June 12 Magic Topic Summary

[musicgirl]

Our trip was fantastic!!!! It was the best trip I've ever done!!! I would do it again in a heartbeat!!

Cast: DH-41, DS-13 and myself DW-40

Transportation
-Our flights to/from Columbus Ohio were on Delta. The way out was delayed 1 hour while we sat on the plane to have a gas gauge fixed. On our way back, we were delayed 30 minutes waiting to take off because it was so busy. Other than that, no problems.

-Art's Shuttle from the airport and back. It was $100 roundtrip (it's $110 now because of gas prices) plus tip. Very nice, on time, we were in a nice mini van by ourselves. If you are close to another pick-up time, they will put you with them.

-Taxi to the Port- We used M & H Taxi. From the Hamptons to port it was about $15 for the 3 of us. The reason we chose them, is that Art's will not pick up until 12. We wanted to leave by 10. If you use them, even if you call and set it up a day or two early, call 1 hour before your pick up that morning. They forgot us, but were there by 10:30. Phone # 321-784-4499.

-St. Martin Taxi- We used the taxi for our roundtrip ride to Dawn beach. He was very prompt at the time to pick us up and very informative. It was suppose to be $18 each way, but it ended up at $42 somehow .

-Water Taxi at St. Martin- This was quick, convenient and worth the $5

Hampton at Cocoa Beach -This was very nice for the $89. It is about 4 miles from port, but a 2-3 minute walk to the beach. They have an excellent continental breakfast included.

Motion Sickness I get very, very sick!!! I didn't get sick at all. I took 1 dramamine in the am and 1 in the pm everyday starting on our flight day. I also have an electronic wrist band that sends out an electronic pulse through the middle fingers to let you know it is working. I only wore this when I felt the rocking of the ship.

The best place to be when there is rocking-in the adult pool!!! The worst place is in the WDW theater.

Tablemates Our tablemates were alot of fun. Mom2belle&peter (Barbara and her family, dh, dd-9,ds-13) We linked our tables through the board. It was so much fun e-mailing and then meeting her.

Barbara was also able to arrange to have a group of 3 with a dd around her dd age. He will now be joining our boards!!!

 

[musicgirl]

I'm trying to do this in pieces so that it isn't too long and that it doesn't disappear.

Servers

Our room host was Garry. We didn't meet him until the 2nd day which was just fine. Our room was also neat with the towel animals and fresh towels. Use the privacy sign on the outside of the door. He would sometimes want to come in while we were there. And he would always apologize. I felt bad when this happened. Also, everytime a kid went by (especially my own!!! lol) there would be a knock on the door. We were constantly getting up until we figured out to use the sign and not worry about messing up Garry's schedule.

Head Server-McClean was there quite a bit checking on us. Always asking if everything was ok, had arranged for 3 different cakes through the week and always gave us the scoop on eating options the next day. Surprisingly, he wasn't around at the end of the last night to collect his tips. We gave it to our server to give to him.

Server-Sompong (Sammy) was excellent. He was from Thailand and very funny. He couldn't get over the fact that we all got along so well at our table without having met before. No matter what curves we threw him, he was always very efficient. Even on his afternoon off at St. M he tried to help dh. Dh was sweating alot (always does in the sun) when we ran into Sammy. He wanted to go get something to help dry him off!

Asst. Server-Adem from Turkey. Adem seemed to be a rookie and had some language problems. He was very sweet and eager to please. If he made a mistake, he immediately fixed it.

Food
The food was wonderful. We simply requested 2 of this or 2 of that-no problem. However, I'm still waiting for Sammy to appear with my food, but he's not around ! And what are those numbers next to the food on the menus now? Back to reality!!

We did do the Champagne brunch at Palo. Absolutely awesome. We had decided not to do it because we figured why pay extra when we have so much food available for free? However, while waiting at our hotel, we met a lady who was just off and she said to go for it. I'm glad we did !

The excellance speech does get old. But I do understand why they do it. They are given points based on our surveys which detemines if they keep their jobs. It is not for our tips. If you don't like something-tell them and they will fix it. They are very adamant about this. Give them the chance to fix it.

My problem with this is that I am not use to sending food back if it is not to my liking or is good, but maybe not excellent. I am a very picky eater and I tried alot of new foods, some I didn't like. I don't feel it is necessary to get something else and waste food. I also am not a big eater and wanted to save room for my favorites every night-desserts!!! They always assumed that I didn't finish it was because I didn't like it.

 

[musicgirl]

Pools and the Rainforest

We loved the adult pools!!!! Our ds was no where to be found during the day. We had so much fun making all kinds of friends. We met some young couples in their 20's who we talked with a lot through out the cruise. We met a number of couples our age that again we got to know pretty well. We even talked with many grandmas and grandpas. We talked to adults!!! Sorry, we are teachers and see 700 students grs. k-12 every week so this was a treat!!!

Mickey was emptied once and Goofy twice. There were a few parents who became angry when they tried to sneak their underage kids into the adult pools.

Here is my tip on the kids pools. Have plan B (and C,D etc. ) for when this happens and discuss it beforehand with the kids. I have always felt that if they are prepared ahead of time for changes to plans, they will transition better. Maybe this is a good time for relaxing, going to see a movie, a little shopping, a trip to the clubs, a game of ping pong or shuffle board, a bite of food, a game at diversions/in your room. There are so many things to do.

The rainforest was lovely for the week at $50. I would not do it for just 1 day at $15. I would go in and enjoy the meditation room with the heated tile seats with no aromatherapy. I would either chat with others or read my book. I also used the showers here because it was very convenient to wash my hair here. They provide all you need. This was always nice after a day at the pool.

Schedules and late seating

I loved late seating on the Wonder. It seemed like we always needed more time to get more stuff done during the day.

On the Magic, I would go for the early seating.
-There was plenty of time to get things done, even on port days.
-It seemed like we missed out on activities scheduled in the evening. The deck party was scheduled at 9:30 one night and we never got out before 10:15.
-Even though we ordered room service around 4 or 5 for the cheese platter and cookies, I was still starving by 8:30.
-It was hard getting motivated to do anything with a full stomach at 10:30.

Be flexible with your times. There were often mistakes in the Navigators. For example, in the Navigaor on the front page, it listed 80's night starting at 10:15. In the break down pages, it was listed at 10:30. When we got there, a new juggler did his adult show, which was very slow, until 11:00.

The Stack and the Teen Wild side

My ds13 loved it here. We barely saw him except for dinner, one show and excursion times. He came in at 2-3 in the morning everynight.

When I asked him what they did, he said "stuff". So, I'm not sure what activities he participated in. I think they "hung out" in groups.

We had tried to schedule the wild Side at CC before the trip, but ds didn't want to. Yes in true teen form, he asked if he could do this. Some of his friends were doing it. Luckily, there were 4 open spots, so he got to go. They met at 9 at the Stack, ate breakfast, biked around the island, kayaked, snorkeled and ate lunch together. After lunch, they could go back to the ship, go to the beach together or go meet their families ( yeah, like that's gonna happen !

On the Wild Side, the kids check themselves on and off the ship. They can only do this at CC.

If you have any ?, please ask.

I will be doing a regular report day by day without all of these details.

Lorie

 

[MamaQuack]

Wonderful report - very helpful, interesting and informative. I have a ds also 13. He cannot wait for our July 24 cruise.
Sounds like the teen club is a big hit.

Am anxious to hear about your excursions.

MamaQuack

 

[chinamom3]

Lori, great reading!! Even though we were on the same cruise, I love getting your perspective, as many things were different. We had an eight year old and early seating, never got to experience the adult pool. etc. It's interesting seeing the same cruise in another light. I look forward to the rest of your trip report. By the way, it's Monday, and I'm STILL washing clothes!!

 

[jlawall]

Thx for your posts....how were the theme nights?

 

[musicgirl]

Jlawall,

The themed nights were not all that spectacular. The Tropical night was fun. Everyone was in tropical clothes, but that was it.
Dh did go hunting for the uglist shirt. It is bright green with orange dolphins.

All around the world, there is a parade to represent the different countries. It also gives you a chance to cheer for your servers.

The food was great, or should I say excellent!

Chinamom3, I agree it will be interesting to hear about others views. I'm done with my laundry,yeah!

I'll get that report going.....tomorrow!
Lorie

 

[laurenk]

We had Adem for our Assistant Server in October. There is something very endearing about him. We were hoping to have him and Beckie this cruise, but it looks like Beckie is now in Palo, and Adem is paired up with someone new

 

[hometech99]

hi

we were on that cruise!

MG, what table were you?? we were 31.

food was ok- and just ok, EXCEPT Palo was incredible.

i actually came home relaxed. I was afraid that just a 1 week vacation wouldnt do it. But, with the kids club, and the lack of rushing around really was great.

we even did put a deposit on the aug 20 CA-FL repo!
(the cheapest thing still avaliable was a cat 10).

we had a cat 6 this cruise and i did enjoy the verandah. BUT, i also enjoyed laying out on dech 4 loungers. more view anyway.

my mother and kids were across the hall in a cat11 and it really isnt THAT small. i imagined worse. my mother who has cruised before said that the cat 11 was bigger than on other ships. we could get a cat 9, but its almost $1000 more and i didnt want to loose the cat 10, which i donjt know yet if we can afford anyway.

some person explained that the prices are high now because the ship is almost full, and Disney raises prices as the ship fills. she got 3 rooms (didnt say what cat) for $11,000 that on th ship she heard were now $19,000. so , even with the 10% savings, if i had booled this 2 months ago, i would have had a verandah (or even a porthole at least) for less money probably.

overall, this was my first cruise ever, and it sure beat lugginf around the parks!

 

[musicgirl]

laurenk, I know what you mean about Adem. It seemed like he dropped a lot of things. It became a bit of a joke. Everytime we heard something break, we would look for Adem.



Hi Hometech99, We were all a little worried about you since no one seemed to hook up with you! Sorry we missed you.

In regards to the DCL pricing. They always give the better discounts out the earlier you book. It really doesn't matter how full the ship is at the time. I booked in July for this cruise and in a few months, it had gone up a few hundred $s. You do not get a deal if you book closer to the sail date as with some other lines.

We had PLA, the second seating at table 47 with Mom2belle&peterpan (Barbara). She is also going on the 14 day in Aug. They live in CA.

As for the room size of Cat.11, we have had the same room for all 3 cruises and have loved it. I would book it again, even for 14 days. There are 3 of us and we had plenty of room for our stuff. We never feel crowded. We're never in it to notice.

Lorie

 

[hometech99]

hi Lorie,

yes, i missed everyone.

my sister-in-law got married 5/22. and i video'd it.
i was highly involved up unitl 6/15 with editing and DVD mastering, so didnt browse and chat much.

we were APL rotation.

my mom won the Captain's hat at the second auction!

now I hear my wife laughing hysterically at the Michael Harrison video my son got during his second show (no, that wasnt mine on the stool in the first show).

weather was great, wasnt it? not a move from the boat until we left St Thomas (where the rocking didnt help my dehydration headhache!). other than that, great time!

poor Western Magic left in a storm, as did the sunday Wonder almost!

 

[eye R.N.]

We just loved McClean when he was a server (years ago) so he is on the PLA rotation?

We are so hoping to have him on our Aug trip.

 

[musicgirl]

eye R.N.

Yes, Maclean was on the PLA rotation. He was very helpful.

Lorie

 

[jlawall]

I've had MacClean as well, he's a great head server!

 

[Mom2Belle&PeterPan]

Hey girlfriend! I'm loving reading your reports!!! We had so much fun with you, Bill, Andrew, Bill, Shelley, and Aly at our table!!! You think we had known each other for years!

I think I may do the rainforest next time from what you described! BTW, I think we should have had Sammy had our meal/dessert completely served by 9:40 p.m., then we would not have had such late nights. Next time, we're going to tell our servers to speed it up a bit. Know we LOVE Sammy, just think he thought we were having so much fun talking that he slowed it down a bit too much.

Thanks for posting all the tips and good information. It will help many!

Wish we'd be on another together!

Barbara

 

[heathrow42]

Thanks for the great review - good idea, breaking it up - made it very manageable to read

It sounds like you had a great time! We are just starting to look into the cruise. What is the 'Rainforest' you mentioned? Is this a place to visit on one of the islands?

Thanks again,
--heather

 

[musicgirl]

heather,

the rainforest is in the spa. It is a relaxation room with 3 different types of saunas. The main room has heated tiles lounges. Then there are the 3 rooms. One is very mild, again with the heated tiles lounges. The other 2 have aromatheraphy, one is pretty heavy. There are also showers complete with shampoo etc., but you must stayed clothed!!!

Wear water shoes if you do not like wet floors.

It is $15 a day or $50 the week. I don't think I would do it for the day. I didn't spend that much time in there, but I was in almost everyday for 30-60 minutes.

Lorie