biohaz_man
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2010
- Messages
- 126
Back from the inaugural Canada cruise on the Magic
had a great time and wanted to share our first ever trip report.
To start, I have a four-letter word to describe this cruise C-O-L-D Yes, it was easily the coldest cruise that we have been on (although we havent done the DCL to Alaska cruises) Weather was mostly in the mid-60s with mostly sunny days. However, at times it became very overcast and heavy fog would envelope the ship, especially around sunset giving an almost eerie feeling to the cruise. In both Halifax and St. John the weather was in the mid-60s with it feeling a bit warmer due to the sunny weather we had. However, on the ship, especially at night with the breeze across the deck it can get downright freezing so be sure to pack some warm clothes including pants, sweaters/sweatshirts or a good jacket to stay warm when the temperature drops.
Getting to the port in New York wasnt terribly difficult with us coming from Delaware and taking the NJ turnpike straight up and GPS got us to the port terminal. A word of advice, however, if you are using GPS and the address provided by DCL it will take you to the terminal but after the ramp to parking. So, if you are already part of the way past the terminal you will have to do a U-turn when possible and come back to the ramp to parking at the pier. Parking was right next to the ship with a large elevator taking everyone from the parking deck to check-in.
Once we got to the port around 11:30, check-in was a breeze. We were even able to purchase a port upgrade from our 9B to a 5A, our first ever verandah (Stateroom 7038). I was shocked at how much cheaper it was to upgrade at the port with the upgrade only costing $375 as opposed to $1000-1500 online prior to the cruise. According to the supervisor doing upgrades, there were a lot of upgrades on the last NY cruise and they were selling them all day so it may be that upgrades are more plentiful coming out of NY than PC. Having said that, I was a bit concerned about our luggage getting to the right room and the supervisor assured me that our luggage would be delivered to our new room. (Ill come back to this as this was an issue for us)
On an aside, DW is pregnant and we were wondering how DCL would handle the situation. To be honest, they never even asked. So, for anyone who is pregnant and thinking of cruising, not to worry, you will be able to board based on your word that you are not over the 24-week limit.
Boarding the ship went very quickly with each boarding group being called no more than 3-5 minutes apart with group 1 getting on the ship around noon. Prior to boarding, Statute of Liberty Minnie and Patriotic Mickey both made appearances for photographs.
Once we boarded the ship, we headed for lunch at Parrot Cay which was delicious and passed the time until our rooms were ready. We were so excited to see our verandah we left lunch right after 1:30 to go see our new room. We got into our room and went straight for the verandah. We had a nice view of the cityline and an adjacent HAL cruise ship.
After checking out the room, we headed up to Deck 9 to watch the Sail Away party. Cast members were handing out Mickey hands for everyone to wave during the party.
Before long the ship was underway we were delayed a little by the HAL ship but left port a little after 5pm. DW and I eagerly went to the back of the ship to watch us pull away from the dock and, hopefully, to get a glimpse of the Statute of Liberty before dinner. We quickly realized that the Statute would be on the starboard side and moved to midship to get a picture of the statute. Along the way we snapped a bunch of pictures including the Freedom Tower, the Empire State Building and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It wasnt until about dinner time that we were passing the Statute of Liberty but we noticed that a lot of people were late to dinner for the same reason.
Finally, we headed to dinner at Lumieres. Our rotation was LAPLA and our servers were Vlado (from Croatia) and Marut (I believe from the Phillipines). Both were very nice. We were seated at a table for ten with another family of 5, but Vlado made sure that on all subsequent nights our party of 5 had its own table and the same for the other family which I thought was another great example of the Disney difference.
However, whilst at dinner the rest of our family informed us that our luggage had been delivered to our old room on Deck 2 so I went to GS to inquire about having the luggage moved to our room. This was the start of the one issue we had on the cruise I was told that they would have one of the two runners take the luggage up shortly. After dinner we went back to our room and met our stateroom hostess who told us she was unaware that room was occupied for the cruise. We told her that our luggage had not been moved and she radioed it in to have the luggage moved. After a few hours the luggage still had not arrived and we called GS again to ask about the luggage. They told us that it would be moved soon. Finally, around 9:30pm we had to go get the luggage ourselves. The next morning we told GS that we had to get the luggage ourselves and that we are not ones to typically complain but that the wait to get the luggage when we paid for an upgrade was unreasonable. This was the point at which I felt like GS acted like some other cruise line and not like Disney. The GS cast member told us that it is the stateroom hostess responsibility and that she would tell our stateroom hostess manager about the situation. We told her that our stateroom hostess was very nice and did call in the request to have the luggage moved and shouldnt get in trouble. We both felt like this was a blame game to GS and that blaming our hostess was very un-Disney. Again, though, I have to stress that the cruise was great overall and that we loved it and this didnt sour our vacation.
That pretty much sums up our first day the next day we were at sea and DW and I had a couples massage in the spa. The spa called us early in the morning and told us there was an issue with our massages and that we couldnt do the Chocolate Indulgence that we had booked. As it turns out, the jar of the mask they use was dropped and it broke all over that morning. The spa manager was very apologetic and told us that they could modify the massage to use a different mask and scents which we were fine with.
Given that DW is pregnant (about 17 weeks at the time), we were a little curious about how they would handle a massage but the masseuse told DW that she would do whatever was needed to keep DW comfortable and that she would focus away from her belly. The only things that we were told DW shouldnt do in the spa were the rain forest room (because of the heat) and anything with essential oils. We both had our massages which were great, as usual, and very relaxing.
After our massages, we went to Bingo our guilty pleasure on DCL. Kat, who we had on the Wonder, was the Bingo Queen and was wonderful. For those of you that are curious about the prices, the prices range up to $80 depending on how many chances you want and whether you want an electronic handset and/or paper cards.
After dinner, we went back to our room and noticed that we had a gift on our bed Next to our towel animal was a small box with stationary themed for Canada, I believe it has Donald in a plaid outfit on it.
We also noticed very heavy fog rolling in around the ship. We could even hear the fog horn every few minutes through our open verandah door. I went out to look and saw that the sun was starting to set and snapped a few sunset pictures through the fog.
Next Halifax
To start, I have a four-letter word to describe this cruise C-O-L-D Yes, it was easily the coldest cruise that we have been on (although we havent done the DCL to Alaska cruises) Weather was mostly in the mid-60s with mostly sunny days. However, at times it became very overcast and heavy fog would envelope the ship, especially around sunset giving an almost eerie feeling to the cruise. In both Halifax and St. John the weather was in the mid-60s with it feeling a bit warmer due to the sunny weather we had. However, on the ship, especially at night with the breeze across the deck it can get downright freezing so be sure to pack some warm clothes including pants, sweaters/sweatshirts or a good jacket to stay warm when the temperature drops.
Getting to the port in New York wasnt terribly difficult with us coming from Delaware and taking the NJ turnpike straight up and GPS got us to the port terminal. A word of advice, however, if you are using GPS and the address provided by DCL it will take you to the terminal but after the ramp to parking. So, if you are already part of the way past the terminal you will have to do a U-turn when possible and come back to the ramp to parking at the pier. Parking was right next to the ship with a large elevator taking everyone from the parking deck to check-in.
Once we got to the port around 11:30, check-in was a breeze. We were even able to purchase a port upgrade from our 9B to a 5A, our first ever verandah (Stateroom 7038). I was shocked at how much cheaper it was to upgrade at the port with the upgrade only costing $375 as opposed to $1000-1500 online prior to the cruise. According to the supervisor doing upgrades, there were a lot of upgrades on the last NY cruise and they were selling them all day so it may be that upgrades are more plentiful coming out of NY than PC. Having said that, I was a bit concerned about our luggage getting to the right room and the supervisor assured me that our luggage would be delivered to our new room. (Ill come back to this as this was an issue for us)
On an aside, DW is pregnant and we were wondering how DCL would handle the situation. To be honest, they never even asked. So, for anyone who is pregnant and thinking of cruising, not to worry, you will be able to board based on your word that you are not over the 24-week limit.
Boarding the ship went very quickly with each boarding group being called no more than 3-5 minutes apart with group 1 getting on the ship around noon. Prior to boarding, Statute of Liberty Minnie and Patriotic Mickey both made appearances for photographs.
Once we boarded the ship, we headed for lunch at Parrot Cay which was delicious and passed the time until our rooms were ready. We were so excited to see our verandah we left lunch right after 1:30 to go see our new room. We got into our room and went straight for the verandah. We had a nice view of the cityline and an adjacent HAL cruise ship.
After checking out the room, we headed up to Deck 9 to watch the Sail Away party. Cast members were handing out Mickey hands for everyone to wave during the party.
Before long the ship was underway we were delayed a little by the HAL ship but left port a little after 5pm. DW and I eagerly went to the back of the ship to watch us pull away from the dock and, hopefully, to get a glimpse of the Statute of Liberty before dinner. We quickly realized that the Statute would be on the starboard side and moved to midship to get a picture of the statute. Along the way we snapped a bunch of pictures including the Freedom Tower, the Empire State Building and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It wasnt until about dinner time that we were passing the Statute of Liberty but we noticed that a lot of people were late to dinner for the same reason.
Finally, we headed to dinner at Lumieres. Our rotation was LAPLA and our servers were Vlado (from Croatia) and Marut (I believe from the Phillipines). Both were very nice. We were seated at a table for ten with another family of 5, but Vlado made sure that on all subsequent nights our party of 5 had its own table and the same for the other family which I thought was another great example of the Disney difference.
However, whilst at dinner the rest of our family informed us that our luggage had been delivered to our old room on Deck 2 so I went to GS to inquire about having the luggage moved to our room. This was the start of the one issue we had on the cruise I was told that they would have one of the two runners take the luggage up shortly. After dinner we went back to our room and met our stateroom hostess who told us she was unaware that room was occupied for the cruise. We told her that our luggage had not been moved and she radioed it in to have the luggage moved. After a few hours the luggage still had not arrived and we called GS again to ask about the luggage. They told us that it would be moved soon. Finally, around 9:30pm we had to go get the luggage ourselves. The next morning we told GS that we had to get the luggage ourselves and that we are not ones to typically complain but that the wait to get the luggage when we paid for an upgrade was unreasonable. This was the point at which I felt like GS acted like some other cruise line and not like Disney. The GS cast member told us that it is the stateroom hostess responsibility and that she would tell our stateroom hostess manager about the situation. We told her that our stateroom hostess was very nice and did call in the request to have the luggage moved and shouldnt get in trouble. We both felt like this was a blame game to GS and that blaming our hostess was very un-Disney. Again, though, I have to stress that the cruise was great overall and that we loved it and this didnt sour our vacation.
That pretty much sums up our first day the next day we were at sea and DW and I had a couples massage in the spa. The spa called us early in the morning and told us there was an issue with our massages and that we couldnt do the Chocolate Indulgence that we had booked. As it turns out, the jar of the mask they use was dropped and it broke all over that morning. The spa manager was very apologetic and told us that they could modify the massage to use a different mask and scents which we were fine with.
Given that DW is pregnant (about 17 weeks at the time), we were a little curious about how they would handle a massage but the masseuse told DW that she would do whatever was needed to keep DW comfortable and that she would focus away from her belly. The only things that we were told DW shouldnt do in the spa were the rain forest room (because of the heat) and anything with essential oils. We both had our massages which were great, as usual, and very relaxing.
After our massages, we went to Bingo our guilty pleasure on DCL. Kat, who we had on the Wonder, was the Bingo Queen and was wonderful. For those of you that are curious about the prices, the prices range up to $80 depending on how many chances you want and whether you want an electronic handset and/or paper cards.
After dinner, we went back to our room and noticed that we had a gift on our bed Next to our towel animal was a small box with stationary themed for Canada, I believe it has Donald in a plaid outfit on it.
We also noticed very heavy fog rolling in around the ship. We could even hear the fog horn every few minutes through our open verandah door. I went out to look and saw that the sun was starting to set and snapped a few sunset pictures through the fog.
Next Halifax
