Magic 3/8 - 3/15 Just returned

[delo4]

We just returned from a week on the Magic and we had a fantastic time. There were 7 of us cruising, all adults. The group consisted of me, my husband, Dan, our daughter Sarah, her husband Ben, our daughter Ashley, and my parents. This was the 13th cruise for my Mom and I. Sarah has been on 5 Disney cruises, and the rest have been on 4 Disney cruises.

We arrived at the port about 9:45. They told us to park across the street until the port opened. They let us in about 10:10. While we unpacked and parked the car, Ben and Sarah went up to check in. They got boarding pass #2 that we all used when it was time to get on the ship. They started boarding about 11:45. Sarah and I immediately went to Rockin Bar D for reservations for Palo. We had no problem getting them for our requested night of Friday. We asked for our favorite server in Palo, Noemi, again no problem.

We all met in Parrot Cay for lunch where most of us hung out until the rooms were ready. Some of the others didn't want to sit for so long, so they did some exploring. At 1:30, we all went to check out our rooms. We all had outside rooms on deck 2. We really like this location, easy access to the 3 main dining rooms. No need to take an elevator to go up 1 or 2 decks. Our dining rotation was 2nd seating. The rotation was PLLAPLA. That was a surprise since the dining rotation was new. They expected to have a new menu that is going to replace the Master Chef menu, but they had some challenges this week and are going to start the new menu this week. Our dinner time was at 8:30. We really like the 8:00 time better, but this was ok. Our servers were Godwin from India, and Elizabieta from Poland. Head server was Jeevan. They did a very good job and Elizabieta is very funny and Godwin has been on Disney Cruise for a long time, so he knows what he is doing and is very efficient at his job. Jeevan was the best head server we have had. He spoke with us every night, very friendly, joked around with us. We really enjoyed him. Head Servers do not usually impress us, but he was a different story!

Key West was very cool and windy on Sunday. That was a new experience. Usually, its so hot there. We just got off and walked around for a little bit. Key West is not one of our favorite places. We enjoy staying on the ship when everyone else is off. We do alot of hanging around on deck 9 reading or relaxing.

The seas were really calm the whole week, hardly felt the movement at all. The weather for the rest of the week was pretty nice, not too hot, not too cool.

We didn't go to any of the production shows, Golden Mickey's, Twice Charmed, or Disney Dreams. We have seen them all before. We did go to the Welcome Aboard and Farewell Shows. We really enjoyed a new act they had, called Hip Hop Comedy of Alfred and Seymour. They are from Los Angeles and we thought they were very funny. It was good to see something new for a change. John Charles and Michael Harrision were also on, but we have seen them before as well. Apparently Rich Purpura will not be on for awhile. We were told that Disney is "giving him a break" to explore some other opportunities with other Cruise Lines or venues. He may be back again, but not in the immediate future. His act hasn't changed much since he's been on and most of us could repeat the whole thing by heart. Maybe he will write some new material while he is gone. We really think he is funny, but we've seen him several times and its always the same.

Christiaan was our Cruise Director and we really enjoy when he is on. His announcements are very funny and he can be seen all over the ship. He is very friendly and personable. He is our favorite Cruise Director.

We did not get off the ship in Grand Cayman, but we enjoyed having the ship almost to ourselves while everyone else was out. We did get off in Cozumel, but only for a little while, just to look around in some shops. I didn't buy a thing, and it was a very warm day.

Castaway Cay Day was absolutely beautiful. We send the younger ones in our party out early to grab some spots on the adult beach and they were the first ones there. They went over on the tram car with the crew! We got there shortly after them and had a great day on the beach. The water wasn't too cold and there was just a very light breeze, no wind like there usually is. We had lunch at the adult beach and it was great. We spend the entire day just hanging on the beach. Did not want to go when it was time, it had been a very nice day!

Friday night we ate in Palo. We had Noemi as our server. Noemi had been our server in the dining rooms several cruises ago and when she moved up to Palo, we ask for her when we go. We really enjoyed getting to visit with her again and the meal was wonderful.

All in all, we had a great week and it ended all too quickly. We all were sure someone stole some hours out of each day because everything went by so quickly.

I'll add some more details later if I think of some more and my girls will probably add their experience as well and remind me of some of the things I forgot to mention. All in all, we had a wonderful time!

 

[Ottawacruiser]

Glad to see someone else started a trip report. Rather than doing my own from scratch, I will just add on to this one. I hope that's OK!

The ship left Port Canaveral at least an hour late. Apparently there was a late flight and the ship waited. I was watching from deck 10 and at about 5:45pm a DCL bus came over the causeway and up to the port. The people came on the ship through the forward deck 1 gangway - the deck 3 access had already been removed! It seemed as though the ropes were barely thrown of the piers and we were already pulling away form the dock!

I went to the Promenade Lounge at 3:00pm for the dis meet but I was the only one there. Maybe I went to the wrong place?

There seemed to be tons of Canadians on this cruise (including us) because it was March break in Ontario. I spoke with one of the Canadian cast members and she told me that during the cruise the previous week, there were so many guests from Quebec she was doing the ship announcements in French (the previous week was March break in Quebec).

It was Captain Tom at the helm and he was milling around at one of the photo sessions one evening. He was standing alone so I spoke with him a little. Key points:
- steel for the new ship will start cutting at the end of this year
- both port Canaveral and Castaway Cay will be expanded to handle the bigger ships
- Captain Tom will be taking the new ship when it is available
- Captain Tom will be going to Germany at the end of this year to supervise the build
- I asked whether the names of the ships had been decided but he didn't comment on that.

We had PLLAPLA rotation with server Romeo, asst server Bululani, and head waiter Zan. They were all excellent.

We went to brunch and dinner at Palo. We had Sasha from Croatia for the brunch and liked him so much we requested him for our server at dinner as well.

We did our own scuba excursion in Grand Cayman, did the jeep adventure in Cozumel, our daughters did the wild side at CC. They were all great.

Having been on the cruise before (but this was our first western), we found the quality of the food was a bit lower than previous but still good. The key is to follow the server's recommendation. When I strayed from that, I would end up sending the meal back and requesting what he had originally recommended (I'm not shy that way). After that, all was excellent.

We booked another cruise while on board and I'm already looking forward to going back!

If you have any questions, post or PM me

Regards,
... Mike (the Ottawacruiser)

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Ottawa, sorry we missed you. mkmommy, retiredkid, out to sea lee, and charpie all met with us in the forward part of Promenade Lounge at 3:00. We talked for about 20 minutes then headed back to unpack and get ready for the drill.

 

[Ottawacruiser]

Sorry I missed all of you - maybe next time ...

... Mike

 

[bpopman]

Also from Canada and was on this cruise..1st time Disney Cruise...Shows were fantastic, food at PALO was awesome, the lamb was to die for(had brunch and dinner there on same day, would not recommend that as you will be stuffed), kids club are great DD7 & DD4 had no problem and always looked forward to it--the staff there needs to be congratulated, Castaway Cay is stupendous, reg dining room food was good, not great but good, our servers were OK...our room steward Gilbert was excellent

only negative for me is that I wished I had 2-3 days after cruise to lie on a beach to relaxas just too much to do, so that is why re-booked for 4 day cruise next year for March break and then probably head to clearwater beach to chill

final thing--I had the cleanest, germ free hands I have ever had

 

[Ottawacruiser]

Hi pbobman!

Welcome to the boards!

One note - you may find it hard to go to a 4 day cruise now that you have been on a 7 day!

I agree with your comment about having the cleanest hands! However, better safe than sorry.

One other thing that happened to us was that one of my daughters was sick by the elevators as we were heading out to Grand Cayman. She had been up late the night before and was also a bit anxious about a scuba excursion we were heading out on.

One of the room stewards noticed her being ill and, within about 30 seconds, there was a man in white (senior staff, I guess) who was there and asked us what our stateroom number was.

When we returned from Grand Cayman, we had a message on our phone from Guest Services asking if she was feeling better and that we needed to get her checked by the ship's nurse in the medical centre.

So, we headed down and the nurse took one look at her and gave her a note that said she could now attend all shipboard activities (she was obviously back to normal by then). However, there was a young girl ahead of us in line at the medial centre with her parents who was told that, if you are ill, you have to stay in your stateroom for three days. So, we felt very lucky.

I know all cruises need to be careful about viruses but Disney was right on top of this situation, and in a nice way.

Regards,
... Mike

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Our DD has a lactose intolerance and it never fails that on our vacations, she will get sick one night. Well she got ahead of herself with all the ice cream and got sick in our room one right. Fortunately, she made it to the bathroom, but we had to call housekeeping to come clean up the bathroom. We also had to make a trip down to the medical center to get her cleared to attend kids club. When my DH took her down to the Celebrate the Journey, the staff asked for the note, so all is noted in the computer. I was very impressed.

I also heard parents were letting their children with GITs swim in the Mickey pool and one mom even admitted it to a crew member in the elevator at one time. The crew member was obviously taken aback that the parent was letting this happen. Later that night we noticed the crew scrubbing the deck. Disney can only do so much!

 

[CraftyMouse]

Head server was Jeevan. Jeevan was the best head server we have had. He spoke with us every night, very friendly, joked around with us. We really enjoyed him. Head Servers do not usually impress us, but he was a different story!

We had Jeevan as our Head Server in December and I agree completely with your assessment. He was so friendly and would always make sure to stop by each night. He was fantastic.

 

[RLccweems]

enjoying your TR and waiting for more to come.

 

[delo4]

A few more details to add from our trip -

We really enjoyed staying on the ship in most of the ports. Since we have been several times before, we decided not to get off the ship at Grand Cayman and only got off for a short time in Key West and Cozumel. We really enjoyed the empty ship.

Lunch in Lumiere's is much better than it used to be. We love being waited on. We do not like Topsiders for lunch. If we don't go to the dining rooms, we usually just grab some chicken fingers or a hamburger on deck 9.

We noticed this in October, but waas even more evident this past cruise. Many of the familiar dining room staff have changed. It seems like many who have been there for years, have recently left the ship for good. Apparently, since the dollar is not strong, alot of the european crew members have left. We got used to seeing many familiar faces that are no longer on the ship. We especially noticed it at lunch. Quite a few times, we got servers who were not at all interested in being there. One day, I asked one of the crew how long he had been on board, and he said just a few weeks and he had 5 months and 1 week to go and he can't wait to go home! He was not enjoying his job. There were so many new faces. On the flip side, one day at Lumiere's we had this amazing assistant server. I could tell that he had been on the ship for awhile and he said that he has been there for 6 years. His name is Henry from Jamaica and he was wonderful. So friendly, and he really loves what he does in spite of the many hours. He said that it takes the new people quite awhile to get used to the amount of hours that they have to work and they are homesick for awhile. Our head server Jeevan and I were talking one night and I told him how much I appreciated Henry that day at lunch. I also mentioned that it must be challenging for the head servers to have so many new people and he said "I am pulling my hair out". He said that Disney has so many repeat cruisers who are used to a high level of service and that has been hard to sustain with so many of the experienced crew members leaving and so many new ones coming.

One of the days in port, we got to watch them inspect a lifeboat. The guy who was in charge was very friendly, showed us the inside of one, told us all about the supplies they have stocked in there. It was fun to get to see something new. Hard to believe that 150 people fit in there. He said they have enough food supplies for 48 hours and water for 72 hours. I don't want to be stuck in one for that long. The upside is that even if you have to get in a lifeboat, other ships will be in the area and you are never really that far from any shoreline, so the chance that you will be in there for very long is very small.

All in all, we had a fantastic trip and can't believe it is over already. We all have post cruise depression, but we have lots of pictures to remember all the details. My daughter told me that between the 3 of us who took pictures, we have over 800. Now it just comes down to sorting which ones we want to put in the scrapbooks. The good thing about that is that my daughters and I get together and work on our scrapbooks together, so I am excited about reliving all those cruise memories.

 

[charpie127]

delo4.....I think we were neighbors at dinner, we were at table #3!!!

Godwin and Elizabeth were great!!! I miss them!!

We were suppose to be on deck 2 but got bumped up to deck 6, didn't matter, we had an inside cabin, but we had thought deck 2 would be more convient.

I also miss Christian, who was never to busy to stop and chat. We even had him pose with us for one of our pictures.

And I can not forget the sweet young man, Marc, who also was friendly and fun. At Castaway Cay, he had a couple of hours off, was on his way to the crew beach area, to relax, but still took time to chat with us. He was like the mc at the sail away party, and the pirate deck party, and the character breakfast. Also the who wants to be a mouseketeer and the pirate line dancing etc.....

This was our first Disney cruise and I am soooo ready to go again!!!!

 

[delo4]

Which one was table number 3? Did you have second seating and were you the table of 2 or the table of 8?

Glad you enjoyed your first Cruise - warning - it can get addicting!!!!

Godwin and Elizabeita were great. We saw him many times on the ship at different locations and he always was pleasant and took time to chat. We still can't believe our trip is over - the time went by so quickly. We are still trying to get over our post cruise depression, but its getting better. We keep looking at all the pictures we took and can't wait to start scrapbooking them.

 

[charpie127]

yes we had the 8:30 seating. There were 8 people at our table...My Mom, sister and I, then our tablemates for the week were Harry, his wife Donna, and daughter Danielle and their friends Christine and daughter Aubrey. The girls were approx 10 years old. Our table always seemed to be in a corner.

Did your table have a gentleman in a wheelchair?

Yes i can see that Disney cruises are addicting...and the time went much to quickly. We have the pictures printed to start our books, but we did not keep very good notes on what we did and where so trying to write our reports are not going very fast...the memory is the second thing to go, I forget what the first thing is....ha ha

 

[delo4]

I remember your table, yes you were in the corner. We were right beside you. We didn't have a wheelchair. We had a table of all adults, my parents, my husband and I, our daughter (aged 24), her husband, our other daughter (aged 21). There were 7 of us. I'll have to get one of my daughters to post a picture since they probably know how to do it better than me.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We don't have another one planned yet, but we would love to go again.

 

[ibouncetoo]

. Head server was Jeevan. They did a very good job and Elizabieta is very funny and Godwin has been on Disney Cruise for a long time, so he knows what he is doing and is very efficient at his job. Jeevan was the best head server we have had. He spoke with us every night, very friendly, joked around with us. We really enjoyed him. Head Servers do not usually impress us, but he was a different story!

I've had Jeevan as a Head Server also. He was great. He helped me arrange a DIS lunch at Parrot Cay with the team that was serving there that day.

Also , food at PALO was awesome, the lamb was to die for

I had the lamb at Palo for the first time this past December. I'd only ever tried it one other time, but our server told me to 'go for it'. It was heaven He said to always ask where the lamb comes from (a recent waiter her in Phoenix said "a sheep?"). New Zeland lamb...the only way to go!

.