July 23, 2005 West Coast Cruise

[Waltd]

I'm writing from work and wondering how the weather has been? Have you hit any rough seas so far? I have a manager of ours and her family on board. This is the first time for them on any cruise. I'm just hoping that for a first timer that you all are having good weather.

Happy cruising

Joe

 

[DisneyPata]

Hi Laura,

My girls have the early seating. The granddaughter ages are 20, 13, & 10 & the Mom's in their 40's. I know when they get home they will read this & I will be in BIG trouble.
Please keep us posted on your activities & weather. You have 2 of us watching for your posts now.
Thank You for posting.
Joyce aka Pata

 

[Waltd]

I guess Laura is having toooo much fun. What happened to the posts. Kids these days, geeez!

 

[eeyorelvr10]

I guess Laura is having toooo much fun. What happened to the posts. Kids these days, geeez!

Sorry about the posts - the last 3 days go by really fast! Your family should be off the ship but we had really good weather. The ship was moving but we've felt worst. Weather was sunny and really tooooooo much was packed together back to back. But we should be all safe. The debarkation was easy I wish LAX was this easy. Sorry about posting but the computers got a little busy the last few days and I was tired from the ports. Hope your family had fun - this was a good vacation for us and hope everyone had a good time.

Later - Laura

 

[atakaratemom]

Hi everyone,

I hope you all got home safe and sound. We had a great trip and I hope all of you did too. It was nice to meet all of you and see you around the ship. Desiree, I hope your knee is doing better! I would love to read some reports about what each of you did during your cruise. Take care. I am back to the laundry now!

Mary

 

[hereigns]

Hi Everyone, I'm sorry I didn't make it to the meet on Sunday. What a great time! We really enjoyed hearing Richard Sherman. Did anyone make it to one of his shows (events, whatever?!). How was Mazatlan Frank? We did Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan with two other DIS families. I'm done with laundry Yeah!

Melinda

 

[atakaratemom]

I talked with someone in our debarkation line who went to the Richard Sherman show and she really enjoyed it. She said it was one of her best experiences on the cruise. It made me sorry I missed it. Our tour with Mazatlan Frank was very nice. He made sure we saw everything and he is as nice in person as he seems on his posts. We didn't make it for lunch and the beach in the afternoon as my daughter was really cranky and tired, but two other DIS families went and I heard they had a good time. It is a very good tour. Did you have a good day with Randi?

Mary

 

[Mdtigger99]

Well, how did that happen? That week went way too fast and we find ourselves without vacation plans to look forward to.

We had a great week, in fact, our port of calls exceeded my expectations and I would not hesitate recommending or returning to any of those cities. The locals cold not have been more friendly.

We did not do an excursion in Cabo but we did take a water taxi on a tour of the sites like lover’s beach the arch etc and then drop us off at the office beach for a few hours. Boy, traveling to and from the office via water taxi is an experience!

Richard Sherman was the only show we went to see and we enjoyed it. (Tina, I did try twice charmed...really. I saw at least 5 or 10 minutes )

The only thing we were disappointed with was the teen program on the ship. I know it would be very difficult for Disney to do much about it but there really is a black hole for teens 16 & 17 years old. Unless your older teen likes hanging with the 13 yo, they have to find their own way to have a good time. Since they can’t (honestly) get into beat street, Palo’s, spa, exercise, quiet cove areas till age 18, there really doesn’t leave much. When you think that the “teens” cover from 7th graders to college freshman, you can see there just might be different interests and maturity levels.

I did hear about some new ports planned, that could keep our interest in DCL going a little longer, but maybe not till everyone is 18.

 

[wendym]

Hi all
Hope you all arrived home safely. I don't think Mum and I knowingly met you - apart from one of the ladies who "lurks"! We both had a fantastic time and hearing Richard Sherman twice was certainly one of the highlights. We enjoyed the ports and had rebooked byt the sunday night! We arrived home late last night missing only one suitcase but it turned up today so now it is on with the laundry!
Wendy

 

[vrntnns]

Wow! Where did the time go? My wife & I had such a great time. They got us into Palo's Sat. night for our Anniversary. That was a Wow! It was cool to meet all of you on Sun. It was sooo fun for us just to act like a couple of kids on a magical ride for a week. (well, more so for me than my wife) I'm the big kid in the family Where do I start... The shows where great. We saw all the major ones. (Also video tape some...shhh! don't tell anyone) Richard Sherman... WOW that was a very special treat. We also got to talk with him Friday night and take pictures with him at the "Pub night" ( no drinking for us) Mr. Sherman treated my wife & I like we where long lost friends. All I have to say about that is: WOW!!! We also visited with some of the program team (Ian, Travis, Jesse, and Rene) what great kids. All week these kids kept me laughing, and worn out just watching them run around with the deck shows. Ports of call... well, before talk about them, why did they have to have a "Shopping Seminar?" Don't you ladies already know how to shop? My wife went to both of them, and got the BIG coupon book. Sooo, we went to ALL of the jewelry places that were giving "free stuff". Well that "free stuff" really costed me. Over the past 22 years, my wife has put up with my "gotta have this new thing" from me, so, I thought it was time for her to have some "bling bling" ( thats what the kids call it) Thanks to Melinne we went into PV and found a great deal on a ring at Diamonds Int. She got a ring with diamonds, Austrialian Opal, and a Tanzanite stone. I really Love my wife, and she deserves it. She also won one of the drawings and got 2 stones (Fire Opals). Soo, in Matzatlan, we got those set into pendants. That day we had a "Bridge tour" at 3:00pm and the store was going have them ready around 3:00pm so the store was going to bring them to the dock for us, and I was going to meet them around 3:30pm. Well that meant that I was going to have to leave the tour. Well, we were still in town getting the "free stuff" and we ran into Melinne at one of the stores. She asked, "How's things going?" We told her about having the stones set into pendants and all. So she said that she would go by the place and get my wifes pendants at 3:00pm and deliver them to our stateroom when she got back on the ship, just so that I wouldn't miss the bridge tour. Now, how cool is that! Well, I better stop for now. I have so many other stories to tell, but would love to hear others. Sorry for such a long post Til next time, See ya real soon, Why because we like you. Vern

 

[hereigns]

Hi all, We enjoyed Randi's Happy Horses very much. It was definately non-Disney! Randi herself even said they could never pass all of Disney's rules. The horses were great. We got into Palo's this trip and enjoyed it so much! Our server Ciao is fantastic, we were lucky enough to have him as our head server last cruise. We really enjoyed the adult cabaret shows with Rich P. and Gary D. I thought Rich was hysterical. Did anyone see those shows?

My only complaint was our server. He was condescending (sp) and extremely pushy with the wine. I mean extremely! Finally one night we said ok to his recommendation on wine and of course it was $10.00 a glass. He actually intimidated both of us. My husband is so funny, he finally said to me one night that he was going to stand up to him, that he (my husband) builds hospitals and this guys serves food! Why were we letting ourselves be bullied? I have to say I didn't realize what jewels we had last time for servers! We had the late seating and he hurried us out every night. He was impatient with my boys too. Thanks for listening, I'm done raving now. It's off my chest.

We really did have a great week. Disney does it right!

 

[squirrelgirl]

Hi all! It was a great week, wasn't it? Melinda..this is Kendall. I was one of the other families with you on Randi's. I'm the Mom with the little girl who rode up front and the little boy who's hat kept coming off during the ride. I agree, no way this would have been a Disney sponsored event..but it was pretty terrific. I hope you and your family had a great time the rest of the week. Your boys are so kind and fun to talk to...you and your husband are certainly raising a beautiful family.

Take care!

 

[A Litle Pixie Dust]

Hi all!

It was nice meeting everyone on the ship! It was fun running into everyone all week. My knee is recovering nicely (I am starting to limp less). We had a blast!

Kendall, your kids are adorable! Victoria is still talking about Madison. She wants to keep in touch with her.

We did not rebook as they informed us that they would not transfer the cruise if they announced any new locations in 2007. Meaning that we had to do the Carribean if we re-booked. We could put it off to 2007 but if they should announce West Coast/Alaska etc, it would not work. We are going to Hawaii in Dec 2006 so we knew we would not be going to FL. in time for a cruise. So we chose not to rebook on board. We did add some points to our DVC though. With the onboard offer and my DH being a CM, it was worth it!

We went to the Castaway Club reception and the Captain said that the 2007 itenerary would not be released until April 2006 which we knew but then he asked if anyone would like to go to Alaska or the Mediterrainian (sp?) so we get the impression that it may be Alaska which we would love!

The laundry is finally done! We had a BBQ at our house on Saturday a few hours after we returned from the cruise (we only live a half hour from port) so the unpacking had to wait until Sunday. Everything is put away and I am relieved!

Thanks again to everyone for all of the info - it made the trip great. The pillowcase signing was awsome! My DD's pillowcase is beautiful. She is thrilled with it and it will be a wonderful keepsake of her trip. I embroidered her name and dates on it before we left.

Desiree

 

[DL_DCA_fans]

After months of planning and chatting with all of you on this thread, it was nice to meet many of you in person. Since we had only done land/sea packages before with 3 or 4 day cruises, we now know that 7-day cruises are the ONLY way to go (although we may have to add WDW to future 7-day cruises). We couldn't believe how busy we were on days at sea with all the scheduled activities. We had to miss a few because they conflicted with others we were interested in. We did end up rebooking for 2006. although we plan to tranfer it to 2007. Danielle did not guarantee that we would keep the 10% off and $200 credit, but since we can cancel at any time, we really had nothing to lose. She mentioned that people who had previously booked on board were able to transfer to this summer's Mexico cruises and keep the credit and 10% off. When we asked about possible itineraries for 2007, she first said that the Magic would NOT be sailing out of Port Canaveral, but later said she really couldn't speculate. We're hoping for Alaska, but would do Mexico again, especially since we're 30 minutes from the Port of L.A. and enjoyed not having to fly to get to the ship. We had never gone to Palo on our previous cruises, so this time we did both brunch and dinner. Dinner was delicious, but we REALLY loved the brunch. We thoroughly enjoyed our excursions in Puerto Vallarta (Paradise Beach Adventure) and Cabo (Chileno Bay snorkeling). We also hired a guide in Puerto Vallarta who drove us around for 2 hours. He was very nice and very informative. If we ever return, we'll probably stay on the ship in Mazatlan...we just weren't impressed with the sites or the "Golden Zone" shopping...although the cathedral was beautiful.
Glad to hear that you all had a MAGICal vacation as well.
Bob & Nancy

 

[A Litle Pixie Dust]

After months of planning and chatting with all of you on this thread, it was nice to meet many of you in person. Since we had only done land/sea packages before with 3 or 4 day cruises, we now know that 7-day cruises are the ONLY way to go (although we may have to add WDW to future 7-day cruises). We couldn't believe how busy we were on days at sea with all the scheduled activities. We had to miss a few because they conflicted with others we were interested in. We did end up rebooking for 2006. although we plan to tranfer it to 2007. Danielle did not guarantee that we would keep the 10% off and $200 credit, but since we can cancel at any time, we really had nothing to lose. She mentioned that people who had previously booked on board were able to transfer to this summer's Mexico cruises and keep the credit and 10% off. When we asked about possible itineraries for 2007, she first said that the Magic would NOT be sailing out of Port Canaveral, but later said she really couldn't speculate. We're hoping for Alaska, but would do Mexico again, especially since we're 30 minutes from the Port of L.A. and enjoyed not having to fly to get to the ship. We had never gone to Palo on our previous cruises, so this time we did both brunch and dinner. Dinner was delicious, but we REALLY loved the brunch. We thoroughly enjoyed our excursions in Puerto Vallarta (Paradise Beach Adventure) and Cabo (Chileno Bay snorkeling). We also hired a guide in Puerto Vallarta who drove us around for 2 hours. He was very nice and very informative. If we ever return, we'll probably stay on the ship in Mazatlan...we just weren't impressed with the sites or the "Golden Zone" shopping...although the cathedral was beautiful.
Glad to hear that you all had a MAGICal vacation as well.
Bob & Nancy

It was so nice meeting you! And it was a surprise that we "kind of" knew each other!
I did not realize that people were able to transfer their previous bookings to the Mexico Cruise. We were told outright that we would not be able to transfer out of the Carribean based cruises although could push it to 2007 instead of 2006. We were all ready to rebook based on the hope that the cruise would go out of the West Coast or Alaska but oh well! We received a very similar based deal on the Mexico Cruise thru our TA and received a $200.00 onboard credit as well so hopefully if DCL ends up out here, we can get the same thing again!

Desiree

 

[eeyorelvr10]

Hey everybody - Laura here - thanks so much to all of you for making me feel welcome - but I hardly saw anyone other than Vern and Karen - Hi Vern - tell your wife I'm still jealous but congrats on winning the fire opals - was very happy for her - We were on late seating so that may account for our disappearance. Anyway, real quick - for once in my life I unpacked that morning of disembarkation but waited until Sunday to start laundry. I don't know about you all but everyone - and I mean everyone here - conked out and were lazy so much so that we were late in picking up our 2 babys (dogs) - we paid for that by the way. They were pretty cool to all of us until Sunday morning.

Our family did PV tour and took a taxi from hell late in the afternoon. Let me tell you all - I always heard the stories but never believed them until now. Now - my DH is never allowed to pick any taxis or speak with the drivers. I will do the picking. DH has agreed to that - maybe the fact that he had to get on the ship and change may have something to do with this decision (J/K)

In Mazatlan we (4 of us) hired a private car (really a golf cart) but it actually turned out to be much better than the Disney tour. DH and I had done a city tour in May so we had seen some of the sights but this guide was able to take us deeper into old town and other sights ALL DAY (which was amazing) actually for less than what it would have cost for a 4 hours tour ( a 4 hour tour ) with Disney - about $80. The car was delightful as we had our own 'air conditioner' and this kep DH from getting car/bus sick.

In Cabo - we went on our own and we got to do some parasailing - kids loved it although DH got sick. Some of you may have seen the grown man laid out on the pier at about 3:30 pm? Yup - that was us - poor honey - next time he'll listen about the seabands won't he? - BTW- has anyone heard of this remedy? Our parasailing guide told me that for future excursions to have my DH take some lemon or was it lime? to suck on and that will take away some nausea? Has anyone heard of this? Let me know - don't know if he was putting me on or waht. Oh well - getting late and have to babysit niece and nephew tomorrow - just had to say a few words to all - thanks for the wonderful time hope you all had a great time and we must do this again sometime. Later - Laura

 

[hereigns]

Hi all, we would love to cruise again with new destinations. I am a little concerned about seeing the same shows again. This was our second cruise and we had a great time, just like the first time. Does anyone have an experience with many cruises and seeing shows for the fourth and fifth times?

Kendall, Mazatlan was great wasn't it?! Your kids seemed to love the horses! Thanks for the kind comments. I have thought about our guide Tony a few times, how about you? It was so nice to meet you and your family!

Melinda

 

[squirrelgirl]

Melinda, I actually do think about Tony. He was simply fantastic. He was so incredibly patient and kind with my son. I know we were way behind everyone else (thanks to my son's hat flying off all the time), but he just kept laughing about it. I actually had a great time hanging back with him...he kept chatting about the history of the island, pointing out things around us, teasing my son...just laughing about stuff. He certainly made the whole ride wonderful. I don't know about you, but I kept thinking on the ride how much I really needed to take it all in...here we are riding a horse along a deserted beach..through coconut groves..heavy mist..seeing my children so happy. It was such a once in a lifetime moment..something to cherish, you know?

Desiree, how is your knee? Better I hope! I know Maddie would love to keep in touch with Victoria too. I cannot thank you enough for your generosity...thinking of my kids. Wow..what a wonderful reminder of a very special trip. Thank you, so much.

I never understood why people were so crazy about DCL...I get it now!

Kendall

 

[vrntnns]

Hey Laura, I sure wished you'd of won those Fire Opals too, it would have been alot cheaper for me. My wife says Hi. I sure hope your husband is doing better. Yes, I have heard of that remedy of lemon juice for sickness. Something in the lemon helps with the acids in the tummy. Anyway, I'm ready to go again!!! Anyone else? Disney ought to pay me for all the advertizing(sp)? I'm giving them. Everyone I come in contact with, I'm telling them, "go on a Disney Cruise!" Laura, in PV we had a "fun" trip in a taxi back from town. Karen had her hand over her eyes most of the time. I made the mistake of telling our driver to hurry. oops!
You know how there were "2" lines on each side of the road? He was making it a 3&4 line road. I was laughing the whole time which I think made Karen madder. Well so long for now, Vern

 

[eeyorelvr10]

Hey Laura, I sure wished you'd of won those Fire Opals too, it would have been alot cheaper for me. My wife says Hi. I sure hope your husband is doing better. Yes, I have heard of that remedy of lemon juice for sickness. Something in the lemon helps with the acids in the tummy. Anyway, I'm ready to go again!!! Anyone else? Disney ought to pay me for all the advertizing(sp)? I'm giving them. Everyone I come in contact with, I'm telling them, "go on a Disney Cruise!" Laura, in PV we had a "fun" trip in a taxi back from town. Karen had her hand over her eyes most of the time. I made the mistake of telling our driver to hurry. oops!
You know how there were "2" lines on each side of the road? He was making it a 3&4 line road. I was laughing the whole time which I think made Karen madder. Well so long for now, Vern

Hey Vern - only 3 & 4 lanes? At one time there was a staggered 6 car on a 2 1/2 lane (if you count the shoulder as 1/2) Have to admit - had my DH been laughing I'd probably had been mad too! Although, come to think of it, I believe that I was the one laughing also! That or lose it and I had my babies with me. If my youngest sees me losing it she loses it even greater so yeah - that too was me laughing and I was roaring when we got out. As for the Fire Opals - don't feel too bad - my DH says that he's glad it wasn't him this time - he was happy to pass that torch until he realized what the consequences were. Are you ready for this? I don't feel bad because I know have another chance to win some because.................(They need a drum roll here)...............All I have to do is attend another of Melanie's Shopping tours. Which I will probably be doing on the 21st of this month.

Yup - I/we are now officially going to be taking the Magic home! We had tentatively booked a reservation on the ship but had to wait until we got home to check on some things. Had a very depressing day on Tuesday when DH let ressies expire but my angel (TA) came though and was able to get back one cabin which worked out fine cuz the older can't go due to school and work obligations. Gosh that sounds great - so this trip will only be DH, myself and DD-12 going. Yipppeeeee! Gosh does that sound bad? Didn't mean it that way - Not. Anyway, before you get to thinking something awful - haven't done a DCL cruise since about '02/'03 can't remember which - after this my only hope will be that DCL goes to Alaska or someplace else. OMG - just had a thought - I have to be on my best behavior with DH for the rest of the century. Lets hope that I can do it - - Anyway, later all - had a blast - Laura