cases.
Cruising
From everything I read, I formed an idea that the ship was so big it was unlikely we'd feel anything or get sick. Well, we didn't get sick, but I must not have read enough because we did feel the movement, and the first night we had to get used to it. I realized that no matter how big, the ship is a vehicle and you're going to feel and hear it moving.
Breakfasts
Five of our seven breakfasts, we went to Topsider Buffet. We really liked it each morning, with a great variety of breakfast items and it all tasted very good. We always got there as early as we could when there was no lines yet. The staff in the morning was very good and also included one of our evening servers, Llewellyn, who had an authentic bird call whistle that filled the restaurant.
Topsider outside seating
Our character breakfast was in Parrot Cay. The food was okay, and it was the most efficient character breakfast I've ever seen. Whoosh - here comes the handler to get your autograph book. Boom, here comes each of the six characters to pose with you. Bam, you're done.
On our disembarkation day, our breakfast was in Lumiere's, and it was just okay. I would have rather gone to Topsider one last time, and I think it was actually open, but we followed the assigned breakfast rotation.
Lunch
Had lunch in different places during the week. The Italian buffet at Parrot Cay was very good. Ordering off the lunch menu at Lumiere's was also very good, even just a burger there was very tasty. On our St. Thomas excursion day, we didn't eat on the island and came back to scarf down sandwiches, pizza, and tacos from the counters on deck 9. The only disappointing lunch was the seafood buffet at Topsider; we originally went to Lumiere's but the crew there told us there was sushi at Topsider. Well, the sushi wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either. The rest of the seafood buffet was pretty good, but I think we should have stuck with Lumiere's.
Rotational Dining
We thought overall the rotational dining was really, really good. Each night the appetizers, soups/salads, entrees, and desserts were all tasty and satisfying. Sure, some things were better than others, but we did not find that anything was simply bad -- it was all really good food. But I can't say I found much different in the food among the three rotational locations. The theming was slightly different depending on the night, but generally the selections were all of high quality.
We were assigned the LAPLAPL rotation.
Lumiere's
As for atmosphere, Animator's Palate was the most interesting, although it wasn't quite as interesting as I had imagined. The changes from black and white to color were much more subtle that I expected. But, for little kids this restaurant is the most fun because there are things to watch. One thing I learned (or realized) is that there is only one show night in AP on a 7-day cruise. We were also there on Prince & Princess night and they run cartoons on the big screens, but there is no AP show.
We were at Lumiere's three times on our rotation and I found it to be the least interesting, especially for kids. Plus we were at table 15 in the back corner and it seemed a bit secluded back there. My favorite meal there was the Yachtsman Steakhouse Beef Tenderloin on the last night.
We were at Parrot Cay once for dinner because the other night we went to Palo. The atmosphere at Parrot Cay is in between AP and Lumiere's, from what I saw.
Palo
Palo lived up to and exceeded the hype. We went for dinner and felt it was one of the best restaurants in our lifetime. The service was impeccable. Each course was outstanding. The entrees we had were the grilled tuna and the beef tenderloin. It was the best steak I've ever had. And for dessert, the chocolate souffle is amazing. They also helped us celebrate an anniversary with an anniversary message in chocolate and complimentary cocktails. Of course those extras helped encourage us to tip extra on top of the $20 per person.
Palo
Dress
We followed DCL's dress requirements and packed dress clothes (not formal wear though) for formal night and for Palo, and made sure to have long pants for dinner. Although I would mostly follow the requirements next time, dressing up for formal night or semi-formal night seemed more like something to do for yourself, not as much to make sure you fit in. The dress in Palo was more dressier, but still saw people dressing quite casually, for example, polos for men vs. a jacket or dress shirt. We did give in on dressing our young son in long pants for dinner, as he didn't enjoy doing so. I didn't see any adults dressing for dinner in anything egregious like swimsuits or shorts and flip flops, but the actual dress was much more casual than Disney's guidelines would suggest.
St. Maarten/St.Martin
We did the French Riviera Beach Rendezvous through DCL. It was an outstanding port adventure. We were bused to the Waikiki Beach restaurant with their private beach on Orient Bay. When we arrived each person got fruit punch and the adults could get rum added. Padded lounge chairs were available for everyone and you could rent an umbrella if you wanted. The beach was gorgeous. There were some big waves but the water was great despite that.
Orient Bay
A sit-down lunch was included in the price. The food was simple but tasty -- choices were fish, chicken, or ribs, and the meal included a cocktail for a drink if you wanted. I had a Carib Lager.
The tour operators were always around and were very helpful. On the buses each way, the tour guides narrated about the island, the Dutch and French sides, and what it was like to live there.
This excursion was a big highlight of the trip and I highly recommend it.
Also, for all port excursions including Castaway Cay, DCL provides you with towels as you leave the ship. So, you don't need to pack your own beach towels. They are the same white towels available at the deck 9 pools.
St. Thomas
On St. Thomas we did the Magens Bay Beach Break. This tour was not nearly as well-run as the St. Maarten excursion. The open-air taxis were late, and the tour guides did nothing to help get everyone seated -- there was confusion about whether everyone would fit. Then the ride over to Magens Bay was wild -- people were joking about having a thrill ride as part of the Disney experience. Unlike on St. Maarten there was no narrated tour, although with the length of the ride, there could have been if the transportation allowed for it.
Once at Magens Bay, the beach itself was beautiful and the water was placid for swimming, but this is very much also a local beach AND cruise ship central, so it was very crowded. You had the DCL group, the Norweigan group, the Carnival group…all ships in port had excursions there. But unlike the St. Maarten excursion, the tour operators disappeared for the day. I assume they just dropped us off.
Magens Bay
The best part of Magens Bay was exploring the rocks on the right side of the beach and seeing tropical fish just by looking into the water, no goggles or snorkel required.
Magens Bay
We avoided lunch at the beachside counter, which seemed expensive. Instead we snacked on some breads, pastries, and cereal we grabbed at Topsider that morning. When we got back to the Magic we went to the counters on deck 9 to eat around 3pm.
The second (and final) part is posted as a reply below (post #9) below, and includes my sections on:
Also, post #33 (page 3) includes links to the navigators for the week.
My party was a family of three...DH, DW, and DS (5).
Getting to and from port
We did the one-way car rentals. Thanks to the DIS my research showed rentals was a good way to go, and it worked out great.
We used Hertz from the airport to Cape Canaveral. The morning of the cruise I dropped off my family and luggage and the porter was super helpful -- told us how my wife could take my passport and check us in while I was returning the car. Returning the car to Hertz was fantastic. They took car of me right away, and their shuttle van driver was very friendly and informative. I was back at the port terminal within 20 minutes at the most. Cost of the rental, using a AAA rate, was $48 and included a child safety seat.
Upon returning from the cruise, we used Avis. Their shuttle took a really, really, long time to show up at the port terminal, and when it did arrive, not everyone who was waiting could fit. The driver was not helpful at all. Actually picking up our car at Avis was very fast, but dropping off the car at the airport was another wait. We stood at our car waiting, like all the other customers, for attendants to come and check us in. But one little bonus was the total price was $13 less than I was expecting. Looks like they did not charge me for the child safety seat - not sure if they forgot or what. Total cost was $35. I want to fill out a survey for Avis but they don't list anything on my receipt nor have I gotten any email yet. I guess they don't want to hear about it...
Country Inn & Suites
We stayed at CI&S in Cape Canaveral the night before the cruise. I used the Carlson Friends & Family code, (CARLSONF) which I don't think is valid anymore now, but it got us a $70 rate for a Kids Quarters Suite. There was absolutely no discussion of the rate or the CARLSONF code upon check-in. The hotel was very busy and the wait to check-in was a little slow.
Kids bunks and TV:
The room was very nice, with a separate bunk bed area and TV for kids. It's not a separate room but a divider wall. Overall the room was very spacious. We used the pool, which was very busy as there were tons of people staying to cruise the next day.
The complimentary breakfast was awesome -- huge variety of choices such as waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, along with breads, pastry, and cereal. Plus the breakfast room staff were very, very friendly, cheerful, and helpful. One tip though is to get to the breakfast as early as possible. We got there right at 7am and I'm so glad we did, because an hour later there was a line out the door for the breakfast items. One of the staff said there were 500 guests.
Beer on board
Also thanks to the DIS I learned about carrying your own alcohol on board. We drove down the street to Publix in Cocoa Beach and I bought a 12 pack of Yuengling. Almost all the beer at Publix is cold, with just a few warm cases. Since I didn't need the beer to be cold yet, I asked for a warm case of Yuengling and the guy was very helpful about getting me one from the back room. The 12 pack fit nicely into my carry-on bag.
The beverage cooler in the stateroom did an okay job of chilling the beer. Later I got ice from our stateroom hostess and I put the beer into the ice bucket inside the beverage cooler. I took a can to each dinner (except Palo). For Castaway Cay, I filled a small Ziploc bag with ice from the beverage station and took some cans in a small soft-sided cooler we had.
Boarding
So we did get to the port early, around 10am. Looks like everyone else does too because the terminal was really busy, but all you really do is sit around until 11:45 or so. We got boarding group 6.
Magic in port
The movies running on the TVs kept us occupied, as did Mickey and Pluto making appearances.
One thing I learned at the port was about the Mickey Bands for the Oceaneer Club/Lab. The Mickey Band is the waterproof electronic device that the kids wear for checking in and out. Most kids have them on their wrist, but I did see a few kids with them on their ankle.
The line at the port for the Mickey Bands was long all morning long, but at least it was something to do. I'm sure you can get the Mickey Bands on board too, but most everyone was in line to get them.
Tip: Once you enter the Mickey porthole and after they swipe your KTTW cards, there is a queue for family photos. As we got into the queue, we saw people skipping the queue and photos altogether by going to the far right. I think the "skip" queue was sort of hidden by a big sign about the family photos itself. If you're a frugal family like us, we weren't planning to buy the family photo anyway, so look for the line to skip! Plus the queue we were in was slooooow.
Maybe it was just me, but from reading the DIS I got the idea that getting on board was a mad rush and getting to eat was chaos. In our experience, boarding was pretty relaxing. After being announced, a crew member greeted us personally and asked if we were cruising for the first time. It looked like she was going to direct us to Parrot Cay for lunch, but when we asked about using the pool, she led us to the elevator and gave us directions to deck 9.
Once on deck 9, things were pretty quiet. We got sandwiches from Goofy's Galley and burgers and hot dogs from Pluto's Dog House. My son used the Mickey pool. Yes, the pool got busier as more people came on board, but the whole boarding/eating experience was really nice, I thought. We headed down to our stateroom a bit after 1:30.
Stateroom
We were on deck 2 in 2586, a category 9B, which seemed like a good location at midship on the Magic. Nice to have a porthole and split bath as we originally booked an 11C inside stateroom (on a guarantee/GTY) that has neither. Generally we liked and enjoyed the room. Our stateroom hostess, Nicol, was wonderful.
Stateroom 2586
There were some minor issues, which included: the door to the beverage cooler did not work well; it was damaged because it rubbed up against all the door hardware. Also, one of the wave phones had no signal and we had to get a new one delivered.
Porthole 2586
As for noise, each night between 10:30-11:30 there was a lot of noise from the Lumiere's galley above. There must be some kind of regular activity at that time. Also when going to sleep is when we really noticed the noise from the ship engines. But the noise from the galley and the engines did not give us cause to complain; it was tolerable in both cases.
Cruising
From everything I read, I formed an idea that the ship was so big it was unlikely we'd feel anything or get sick. Well, we didn't get sick, but I must not have read enough because we did feel the movement, and the first night we had to get used to it. I realized that no matter how big, the ship is a vehicle and you're going to feel and hear it moving.
Breakfasts
Five of our seven breakfasts, we went to Topsider Buffet. We really liked it each morning, with a great variety of breakfast items and it all tasted very good. We always got there as early as we could when there was no lines yet. The staff in the morning was very good and also included one of our evening servers, Llewellyn, who had an authentic bird call whistle that filled the restaurant.
Topsider outside seating
Our character breakfast was in Parrot Cay. The food was okay, and it was the most efficient character breakfast I've ever seen. Whoosh - here comes the handler to get your autograph book. Boom, here comes each of the six characters to pose with you. Bam, you're done.
On our disembarkation day, our breakfast was in Lumiere's, and it was just okay. I would have rather gone to Topsider one last time, and I think it was actually open, but we followed the assigned breakfast rotation.
Lunch
Had lunch in different places during the week. The Italian buffet at Parrot Cay was very good. Ordering off the lunch menu at Lumiere's was also very good, even just a burger there was very tasty. On our St. Thomas excursion day, we didn't eat on the island and came back to scarf down sandwiches, pizza, and tacos from the counters on deck 9. The only disappointing lunch was the seafood buffet at Topsider; we originally went to Lumiere's but the crew there told us there was sushi at Topsider. Well, the sushi wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that great either. The rest of the seafood buffet was pretty good, but I think we should have stuck with Lumiere's.
Rotational Dining
We thought overall the rotational dining was really, really good. Each night the appetizers, soups/salads, entrees, and desserts were all tasty and satisfying. Sure, some things were better than others, but we did not find that anything was simply bad -- it was all really good food. But I can't say I found much different in the food among the three rotational locations. The theming was slightly different depending on the night, but generally the selections were all of high quality.
We were assigned the LAPLAPL rotation.
Lumiere's
As for atmosphere, Animator's Palate was the most interesting, although it wasn't quite as interesting as I had imagined. The changes from black and white to color were much more subtle that I expected. But, for little kids this restaurant is the most fun because there are things to watch. One thing I learned (or realized) is that there is only one show night in AP on a 7-day cruise. We were also there on Prince & Princess night and they run cartoons on the big screens, but there is no AP show.
We were at Lumiere's three times on our rotation and I found it to be the least interesting, especially for kids. Plus we were at table 15 in the back corner and it seemed a bit secluded back there. My favorite meal there was the Yachtsman Steakhouse Beef Tenderloin on the last night.
We were at Parrot Cay once for dinner because the other night we went to Palo. The atmosphere at Parrot Cay is in between AP and Lumiere's, from what I saw.
Palo
Palo lived up to and exceeded the hype. We went for dinner and felt it was one of the best restaurants in our lifetime. The service was impeccable. Each course was outstanding. The entrees we had were the grilled tuna and the beef tenderloin. It was the best steak I've ever had. And for dessert, the chocolate souffle is amazing. They also helped us celebrate an anniversary with an anniversary message in chocolate and complimentary cocktails. Of course those extras helped encourage us to tip extra on top of the $20 per person.
Palo
Dress
We followed DCL's dress requirements and packed dress clothes (not formal wear though) for formal night and for Palo, and made sure to have long pants for dinner. Although I would mostly follow the requirements next time, dressing up for formal night or semi-formal night seemed more like something to do for yourself, not as much to make sure you fit in. The dress in Palo was more dressier, but still saw people dressing quite casually, for example, polos for men vs. a jacket or dress shirt. We did give in on dressing our young son in long pants for dinner, as he didn't enjoy doing so. I didn't see any adults dressing for dinner in anything egregious like swimsuits or shorts and flip flops, but the actual dress was much more casual than Disney's guidelines would suggest.
St. Maarten/St.Martin
We did the French Riviera Beach Rendezvous through DCL. It was an outstanding port adventure. We were bused to the Waikiki Beach restaurant with their private beach on Orient Bay. When we arrived each person got fruit punch and the adults could get rum added. Padded lounge chairs were available for everyone and you could rent an umbrella if you wanted. The beach was gorgeous. There were some big waves but the water was great despite that.
Orient Bay
A sit-down lunch was included in the price. The food was simple but tasty -- choices were fish, chicken, or ribs, and the meal included a cocktail for a drink if you wanted. I had a Carib Lager.
The tour operators were always around and were very helpful. On the buses each way, the tour guides narrated about the island, the Dutch and French sides, and what it was like to live there.
This excursion was a big highlight of the trip and I highly recommend it.
Also, for all port excursions including Castaway Cay, DCL provides you with towels as you leave the ship. So, you don't need to pack your own beach towels. They are the same white towels available at the deck 9 pools.
St. Thomas
On St. Thomas we did the Magens Bay Beach Break. This tour was not nearly as well-run as the St. Maarten excursion. The open-air taxis were late, and the tour guides did nothing to help get everyone seated -- there was confusion about whether everyone would fit. Then the ride over to Magens Bay was wild -- people were joking about having a thrill ride as part of the Disney experience. Unlike on St. Maarten there was no narrated tour, although with the length of the ride, there could have been if the transportation allowed for it.
Once at Magens Bay, the beach itself was beautiful and the water was placid for swimming, but this is very much also a local beach AND cruise ship central, so it was very crowded. You had the DCL group, the Norweigan group, the Carnival group…all ships in port had excursions there. But unlike the St. Maarten excursion, the tour operators disappeared for the day. I assume they just dropped us off.
Magens Bay
The best part of Magens Bay was exploring the rocks on the right side of the beach and seeing tropical fish just by looking into the water, no goggles or snorkel required.
Magens Bay
We avoided lunch at the beachside counter, which seemed expensive. Instead we snacked on some breads, pastries, and cereal we grabbed at Topsider that morning. When we got back to the Magic we went to the counters on deck 9 to eat around 3pm.
The second (and final) part is posted as a reply below (post #9) below, and includes my sections on:
- Castaway Cay
- Oceaneer Club/Lab
- Movies
- Shows
- Adult Activities
- Swimming
- Vista Spa Gym
- Packing refillable mugs
- "It's a Small Ship After All"
- Fish Extender
Also, post #33 (page 3) includes links to the navigators for the week.
- one question though. Was the $20 surcharge a tip? We tipped on top of that and had a heck of a time figuring out how to determine the tip...... 
Oh well, live and learn, right? And NEXT time we will know! 
