Magic - 1/19-1/26/08
Me - 38
DH - 44
DD - 10
DS - 8
Southwest flight Friday evening from MHT to MCO. Arrived at MCO just after 9pm. Checked in at Hyatt.
Had transportation scheduled for 8:45 Saturday morning with Sunrise Florida Transportation. Had a little trouble figuring out where we were supposed to meet. On the road by 9:00 a.m. Stopped to pick up beer and water.
Arrived at port around 10. Received boarding #2. Checked in, asked about upgrades, however none were available, sailing was full.
We were onboard and at Topsiders by noon. Had brought the kids swimsuits, so we found a table by the Mickey pool, had lunch and they went swimming. Brought our carry-ons to the room at 1:30. Was happy with the size of the room (Cat. 10, inside, deck 2). Our cabin ended up being a problem for us - we had booked Cat 12 gty and were assigned Room 2147, deck 2 aft. The cabin was very noisy and vibrated constantly unless we were docked.
We had a good time during the week. We only saw 2 shows - Twice Charmed and Dreams - enjoyed both. We saw a few movies in the theater (Ratitouille, National Treasure, and The Game Plan) - we enjoyed the theater, we havent used one on a ship before.
DD10 enjoyed Quest, and went to the lab only a couple of times. DS8 didnt go to the lab at all, but we did go to the open house at Quest a few times.
DH enjoyed the food in the dining rooms, I, however, am a picky eater and ordered off the kids menu all but 1 night. We tried Topsiders on night for dinner and didnt enjoy that - wed rather have a buffet. This was the most disappointing thing with Disney for me. This was my 12th cruise (2nd on Disney) and I have many more options on other lines.
In St. Martin we took a taxi to Divi at Little Bay (taxi $4/pp each way). Enjoyed a few hours at the beach ($5 per chair). The water was a bit rough, but warm. We went back to the ship and had lunch and showers, then walked to town for some shopping.
In St. Thomas we chose to stay onboard for most of the day and enjoyed the empty pools. We did go into town for an hour or so and did a little shopping.
At Castaway Cay we were among the first off the ship and actually were the first to see both Daisy/Donald and Jack Sparrow. We then went to the beach for a while but it was cool, the kids only went in the water for a short time. We tried kayaking but had to be towed back in after the wind took us away (everyone else we saw got towed back in too, so we didnt fee too bad!) We had lunch at Cookies and went to the sports area and played some games.
Saturday had 7am breakfast at Lumieres. Since we knew it wouldnt take more than an hour for breakfast, we left our carryons in the rooms and were back to get them by 7:45. We decided to get off the ship then instead of hanging around with our bags. We had arranged with Sunrise Florida Transportation for 9am pick up and figured we find a bench outside and wait. We ended finding the driver right when we got outside. We were at MCO by 9am. We had a long wait since our flight was until 2:20, but we kept busy shopping and having lunch.
Overall I didnt get to relax as much as Id hoped, since there was too much going on. The kids voted to book Disney again, so I agreed (we booked 2 category 10 connecting staterooms - we picked specific mid-ship rooms), but I told them wed have to do things a little differently next time so mom and dad could relax a little!
Just a note to other families - we ended up booking the 2 rooms after checking pricing on a couple categories - 1 cat 9 room was only $400 cheaper than 2 cat 10 rooms, but you get the extra $200 onboard credit (it is for each room) for booking on board, so it ended up only costing $200 more when you take the credit into consideration.
We participated in the DIS bag exchange and enjoyed meeting everyone at the meet. We also participated in the tag and the fish extenders, and enjoyed that.
So, well be back on the Magic 2/21/09 - with 2 rooms (hopefully quieter). On other lines we usually book as few ports as possible, but with Disney booking more and considering staying on board when others are off seems like it may be a better option. So we are booked on the Western with 4 ports (Key West, Grand Caymen, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay).
Im sure I havent mentioned all that I should, ask if you have any questions.
Just a little story about our flight home - we on Southwest and had boarded with the A group. Everyone was seated at departure time (2:20) and we heard an announcement for the flight crew to get ready for departure - but they were all gathered at the front. About 15 minutes later a FA comes back (we were at the back of the plane), to tell us sorry about the delay but there is a problem with a passenger - a man that was refusing to sit near any kids (on a flight out of Orlando on a Saturday afternoon)! Well then a couple of elderly gentlemen apparently threatened to kick the guys butt when they got off the plane, so then he was complaining about not wanting to sit near kids and afraid of being beat up. Anyway this problem went on for 25 minutes and a few people left the plane - but I dont know if they were the kid-haters or the threateners. We finally were able to leave and arrived at MHT about 15 minutes late.
Me - 38
DH - 44
DD - 10
DS - 8
Southwest flight Friday evening from MHT to MCO. Arrived at MCO just after 9pm. Checked in at Hyatt.
Had transportation scheduled for 8:45 Saturday morning with Sunrise Florida Transportation. Had a little trouble figuring out where we were supposed to meet. On the road by 9:00 a.m. Stopped to pick up beer and water.
Arrived at port around 10. Received boarding #2. Checked in, asked about upgrades, however none were available, sailing was full.
We were onboard and at Topsiders by noon. Had brought the kids swimsuits, so we found a table by the Mickey pool, had lunch and they went swimming. Brought our carry-ons to the room at 1:30. Was happy with the size of the room (Cat. 10, inside, deck 2). Our cabin ended up being a problem for us - we had booked Cat 12 gty and were assigned Room 2147, deck 2 aft. The cabin was very noisy and vibrated constantly unless we were docked.
We had a good time during the week. We only saw 2 shows - Twice Charmed and Dreams - enjoyed both. We saw a few movies in the theater (Ratitouille, National Treasure, and The Game Plan) - we enjoyed the theater, we havent used one on a ship before.
DD10 enjoyed Quest, and went to the lab only a couple of times. DS8 didnt go to the lab at all, but we did go to the open house at Quest a few times.
DH enjoyed the food in the dining rooms, I, however, am a picky eater and ordered off the kids menu all but 1 night. We tried Topsiders on night for dinner and didnt enjoy that - wed rather have a buffet. This was the most disappointing thing with Disney for me. This was my 12th cruise (2nd on Disney) and I have many more options on other lines.
In St. Martin we took a taxi to Divi at Little Bay (taxi $4/pp each way). Enjoyed a few hours at the beach ($5 per chair). The water was a bit rough, but warm. We went back to the ship and had lunch and showers, then walked to town for some shopping.
In St. Thomas we chose to stay onboard for most of the day and enjoyed the empty pools. We did go into town for an hour or so and did a little shopping.
At Castaway Cay we were among the first off the ship and actually were the first to see both Daisy/Donald and Jack Sparrow. We then went to the beach for a while but it was cool, the kids only went in the water for a short time. We tried kayaking but had to be towed back in after the wind took us away (everyone else we saw got towed back in too, so we didnt fee too bad!) We had lunch at Cookies and went to the sports area and played some games.
Saturday had 7am breakfast at Lumieres. Since we knew it wouldnt take more than an hour for breakfast, we left our carryons in the rooms and were back to get them by 7:45. We decided to get off the ship then instead of hanging around with our bags. We had arranged with Sunrise Florida Transportation for 9am pick up and figured we find a bench outside and wait. We ended finding the driver right when we got outside. We were at MCO by 9am. We had a long wait since our flight was until 2:20, but we kept busy shopping and having lunch.
Overall I didnt get to relax as much as Id hoped, since there was too much going on. The kids voted to book Disney again, so I agreed (we booked 2 category 10 connecting staterooms - we picked specific mid-ship rooms), but I told them wed have to do things a little differently next time so mom and dad could relax a little!
Just a note to other families - we ended up booking the 2 rooms after checking pricing on a couple categories - 1 cat 9 room was only $400 cheaper than 2 cat 10 rooms, but you get the extra $200 onboard credit (it is for each room) for booking on board, so it ended up only costing $200 more when you take the credit into consideration.
We participated in the DIS bag exchange and enjoyed meeting everyone at the meet. We also participated in the tag and the fish extenders, and enjoyed that.
So, well be back on the Magic 2/21/09 - with 2 rooms (hopefully quieter). On other lines we usually book as few ports as possible, but with Disney booking more and considering staying on board when others are off seems like it may be a better option. So we are booked on the Western with 4 ports (Key West, Grand Caymen, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay).
Im sure I havent mentioned all that I should, ask if you have any questions.
Just a little story about our flight home - we on Southwest and had boarded with the A group. Everyone was seated at departure time (2:20) and we heard an announcement for the flight crew to get ready for departure - but they were all gathered at the front. About 15 minutes later a FA comes back (we were at the back of the plane), to tell us sorry about the delay but there is a problem with a passenger - a man that was refusing to sit near any kids (on a flight out of Orlando on a Saturday afternoon)! Well then a couple of elderly gentlemen apparently threatened to kick the guys butt when they got off the plane, so then he was complaining about not wanting to sit near kids and afraid of being beat up. Anyway this problem went on for 25 minutes and a few people left the plane - but I dont know if they were the kid-haters or the threateners. We finally were able to leave and arrived at MHT about 15 minutes late.
