Trip report from 1/14 Magic

[pyramid2000]

Hello all! This may take a few days to complete since I am not feeling well and still VERY tired!


Myself, DD-11, DD-7, DD-2 (now 3 )

We started our trip 1/12 after the kids got done school. We took our local ferry to Delaware (1 and a half hrs) and got about 40 miles into South Carolina by 1am. We stayed at a very nice hotel for about $80 and had a nice continental breakfast in the morning. Luckily I didn't know they had a computer with free internet available to all guests or I may not have gotten any sleep! We got to PC at about 4:30pm on Friday and I couldn't decide if we should stay near the port or in Orlando.

So we took off for Downtown Disney and stayed until 10:30 to decide later. It was in the 70's and very comfortable. Kids had lots of fun! We did end up driving back to PC and stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suite Resort for $90 w/tax. I will never stay here again!! When we got to our room there was no way we were staying in it! It smelled so bad! I went to the front desk and got another room. This one also smelled, but we were exhausted, it was late, and it wasn't as bad as the first. I have to assume it was whatever they used to clean the rooms?!?! Luckily we crashed.

Now if you were paying attention I mentioned that it was in the 70's when we went to sleep. Well imagine my surprise when I woke up and opened the door. Brrrrrr It was about 50 and WINDY!!! As you can tell I am not much the planner and didn't check the weather We got all of our stuff together and headed to the port!!!

Since I was the only adult I couldn't drop off our stuff and have someone keep a place in line. After we parked the car and got inside, it was about 10:30. There was a line through security, but that took all of 10 min. We got number 5 and had a minute wait in the CC check in line. Eellow DIS Eeyore and her fiance were right behind us! There were absolutely NO upgrades, the boat was FULL!! This I had expected from looking on DCL before we left. Checked the kids into the club and they watched some tv. The terminal was packed! I really couldn't believe how many people were there by 11:30. Thank godness for the new #system I had never arrived at the terminal before 1 and really didn't know what to expect, but definately not this! I also meet DISer Joy and made arrangements with her for Palo brunch for the next day. I kept searching and searching for my friend and her group to no avail. I couldn't imagine where they were since their plane was due to arrive at 9:15 am.

They started boarding around 11:45 and we were on the boat a little after 12. I went right to Studio C and got our dining changed to early so mine and my friend's kids could go to the shows together. We kept our same rotation and had 5:45 dinner. We then headed to PC. We had a nice lunch and when we left, there was a long line out the door. I finally ran into my friend's DM in line for PC and can finally relax! They had a mix up at the airport (themselves, not the buses). We walked around a bit then headed to our room. It was too chilly to swim, so we headed to the club so I could see about getting DD-2 in with the 3-4 since she was a week shy of 3 and potty trained.

When I first asked about the switch, I was told that there were no managers available and I would have to wait until the next afternoon (2:30) when they had an organized activity. This did not sit well with me for a couple of reasons. First, DD was sooo looking forward to the club, what would I tell her when her sisters could go and not her?? Second, I had brunch scheduled for 10:30 that day and third, when would I get to go to Key West?? This activity was scheduled for the middle of the day!! I was told that I could try Flounders so I could go to the brunch. I am pretty easy going, so I went went to Flounders to see in case I couldn't get things changed earlier. Well, Flounders would not be open at the time I had brunch scheduled, so there went that idea. I decided to go back to the club later when a manager would be there. In the mean time, my friend, whose b-day was the next day, was waitlisted for brunch so I went down with her and gave her my time. All worked out with this because Joy had her character breakfast that morning anyway. (The only thing that didn't work out was that I wouldn't get to Palo ) I did get back later and got DD in the club after they asked her a few questions. What they wanted to get from a new 3 year old is beyond me.

We meet up with our friends and checked out each others room then did the muster drill. We were in the WD Theater and the lifevests were a lot more comfortable! DD-2 didn't have to wear the baby one this time so she was quite happy! When we got back to the room, most of our luggage was thee so we unpacked and got ready for dinner since we had early dinner before heading up on deck for sailaway. 2 of my DDs went up on deck with friends before I did since they liked to be on deck 9. Me and DD-2 went to deck 10. Boy was it windy and chilly! I couldn't find any DISers as many people were coming and going because of the cold and I was going up and down to check on the other two. There were a lot more people outside then I expected, but we had a lot of fun and always enjoy seeing the CMs with the big Mickey hands at the terminal! We were finally off!!

Our dining rotation was PLA and our servers were Sameer from India and Toni (male) from Spain. John from Scotland was our Head Server. We had a nice dinner and the surprisingly hardly felt any movement through the evening. DD-11 was determined to get in on one of the trivia games so we headed to Mickey Mania. My friend and her nephew were picked so it was pretty exciting. We then went to the All Aboard show and managed to get seats together. Michael Harrison is hilarious!! Since there was no sending the kids to the club w/o parents, we went there a little then back to the room. DD-11 has sign put privledges, but her friends did not yet so they went to Ocean Quest for a bit.

NOTE: One of my friends DD was only 9, but she was in the Lab as a 10-12 with her sister. Since she was in the 10-12 she had no problem getting in the Quest with everyone else JLK.

We were in a Cat 10 an deck 1 and found it quite roomy. Liked the layout better with the bed in the back. We had a double trunk so had more than enough storage. My friend had a Cat 9 on deck 2 and hers didn't have a trunk at all, eventhough some of her party around her did. They had quite a struggle with storage. With this being said, the layout of the room and our room steward, Sigfried from the Phillipines, were the only things we liked. Deck 1 isn't bad as far as location. The forward elevators are usually never busy. We did have a lot of kids on the floor and most were unsupervised throughout the trip. And I am talking 3-6 yr olds running the halls after midnight! We also had a group of boys who took much amusement in pushing all of the buttons in the elevators numerous times during the trip and occasionally knocking on doors and running away. They were quite surprised when they did it to me and I opened the door right away as I happened to be right there! I also missed the veranda more than I thought and the kids wouldn't wake up in the morning because they couldn't tell if it the sun was up w/o a window!! To each his own!


Boy can I ramble..............

 

[marcij]

Great report -- can't wait for the next segment!

 

[michelle9343]

Great report. I hope you are feeling better and can post more soon.

 

[pyramid2000]

Feeling a little better. This cold won't go away!!

Key West

For some reason I woke up early throughout the cruise. I am really not a morning person. That said, the kids usually didn't wake until after 9. We had breakfast (yum doughnuts) and the kids were dying to go to the clubs since they couldn't the first night. But first we went to do some pin trading since it was between 10 and 11. The kids had a great time. I had bought loads of pins on e-bay so they would have pins they wanted to trade. DD2 thought this was great also! She was so cute. They had a big book that the girls could look through also. Off to the kid's clubs! I just toured the ship on my own for awhile until the first page . Went to see what was up with DD2 and was told she wouldn't use the bathroom. I took her in myself which I had planed on doing but had forgotten to do. She is used to a stool so we did find one and she was fine for the rest of the trip . So they do have stools in the bathrooms if they need one.

I watched as we docked at Key West. Beautiful! The sun was shining and the temperature was pretty good in the sun. Still windy. I had heard we were going to be staying in KW until 1 am the night before and it was confirmed when we docked. I went to pick up DD2 and DD7 to take them to lunch. I missed DD7 before the group left for lunch, hence another page. I met her at Topsiders and she was a bit teary because I had said I would get her before lunch. She ended up eating with the group anyway. Lunch was decent enough (Italian). I went to pick up DD 11, but she wanted to do a trivia challenge with her group. Would we ever get off the ship?? Other DDs and I went to Quartermaster's for awhile. They had fun, but I will say that I found some of the games not working properly. It ranged from bad joysticks to games that didn't work at all!! So watch what you play .

We finally got off the ship sometime after 3. I ran into my friend just coming back on the boat so I asked her how her brunch went. Well it turns out I was a really good friend giving her my ressie . Not only was it her birthday, but she got engaged!! I had called Palo earlier to make sure they knew it was her birthday so she had a WONDERFUL time with all of the surprises! Oh and the food was great too!! They had a wonderful time on Key West seeing the sites. The first thing on my agenda was to find a pair of sandals. I heard they had great ones at Kinos (??).

Side Note: Don't buy all new shoes before going somewhere that you will be walking a lot! My feet were killing me in my new sneakers and shoes I really do know better, but....

We went into the little shops at Mallory Square and I asked where I could get sandals. They pointed me in the direction and guess what? They were closed on Sundays! Live and learn. We really didn't have much time to go far ( plus the feet factor) so we went to the little aquarium for a bit. The kids had fun touching a few of the creatures, but some just looked downright gross! There weren't any sharks to touch here so I don't know where that place is?!?! They liked seeing the fish and crocodiles and I gave my mom a call from the cellphone since we were still in the US. We also called DH. They had just gotten some snow that am so I felt better about the weather we were having so far. A little chilly with the wind, but much better than at home!! The kids did see a hen and her chicks running around to find her. We had a nice time, but had to head to the ship for our early dinner. I did tour deck 6, along with DD7, trying to find Cheryl. Joy had said she wasn't to far from her and had her door decorated. Well, we did ALL of deck 6 and couldn't find her. There were a few doors with stuff on them, but no Cheryl. Would I ever find her??

Dinner tonight was in Lumiere's. Had a great steak for dinner! Yum! Much better than the previous night. Our drinks were waiting for us when we got there. I was a bit surprised that our table was in the same general location as the night before. On the 3 day you not only switch rooms, but your location in the dining room is also different. Sameer was great, but he gave the excellent speech a bit too much. He also insisted on getting through his spiel every night about what to order, even when I had to tend to the kids. At times he tried to be too proffesional, if you know what I mean. Toni was a doll and the girls really liked him. When he found out the girls take some Spanish in school, he said he would teach them a little each night. Tonight was Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer so we were out the door by 7:15. No one got their number picked, but we had a lot of fun with the questions. Then off to the show with Michael Harrison. The kids (and the adults) loved it! He really is good. DD 7 was nearly coming out of her skin to get picked to go on stage but we were too far back. It was really nice to have friends onboard and they did most of these things together while I had other adults to talk with. The kids went to clubs afterwards so the adults could go see Freddy Fusion in Rockin Bar D. We were a bit late and the place was packed. We got seats on the side so you could see alot of his "behind the scenes" stuff, but the show was good none the less. My friends were ready to retire, so I went to the 60's show for a bit by myself. Not really my thing, so I started to wonder the ship when...

Beep Beep Beep. Another page. I was very close to the clubs at the time anyway and figured the first movie was almost done. Well, DD2 was just about hyper-ventalating when I got there. Apparently, she had fallen asleep during the movie and they were putting a blanket on her. This woke her up and she was very disoriented. DD7 was with her at the time. Well, she proceeded to slap her sister and then a CM!! Guess I know better now then to leave her there if she might fall asleep! Very surprised by her reaction though. We went back to the cabin for the night. DD 11 had been at the girls pj party and came back at 1! She had a ball! They got to dress Dario up as a girl and shouted "no boys" everytime one came in. The boys were up on the sports deck during this. All and all, we had a great day 2!!

 

[Briarmom]

Enjoying your report!
I am thinking about cruising with my ds7 and dd (who will be almost 3 as well).

 

[CPM]

Caroline,
Just found your TR! Awsone report. Thanks for sharing.
Your girls were so cute!

 

[anty30]

Subscribing so I can hear about the rest of your trip. It's great.

 

[goofymama]

Sounds like you did a lot of the same things that we did. I didn't bother to meet up with any DISers as we were traveling with friends and wanted to spend time with them ... but it turned out that they ended up early to bed every night, so I really wish we would have met some other adults to "party" with at night. On the last night, there were only 3 couples in Rocking Bar D with the CM band. so sad

 

[CPM]

Sounds like you did a lot of the same things that we did. I didn't bother to meet up with any DISers as we were traveling with friends and wanted to spend time with them ... but it turned out that they ended up early to bed every night, so I really wish we would have met some other adults to "party" with at night. On the last night, there were only 3 couples in Rocking Bar D with the CM band. so sad

Yup too bad.
We were probably one of the three at Rocking D bar!

 

[pyramid2000]

Ok, first I have to add to Day 2 a little. DD2 was in the club from right after diner. She wanted to see Snow White and had a ball!! This was way before her meltdown!

OK, so on to Day 3. I am forgeting some details now, so they shold be a bit shorter...

I again woke up early an decided to go for it with the internet package! I really wanted to see if I needed to do any work for my classes (although I didn't have any books! ) I figured I could find Cheryl if she was doing a live report. I had a little trouble posting. It wouldn't post and I would lose everything I wrote!! Never did figure out what the problem was. The kids got up and we went to breakfast. Kids love the fruit!! We went back to get on bathingsuits as the sun was shining and the seas were good! DD-2 wanted to go to the club, so me and the other 2 went up on deck and ofund our friends. They swam for awhile as we gabbed in the sun and tried to figure out what else to do for the day. We were on Deck 10 and with the breeze did not think much about the sun, hence a few of us had red faces that evening, myself included! I picked up DD2 from the club after lunch (the little ones get to eat in the club itself) since she looked a bit tired watching Toy Story. We ended up taking a little nap while the other two ejoyed the club and Ocean Quest. As a matter of fact, DD 11 spent much more time at OC than the Lab. She loved it, but did not like it when I would come in to let her know what was going on!!

I didn't get a chance to do any of the planned things onboard, but we did have a very relaxing day. Again, getting ready for the early dinner really cuts into the day as everyone needed showers and it was formal night. I had wanted to get down to the Captain's Welcome Reception, but it didn't happen with the kids. Dinner was in AP and it was actually really nice in there for Formal night since everything is in black and white. Diner wasn't as good as in Lumiere's, but nice. DD 11 wanted the tomato soup from the night before, but I found out that the kid's menus are the same in each restaurant each night and different daily. They did have a tomato soup on the adult menu that night any way. DD 2 also got into a thing wanting meatballs everynight. Sameer really tried to acomodate us, but he said we had to request things the night before.I also mentioned to him about wanting the Chocolate souffle from Palo since I wouldn't be going. He kept telling me to go and he would take care of the kids!!! Wouldn't that be nice! We didn't rush out of dinner tonight as there wasn't anything the kids wanted to do except pin trading before the show. Since I didn't want to carry the pins around during the show, we took them back to the room and had a hard time finding a seat when we got there. We weren't late, just about 10 miutes before show time. I asked on of the CMs for some help, but I was a bit disappointed. She basically said we have to just look for seats (duh). I explained to her that we only need 3-4 seats as I was willing to hold DD2 on my lap, and that everywhere I had asked, the seats were being saved. Now I don't mind someone holding a few seats, this was not my problem.The CM just went down a few rows and pointed out a few seats in the middle of the row for us. I could have done that, but I was worried that they were being held and didn't want to bother going in and out of the row if they were. The CM disappeared before we even found out. Luckily there were 3 seats that weren't being used and we got our seats. Not very magical in MHO.

I hadn't seen The Golden Mickey's in Sept since we had gone to Palo on that night. I feel I really didn't miss anything. It was ok, but not great. The kids enjoyed it enough, and there was some good singing. Just not on par with the singing in Hercules. We didn't do the after party beause I wanted to see Micheal Harrison. There wasn't anything the kids wanted to do at the clubs, so they stayed in the room while I went to the show. It was hilarious!! I was sorry that my friends missed it because they turned in early! He really is not to be missed! We all turned in for the night......or so I thought!!

The seas turned ugly this night. I can't remember how many times I woke up, but I know that 4 am I went out on deck 4 to see what was going on and to get some much needed air. WOW!! I think it was raining, but it was hard to tell. Everything was wet! There were Gale force winds and 13-20 ft waves!! I had to go out on deck a few times as I wasn't feeling so well and I did end up getting sick in the handicapped man's room It was the closest one!! I did feel better after that, but I had a hard time getting back to sleep....i guess this is really the beggining of day 4....

I did meet the wife of a CM today. She was a bit strange, talking about the Captain's wife walking arm and arm with another woman. She said she would be getting off Sat. ater being on for 9 weeks. Her DH was a replacement as he usually works security at the terminal. She did mention that Capt. Tom would be getting off also and going to Hong Kong to recruit??

 

[pyramid2000]

Day 4 Grand Cayman

I had planned on renting a car and going to Rum Point today. I wasn't so sure we would be able to tender because of the early AM conditions, but the seas were smooth here. Even without much sleep,(we did get an extra hour with the time change) I was up by 7:30 and I went out to watch the tenders start and see how things were. I didn't have a car ressie until 10 so I let the kids sleep and enjoyed the quiet. After they got up, we got on suits and got the beach stuff together. We ate breakfast and.....they didn't want to go!! They wanted to stay on the boat and go in the pools instead!! No problem with me really. The car rental doesn't take ony Credit card info so nothing lost there. It was actually really nice being onboard with so little others. I had wanted to try the driving on the wrong side of the road though. Instead we went in the Mickey pool and had a blast! The sun wasn't shining and it was a little breezy, but the water was warm. The Goofy pool was a different story as the water was more chilly. We mostly went from the pool to the hot tubs and back for quite a long time.

DD11 went to the lab and had fun drawing Mickey, playing a hman board game and seeing some magic in the OC. DD 7 got to play on the computers in the lab and make a volcano. She also did music trivia. DD2 went to see Alice in Wonderland. I wasn't so sure how she was going to be in the theater to watch Nemo, so I expressed my concerns (it's soo dark and loud in there) and they just said they would page me. I found myself with nothing to do! Finally all of the kids in the clubs and not many on the ship yet, but I didn't want to go to the auction so I toured the ship for awhile. I even went in to watch some of the music triva game DD 7 was in. Don't I usually want free time from the kids?!?!?! DD11 was quite perturbed when I invaded her space in OC a couple of times when plans were being made for what we would do. First we were going to play Outburst, but then we decided to play Bingo. DD2 beeped me about half way through the movie, so we were set to play!!! We were dressed well enough for dinner and got seats early, w/DD11 meeting us there. Well, the game was to start at 4:45 and we were in line to get our cards when I asked someone how long it usually took. She said at LEAST an hour!! Hhhmmmm... 4:45..5:45 at least...dinner at 5:45...Castaway Club members reception 5-6....what to do?!?! I decided against Bingo (didn't go over so well with the DDs) and we went back to the room to change anyway. DDs didn't want to go to the reception, wanted to play with their friends, so I went down for a few minutes before dinner. It was very crowded so I just stayed in the back and listened to Capt. Tom not say much about anything. I think the most cruises someone had taken was 15. Went back to get the girls and headed to dinner.

Back to Parrot Cay. Sameer brought out 3 dinners for DD2. She wanted Mac-n-Cheese and chicken, but he also gave her the spaghetti and meatballs that she wanted the night before! He actually had this for her the rest of the cruise. He said he got his own stash of meatballs! Funny thing is DD2 doesn't eat much! Barely touched any of the meatball each night! I believe this was the night they brought me out a Chocolate souffle from Palo. John the head server actually brought it out. They were really good to us.

The kids did some more pin trading before Twice Charmed. We enjoyed this one a bit more than GM. DD2 was thrilled since it was Cinderella. She kept calling the prince Cinderella's daddy! Afterwards I took the kids to the Mickey mania gameshow. DD11 still didn't get to participate My friend went to see Jeff Civillico, a comedian/juggler, and really liked him! The kids went to the clubs and OC while we went to 80's night. It was really good! I saw some DISers there (Eeyore) who were picked to be onstage, but I left to get the kids. DD2 wasn't happy and I was surprised that she had a skinned knee and a bruise on her thumb, but no bandaid or anything mentioned?!?! She actually didn't go back to the club after this. It was rough again this night, but not quite as bad as before. Strong winds and 8-13 ft waves. Went to bed/ time change back so an hour lost!

 

[Goldeelox9]

Thats it??? No more???

 

[Mindyjoy]

haha