Magical mystery tour 8/15/2009

[Andrew DEREK UK]

RUM POINT CAYMAN

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

GALA DESSERT BUFFET

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

PLEASE ENJOY THESE PHOTOS ON THIS THREAD, BUT CAN I ASK THAT YOU DO NOT COPY TO OTHER THREADS OR PLACES, AND DO NOT RE QUOTE THESE AS IT WILL OVERLOAD MY PHOTOBUCKET ACCOUNT.

 

[bellelinus]

Wonderful pics, Andrew! Your cat 3 looks fantastic - do you have the same stateroom for the Baltic?

 

[DMMarla07860]

great pictures

 

[kritter]

Hey Andrew,,,

Glad, you liked the Cat. three so did we I will post some pictures soon!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[nikkistevej]

Hey Andrew- love your pics!!!

 

[smeecanada]

Great pics, Andrew. Thanks for posting. On Castaway Cay - why the fence over by the place where you rent the snorkel gear? That wasn't there in July.

Hi, Julie

Andrew - when you go to Discovery Cove are you doing Aquatica and Seaworld as well? If so, if you pay for parking it's good all day at all places - just keep your slip and show the attendant. At Aquatica the Roa Rapids is cool - get a lifevest, get in and hold onto each other - lots of fun - but it runs fast. Seaworld - go to both Shamu shows - day and evening - very different shows. Underwater viewing the whales is cool. Lots of baby sealions - fun to feed them.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hi everyone thank you for all the responses, hopefully you will understand as I left the Magic this morning, and in a private villa in Orlando, normal service cannot take place,

Tomorrow we are at Discovery Cove, and we have a private cabana booked, today in conjunction with that we went to SeaWorld where we had a 14 day pass to enter.

On the Cat 3, we have the starboard side one for the Baltic in 11 months time, this time it was the port side, they both have exactly the same facilities but of course are opposite in layout, this years was under the Cove café so was quite all the time, next years is near the arcade so might have a little noise.

My family knew I had booked a Cat 3 for both cruises, and even though we knew it in advance and seen the photos on the officials DCL site, it was still a fantastic surprise, I think the USA term would be awesome.

One thing I had to get used to was the concierge service, it was really good, and a ‘test run’ for the Baltic where I am sure I will use them a lot more.

Richard was our Concierge and Nicola undertook the starboard side, Richard will be on the Baltic cruises in 2010, I think Nicole will be as well.

Now as this was my sixth cruise and over 60 days on the Magic, as three cruises were 14 days, 15 days, and 11 days, I know the Magic reasonably well. So have everything organised the way I want. So with concierge it’s a bit of ‘’letting go’ and allowing them to do it.

Some of the things I do not think I should post here, but a simple example I can post, is they sort out all of your ship photos. Now on auto pilot, we went to shutters to look at our photos, brought a package, then the next day, they are all delivered to our room again a complete fresh set.

Now sometimes you give shutters staff your KTTW Card, but I think they must go through face recognition with the security photo they take of you on embarkation for your KTTW card, and that picked them out, certainly if you use the ‘’photo pass style’’ photo booths near shutters with your card it loads up all your photos so they must have a link.

Now, concierge would sort out your shutters package, make changes get reprints etc, so I had to ‘relax’ and allow them to do it, I wanted to give some additional tips, and go to Guest services, but concierge can do it for you.

On embarkation they sorted out the changes to my Palo meals and also my shore trips, on this cruise as we have done cruised a Western style cruise three times, we didn’t want to see anything too much, so as said this was a trail run for 2010 and the Baltic where I am sure they will come in very handy.

They must know when we are in /out of our rooms as they turned up with Mickey bars for the kids, popcorn for the movies in the public areas and on our TV, a daily treat, of fruit, or salsa, or cakes etc.

The whirlpool bath in the Cat 3 is really nice as well as two ‘’proper’’ showers, we had two TV’s and the sofa bed was very comfortable.

There was a walk in cupboard/ closet, which had great hanger space.

The veradah was triple wide and a great place to hang out, in fact I must say it was a struggle to get anyone to leave the room we just wanted our own space, and for the first time the cruise did feel very full, so I was pleased for the space.

On embarkation there was a sign saying full ship no upgrades and it was, the pools were very full, there was queues to many things, only Palo seemed to cope very well on my visits there, so nice for PJ to call me personally by my name every time we went, we didn’t have to show our card he just recognised us.

The private concierge party was fantastic; it was on the deck behind Topsiders at 4.45pm, firstly more food! Now I have put on so much, from daily treats these extras etc.

The party had the captain and Brent I had a ‘’good’’ conversation with both of them, and also Donald Duck, I didn’t talk to him so much, but I have a great family photo taken by shutters staff of us, VIP Donald’s Duck, and this guy called Brent Davies, ok - only joking, he is actually very nice and went up on my list, but I still discussed with him the problems Christiaan had on the EB Repo last year and he said he knew Christiaan called him by phone and said you are not going to believe what’s happening.

Christiaan is on the Wonder, Rachel working in Germany and Europe re the DREAM and future Europe stuff, Jim an old CD of mine from 2002 is Brent’s boss!! In Celebration.

The Captain is very softly spoken hard to understand at times, but he spent good time with us and answered all my difficult questions.

Richard, also would check up with us at dinner, book second visit Castaway cay stuff, give daily weather and character reports where they are etc, and gave lists of DVD’s and games for the family.


PS THE shots at Castaway include the adult beach, we cycled there, and so the fence is at that adult beach, on the main familiy beach the hammocks have been moved to one location with say 8>10 together.Still everytime I looked 6>8 towells were enjoying the hammocks rocking back and forth.

I felt there was far more 'sand' on the familiy beach, I know they are diging out the new port for the larger ships and saw sand from that, so maybe reusing that.

 

[NancyIL]

No fair posting pics of all those luscious-looking desserts. Now I have a craving for chocolate!

 

[smeecanada]

PS THE shots at Castaway include the adult beach, we cycled there, and so the fence is at that adult beach, on the main familiy beach the hammocks have been moved to one location with say 8>10 together.Still everytime I looked 6>8 towells were enjoying the hammocks rocking back and forth.

Thanks for all the news, Andrew. Now, the pic I was referring to with the fence is taken from - I'm assuming your verandah. It's post #20 - 6 pic down. The Flying Dutchman isn't at the the adult beach. It's the fence to the left in front of the snorkel gear shack.

 

[tink too]

Thanks for sharing all your wonderful photos, Andrew.

Seeing those chocolate fountains now has me craving after some marshmallows!

 

[RJAYL]

Good Job Andrew!

The Photo sorting is new!

 

[uncw89]

Andrew, great pictures! especially the dessert buffet. I missed that. I didn't find out about it until after it was over.
Have fun on the rest of your vacation!

 

[scottishwee35]

Andrew

Good to hear from you...

Sorry to heard that eastern changed over to Western...

but the photos look so beautiful...

thank for showing it

Scottishwee35

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Thanks for all the news, Andrew. Now, the pic I was referring to with the fence is taken from - I'm assuming your verandah. It's post #20 - 6 pic down. The Flying Dutchman isn't at the the adult beach. It's the fence to the left in front of the snorkel gear shack.

Misunderstood, posted and not read too much as still on vacation, yes if you are talking about the verandah rail in front of the Castaway Cay picture, yes thats from the Cat 3, we went in Forward first Sunday so we had a great view, and Aft first on Friday, I think it was more to do with painting both sides of the ship at CC than giving everyone a nice view.

Andrew

Good to hear from you...

Sorry to heard that eastern changed over to Western...

but the photos look so beautiful...

thank for showing it

Scottishwee35

It was a dissapointment as I have done a Western type 7 day cruise three times now and was looking forward to Tortola, I have been to St Thomas before, but on Saturday morning at the Contemporary, I looked at the weather forecast and said to my family, 'We are not going to Tortola'
And the weather pattern indicated then CC was off for Friday so I said CC Sunday, and Cayman and Coz, and was right.

PS was at Discovery cove in Orlando all day today, Epcot Monday.

 

[smeecanada]

Misunderstood, posted and not read too much as still on vacation, yes if you are talking about the verandah rail in front of the Castaway Cay picture, yes thats from the Cat 3, we went in Forward first Sunday so we had a great view, and Aft first on Friday, I think it was more to do with painting both sides of the ship at CC than giving everyone a nice view.

.

Okay, now that we have the pic. Any idea why the fence in front of the snorkel shack?

PS - How was Discovery Cove? Did you do with the dolphins or without? It looks like an amazing place - it's on my bucket list.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Great report Andrew! Wonderful details and photos. Those dessert buffet photos are killing me here! Yum!

 

[pillow]

Those dessert pictures are incredible! We've never been to that buffet. What night is it offered??? We cruise the Eastern in November - don't want to miss it.

J

 

[PoohJen]

Still have kids messing around though, tonight with us in the elevator as well they were pressing the buttons for all floors, I asked why?

lol, Andrew, same thing happened that cruise while DH was on the elevator, he asked the kid why he pressed all the buttons, explained how obnoxious that was to everyone waiting for elevators, etc. The kid said nothing until he got off and then called DH a nasty word under his breath. Hope his parents are proud.

For the most part, all was well considering the huge amount of kids on the ship!