Our Second "Magical" Cruise with the Key Lime Pie-Rates

[lucyddr]

Since I've enjoyed reading everyone else's trip reports, I decided I would write my own...

Here's our background information:

My husband Adam (36) and I (32) had been on 3 cruises prior to this cruise. Our first cruise was the Disney Magic Western, the second was our honeymoon on the Carnival Miracle Western, and the third was the Carnival Destiny Southern. We've enjoyed every one of our cruises and feel that all of them offered something exciting and wonderful! We do not have children, so this report will definitely be more of an "adult" perspective instead of the "family" perspective.

I booked this cruise (Disney Magic Western May 16-23) in December mainly because it was such a great deal! We had already been to the ports before, but felt that the price of the cruise was so wonderful that we would have no issues going again! Also, we LOVE Cozumel and couldn't wait to get back to that island. (Well....that didn't exactly happen, but more on that later...)

I felt that extensive planning was not really necessary for this cruise (since the ports were all very familiar to us) and just wanted a relaxing vacation. I joined our Dis cruise group and anxiously waited for the sail date to arrive!

More to come...though here are some pictures from our first Disney Magic cruise! (BTW I was a LOT skinnier back then...)

Here's a more recent pre-cruise photo:

 

[lucyddr]

After lots of preparations, we left town Thursday evening when Adam got off of work. We planned on driving to south Georgia to my parents' second home, which would take 6.5 hours without stopping.

We left Maryville around 5:45 pm and had an uneventful trip to south GA. We went to bed around 1 am and awoke around 8 am since we were soooo excited! We met my grandparents for breakfast and then joined my parents to hit the road to Port Canaveral. (They were cruising the Glory on the same week, so we car-pooled!)

My Dad decided that he just HAD to get the oil changed in his brand new truck prior to going to the port, which turned into a major annoyance. Finally, after stopping at 3 different exits along the way, we found a place that only had a 1 hour wait. We decided to have lunch while we waited, then hit the road again.

At 4 pm, we arrived at the Radisson Port Canaveral. Checking in was easy and we were able to get rooms very close to each other (117 and 120). After some unpacking and relaxing, my parents went to the pool and Adam and I began making dinner plans.

OK..... Here's my Radisson review insert:

The hotel is convient and clean with well-appointed rooms. We liked the sleep number beds since that's what we have at home, but understand that they aren't for everyone. Our room faced the pool, but noise wasn't really a problem. My parents said the restaurant food at the pool was mediocre at best.

The hotel has very few elevators, which made luggage handling really annoying! They also had no available luggage carts (even fter waiting 30 minutes) and no baggage help.

The Radisson also supposedly has a complimentary shuttle. We called the desk and requested a shuttle to a local restaurant around 5:30 pm. We went downstairs and were told that the shuttle would arrive momentarily. By 6:30 pm, we were quite annoyed! No shuttle ever arrived, so we spent $5 for a cab to Miliken's Reef restaurant at the port. (More on that to come.) Had we known it was that cheap, we would never have waited so long for the shuttle.

The shuttle to the cruise port the next morning was equally annoying! We finished breakfast (pretty basic buffet, nothing amazing but fair) and found the shuttle coordinator. We informed him that we would be in the lobby with luggage in 5 minutes. (Which we were.) We waited outside with everyone else for the 10 am shuttle. He loaded everyone up and totally skipped us (along with another Dis'er family)! He didn't even apologize and promised to get us on the next shuttle. At 10:35 am, we loaded the second shuttle.

So, overall the Radisson was ok. Not great, but adequate. Frankly, we'll probably just stay at WDW next time or either a Country Inn and Suites at the port. If you do stay at the Radisson, I'd probably forget about using the shuttle to the port and just take a cab! The Radisson didn't negatively affect our vacation, but it certainly left a lot to be desired!

 

[lucyddr]

Since Adam feels that vacation cannot begin until the car is parked at the destination, I'm considering Friday afternoon to be our official start!

After finally giving up on the shuttle and calling a cab to take us to dinner, we headed out to Milliken's Reef. Our Port Canaveral friend highly recommended this restaurant, and we decided to try it.

I LOVE seafood, though refuse to eat it much here in Tennessee because I know it can't be fresh. Since I grew up 90 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico in a salt-water fishing family, I am somewhat of a seafood snob. Atmosphere isn't nearly as important to be as fresh food when it comes to shrimp, fish, and scallops!

We arrived at Milliken's a entered the restaurant.

The interior is a very nice "airy" restaurant with nice aquariums, a beautiful bar with a piano player, and a modern flare. Outside, there are tables facing the river. The view isn't great because the area is being developed, but the cruise terminals are to the left and cruise ships do sail right by the restaurant when they leave port. On the side of the restaurant, there is a Tiki bar that had live music playing. It was a little loud at the bar, but a perfectly pleasant level at the tables just outside of the restaurant.

The restaurant is behind us!

We ordered a total of 3 mixed drinks, 2 diet cokes, a clam appetizer (not pictures), calamari, lobster bisque, and the seafood platter all for $80. The volume of food was huge and we enjoyed sharing with each other.

Our monster spread of food!

This is a close-up of the seafood platter. Unfortunately, Adam ate the lobster tail before I could take the photo...

Overall, the food and atmosphere at Milliken's was well worth the money we spent! We left feeling very full and very satisfied with the quality of food, drinks, and service!

Next, sail away day!

 

[krishouse]

Lucinda,
Great report so far!! Man you are fast!!! I cannot wait to read the rest!!
K

 

[RoyalVizier]

Next, sail away day!

Yay!

Nice recount! Thanks for sharing... I'll be among the group waiting for the rest!

 

[Disgirl83]

Yay! I'm excited to see that one of us has already started a trip report! The restaurant you guys ate at looked yummy, we may have to try that next time. I like that Adam had already ate the lobster tail. . . so I think he must be the biggest fan of lobster on the planet after semi-formal night! Can't wait to read more and see pics!

 

[Tink113sMom]

I am out here lurking too, waiting for the next installment... Love the recommendation for the restaurant Cinda!

Carole

 

[texfinn]

Me too! Can't wait to read about your experience on the trip!!!!

 

[lucyddr]

Sorry, please see the next post...

 

[lucyddr]

Saturday morning, we awoke around 8 ready to cruise! We dressed in our specially made cruise shirts, repacked, and left the room for the breakfast buffet included in our stay. After eating, we grabbed our luggage and headed for the shuttle (see previous page for details of this fiasco).

Here are photos of our cruise t-shirts, which turned out really well!

(Mine was the same on the back, only pink!)


We probably arrived to the port around 10:45 am. We got off the shuttle and I tipped the driver. I gave Adam the money to tip our porter (generously I might add), and he proceeded to give it to the shuttle driver! So....there should have been a very happy shuttle driver after our group made it to the port! I got out more money and made sure it reached the porter's hands. We watched out luggage get loaded on the big cart and we headed into the terminal.

When we arrived, we were checked in within 15 minutes and given our Castaway Club cards and lanyards. We walked over to a nice sofa to relax for our boarding call, which was Group 5.

While waiting, we met lots of our Dis friends, received our Mini-Navigators (thanks Lynsay), and received our lime green bracelets (thanks Amanda).

Time travelled quickly and we boarded the ship around 11:45. I went straight to Rockin Bar D to change our Palo reservations (in light of the itinerary change), which was easily accomplished!

We enjoyed Topsiders for lunch and went up to deck 10 for the actual Sail Away Party (which was fun as always)!

Side Note Alert: Adam was a Navy Submariner for 5 years and was then on a Naval Research vessel (NS Waters) for 3 years based out of Port Canaveral. So in light of this, he always loves to stand on the starboard side while we sail by his old "home" (NS Waters). We also had heard from a special source that a British Submarine was ported with a British Royal Naval escort ship, so we were on the prowl... For Adam, this is probably one of the highlights of cruising out of Port Canaveral. As a result, here are some photos!

Adam and I enjoying the sail away together.

Adam reminescing about old times. (He was once in 20 ft seas while on this vessel!)

Adam with the sub in the distance.

We got ready for the munster drill (which went smoothly) and took a moment to take a photo by the Mickey statue in the atrium, which was totally empty!

After finishing the drill, we headed to our room to get dressed for dinner. We headed to Animators Palate for our first meal of our APLAPLA rotation, which would also be my birthday celebration and Jordan and Chad's anniversary celebration. So, needless to say....our table was "hopping!" (BTW Our tablemates were very cool and awesome and certainly reminded Adam and I how old we are becoming! Miss you all already!)

We had a great dinner (sorry, didn't photograph our meals). Since we had already seen the Welcome Aboard show, we wanted to spend the rest of our evening delivering 25 (literally) pounds of fish extender gifts! It took us about 90 minutes to complete the delivery process, but it was fun "touring" the ship in the process! And, we really enjoyed seeing everyone's FE! (Surprisingly, Adam thought the entire idea was "gay," but he got more into it than I did and was always the first to check it when we'd come into our room!

Around 11, we headed off to bed and prepared for our wonderful day in Key West! (BTW We actually burned our faces and arms during sailaway....guess we've really been sun-deprived the last few months!)

 

[lucyddr]

Yay! I'm excited to see that one of us has already started a trip report! The restaurant you guys ate at looked yummy, we may have to try that next time. I like that Adam had already ate the lobster tail. . . so I think he must be the biggest fan of lobster on the planet after semi-formal night! Can't wait to read more and see pics!

Yes... Adam really is the lobster king! (He must have been really deprived as a child!) He's already asking for more... My Mom got a kick out of the photo as well!

 

[lucky1]

More please... I want to hear (read) more. I am sorry I missed this cruise after hanging out with you all on cruisemeet forum, but have rescheduled for Oct, so will be trying to gather information for our cruise.

 

[anetnmike]

I am LOVING your TR!
Thanks for the info on the Radisson. I have already booked a room there for our trip in Nov. as alot of our DIS board group is staying there too. I have never stayed there and have been wondering how it really is.
I am with you on the seafood snobbery too. I lived on St.Pete Beach for a few years. Seafood up North is just not the same now
Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Hey Loucinda! I'm here!!! Great start

 

[cakesnjammom]

Great report...looking forward to more!

 

[lucyddr]

Thanks everyone for reading! I'll post another installment hopefully tomorrow night. I'm back into full swing at work, so I'm beat tonight! More to come...

 

[lucyddr]

I'll start this portion of the trip report by saying that getting to sleep in with my husband is a very rare occasion these days! So, since we knew we wouldn't be arriving to Key West until noon, we decided to sleep late. We woke up around 9, but laid in bed watching movies on TV until 10:45 am or so!

Now, there's only 1 problem with walking out of the room at 10:45 am... Topsiders is closed and the lunch locations are not yet opened! We ambled the ship for a few minutes, then decided on Plutos for lunch. I had the fish burger and Adam ate a hamburger. We had fries with both. Both were good and prepared us well for our busy afternoon.

We got off the ship around 1:00 pm. We proceeded to the bike rental place and rented 2 bikes for the day for $30 plus tax. (Note: They place a $200 hold on your credit card, which is removed when the bikes are returned.) I believe our total for the rental was less than $33.

We rode the bikes to Fort Zachary Taylor, where we fully intended to snorkel thanks to a review I had read on the Dis and another website. The fort entry fee was $3 (either each or total....don't recall). This included a short bike trail, the fort entrance, and access to the beach.

Since we were hot in our rashguards and all, we headed straight to the beach. We locked up our bikes and walked through the picnic area to the beach. The beach was sandy with pine needles and tiny shell fragments (water shoes definitely needed here). There were rock jetties about 30 yards from the shore with waves crashing against them. I suppose this is where some folks snorkel, but we decided that the waves were too rough that day. (Frankly, we didn't want to get pummeled into the rocks!) So, we played around in the water for about 30 minutes and just enjoyed the waves.
We then gathered our things (which were fine left under a tree) and boarded our bikes.

We rode up to the actual fort, but were not too impressed. (It's tiny compared to the forts in St. Augustine, FL and San Juan.) We didn't actually decide to go into it, but rather took the bike trail around it. We could see the ship from the trail, which ultimately took us back to the beach area.

After finishing our "tour" of the fort and beach, we headed back towards town in search of some authenic key lime pie. We found the Blonde Giraffe before Kermits while riding and parked the bikes. Adam didn't feel up to any pie, so he had a Key Limeade and I had the infamous Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick! It was divine , though VERY messy! (My rashguard can prove it, since the chocolate melted and fell on it several times! ) We also saw another Dis family there and visited for a brief moment.

We hopped on the bikes again and rode for several minutes in search of CVS. (I like to think of this long ride as our "tour" of Key West. ) We bought a 12 pack of Coke Zero (choices were very limited there) since we couldn't get it on the ship (which has Diet Coke and Sprite Zero for us diet soda drinkers) and a 6 pack of bottled water. We loaded both into our bike baskets and decided to head back to the ship for a shower. (It was about 4:30 pm at that point.)

We didn't have dinner scheduled until 7:00 pm at Palo, so we dropped our things off at the room and showered quickly to "de-sand" our bodies. We then put on clean swimsuits and headed up to the pool with my book and Adam's PSP. After hanging out for an hour or so, we went back to the room to get dressed for dinner.

Tonight was our night at Palo. Emanuel was our AMAZING waiter and really made our entire trip special! (More on that later...) We enjoyed our dinner tremendously, though I can't remember all the things we enjoyed. I know that I had the filet and a small portion of the rissoto de mar (seafood rissoto) and Adam had tuna. We both LOVED the shrimp and asparagus pizza appetizer as well. Since we are huge soufle fans, we finished dinner with 2 chocolate soufles and cappucinos. It was a wonderful experience for us. While dining, we the the Key West sail away as well as the beautiful sunset.

The rest of the evening is a little blurry for me, but we probably went to the show and Rockin Bar D that night. Overall, it was a very enjoyable and relaxing day!

Next up, our day at sea!

 

[RoyalVizier]

We found the Blonde Giraffe before Kermits while riding and parked the bikes. Adam didn't feel up to any pie, so he had a Key Limeade and I had the infamous Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick! It was divine , though VERY messy!

The Blonde Giraffe was the HIGHLIGHT of Key West for us! YUMMM!

 

[coconutsunshine]

Loving your report. I loved hearing that you headed to the pool with a book and your DH with his PSP, so good to hear that there is another couple out there like DH and myself!!!

 

[lucyddr]

Well, we don't have much to show for our sea day...

We slept in which I suspect tortured our poor room steward! (I know he was wondering if we would EVER leave the room that day!) As I said earlier, laying in bed with Adam watching TV movies is a REAL treat, so we decided to savor it! We finished some football movie around 11 and left the room in search of lunch.

We headed up to Pinnichios for some pizza and had fruit at Goofy's Gallery (with some icecream of course). We then found our "spot" in Quiet Cove on the starboard side. This area has normal plastic chairs, but is covered with plexiglass. It seemed cooler and we were less prone to sunburn there. I continued to read my book (Firefly Lane, which is a good read for women) and Adam watched some movie on his PSP. Intermittantly, we'd head over to the pool and cool off. We also enjoyed watching the adult pool games, which quickly got out of hand. (The women cheated so much it annoyed me...)

We enjoyed lots of free diet coke and a couple of "adult" beverages for the afternoon and visited with our Dis board buddies by the pool. Around 4:30, we headed back to the room to get showered for the Golden Mickey's.

Here's what we found when we got back...

Our room steward was Felindro and he was AWESOME all week! The towel animal zoo was WAYYY beyond our expectations and really put a smile on our faces!

We dressed for formal night, enjoyed dinner, and then went to the show. We finished our night at Rockin Bar D and called it a day!

I guess on reading this, our day was rather unstimulating... On our first cruise, we attended art auctions, played Bingo, saw a movie, and went to a tasting all in one day! This year, we decided just to relax...which I certainly don't regret!