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<font color=green>DVC @ The Boardwalk</font><br><f
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2000
- Messages
- 31,459
Cast - myself and DH (MarkRG - who did his reports live from the Magic). Also along were Mark's parents Bob & Susan. This was our 5th DCL cruise - their 3rd.
Our goal - to relax and enjoy! With so many new ports for us we were interested in the experience. Since we have no kids the reports won't cover that. Since this was our 5th cruise we also opted out on all the big shows. I must say though that this was the most wonderful cruise I've ever taken. So on with the show:
Day 1 saw us getting up for a 4:30 pick-up by my brother in law.
We had a 7 am flight out of O'Hare. The flight was jam packed and despite some seat mix ups a few weeks before we were all able to sit together. The flight down was smooth as silk and we arrive about 20 minutes early. Met up the DCL rep and were soon on our way to the busses. So nice not to have to worry about out luggage!
Only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus and we are on our way! Got to the port about 11:45 and it was packed! A long snaking boarding line and lines at least 4-5 deep at every station. Note to self - fly in the night before next time. That's what we did in February and it was much better
They started boarding while we were checking in and it wasn't long until it was our turn to be welcomed aboard. We took the Mickey 2-ways and Mark headed up to Topsiders while I went to see about Palo reservations. In the past we had only done high tea up there - never dinner. This time we were trying for both dinner and high tea. We got our first choice for dinner which was Monday night (semi-formal night), but tea was already booked. We got one the waitlist, but never go in
We had asked for and were granted the APL rotation. Yes, I know this is the little kids rotation, but it put us in Lumieres for Semi-Formal and Formal nights and Parrot Cay for Mexicali night. It was wonderful. Our Server was Sylvester and our Asst. Server was Joel. Even though we were a table of 4 adults I think they saw that two of us (Mark and I) were actually big kids and would come by with magic tricks etc. just like with the kids. They were fantastic!
After lunch we headed off to our rooms. We were in 6640 while Mark's parents were in 6642. Both of these are Navigators Verandas. We had been in one on the Wonder and loved it. Yes the opening on the Magic is a little smaller (more round than oval) but still lets in plenty of light and air. Wonderful!
I was a little dissapointed and nervous that the basket we had ordered for Mark's mom for Mother's day (from Shirley at the Perfect Gift) was not waiting in the room. It showed up a few minutes after talking to Shirley it arrived (Murphy's law). Shirley did a fantastic job and my MIL was quite happy with it.
What was waiting for us was a tray of petit fours and chocolate covered strawberries as well as a bottle of sparkling cider from Dreams Unlimited. Nice!
Soon it was 3pm and time for the DIS meet. This was organized by BBGRIZZLE (Bonnie). We made the sign for the meet, Bonnie brought lifesavers for everyone with very cute homemade wrappers showing the date of the cruise. Kangaroodle (Kathy) made up very cute lime green buttons with Steamboat Willie on them as well as the cruise date and our names. Verniebird also brought printouts of who all was due on the cruise from the DIS.
It was nice to meet everyone and we chatted for about 1/2 hour. The meet was at 3pm on deck 10. I think we all would have chatted longer but it was very sunny and hot on deck 10 and we needed to get ready for the mandatory drill.
Speaking of the drill - we had ours in Animator's - nice to be sitting down in a cool room instead of up on a hot deck.
Getting back to the room after the drill we started to unpack and then I got a big surprise. A knock on the door and I was handed a package from DCL. Mark had ordered me a sailaway gift of a laser etched crystal of the Magic. What a guy!
We decided to do sailaway from our own room since we were on the side facing the port. So at 5pm we opened the cider, and took our tray out to the veranda. We are cruising! Saw a couple of dolphins right after we pulled away - very cute.
Dinner was at Animator's tonight. Mark and I both had the veal for dinner and it was delicious. We weren't very hungy since we had our petit fours at Sailaway so we said we wanted nothing for dessert. That's exactly what Sylvester brought us - a plate with "Nothing" written in chocolate.
It had been a long day so after a quick stop by Mark to the internet cafe (for his live reports) we called it a night!
Our goal - to relax and enjoy! With so many new ports for us we were interested in the experience. Since we have no kids the reports won't cover that. Since this was our 5th cruise we also opted out on all the big shows. I must say though that this was the most wonderful cruise I've ever taken. So on with the show:
Day 1 saw us getting up for a 4:30 pick-up by my brother in law.
We had a 7 am flight out of O'Hare. The flight was jam packed and despite some seat mix ups a few weeks before we were all able to sit together. The flight down was smooth as silk and we arrive about 20 minutes early. Met up the DCL rep and were soon on our way to the busses. So nice not to have to worry about out luggage!
Only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus and we are on our way! Got to the port about 11:45 and it was packed! A long snaking boarding line and lines at least 4-5 deep at every station. Note to self - fly in the night before next time. That's what we did in February and it was much better
They started boarding while we were checking in and it wasn't long until it was our turn to be welcomed aboard. We took the Mickey 2-ways and Mark headed up to Topsiders while I went to see about Palo reservations. In the past we had only done high tea up there - never dinner. This time we were trying for both dinner and high tea. We got our first choice for dinner which was Monday night (semi-formal night), but tea was already booked. We got one the waitlist, but never go in
We had asked for and were granted the APL rotation. Yes, I know this is the little kids rotation, but it put us in Lumieres for Semi-Formal and Formal nights and Parrot Cay for Mexicali night. It was wonderful. Our Server was Sylvester and our Asst. Server was Joel. Even though we were a table of 4 adults I think they saw that two of us (Mark and I) were actually big kids and would come by with magic tricks etc. just like with the kids. They were fantastic!
After lunch we headed off to our rooms. We were in 6640 while Mark's parents were in 6642. Both of these are Navigators Verandas. We had been in one on the Wonder and loved it. Yes the opening on the Magic is a little smaller (more round than oval) but still lets in plenty of light and air. Wonderful!
I was a little dissapointed and nervous that the basket we had ordered for Mark's mom for Mother's day (from Shirley at the Perfect Gift) was not waiting in the room. It showed up a few minutes after talking to Shirley it arrived (Murphy's law). Shirley did a fantastic job and my MIL was quite happy with it.
What was waiting for us was a tray of petit fours and chocolate covered strawberries as well as a bottle of sparkling cider from Dreams Unlimited. Nice!
Soon it was 3pm and time for the DIS meet. This was organized by BBGRIZZLE (Bonnie). We made the sign for the meet, Bonnie brought lifesavers for everyone with very cute homemade wrappers showing the date of the cruise. Kangaroodle (Kathy) made up very cute lime green buttons with Steamboat Willie on them as well as the cruise date and our names. Verniebird also brought printouts of who all was due on the cruise from the DIS.
It was nice to meet everyone and we chatted for about 1/2 hour. The meet was at 3pm on deck 10. I think we all would have chatted longer but it was very sunny and hot on deck 10 and we needed to get ready for the mandatory drill.
Speaking of the drill - we had ours in Animator's - nice to be sitting down in a cool room instead of up on a hot deck.
Getting back to the room after the drill we started to unpack and then I got a big surprise. A knock on the door and I was handed a package from DCL. Mark had ordered me a sailaway gift of a laser etched crystal of the Magic. What a guy!
We decided to do sailaway from our own room since we were on the side facing the port. So at 5pm we opened the cider, and took our tray out to the veranda. We are cruising! Saw a couple of dolphins right after we pulled away - very cute.
Dinner was at Animator's tonight. Mark and I both had the veal for dinner and it was delicious. We weren't very hungy since we had our petit fours at Sailaway so we said we wanted nothing for dessert. That's exactly what Sylvester brought us - a plate with "Nothing" written in chocolate.
It had been a long day so after a quick stop by Mark to the internet cafe (for his live reports) we called it a night!
