Magic Your Way to the Magic Kingdom...sounds like a good idea! COMPLETED

[ukintheus]

I love cruising out of Galveston. Thanks for the info on Harbor house. We just stay at the Hilton because we know what it is. However, I could stay at HH.

Love your idea of veggies! That is how I get my fix during morning Bingo. We did the Tequila tasting class and it required a nap post class. I am a lightweight so my poor hubby had a few too many shots. LOL not that I did not take care of the Margarita's for him. Nope, I did not need a nap.

Love your pictures. Thanks for sharing.

We love sailing out of Galveston too. We have become quite spoiled to having DCL down there and will be so sad to see them go. We did take a nap after our martini tasting...which I'm sure our friends were grateful for!

 

[Mom23WildBoys]

I recognize y'all from this cruise! We were the ones chasing three little boys into the kids' club/lab all the time, or breaking up their fights. Wasn't the Magic a great ship? It was our first cruise, and despite the boys being difficult, we had a great time and re-booked for next April out of PC. Our server thought that one of the ships would be back in Galveston in 2015. I HOPE SO!!!

Thanks for doing a trip report! I'm having fun reading and remembering so far!
Laura

 

[mandymouse]

What a great day

Ugh ! The dirty Martini, yuck ! yuck ! yuck ! What a surprise that your Cosmo was the biggest drink there

You look lovely in your black dress Jenny

 

[jennorthernireland]

I would love to sail on the Magic in the Med - I know you will have a marvelous time. We think that the Magic still is in great shape, despite her age. Which itinerary are you doing?

I am so glad to hear you think the Magic is still looking good! We were slightly concerned when we heard it was going into dry dock so soon after our cruise. We will be on the sailing leaving Barcelona on 17th August. We will be visiting Villefranche, La Spezia, Cittavechia and Naples with 2 days at sea. I have never been to Italy before, so I'm most excited about those stops, although I can't wait to see everywhere!

 

[nunzia]

We were on this cruise also and in the room next to you! 6074 Really enjoying your TR..looks like we had the same dining rotation too

 

[ukintheus]

I recognize y'all from this cruise! We were the ones chasing three little boys into the kids' club/lab all the time, or breaking up their fights. Wasn't the Magic a great ship? It was our first cruise, and despite the boys being difficult, we had a great time and re-booked for next April out of PC. Our server thought that one of the ships would be back in Galveston in 2015. I HOPE SO!!!

Thanks for doing a trip report! I'm having fun reading and remembering so far!
Laura

I'm so glad you had a great time on your cruise. It's hard when the kids are all wanting to do different things, hopefully you managed to find a good balance for everyone. I REALLY wish DCL would be back in 2015....we can always hope, that would be so awesome.

What a great day

Ugh ! The dirty Martini, yuck ! yuck ! yuck ! What a surprise that your Cosmo was the biggest drink there

You look lovely in your black dress Jenny

Thanks Mandy - I have some more pics that I realize I need to post for formal night - I'll go back and add them. I'm glad you weren't at the martini tasting or I'd have been drinking yours too! I thought my martini was a perfect size I must admit that Scott had to help me drink it...even I couldn't down that much alcohol in that short period of time.

I am so glad to hear you think the Magic is still looking good! We were slightly concerned when we heard it was going into dry dock so soon after our cruise. We will be on the sailing leaving Barcelona on 17th August. We will be visiting Villefranche, La Spezia, Cittavechia and Naples with 2 days at sea. I have never been to Italy before, so I'm most excited about those stops, although I can't wait to see everywhere!

I can't think of a better way to get to see Italy for the first time. I've never been to the med at all, I'm sure you will have a wonderful time!

We were on this cruise also and in the room next to you! 6074 Really enjoying your TR..looks like we had the same dining rotation too

Hello neighbor! We thought most people around us were on the main dining rotation as it seemed to get really quiet as we were getting ready. I'm sure we talked to y'all once... while we were pulling out of CC or Key "Wet" maybe? (I'm officially changing it's name ) One of those verandah times anyway.

I will try and post some more later on today, thanks to all that are following along so far.

 

[barbbarnes]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! We will be sailing on the magic in October.

 

[Fantasiesabound]

I decided to be healthy by getting in a veggie requirement.....

 

[Fantasiesabound]

I love the idea of sailing out of Galveston! We did NYC and it was so awesome to be back on the ship and sailing so close to home, but we didn't get WDW thrown in to the mix nor CC! What a cool itinerary you guys got!

 

[ukintheus]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! We will be sailing on the magic in October.

Thanks for reading. You will get to see the new and improved Magic! I can't wait to hear how she looks.

I love the idea of sailing out of Galveston! We did NYC and it was so awesome to be back on the ship and sailing so close to home, but we didn't get WDW thrown in to the mix nor CC! What a cool itinerary you guys got!

Close to home is always good, and I agree, this itinerary was just too good to pass up! CC & WDW are always fun to visit.

 

[ukintheus]

Here are a couple of photographs that I forgot to post from our formal night. These are from A's Shutters photos.

The gang & Capt. John (who left the Magic at Port Canaveral....something we said??? )


Scott & I....without suit jacket because he brought the wrong pants for his suit...this is why I usually pack his stuff.

 

[mandymouse]

Lovely pic of the two of you

 

[nunzia]

I'm so glad you had a great time on your cruise. It's hard when the kids are all wanting to do different things, hopefully you managed to find a good balance for everyone. I REALLY wish DCL would be back in 2015....we can always hope, that would be so awesome.



Thanks Mandy - I have some more pics that I realize I need to post for formal night - I'll go back and add them. I'm glad you weren't at the martini tasting or I'd have been drinking yours too! I thought my martini was a perfect size I must admit that Scott had to help me drink it...even I couldn't down that much alcohol in that short period of time.



I can't think of a better way to get to see Italy for the first time. I've never been to the med at all, I'm sure you will have a wonderful time!



Hello neighbor! We thought most people around us were on the main dining rotation as it seemed to get really quiet as we were getting ready. I'm sure we talked to y'all once... while we were pulling out of CC or Key "Wet" maybe? (I'm officially changing it's name ) One of those verandah times anyway.
I will try and post some more later on today, thanks to all that are following along so far.

Could be! That was such a wild day..Key West. We also stopped at Buccees..first time. What a cool place

 

[ukintheus]

Lovely pic of the two of you

Thanks Mandy.

Could be! That was such a wild day..Key West. We also stopped at Buccees..first time. What a cool place

Yes, Key West was a little crazy Buccees is great place to stop, and there is one that is on my way to & from Houston to home.

Sorry no update last night, I got caught up with some stuff from work and ran out of time.

 

[ukintheus]

Sunday was another at sea day. We just love two at sea days right off the bat. It forces you to be even lazier than you imagined you could be and we are excellent at being lazy!

I woke up feeling very under the weather. Of course after the mammoth drinking session yesterday it was hardly suprising even to myself! We decided to head up to Topsiders for some breakfast as that is usually a sure fire cure for the post-drinking blues. The line was of course crazy, I won't miss the line on the future Magic, I like the Cabanas idea better I have to admit. We just ended up grabbing some cereal and an omlette in the end (having stood in all that line) We ran into our server Ayhan up in Topsiders and he told me just to have another drink I probably should have followed his advice!

We wandered about a bit and decided to head back to the room as I was definitely not feeling good. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of this...


We watched a ton of movies and really just enjoyed a day vegging out and doing nothing and NOT caring about doing nothing! I ran down to the gift shop in the afternoon as my "hangover" had now started to become a really sore throat. I couldn't resist getting some of the christmas ornaments and of course there were a few little "goodies" to put into the kids FE. A & J-bug came to visit mid afternoon and they were having a great day finding different characters and getting autographs. After a somewhat frazzled day yesterday where they tried to juggle both kids and various activities and it really not working out, they decided to split up today and the boys went and did boy things and the girls went and did girl things. This proved to be a much better strategy and everyone was in full swing of having a great vacation!

I did stick my head outside at some point to snap these to show that the weather was beautiful and we really were being horrible couch potatoes!





We had dinner reservations at Palo tonight for 7:30 pm. A&G had decided to get the kids an earlier dinner tonight and then go to Lumieres just the two of them while the kids enjoyed the clubs. It worked out well that both couples got a night to themselves.

I contemplated cancelling Palo but I was determined to not let my stupidity of drinking too much yesterday make Scott's night a dud, so I pulled on my big girl panties and we got ready and went.



Susana was our server and I decided to let her just pick what I was going to eat. I figured a suprise would be nice.

We started with the antipasti, which is just awesome, and Susana put the parmesan cheese with balsamic on another plate as Scott is an anti-cheese-a-phobe



Then I had the grilled shrimp and Scott had the Portabello and Polenta. Susana brought me the Lobster Ravioli, I don't remember what Scott had, it was some type of pasta, but I'm forgetting. As you can tell, there aren't any food pictures and that's because I was feeling decidedly green, which for me, as a prided "veteran drinker" is very unusual. I really tried my best to tough it out but couldn't eat the ravioli. Then she brought lamb for me, which believe me looked absolutely delish....but I couldn't eat it. Scott had the Filet steak with wine sauce. He took this picture of Susana with her "pixie dust", and it turned out great! This is the second time they have tried to create this photo, last time it didn't turn out too well. When she used to wait in the main dining rooms a guest had taken a similar photo of her and she loved it, she was looking for one in her Palo uniform.



We then had chocolate souffle...Scott ate his and said it was delicious. Susana brought me a panacotta and sorbet in the hopes that it might help, but sadly nothing was going down well at all.

Here's a picture of the 3 of us though!



We had the lemon/vodka drink at the end, which I did have about half of as the cold frozen lemony taste really went down well. I should have just had those all night!

It was a shame that I couldn't enjoy Palo as much as I would have liked, but we still had fun and I said that on the bright side, think of all the calories I didn't consume! LOL We decided to call it a night and headed back to the room to go to bed. I don't have a photo of it, but I "think" we put the clocks back an hour tonight.

Up next...Castaway Cay!

 

[mandymouse]

Sorry to hear that you weren't feeling too well today, you know how poorly I was on the Fantasy at the same time and it really is no fun. You did well to carry on and enjoy your Palo meal

I did laugh out loud when I saw your first pic, Paul & I love the Bourne Legacy and it was permanently on our TV while onboard

Hope you're feeling better on your next installment

 

[ukintheus]

We woke up right as the ship was turning and backing into Castaway Cay. It was a beautiful day and you could feel the "buzz" on board the ship as everyone was excited to be heading onto the island for the day. We ordered a quick room service breakfast and got ready, and they announced that they gangway was open to disembark. We headed out of our room a little while later.

I definitely had a head cold and so we elected to not walk to Serenity Bay as we usually do, but to ride the tram this time.



We stopped at the family beach to find the G-Family and drop off a couple of things for them. We had brought our snorkeling gear for A&G to use, and we have an underwater camera that I thought they would get more use out of than us.



This was the very first time we'd been on the family beach! We found them setting up and getting their stuff organized. The beach was beginning to get busier but there were still a ton of chairs to be found, not that we planned on staying! We walked back to the tram and headed off to Serenity Bay. The C25K people were out on the course.





Serenity Bay was as usual....serenity itself. Peaceful, beautiful sand and hardly anybody there!






At about 10:30 am, George (from the UK) came wandering up the beach to see if anyone wanted a drink.

Konk Cooler??? Why, thank you!!


The water was a bit chilly for us but we dabbled our toes in, and spent the rest of the morning hanging out and enjoying the beach. They offered yoga at the end of the beach and the (very handsome) young English man from the gym came along trying to recruit participants. He was pretty successful - he ALMOST got me to put down my drink and go....ALMOST... Needless to say a lot of women, old and young, were happy to follow him back.









At about 1:00 pm we decided we were hungry enough to want a bite to eat so we walked down to Cookies. I had ribs, a piece of grilled fish and some salad stuff. Scott had a burger and some ribs. The ribs are crazy good. A small ice cream cone later and we were on our way back to our beach chairs.

 

[ukintheus]

While Scott and I were sitting doing pretty much nothing. The G-family were having a great time at Pelican Plunge and the family beach. A had my camera and so I thought I'd post some of the pics that they took. A went and did some snorkeling, and so now Scott and I want to go back and do it.







I think this fish was shocked to see A?












Back to Serenity Bay, and Scott and I decided to call it an afternoon. We wandered down to the Castaway Air bar, and decided to stop in for a second Konk Cooler.



Anne Marie was the bartender and made the most delicious Konk Cooler I've ever had on CC. It was a perfect combination of slush, alcohol and yumminess!






We rode the tram back to the family beach and went to check on the G-family and see how their afternoon was going.



A was off on her snorkeling expedition and the others were having a good time. They absolutely loved CC!

Scott and I headed back to the ship.





We got back to our cabin and took showers. We planted ourselves onto the balcony with a nice bottle of chilled white wine and started people watching.



Pluto was helping people make their way back on board.






This was the last parasailer of the afternoon.

 

[ukintheus]

We sat and watched the crew as they finalized the packing of MANY, MANY towels and readied the ship to leave. We are super nosy and just love watching all this stuff. Finally it was time to go and the ship pulled away from the dock. Scott and G decided to head off and do some guy stuff. This involved a bar basically. Scott finally came racing back to the room at about 8:10 pm to throw on some khakis in time to go to dinner.

Dinner tonight was in Animator's Palate. I absolutely LOVE the show on the Classic ships. In some ways it was a shame that today had been a FULL day in the sun and water for the kids, plus tomorrow we all had to be up super early to get to WDW. The kids were shattered tonight, it was almost mean to make them stay up for dinner, but they were troopers and made it through.



Ayhan did a magic trick with sugar, which did a GREAT job of waking them up.


A random food photo because I didn't take too many this time around.


The minute the show finished we got up and left. We all had to be up and out of our cabins by 6:45 am tomorrow for our day at WDW and it was almost 10 pm, so a LONG day for the kids.

 

[mandymouse]

They offered yoga at the end of the beach and the (very handsome) young English man from the gym came along trying to recruit participants. He was pretty successful - he ALMOST got me to put down my drink and go....ALMOST... Needless to say a lot of women, old and young, were happy to follow him back.

Would you have been more tempted if you could've taken your drink with you ?

Another great day Jenny

Can't wait to hear all about getting everyone off the ship so early for WDW. 6.45am, that's shockingly early to be off the ship