Fantasia Sam
I've been here so much longer!
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2000
- Messages
- 5,250
This was my first ever cruise Paul (my DBF) had been before in his LBS (Life Before Sam) and had even done 3 nights on the Magic. After I had booked and started reading all about cruising with Disney Cruise Lines (DCL) I began to regret only booking the 4-nights I just hoped I wasnt wrong 
Saturday 17th May 2003
We had scheduled for Tiffany Town Cars to pick us up from The Yacht Club (wed just spent 9 great nights in WDW) at 1.30 that way wed be at the Radisson for check-in time at 3.00pm. Our driver was called Jack and he was great, his daughter lives in Epsom, Surrey in the UK and so we had lots to talk about. He was also very good at pointing things out to us on the drive down you know the sort of stuff; the beginning of the Everglades, where people watch the NASA launches from, a local jail :eek LOL!!. What we thought Jack was so good at was instead of going straight to the hotel he took us to the Port first so he could show us where he was going to be picking us up from at the end of our Cruise.
It was a most fantastic site to see the Magic for the first time and although it wasnt the ship that we were going to be sailing on I felt a most tremendous emotion and nearly started to cry as it just looked purely magical. I also had friends sailing on that Cruise for the first time and I was so happy for them and a little jealous but knew my time would be tomorrow.
Once Jack dropped us off we headed into the Radisson. Check-in was a bit manic. Apparently the computer that makes all the key-cards had gone down and so it meant that there had to be staff on hand to take us to our rooms and let us in with their all-access key cards, this only happened a couple of times for us. Now I hadnt told Paul that I had booked a King suite with whirlpool tub/bath so he was a bit surprised when we walked in but he loved it all the same. The room was huge but we made good use of all the space.
We unpacked a few bits that we needed for the night and then headed on down to the pool for me to have a bit of a dip as it was such a hot day.
The pool here was certainly a little different to the ones Ive experienced anywhere before ::thud:: now I dont mind people enjoying a drink in the pool but there were some people that were actually smoking in the pool and I thought that was pretty gross. Also there were a few loud drunks and all in all, I know Im a snob, but I was just praying that they werent on our cruise LOL. We certainly werent in Kansas anymore Toto, but the water was a nice temperature and so I went for a little swim around it was a beautiful pool with a cascading waterfall.
After my dip in the pool we went back to the hotel room and I had a luxurious whirlpool bath it took a while to fill up but it was nice to be in a big tub unlike those at the Yacht Club I love my baths to relax in after a hard day in the parks I wish the ones in the hotel rooms were bigger ::sigh:: Anyway whilst I was bathing Paul had his binoculars out (dont go there !!) to see what he could on the Magic. We had a great view of the Magic from our hotel room......
.......and so we were really pleased with the location of the room. It seemed a little late sailing I think it was about 5.15 that we actually saw it move and then we watched it sail towards us before going out to sea it was a great sight and through the binoculars we could see people up on the top deck. All we could think was tomorrow thatll be us
We watched a little T.V. there were a lot of thunderstorm warnings and watches and wed noticed that the sky had turned awfully grey but we never got hit with a storm. Then we went to dinner. After thinking of all the alternatives we decided that we would have dinner in the hotel restaurant, we didnt have a car and the sound of the seafood buffet grabbed us. We started off with a drink in the bar, there was a Jimmy Buffet style guitarist who was very entertaining. Then we went into the restaurant, we were given a window table which had a little romantic feel to it. Our servers name I think was Bong or something like that. Anyway he walked us around the buffet. There was a Seafood Bar in the main dining room and then you had to walk to the hotel lobby to the other stations, a salad and dessert bar on one side and then a Prime Rib carving and hot station on the other. We chose some wine and let the feasting began:
Snow Crab legs were a plenty, steamed and cold as well as lots of shrimp and some humongous mussels. There was prime rib, pork ribs, chicken curry, blackbeans and rice. A selection of salads and then sword-fish and mahi-mahi cooked to order with different seasonings. I had lemon cracked pepper on my mahi-mahi. A dessert bar to follow but we only ate a little from their as we were pretty full. It was a great buffet and Id recommend it to those that decide to stay here before cruising.
Tummies full we went back to the room watched a little TV and then went to bed. I didnt sleep that well as I was a little excited and I kept waking up and thinking "I'm going on the Disney Cruise"
Saturday 17th May 2003
We had scheduled for Tiffany Town Cars to pick us up from The Yacht Club (wed just spent 9 great nights in WDW) at 1.30 that way wed be at the Radisson for check-in time at 3.00pm. Our driver was called Jack and he was great, his daughter lives in Epsom, Surrey in the UK and so we had lots to talk about. He was also very good at pointing things out to us on the drive down you know the sort of stuff; the beginning of the Everglades, where people watch the NASA launches from, a local jail :eek LOL!!. What we thought Jack was so good at was instead of going straight to the hotel he took us to the Port first so he could show us where he was going to be picking us up from at the end of our Cruise.
It was a most fantastic site to see the Magic for the first time and although it wasnt the ship that we were going to be sailing on I felt a most tremendous emotion and nearly started to cry as it just looked purely magical. I also had friends sailing on that Cruise for the first time and I was so happy for them and a little jealous but knew my time would be tomorrow.
Once Jack dropped us off we headed into the Radisson. Check-in was a bit manic. Apparently the computer that makes all the key-cards had gone down and so it meant that there had to be staff on hand to take us to our rooms and let us in with their all-access key cards, this only happened a couple of times for us. Now I hadnt told Paul that I had booked a King suite with whirlpool tub/bath so he was a bit surprised when we walked in but he loved it all the same. The room was huge but we made good use of all the space.
We unpacked a few bits that we needed for the night and then headed on down to the pool for me to have a bit of a dip as it was such a hot day.
The pool here was certainly a little different to the ones Ive experienced anywhere before ::thud:: now I dont mind people enjoying a drink in the pool but there were some people that were actually smoking in the pool and I thought that was pretty gross. Also there were a few loud drunks and all in all, I know Im a snob, but I was just praying that they werent on our cruise LOL. We certainly werent in Kansas anymore Toto, but the water was a nice temperature and so I went for a little swim around it was a beautiful pool with a cascading waterfall.
After my dip in the pool we went back to the hotel room and I had a luxurious whirlpool bath it took a while to fill up but it was nice to be in a big tub unlike those at the Yacht Club I love my baths to relax in after a hard day in the parks I wish the ones in the hotel rooms were bigger ::sigh:: Anyway whilst I was bathing Paul had his binoculars out (dont go there !!) to see what he could on the Magic. We had a great view of the Magic from our hotel room......
.......and so we were really pleased with the location of the room. It seemed a little late sailing I think it was about 5.15 that we actually saw it move and then we watched it sail towards us before going out to sea it was a great sight and through the binoculars we could see people up on the top deck. All we could think was tomorrow thatll be us
We watched a little T.V. there were a lot of thunderstorm warnings and watches and wed noticed that the sky had turned awfully grey but we never got hit with a storm. Then we went to dinner. After thinking of all the alternatives we decided that we would have dinner in the hotel restaurant, we didnt have a car and the sound of the seafood buffet grabbed us. We started off with a drink in the bar, there was a Jimmy Buffet style guitarist who was very entertaining. Then we went into the restaurant, we were given a window table which had a little romantic feel to it. Our servers name I think was Bong or something like that. Anyway he walked us around the buffet. There was a Seafood Bar in the main dining room and then you had to walk to the hotel lobby to the other stations, a salad and dessert bar on one side and then a Prime Rib carving and hot station on the other. We chose some wine and let the feasting began:
Snow Crab legs were a plenty, steamed and cold as well as lots of shrimp and some humongous mussels. There was prime rib, pork ribs, chicken curry, blackbeans and rice. A selection of salads and then sword-fish and mahi-mahi cooked to order with different seasonings. I had lemon cracked pepper on my mahi-mahi. A dessert bar to follow but we only ate a little from their as we were pretty full. It was a great buffet and Id recommend it to those that decide to stay here before cruising.
Tummies full we went back to the room watched a little TV and then went to bed. I didnt sleep that well as I was a little excited and I kept waking up and thinking "I'm going on the Disney Cruise"
Sam - glad to see your new digital camera's been useful. Some great photos.
