Magical Western Cruise 9/23-9/30/06-fun w/ a preschooler! Castaway Cay added w/pics

[strawberryblonde]

Veronica! This is a great trip report. Can't wait for you to finish it so I can see more of your terrific photos. The 3 of you just glow, such a good looking family.

 

[vpalmer]

Day 4 – Day at Sea!

So when your vacation is going perfectly and you are having a wonderful time, there just has to be a bump in the road to bring you down. Nothing can be perfect, can it? So, today was our bump in the road.

Long story short, we now suspect that DH may be developing a shellfish allergy because last time he ate shellfish he had a similar reaction; a reaction that culminated in his spending our first day at sea in bed. He was feeling better by dinner but spent the day in the cabin watching RV and other movies in the room.

I forgot to mention that I had great fun buying princess costumes before our cruise and laying one out each night from Tinkerbell. Today’s costume was Cinderella and Tinkerbell even brought a matching costume for DD’s Kitty as well.

DD and I headed to our character breakfast at 8:30 am. I walked in expecting to feel like cattle and be hearded through the breakfast based on what I had read. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was quick, but well organized. We met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale.

After breakfast, my MIL asked to take DD shopping. We agreed to meet at Lumiere’s at 12:30 for lunch. What was this? Time to myself? What is a girl to do with time to kill? Well, this girl loves to cook so I headed straight to Disney’s Art of Entertaining series I Studio Sea. There was a Dazzling Desserts session featuring a DCL pastry chef demonstrating how to make white chocolate domes from the Animator’s Palate menu.

The best part of the demonstration was actually getting to sample the dessert.

It was delicious and the chef did a great job with the demonstration. After dessert, we were each given a small glass of a dessert wine and a member of Disney Cruise Line’s smallest team, the wine team, described the wine to us and why it was paired with the dessert. I would definitely attend these sessions again on the next cruise. I think there are about 4 different sessions in this series.

I headed to the spa for my 11:30 manicure and enjoyed the view of the open sea from the Vista salon. I paid the $10 extra for the French manicure which incidentally peeled off 24 hours later. Oh well.

At lunch with DD and my MIL I got the details of the shopping trip. First you have to understand that little girls are a rarity in our families. DD is the first granddaughter on both sides and the first girl in several generations on DH’s side of the family. My MIL is very frilly and was so excited to take DD shopping and give her full access to all things princess in the shops. My MIL was so excited that she even bought DD a Cinderella Barbie doll with two dresses the night before the shopping trip as a prelude to the big trip. I knew the shopping trip had not gone according to my MIL’s grand plan when I saw the look on her face, mortified is a good description. Shell shocked is another. Her first words were, “you are not going to believe what she bought.” I bit my lip – hard – to keep myself from laughing. DD has always had an affinity towards “boy toys” so I knew this was going to be good. My MIL kept talking, “we were in the store for well over an hour and all she wanted to do was to fill up the skull!” The gift shop has an entire display of little plastic toys all designed to fill a Pirates of the Caribbean skull. Apparently DD was enthralled and filled her new skull with 39 treasures including eye balls, some featuring blood when you squeeze them, brains, spiders, snakes, flies and various other treats. DD was in heaven. My MIL was in hell.

After an entertaining lunch, I took DD back to the stateroom and she and DH took a nap. I made my way to Shutters and added to the small fortune in pictures I was slowly amassing. I then headed back to the room and read on the verandah.

After nap, we got ready for formal night. We made our way to the atrium and saw there was no wait to have our picture taken with the captain so we posed for the picture.

Dinner that night was in Parrot Cay, the most casual of the restaurants but no one seemed to notice. Everyone looked fabulous and dinner was great. Didn’t you know a Mickey Bar tastes even better in a formal gown?

After dinner, we made our way to the family dance party in the Promenade lounge. DD made good use of the dance floor.

After seeing all the children on the dance floor, the singer told her band that she wanted to change the last song, she then sang “I Hope you Dance” and the tears began to swell. The entire cruise had culminated to this moment: to one side the calm seas were visible under the night sky and to the other side of me I watched my daughter carelessly glide across the dance floor oblivious to the meaning of the words being sung.

After dancing, we strolled down the red carpet to The Golden Mickey’s where I bought DD a Shirley Temple and myself a drink of the day.

The show was fabulous and DD just sat there big-eyed as all her Disney favorites glided across the stage. It was another Magical moment.

There was a Family After Party in Studio Sea following the Golden Mickey’s and DD danced again after her brief respite.

This time she had the honor of dancing with Goofy! DD wasn’t quite ready for his departure and tried to follow him out the door.

She was quickly distracted by Cinderella’s sudden appearance on the dance floor. And in case you are wondering, yes it is possible to dance while firmly adhering yourself to Cinderella’s dress.

After our long night we turned in and we all fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

Up next: Seeing fish in Grand Cayman without getting wet!

 

[vpalmer]

Veronica! This is a great trip report. Can't wait for you to finish it so I can see more of your terrific photos. The 3 of you just glow, such a good looking family.

You are incredibly sweet Heidi! You have a great looking family yourself!

 

[curlybop]

I knew the shopping trip had not gone according to my MIL’s grand plan when I saw the look on her face, mortified is a good description. Shell shocked is another. Her first words were, “you are not going to believe what she bought.” I bit my lip – hard – to keep myself from laughing. DD has always had an affinity towards “boy toys” so I knew this was going to be good. My MIL kept talking, “we were in the store for well over an hour and all she wanted to do was to fill up the skull!” The gift shop has an entire display of little plastic toys all designed to fill a Pirates of the Caribbean skull. Apparently DD was enthralled and filled her new skull with 39 treasures including eye balls, some featuring blood when you squeeze them, brains, spiders, snakes, flies and various other treats. DD was in heaven. My MIL was in hell.

I LOVED that part!

Such a great report. I am enjoying it!

 

[vpalmer]

I LOVED that part!

Such a great report. I am enjoying it!

The best part was that it was payback for my MIL who said, "You are not going to like what I bought her" the night before when she brought the Cinderella Barbie by the room the night before. It was as if she thought that DD was pining away for a Barbie all this time and I was deliberately withholding it from her. Now MIL knows...

 

[tjeagle]

I am loving your report! Your daughter looks like she is having the trip of a lifetime!! Not bad for a 3 year old!

 

[Madisonznana]

This is so exciting reading your trip report. DH and I are taking our granddaughter who will be 5 at the time on our first Disney Cruise. The pictures and your discriptions are wonderful. Can't wait for the next installment!!

 

[wendygirl]

::::waiting for more::::

 

[vpalmer]

Thanks for the report, can't wait for some more................what stateroom were you in? We are in 6552 / 6554 on the Jan 27 Western.........can't wait to hear about ports of call. We also are staying at the Hyatt the night before so thanks for the photo of the pool!

Sorry I missed this question earlier! We were in stateroom 6134 aft. Your room would basically be in the other side of the ship in about the same location. I loved the location because we could take the stairs most of the time and we were pretty close to the aft elevators.

 

[vpalmer]

Day 5 – Grand Cayman
We had an early start this morning because we were meeting our excursion group in the Promenade Lounge around 8:30 a.m. As we waited a member of the activities staff played games with the kids:

Once off the ship, we boarded air conditioned vans that took about 10 minutes away to board the Nautilus, a semi-submergible that would give us an underwater tour of the island without getting wet. The boat was comfortable and cool. Here is DD waiting for the journey to begin:

Once we began, we passed two shipwrecks.

Then we made our way to a coral reef where the fish were plentiful.

Then a diver from the Nautilus followed their daily routine of feeding the fish. The fish knew it was coming and began swarming the boat before the diver even entered the water. DD loved watching the diver feed the fish and even asked if she could have a turn!

We were done with our tour and back on the tender boat back to The Magic shortly before noon. Here is a view of Grand Cayman from a Tender boat:

We put on our swimsuits and made our way up to Deck 9. We ate a quick lunch from Goofy’s Galley and swam for a while in the Goofy pool. It is funny because DD only got in the Mickey pool one time! She really preferred the Goofy pool because we could hold her and she could “swim.” I think I forgot to mention that we also spent some time in the Goofy pool Sunday night as well.

After swimming for a while, DD said she really wanted to play shuffleboard like she did with Grammy the day before. I had no idea where the Shuffleboard game was located and she started trying to show us. Well, as soon I asked someone I realized it was on deck 4, not deck 9. OK, well that would explain why we can’t find it! We made our way down to deck 4 and played Shuffleboard for about an hour. I spent part of that time in a comfy lounge chair reading.

Then we made our way back down to the pool and watched Cinderella on the big screen above the Goofy pool at 2:00. DH had a massage at 3:15 so he did that while DD and I hung out in the Goofy pool and hot tub.

After the movie, we went back to the room and got ready for pictures with Sorcerer Mickey at 5:30.

We then went to the early show of Twiced Charmed because DH and I had 7:30 reservations for Palo. The show was fabulous and I even bought the soundtrack. Here are a few pictures:

We enjoyed our dinner at Palo but I found the server to be a little pushy with the wine. I ordered a glass but DH held off because he was still taking it easy after his experience not feeling well the day before. The food was worth raving about though. I can’t recall exactly what we ate but I am not sure that Palo serves anything that is less than excellent. I do remember that I had the filet, we spilt a flatbread and a soufflé. He brought a ton more food out though and it was all delicious.

After dinner, we made our way back to our stateroom and found DD asleep already. Another great day had come to an end on the Magic.

Coming very, very soon – swimming with dolphins!

 

[vpalmer]

Day 6 – Cozumel

We woke up in Mexico and one the most anticipated days of our vacation. Today we were going to swim with the dolphins! We had the added anticipation of being the first cruise ship to actually dock in Cozumel post-Wilma. There was to be a ceremony to commemorate the occasion and we were told that “Mexican officials” would be in attendance as well as Disney Cruise Line president and other DCL executives. We didn’t think any more about the ceremonial events of the day because for us, today was not about a new pier, to day was about swimming with dolphins.

Here is a view of Cozumel from our verandah:

DD awoke to find goodies from Tinkerbell. Since Pirate night was later that day, Tink brought a Pirate hat and eye patch.

This is the only time she wore either:

After a quick breakfast in Topsiders, we met our excursion group in Rockin’ Bar D and made our way off the ship and into cabs. I could tell DD was a little freaked out by her first experience in a cab in Mexico. She said, “mommy this is not our car.” And here I thought she would be excited not to be riding in a carseat. I distracted her by telling her all about Mexico and showing her the brightly colored buildings.

Shortly thereafter we arrived at Chankanaab Park, home to Dolphin Discovery. This park was obliterated by Hurricane Wilma but it is definitely back. It is stunning once again and their massive rebuilding effort is really paying off. We broke off into a group with about 15 people and made our way to the water where we were greeted by Amaya, the 25 year old Alpha Female of the dolphin pod. The experience was indescribable. It is one of those moments that you really have to experience to fully appreciate.

We stood in the water on a platform. We held our arms outstretched in a line several times as Amaya would swim mere inches in front of us and we all “pet” her back and tummy. Then, we were instructed how to shake fins with Amaya, how to kiss Amaya, and how she would kiss us. We all took turns and watching all 15 people have a turn was almost as fun as doing it ourselves.

Here we are greeting Amaya:

Amaya’s trainer then chose me and DD to dance with Amaya which was great fun. The program closed with several tricks performed by Amaya. We had been told that the encounter would last about 30 minutes but I really felt like we were in the water for at least an hour. It was definitely the perfect length for a three year old. By the end DDwas ready to get out of the “salty water.” She did not like the salt water that kept splashing into her mouth and loving the dolphin encounter was what kept her at ease. After leaving the ocean, we were led to a viewing room and saw a edited DVD of our experience. I have no idea how they put that together so incredibly quickly. Because I am a sucker for pictures and memories in general, I shelled out $120 for the DVD and 9 pictures of us with the dolphins. It was worth every penny though!

It was approaching noon by this point and we decided to skip the beach and head back to the ship for lunch. As we were walking back to the cab, DD stopped mid stride, hugged my legs and said, “Thanks you so much for bringing me to see the dolphins.” It was one of those rare moments of unsolicited gratitude from a three year old and once again I was incredibly grateful to be experiencing such an incredible vacation.

While in the cab, back to the ship I was listening to the Spanish radio station the cab driver had on, and I heard (I speak Spanish) that apparently, the “Mexican officials” that were spoken of earlier included the President of Mexico! The Mexican President had been on the same pier that we had walked two short hours before.

I will say that having visited this area before, the poverty that you normally see in the tourist areas was non-existent on this particular day. Instead of people peddling goods, there were neatly dressed women in traditional Mexican dress handing out maps of Cozumel with no strings attached. On our cab ride back to the pier, DH noticed a station set up outside of town that was distributing free food. It didn’t take me long to figure out that these people were probably experiencing a rare act of charity from their government at the exact moment that the President was two miles away.

Once we were back on the ship, we ate lunch and took a swim in the Goofy pool. DD Later, DH and DD took a nap to get ready for our big Pirate Night! We dressed for dinner a bit earlier than usual so we could make our way down to take pictures with Pirate Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale and Stitch.

Our Pirate Night dinner was a blast. We received bandanas and a souvenir treasure map menu.

The pineapple appetizer with coconut encrusted banana was so pretty I just had to snap a picture:

Our server, Melwin, even cut DD’s melon appetizer:

We were also treated to Mariachi music at dinner. We were told that now that The Magic was docking, they would have a Mariachi band from Cozumel board the ship regularly to provide dinner time entertainment. That was incredibly cool!

This may have been my favorite meal because the energy was so high and everyone really got into the spirit of the night. They even had a limbo after dinner and Eva and I had great fun participating and dancing in a line around the huge dining room.

We were all on deck 9, by the time the Pirate Party started later that night. The show was great and DD once again had a blast dancing right in front of the stage in front of her favorite characters.

The evening was topped off with a fireworks display at sea. It was incredibly magical and was the perfect end to my favorite day at sea. Mickey Shot across the sky and said “I promised you a party and here is a party in the sky.”

 

[Madisonznana]

I am so enjoying your TR. Your pictures are great. I can't wait for May!!!!
Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

 

[ldeninge]

Veronica, your pix and detailed TR makes me SO excited to go! DH & I are going on the Jan 12 Magic w/ our two little ones!

 

[vpalmer]

Ldening and Karen,

Thanks for your kind words! It is nice to know that the trip report is useful to you ladies.

 

[ldeninge]

Veronica,
what did you do on the Castaway Cay day? did your daughter like the shore activities? just curious - you've had such a wonderful description, I was curious about that day; thanks for sharing, I can't wait until it's ME writing a trip report!!

 

[vpalmer]

Veronica,
what did you do on the Castaway Cay day? did your daughter like the shore activities? just curious - you've had such a wonderful description, I was curious about that day; thanks for sharing, I can't wait until it's ME writing a trip report!!

We did not plan any shore excursions for Castaway Cay and I was really glad we made that decision. The water is perfect for swimming so we spent a great deal of the morning in the swimming lagoon. We did a few other incidental things such as dance with Minnie, fly a kite, eat lunch at Cookies and take pictures with characters but really the largest chunk of time was spent on the beach and in the water.

I will try to get the full report done on that day soon. We just bought a brand new house and are moving at the end of this month so a great deal of my time is being spent packing boxes.

 

[vpalmer]

Thursday – Final Day at Sea

I woke up this morning feeling a little bittersweet about the day knowing it would be our last day at sea. We had previously discussed rebooking our next cruise and I know that was the quickest way to get me back to 100% enjoyment of the day. So I put it on my mental “to do” list for the day before glancing at the alarm clock and realizing I had slept in which is a rare treat for me. I think this may have been the only day of the entire cruise that I slept past 6:30 am.

Sleeping in presented a bit of an issue though because it meant we were guaranteed to be late to the Family Fun kite decorating session. I noticed that is was scheduled for an hour in the navigator so I figured it must be a drop in thing and would matter if we were late. I was wrong. DD and I showed up about 10 minutes late and we were told we had 10 minutes left to decorate our kites. It was still fun even if we didn’t get to decorate them for very long. We used markers and colored scenes on our white kites for the next 10 minutes and headed back up to our stateroom to get DH before heading to breakfast.

By the time we were going to breakfast Topsiders was the only restaurant serving it. Note to self: next time do not sleep in if you want to eat breakfast in Lumiere’s.

Snow White wanted to play shuffleboard so we indulged her after breakfast. We ran into my MIL on deck four before heading down to deck 3. There was a gathering of princesses in the atrium late that morning and I have to recommend this gathering to all you parents of princesses. I knew it would be popular, so we arrived early and waited for Snow White, Cinderella and Belle to arrive. It was a bit different than the previous character meetings because there were no professional photographers and you only had to wait in one line for all three princesses. They had the entire atrium area roped off so there was only one way in and the Disney royalty was spaced throughout the lobby. DD really enjoyed meeting all three princesses and there was more time for chatting than the usual picture and autograph sessions. It was slower paced and the girls really had a chance to enjoy the princesses.

After lunch in Lumiere’s DD went with my MIL for a couple of hours in which they swam and watched Nemo on the big screen above the Goofy pool. DH and I completed our souvenir shopping, strolled on deck 10 and then attended the Galley tour. The Galley Tour was definitely short and sweet. We met in Lumiere’s and we shuffled through two of the galleys on board, which happen to be connected. We exited the second galley into Parrot Cay. The tour was fairly interesting. We learned the expense of galley and the numbers were staggering. I think I remember the galley we walked through costing three million dollars and it was completely gutted every 5 years. Ouch. Now that is an expensive kitchen. We were given freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and got to take a peak at a couple of wedding cakes that were freshly prepared.

After the tour, we picked DD up and headed down to out 4:00 Tea with Wendy Darling. It was short and sweet but DD enjoyed pouring tea for the three of us and eating her chocolate chip cookie. I found it amusing the all the activities today involved chocolate chip cookies.

Wendy arrived and told the story of meeting Peter Pan and all their adventured while everyone enjoyed their tea and “biscuits” otherwise known as chocolate chip cookies. After the story there was a photo-op with Wendy.

We cleaned up for dinner and had few pictures made before heading to our final dinner in Parrot Cay.

After our meal, we finally re-booked our cruise and will be returning to the Magic next fall! We ran into Goofy on our way to the Walt Disney Theater to watch Disney Dreams.

We settled into the theater to watch our last stage show of the cruise.

None of my pictures turned out of this show. No flash is allowed but I still managed to get decent shots of the other two shows, but not this one. It was well done though and I would probably rank it second behind Twiced Charmed. It is a story of a young girl who revisits scenes of many Disney classics with Peter Pan in order to gain the confidence she needs to fly with Peter Pan. It was a neat way to incorporate many Disney favorites on the same stage.

After the show, and a busy day at sea, we headed to bed to get some rest before our big day at Castaway Cay!

 

[curlybop]

I am really enjoying your report. Though I admit, I was looking for more saying your DD picked out even more boy toys along the way. LOL!!!

I hope they continue the smooth process with the Princess meets next year....I know my DD will be right there, just waiting for her moment to meet them!

 

[Fairy_Tale_Bride]

Wow! I am so glad I just found your Cruise Report! This is the best Cruise Report I have ever seen! I'm LOVING IT!

Your DD is ADORABLE! I am loving all of the family photos with the matching outfits! My DH and I do the SAME thing! We even have the same matching tropical dress and shirt for our cruise that you wore!

All of the pictures are WONDERFUL and I am so glad you took the time to post them! I love all of the photos with the characters on Pirate Night! Stitch looks too cute in his outfit!

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[JDBlair]

I caught up! Your report is great!