mkmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2006
- Messages
- 2,978
Ketchup Mickey Heads- it is the little details that impress.
We just returned from a wonderful first trip on the Disney Magic Western, and I like so many would have been lost with out all the wonderful information I learned on these boards.
Last winter we went to Disney World, I realized that I need to find a vacation that I can take my girls on alone . I had done a lot of research on the DIS boards for that trip but I had never ventured onto the cruise section until I returned. I think after about an hour on the boards I realized that I had found a perfect vacation.
I booked the cruise through Fairy Tale Destinations and they were amazing, I made lots of changes and there was not a single thing done incorrectly, and they were all handled immediately. I wanted to book with a Canadian TA and I was very glad that I did.
I originally booked at CAT 9 for March 8 Western, a couple weeks after booking my oldest says we need to go to the Magic Kingdom if we are going to be in Orlando. Friday was a PD day for the kids so I decided to take them out of school on the Thursday and we would spend Friday at the Magic Kingdom. So to keep within my budget I downgraded to a Category 12 and booked the Polynesian. We had a good time at the Magic Kingdom, but I realized by kids much prefer the pools to the parks, so I think I will be making solo trips to the parks and taking the kids on cruises.
I have always wanted to stay at the Polynesian and it was beautiful. We got upgraded from garden view room to one with a perfect view of the Castle, which was
great as Friday night it started to rain and my kids did not want to stay in the park in the rain, so we headed back to the room and had a perfect view of the fireworks from our dry room while it poured out.
Saturday arrived sunny ,cold and windy, but we were ready to get on the ship We spent the morning looking for Disney Crocs, none of the shoes I brought for the my girls were fitting them very well,
we found one pair at the Polynesian but we had to go to the Grand Floridian and the then to the Contemporary to find the smaller pair. In the process my girls got to ride up front of the Monorail which was a big hit.
We took the DCL bus and it picked us up at noon and we were on the ship by 1:30. It all seems a blur to me now, I remember going up the escalators and the terminal was pretty much empty, we took a quick look at the model of the ships, and then checked in the kids for the kids club, I am sure that this took no longer than 10 minutes and then before you know it we were on the ship. Christiaan was the cruise director on this cruise and I think he was the first person we saw and we were always running into him, he was everywhere. We went to our room to drop things off.
We were very lucky with upgrades on this trip, about 2 weeks prior we got our room number and we were upgraded to that original category 9 I had booked.
It was a great room 2nd level midship starboard side and Air the room attendant was wonderful and did an amazing job of keeping the room clean. It was great having a window as we ended up spending more time in the room than I thought we would have. I dont think I will be able to sail without a window, so who ever those mysterious room assigner up graders are your upgrading us has paid off .
After dropping our things off we headed up to the Topsiders for lunch, it was not terribly busy and we were able to find a table. It was windy and cold up top but the girls wanted to go for a swim, so they headed into the kids pool right after lunch. My oldest loved the slide, but this was the only time during the whole cruise that they made it in the pool when the slide was open. We were having a DIS meet at 3:00 so it was short swim, luckily it was cold so it was not that much of a chore to get the kids out of the pool.
We did not have a very active pre cruise meet thread so I was expecting no one to show up for the meet, but there was about 10 people there, we just said a quick hello and then headed off to get ready for the life boat drill, that was another one of these things that is a blur and I am glad nothing serious every happened as I am sure I could not remember anything they told us.
We headed up to deck 9 and we must have been late as the place was packed, so we headed up to deck 10 and were able to find a spot on some stacked lounge chairs at the back with a perfect view of the stage,
the girls had a great time.
They have always gone to YMCA daycares so they were most excited when YMCA came on, I think they danced that dance before as they were pros at it.
We had main sitting and ended up with dinner at 5:30, our first night was in Lumiers. My daughters had been looking forward to meeting lots of kids and the look of disappointment when we arrived at our table with a small girl maybe 1 and 4 adults was very noticeable,
and when they were both not able to sit on either side of me we had a recipe for disaster
We lasted 2 nights at that table , and on the third day at lunch we had our waitress for lunch I mentioned that we would not be making it for dinner, we got to talking and she was most surprised that we were not with the other family, and I think she felt bad as they had been pretty much ignoring us, as they felt they were addressing the head of the family who they assumed to be speaking for the whole table.
I do not remember much from those first 2 dinners, except for the Ketchup Mickey heads. Ketchup is a must for just about all meals in our house so when ketchup was requested I could not figure out what the waitress was doing with it
and then she presented this very original Mickey Head. We are always on the lookout for Mickey Heads so the girls were impressed and I thought what attention to detail, to train your staff to do something so simply but so in line with your companies product.
It was actually the only quick dinner we had, I think we were done by 6:40, the kids were eager to check out the kids club, so were headed up there. I was under the impression that you needed to stay with the kids on the first night, but that was not so, DD 1 wanted to stay alone so she stayed, and DD2 and I headed out to do some exploring. I think Ratatouiee was playing in the theater and we watched that for a bit. We off course ran into some characters and it was the start of DD2 getting her picture taken
, I could not get her away from the Characters ,and DD1 never wanted to get her picture taken
.
We went to check on DD1 and she was getting her face painted so now DD2 wants to stay. I check her in and head off to explore on my own. I headed up to deck 9 to work my way done, it was cold and windy so it was pretty quiet on the top decks. It had been a long day so about 8:30 I went to get the girls and they were ready to go.
Towel animals,
how can something so simple bring such joy and excitement to little kids, but returning in the evening to see what would be left become one of the many highlights. This evening there was a crab waiting for us.
I decided that the best sleeping arrangements would be for the girls to sleep on the bed split into twin beds and I would sleep on the couch.
The beds are so comfortable it was tempting to put one of the girls on the couch but if I did that I would have to go to sleep when the girls did and I was looking forward to staying up and reading something I never get to do at home.
Day 1 on the cruise had been great and I could not help wonder how people just book a vacation and go, after all the research I had done I felt like I was going somewhere I had been before and how overwhelming it must be to people who just go, the Disney Magic is just like a little town


We just returned from a wonderful first trip on the Disney Magic Western, and I like so many would have been lost with out all the wonderful information I learned on these boards.

Last winter we went to Disney World, I realized that I need to find a vacation that I can take my girls on alone . I had done a lot of research on the DIS boards for that trip but I had never ventured onto the cruise section until I returned. I think after about an hour on the boards I realized that I had found a perfect vacation.

I booked the cruise through Fairy Tale Destinations and they were amazing, I made lots of changes and there was not a single thing done incorrectly, and they were all handled immediately. I wanted to book with a Canadian TA and I was very glad that I did.

I originally booked at CAT 9 for March 8 Western, a couple weeks after booking my oldest says we need to go to the Magic Kingdom if we are going to be in Orlando. Friday was a PD day for the kids so I decided to take them out of school on the Thursday and we would spend Friday at the Magic Kingdom. So to keep within my budget I downgraded to a Category 12 and booked the Polynesian. We had a good time at the Magic Kingdom, but I realized by kids much prefer the pools to the parks, so I think I will be making solo trips to the parks and taking the kids on cruises.
I have always wanted to stay at the Polynesian and it was beautiful. We got upgraded from garden view room to one with a perfect view of the Castle, which was


Saturday arrived sunny ,cold and windy, but we were ready to get on the ship We spent the morning looking for Disney Crocs, none of the shoes I brought for the my girls were fitting them very well,

We took the DCL bus and it picked us up at noon and we were on the ship by 1:30. It all seems a blur to me now, I remember going up the escalators and the terminal was pretty much empty, we took a quick look at the model of the ships, and then checked in the kids for the kids club, I am sure that this took no longer than 10 minutes and then before you know it we were on the ship. Christiaan was the cruise director on this cruise and I think he was the first person we saw and we were always running into him, he was everywhere. We went to our room to drop things off.
We were very lucky with upgrades on this trip, about 2 weeks prior we got our room number and we were upgraded to that original category 9 I had booked.


After dropping our things off we headed up to the Topsiders for lunch, it was not terribly busy and we were able to find a table. It was windy and cold up top but the girls wanted to go for a swim, so they headed into the kids pool right after lunch. My oldest loved the slide, but this was the only time during the whole cruise that they made it in the pool when the slide was open. We were having a DIS meet at 3:00 so it was short swim, luckily it was cold so it was not that much of a chore to get the kids out of the pool.
We did not have a very active pre cruise meet thread so I was expecting no one to show up for the meet, but there was about 10 people there, we just said a quick hello and then headed off to get ready for the life boat drill, that was another one of these things that is a blur and I am glad nothing serious every happened as I am sure I could not remember anything they told us.

We headed up to deck 9 and we must have been late as the place was packed, so we headed up to deck 10 and were able to find a spot on some stacked lounge chairs at the back with a perfect view of the stage,

the girls had a great time.
They have always gone to YMCA daycares so they were most excited when YMCA came on, I think they danced that dance before as they were pros at it.

We had main sitting and ended up with dinner at 5:30, our first night was in Lumiers. My daughters had been looking forward to meeting lots of kids and the look of disappointment when we arrived at our table with a small girl maybe 1 and 4 adults was very noticeable,


We lasted 2 nights at that table , and on the third day at lunch we had our waitress for lunch I mentioned that we would not be making it for dinner, we got to talking and she was most surprised that we were not with the other family, and I think she felt bad as they had been pretty much ignoring us, as they felt they were addressing the head of the family who they assumed to be speaking for the whole table.

I do not remember much from those first 2 dinners, except for the Ketchup Mickey heads. Ketchup is a must for just about all meals in our house so when ketchup was requested I could not figure out what the waitress was doing with it

It was actually the only quick dinner we had, I think we were done by 6:40, the kids were eager to check out the kids club, so were headed up there. I was under the impression that you needed to stay with the kids on the first night, but that was not so, DD 1 wanted to stay alone so she stayed, and DD2 and I headed out to do some exploring. I think Ratatouiee was playing in the theater and we watched that for a bit. We off course ran into some characters and it was the start of DD2 getting her picture taken


We went to check on DD1 and she was getting her face painted so now DD2 wants to stay. I check her in and head off to explore on my own. I headed up to deck 9 to work my way done, it was cold and windy so it was pretty quiet on the top decks. It had been a long day so about 8:30 I went to get the girls and they were ready to go.
Towel animals,

how can something so simple bring such joy and excitement to little kids, but returning in the evening to see what would be left become one of the many highlights. This evening there was a crab waiting for us.
I decided that the best sleeping arrangements would be for the girls to sleep on the bed split into twin beds and I would sleep on the couch.

The beds are so comfortable it was tempting to put one of the girls on the couch but if I did that I would have to go to sleep when the girls did and I was looking forward to staying up and reading something I never get to do at home.

Day 1 on the cruise had been great and I could not help wonder how people just book a vacation and go, after all the research I had done I felt like I was going somewhere I had been before and how overwhelming it must be to people who just go, the Disney Magic is just like a little town
