Magic's 10th Anniversary Cruise (07/27/08-08/03/08): Done w/pics (more pics later)

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

INTRODUCTION

Well, less than 4 weeks to go, so I guess it’s time to start my pre-trip report. Hopefully, I’ll be able to turn this into a “live from The Magic” report, and then finish it with more details and pictures.

After all the good wishes from DISers during our Travel Agent trouble, I owe you all a great Trip Report.

See my TA story at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1811155

PROLOGUE I: “And the obsession begins…”

This will be the second Mexican Riviera cruise on The Magic for quite a few of us. We cruised in 2005 with a group of 14. This time we have 15 going, including 8 repeat offenders.

The travelers this time include:

Us: Tom (that’s me!!), Kristi (DW), West (DS4)
Our friends: Scott, Chelan, Kyle (DS7), Nate (DS5)
My parents: Vern & Shirley
My cousins: Lori & Stan
Lori’s daughter: Melissa & Josh (BF)
Lori’s boss: Nancy & Marty

Yep that’s right 12 adults and only 3 kids!!

The day they announced that the Magic was coming back to California, we happened to be going to dinner with my parents and cousins. We all knew right away that we were cruising again. We picked a date that worked best for all of us and contacted our favorite TA, who booked us the morning the cruises went on sale.

We mentioned the cruise to our friends Scott & Chelan the weekend after we booked….it didn’t take much convincing and they were in contact with our infamous TA also.

I immediately went into Cruise Director mode and started doing research and emailing Weekly Updates to our group. I put together a list of all the things I wanted to cover and created a Weekly Update schedule for myself. Yeah, I know…a little OCD, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I’m not sure where I was getting my information from in the early days, Cruise Critic maybe. At the beginning of this year, as our cruise drew closer, I increased my info bombardment with a DCL Pic of the Day.

However, all of my obsessing has paid off. The other day Scott & I were talking about the upcoming cruise with another buddy. And Scott (who’s never been on a Disney Cruise) tells our friend, “Did you know that they had to get special permission to paint the lifeboats Mickey yellow?”

I was so proud.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE II: “I learned it by watching you!”

It seems like I’ve been on DIS forever, but it hasn’t even been a year. Someone on Cruise Critic recommended the meets threads on the DISboards, and the rest is history.

I started out posting on the Meets thread, but couldn’t help getting involved in the general conversations. If not posting, at least lurking.

By the way, thank you all for posting pictures in your TRs. Between my Weekly Updates and my Pics of the Day, I’ve borrowed many of them.


I can’t even imagine what our cruise would be like without DIS (cue the orchestra): No door magnets, no fish extenders, no private room at Palo, no secret deck 7, no carrying on booze…the list goes on. I might not have even realized that I was cruising on The Magic’s 10th Anniversary Cruise.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE III: “Motel 6 San Pedro?”

We knew we wanted to be among the first people on the ship.

Since we live 4-5 hours from LA (and didn’t want to wake up at the crack dawn) a motel was in order. After much research, we decided all we needed was a bed and a place to park our car for 7 days.

As soon as we were able (365 days prior to the cruise), we booked the Vagabond Inn San Pedro for $95. It doesn’t get the best reviews, but it was cheap (gotta save money for Shutters and the Drink of the Day).

We plan on leaving from Fresno after breakfast on Saturday, have lunch on the road, and arrive in San Pedro early afternoon.

We may sleep that night, but we'll probably be too excit...well, you know the rest.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE IV: “When in Mexico, do as the Mexicans?”

With a couple of exceptions, we haven’t booked any excursions through DCL.

We don’t really have any plans in Cabo. Four of the guys are doing the Sportfishing excursion (not me, no way, no how) and some of the newbies are taking a quick city tour.

On Cruise Critic, I learned about Stone Island in Mazatlan. It sounds perfect, and most of us plan on making the trip to the beach there.

In PV, we are going to Sea Life Park for the dolphin encounter. We got a GREAT deal on the dolphin encounter and it includes the water park! We paid $65.55 for each adult and $56.05 for the 7 year old, and the 4 & 5 year olds were free! We added another 2 spots later and they had to pay full price….$69. Still a great deal.

We’ve seen great reviews in recent TRs of both Stone Island and Sea Life Park, so it appears we made some good decisions.

As the psuedo-Cruise Director, it's always nice when the things you recommend get good reviews, otherwise I might have a mutiny on my hands.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE V: “Time flies when you’re having fun”

I know exactly how many days are left (because I include the number in my daily Pic of the Day email to my fellow cruisers), but all of a sudden we were under 100, then 50, now under 30! How the heck did that happen???

We had a Pre-Cruise party at our house this weekend. We finished up our matching t-shirts for embarkation…plus shirts for other days of the cruise. Scott & I kinda went crazy creating our own graphics (and making graphics our own). I’m really tempted to share them, but I think I’ll wait until after the cruise. Then I will be glad to share or personalize. Plus right now, I get enough satisfaction creating loads and loads of name tags for DISers (up to 1,200 I think).

Needless to say, I’ve gone through 90 sheets of iron-on paper and 45 sheets of magnet paper, plus a couple color and a couple black ink cartridges.

I know the cruise is close, because today I finally got confirmation from DCL that we’ve been granted our request to have Brunch in the private room at Palo. We are so excited.

Now how about that room upgrade???

 

[nzdisneymom]

Tom - I followed your TA saga - I'm glad that things have worked out so that you all will now be able to relax and enjoy the cruise. All of your planning and preparation will provide that extra Pixie Dust for your newbie travelers. Can't wait to read your report when you get back (or while you're onboard).

 

[TiaMaria]

Tom, of course I'm suscribing to this thread after getting all riled up over your TA issue!

We'll be sailing this Sunday (woohoo!) so if there is anything I can check out for you please don't hesitate to ask.

I'm going to try to do a TR myself, but I don't get back home until the 16th and I"m not sure (or at least not committing) if I'll find the time to post live on board.

We'll be hanging on your every word, rest assured!

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

Tom, of course I'm suscribing to this thread after getting all riled up over your TA issue!

We'll be sailing this Sunday (woohoo!) so if there is anything I can check out for you please don't hesitate to ask.

I'm going to try to do a TR myself, but I don't get back home until the 16th and I"m not sure (or at least not committing) if I'll find the time to post live on board.

We'll be hanging on your every word, rest assured!

Have a great cruise!!

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE VI: "Think happy thoughts"

Mom is stressing out.

Dad had lung cancer surgery a couple of months ago. The surgery went well and he was home and on the mend and they were looking forward to the cruise.

Then they started interferon therapy....The only side affects were supposed to be "flu-like symptoms". I guess Dad's lungs didn't get that memo, because he ended up with pheumonia.

He spent another week in the hospital on super-duper antibiotics. He's home now, but is still on oxygen.

I'm not sure if it's that they are just really, really excited about the cruise....or if they know that WE are really, really excited about the cruise and don't want to disappoint us, but she's worried that they might have to cancel.

The problem is that concentrator they have is electric and has to be plugged in and the bottles are only good for a few hours.

In comes me to the rescue....

Proving once again that the internet is good for something other than porn, I found some places that rent portable battery operated concentrators made for travel. So, that should be one less think to worry about.

I'm such a good son.



Not good enough to pay for the rentals myself...but I did forward her the links for all the websites.

 

[MagicMe]

Tom - followed your unbelievable saga with your TA. So glad you can now concentrate on all the fun of the cruise!!! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

 

[disneygirl1972]

Tom- I'm very excited to read your TR. One question, our group has put in a request for the private room @ Palo for our sailing also. Any tips you can offer to help us get it?

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

Tom- I'm very excited to read your TR. One question, our group has put in a request for the private room @ Palo for our sailing also. Any tips you can offer to help us get it?

Make sure you have at least 12, but no more than 14 people. All their reservation nubmers.

I also mentioned that we were celebrating a bday and that the same lady had celebrated her birthday with us in Palo 3 years ago. They noted the bday on the reservation. Not sure if that helped or not.

I faxed it at around 92 days out.

 

[anc22]

Looking forward to reading more

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE VII: "Always gotta be a comedian"

Well, everyone in our meets thread has their documents.....except us. Not a big surprise considering the docs went to our Travel Agent.

Yesterday, my wife and her friend Chelan (that's also on the cruise) happened to be in the neighborhood of the TA, so they dropped in. The TA wouldn't release the documents because they hadn't reviewed them yet. Should I have expected anything more?

Now, my wife usually goes with the flow, but Chelan has always stood up to this TA, so I was surprised she left without the docs.

I decided to give her a hard time and wrote this email:

Mrs. Shepherd,

I'm disappointed in you.

Kristi's a softy, but I had faith that YOU would be able to come out of that Travel Agent's office with our cruise documents today, come hell or high water.

But I guess my faith was misplaced.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to tell my son when he asks me tonight "Daddy, where are our cruise documents?"

He's been so looking forward to those cruise documents. I told him this morning "Aunt Chelan will make sure we have our documents today."

It's a sad, sad day.

I also copied her DH and my DW on it. She and my DW thought it was very amusing. Her DH must have thought it was amusing too, but had to take it one step further. His reply:

Dear Mr. Bell,

This letter is in response to your letter dated 7/8/08 to Mrs C. Shepherd. First of all let me start by saying that I believe your correspondence was abrupt, sloppy, and premature. Your wife might be used to situations like that but I can assure you that Mrs. Shepherd is not.

Mr. Bell, as I am sure you are aware, travel documents do not grow on trees. Travel documents such as these are of such delicacy and high importance that special "conditions" apply to the organization and preparation of them. These travel documents will not be ready or released until all of the planets of our solar system are aligned in the shape of a Mickey head. On that same night the moon will morph into the shape of a skull and crossbones with a banner underneath it that says "Your documents are now complete." I suggest you sit outside at night and stare into the Southeastern skies so you will be immediately informed of the documents readiness.

I am going to share with you a little known fact about your travel documents as well, just to impress upon you another reason why Mrs. Shepherd was unable to retrieve your travel documents. Each page of your documents is hand selected for its crispness and fiber quality directly from the vault of Walt Disney himself. This vault resides deep below Main Street USA at Disneyland and requires an escort of no less than three Disney characters to access the security codes needed to unlock this vault. The ink used on your documents is extracted and purified from melted sections of the original Steam Boat Willie movie trailer film. As you can imagine, this whole process is not something that can be "rushed" or "hurried along."

Mr. Bell, I hope that I have shed some light on to a few of the reasons why your precious son is not going to sleep at night this week. Might I suggest that he will receive adequate therapy for this unfortunate delay with four or five more trips to Disneyland. So be assured Mr. Bell, that you will be receiving your documents sometime before your cruise but not today, and none of this is Mrs. Shepherd's fault. I should also point out that you are so lucky you have been able to have a local outlet to complain to instead of having to fly to Florida to send your e-mail.

Sincerely, Mrs. Shepherd's cruise advocate,
Mr. Scott Shepherd

Maybe Scott should be writing this trip report.

 

[mousemom11]

Proving once again that the internet is good for something other than porn.

I wonder how many people will learn something new from that today?

Tom, I followed your TA story and am SO glad that you can finally kick them to the curb (after you get your precious travel documents with the special paper and ink). I'll keep your Dad in my prayers that he will have a speedy recovery. Enjoy your cruise - you've definitely earned it!

Becky

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Tom

I am subscribing and cannot wait for the your report...

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

PROLOGUE VI: "Think happy thoughts"

Mom is stressing out.

Dad had lung cancer surgery a couple of months ago. The surgery went well and he was home and on the mend and they were looking forward to the cruise.

Then they started interferon therapy....The only side affects were supposed to be "flu-like symptoms". I guess Dad's lungs didn't get that memo, because he ended up with pheumonia.

He spent another week in the hospital on super-duper antibiotics. He's home now, but is still on oxygen.

I'm not sure if it's that they are just really, really excited about the cruise....or if they know that WE are really, really excited about the cruise and don't want to disappoint us, but she's worried that they might have to cancel.

The problem is that concentrator they have is electric and has to be plugged in and the bottles are only good for a few hours.

In comes me to the rescue....

Proving once again that the internet is good for something other than porn, I found some places that rent portable battery operated concentrators made for travel. So, that should be one less think to worry about.

I'm such a good son.



Not good enough to pay for the rentals myself...but I did forward her the links for all the websites.

FOLLOW UP:

Well we ran into a few speed bumps along the way trying to find the right equipment, but Dad just reserved a portable concentrator this morning for the trip.

What a relief.

 

[jmatias]

Tom....glad to hear your Dad got the right equipment.

Jen

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

Tom....glad to hear your Dad got the right equipment.

Jen

Thanks. We did cancel his Sport Fishing excursion though. There's no way he'll be up for that.

 

[DiaLady]

Okay, I'm subscribed, too . . .can't wait to hear your LIVE report!