May 9, 2012: 5 Night Bahamas Cruise on Disney Magic

[DVCTigger]

Another countdown milestone today . . . . .we now have only

Days until we sail!

 

[jenf22]

Just finished all my FE gifts!!!

This is going to be a great first cruise!

 

[Britster18]

I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it!!!!


I talked to my parents last night and I think we are all kind of an agreement to cancel the Blue Lagoon. We just can't justify the 300+ bucks for an all day beach day when we are going to CC the next day. My dad also wants tour Atlantis, he's never been so I think we are just going to take a taxi over in the morning.

 

[iloverags2]

Good Morning Everyone!
Usually I wake up and come to our thread and read what's been going on for the last day or so, since I'm the first today I guess I'll go work on my FE gifts and wait for everyone. I'm almost done! So excited about that because the dining room has been my craft room since January.

Just finished all my FE gifts!!!

This is going to be a great first cruise!

Ugh! You guys are killing me! I have promised myself to get the crafty things finished this weekend...wish me luck on actually accomplishing that!

Another countdown milestone today . . . . .we now have only

Days until we sail!

Yippee! As much as I am so far behind on my FEs, I cannot wait for the cruise to get here!

I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it!!!!


I talked to my parents last night and I think we are all kind of an agreement to cancel the Blue Lagoon. We just can't justify the 300+ bucks for an all day beach day when we are going to CC the next day. My dad also wants tour Atlantis, he's never been so I think we are just going to take a taxi over in the morning.

We have cabbed it over to Atlantis a few times. Always nice to take a leisurely stroll around. If the restaurant downstairs is not open yet, you can wander through there and see a small portion of the aquarium. Very pretty!


After doing the Fantasy ship tour yesterday I can guarantee one thing on this cruise...I will be rebooking for a Fantasy sailing! Wow, is she beautiful! Prettiest ship to date!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Y'all finishing up your FE gifts! Ugh! Killin' me! I'm pretty much at a standstill until the final headcount is locked in tomorrow. Gotta know quantities to buy.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

After doing the Fantasy ship tour yesterday I can guarantee one thing on this cruise...I will be rebooking for a Fantasy sailing! Wow, is she beautiful! Prettiest ship to date!

We were going to cruise on the Fantasy in September this year but that got moved to this Magic sailing so we could space out our trips for the year. We're wanting to go to Disneyland in November so moving to May put a 6 month split between the 2. Next May we're booked on the Fantasy for the Western. I'm hoping to book another stateroom while onboard for my brother & his girls to go, too. Thanksgiving 2013 the old man's family are planning a big family gathering cruise on RC's Allure. Kinda irks me that we have to concede to RC vs. any of them being willing to do a Disney cruise. It's the principal & all. They make fun of us all the time about our Disney-thing. Oh well. I'm sure we'll have fun on the RC cruise and, at the very least, we'll be the ones who can truly compare/contrast the 2 since we'll be the only ones in the family who have actually done both.

 

[Lainey321]

My dad also wants tour Atlantis, he's never been so I think we are just going to take a taxi over in the morning.

My mom went to the Bahamas a few years ago. She said we "have" to tour Atlantis. We may just do that too, since I can't make up my mind on what to do.


I was reading some posts about people getting sick on cruises. I know you have to wash your hands and have told my kids they HAVE to keep their hands clean. I was just thinking...how well do they keep the stuff in the kids' club clean? I can't imagine trying to keep video game controllers and stuff cleaned between user

 

[sweetpee_1993]

My mom went to the Bahamas a few years ago. She said we "have" to tour Atlantis. We may just do that too, since I can't make up my mind on what to do.


I was reading some posts about people getting sick on cruises. I know you have to wash your hands and have told my kids they HAVE to keep their hands clean. I was just thinking...how well do they keep the stuff in the kids' club clean? I can't imagine trying to keep video game controllers and stuff cleaned between user

I can't say 100% for the Magic but I know on the Dream when the kids enter there are handwashing stations. Also, considering how often we saw cleaning & disinfecting going on all over the Dream, I'm pretty sure there's some rigorous policies in place for things like video game controllers and other touchy-surfaces to be wiped or disinfected frequently. It really caught our attention how at the entrance to all the restaurants there were CMs stationed to greet you before you got to the door and hand you a wipe for your hands. Literally everyone going in gets "wiped". Then at the drink stations there are wipe tubs out. All over the self-serve places (like the walk-up windows) there's wipe tubs available. Now, I won't say I wasn't a little grossed out by the little girl with the runny nose who popped in front of me at a drink station (and gave me the evil-eye, too ), grabbed a cup, could barely reach the dispensers, and was sorta touchy on stuff. Thank goodness she didn't drink Diet Coke.

That leads me to my next thing I've been meaning to mention. Maybe I already have. For the new cruisers, the paper cups for the drink stations are small. Like think barely bigger than a child-size paper cup in the parks. Smaaaall. Thank goodness I read about this prior to our first cruise. Tracey & I would've been up-a-creek trying to mix our drinks. If you're like us, don't like to keep going back but need plenty of refreshment, bring yourself a bigger reusable cup w/straw & lid. Here's tips for keeping the reusable stuff clean & fresh:

Dish soap. Yeah. Like you want to be doing dishes on vacation. Well, kinda a necessary evil if you're doing the reusable thing. I either bring a teensy bottle of dish soap OR pre-soap some disposable Handi-Wipe rags with several drops of dish soap. Buy 1 package of Handi-Wipe dish rags, cut them into quarters, lay them on a piece of foil, and drizzle on your favorite dish soap from home. (Dawn w/bleach for me!) Let them dry on the foil. I found it best to set the foil sheet in the sun near a window. Once dry, pop your pre-soaped dish rags into a ziplock and voila! No liquid to pack and it takes zero space in your suitcase! I generally will do 1 rag per night and wash all cups at night before bed in scalding hot water with the soap. Works great!

Refilling your refillable cup without being gross. I appreciate that others don't want my cooties when I'm refilling my refillable cup. That's cool. The feeling is mutual. Sooooo, I don't even present my cup to the dispensers. Nope. We use the paper cups to dispense then dump into our cups awaaaaay from the dispensers. When mixing the drinky-drinks we'd open our tumblers, dump in the amount of liquor we wanted, recap, carry up top, then find a table to base our filling activities from.

 

[Lainey321]

bring yourself a bigger reusable cup w/straw & lid. Here's tips for keeping the reusable stuff clean & fresh

I read this tip too. I found some cups I liked at Walmart this week. We also have lots of Disney mugs. When at Disneyworld I just lather my hands or a rag with whatever soap is around and wash with VERY hot water. I might try your trick though. Or I might use some of the wipes and just rinse it well. (Yes, I am that lazy! )

I was wondering though, since it is our tradition to buy mugs every time we go to DW, do they have similar mugs for sale on the ship? I figured they did, but didn't want to count on it

 

[wildforgoofy]

Ugh! You guys are killing me! I have promised myself to get the crafty things finished this weekend...wish me luck on actually accomplishing that!
!

Good luck on your craft!! I'm officially done, and so super happy about that! I have all my FE gifts tagged and ready to be delivered to all you wonderful people. I'm so excited and hope you will all be able to use what I've made for you!

 

[Jaxs27]

I can't say 100% for the Magic but I know on the Dream when the kids enter there are handwashing stations. Also, considering how often we saw cleaning & disinfecting going on all over the Dream, I'm pretty sure there's some rigorous policies in place for things like video game controllers and other touchy-surfaces to be wiped or disinfected frequently. It really caught our attention how at the entrance to all the restaurants there were CMs stationed to greet you before you got to the door and hand you a wipe for your hands. Literally everyone going in gets "wiped". Then at the drink stations there are wipe tubs out. All over the self-serve places (like the walk-up windows) there's wipe tubs available. Now, I won't say I wasn't a little grossed out by the little girl with the runny nose who popped in front of me at a drink station (and gave me the evil-eye, too ), grabbed a cup, could barely reach the dispensers, and was sorta touchy on stuff. Thank goodness she didn't drink Diet Coke.

That leads me to my next thing I've been meaning to mention. Maybe I already have. For the new cruisers, the paper cups for the drink stations are small. Like think barely bigger than a child-size paper cup in the parks. Smaaaall. Thank goodness I read about this prior to our first cruise. Tracey & I would've been up-a-creek trying to mix our drinks. If you're like us, don't like to keep going back but need plenty of refreshment, bring yourself a bigger reusable cup w/straw & lid. Here's tips for keeping the reusable stuff clean & fresh:

Dish soap. Yeah. Like you want to be doing dishes on vacation. Well, kinda a necessary evil if you're doing the reusable thing. I either bring a teensy bottle of dish soap OR pre-soap some disposable Handi-Wipe rags with several drops of dish soap. Buy 1 package of Handi-Wipe dish rags, cut them into quarters, lay them on a piece of foil, and drizzle on your favorite dish soap from home. (Dawn w/bleach for me!) Let them dry on the foil. I found it best to set the foil sheet in the sun near a window. Once dry, pop your pre-soaped dish rags into a ziplock and voila! No liquid to pack and it takes zero space in your suitcase! I generally will do 1 rag per night and wash all cups at night before bed in scalding hot water with the soap. Works great!

Refilling your refillable cup without being gross. I appreciate that others don't want my cooties when I'm refilling my refillable cup. That's cool. The feeling is mutual. Sooooo, I don't even present my cup to the dispensers. Nope. We use the paper cups to dispense then dump into our cups awaaaaay from the dispensers. When mixing the drinky-drinks we'd open our tumblers, dump in the amount of liquor we wanted, recap, carry up top, then find a table to base our filling activities from.

Would it be weird to bring my own disposable cups and use those? I would still use the disney cup and transfer it to my cup larger cup, but wouldn't have to wash or worry about it.

 

[jenf22]

I read this tip too. I found some cups I liked at Walmart this week. We also have lots of Disney mugs. When at Disneyworld I just lather my hands or a rag with whatever soap is around and wash with VERY hot water. I might try your trick though. Or I might use some of the wipes and just rinse it well. (Yes, I am that lazy! )

I was wondering though, since it is our tradition to buy mugs every time we go to DW, do they have similar mugs for sale on the ship? I figured they did, but didn't want to count on it

I was wondering that too. I figured we'd just buy DCL cups on the ship and then do the paper cup fill-up thing. Does anyone know? I suppose if they don't, we can pick up some reusable cups at Pop before the trip.

With respect to germs - I'm a HUGE probiotic fan. We start taking Culturelle a couple of weeks before the trip and then bring some on the trip too. They have pill form for adults and a powder for the little ones that you mix into juice or whatever. I love my good bugs. I do think the drink station thing is overkill. I try really hard to not let the mouth part of my cup anywhere near the dispenser. Using all those paper cups seems like a huge waste to me. Just my opinion...

 

[wildforgoofy]

I'm so excited I can't hardly stand it!!!!


I talked to my parents last night and I think we are all kind of an agreement to cancel the Blue Lagoon. We just can't justify the 300+ bucks for an all day beach day when we are going to CC the next day. My dad also wants tour Atlantis, he's never been so I think we are just going to take a taxi over in the morning.

When this was mentioned before it made me pause and think about our Blue Lagoon Beach day too, so I too talked it over with the DH. We decided to keep our reservation since CC is the only beach day we'd have otherwise. I'd love to be on the beach everyday! I'm just not very comfortable since I've never been there before. If I knew my way around I'd save the money and search out one myself, but since we have little ones I'm going to let DCL worry about how to get me to and from the beach.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

First! Wanted to put this out there for all you moms with big boys or somewhat smaller husbands. LOL! I just sorted thru Chandler's bags of donation clothes and there were some items worth offering. I'll take pics if anyone wants me to. I'd only ask you covered the shipping.

Sports coat! Gorgeous navy blue sports coat! I bought it at Stein Mart in December 2010 for Chandler to wear to Tracey's grandmother's funeral. I love that thing. So much nicer than the ones I'd previously gotten the boys from JCPenney. I cannot find a size on it anywhere. Chandler currently wears a mens size L/XL in dressier shirts, he's 5'10"-ish & 176 lbs., just a big boy. Not overweight. The coat fits snug when he buttons it and the sleeves are a hair too short when he holds his arms out. I can do measurements later if anyone is interested.

Dress pants! Pair #1: Arrow brand, probably purchased at Kohls, light khaki color, size is boys 16 Husky. Worn maybe twice for funerals. Pair #2: Lauren by Ralph Lauren brand, purchased at Kohls, seem like the wrinkle-resistant fabric, light khaki in color, size mens 33x30.

Possible dress shirt: Qu!cks!lver (that word got edited to all **** for some reason) brand, green plaid in color, short sleeve button-up, size LG. Cute shirt. It could be dressed up with a casual pant or dressed down with shorts. My brother, Mr. Fashion himself, bought this during his skinny-days (he's veeeery picky, spends big bucks on his clothes) then outgrew it so he gave it to Chandler.

Shorts! Pair #1: Hollister brand, small print blue plaid, flat front, NOT cargo, mens size 30w. Pair #2: Hollister brand, weathered solid dark brown-ish, heavy cargos, size 26w. Pair #3: Hollister brand, weathered green camo print, heavy cargos, size 28w.

Swim trunks! Pair #1: Abercrombie brand, blue & white large print plaid, cargo pockets, fully-lined but NOT the built-in underpants liner (you know what I'm gettin' at ), somewhat adjustable/dreawstring waist, boys size Large. Pair #2: Abercrombie brand, navy blue with light blue bit hibiscus print, cargo pockets, fully-line but NOT the built-in underpants liner, waist doesn't adjust, boys size XLarge.

I still have to sort thru Brian's clothes (God help me...his room is scary). For mom's with smaller boys, tweens or pre-tweens, I'll see what he might have that will work for you.

It my seem tacky to offer our used clothes but there's so much here and, being the mom of 2 fast-growing boys, I know keeping them in clothes can add up to a lot of money really fast. Unfortunately, my boys are built totally opposite of each other. Chandler is solid/stocky where Brian is super-thin. T-shirts and some dress shirts can be passed from Chandler to his brother but shorts, pants, & jeans cannot. Especially with dress clothes that get worn once or twice before they outgrow stuff, it seems crazy not to at least try to find someone we know and/or love that can get some more bang for my buck before the Goodwill receives things.

Would it be weird to bring my own disposable cups and use those? I would still use the disney cup and transfer it to my cup larger cup, but wouldn't have to wash or worry about it.

I saw big 32 oz. size ones at the store recently. I thought about getting some for the boys because I know especially with my absent-minded Brian the refillable ones will likely get lost. I think it'd be fine to use them!

I read this tip too. I found some cups I liked at Walmart this week. We also have lots of Disney mugs. When at Disneyworld I just lather my hands or a rag with whatever soap is around and wash with VERY hot water. I might try your trick though. Or I might use some of the wipes and just rinse it well. (Yes, I am that lazy! )

I was wondering though, since it is our tradition to buy mugs every time we go to DW, do they have similar mugs for sale on the ship? I figured they did, but didn't want to count on it

We have some old refillables from the WDW resorts but my pet-peeve with them has always been how small they are. I like at least a 20 oz. cup. I think it'd be fine to bring yours if you like them. I know they sold some drinkware stuff on the Dream but the selection isn't like going to WoD or anything like that. I can't remember if I saw insulated tumblers or not. Probably not with lids if they had them. I know we saw like warm-style travel tumblers for coffee but they were kinda pricey. I don't know if I'd use one on the ship. Oh! Dunno if anyone out there are big Starbucks people like me and have some of the big cold-cup tumblers but those would work great, too! I actually have 3 of the old venti-size ones and 1 grande. I thought about bringing one because I sooooo love my Starbucks and love to sport my Starbucks pride. Buuuut, they were expensive to buy and I'm scared to death I'll lose one. I'd die! That's why I generally opt for cheapies (if you want to call it that because they're all pricey) from Walmart, etc. If only Starbucks would give or sell me a dozen of the plastic cold cups with lids they serve the drinks in. I've asked. They said no. Does anyone know somebody who works for Starbucks????

 

[wildforgoofy]

For all of you visiting Magic Kingdom before the cruise, you'll get to see the new Storybook Circus in Fantasyland!! They opened part of it a couple of weeks ago in mid March.
How exciting!!! Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPlRyMtunvI

 

[wildforgoofy]

Oh and Kelly keep the sizes coming. I wish there was something for Kane, the blue blazer is tempting but I think it would be to big. Kane is 5'9" and 120 so a bean pole of a kid. He wears the skinniest of skinny jeans and they're baggy.
You keep posting what you've got!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

The Magic should be pulling out of port anytime now. The cool part is she'll be sailing out right past the Fantasy. I'm soooo tuned-in right now!


http://portcanaveralwebcam.com/

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Oh and Kelly keep the sizes coming. I wish there was something for Kane, the blue blazer is tempting but I think it would be to big. Kane is 5'9" and 120 so a bean pole of a kid. He wears the skinniest of skinny jeans and they're baggy.
You keep posting what you've got!

Sounds like Brian only not as tall yet. It's brutal trying to find clothes for his waist. He lives in things that are adjustable. Poor guy. Yeah, he tried on the sport coat while wearing just his skivvies and it looked like a bad 80s coat-dress.

 

[wildforgoofy]

The Magic should be pulling out of port anytime now. The cool part is she'll be sailing out right past the Fantasy. I'm soooo tuned-in right now!


http://portcanaveralwebcam.com/

That was cool! I didn't know there was a webcam in port. I showed the kids but it's dark now. I can't wait for them to see it tomorrow.

 

[sararoonie]

Dish soap. Yeah. Like you want to be doing dishes on vacation. Well, kinda a necessary evil if you're doing the reusable thing. I either bring a teensy bottle of dish soap OR pre-soap some disposable Handi-Wipe rags with several drops of dish soap. Buy 1 package of Handi-Wipe dish rags, cut them into quarters, lay them on a piece of foil, and drizzle on your favorite dish soap from home. (Dawn w/bleach for me!) Let them dry on the foil. I found it best to set the foil sheet in the sun near a window. Once dry, pop your pre-soaped dish rags into a ziplock and voila! No liquid to pack and it takes zero space in your suitcase! I generally will do 1 rag per night and wash all cups at night before bed in scalding hot water with the soap. Works great!

Kelly, this is the best tip EVER! The girls have just gotten out of the age where we had to take some type of cup for milk in the morning and I always brought a small thing of dish soap. But I just hated the idea of doing dishes while away from home!! But having the pre-soaped rags don't seem quite so bad! Thanks for the tip!

We have Starbucks tumblers we take everywhere with us, but we normally stick with water and other non-carbonated drinks in them. I'm going to look around for either larger disposable cups or cheap refillable cups.