Another DISer has started at trip report also, so be sure and stop and read hers also. I’d thought I’d add my thoughts on what was a great NYE’s cruise on the Magic. Some of the best times were meeting all of our fellow DISers on board and at a wonderful party hosted by Noel and her family in the Walt Suite one evening.
For those of you who don’t want to read through the whole report, here are a few quick lessons learned:
1) Weather in January is iffy, be prepared. This was our second cruise, the previous one being an Eastern Cruise in January 2006. On that cruise, we had 30 foot seas the first two days, followed by torrential rain in St. Maarten (causing the Pirate party to be moved in-doors), followed by gorgeous days in St. Thomas, at sea, and Castaway Cay. On this cruise, the weather was almost the opposite: gorgeous initially, followed by cold temperatures, high seas, and rain the last three days. I rebooked for an April cruise next time.
2) Booking excursions through DCL has the advantage that when weather (or anything) causes a cancellation, DCL will do their best to find alternatives. We had two excursions cancelled because of weather. In one case, DCL found us a great alternative; on the second, our money was refunded.
3) Lumiere’s is an excellent alternative to the buffets for breakfast and lunch.
4) If your schedule permits, do the matinee shows. They are not crowded and it lets you do other things in the evening.
5) The greatest people post on the DIS boards. We really enjoyed meeting all the people we had chatted with on the boards for several months. Plus you always learn something that will make your cruise more enjoyable.
1. Port Canaveral—Just Relax It’s a Disney Cruise Line
We (me, DW, and DD (almost 6) flew down on Friday and stayed at the Embassy Suites at the airport. On our previous trip we had met several families going on the cruise, but this time we were the only ones. This may have been due to many people staying on-site at WDW for the holidays, but the hotel was also being used by Michigan State supporters who were attending the bowl game that night. Still, the hotel is well situated for shopping and there is a free breakfast and free happy hour.
The only wrinkle in our plans were that we had been assigned to second seating (and had stayed there since we had booked the cruise nearly a year before). So following the advice of the DIS boards, I had made plans to be at the port at 10 AM to board early, get an early boarding group, and change the seating on-board. It all worked well, even though we were not able to enter the terminal until closer to 10:20. We were given a Group 2 boarding card and settled down to wait, which actually goes fairly quickly with the movies and characters, plus meeting our fellow DISers.
One member of our group, Pam, had made everyone T-Shirts, which made us easy to spot. It was really great meeting everyone in person. This is DD in one of our special shirts.
We boarded pretty close to noon and I rushed to Rocking Bar D (no boarding photos, I WAS ON A MISSION). I was second in line to change my reservations and I was smiling with my success as I handed the CM our KTWs to change them. He looked at them and quietly told me we were already assigned to early seating on the PLA rotation. I had never bothered to look at them or ask the CM who checked us in what rotation we had. I was so shocked , I didn’t ask him to change it to APL (which we would have preferred). I’m glad I didn’t since our server, Edward, assistant server, Okim, and our table mates , the Funada family from Japan, were wonderful and I would not have wanted to miss meeting them. I sheepishly walked backed to my family, told them about rushing them for nothing, was forgiven, and off we went to Parrot Cay for lunch. This was the best part of boarding early was eating there. It is much more relaxed than Topsiders, you have excellent wait staff, and can eat at a leisurely pace. It was so pleasant, we hung out until we could get to our stateroom at 1:30.
We were assigned 6624 and had an excellent hostess, Reeda, who took great care of us the entire trip. The stateroom, however , is very noisy as it sits directly over the hydraulic pumps for the lifeboats (I learned that from a deck officer at the Captain’s reception) and it sounds like you are sleeping over an elevator that runs day and night. Otherwise, not bad, but I would not book this room again.
The sail away party was great. I could spot all our fellow DISers in their special lime green shirts very easily. The weather was perfect and I got to hear songs from High School Musical, for what turned out to be about 100 times during the cruise. Dinner was fine in Parrot Cay and we were actually able to check our daughter into the Oceaneer Club that evening by herself, which was a change from the previous cruise in which the clubs were not fully opened that night.
2. Key West—Why are we here? To relax, that’s right
Since you don’t dock in Key West until noon, the first morning is very relaxed and you can sleep in. We went to brunch at Lumiere’s and also found it far more relaxing than eating at Topsiders.
If you read the boards, you will find there is real split on the pleasantness of Key West as a port for DCL. We managed to experience both sides of that argument that day. We had arranged to rent an electric car for the day, but cancelled it in person after the rental person started to add additional charges to the contract (This was not the company Shirley from the Perfect Gift recommends). With the additional charges, it would have been about $200 to rent the car for two hours. The shuttle from the dock to the rental office was also very bad. It took 45 minutes on the way to the office because we had to pick up another person at a hotel (he was a no show, so we drove around the streets looking for him). After we decided not to rent the car, they made us wait to shuttle us back, and then left us at one of their offices not at Mallory Square. Overall, this whole experience took about 2 hours of our short stay in Key West.
At that point, though, things started to get better. We bought Conch Trolley Tickets at Mac’s Seagarden (really nice people) and enjoyed a nice tour of the Island. We had originally planned to get off the trolley by the Butterfly farm, but DD fell asleep in my arms, and we just stayed on until Mallory Square. At Mallory Square, we did some touristy shopping and had excellent mojitos at Red Fish, Blue Fish. It was now sundown and we enjoyed all the street performers in the square. As you can see, we were at least smiling despite toting a car seat all day. We had missed our dinner rotation, so we went to the family pool and swam for about an hour and fed DD from Goofy’s Galley. After changing, we checked her into the kid’s club, and we had dinner at Topsiders. This is an excellent alternative to the regular dinner rotation. It was very quiet and relaxed, with excellent service. The menu consisted of the many of the same items that were served in Lumiere’s that evening, so we didn’t feel we missed anything. While we were there, PJ from Palo’s, came down and started looking for some soy sauce for a guest upstairs. Someone had taken his. We teased him mercilessly the rest of the trip about how the food from Palo’s wasn’t really cooked there, but actually came from the buffet.
3. First Sea Day—New Year’s Eve: How many parties can you attend?
We actually had four parties to go to that day starting in the morning with the Castaway club (passed on that to go to brunch at Palo), Alice and the Mad Hatter Tea Party (Ok, that may be cheating), the Captain’s reception, and the official New Year’s Eve Deck Party. That doesn’t include the New Year’s Eve Party in the Kids Club or the pseudo-parties associated with the Golden Mickeys (which we saw at the matinee).
The Captain’s reception was an expanded version of the normal one, with a really, really good champagne. Very chaotic though, since there was a lot of portrait taking going on. We did have a nice time talking with the officers (and learning the origin of the noise in our cabin). We also chatted with Brent, the cruise director, about what to expect for the night. There were balloons to be dropped in the atrium but he told us that those were just a backup and they would be dropped on Thursday evening instead since the weather was so nice. The best part of the evening though was after we changed out of our formal wear. In going up to the deck party, we noticed that the adult pool was absolutely empty!! We couldn’t pass that up and spent a good part of the evening in the pool alone. Rich Purpura had raided the buffet a little for some appetizers before performing and offered to share some with us. There were many party favors and a splendid buffet, which we passed on since we wanted to get to bed.
4. Grand Cayman—We weren’t drinking last night, honest!
DW had signed up for the scuba tour in Grand Cayman. That was modified a little with no deep dives since the dive master refused to believe no one had been drinking the night before. DD and I did the Atlantis submarine. This was interesting, but aside from being in a submarine and going 100 feet down, there is not a lot of wow factor. Snorkeling is definitely more fun and colorful. Next time I think we will opt for the Seven Mile Beach Break or Stingray City. Afterwards, DD and I waited for DW at Margaritaville since we did not want to tender back and forth. They have a nice water slide and decent food so it was a nice place to spend some time. After we were all together, we shopped a little before heading back to the ship. We got back in time to do the matinee (Twice Charmed) again. There is a lot to be said for doing the matinee performances. It really frees up the evening to do what you want and they are definitely much less crowded.
Coming out of the theatre, we noticed that the balloons had dropped in the atrium. We happened to run into Brent the cruise director and asked him why they had dropped them. He said that they hadn’t, that a teenager had climbed up a balustrade and dropped them himself. We told him that our daughter would be disappointed since she had wanted to see that. He took our cabin number and said he would take of it. That night we had a very special towelgami and a very happy DD.
That evening we had the DIS board get together at the Walt Disney Suite. It was fantastic (I have now seen both the Walt and the Roy thanks to fellow DISers). Noel and her family deserve many thanks for hosting this party and doing such a great job to let us all meet each other after chatting on the boards for month.
5. Cozumel—DCL handles 50 foot waves just fine
That evening, a cold front came down all the way to Mexico. We had 30-50 foot waves and Force 10 winds starting in the early morning. Most of the stuff in our cabin that wasn’t secured went flying including all the drawers opening and spilling some of their contents. Fortunately we didn’t get too seasick.
Cozumel was a mess. The port captain had closed the port and most of the excursions were cancelled. Several cruise ships were not able to dock at all.
We were going to do the Dolphin Encounter at Chankanaab Park, but this was cancelled. DCL had arranged an alternative Dolphin excursion at a place called Dophinaris, so we opted for that and had a very nice time.
I have to say that in reading the boards that many people do book excursions by themselves outside DCL, many times because it is cheaper. I had thought of doing that myself this time, especially since you can’t actually swim with the dolphins on the DCL excursion. However, had I done that, I would have been out of luck since the Park was closed to everyone. Having booked with DCL, they arranged an alternative which turned out to be great and we wound up swimming with the dolphins after all.
We did Palo that night (We brought our own wine, teasing PJ that we did not want any from Topsiders). DW went to the pirate party in the kids’ club since it was too cold for her to be on deck.
The pirate party and fireworks actually occurred despite the cold, the wind, and the high seas, although it was sparsely attended. No buffet for us after Palo’s, but then most people were not eating anyway.
6. Second Sea Day—Dance Party Time
The seas had calmed down to 20-30 feet by Thursday.
We skipped the character breakfast so I have no information to offer as to whether the new version or the old version is better. We decided to see “Enchanted” at the BV. This was followed by the Princess Gathering, which is now down to three princesses from six.
Another matinee, this time “Disney Dreams”,which was better than I remembered it. Still can’t stand the Lion King medley, however. This was followed by Palo tea, which I would skip next time. It’s nice, but pales in comparison to the brunch or dinner.
That night we celebrated DW’s birthday a week late. They do give you enough cake so that everyone at the table can have a piece.
Afterwards, we went to the High School Musical Dance Party (and got to hear that those songs again. DD and DW had a great time and we did get a fair amount of High School Musical souvenirs afterward. After that we dropped DW off at the club for the Princess Ball. This was very cute with boys dressed up as princes and most of the girls in their princess dresses. Cinderella also made an appearance.
We finished up the evening in Sessions. Brent was between shows and stopped by and talked with people. We thanked him for our private balloon drop. He was unaware that the piano was now gone from the Walt suite, but then he didn’t get invited to Noel’s party.
7. Castaway Cay—We’re from Wisconsin, so 65 is warm.
Despite the wind and high seas, we were able to dock at Castaway Cay. It was cool, but not too windy. We were supposed to go parasailing, but that got delayed because of a passing rain shower. I needed to join my family, but the excursion eventually went off and those that went had a great time. I took the opportunity to get my fleece out of the cabin and wore it most of the day. We did do the Castaway Ray stingray adventure, which was fun. The water was cool, but you could swim in it.
DW snorkeled while I pushed DD on a float around the bay. All too soon it was four o’clock and time to get back on board. DD fell asleep at dinner, but she did wake up in time to go to the farewell show in the theater.
On our bed that night, in addition to the towelgami, was a special Ducky Williams lithograph for New Year’s Eve. It was a bit of a challenge to bring it back without folding it, but we were successful.
8. Port —Gingerbread houses are not meant for eating
Yes, as others have reported, they take that gingerbread house apart with sledgehammers. It’s quite a sight to see them breaking the gingerbread off the wooden frame. Disembarkation was easy with total time from stateroom to the Budget rental car office less than 30 minutes.
For those of you who don’t want to read through the whole report, here are a few quick lessons learned:
1) Weather in January is iffy, be prepared. This was our second cruise, the previous one being an Eastern Cruise in January 2006. On that cruise, we had 30 foot seas the first two days, followed by torrential rain in St. Maarten (causing the Pirate party to be moved in-doors), followed by gorgeous days in St. Thomas, at sea, and Castaway Cay. On this cruise, the weather was almost the opposite: gorgeous initially, followed by cold temperatures, high seas, and rain the last three days. I rebooked for an April cruise next time.
2) Booking excursions through DCL has the advantage that when weather (or anything) causes a cancellation, DCL will do their best to find alternatives. We had two excursions cancelled because of weather. In one case, DCL found us a great alternative; on the second, our money was refunded.
3) Lumiere’s is an excellent alternative to the buffets for breakfast and lunch.
4) If your schedule permits, do the matinee shows. They are not crowded and it lets you do other things in the evening.
5) The greatest people post on the DIS boards. We really enjoyed meeting all the people we had chatted with on the boards for several months. Plus you always learn something that will make your cruise more enjoyable.
1. Port Canaveral—Just Relax It’s a Disney Cruise Line
We (me, DW, and DD (almost 6) flew down on Friday and stayed at the Embassy Suites at the airport. On our previous trip we had met several families going on the cruise, but this time we were the only ones. This may have been due to many people staying on-site at WDW for the holidays, but the hotel was also being used by Michigan State supporters who were attending the bowl game that night. Still, the hotel is well situated for shopping and there is a free breakfast and free happy hour.
The only wrinkle in our plans were that we had been assigned to second seating (and had stayed there since we had booked the cruise nearly a year before). So following the advice of the DIS boards, I had made plans to be at the port at 10 AM to board early, get an early boarding group, and change the seating on-board. It all worked well, even though we were not able to enter the terminal until closer to 10:20. We were given a Group 2 boarding card and settled down to wait, which actually goes fairly quickly with the movies and characters, plus meeting our fellow DISers.
One member of our group, Pam, had made everyone T-Shirts, which made us easy to spot. It was really great meeting everyone in person. This is DD in one of our special shirts.
We boarded pretty close to noon and I rushed to Rocking Bar D (no boarding photos, I WAS ON A MISSION). I was second in line to change my reservations and I was smiling with my success as I handed the CM our KTWs to change them. He looked at them and quietly told me we were already assigned to early seating on the PLA rotation. I had never bothered to look at them or ask the CM who checked us in what rotation we had. I was so shocked , I didn’t ask him to change it to APL (which we would have preferred). I’m glad I didn’t since our server, Edward, assistant server, Okim, and our table mates , the Funada family from Japan, were wonderful and I would not have wanted to miss meeting them. I sheepishly walked backed to my family, told them about rushing them for nothing, was forgiven, and off we went to Parrot Cay for lunch. This was the best part of boarding early was eating there. It is much more relaxed than Topsiders, you have excellent wait staff, and can eat at a leisurely pace. It was so pleasant, we hung out until we could get to our stateroom at 1:30.
We were assigned 6624 and had an excellent hostess, Reeda, who took great care of us the entire trip. The stateroom, however , is very noisy as it sits directly over the hydraulic pumps for the lifeboats (I learned that from a deck officer at the Captain’s reception) and it sounds like you are sleeping over an elevator that runs day and night. Otherwise, not bad, but I would not book this room again.
The sail away party was great. I could spot all our fellow DISers in their special lime green shirts very easily. The weather was perfect and I got to hear songs from High School Musical, for what turned out to be about 100 times during the cruise. Dinner was fine in Parrot Cay and we were actually able to check our daughter into the Oceaneer Club that evening by herself, which was a change from the previous cruise in which the clubs were not fully opened that night.
2. Key West—Why are we here? To relax, that’s right
Since you don’t dock in Key West until noon, the first morning is very relaxed and you can sleep in. We went to brunch at Lumiere’s and also found it far more relaxing than eating at Topsiders.
If you read the boards, you will find there is real split on the pleasantness of Key West as a port for DCL. We managed to experience both sides of that argument that day. We had arranged to rent an electric car for the day, but cancelled it in person after the rental person started to add additional charges to the contract (This was not the company Shirley from the Perfect Gift recommends). With the additional charges, it would have been about $200 to rent the car for two hours. The shuttle from the dock to the rental office was also very bad. It took 45 minutes on the way to the office because we had to pick up another person at a hotel (he was a no show, so we drove around the streets looking for him). After we decided not to rent the car, they made us wait to shuttle us back, and then left us at one of their offices not at Mallory Square. Overall, this whole experience took about 2 hours of our short stay in Key West.
At that point, though, things started to get better. We bought Conch Trolley Tickets at Mac’s Seagarden (really nice people) and enjoyed a nice tour of the Island. We had originally planned to get off the trolley by the Butterfly farm, but DD fell asleep in my arms, and we just stayed on until Mallory Square. At Mallory Square, we did some touristy shopping and had excellent mojitos at Red Fish, Blue Fish. It was now sundown and we enjoyed all the street performers in the square. As you can see, we were at least smiling despite toting a car seat all day. We had missed our dinner rotation, so we went to the family pool and swam for about an hour and fed DD from Goofy’s Galley. After changing, we checked her into the kid’s club, and we had dinner at Topsiders. This is an excellent alternative to the regular dinner rotation. It was very quiet and relaxed, with excellent service. The menu consisted of the many of the same items that were served in Lumiere’s that evening, so we didn’t feel we missed anything. While we were there, PJ from Palo’s, came down and started looking for some soy sauce for a guest upstairs. Someone had taken his. We teased him mercilessly the rest of the trip about how the food from Palo’s wasn’t really cooked there, but actually came from the buffet.
3. First Sea Day—New Year’s Eve: How many parties can you attend?
We actually had four parties to go to that day starting in the morning with the Castaway club (passed on that to go to brunch at Palo), Alice and the Mad Hatter Tea Party (Ok, that may be cheating), the Captain’s reception, and the official New Year’s Eve Deck Party. That doesn’t include the New Year’s Eve Party in the Kids Club or the pseudo-parties associated with the Golden Mickeys (which we saw at the matinee).
The Captain’s reception was an expanded version of the normal one, with a really, really good champagne. Very chaotic though, since there was a lot of portrait taking going on. We did have a nice time talking with the officers (and learning the origin of the noise in our cabin). We also chatted with Brent, the cruise director, about what to expect for the night. There were balloons to be dropped in the atrium but he told us that those were just a backup and they would be dropped on Thursday evening instead since the weather was so nice. The best part of the evening though was after we changed out of our formal wear. In going up to the deck party, we noticed that the adult pool was absolutely empty!! We couldn’t pass that up and spent a good part of the evening in the pool alone. Rich Purpura had raided the buffet a little for some appetizers before performing and offered to share some with us. There were many party favors and a splendid buffet, which we passed on since we wanted to get to bed.
4. Grand Cayman—We weren’t drinking last night, honest!
DW had signed up for the scuba tour in Grand Cayman. That was modified a little with no deep dives since the dive master refused to believe no one had been drinking the night before. DD and I did the Atlantis submarine. This was interesting, but aside from being in a submarine and going 100 feet down, there is not a lot of wow factor. Snorkeling is definitely more fun and colorful. Next time I think we will opt for the Seven Mile Beach Break or Stingray City. Afterwards, DD and I waited for DW at Margaritaville since we did not want to tender back and forth. They have a nice water slide and decent food so it was a nice place to spend some time. After we were all together, we shopped a little before heading back to the ship. We got back in time to do the matinee (Twice Charmed) again. There is a lot to be said for doing the matinee performances. It really frees up the evening to do what you want and they are definitely much less crowded.
Coming out of the theatre, we noticed that the balloons had dropped in the atrium. We happened to run into Brent the cruise director and asked him why they had dropped them. He said that they hadn’t, that a teenager had climbed up a balustrade and dropped them himself. We told him that our daughter would be disappointed since she had wanted to see that. He took our cabin number and said he would take of it. That night we had a very special towelgami and a very happy DD.
That evening we had the DIS board get together at the Walt Disney Suite. It was fantastic (I have now seen both the Walt and the Roy thanks to fellow DISers). Noel and her family deserve many thanks for hosting this party and doing such a great job to let us all meet each other after chatting on the boards for month.
5. Cozumel—DCL handles 50 foot waves just fine
That evening, a cold front came down all the way to Mexico. We had 30-50 foot waves and Force 10 winds starting in the early morning. Most of the stuff in our cabin that wasn’t secured went flying including all the drawers opening and spilling some of their contents. Fortunately we didn’t get too seasick.
Cozumel was a mess. The port captain had closed the port and most of the excursions were cancelled. Several cruise ships were not able to dock at all.
We were going to do the Dolphin Encounter at Chankanaab Park, but this was cancelled. DCL had arranged an alternative Dolphin excursion at a place called Dophinaris, so we opted for that and had a very nice time.
I have to say that in reading the boards that many people do book excursions by themselves outside DCL, many times because it is cheaper. I had thought of doing that myself this time, especially since you can’t actually swim with the dolphins on the DCL excursion. However, had I done that, I would have been out of luck since the Park was closed to everyone. Having booked with DCL, they arranged an alternative which turned out to be great and we wound up swimming with the dolphins after all.
We did Palo that night (We brought our own wine, teasing PJ that we did not want any from Topsiders). DW went to the pirate party in the kids’ club since it was too cold for her to be on deck.
The pirate party and fireworks actually occurred despite the cold, the wind, and the high seas, although it was sparsely attended. No buffet for us after Palo’s, but then most people were not eating anyway.
6. Second Sea Day—Dance Party Time
The seas had calmed down to 20-30 feet by Thursday.
We skipped the character breakfast so I have no information to offer as to whether the new version or the old version is better. We decided to see “Enchanted” at the BV. This was followed by the Princess Gathering, which is now down to three princesses from six.
Another matinee, this time “Disney Dreams”,which was better than I remembered it. Still can’t stand the Lion King medley, however. This was followed by Palo tea, which I would skip next time. It’s nice, but pales in comparison to the brunch or dinner.
That night we celebrated DW’s birthday a week late. They do give you enough cake so that everyone at the table can have a piece.
Afterwards, we went to the High School Musical Dance Party (and got to hear that those songs again. DD and DW had a great time and we did get a fair amount of High School Musical souvenirs afterward. After that we dropped DW off at the club for the Princess Ball. This was very cute with boys dressed up as princes and most of the girls in their princess dresses. Cinderella also made an appearance.
We finished up the evening in Sessions. Brent was between shows and stopped by and talked with people. We thanked him for our private balloon drop. He was unaware that the piano was now gone from the Walt suite, but then he didn’t get invited to Noel’s party.
7. Castaway Cay—We’re from Wisconsin, so 65 is warm.
Despite the wind and high seas, we were able to dock at Castaway Cay. It was cool, but not too windy. We were supposed to go parasailing, but that got delayed because of a passing rain shower. I needed to join my family, but the excursion eventually went off and those that went had a great time. I took the opportunity to get my fleece out of the cabin and wore it most of the day. We did do the Castaway Ray stingray adventure, which was fun. The water was cool, but you could swim in it.
DW snorkeled while I pushed DD on a float around the bay. All too soon it was four o’clock and time to get back on board. DD fell asleep at dinner, but she did wake up in time to go to the farewell show in the theater.
On our bed that night, in addition to the towelgami, was a special Ducky Williams lithograph for New Year’s Eve. It was a bit of a challenge to bring it back without folding it, but we were successful.
8. Port —Gingerbread houses are not meant for eating
Yes, as others have reported, they take that gingerbread house apart with sledgehammers. It’s quite a sight to see them breaking the gingerbread off the wooden frame. Disembarkation was easy with total time from stateroom to the Budget rental car office less than 30 minutes.
And I would love to see them take the sledgehammers to the gingerbread house!
Thanks for sharing 
