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

[tweis]

Hi all! I am Trina, tweis on these boards and we are just back from 2 nights at POR and a 4 night cruise on the Magic. I did a pre-trip report but for those of you that didn't follow along you can find the link here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=50810751#post50810751. I will be covering our stay at Port Orleans Riverside, our day at the parks, our cruise on the Magic and our day at Atlantis. At the end of this report I will be doing a fair and honest comparison on how the Magic compares to the Dream. This will strictly be my opinion and yours may vary. I took tons of pics and I am still sorting and loading so this will not be a quick report. I look forward to reliving our wonderful vacation via this report.

Just realized that I forgot to introduce everyone!



From left to right DSS-Jacob (11) DH-Mark Me (Trina) DS-Trystan (11 also)

 

[plannermom]

Woo hoo! Welcome home, can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Shazzie B]

Hope you had a gret time, looking forward to your report

 

[magrudersmakes3]

We are doing the Magic next year after twice on the Dream. I'm excited to see what you thought.

 

[tweis]

Woo hoo! Welcome home, can't wait to hear all about it!

Thank you! Everything didn't go exactly as planned but we still had a great time. Thanks for joining in.

Hope you had a gret time, looking forward to your report

Thanks for joining in.

We are doing the Magic next year after twice on the Dream. I'm excited to see what you thought.

We had been on the Dream twice before sailing the Magic.

 

[tweis]

As some of you know, this trip has gone through many different stages with lots of changes along the way. One thing that stayed the same was that we chose not to tell our boys about anything other than the cruise portion of our trip.

We got up at 4:30 on Saturday morning and headed to Hartsfield Jackson Intl. Airport. When we were about 5 minutes away, I woke my DS up to show him the planes flying overhead. He had fallen asleep but DSS had stayed awake and was chatting non-stop. In a joking manner, DS asked if we were flying. They were totally shocked when we answered "yes". DSS had flown before but DS had not so this was a new experience for him. We parked and unloaded the car and that's when DSS started worrying that flying was unsafe. It didn't help that they are still searching for the Malaysian airplane. We assured them both that there were a lot more car crashes than plane crashes.

Our flight was at 8:45 and after checking a couple of bags and making our way through security and taking the train to our terminal, it was time to board. DSS was getting a little panicky but DH sat beside him and calmed him down. The flight was only an hour and 6 minutes and DS used much of this time to take pics out his window.



You can see the reflection of the guy behind us.





DSS was disappointed that Air Tran does not offer their passengers peanuts. He thought all airlines offered peanuts. The attendant did get them both a couple of bags of pretzels along with the cookies. I told him it probably had to do with all the allergies.

It wasn't long before we were landing in sunny Orlando. We would be renting a car from Alamo and driving to Port Orleans Riverside. There was a line at the checkout counter but it probably took all of 15 minutes before we were outside and heading to the cars. We got a nice and roomy Nissan Altima for the week. So far, so good.

 

[tweis]

My DH somehow took a wrong turn leaving the airport and so we drove in the opposite direction for a good little while before realizing that the exit signs were going in the wrong direction. The boys had no idea we were going to WDW until we pointed out the sign. DS was super excited because he has been a couple of times before but DSS was a little less excited. We assured him that Disney was not like Six Flags and they didn't have anything that compared to the roller coasters that Six Flags has. This seemed to help. We arrived at POR shortly before noon. I had originally booked Coronado Springs Resort but after stumbling upon a thread about POR, I immediately switched resorts and I booked a royal room.

Check-in took a bit longer than expected but the CM gave us several pins and we got our scroll for staying in a RR. We purchased resort mugs and headed to our room.

We were put in Oak Manor on the top floor exactly as I had requested. The boys were not impressed with the royal room.









These rooms just have so much attention to detail that its just amazing. This room was so beautiful and I loved (so did the boys) making "fireworks" in the headboard. I would gladly stay in a RR next time but I told the boys we would either stay in a regular room or at another resort next time.

 

[Madzac]

Yeah Trina, happy to read your report! Your last one was very helpful in preparing for our Dream cruise. We are doing the Magic next March so I am looking very forward to hearing about your thoughts on the two ships!

The royal rooms look beautiful! Wow! My girls would love it but my boys too would be like, really mom?!

 

[tweis]

Yeah Trina, happy to read your report! Your last one was very helpful in preparing for our Dream cruise. We are doing the Magic next March so I am looking very forward to hearing about your thoughts on the two ships!

The royal rooms look beautiful! Wow! My girls would love it but my boys too would be like, really mom?!

Hi

Yes! I remember you my from TR last year and I loved reading about your cruise when you returned.

My boys were not thrilled with the room but I would catch them pressing the button for the "fireworks" when they didn't think I was looking.

 

[jennyjinx3]

Can I join in? I am eager to hear your take on the Magic! Considering it....

 

[tweis]

Can I join in? I am eager to hear your take on the Magic! Considering it....

Absolutely!

 

[tweis]

We did a little unpacking and decided to head to Downtown Disney. I had planned for months on us taking the boat to DTD and having lunch at the Earl of Sandwich. The menu sounded really tasty and cheap. It was really warm out and a LONG walk from the boat dock to the Earl of Sandwich. Apparently, Orlando was having above average temperatures for this time of year. I honestly don't know how you all that go in the summer do it.

We finally found the EOS and the place was slam packed!! No way could we wait that long. Both boys were already getting cranky. We decided to see what else was around but everything else either had a long wait or only had snacks. We walked all the way back to Cookes of Dublin and they had no wait. DH nor the boys are fish fans but since they had burgers, it was all good. I had the fish and chips and I have to say, everything was fantastic! I can't believe how good the fish sandwich was. Probably the best I've ever eaten. Not that I've eaten them from many exciting places but it was great. DH and the boys really enjoyed the burgers also. I completely forgot to take pictures of the food here but I did remember everywhere else....I think.

Everyone felt better after having lunch so we headed to the Lego store and Disney store for a bit.

My silly child taking a selfie in the Disney store.

A nice man offered to take a picture of all of us.

We really wanted to try a sundae from Ghiradelli but we had a reservation at Boatwright's at 6:30 and it was already after 2:00 so we decided to pass. Instead we decided to head back to POR and hit the pool. We had an absolutely horrible time finding the bus stop. After asking 3 different people, we finally found it.

We headed to the large pool on Ol Man Island and I'm sorry to say that I do not have any pics but I do not have a water proof camera and honestly, I didn't even carry a bag. We were very impressed with the size but their could have been a few more loungers. DH and the boys really enjoyed the slide but I decided to pass since I didn't want to get my hair wet. We had dinner reservations in a couple of hours and I didn't want to have to blow dry and straighten my hair.

Dinner at Boatwright's

Boatwright's is the table service restaurant at POR. I decided to make a reservation a couple of weeks prior to our arrival and I'm glad I did. I did takes pics but on some things I didn't remember until after we had started eating. So if you enjoy pics of half eaten food.......here ya go!

Delicious sweet corn bread.


This is the chicken and andouille gumbo. I did not make the mess all over the bowl. It was that way when I got it. This was very good but very, VERY spicy.


French onion soup. This was absolutely delicious. Sorry, DH had already eaten all the yummy cheese and crouton from the soup. He doesn't like onions but loves this soup.


The boys both had cheese pizza and fries and said it was good.


I decided on the bbq short rib with creamy cheese grits and onion straws. DH decided to have the same thing. I was hoping he would have something else so I could try it. This was very very good but the grits had a rather odd taste to them. Not necessarily bad, just different.


They boys both had sundaes with their meals.


DH and I both skipped dessert. I really wanted to try the pecan pie since its one of my favorites but DH isn't a fan and I knew I would never eat it all. Or I would eat it all and feel stuffed all evening. Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that if you are not on the dining plan like we weren't, if you have the Disney Visa you can save 10% on dining at Boatwrights.

 

[jedijill]

You are off to a great start! I haven't eaten at Boatwright's for years. I am still protesting them getting rid of breakfast.

Jill in CO

 

[tweis]

You are off to a great start! I haven't eaten at Boatwright's for years. I am still protesting them getting rid of breakfast.

Jill in CO

Hi Jill

Thank you! Dinner was wonderful and I was really regretting not getting that pecan pie later. Oooh.....I bet their breakfast was really good. Maybe they will bring it back one day and you can give them another chance.

 

[tweis]

Sunday-Parks Day

So today we had originally planned on going to the Magic Kingdom only and then I got the bright idea to add on a hopper to everyone's ticket because I wanted to go to Epcot. This certainly was not my best idea.

Before heading out we had breakfast at Riverside Mill. None of us were super hungry, so I got everyone a kid's meal. That's probably wrong but I did it anyways. It was a lot of food especially since we really weren't hungry. I think it had a mickey waffle, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, sliced strawberries and a bag of grapes. It also came with milk or water. We filled our mugs and put the water in our fridge.

We had a FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at 9:10 and I think we were on the bus around 8:45. I had wanted to be earlier but it didn't work out. I had played with our FP+ times repeatedly but when I decided to add hoppers, I made them all for the morning since we planned to spend the afternoon in Epcot.

We arrived with time to spare and probably could have skipped using our FP all together but we didn't. DSS was a little nervous but he really didn't have much time to think about it because we were through the line and in the car very quickly. Next up after BTMR was Splash Mountain. I was looking forward to this because it was already getting warm. This ride actually broke down twice while we were on it but luckily we were "inside". Everyone enjoyed it tremendously once it stayed running.






We had a little time before our next FP so I checked the Disney App and saw that Pirates had a very short wait time. During this ride, I realized that I had left my SD card in the room at POR. I tried taking a few pics on my phone but they really didn't turn out great.

Next up was Space Mountain. DSS decided that he was not riding and that he would just wait for us at the end. This ride was just as fun as I remembered it being. No so much for DH. Apparently the bar can get a little uncomfortable.

I have no idea what was happening in this pic.

 

[perfectmatch300]

I am enjoying your report. Can't wait to hear your comparison of the Dream and the Magic. Like several others here, we have cruised twice on the Dream and also on the Fantasy, but never on one of the classic ships. I am hoping to remedy that soon so I will be interested in your comparison.

 

[tweis]

I am enjoying your report. Can't wait to hear your comparison of the Dream and the Magic. Like several others here, we have cruised twice on the Dream and also on the Fantasy, but never on one of the classic ships. I am hoping to remedy that soon so I will be interested in your comparison.

Hi and

Thanks for joining in. Prior to this trip, we had sailed the Dream twice but never a classic ship. They are both great ships but I can honestly say, that I do prefer one over the other.

 

[tweis]

We collected DSS after Space Mountain and went in search of an SD card. Every shop we went into said they were out but told us of another shop that should have them. This went on for about 4 stores. While we were in Adventureland, we hit up Aloha Isle.


After our snack, I checked the APP because we still had a little time before our Be Our Guest lunch reservation. I can't tell you how helpful the MDE app proved to be. It saved us a lot of unnecessary running around. Stitch's Great Escape had little to no wait, so we checked it out.

We finally found a shop on Main Street that had an SD card. A $35 SD card!! I was kicking myself for leaving my $12 SD card in the room. I was glad the search was over and I was finally able to take pics again.





It was finally time for Be Our Guest! I discovered BOG while spending some time over on the parks section of these boards and it sounded like somewhere that we (I) would really enjoy having lunch. We did not receive the formal invite but I was provided the link https://beourguestlunch.disney.go.com/ and when my booking window opened at roughly 42 days out, I booked. The menu sounded really appealing and just different from all the other quick service options in MK.

Right before our trip, I had heard that reservations made through the link were not being honored. Panic quickly set in but then I decided either we would eat there or we wouldn't. Not the end of the world. We had no problems whatsoever and the CM was able to find our reservation. We were ushered to the FP+ line and were quickly in the restaurant.

​

The inside of the "castle" is truly beautiful. I had studied the menu for weeks and knew exactly what I wanted. I ordered the Croque Monsieur, DH had the Carved Prime Chuck Roast Beef Sandwich and both boys ordered the grilled cheese with tomato soup and green beans kid's meal.

We found a table and made our drinks. It was very dim in the dining room and I really wasn't expecting that. After we sat down, I realized that I forgot to order the Master's cupcake. I decided that I would see if we could order dessert after we finished lunch. We waited maybe 10 minutes and a cart showed up with our order.

I did a little better with pics this time.

DH's roast beef sandwich


My Croque Monsieur


Grilled cheese sticks w/tomato soup and green beans


I do not enjoy saying this but......the food was terrible with the exception of the roast beef sandwich. Everything was cold, the bread for the grilled cheeses was so tough that if it hadn't of been for the tomato soup, I'm not sure the kids could have eaten it. The bechamel sauce on my sandwich was cold and that just isn't good. The bread was also really hard and crunchy. Yes, it was toasted so it was supposed to be a little crunchy but this was bad. DH thought his sandwich was pretty good and so did everyone else. Yes, we all tried it since we were so disappointed with our own meals. I was really glad that I had not wasted more $$ on a cupcake at this point. Now, this doesn't mean that you won't or haven't had a good lunch at BOG but I can honestly tell you that we will not be back. It was a huge letdown for me and I hated writing this review because this was one meal that I was really looking forward to. Cookes of Dublin was 10X better and no FP+ required.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Joining in.

 

[tweis]

Joining in.

Thanks!