Our amazing first cruise 8/19-8/26, finished with a couple pictures to boot!

[Dsnylndlvrs]

Just got off the Magic Saturday and had a GREAT time. It was pretty much everything we’d hoped for and more.

Before I get on with my (probably very long) trip report, I have a question for more experienced cruisers – Does everyone continue to feel the rocking when they get back to land? I know that Costa Maya and Cozumel both felt like they were rocking, but when I got home, my house was rocking too, LOL!!! It’s been a day and a half and I still sometimes feel the swaying.

So, here’s some background on us: There’s me, Kris, and DH, along with our DS(13) and DD(10) and we’re from Northern California. This was our first cruise. We were supposed to have been on the Magic back on July 29, but my DFIL passed away right before and we had to postpone at the last minute. We really thought there was no way that we’d be able reschedule our much anticipated Disney cruise with so little notice, but were very relieved when it worked out. I really think my DFIL had something to do with our being able to not only find space on the cruise, but also in the same category stateroom we’d planned on. He really wanted us to have this vacation.

Getting ready: I spent a LOT of time preparing to pack, planning what to pack, making spreadsheets of what our dinner clothes would be each night, making sure that each peace of luggage had some of each of our clothes (in case luggage got lost), etc. I really went crazy with the planning. The luggage was all packed two nights before and I was quite satisfied that we were only taking 3 large suitcases and 1 small suitcase. I had a list for each numbered suitcase and everything was in order. Then, the night before leaving, I decided to weigh the luggage to make sure everything was under the 50 pound limit. Of course, 2 of the suitcases were over 50 pounds and 1 was almost 50 pounds on our home scale! So, I found myself opening each case, taking out and weighing several items from each one and putting all that into a 5th suitcase! My carefully written packing lists went out the window, LOL!

Getting to Orlando: We flew from San Francisco into Orlando, arriving about 8:30 pm. To our amazement, all the luggage pretty much came out together and all five pieces were among the first to come out on the belt! Lucky us! We called the Airport Marriott to have the shuttle pick us up and were in our room eating room service dinners by 9:30. Their smoked chicken quesadillas are yummy and huge!

Saturday morning: The big day!!! We didn’t sleep much (hmmm, wonder why?) Up before the alarm, down to have buffet breakfast, back up to the room to wait for our transportation to the port. We were ready early and quite anxious to go. We’d arranged a limo as an extra surprise for the kids and it was supposed to arrive at 9:00am and it was only about 8:30am. So, we sat and sat for what SEEMED like forever. At 8:45 (yes, only 15 minutes of waiting forever!) we got a call to the room that the limo was there (and we hadn’t yet checked out!) Time to grab the luggage and run for the elevators, check out and head outside to the beautiful white stretch limo. I had the camera all ready to catch their jumping and screaming when they saw our cool ride. But, nothing. No scream, not one jump, not even a smile. Huh? We told them they could go inside. Still no reaction. Not until the car closed behind all four of us did a smile creep out of their faces. Turns out they were in a state of disbelief.

We loved riding in the spaciousnous of the limo as opposed to a cramped shuttle van that we’d normally take and the limo really wasn’t that much more expensive. The ride was nice, no traffic and my daughter loved seeing some palm trees along the way. Everything was going along happily and peacefully until suddenly IT happened. I caught glance on the left of something big and black and white, and BEAUTIFUL. The Magic snuck up on me when I wasn’t prepared to see it. Quick – get the camera out again. Quick - switch seats with DD to take pictures out the open window. Then, sit and stare with tears running down my face. Our cruise really was going to happen this time!

So, we continue to stare out the window in amazement. It was silent in that limo but our eyes were sure open wide. I’d never seen a cruise ship in person, let alone one that I’d be riding on! Then we had to turn to head to the port and the ship was suddenly on the right. Quick – switch seats with DD (again!) to get more pictures of the Magic and the port. Stare some more. A few more tears. And then we pulled up the curb in front of the terminal. It was time for our vacation to really begin…


(to be continued)

 

[jerry112]

Hi Kris,

To answer your question, the rocking you're feeling is common and can last for a few days, as you now know! I've had the same experience and have read lots of other posts from people who have felt the same rocking.

Your report is sounding great so far, and I can't wait to read the rest. Glad it was all you had hoped for! We'll be sailing in 75 days on the November double dip and it just can't get here quick enough!!

Karen

 

[HiYaPal]

For some reason, Ialways feel it the most when I am in the shower or the restroom

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Great start! Can't wait to read more!

 

[jrose529]

I'm loving your TR! I can't wait to find out how you felt when they announced your family's name!

 

[CastleCreations]

I know how you feel about the cruise ships. I was in awe when I saw them all lined up at the port. I was so excited. They were all so beautiful, but of course DCL's are the prettiest...Lol
Elisa

 

[curlybop]

Keep on going! I love trip reports.

 

[DeloreanGirl]

It always takes me about 4 days or so for the rocking to stop!! Oy!

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

So, here’s where I left off:

The limo had just dropped me (Kris), DH, DS(13) and DD(10) off on the sidewalk in front of the terminal. This is when some confusion set in. We could see the terminal and the ship, but they were on the other side of a fence. We knew where we wanted to be, but couldn’t tell how to get there. All around us were people who were clearly leaving the ship and heading home. From where we stood, it just wasn’t obvious where we should go. I was beginning to wonder if wanting to get to the port by 10:00am was a mistake.

Anyway, we started walking and pushing by all the people loading up their cars. Eventually we made our way to the other end of the sidewalk and an opening in the fence, with a crosswalk leading to the terminal! But, alas, the port employee told us we needed to go back further down the sidewalk to take our luggage to a gate. The confusion on our part continued until someone, clearly a very experienced Disney cruiser, told me I should line my luggage up in a specific place and she even took one of our suitcases, putting it in place for me!

(Quick little break here – if you are or think you may know this nice person I mention, I’d love to know! Here’s what I know about her – She sounded like she was from the Northeast (possibly New York.) She seemed to be traveling with a large group of family, but also seemed to be very much a part of the DIS crowd. In chatting with her at the terminal, I found out she’d been on a cruise when they filmed some of a popular TV show and she even made it onto TV! She was very open, friendly and talkative. If she’s out there, I’d just like to say “Hi! Thanks for the help and I wish I’d found out your name!”)

Eventually, the port employees opened the gate, took our luggage and we were on our way into the terminal. The terminal is beautiful and clean; security was easy. We got our number 2 (!!!!!) boarding number, and up the escalator we went! After a quick signing of a waiver regarding filming on the ship, we got all checked in and also got children’s club registration taken care of. It all was pleasant and I love how Disney cast members are just so nice and helpful. We had a nice amount of time to wander the terminal, take a few pictures and just take it all in. DS even managed to make his first friend of the cruise, Josh, someone we’d see a lot of!

Soon enough, it was 11:30 and the crowds were in place, waiting for their numbers to be called. Once number 2 was called, I don’t think we could have made it any faster. Of course, we had to stop for embarking pictures and then there was the friendly cast member asking for our name. Now, before the cruise, I thought I’d probably break down in major tears once I heard our name announced and stepped on board. But, no. It was just celebration and joy. And, a sense of purpose – we must find our way to Rockin Bar D to book a Palo brunch. I was very surprised to find out that brunch for the second sea day was already completely booked online (thought they wouldn't do that?) We were able to book brunch for the first sea day, so all was good.

Then it was off to Topsiders for a great buffet lunch. Loved the peel and eat shrimp and the mango soup! After that, we wandered the ship for a while, just taking it all in. Quite by accident (really, it wasn’t planned!) we found ourselves near the midship elevators on deck 8 at right about 1:30 and noticed a family very anxiously standing by the ropes, desperate for their chance to get to their stateroom. When the rope was let down, we followed them as we were trying to find our stateroom. Turns out the anxious family had the Walt Disney Suite – I don’t blame them for their excitement and squeals as the ran into their room, but boy, I wish I could have followed them in! Anyway, we made it to our room (category 4) and were happy with it.

Back out of the stateroom for more exploring and then back to the stateroom to see if any luggage had arrived. Two pieces were there already, but that wasn’t all. We’d already received our first piece of DIS fish mail (thanks Castoff!) That little note tucked in our fish was so unbelievably exciting! We got more goodies during the week too (like awesome magnets from Verandah Man – thanks Andy! I kept seeing you and your family around the ship and NEVER got the opportunity to meet you. I really wish I had!) At one point some mystery DISer made Mickey ears appear on our stateroom door, making the door number look like a big Mickey head. (Whoever snuck those on the door – thanks! Loved them!)

3:00 had us heading to the Promenade lounge for the DIS meet. We were pretty nervous venturing into this LARGE group of people, not knowing a soul, but some friendly people, like our Castoff couple, welcomed us in. Everyone was so nice and there were so many nice goodies being shared, like glow necklaces, glow straws, name tags and such. Thank you all! DS very quickly disappeared with all the other teenagers of DIS – they seemed to have their own meet off to the side of the lounge. We chatted for a while with Elliotfan (Hi Dori!!!) and DD met a new friend, Ally (I think maybe DizzyWorlds DD???) Anyway, we soon realized we better head upstairs to ready for the drill, which was quite smooth, no problems at all.

After the drill, it was back up top for the fun sail away party. Of course, DS quickly disappeared with Josh and DD ended up down by the Goofy pool with Ally for the whole party. So, DH and I were pretty much by ourselves for the party and when the ship first started to sail away. After coming across and chatting with Dori again, we all went back to the stateroom to ready for the enjoyable 6:15 show, followed by a visit to a very dangerous place.

We went to Rockin Bar D for bingo. This would turn out to be a must do, everyday, favorite family activity. DS totally got into it and we really enjoyed Kaz as our bingo queen. We didn’t win bingo that night, but did win a piece of artwork as a raffle prize. We were hooked. (OK, question here – Is there something about bingo and New Yorkers? Every day that we played bingo, at least one game was won by a New Yorker! Amazing!)

First night’s dinner (8:15 seating) was at Parrot Cay. We enjoyed the food and our serving team was wonderful – Oka and Iwayan, both from Bali. So here’s a little story about Iwayan. When he was taking our drink orders, I wanted simply water with lemon. He immediately stopped everything, disappeared and reappeared with a big bowl of lemons, before continuing to take drink orders. Once he left, we just burst out laughing. It’s funny how that bowl of lemons tickled me! And then on each of the following nights, there was a bowl of lemons waiting for me before we were even seated. Never knew a bowl of lemons could bring me such joy!

Can’t remember much of the rest of the night, so I’ll leave it as…

(to be continued)

 

[lindaso]

I'm really enjoying your report, thanks for taking the time to write it. I had to laugh at the fence-terminal thing. That would soooo happen to me. And I hope the New Yorker bingo thing holds true for our cruise...that would be sweet!!

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

I slept well that Saturday night, just not long enough. At one point I awoke and realized there was a little light peeking through the curtains. For a minute or two, I tried to put it out of my mind but I just couldn’t. Something was drawing me to the windows, something that had the “feel” of pink and orange. So, I made my groggy way over to the window and eased open the curtains, while the rest of my family slept on. I was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise, and in the distance, an island. I couldn’t tell if it was Castaway Cay yet, or not, but I knew we must be getting close, so I grabbed my camera and snuck outside to the verandah. It was just gorgeous and I couldn’t ask for a better first morning on the cruise! Now, there was humidity in the air and I found that I had to keep wiping my camera lens every time it fogged up. I didn’t really care. After a while, I decided that I needed to share MY sunrise with DH and soon after the kids woke up too.

We took turns getting ready and then headed to Parrot Cay for buffet breakfast. Everything was so good. There was something about the pineapple on the cruise. Three of us just could not start the day without mounds of pineapple on our plates. It was just so good!

After eating, it was time to head down to the promenade lounge to meet for 9:15 Seahorse catamaran snorkel. Once everyone was gathered, checked in and waivers all signed, off the ship we went. The catamaran was waiting for us almost immediately off the ship. The crew was friendly and helpful, giving us our basic instruction and handing out gear. Three of us had never snorkled before so this instruction was important! DD had trouble establishing suction with her mask and started whiny meltdown (water equipment frustration continued for her every time we were off the ship) but we got past it eventually. Once she got in the water and figured out what to do, she was just fine. DS took to snorkeling like a pro. I, however, was not so lucky. Coordinating breathing through a tube, floating prone, dealing with flippers and some small waves was diffcult for me and I kept going into some sort of panic mode. I found myself literally hanging onto the boat for a good share of the time, but I wasn’t the only one (Hi Barbara from Simi Valley if you happen to read this! Pleasure hanging on with you!) After several short swims out and back, I finally made it out to the reef for a look around (about 15 minutes worth), before heading back onto the boat and the ride back to the island.

After getting off the catamaran, we made the walk down to the restrooms and store, before grabbing a delicious lunch at Cookie’s BBQ. OK, I felt a little stupid – I never thought about the name COOKIE’s bbq, but once I got one of those huge yummy cookies they have, I got it. Duh! We also tried the cookie dough ice cream. Yum!!! Once DS finished chowing, he left us (2 way radio in hand) to go to the teen beach. DH, DD and I did a little shopping at She Sells and then went to relax on the family beach for a while. DD played in the water, both on the play structure and on a tube, while DH and I happily reclined on a couple loungers under an umbrella. We ordered a couple drinks of the day and just enjoyed. It was about this time, just a little over 24 hours into the cruise, that DH announced he was already enjoying the cruise more than he expected and that we should look into rebooking! Yippee!!! It was also around this time that we understood just how lucky we were to have another day of Castaway Cay to look forward to!!! Thank you Disney for offering Double Dips!

After a while, DH headed to the teen beach in hopes of finding DS and heading back to the ship. Turns out DS (age 13) wasn’t thrilled with the teen beach but had discovered the game pavilion and was hanging out with his friend, Josh. When more time went by, we gathered and reboarded the ship. DS cleaned up first and disappeared to the Stack or points unknown (again, 2-way radio in hand), and the rest of us cleaned up too.

We all reconnected in time to catch the 6:15 Michael Harrison show. It was very entertaining and I like the way he includes kids into the show. Unfortunately, the last boy he had up was very uncooperative and actually a little violent. Not at all Michael’s fault – he really kept his cool under the circumstances, but I think it was a very uncomfortable situation for everyone in the theater. Due to what was going on with the boy’s behavior, we didn’t get to see exactly how the act should have ended, but I can say we’re Michael Harrison fans anyway.

OK, so the 6:15 show ends and it’s not yet time for 8:15 seating of dinner. What does that mean (for us anyway?) Bingo of course! Nope didn’t win! That’s OK, had fun anyway! Dinner was at Lumiere’s and very enjoyable. Three of us had the (very tender) beef tenderloin and I had the white chocolate domes for dessert. I’d recommend both!

After dinner, DS quickly disappeared to do his own thing. DD wanted to go to the lab. And that left DH and I alone. We NEVER get alone time so it was quite an occasion for us! Rockin Bar D called our names (as if we’re not there enough for bingo) and we took in the hilarious Match Your Mate, followed by most of Greg Kennedy’s amazing juggling act. Our DD paged us at about 11:10 so that was pretty much the evening for three of us. DS, on the other hand made it back to the stateroom around 1:30. We are NOT a late night family at all, but we very quickly learned that cruise ship time is different than real life time. And it’s all pretty much wonderful time!

That’s it for now…

(to be continued)

 

[Tiggery]

Great report, can't wait to read the rest

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

I am enjoying your trip report -- thanks!!
I know you didn't get a lot of snorkeling in, but those who did -- did they get to see a lot on the Seahorse catamaran? We are tryng to decide on booking a snorkeling excursion, or just trying our luck at CC.

 

[captchris]

Great reports! Keep them coming.

We leave a week from Friday for our first 7 day Disney cruise.

 

[jrose529]

This is great! I can't wait for more!

 

[WolffDVC2004]

Great Trip Report. This brings back wonderful memories of our Cruise almost a year ago.

 

[Dsnylndlvrs]

I am enjoying your trip report -- thanks!!
I know you didn't get a lot of snorkeling in, but those who did -- did they get to see a lot on the Seahorse catamaran? We are tryng to decide on booking a snorkeling excursion, or just trying our luck at CC.

Hi! Well, I only got in about 15 minutes of snorkeling over the reef, but what I saw was beautiful and the rest of my family were VERY happy with the snorkeling from the Seahorse catamaran from CC. I was hearing lots of wows about the different fish they were seeing and the reef, coral, etc. was so pretty. The reef itself is further out into the ocean from CC (definitely not the same as CC's snorkel lagoon.)
As I get to writing about our second dip at CC, I'll write about snorkeling in the snorkeling lagoon at CC, which I did do a lot of and found fun, but in a little different way.
Even though I personally didn't get a lot of snorkel time in off the catamaran, I'm really glad we did both that excursion and the snorkel lagoon on our own at CC. Does that help?
Kris

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Great reports! I'm really enjoying them!

 

[PoohJen]

Hi Kris!
Great report!!! btw, Josh was THRILLED to have a friend in Taylor - what a sweet son you have! Had to laugh; I too found them playing billiards in Groupers, after DH spent an hour trying to track Josh down via Teen spaces (not me, I figured that's where he'd be!).

and, had to laugh again - I never did figure out why they called it Cookies!!

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Hi Kris!
Great report!!! btw, Josh was THRILLED to have a friend in Taylor - what a sweet son you have! Had to laugh; I too found them playing billiards in Groupers, after DH spent an hour trying to track Josh down via Teen spaces (not me, I figured that's where he'd be!).

and, had to laugh again - I never did figure out why they called it Cookies!!

Don't feel bad.....I just got this.....