Just wanted to give a few of the highlights, not enough time for the complete trip report.
This trip was just dh and I (anniversary, left the kiddos with grandparents). Flew in on Friday, rented a car from Budget, spent the night at the Contemporary and drove down to the port in the a.m.. Car rental was a breeze, drive down was easy (dont forget money for the tolls!). Renting a car was very nice because we made a grocery stop before turning it in and loaded up on bottled water. Rental car return was ok. Only two people working, long line and we finally just dropped the keys (with permission from the Budget people) and got on the shuttle (my eagerness to get to port was getting the best of me). Shuttle was very small and I dont know if that is the norm or not.
Check in was a breeze. We upgraded at port from a cat. 7 to a cat. 4 for a total of three hundred bucks (just an FYI here, could have upgraded to a category 3 for one thousand but with just dh and I it didnt make sense). Pleasant wait for embarkation (noon) and then off to make the palo/spa ressies. We got everything we wanted EXCEPT high tea which I pretty much knew wouldnt happen anyway.
We did have a few problems at this point which I think resulted from upgrading at port. Our luggage was misplaced. Not at our originally assigned room, not at our new room either. And, our stateroom amenities (gifts family had ordered us, and our castaway club towel/pins) were delivered to our original category 7 room and promptly consumed by the new inhabitants. Had we not known to expect the amenities I wonder if we would have gotten them at all (after conversation with Guest Services, we learned this is a problem that has occured before). We located our luggage ourselves around 8pm after dh walked each deck and located it in a hallway on deck 6. Guest services was extremely apologetic and very helpful the rest of our cruise, daily phone calls, chocolate covered strawberries AND the reservation for High tea we were unable to secure on our own. Our dining time was also messed up so we ended day one without dinner but ready to begin day two with a smile. Had we never taken a disney cruise before, we may have been a little more upset but we have had so many positive experiences with disney and lots of magical moments that we got over it quickly. Kudos to Ray from Guest Services who was awesome and wonderful at guest relations.
Spa, we did the couples absolute face and body which I thought was good, but pricey and they WERE very pushy with the products even though we made it clear before beginning that we would not be purchasing any.
Dinner, our tablemates were awesome!! Ambermomma, Ragdoll and some other couples. We had a table with five couples, really enjoyed that. Servers were ok, Liam from Jamaica and assistant Edit from Hungary. Dinner took forever and we were always the last out of the dining room. They seemed to be having a difficult week.
Palo brunch is NOT to be missed. We really enjoyed this. We did it on Key West morning and this worked out to be a wonderful time.
Bingo is addictive, be warned
35 bucks per game and both of us playing, it added up quickly. Dh won once for close to four hundred bucks and we figure that just about covers our costs to play
Cabin host was Leroy, he was awesome. Never needed to ask for anything, it was always there. We never even saw him. Everything was just always done. Towel animals galore and a very clean stateroom.
Little sidenote here. First time traveling without the kiddos we noticed how disney handles adult only stuff. They are very good about keeping kiddos out of the adult pool and hot tubs. Every time a little one made an attempt to get near the adult pool, a cm appeared out of nowhere to enforce the rules.
Excursions
Key West, we walked around ALOT. Went to the butterfly conservatory way down duvall street. That was very nice, really relaxing and tons of butterflies (think it was close to ten bucks to get in). Highly suggest this if you had kiddos.
Grand Cayman we did Capt. Marvin's full day excursion, it was incredible. We had Capt. Marvin himself (who was celebrating his 87th birthday). Several stops for great snorkeling and then did Stingray City after lunch when it was practically deserted. Lunch is provided and it was very good. Saw eel, sharks, turtles and of course many fish and stingray. I cant say enough about how great they are. Definately a highlight of the trip.
Cozumel we did the royal dolpin swim. That was absolutely the best excursion ever. We booked this on our own and it was about 119 a person and 10 bucks for the taxi there. You also have to pay 10 dollars to enter the park. Very nice park. We did the later swim 3:30. Wonderful, incredible, cant wait to take the kids in June. We were the last swim of the day (there were eight of us total, dh and I the only Disney people) and ended up getting lots of dolphin time (five dolphins). The video is hysterical (49 bucks) and pictures are done too (think these are around 13 bucks).
Castaway Cay was beautiful and we got to experience Serenity Bay for the first time. Very quiet, nice. We got there early and had no problem getting chairs and an umbrella. However, by about 11 or so there were people without chairs. Disney needs to do something about this. By lunchtime we couldnt stand the quiet and went back to the family beach and Cookies for lunch (parents of seven kiddos we cant take too much peace and quiet). Cookies did seem to have more variety of food and we really enjoy lunch there.
We rebooked while on board for two more trips on the magic next year. Got the 10 percent off special with 200 per stateroom credit (every little bit helps with the younguns). After getting home with had our ressies transferred to AAA (having their disney cruise sale here) and got an additional 100 per stateroom credit, photo album per stateroom and of course the soda mug deal. I am happy Disney allows this transferring of the ressie.
Disembarkation was as usual with Disney, easy, painless (sad to leave the Magic, happy to get home to the kiddos). We schleped our bags over to the awning area to wait for Budget Shuttle. It took awhile in coming, again it was the little van. We were second in line to get on. It only fit three small groups (two couples and one family) and there were more people in line waiting. Again, two people working in the office and I hate waiting so maybe I am a little critical here but they need to speed things up a little.
I know this is very fragmented, just hoping to cover the main points. Cant wait to sail again and how will I ever make it til June?
Wishing all you future cruisers a great trip!!
This trip was just dh and I (anniversary, left the kiddos with grandparents). Flew in on Friday, rented a car from Budget, spent the night at the Contemporary and drove down to the port in the a.m.. Car rental was a breeze, drive down was easy (dont forget money for the tolls!). Renting a car was very nice because we made a grocery stop before turning it in and loaded up on bottled water. Rental car return was ok. Only two people working, long line and we finally just dropped the keys (with permission from the Budget people) and got on the shuttle (my eagerness to get to port was getting the best of me). Shuttle was very small and I dont know if that is the norm or not.
Check in was a breeze. We upgraded at port from a cat. 7 to a cat. 4 for a total of three hundred bucks (just an FYI here, could have upgraded to a category 3 for one thousand but with just dh and I it didnt make sense). Pleasant wait for embarkation (noon) and then off to make the palo/spa ressies. We got everything we wanted EXCEPT high tea which I pretty much knew wouldnt happen anyway.
We did have a few problems at this point which I think resulted from upgrading at port. Our luggage was misplaced. Not at our originally assigned room, not at our new room either. And, our stateroom amenities (gifts family had ordered us, and our castaway club towel/pins) were delivered to our original category 7 room and promptly consumed by the new inhabitants. Had we not known to expect the amenities I wonder if we would have gotten them at all (after conversation with Guest Services, we learned this is a problem that has occured before). We located our luggage ourselves around 8pm after dh walked each deck and located it in a hallway on deck 6. Guest services was extremely apologetic and very helpful the rest of our cruise, daily phone calls, chocolate covered strawberries AND the reservation for High tea we were unable to secure on our own. Our dining time was also messed up so we ended day one without dinner but ready to begin day two with a smile. Had we never taken a disney cruise before, we may have been a little more upset but we have had so many positive experiences with disney and lots of magical moments that we got over it quickly. Kudos to Ray from Guest Services who was awesome and wonderful at guest relations.
Spa, we did the couples absolute face and body which I thought was good, but pricey and they WERE very pushy with the products even though we made it clear before beginning that we would not be purchasing any.
Dinner, our tablemates were awesome!! Ambermomma, Ragdoll and some other couples. We had a table with five couples, really enjoyed that. Servers were ok, Liam from Jamaica and assistant Edit from Hungary. Dinner took forever and we were always the last out of the dining room. They seemed to be having a difficult week.
Palo brunch is NOT to be missed. We really enjoyed this. We did it on Key West morning and this worked out to be a wonderful time.
Bingo is addictive, be warned
35 bucks per game and both of us playing, it added up quickly. Dh won once for close to four hundred bucks and we figure that just about covers our costs to play Cabin host was Leroy, he was awesome. Never needed to ask for anything, it was always there. We never even saw him. Everything was just always done. Towel animals galore and a very clean stateroom.
Little sidenote here. First time traveling without the kiddos we noticed how disney handles adult only stuff. They are very good about keeping kiddos out of the adult pool and hot tubs. Every time a little one made an attempt to get near the adult pool, a cm appeared out of nowhere to enforce the rules.
Excursions
Key West, we walked around ALOT. Went to the butterfly conservatory way down duvall street. That was very nice, really relaxing and tons of butterflies (think it was close to ten bucks to get in). Highly suggest this if you had kiddos.
Grand Cayman we did Capt. Marvin's full day excursion, it was incredible. We had Capt. Marvin himself (who was celebrating his 87th birthday). Several stops for great snorkeling and then did Stingray City after lunch when it was practically deserted. Lunch is provided and it was very good. Saw eel, sharks, turtles and of course many fish and stingray. I cant say enough about how great they are. Definately a highlight of the trip.
Cozumel we did the royal dolpin swim. That was absolutely the best excursion ever. We booked this on our own and it was about 119 a person and 10 bucks for the taxi there. You also have to pay 10 dollars to enter the park. Very nice park. We did the later swim 3:30. Wonderful, incredible, cant wait to take the kids in June. We were the last swim of the day (there were eight of us total, dh and I the only Disney people) and ended up getting lots of dolphin time (five dolphins). The video is hysterical (49 bucks) and pictures are done too (think these are around 13 bucks).
Castaway Cay was beautiful and we got to experience Serenity Bay for the first time. Very quiet, nice. We got there early and had no problem getting chairs and an umbrella. However, by about 11 or so there were people without chairs. Disney needs to do something about this. By lunchtime we couldnt stand the quiet and went back to the family beach and Cookies for lunch (parents of seven kiddos we cant take too much peace and quiet). Cookies did seem to have more variety of food and we really enjoy lunch there.
We rebooked while on board for two more trips on the magic next year. Got the 10 percent off special with 200 per stateroom credit (every little bit helps with the younguns). After getting home with had our ressies transferred to AAA (having their disney cruise sale here) and got an additional 100 per stateroom credit, photo album per stateroom and of course the soda mug deal. I am happy Disney allows this transferring of the ressie.
Disembarkation was as usual with Disney, easy, painless (sad to leave the Magic, happy to get home to the kiddos). We schleped our bags over to the awning area to wait for Budget Shuttle. It took awhile in coming, again it was the little van. We were second in line to get on. It only fit three small groups (two couples and one family) and there were more people in line waiting. Again, two people working in the office and I hate waiting so maybe I am a little critical here but they need to speed things up a little.
I know this is very fragmented, just hoping to cover the main points. Cant wait to sail again and how will I ever make it til June?
Wishing all you future cruisers a great trip!!
