Surroundedbyboys
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2006
This is my first time posting, although I spent a lot of time reading other's trip reports before leaving for our cruise. We've been to Disney World many times (starting 16 years ago on our honeymoon) and have talked about doing a Disney Cruise for years. Ours sons are 14 (turned 14 on the cruise!) and 10. Husband and I are both 35. Thanks to everyone for many good tips- the best ones for us were the over the door shoe holder (great for organizing shoes and odds & ends) and the highlighter for marking things on the navigator.
We flew in on the 23rd, (Frontier Airline- first time- they were great! Stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and spent Thursday and Friday at MGM & EPCOT. We made good use of the fast passes, it was so packed, though, we were glad we weren't spending the week there. We usually go in October when it isn't so busy.
Saturday, 25th, we used the Disney transportation bus to Port Canaveral. Had to have our bags out at 8am but it was so nice to not have to worry about luggage. Got to the Magic around 1:30pm, I was impressed with how smooth check in went- my husband was in line for maybe 10 minutes. Walking onto the ship was exciting. They had wipes stationed at walk in as they did everytime you entered the ship and everytime you went in/out of a restaurant. It was nice to see that they are taking cleanliness very seriously. We all were using the behind the ear patch, (all being prone to motion sickness). The problem with these is after about 12 hours we were all very dizzy and having problems with our eyes. We took them off after the first day and none of us had problems with seasickness the entire time. Lunch at Topsiders was hectic! Lots of people and hardly anywhere to sit. Every item at the buffet had to be handled by the staff. (Great for hygiene, but ended up with way too much food, I like dishing my own food up!) I thought the food was very good. I read many not so great reviews of the food and went in with low expectations. We were very pleasantly surprised. We loved the food at all of the restaurants- and really enjoyed Parrot Cay which generally gets the lowest reviews. The lobster was delicious, steak cooked just right, wonderful variety and awesome desserts. The only negative regarding food would be how overcooked the chocolate chip cookies always were.... Our servers were Jessie and Malwyn. Great guys! They were kind of shy, very polite and treated our sons like adults which is important when you're 14 & almost 11!
The ports: Key West was so windy and cold that it was hard to enjoy. We took a Sail, Snorkel, Kayak excursion (thru Disney) that was not worth the money. It was freezing sailing to the mangroves, the kayaking was ok, but pretty tough in the wind, and only about 2? people snorkeled. The guys on the boat were great, very informative, friendly, but I would not recommend this excursion.
Grand Cayman was warmer, but still very windy and a bit chilly. Some excursions there were canceled due to the wind. My husband/sons went on a shipwreck and reef snorkel and enjoyed it but were a bit cold. Both sons were stung by some sea creature....very painful. (Not enough to cause a big deal though. I went on The Cayman Island Tour. Definitely don't recommend this. We waited 40 minutes past our time- after a family was loaded at the last minute. There were actually seats that pulled down in the middle of the van so that people couldn't move in the aisles. This was unsafe in my opinion. We were packed in like sardines. The guide was a nice man but we couldn't understand a word he said. There were some fun people on board, fortunately, so we had a good time laughing...(making lemonade)...but the tour was definitely not worth the price.
Costa Maya- We LOVED this port. We didn't book an excursion, but walked into the port, got a bus to Majahaul and settled in for the day. We bartered for some pretty neat things from the villagers. We bought a beautiful carved Mayan mask. The man started out asking $120 USD for it but we ended up with it for $40. (We got lots of experience bartering last year when we were in Egypt). We all ended up happy. We set up shop in some beach chairs and all had a great time snorkeling, swimming and lounging. We took a Taxi back to the port for $2 per person. We didn't speak each other's language, but laughed at everything we all said all the way back. (Very friendly people) By the way, barter for everything there! They originally wanted $3 for a can of coke and we ended up with three for $5.00. They think you're nuts if you just pay what they ask. Oh, it was very hot here, still windy though. Everywhere we went it was windy!
Castaway Cay was gorgeous. We thought Cookies BBQ was wonderful and enjoyed the beach, swimming, snorkeling and walking to the game pavilion. My husband and I walked over to the adult's beach. It was so quiet and peaceful!
On board- we loved playing ping pong, shuffleboard, walking deck 4 every morning. The shows were great. We especially loved comedian Gary Delana and "magician" Rich Purpura. They were hilarious. One strange thing was Phillip Huber and the Huber Marionettes....they call it a lost art and I think we found out why. The man was talented but we found it to be a bit disturbing.
We won at BINGO and my kids loved that. Travis, the caller, was very funny and kept it fun even if you didn't win.
The movies on board were: Sky High, Narnia, Herbie, Shaggy Dog (premiered on Wed. we all loved it), Eight Below, Glory Road, Chicken Little, Annapolis, Stay Alive.
My sons weren't interested at all in the kids' clubs- our lives at home are crazy enough with sports, etc, so this was purely family time and we enjoyed every minute together. All of the people we talked to said that their kids all enjoyed the clubs, though. Oh, we did enjoy room service every morning for breakfast. They were so friendly and very fast! We had our food within 20 minutes every time. I loved the All Hands on Deck platter- which is just a small plate with cheese, crackers, grapes. My 14 year old loved the meat lasagna (I know, for BREAKFAST!) and my 11 year old and husband loved the turkey, ham and cheese sandwich on Ciabatta.
Disembarkation was pretty easy- the only hang up was all of the people who just jumped into the line in front of us instead of getting in line like all of the orderly people... We took the Disney transportation back to the All Star Sport Resort (which we don't recommend- it's very cool looking on the outside but the rooms are tiny and service not good!)
Sorry for how long this is, tried to touch on everything.....any questions, feel free to ask! It's nice to be home (which is in Oregon), but I really wanted to pick up the phone and order room service this morning...
Happy Sailing!
We flew in on the 23rd, (Frontier Airline- first time- they were great! Stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and spent Thursday and Friday at MGM & EPCOT. We made good use of the fast passes, it was so packed, though, we were glad we weren't spending the week there. We usually go in October when it isn't so busy.
Saturday, 25th, we used the Disney transportation bus to Port Canaveral. Had to have our bags out at 8am but it was so nice to not have to worry about luggage. Got to the Magic around 1:30pm, I was impressed with how smooth check in went- my husband was in line for maybe 10 minutes. Walking onto the ship was exciting. They had wipes stationed at walk in as they did everytime you entered the ship and everytime you went in/out of a restaurant. It was nice to see that they are taking cleanliness very seriously. We all were using the behind the ear patch, (all being prone to motion sickness). The problem with these is after about 12 hours we were all very dizzy and having problems with our eyes. We took them off after the first day and none of us had problems with seasickness the entire time. Lunch at Topsiders was hectic! Lots of people and hardly anywhere to sit. Every item at the buffet had to be handled by the staff. (Great for hygiene, but ended up with way too much food, I like dishing my own food up!) I thought the food was very good. I read many not so great reviews of the food and went in with low expectations. We were very pleasantly surprised. We loved the food at all of the restaurants- and really enjoyed Parrot Cay which generally gets the lowest reviews. The lobster was delicious, steak cooked just right, wonderful variety and awesome desserts. The only negative regarding food would be how overcooked the chocolate chip cookies always were.... Our servers were Jessie and Malwyn. Great guys! They were kind of shy, very polite and treated our sons like adults which is important when you're 14 & almost 11!
The ports: Key West was so windy and cold that it was hard to enjoy. We took a Sail, Snorkel, Kayak excursion (thru Disney) that was not worth the money. It was freezing sailing to the mangroves, the kayaking was ok, but pretty tough in the wind, and only about 2? people snorkeled. The guys on the boat were great, very informative, friendly, but I would not recommend this excursion.
Grand Cayman was warmer, but still very windy and a bit chilly. Some excursions there were canceled due to the wind. My husband/sons went on a shipwreck and reef snorkel and enjoyed it but were a bit cold. Both sons were stung by some sea creature....very painful. (Not enough to cause a big deal though. I went on The Cayman Island Tour. Definitely don't recommend this. We waited 40 minutes past our time- after a family was loaded at the last minute. There were actually seats that pulled down in the middle of the van so that people couldn't move in the aisles. This was unsafe in my opinion. We were packed in like sardines. The guide was a nice man but we couldn't understand a word he said. There were some fun people on board, fortunately, so we had a good time laughing...(making lemonade)...but the tour was definitely not worth the price.
Costa Maya- We LOVED this port. We didn't book an excursion, but walked into the port, got a bus to Majahaul and settled in for the day. We bartered for some pretty neat things from the villagers. We bought a beautiful carved Mayan mask. The man started out asking $120 USD for it but we ended up with it for $40. (We got lots of experience bartering last year when we were in Egypt). We all ended up happy. We set up shop in some beach chairs and all had a great time snorkeling, swimming and lounging. We took a Taxi back to the port for $2 per person. We didn't speak each other's language, but laughed at everything we all said all the way back. (Very friendly people) By the way, barter for everything there! They originally wanted $3 for a can of coke and we ended up with three for $5.00. They think you're nuts if you just pay what they ask. Oh, it was very hot here, still windy though. Everywhere we went it was windy!
Castaway Cay was gorgeous. We thought Cookies BBQ was wonderful and enjoyed the beach, swimming, snorkeling and walking to the game pavilion. My husband and I walked over to the adult's beach. It was so quiet and peaceful!
On board- we loved playing ping pong, shuffleboard, walking deck 4 every morning. The shows were great. We especially loved comedian Gary Delana and "magician" Rich Purpura. They were hilarious. One strange thing was Phillip Huber and the Huber Marionettes....they call it a lost art and I think we found out why. The man was talented but we found it to be a bit disturbing.
We won at BINGO and my kids loved that. Travis, the caller, was very funny and kept it fun even if you didn't win.
The movies on board were: Sky High, Narnia, Herbie, Shaggy Dog (premiered on Wed. we all loved it), Eight Below, Glory Road, Chicken Little, Annapolis, Stay Alive.
My sons weren't interested at all in the kids' clubs- our lives at home are crazy enough with sports, etc, so this was purely family time and we enjoyed every minute together. All of the people we talked to said that their kids all enjoyed the clubs, though. Oh, we did enjoy room service every morning for breakfast. They were so friendly and very fast! We had our food within 20 minutes every time. I loved the All Hands on Deck platter- which is just a small plate with cheese, crackers, grapes. My 14 year old loved the meat lasagna (I know, for BREAKFAST!) and my 11 year old and husband loved the turkey, ham and cheese sandwich on Ciabatta.
Disembarkation was pretty easy- the only hang up was all of the people who just jumped into the line in front of us instead of getting in line like all of the orderly people...
We took the Disney transportation back to the All Star Sport Resort (which we don't recommend- it's very cool looking on the outside but the rooms are tiny and service not good!)Sorry for how long this is, tried to touch on everything.....any questions, feel free to ask! It's nice to be home (which is in Oregon), but I really wanted to pick up the phone and order room service this morning...
Happy Sailing!
Hello to Salem from Salem!! I too am 35 and have 2 DS ages 10 and 13, minus the husband 
. We are taking our 1st 
Have a great time.
I think I have read similar comments about this act. So what is it about this marionette show that is a bit disturbing. I hope this isn't coming out the wrong way. I guess I find it a bit amusing... this guy and his marionettes ... I am picturing that Twilight Zone episode with the ventriloquist and his dummy, Willie. I think what I'm getting at here is this .. is this show a yawner that belongs on my "Must Miss" list, or is it disturbing enough to be interesting in a creepy way? Boy, this just isn't coming out the way I had hoped. 
