The Magic is better than the Dream....I'll be the judge of that!!

[tweis]

What a great loot from Dreams Unlimited!!
They are our TA too. We didn't get a gift on our previous cruise. Is it something they offer on subsequent cruises?

They are now given on all cruises out of Port Canaveral. I think it used to be longer cruises but if you are cruising out of PC then you should get one.

 

[st8y]

They are now given on all cruises out of Port Canaveral. I think it used to be longer cruises but if you are cruising out of PC then you should get one.

Yay!!

 

[tweis]

Our spa reservation as well as our bike rentals for Castaway Cay were waiting for us in our room. No dining tickets nor our Palo dinner or brunch invitation.

The room looked exactly like the rooms on the Dream with a few exceptions. The bathrooms did not receive a makeover but ours was in good shape. Our room slept 4 and the boys decided they would take turns with the top bunk.

Sorry, apparently I can't get a picture BEFORE we've started destroying the room.

I'm having a hard time re-sizing the pics that were taken on my phone for some reason so please excuse the huge pic of our messy bed.





I was really glad that we had our phones because for some reason, our room did not have a clock. I found this rather odd since we've had one both times on the Dream. The new hairdryers are in the desk drawer because apparently, that is the only outlet that can handle them. The old hairdryers are still in the bathroom. I tried it just for giggles and I totally understand why they added the new ones. I also noticed that our room did not have an ice bucket. We loaded the beer we had bought into the mini fridge and hoped that it would keep it cold.

All of our luggage started arriving so we went ahead and unpacked everything. We had plenty of storage area and hangers for our clothing. I like the little storage unit the replaced the steamer trunk but we really didn't need it.

The boys were wanting to explore and I wanted to drop off the plate that I had purchased from the Disney store at guest services to be signed by the characters. We had the choice of the princesses or the Fab 5 and we chose the latter.

 

[tweis]

I THINK after dropping off the plate that we ALL decided to head up to the pool deck so that DH and I could try to Aqua Dunk. We get up there only to find that it has already been shut down for the muster drill. What? It was literally like 3:30. I don't know how I never realized that everything was shut down an hour before muster.

That was out so the boys decided they wanted to explore a little on their own and DH and I would do the same. We decided to see where Animator's Palate was since according to our KTTW card, that is where we would be dining.






I have another picture that shows that portholes but it is being difficult and will not load! I really liked the black and white drawings. I did not like reading the menu and seeing that pasta pursettes were not on it. I was very confused by this menu.

Here it is!!





We visited Lumiere's and saw that it had the same menu. After consulting our navigator, I realized that we had a "special" menu called "Let the Magic Begin". But this was even more confusing because generally you experience each MDRs signature menu and according to our KTTW card our rotation was ACCL and if we had a special menu in AP then when would we have the signature menu? We had requested a rotation that put us in Carioca's on night two. We didn't care where we were on any other night so we didn't ask for a specific rotation. The menu in Carioca's just wasn't that appealing to us and we had never had Cabana's for dinner so we thought this would be a good chance to try it.

It was soon time for muster so we all met in our room before heading out on deck. Small rant here........be on time for the muster drill! Everyone else has to wait for you to get there before it can begin. Give your KTTW card to the CM so that they know that your family is there!!! Rant over. We had to wait for SEVERAL people to show up and then the CM had to repeatedly ask if certain staterooms were there.

View of Enchantment of the Seas from our muster station

 

[Lisa Lisa]

Hi Trina. I'm so happy to see this TR! We've only been on the Dream class ships, but we've tentatively booked a 2015 spring break cruise on the Magic. I can't wait to read more about your experiences on the Magic and to see your comparison between the Magic and the Dream!

 

[tweis]

Hi Trina. I'm so happy to see this TR! We've only been on the Dream class ships, but we've tentatively booked a 2015 spring break cruise on the Magic. I can't wait to read more about your experiences on the Magic and to see your comparison between the Magic and the Dream!

Hi Lisa! Thanks for joining in

The Magic was definitely a change for us after having sailed exclusively on the Dream. I really don't think you can go wrong with any Disney ship but I do favor one over the other.

Your TR was very helpful with us planning our day at Atlantis.

 

[tweis]

After muster, we headed back to our room to start getting ready for dinner. The boys didn't want to go up to the pool deck for the sail away party. Instead, we enjoyed watching the dolphins as we pulled out of Port Canaveral. I tried repeatedly to get a picture with no luck. They were really fun to watch though.













I have no idea where Jacob was....probably watching old Disney cartoons.

 

[tweis]

Cruise director Natalie came on the PA system and reminded everyone to bring their dinner tickets with the to dinner on the first night. We still did not have dining tickets. When it came time to head to AP we saw an officer right outside our neighbor's door and overheard them discussing their lack of dinner tickets. We waited for them to finish their conversation and Mark mentioned to the officer that we did not have dining tickets. He asked if we had recently booked our cruise? Mark told him that we had had our cruise booked for months and months. The officer called someone and then told us he would ride down to Animator's with us. He spoke with the host and everything seemed to be fine.

We were at table 75 and our server was Oika (?) and Aryia. They were both from Indonesia.




Smoked Salmon Carpaccio

Couscous salad

Pork tenderloin Wellington

Grain fed NY Strip


Mark had the Chicken Bastella as an app and I can't seem to find a pic of it. Jacob and Trystan skipped this course and I had the smoked salmon carpaccio. Mark skipped the soup & salad course, Jacob had the child's salad and Trystan and I had the couscous salad. For our main course, Mark & Jacob both had the NY Strip and Trystan and I both had the pork tenderloin Wellington.

Sorry guys......I tried.

The 3 boys had this
Sweet temptations-Kahlua Creme Brulee, passion fruit chocolate dome & fresh fruit sabayon tartlet

I had the Kahlua Creme Brulee


Dinner service was very very slow. We chalked it up to being the first night. I can't decide whether I prefer the black and white of AP on the Magic or the more colorful AP on the Dream. Both are really pretty.

 

[tweis]

After dinner I think and I use the term loosely, that we all went to check out Edge because it was open house. Maybe we did this before dinner? I don't know but we did at some point go check it out together.








I don't seem to have a picture of the wall of TV screens dedicated to XBox and PS3. The boys were duly impressed and were looking forward to coming back later for Ice Breakers.

We went back to the room and put on more comfy clothes. The boys wanted to go exploring and so did DH and I. We all decided to skip Villains Tonight even though it was our favorite show on the Dream. The boys were just too excited to sit down for a show anyhow.

 

[tweis]

We all regrouped at some point and went over the navigator. I really wanted to visit some of the adult areas and take part in some of the activities. It seemed Magic Quest was taking place in Fathoms followed by 80's Music Trivia. I love me some 80's music. The boys were going to go to Edge for Ice Breakers and maybe another activity but they had to be back to the room by 11:00 (I think) and if they left Edge for any reason, they had to call us. We told them that they could go up on deck but they absolutely were not allowed in the pool.

I forgot to mention, that on our earlier explorations, I dropped by the future cruise desk and picked up the brochure and filled it out. We were kicking around a couple of different cruises for 2015 and we figured it made more sense to go ahead and lock-in rates on the most expensive of the 2 so I got a quote for Alaska. We dropped it in the drop box on our way to Fathoms.

O'Gills Pub
We never made it back here but it was a really neat space. They also have snacks.

Keys

Again, we never made it back here.

Fathoms


We had never participated in Magic Quest before but we knew from the DCL Navigator App, that it was a scavenger hunt of sorts. While we were waiting for things to get started, we ordered this little baby.


This was called a Blue Tang. It was soooo delicious. It was also pretty expensive at $12 compared to the drink of the day prices. We limited ourselves to one each but could have had several.

Magic Quest was lots of fun and we were introduced to entertainment director Andy. He was hilarious and I really hope that we have the pleasure of sailing with him again. In Magic Quest you get in small groups and Andy will call off items that you need to bring up to him. It was pretty common stuff that you should have with you already. I think he asked for shoes, selfies with your team number, person with blue eyes, etc. He also asked for a man wearing a ladies bra. Believe it or not, he got a couple. One of which had played before and knew to bring one with them. If you win Magic Quest which we did not, you get a prize! I think the winning team got a DCL baseball cap or something.

Directly after Magic Quest was the 80's Music Trivia. I loved this but if you are the slightest bit shy, then I suggest drinking more before joining this game. The room is sectioned off into 3 groups and each group is given a member of the entertainment staff as their captain. Each group will have a chance to guess the 80's song that is playing on their turn and then each captain will have their group dance or act out parts of the song. We had Maliroy (spelling) and she was awesome and hilarious. It involved a lot of dancing, running around the room and just a bunch of adults being kids. We loved it! Andy was awesome and loves him some Bon Jovi just like I do, and we got to sing Living on a Prayer and have a "Bonji" line!! This was honestly some of the most fun that we've ever had on a cruise. Our team won, but you don't get prizes for 80's music trivia. That's okay because we had an awesome time.

At some point the boys called and said they were having pizza on deck and then were heading back to the room. We went back to the room after trivia because we had plans in Nassau and Mark and I had a spa appointment early the next morning.

 

[tweis]

I almost forgot about these.

DAY 1 NAVIGATORS

 

[tweis]

DAY 2-NASSAU

I set an alarm for 7:00 because I had made Mark and myself a spa appointment. Not just any spa appointment…..an exotic rasul appointment. I had read very “interesting” things about the rasul and I was intrigued. The description from the DCL website described it as this:

This sensual body treatment, applied by you, conditions and nourishes your skin while uniting the 4 fundamental elements of water, fire, earth and air in one spiritually uplifting experience. Aromatherapy massage oils are worked gently into the body, and then you're invited to spread various miracle healing muds of different colors and grain sizes onto your limbs. Body and soul are elevated to a place of ethereal bliss. In the privacy of a secluded chamber and steam room, you can make liberal use of decadent facial care products, exfoliating creams and morer and steam room, you can make liberal use of decadent facial care products, exfoliating creams and more.

I have found it described a little less "G-rated" on these boards. I really wasn't sure what to expect but it was a spa treatment for 2 for $89. We got dressed in swimsuits, set a new alarm for the boys and left them a note instructing them to get ready for the day. I have zero pictures of the spa area.

We made our way to Senses and filled out the obligatory forms and were then shown to a dressing area for each of us. I was given a locker which contained a robe, sandals and towels. I got undressed and put on the robe and then I panicked because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be FULLY undressed or not! I ended up keeping on my swimsuit underneath the robe.

We were lead to the rasul room and given a rundown on all the products in the room. By the time she left, I had no idea what half of them were nor was I sure what part of the body they were to be used on. I am going to try to describe the rasul room to you the best I can. When you walk in the door you see a tile covered bench with towel swans and rose petals covering it. Que up the cheesy music Everything is tile. To the immediate left is a shower with 3 dispensers inside. To the right is the steam room with 3 benches inside and an area in the middle with 4 sinks (I think) in the middle of the room. The main room had a barrel type thing that had mud and a type of scrub or salts in it.

BEFORE testing any showers or the steam room, DH and I decided to rub the mud all over each other first. HUGE mistake!! I went to rinse off and the first shower was ice cold!!! I couldn't stay in long enough to rinse. DH didn't want to go anywhere near it after I shrieked from the coldness so we decided to move into the steam room because each bench had a shower head and water would come from the sides. Well guess what? That water was freezing also! So here we are, covered in a minty tingly mud that we can't get rinsed off because the water is freezing! I finally pumped my hand full of soap and just bit the bullet and washed it off in freezing water. Once I finally got rinsed, I ventured into the steam room for a bit but it quickly got too hot so I turned on the shower again. This time the cold water felt good but the hot water that ran out of the hose across my bare foot did not! We ended up leaving the rasul room before the attendant knocked on the door. I can honestly say that I will never be tempted to book the rasul again.

This TR has a couple of pictures of the rasul area. It appears they were not give the towel swans and rose petals. lmao http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2653951&page=6

 

[iloverags2]

Enjoying your report! We have been on the fence regarding the Exotic Rasul...I think you just made the case for no!

The Magic has my heart still, and remains my favorite ship. Hoping you enjoyed sailing her.

 

[tweis]

Enjoying your report! We have been on the fence regarding the Exotic Rasul...I think you just made the case for no!

The Magic has my heart still, and remains my favorite ship. Hoping you enjoyed sailing her.

Thank you and

Before I booked the rasul, I had through several threads discussing it and found that many people were complaining about it being too hot and water being too cold but then you would read where cruisers thought it was great and had a wonderful time. I chose to disregard the negative posts and just listen to the positive ones. Maybe we did something wrong but we were never able to get anything but freezing water to come out of any of the showers. Our experience was rather comical but your's may be different. If you do decide to try it, let me know how to adjust the water temp.

We definitely enjoyed sailing the Magic.

 

[cheribelle]

Loving your trip report. Never been on the Magic but all your descriptions are making me feel right there. Can't wait to read more and to hear your verdict on Magic vs Dream

 

[tweis]

Loving your trip report. Never been on the Magic but all your descriptions are making me feel right there. Can't wait to read more and to hear your verdict on Magic vs Dream

Thank you. I'm unsure sometimes whether I'm giving too much detail or not. I'm really glad that you are enjoying the report and the detail.

 

[jedijill]

Great report so far! I love all the details. I can't wait to get back on the Magic in September to see all the changes.

Jill in CO

 

[tweis]

After our traumatic spa experience, we rushed back to the room to make sure the boys were up and about. Luckily, the alarm had woken them and they had read the note on the white board. We all got dressed in swimsuits and cover up and I packed my Kyss bag full of sunscreen, goggles, sunglasses, phones, camera, etc. We had a quick breakfast at Cabanas before getting off the ship. I do not have any pics of the breakfast buffet but I have to tell you that it was pretty tasty. Everyone was able to find something that they liked. I highly recommend the Muesli. That stuff is sooooo good. I add a nice little sprinkle of walnuts which makes it even better. Yum!

We debarked and headed off to look for a taxi. This was a complete first for us. In the past we have visited the straw market and some of the shops but that was it. After exiting the dock, we followed signs that showed the way for "Taxis to Paradise Island". This brought us into the same building that you must exit through. As soon as we walked in we found a fellow that was offering taxis to Paradise Island. There was a bit of a line and the driver had a license around his neck so this made us feel a little better. The line swelled to about 20 people before we finally exited the building and he started separating the line by families and sending them to different taxis. We were going in the last taxi and it just happened to be driven by him.

Let me tell you, this was a very very interesting taxi ride. I don't think they follow any kind of driving laws in the Bahamas or if there are any driving laws in the Bahamas. We were driven straight to Atlantis and the fare was $4 per person. We double checked this BEFORE getting in the cab.



We needed to go to Comfort Suites because I had booked a room there for all day access to Atlantis. This was another surprise for the boys and they were definitely surprised. We walked across the street to the Comfort Suites and told the desk clerk that we wanted to check in and out. He offered us the key to our room but we told him that we would not be using the room. This was an awesome deal.....we paid $304 for our room and did NOT have to pay any of the additional fees. We now had all day access to Atlantis! We could have booked the DCL excursion that included transportation, lunch and all day access for $169 per person for a total of $676!

We walked back across the street to the resort and headed to the desk to get our wrist bands. It did take a few minutes to get to the right place and there are workers checking to see if you’re either a guest, have a wrist band or have a card from Comfort Suites but we finally found the right place. Once we had our wrist bands, we were free to visit the aquarium, the “dig”, the beaches, the pools and the water slides. Woohoo! This is a link to the pocket guide we received. http://www.atlantis.com/allthingsatlantis.aspx We looked at the fish and went through the “caves” before finding ourselves here:



We didn't stop because we wanted to get to the slides! First we had to find a chair to leave our things. We passed I think, 2 pools before finding one that was directly in front of some of the slides. I locked my nifty Kyss bag to a chair and we were off.

The slides are in two different areas of the resort. We started with the Mayan Tower since that's the area we came to first. Here you will find the Leap of Faith, Challenger Slide and Serpent Slide. I think there may also be a slide for smaller children. The Serpent Slide is really neat because your tube goes through the aquarium and you can see sharks and fish swimming along beside you. We enjoyed all 3 slides tremendously but they are not for the faint of heart.








After doing these slides multiple times, we moved on to the Power Tower area. Again, we found another pool area and chained our Kyss bag to a chair and practically forgot about it. I don't seem to have any pictures of the Power Tower but here you will find The Abyss, The Surge, The Drop and The Falls. Here is a link that will describe the slides for you. http://www.atlantis.com/thingstodo/waterpark/waterslides.aspx I have to tell you that the lazy river is anything but lazy and there is a good possibility that you will get dumped off your tube. It was lots of fun though.

Random pics of Atlantis







After riding all the slides, we moved on to a pool with a play area. My boys had fun playing and swimming here for about an hour before we decided to head back to the ship. Everyone was getting hungry and the boys wanted pizza from the pool deck! Mark did get everyone a soda and the price was a lot better than I was expecting. I think they were around $4 each and he said they had combos for $10. This sounded pretty reasonable but the boys really wanted pizza.

We absolutely loved Atlantis and plan to visit the next time we are in Nassau. We were very lucky in the fact that there were only 2 other ships docked they day we were there. We encountered next to no wait on any of the slides. This place has tons of pools everywhere so there seemed to be plenty of space for everyone. Our total cost for the excursion was $350. We got a discount on our taxi ride back so transportation was $30 w/tip, drinks were $16 and the room at Comfort Suites was $304. We could have easily had lunch for about $45-$50 and that still would have brought our total to $400. Still much less expensive than the DCL excursion.

I have more pics of Atlantis but evidently I haven't uploaded them to Photobucket yet. I will add them later.

 

[tweis]

Great report so far! I love all the details. I can't wait to get back on the Magic in September to see all the changes.

Jill in CO

Thanks Jill!

 

[tweis]

After dropping a $5 in the slots, we made our way back out front to get a taxi. There are plenty of them lined up waiting to take you back to the port.

We took a couple of obligatory photos at the Bahamas sign and were back on board by 3:00. We went straight up to the pool deck where the boys ate their weight in pizza. I decided to try the shwarma station. I had the CM prepare it the way he likes it and it was delicious! Spicy but delicious. The drink of the day was the Bahama Mama and Mark and I ordered a couple. The boys had their pizza and gave the Aqua Dunk and the Twist & Spout a couple of rides before we headed to the room to get cleaned up for dinner.

As dinner time approached, none of us were really hungry due to our late lunch so we decided not to go to the MDR. We were supposed to be in Carioca's according to our KTTW card and didn't feel that we were missing out on anything. I think we did a little wandering through the art gallery and to shutters to see if we had any pics yet. Mark and I decided that we were going to have dinner in Cabanas since we had never tried it before but the boys declared they were not hungry and I think they went to an activity in the D'Lounge.

I decided to straighten my hair before we went to eat and I plugged my iron into the same plug that I had been using for the hairdryer. Well DURING my straightening, sparks shot out of the outlet!! Half of the lights in the cabin went out and none of the outlets would work. We called maintenance and they said they would send someone right up. We decided to head on to dinner sine there really wasn't anything we could do.

I had always heard that dinner in Cabana's was a compilation of items from the nightly menu in the MDR plus a couple of grilled options. I was really hoping for some pasta pursettes from AP but they were not on the menu. Actually, I wasn't overly impressed with the menu but I decided to try the salmon and Mark ordered the ribeye.

Food porn continued in next post.....