Disney Magic Eastern Canada Cruise Trip Report, June 10-15, 2012
Here are some notes from our trip last week on the inaugural voyage of the Magic to Halifax and Saint John. We had a fabulous trip. Ive tried to include some details that may be useful for people taking this cruise later this summer. Id be happy to answer any questions people have. On to my trip report
June 10 Sailing from New York
The Magic was at Pier 88 in New York. In the terminal Mickey was dressed as Uncle Sam for photos and Minnie was the Statue of Liberty. We arrived at our given time and were assigned to group 15 for boarding, but they were already boarding group 40. So, it seems like we could have arrived much earlier than our assigned time. The Intrepid was a couple of piers away from us and once the cruise ship next to us sailed we had a fabulous view of the Enterprise Space Shuttle from our room. The space shuttle will be open on July 19 for tours. We no longer have to wear life jackets for the drill (sorry if this is old news for more recent cruisers on
DCL, but I wanted to note changes from our previous cruises on the Magic). We were about a half hour late sailing away, so you had to choose between being on time for the first dinner seating or staying out to see us sail by the Statue of Liberty.
Peter was the cruise director for our sailing, and we had Captain John. There is a new Castaway gift in the room. Its a very nice backpack now with the new key ring design, Mickey pretzels, and Mickey gold fish treats inside. Sadly, there are no Canada themed dinners. The first three nights were show dinners, then pirates, then the farewell dinner.
There is a new photo deal where you pay $249 for the CD and then for an extra $50 you get unlimited prints.
The shops had some Canada and New York merchandise. There were t-shirts, vinylmation, and Christmas ornaments from New York. Canada had a few different styles of t-shirts, one was bundled with a cap, there were scrapbooking pages, a Mickey in yellow raingear statue, photo albums, and a postcard with the Canada cruise artwork on it. There were also Canada pins one with an overall Canada theme and one for each port.
June 11 First Sea Day
We put our clocks forward one hour tonight. It has been cool on deck and breezy. No summer clothes today! Tonight is the formal night and Twice Charmed show. Lots of photo ops in the lobby. I saw a handful of long dresses and less than half dozen tuxes. People wore everything from cruise casual to formal. Most people were at least slightly dressed up from cruise casual. We went to the shopping talk, but it was mostly words and very few pictures of what was available in port. So, it was hard to get excited about shopping when you had no idea what things looked like. However, there were still some freebies thrown to the audience and the jewelry raffle at the end. Otherwise, we just hung out and enjoyed being back on the Magic. We didnt go to the Art of Entertaining entrée demo, but it was the salmon in phyllo dough recipe. We had the Gold Castaway gift in our stateroom today and it was a nice leather diary with a pen, a luggage strap, and note cards. In the evening we got our gift commemorating our first time in Eastern Canada. It was a lovely set of note cards with the characters in Canadian dress on the paper and envelopes.
June 12 Halifax
Blue skies and mild temperatures, a beautiful day to see Halifax. We woke up to bagpipes at 8am and felt like royalty since the Queen of England wakes up to bagpipes every day. The dock was on the starboard side of the ship. The ship was cleared at 8:30am. We chose the Hop On Hop Off bus for our excursion. They had three routes. All the guides were very good with lots of interesting stories about Halifax. The Halifax explosion story was so interesting we ended up buying a book about it to learn more. Each loop was about 20-30 minutes. We timed it so that we took the route that stopped at the Spring Garden Road shopping area around lunchtime. We had lunch at a pub called My Fathers Mustache. Two of us had some great fish and chips, and one of us had a salad that was very good. We asked if kids were allowed, and kids of all ages are ok. If teens come without adults there are some areas they cant sit in. We went to several stores including Jennifers that had been recommended on this thread. Thanks very much for that recommendation, we really enjoyed the shop and bought a few things there. In the afternoon we walked along the waterfront. We were running out of time fast so we only had time for a Beavertail and no Cows. I took the Beavertails AND Cows advice very seriously, but there was no time to do both. The Beavertail was yummy! Thanks for that recommendation! The Beavertail stand is just a little farther than the Maritime Museum. DH went to the Museum and really enjoyed it. I spent the last hour at the shops at the pier. Halifax was great and we could have used much more time here. We got a great overview on the HOHO bus, with lots of notes of where wed like to return to on our next trip. The Gold/Platinum
Castaway Club party was that afternoon. They had a great selection of food and drinks, pictures with Goofy, and some nice videos of the Fantasy christening and future plans. We had bagpipes and drums at the sail away that were really enjoyed by everyone. You can hear the people cheering on the video of the sail away from Halifax that was posted earlier. This evening was the Villains show. In our cabin we got a limited edition lithograph commemorating the Magics first trip to Eastern Canada.
June 13 Saint John
We wake up to blue skies, mild temperatures, and another beautiful day. We are adjusting to the time change and are up in time to see the sail in through the bay from the outside tables at Topsiders. The ship was cleared by 9am. We were docked on the starboard side again. I did not hear any bagpipes this morning. When we got off the ship there was a large welcoming committee with roses for the women, pins for the men, and flags for the kids. A really lovely welcome to Saint John. We did the Maple Syrup tour. While it wasnt the season to get the sap, it was still interesting to hear about how trees were tapped and syrup was made both historically and currently. After the tour they poured maple syrup on ice and we could try that if we wanted to. Then we had a brunch with pancakes, local sausage, maple syrup and apple juice, coffee, tea, or water to drink. It was very good. Because of the warmer winter, there was not as much sap this year. The owners sold out of maple syrup before we had a chance to buy any. Im not sure if they are sold out of everything for the year, or just the jars they had made up at that time and theyll have more for later tours. We ended up buying maple syrup back in town at the port. The tour guide had lots of information about the area that he shared during the bus ride along with photos of the area in other seasons. The tour ran over by an hour so I was glad Disney did not let us book the afternoon blueberry tour as we would have missed it. (DS heard reports in the teen club that the blueberry tour was very good as well.) They apologized for running long and said they would try to fix it. We walked around town after that and explored on foot. There were bagpipes as we sailed away, also a few people waving from the dock. It looked like a preschool group was there in the afternoon looking at the ship from the dock. The Magic did a u turn in port to go back down the bay. It was pirate night on the ship. It was very chilly on deck and everyone was bundled up to watch the show and fireworks. There was a comedy show in the main theater. We set our clocks back one hour tonight.
June 14 Second Sea Day
Today was mostly a sunny and warm sea day, with a brief window of cloudy and cool in the afternoon, then back to sunny and warm. Once again we just hung out and enjoyed being on the Magic again. The Art of Entertaining was an Apple Crumble Dessert demo. During the whole cruise they were refinishing the outdoor decking on Deck 4. So, future cruisers, please admire your newly refurbished deck. Disney Dreams was the evening show. We had a beautiful sunset, and the ship almost seemed to be standing still she was going so slowly. We picked up our photo prints in the evening so that we could pack them. Tips are done a new way since we last cruised. The standard tip amount is automatically charged to your room if you havent already prepaid it. We never took advantage of the pre-pay option as more often than not we wanted to round up our tip in appreciation of the great service we often receive. They say you can change the amount up or down if you want to, but I preferred the old way where they suggested the amount, but we chose what to do. We ended up putting cash into the envelopes of the crew that went above and beyond rather than standing in line to change the amount. Another thing that has changed is that there is no daily newspaper anymore with a recap of the news and sports for the previous day. We miss that. While internet is available everywhere, we usually turn off our phones when we leave port to avoid roaming charges, so we liked getting a summary of the news in the stateroom each day. Im not sure when they stopped doing this as we had it on the Baltic in 2010.
June 15 Back in New York
Its all over too soon. Early risers can get up at 4am to see the Magic pass under the bridge into New York harbor, the Statue of Liberty, and Manhattan lit up at night. One of us manages to get up that early and said it was a fabulous sight. There is a new disembarkation option called Express, and since we have an appointment to see the 9/11 memorial, we take advantage of it. You keep all your luggage and take it off yourself. Topsiders is open with the usual buffet from 6 to 7 am (and you get to eat breakfast looking at the Manhattan skyline!). We pick up our photo CDs starting at 6:30am, and were off the ship by 7:30am. There were no lines to get off or at customs at that time. We get a taxi from across the street and are at our hotel before 8am! You can do Express from 6:30 to 8am. After that you have to get off at your assigned time and wait in a lounge after youve finished breakfast until your luggage tag color is called. I am a huge fan of the new Express and would probably use it even if we didnt have a specific appointment.
Thats my trip report. Ill try and monitor the thread for questions over the next couple of weeks. It was a fabulous cruise. I hope they do it again and make it a longer cruise.