pdarrah
It's nice to know you are real, too
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- Jun 3, 2004
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Continued from Part 4
Friday, October 29: Castaway Cay and Packing
We were awakened by the call from room service letting us know they were on the way with our muffins and cereal. For some reason, the wake-up call we had set did not work. Although we were a little behind our planned schedule, we were still ready before they called the All Ashore for Castaway Cay. (If we had been up earlier, we would have gone up to watch the ship pull up to the pier.) This was the most crowded exit from the ship, but it only took a few minutes and then we were off. We chose to walk instead of using the tram. First we took DS to Scuttles Cove (the kid club on the island) and then we found the tram to Serenity Bay (the adult beach). I would definitely suggest the tram for that trek it is quite a ways and almost no shade. Once there, we walked down the beach until we found our DIS dining friends and we just sat and relaxed and chatted for about an hour. The beach is beautiful, calm and quiet.
DS had said that he didnt want to stay at the club for lunch and the treasure hunt that was scheduled for after lunch. We had asked him about 20 times if he was sure. Therefore, after an hour of relaxing, we took the tram back to the main area and went to pick him up. Now, he did want to have lunch and do the treasure hunt! Next time, we will only come back if he has them page us. Since we were back in the main area and they were starting to serve lunch, we ate and then found a quiet spot on the end of the family beach farthest from the ship. There were plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas. After the treasure hunt, we picked up DS and he and DH played in the water and built sand castles. I went over to the snorkel trail and went on out and found the Mickey statue. The snorkeling is OK if you get out far enough, but nowhere near as good as Cozumel. I think the tide was very low since there were some areas where there was barely any water over the sea grasses and part of the 2000 Leagues Under the Sea submarine was above water. Near the sub, I saw a 3 or 4-foot long barracuda! Since they are attracted to shiny stuff, I held the arm with my watch over my head and moved away.
Once I was back from snorkeling, we decided to pack up and head back to the ship. It was about 3:00 when we started packing up our beach stuff and close to 3:30 when we got back on board. DS wanted to be in the kid show, so he needed to be back at the club at 4:00pm. After getting DS cleaned up, I took him to the club and then got myself cleaned up. DH and I started packing some of our stuff, but we took a break to go see the show. It was cute, but I am not sure why it makes anyone cry. After the show, we went back to packing and picked up DS so he could eat his chicken tenders in the room (one last time!) He actually dozed off and we had to wake him up before we went to dinner. Given a choice of going to dinner and sitting with us and going to the club, he once again chose the club.
Our tablemates were at Palo, so we had dinner for two. They stopped by during desert and we made plans to bring our last bottle of wine to their cabin after dinner. We stopped by our room to quickly change into the clothes we would wear tomorrow and get the last stuff into the luggage. We put it outside the door and headed back out with our wine. Since I dont drink alcohol, DH and our friends drank the bottle while we all sat out on the verandah admiring the stars.
We picked up DS at about 11:45 there were only a few kids and counselors left. We had brought 2 Wal-Mart gift cards ($10 each) for DS to give to his favorite counselors (if he had any). One of the ones he wanted to give it to was there, the other was not, but we left it at the desk and they assured us it would get to her. Next time, we will hand them out earlier in the day.
Since DH had to get up to visit US Customs in the morning (4 bottles of alcohol 2 over our limit), we called guest services to setup our wake-up call so we would be certain to get it.
Saturday, October 30: All Ashore, NASA and Home.
DH hopped up with his wake-up call and was dressed and out to customs before DS and I were really even moving. He was back soon since our duty on 2 bottles of alcohol was well under $10 he did not have to pay anything. Soon we were all dressed and had packed the few final items. DS and I went up to deck 10 for a final look around. We watched the sun rise from up there and looked at the other ships that were also back in port none of them were as nice as the Magic. Knowing we would be back next year definitely made it easier to say goodbye! At 8:00, we went to breakfast and found that our friends were also going to be getting a rental car from Budget, so we all walked off the ship together.
We split up at the baggage claim and customs line (probably the least organized part of the entire trip, but it is probably outside of Disneys control.) I couldnt believe the porters that were just pushing their carts right up to the front of the line and cutting in. Even more unbelievable was that the people who the luggage belonged to seemed perfectly comfortable with this behavior! We had an evil chuckle moment when one of these groups didnt have any of their documents filled out and was forced to step aside.
Out at the tent where the car-rental shuttles pick you up, we met up again with our friends. We rode to the Budget office together and said our farewells there. In the next few weeks we will get together and share all of our pictures. DH, DS and I then drove over to the Kennedy Space Center. Our flight wasnt until 6:30pm and the space center was a good way to spend the day. We didnt do any of the tours, but we did see a couple IMAX movies, a show and just visited some of the exhibits. Around 3:00, we started for the airport. We were there in plenty of time and our flight was on time. At about 9:30pm we were back in our own home and playing with our very happy cats.
Final Thoughts:
These are just some random thoughts that didnt really fit into the day-by-day report.
We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to another cruise next year. It is absolutely impossible to do everything you would like in a 7-day cruise. Some of the things I would have liked to do, but didnt get to are: try the Rain Forest Room at the Spa, a few more character meets for photographs, more time relaxing (either on deck 4 or at the adult pool), and going to some of the evening adult clubs or shows. There are probably others, but those are the ones that occur to me right now.
Food: I did want to give some thoughts on the meals. I havent really documented the day-by-day of what we ate. I didnt keep a journal and I really dont remember. However, all of the food was enjoyable. Some was better than others, but nothing was badly done. I appreciated that the portions in the dining room were not super-sized. Portions were reasonable and I usually felt comfortable after dinner not stuffed to the gills! Our servers certainly would have brought us more I cant imagine anyone not getting enough but I appreciated not having tons of food on my plate. The only times I overate, it was because of Palo and my not having enough will power! We overate the day we had brunch and tea at Palo the brunch was a buffet and we wanted to try everything. We also overate the night we had dinner at Palo. Since we couldnt make up our minds and ordered 2 half-entrees each and I really think those ½ entrees were nearly regular sized we ended up eating way too much.
DS ate chicken strips every single day. Normally, I would be completely unable to understand this however, they were the BEST chicken strips I have ever tasted. I dont know how or why, but DCL has great chicken strips!
Shows: The shows are certainly well done, but I am not sure they are the not to be missed things that so many people rave about. We all enjoyed Hercules and I personally enjoyed Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer, but The Golden Mickeys and Disney Dreams were just OK for the grownups (DS seemed to really enjoy them.) We didnt make it to the Welcome Aboard or Farewell Variety shows so I cannot comment on them.
Internet Access: We purchased unlimited access for the cruise. Although it is expensive, if you are going to use the net more than once or twice, it is cheaper to do unlimted rather than by the minute. It costs $0.75 per minute or $89.99 for unlimited access. Most of the time, we had a reasonable connection (maybe a little slower than our DSL at home). Once or twice it was rather slow, but since we had the unlimited access this didnt bother us too much. I would probably be going nuts over a slow connection if I was paying by the minute.
Family Value Water Package: We decided after our day at Key West that we definitely needed bottled water for our shore excursions and maybe even for drinking in the room (cooler than the tap water). We purchased the water package 24 bottles for $27. What they dont tell you is that since you order this from room service, they tack a 15% tip onto the cost which added another $4. Since we didnt immediately notice that charge, we also tipped the delivery guy $1. Next time, we will probably buy water before we board maybe just a 6 pack that we can refill as needed.
Beverage Station: Although I didnt talk about it in the main report, we used the beverage station on Deck 9 a lot. It was always working, there was always ice available and we never had to wait in a line.
THE END!
Friday, October 29: Castaway Cay and Packing
We were awakened by the call from room service letting us know they were on the way with our muffins and cereal. For some reason, the wake-up call we had set did not work. Although we were a little behind our planned schedule, we were still ready before they called the All Ashore for Castaway Cay. (If we had been up earlier, we would have gone up to watch the ship pull up to the pier.) This was the most crowded exit from the ship, but it only took a few minutes and then we were off. We chose to walk instead of using the tram. First we took DS to Scuttles Cove (the kid club on the island) and then we found the tram to Serenity Bay (the adult beach). I would definitely suggest the tram for that trek it is quite a ways and almost no shade. Once there, we walked down the beach until we found our DIS dining friends and we just sat and relaxed and chatted for about an hour. The beach is beautiful, calm and quiet.
DS had said that he didnt want to stay at the club for lunch and the treasure hunt that was scheduled for after lunch. We had asked him about 20 times if he was sure. Therefore, after an hour of relaxing, we took the tram back to the main area and went to pick him up. Now, he did want to have lunch and do the treasure hunt! Next time, we will only come back if he has them page us. Since we were back in the main area and they were starting to serve lunch, we ate and then found a quiet spot on the end of the family beach farthest from the ship. There were plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas. After the treasure hunt, we picked up DS and he and DH played in the water and built sand castles. I went over to the snorkel trail and went on out and found the Mickey statue. The snorkeling is OK if you get out far enough, but nowhere near as good as Cozumel. I think the tide was very low since there were some areas where there was barely any water over the sea grasses and part of the 2000 Leagues Under the Sea submarine was above water. Near the sub, I saw a 3 or 4-foot long barracuda! Since they are attracted to shiny stuff, I held the arm with my watch over my head and moved away.
Once I was back from snorkeling, we decided to pack up and head back to the ship. It was about 3:00 when we started packing up our beach stuff and close to 3:30 when we got back on board. DS wanted to be in the kid show, so he needed to be back at the club at 4:00pm. After getting DS cleaned up, I took him to the club and then got myself cleaned up. DH and I started packing some of our stuff, but we took a break to go see the show. It was cute, but I am not sure why it makes anyone cry. After the show, we went back to packing and picked up DS so he could eat his chicken tenders in the room (one last time!) He actually dozed off and we had to wake him up before we went to dinner. Given a choice of going to dinner and sitting with us and going to the club, he once again chose the club.
Our tablemates were at Palo, so we had dinner for two. They stopped by during desert and we made plans to bring our last bottle of wine to their cabin after dinner. We stopped by our room to quickly change into the clothes we would wear tomorrow and get the last stuff into the luggage. We put it outside the door and headed back out with our wine. Since I dont drink alcohol, DH and our friends drank the bottle while we all sat out on the verandah admiring the stars.
We picked up DS at about 11:45 there were only a few kids and counselors left. We had brought 2 Wal-Mart gift cards ($10 each) for DS to give to his favorite counselors (if he had any). One of the ones he wanted to give it to was there, the other was not, but we left it at the desk and they assured us it would get to her. Next time, we will hand them out earlier in the day.
Since DH had to get up to visit US Customs in the morning (4 bottles of alcohol 2 over our limit), we called guest services to setup our wake-up call so we would be certain to get it.
Saturday, October 30: All Ashore, NASA and Home.
DH hopped up with his wake-up call and was dressed and out to customs before DS and I were really even moving. He was back soon since our duty on 2 bottles of alcohol was well under $10 he did not have to pay anything. Soon we were all dressed and had packed the few final items. DS and I went up to deck 10 for a final look around. We watched the sun rise from up there and looked at the other ships that were also back in port none of them were as nice as the Magic. Knowing we would be back next year definitely made it easier to say goodbye! At 8:00, we went to breakfast and found that our friends were also going to be getting a rental car from Budget, so we all walked off the ship together.
We split up at the baggage claim and customs line (probably the least organized part of the entire trip, but it is probably outside of Disneys control.) I couldnt believe the porters that were just pushing their carts right up to the front of the line and cutting in. Even more unbelievable was that the people who the luggage belonged to seemed perfectly comfortable with this behavior! We had an evil chuckle moment when one of these groups didnt have any of their documents filled out and was forced to step aside.
Out at the tent where the car-rental shuttles pick you up, we met up again with our friends. We rode to the Budget office together and said our farewells there. In the next few weeks we will get together and share all of our pictures. DH, DS and I then drove over to the Kennedy Space Center. Our flight wasnt until 6:30pm and the space center was a good way to spend the day. We didnt do any of the tours, but we did see a couple IMAX movies, a show and just visited some of the exhibits. Around 3:00, we started for the airport. We were there in plenty of time and our flight was on time. At about 9:30pm we were back in our own home and playing with our very happy cats.
Final Thoughts:
These are just some random thoughts that didnt really fit into the day-by-day report.
We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to another cruise next year. It is absolutely impossible to do everything you would like in a 7-day cruise. Some of the things I would have liked to do, but didnt get to are: try the Rain Forest Room at the Spa, a few more character meets for photographs, more time relaxing (either on deck 4 or at the adult pool), and going to some of the evening adult clubs or shows. There are probably others, but those are the ones that occur to me right now.
Food: I did want to give some thoughts on the meals. I havent really documented the day-by-day of what we ate. I didnt keep a journal and I really dont remember. However, all of the food was enjoyable. Some was better than others, but nothing was badly done. I appreciated that the portions in the dining room were not super-sized. Portions were reasonable and I usually felt comfortable after dinner not stuffed to the gills! Our servers certainly would have brought us more I cant imagine anyone not getting enough but I appreciated not having tons of food on my plate. The only times I overate, it was because of Palo and my not having enough will power! We overate the day we had brunch and tea at Palo the brunch was a buffet and we wanted to try everything. We also overate the night we had dinner at Palo. Since we couldnt make up our minds and ordered 2 half-entrees each and I really think those ½ entrees were nearly regular sized we ended up eating way too much.
DS ate chicken strips every single day. Normally, I would be completely unable to understand this however, they were the BEST chicken strips I have ever tasted. I dont know how or why, but DCL has great chicken strips!
Shows: The shows are certainly well done, but I am not sure they are the not to be missed things that so many people rave about. We all enjoyed Hercules and I personally enjoyed Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer, but The Golden Mickeys and Disney Dreams were just OK for the grownups (DS seemed to really enjoy them.) We didnt make it to the Welcome Aboard or Farewell Variety shows so I cannot comment on them.
Internet Access: We purchased unlimited access for the cruise. Although it is expensive, if you are going to use the net more than once or twice, it is cheaper to do unlimted rather than by the minute. It costs $0.75 per minute or $89.99 for unlimited access. Most of the time, we had a reasonable connection (maybe a little slower than our DSL at home). Once or twice it was rather slow, but since we had the unlimited access this didnt bother us too much. I would probably be going nuts over a slow connection if I was paying by the minute.
Family Value Water Package: We decided after our day at Key West that we definitely needed bottled water for our shore excursions and maybe even for drinking in the room (cooler than the tap water). We purchased the water package 24 bottles for $27. What they dont tell you is that since you order this from room service, they tack a 15% tip onto the cost which added another $4. Since we didnt immediately notice that charge, we also tipped the delivery guy $1. Next time, we will probably buy water before we board maybe just a 6 pack that we can refill as needed.
Beverage Station: Although I didnt talk about it in the main report, we used the beverage station on Deck 9 a lot. It was always working, there was always ice available and we never had to wait in a line.
THE END!
It was great.
