January 17th 2014 Disney Magic 3 Night Bahamas Cruise

[Liz Arjay]

Wow Heather, you really did flip for DCL! I thought we were going a little crazy with about 2 cruises per year since our first trip. Gold members? You'll probably be Platinum in under two years which ought to be some kind of record. I can see we have at least a few experienced cruisers on this trip, so I look forward to hearing everyone's tips to make this one great.

Nice to see this thread finally break page 2.

Who plans to dress really formally on this cruise? Any sparkly princess dresses for the ladies?

 

[F&A]

Who plans to dress really formally on this cruise? Any sparkly princess dresses for the ladies?

Probably not us. But we shall see, it is our anniversary after all. We will have our 14 month old at the time. Anyone know if they are changing the hair dryers out during the refurb? My wife brings one when we sail on the Magic/Wonder. The ones on the newer ships T least work.

 

[auntlynne]

I started looking at cruises for a friend the other day ... she's not sailing any time soon, but now I am

I'm sailing with my youngest niece, who finally will be old enough to enjoy adults-only Serenity Bay and Palo with me (free meal for Platinum cruisers - newbies, you'll be there before you know it! believe me, it happens faster than you'd expect - see some of the posts in this thread!)

Trying to decide whether sitting in the airport for hours to come home disembarkation day is better than just spending the night and enjoying one of Disney's Water Parks or Disney Quest (have those $5/day water parks and more add-ons on theme park tickets). I suppose hotel and rental car costs will be the determining factors.

... I am super excited to go on this cruise because it's not only our first Disney cruise but our first cruise ever and on the newly remodeled Magic! ...

Hey group! This is my families very first cruise we are soo excited! Me 27 dh 28 and dd 5

Welcome future Disney Cruise-aholics

What a nice intro. We started with a 3-night on the Wonder and were back for a 4-night 5 months later. Just wished we had booked a placeholder cruise while onboard and gotten Onboard Booking discount! Learned that lesson.

For newbies, you can book a future cruise while onboard and get a discount (used to be 10%; I haven't done this in a while). You also got a credit on your stateroom account when you sailed that future cruise. However, you need to do this onboard - don't come home without it!

... it looks like the itinerary includes a Sea Day rather than the typical Nassau port visit. That's fine by me. ...

Welcome to the new cruisers. As you say, the extra day at sea will be wonderful instead of boring old Nassau. ...

I love the Sea Day versus Nassau - wonder how long that line will be on the new AquaSlide?

That said, I've done an Atlantis water park day and a Blue Lagoon Dolphin experience - both great, but if I'm not doing excursions, I haven't found a good alternative experience in Nassau.

...Can't wait to see the "new" Magic!

That's my main reason for this cruise

 

[decked out]

I started looking at cruises for a friend the other day ... she's not sailing any time soon, but now I am

Ain't that the truth!

 

[Starr W.]

Just booked Thursday. Being long time DVC members(10 WDW trips, 1 DL , 4 DVC Vero Beach trips) decided to try DCL. Already have air booked. Good price on Delta out of DTW, so we can use the TSA pre check line!

I'm a long time cruiser, did my 1st on the original Love Boat(RIP Pacific Princess) back in the 80's.

This works well for us, kids get a 4 day weekend for MLK. We wanted to try a cruise and MLK is a usual ski or WDW trip

Not sure about doing the FE, but would if we have a DIS boards meet up we'd love to join in.

Starr(50)
John(50)
Alex(17)
Matthew(12).

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Wow Heather, you really did flip for DCL! I thought we were going a little crazy with about 2 cruises per year since our first trip. Gold members? You'll probably be Platinum in under two years which ought to be some kind of record. I can see we have at least a few experienced cruisers on this trip, so I look forward to hearing everyone's tips to make this one great.

Nice to see this thread finally break page 2.

WOOHOO!! Just off the Dream on Thursday so I'm officially Gold now! Sadly there won't be a reception on the 3 night Magic cruise, but that's fine because it allows us more time to explore the ship. My head server mentioned he might see me on the Magic in January as he was going to request the Magic so we'll see if we bump into him.

Who plans to dress really formally on this cruise? Any sparkly princess dresses for the ladies?

We won't dress "formally" for this sailing since we're keeping it simple this time around. We might "dress up" one night, but nothing too fancy.

Welcome to the recent cruisers! Should be a lot of fun!

Heather

 

[Liz Arjay]

WOOHOO!! Just off the Dream on Thursday so I'm officially Gold now! Sadly there won't be a reception on the 3 night Magic cruise

What?? No Gold reception? We went to the Gold reception on our last 5 day cruise and were the only ones there! It was us, the Captain, Cruise Director and Mikey, and trays and trays of drinks and food. It was wonderful!

Liz

 

[decked out]

WOOHOO!! J My head server mentioned he might see me on the Magic in January as he was going to request the Magic so we'll see if we bump into him.
Heather

That is one of my favorite things about being a repeat cruiser. I love running into favorite crew members on other cruises. When out there, I think "this person is exceptional." Then on some other cruise I find out they have been promoted. All of the Disney crew are truly exceptional and that's what brings us all back, over and over. It's like magic!

 

[F&A]

Anyone visiting the parks before the cruise? We are doing two nights and one day before hand.

 

[jazzykirl]

Just booked this cruise today! Can't wait to sail the new re-imagineered Disney Magic I'm a Disney addict! We sailed the Fantasy this past Easter and booked the Fantasy again for May 2014. When this cruise matched up with my days off of school, we couldn't help but jump on board

Looking forward to getting to know everyone before the cruise. My DH and I are leaving our 2 college age sons at home

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

What?? No Gold reception? We went to the Gold reception on our last 5 day cruise and were the only ones there! It was us, the Captain, Cruise Director and Mikey, and trays and trays of drinks and food. It was wonderful!

Liz

I had read on another thread about the receptions and it was stated they aren't offer on the 3 night sailings. Go figure, now that I'm Gold this will be by first cruise as Gold - oh well! I think I'll survive

That is one of my favorite things about being a repeat cruiser. I love running into favorite crew members on other cruises. When out there, I think "this person is exceptional." Then on some other cruise I find out they have been promoted. All of the Disney crew are truly exceptional and that's what brings us all back, over and over. It's like magic!

You said it perfectly!

Welcome to the new cruisers! Some of us are coming up on check in dates in the next few weeks especially if you are Platinum! I think my Gold date is 10/4/13 so I'll be paying off shortly and that makes it all that much closer!! Not sure we'll do Palo Brunch this sailing since we really want to be "free" and hang out and believe it or not, we LOVE Cabanas on the newer ships so I'm really excited to see the Cabanas and try out the food and see if it compares to the Dream/Fantasy. In my opinion, the food is so much better in Cabanas, but we'll see!

Heather

 

[SandyandKaren]

Hi Everyone, excited to say we just booked this cruise. We will be celebrating my daughter's graduation from College and my husband's retirement from the US Navy (30years) But really, do you have to have a reason to cruise....This is our 5th Disney Cruise so I will be gold in June when we sail to Alaska! Super Excited already....

 

[F&A]

Hi Everyone, excited to say we just booked this cruise. We will be celebrating my daughter's graduation from College and my husband's retirement from the US Navy (30years) But really, do you have to have a reason to cruise....This is our 5th Disney Cruise so I will be gold in June when we sail to Alaska! Super Excited already....

Congrats on your husband's retirement. I was an Army guy myself. My Father and a Grandfather served in the Navy.

The Disney Alaska cruise has been our favorite so far. You will love it. We did the one out of Vancouver which was great. It was like an extra port.

 

[Fivepin]

Just a quick check in...still focusing on our upcoming Thanksgiving cruise on the Fantasy.

The kids are excited about this one though.

Welcome to all the cruisers that are onboard.

We have a Palo brunch reserved and a Cabana. Still debating on Palo dinner, but I want to make sure we don't miss the new dining room.

 

[Fivepin]

Good call bringing the children. We liked this one because nobody misses school with the Friday and Monday off.

We spent a few summers at Sunset Beach and always love visiting TI. Talk about a pirate party paradise...

Yes..they are excited about this one.

Sunset Beach is right around the corner. When I was walking in the morning on the beach I would go from there down to John's Pass. It can be quite a nice party place, but we rarely get to participate with the hectic schedule of all the kids' activities and such. We go on Disney cruises to relax

 

[Liz Arjay]

Watched the DCL video over the weekend to remind ourselves of all the fun in store. I hope they do an updated version soon with the revamped Magic!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Hi Everyone, excited to say we just booked this cruise. We will be celebrating my daughter's graduation from College and my husband's retirement from the US Navy (30years) But really, do you have to have a reason to cruise....This is our 5th Disney Cruise so I will be gold in June when we sail to Alaska! Super Excited already....

Awesome!! We were originally booked to go to Alaska June 2014, BUT we bumped it up to *this* year and went in 2013 - BEST CRUISE EVER! You will definitely love it. We were going to aim for the Med in 2015 but since we loved Alaska so much, it's moved back up to the top again!

Congrats on your husband's retirement. I was an Army guy myself. My Father and a Grandfather served in the Navy.

The Disney Alaska cruise has been our favorite so far. You will love it. We did the one out of Vancouver which was great. It was like an extra port.

I'm also a "military brat"! My father is retired Air Force (fighter pilot), Grandfather retired Marine and Step Dad also retired Air Force, Mom is retired from the government as a civilian. I grew up in Europe (Germany & Italy) thanks to the military and LOVED it!

Just a quick check in...still focusing on our upcoming Thanksgiving cruise on the Fantasy.

The kids are excited about this one though.

Welcome to all the cruisers that are onboard.

We have a Palo brunch reserved and a Cabana. Still debating on Palo dinner, but I want to make sure we don't miss the new dining room.

Hi! Just curious as I think you must be Platinum - what was the PAT you selected if you don't mind me asking? As you might have read on the DIS they changed the PAT to allow I believe two earlier PAT than 11:00-11:30am and I believe they start at 10:30am now. I'm gold and just checked in and the earliest was 11:00am like it always has been. I know this cruise isn't nearly sold out (still plenty of availability) and since I'm Gold, it was just a little odd not to get the 10:30am slot, IF they are still offering this. I'm thinking they are't for some reason.

SO excited - just checked in! We decided to pass on Palo this time around so we are really going for the ship and experiences this time around. Can't wait to read and see the trip reports coming up in the next few weeks after she sets sail again!

Heather

 

[Fivepin]

Awesome!!

Hi! Just curious as I think you must be Platinum - what was the PAT you selected if you don't mind me asking? As you might have read on the DIS they changed the PAT to allow I believe two earlier PAT than 11:00-11:30am and I believe they start at 10:30am now. I'm gold and just checked in and the earliest was 11:00am like it always has been. I know this cruise isn't nearly sold out (still plenty of availability) and since I'm Gold, it was just a little odd not to get the 10:30am slot, IF they are still offering this. I'm thinking they are't for some reason.

SO excited - just checked in! We decided to pass on Palo this time around so we are really going for the ship and experiences this time around. Can't wait to read and see the trip reports coming up in the next few weeks after she sets sail again!

Heather

Hi Heather-

I'm also a military brat-my dad was retired Air Force-radar operator-flew in those big AWAX planes. My stepdad was in the Air Force as well-I lived in the Philippines,Taiwan(my mom is from there), California, and then Florida. My step dad also went to Germany where I visited.

Loved Alaska as well, we did it their inaugural year, so it has been a few years, ready to go again. We want to Europe in 2015 as well, we loved the Baltic itinerary 2010.

Anyway as a Platinum you don't have to select a PAT-so I never I got to see a list of times-it just says I can arrive anytime during embarkation hours. But I know for our Thanksgiving cruise we heard about the change and was able to change the time to 10:30 for the others traveling with us. We may have passed on Palo, but not going to pass on free Palo since it's a Platinum perk, Just hear they are increasing the price to $25.

 

[fireflyohio]

This will be our first Disney Cruise! Very excited. We love Disney..!! It will be me, my daughter and her husband, along with their children ages 6 and 8. Anyone can offer any must do's, much appreciated.

 

[decked out]

PAT (port arrival time) is a guideline. At the risk of upsetting those obsessed with following rules, you can show up early or late and it won't be a problem. As long as you get there during boarding hours, the check-in desk will "make your dream come true." Except for maybe concierge boarding, you can expect to wait longer during earlier boarding times even if you show up during your scheduled time.

One time we really enjoyed late boarding. It was a similar January 3-day cruise on a long weekend. We figured we could get the children out of school early, but later found that they all had important exams lasting until the last bell at 2:15. With a 1hr drive to the port, HS parking lot gridlock and missing an exit on the way, we arrived exactly at 3:30 when boarding ends. Except for the DCL staff and security, the terminal was deserted. It was probably faster than concierge boarding and we had immediate access to the staterooms. We boarded in no time, dropped bags in the stateroom and went to the boat drill. What a contrast from a hectic exam day to dancing on deck 11 in less than a few hours! It was magical!