Live from the 11/26 Magic

[Dis Mama]

Hey Lisa-It's the other Lisa. My husband and I both got sore throats a couple of days before the cruise ended. We're feeling a little better today, but would take the sore throats back any day if we could get back on the ship!!!! It was nice meeting you outside of Studio Sea. We got some great pictures of the kids with all of the characters. Can't wait to read all the trip reports. We had an awesome time.

Lisa

 

[lisarae]

Hi Lisa,

Yeah, Steve and I would love to be back onboard. He is feeling a little better. Been watching football and movies all day. I have moments when it seems like the house is rocking; I guess it's just getting back to land.

It was nice meeting you guys too. We have to get our film developed. I hope the pictures come out good.

Glad you and your husband's sore throats are gone. I'm sure Steve's will be gone soon.

Talk to you on the board.
Lisa Rae

 

[lisarae]

"Hey Mickey Mouse, it's Donald Duck!"

 

[DiaLady]

Hey everyone --

We're home, but we miss our floating home!! We had a blast. Even though I was so sea sick the first two days, it turned out to be a blessing . . .my jeans still fit today! Thanks to Amy for telling me I could buy SeaBracelets at the ship store Sorry I didn't keep up on my posting. I never did get the hang of the wireless on the ship. DH kept using my minutes to update his fantasy football picks. . . LOL.

We made some terrific friends and got a great tan to boot.

LisaRae - tell Steve we hope he gets better quick! Don't work too hard tomorrow. Hope you're new boss is really cool!

I'll be working up our trip report, too. Can't wait to see Jon's and LisaRae's!

Well off to sleep in my own bed. Thankfully it's a waterbed. Maybe if we rock it back and forth it will feel like we're still on the MAGIC.

More later

Theresa

 

[Former Disco Queen]

Well....we are home and have finally settled down. The cruise( our first) was way better than we ever expected. We are not Disney afficionados(sorry ) but had planned this trip with friends of ours and thought there would be plenty to do outside of the Disney stuff. Needless to say-we have booked the same cruise for next year already .

Went to the Butterfly Farm in St. Maarten-it was nice-enjoyed the bus ride as well. Wont do it again on the next cruise though. LOVED our excursion in St. Thomas-The Dubloon Sail and Snorkel. My DH, DS-8 and DD-9 loved it as well. We (NOT the kids!) were tipsy before noon from the rum punch on the sail back . Castaway Cay-rode the banana boats and jet skis-a definite for the next cruise as well.

On board-the Spa was awesome-spent a lot of $ and time there-facial, couples massages and the rasual(sp?) mud thing. Very relaxing and well woth it. Got very sea sick exercising in the gym though-something about the movement of the elliptical machine and the boat rocking I guess. Dramamine was our best friend this cruise and would highly recommend bringing some if you are worried about the sea sickness. It made us drowsy but that wore off quickly.
We were the LAP rotation. We were a bit disappointed because although our servers were nice (Clive from Jamaica and Theodore from Bulgaria) they were not overly engaging. We saw many of the other servers in the dining room getting involved w/the passengers. Ours were a bit reticent. but again-very nice. The food was good-and I ate like there was no tomorrow but it wasn't great, for the most part. We ate at Palo's on Thurs. night-and it was insanely delicious. We had Marco from Italy and loved everything we tried. It was wonderful.
The kids enjoyed the kids clubs-spent less time there than I thought they would but they liked it when they were there. They were so busy with a million other things that they found to do. We went to only one show-the Cinderella one. We enjoyed it okay. Like I said before-we just are not huge Disney buffs. I didn't even know Goofy had a son! We participated in a bunch of activities on board like some trivia games and parties on deck etc....

We did buy a bunch of pictures that we had done-family pics, a bunch of the kids and a couple pic of me and DH. I was pleased with them and thought the prices were reasonable. We were shocked at our tab at the end, when we paid up for all of the drinks, souvenirs etc...but it was all worth it.

Now I can't wait until next year!!!!

 

[lisarae]

For those of you who saw our door decorations: the last night Steve was going to take down our stockings and the Winnie the Pooh clingy decorations, and I told him to wait (I was hoping we'd get something else put in our stockings.) Well, when we got up Saturday morning, our stockings were hanging on the door knob and our nice heavy-duty magnets with clips for the stockings were gone. Bad people! (Guess that's what I get for being greedy with my stockings!)

We called Guest Services just to let them know, and the lady said, "Oh no, not again!" I guess it happens a lot. I had woken up in the middle of the night listening to people running up and down the hall, but I didn't want to open the door to look. (Guess that's what I get for being lazy!)

Oh well! I can get more.

 

[DiaLady]

Hey LisaRae --

Your stockings were the bomb! My kids commented on them every time we passed your room. DS8 wants to do that the next time we cruise.

Sorry to hear your magnets disappeared. Maybe Steve can wire some kind mild shock when they're touched for the next trip . . ..LOL

We were honestly a bit shocked to see so many children running (not walking) unsupervised over the ship on the last night. My kids wouldn't leave the Lab. Ummmm . . .

Is Steve feeling better? We're freezing here in VA. We're probably the only small space in VA that isn't getting SNOW. We just have that yucky cold bone chilling rain. Makes you not want to leave the house . . .

Hope your day back it work went well.

Have a super day!

Theresa

 

[jjbescher]

We heard that our cruise was the worst for the Teenage kids. We heard that they stole Alcohol, damaged stuff and were all out rude. DW heard an officer threaten a teenager and a parent with a Court Marshall and essentially locking the kid in the room with an armed guard outside the door. We at first thought that the parent asked the officer, but after hearing what other things were going on, we think the officer was serious. He eventually let the kid in the mother's custody and if the kid was found misbehaving again, they would both be court marshalled.

Still working on trip report.

jon

 

[DiaLady]

I'm pretty impressed that officers have the "power" to court martial on the ship . . . I'll keep that in mind for the next one . . .

 

[jjbescher]

I'm pretty impressed that officers have the "power" to court martial on the ship . . . I'll keep that in mind for the next one . . .

I think he was going to turn the child over to the captain.

jon

 

[Michelle2]

Hey everyone!! We just got home last night...I want to post some pics sooo bad, so I will work on that later today.

Let me say that that was one of our best trips ever! We totally loved it and DH let me (he suggested it) rebook while on board! That says alot, because he is getting Disney'd out, the weirdo!

I never saw or heard anything going on with teenagers on the cruise, but it doesn't surprise me. We saw a few groups of them blocking the stairways and sitting around, but that was about it.

I will be sure to post a trip report as well, because I like keeping it for myself too. I met some wonderful people, some who were not DISers that we kept running into throughout the whole cruise, next door tablemates, and of course DISers I met at the DIS meet. I arrived kinda late, and was at one end, so didn't get to meet everyone that was at the other end of the group. Dang.

grlzmom, it was so good to meet you, and thanks for being my mentor! My DD9 said that she misses your DD already, and this was when we were in the van leaving Port Canaveral! LOL We will definitely aim at that tentative date you guys have set!

I will post a compiled tips list because there are things I am glad we did, and things that I wish we would have done different, and being a first time cruiser, I learned SO much! I sure feel for those that are preparing for their first cruise...It was an overwhelming experience!!! But AWESOME!

 

[DiaLady]

Welcome home, Michelle2! Can't wait for your trip report!

Theresa

 

[bahogg]

Lisa, so sorry to hear about your stockings!!!!! We just got home from Disney on Monday. It was SNOWING!!!!! We went to the christmas party at magic kingdom on Sunday Night.
We booked our next cruise while we were on the cruise, I already can't wait.

Hey Lisa, Me and Brian are going to be back in Florida in January, If you and Steve are going to be near Disney let us know maybe we can hook up for Dinner or Lunch. Or just walk around the parks or something. We are comming on January 7th - 16th. (With No Kids). How cool is that.

Hopefully soon I will be able to get some pictures out to you guys I will probably mail them on a disk but when I got home I had people on my e-mail and my answering machine for me to come take pictures. So when I get a second I will download them on to my computer and make some copies. And for those I promised a copy of the video of the kids graduation from the kids club I will get that out as soon as I can also.

We had a great time and loved getting to meet everyone (and pick on Jon over his michigan hat) You guys are a great group of people and I couldn't have done a better job picking who I would cruise with if I did it myself.

I tried to get as many e-mails and addresses as I could if I didn't get someones let me know and I will get it from you and make sure everyone else gets it.

Have a great night
amy

 

[lisarae]

Hi Amy,

You did a great job with the emails and addresses! You went over and above! Thank you so much!

January sounds cool. I have no idea what is going on then, but I'll mark it on the calendar, and I'm sure we will stay in touch.

No snow, but it's raining here. I'm glad it doesn't get that cold here!

I'd like to see that video of the kids graduating too.

Talk to you later.
LisaRae

 

[jonesing]

Wow that stinks! We didn't get anything stolen but we did get a little surprise from a character most nights on our dry erase message board! Problem is the danged thing wouldn't stay affixed to the door! Oh well, what do you expect from a $3 Wal-Mart special?!?

We too heard kids running up and down the halls like a pack of wild animals! Up on deck is one thing, the split lips and missing teeth would serve as a reminder of their idiocy but the carpeted halls, well that gave them traction so they could clomp around even louder!

For those of you who saw our door decorations: the last night Steve was going to take down our stockings and the Winnie the Pooh clingy decorations, and I told him to wait (I was hoping we'd get something else put in our stockings.) Well, when we got up Saturday morning, our stockings were hanging on the door knob and our nice heavy-duty magnets with clips for the stockings were gone. Bad people! (Guess that's what I get for being greedy with my stockings!)

We called Guest Services just to let them know, and the lady said, "Oh no, not again!" I guess it happens a lot. I had woken up in the middle of the night listening to people running up and down the hall, but I didn't want to open the door to look. (Guess that's what I get for being lazy!)

Oh well! I can get more.

 

[jonesing]

Great to hear from you Jonesing! I really appreciate all of the details of maneuvering with a baby since we're hoping to do the Eastern with our's next September. I look forward to hearing more from you!

My pleasure...just a few tips:
DO NOT book you Palo for Day 1 since there's no Flounders.

The nannies can mix your formula for you or you can mix it and they'll keep it in the fridge until feeding time

They can accomodate cloth diapers if you provide a wetbag for the soild dipes (we broke down and used disposables for the trip)

If you're using forumla, bring EXTRA! Since DS is pretty much on a schedule of 9/1/5/9 with the first feeding at 7oz and the rest at 6oz, we made formula packets using the vacuum sealer. DW packed enough for the 7-day cruise plus the 6 days at WDW. Well it looks like that sea air worked on DS like anyone else because DW exhausted the cruise allotment 2 days before it was over! We had to buy a can of formula at Walgreen's when we got back.

The on-ship shop carries a few basic baby items: Gerber bottles, Pampers diapers, Similac and Nestle (sponsor) Good Starts formula...NO ENFAMIL!

Get a ship-stroller from Guest Services for use on Castaway Cay! They use http://www.babyjogger.com/citysingle.htm strollers and its tires were much better suited for the sand than our Graco or any of the other strollers on the beach! They will hit you up for $200 on your ship account until you return the stroller!