May 25th, 2008 West Coast - Mexico

[princessdaisy]

My DH, and DDs (13 & almost 9 at time of cruise) will be joining your wonderful group. We did the inaugural in May 2005 and we're so excited to have the Magic return to the West Coast. We've been on several cruises and would rank the Disney Magic as our favorite.

I had a lot of fun getting caught up and reading all the posts. Sounds like a fun crowd! We just got back from doing the NCL - Pride of Hawaii (we had a great time). To be honest, we are REALLY excited about going back on the Magic!

Looking forward to meeting all of you!

Lara

Welcome, Lara

The more the merrier! So exciting to hear you've been on the inaugural in May 2005. How did you like it? how was the weather at the time? We have only done the Magic & Wonder out of florida and this will be our first out of LA. -which will be a nice changed to only have to drive a few hours from San Diego then the five hour flight to Orlando

We did the Pride of Hawaii last April and it was fun but we sure do love the Disney ships!

 

[Jedisan]

Welcome, Lara

The more the merrier! So exciting to hear you've been on the inaugural in May 2005. How did you like it? how was the weather at the time? We have only done the Magic & Wonder out of florida and this will be our first out of LA. -which will be a nice changed to only have to drive a few hours from San Diego then the five hour flight to Orlando

We did the Pride of Hawaii last April and it was fun but we sure do love the Disney ships!

The weather was very good. It was cool on the first and last days, but the rest of the trip was wonderful - 80's to 90's. The service was great and we all had so much fun. It was like a non-stop party. Pirate night was my personal favorite. Even though the kids' program runs all day long, we used it only on rare occasions as we wanted to be with the kids to enjoy the experience together.

We have done the Mexican Riviera itinerary four times, three with the kids. The port is only about 20 mnutes away, much easier than a five hour flight. For us, we like to relax while in port, and have not done any tours. Typically, we get a day room at one of the luxury resorts and just hang out. There are some really beautiful hotels and day rates are reasonable, much less than the price of a tour for a family of four. For this trip, we plan to do at least one excursion. In Hawaii, my oldest daughter and I did a zip-line tour in Kauai. It was fantastic! We really want to do this as a family in Puerto Vallarta. My neighbors did it a couple of years ago with their daughter (7 at the time) and loved it. I've heard great reviews about the dolphin encounter as well, but that's not something we want to do.

We are looking so forward to this trip. Even though it's 9 months away, the time will go by very quickly.

Counting down the months...

 

[princessdaisy]

The weather was very good. It was cool on the first and last days, but the rest of the trip was wonderful - 80's to 90's. The service was great and we all had so much fun. It was like a non-stop party. Pirate night was my personal favorite. Even though the kids' program runs all day long, we used it only on rare occasions as we wanted to be with the kids to enjoy the experience together.

We have done the Mexican Riviera itinerary four times, three with the kids. The port is only about 20 mnutes away, much easier than a five hour flight. For us, we like to relax while in port, and have not done any tours. Typically, we get a day room at one of the luxury resorts and just hang out. There are some really beautiful hotels and day rates are reasonable, much less than the price of a tour for a family of four. For this trip, we plan to do at least one excursion. In Hawaii, my oldest daughter and I did a zip-line tour in Kauai. It was fantastic! We really want to do this as a family in Puerto Vallarta. My neighbors did it a couple of years ago with their daughter (7 at the time) and loved it. I've heard great reviews about the dolphin encounter as well, but that's not something we want to do.

We are looking so forward to this trip. Even though it's 9 months away, the time will go by very quickly.

Counting down the months...

Great, sounds like the weather should be just fine! I didn't think about renting a hotel at a day rate...hmmm, great idea! I was just planning to leave San Diego and arrive in Long beach around 11:30ish. My sister is driving from LA area and we where just gonna "meet up" at the pier.

Since this is your second cruise on Disney you are a Castaway Member and are gonna get some nice "goodies" in your stateroom I love opening the cabin door and seeing the DCL goodies! and the Castaway Member reception is nice too.

Time is gonna go by fast!

 

[Jedisan]

Great, sounds like the weather should be just fine! I didn't think about renting a hotel at a day rate...hmmm, great idea! I was just planning to leave San Diego and arrive in Long beach around 11:30ish. My sister is driving from LA area and we where just gonna "meet up" at the pier.

Since this is your second cruise on Disney you are a Castaway Member and are gonna get some nice "goodies" in your stateroom I love opening the cabin door and seeing the DCL goodies! and the Castaway Member reception is nice too.

Time is gonna go by fast!

Very cool. I just input our Castaway numbers on the reservation. I didn't realize we would get "goodies"! Just something else to look forward to.

My girlfriend and her family are traveling on the Magic next month for a Western Caribbean itinerary. This will be her first cruise with Disney. I'm very excited for them.

My DDs and I will be participating in the Disneyland 5K Run in two weeks. My younger daughter will do the 400 yard dash. This should be a lot of fun as we've been so busy, we haven't had a chance to visit the parks this summer. It will be nice to run through both parks. Hopefully, it won't be too hot!

 

[princessdaisy]

Very cool. I just input our Castaway numbers on the reservation. I didn't realize we would get "goodies"! Just something else to look forward to.

My girlfriend and her family are traveling on the Magic next month for a Western Caribbean itinerary. This will be her first cruise with Disney. I'm very excited for them.

My DDs and I will be participating in the Disneyland 5K Run in two weeks. My younger daughter will do the 400 yard dash. This should be a lot of fun as we've been so busy, we haven't had a chance to visit the parks this summer. It will be nice to run through both parks. Hopefully, it won't be too hot!

Your friend is gonna LOVE the Western cruise. We had a great time on that one and of course, Castaway Cay is the best! that will be the only thing I will miss about doing the Mexican cruise...no Castaway Cay but we will have lots of nice ports and I have never done a Mexican cruise but have heard good things about it.

Yes, your gonna like the goodies! I won't spoil the surprise by telling what you get hehehehe! just nine months away!! Geez, kinda like being pregnant...waiting for the big day

Good luck on the Disney 5K sounds like a blast! crossing my fingers for some cool weather for you It has been so hot here in San Diego.

-Stephanie

 

[MousseauMob]

Lara!

So, glad you had a good time. This is only our second cruise on Disney also, we did their last Mexico trip in 2005 - so we've never been lucky enough to do Castaway Cay - at least not yet. But we're very excited for the upcoming goodies.

I'm getting very excited for our trip - even though I still have our upcoming Disneyland trip to do. Which is also exciting! But there's just something about the cruise!

Good luck on your 5k, let us know how it goes!

 

[sasha]

I'm so glad to see this post is active again. Let's keep it that way!

Welcome Lara!

Goodies? Really? I'm so excited!

This will be our 2nd Disney Cruise. Our first was back in 2002 so this will be our first time with children . We'll miss Castaway Cay, but it will be so nice not to have to fly! I didn't realize we get goodies just for returning. Woo Hoo!

I agree that the 9 months will fly by. I look forward to getting to know all of you as we plan for our cruise.

MousseauMob - Have a great time at DL when you go. We were just there yesterday and had fun! We have a few more DL trips planned for this year. That's surely going to make the time go by fast while waiting for our cruise.

Jedisan - Good luck on your 5K!

 

[princessdaisy]

Yes, now that you are returning cruisers you become Castaway Club members automatically! You get to check in at the Castaway Member line, you will get Castaway Club landyards with pins for each person in your thumbsup2 and the goodies in the room (keeping that a secret ) and there will be a special "party" for members sometime on the cruise (free canned drinks, bottle waters, Rice Krispie Mickeys & meet the Captain & Crew).

It is lots of fun!!!

 

[Jedisan]

Yes, now that you are returning cruisers you become Castaway Club members automatically! You get to check in at the Castaway Member line, you will get Castaway Club landyards with pins for each person in your thumbsup2 and the goodies in the room (keeping that a secret ) and there will be a special "party" for members sometime on the cruise (free canned drinks, bottle waters, Rice Krispie Mickeys & meet the Captain & Crew).

It is lots of fun!!!

Another party? No one does it better than Disney! Everytime I think of Pirate Night, I start to smile. I'm looking SOOOOO forward to that again!!!!

Lara

 

[MousseauMob]

What is everyone planning on doing pre and post cruise? In 2005 we stayed at the Hyatt in Long Beach and went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Had so much fun that my son has begged me to do it again. So that's our plan. What about everyone else?

 

[tlynk]

What is everyone planning on doing pre and post cruise? In 2005 we stayed at the Hyatt in Long Beach and went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Had so much fun that my son has begged me to do it again. So that's our plan. What about everyone else?

Hello,
I'm trying to find a deluxe hotel the night prior that will allow us to leave our car during the cruise. Do you happen to know if the Hyatt offers such a package?

 

[MousseauMob]

Hello,
I'm trying to find a deluxe hotel the night prior that will allow us to leave our car during the cruise. Do you happen to know if the Hyatt offers such a package?

I'm not sure - we drove and parked near the pier. You could call and ask. We tried to do this for our Hawaiian cruise at the Del Coronado but they said they would charge us 10 dollars and hour after we checked out. For a 14 day cruise that was astronomical! The parking for the Disney cruise was really easy and convienant. Much better than the pier in San Diego for the Hawaii cruise - that pier has no parking which is why I was looking to leave the car at the hotel. For Disney we dropped off the baggage at the curb and left some of our party getting a porter while someone parked and walked back.

 

[princessdaisy]

What is everyone planning on doing pre and post cruise? In 2005 we stayed at the Hyatt in Long Beach and went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Had so much fun that my son has begged me to do it again. So that's our plan. What about everyone else?

I am planning on having my hubby drive my son and I to Long Beach (1 hour 1/2 drive) and drop us off at pier and he'll also pick us up the day we return. I haven't been to San Pedro in a while but there are lots of hotels not too far from pier.

So looking forward to this cruise! We got upgraded on our Wonder cruise in July from a CAT 12 to a CAT 9....wonder if I might get sprinkled with pixie dust and get another upgrade??? I have a CAT 10 inside now but Ohhh, how I love those CAT 9 porthole windows

 

[4campers]

Just dropping by to see if this thread was up and running still. Hope everyone is staying cool with all this 100' weather we are having

We had a great summer. Went on a cruise to Alaska via Vancouver. Very beautiful country.

School is finally under way and I now have some real Mommy time to myself

Looking forward to May 08'

 

[princessdaisy]

Just dropping by to see if this thread was up and running still. Hope everyone is staying cool with all this 100' weather we are having

We had a great summer. Went on a cruise to Alaska via Vancouver. Very beautiful country.

School is finally under way and I now have some real Mommy time to myself

Looking forward to May 08'

Yes, it has been so hot here in San Diego...and yesterday we had a huge thunder storm with pouring rain felt like I was in Florida!

Crazy weather!

 

[MousseauMob]

Yes, it has been so hot here in San Diego...and yesterday we had a huge thunder storm with pouring rain felt like I was in Florida!

Crazy weather!

Reminds me of when we were in San Diego in April. It had been sunny/partly cloudy most of the time and people had talked about how it hadn't rained for a while. Now, I've been to San Diego a number of times through the years in every season and never really hit anything but some rain showers and cooler (still warm for me) temperatures. Imagine my shock when we went to Sea World and had to leave because the skies had opened up and it was POURING! No, it was worse than pouring - it was like buckets of water raining down. Sprinting from the front of the park to our car with these huge puddles that had instantly formed and we were dripping and soaked. I kept trying to explain to my sister that this was NOT normal and totally crazy that San Diego (as the tourism board say's) really does have near perfect weather.

BTW - the next day in Legoland - sunny and beautiful!

 

[MousseauMob]

Yeah, the Magic is back in her home port, which means in a few short months she'll be headed out west for us!

 

[4campers]

Wow! We are having a party here today!! So nice to see everyone Yes, we had the rain and lighting the past few days as well.

Heading for La Jolla on Monday for some kayaking. Will be a nice change for us. We may hit 106' today

I'm so glad you all are keeping this thread alive

 

[princessdaisy]

Wow! We are having a party here today!! So nice to see everyone Yes, we had the rain and lighting the past few days as well.

Heading for La Jolla on Monday for some kayaking. Will be a nice change for us. We may hit 106' today

I'm so glad you all are keeping this thread alive

Yes, it is only early afternoon and the temp is 101 I put my air on at 10am this morning, it is so humid outside...weird, we never had humid summers global warming or something, I guess.

I love La Jolla for kayaking we saw lots of seals the last time we kayaked there!

Mousseamob: The Magic is back in Florida? wow!

Let's have a party! we are getting closer to our cruise!!

 

[MousseauMob]

Mousseamob: The Magic is back in Florida? wow!

Yep, she's back she's back she's back!

Not that I'm excited or anything!

She'll spend fall and winter at her home port before coming out west for us!