Murphoid Mouse
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2015
- Messages
- 63
Ok so this is my review of the three night Disney Magic Cruise to Castaway Cay that departed Port Canaveral March 31st, 2016. I bought the cruise as a birthday present for my wife. We had lots of fun planning and looking forward to the cruise. We decided to go with the Disney provided ground transportation
I had decided to fly in the day of the cruise. I had never flown before and thought it would be fun. But the flight was very very rough. It was an hour and 40 minutes White Knuckles all the way; the plane rocked and bumped. It was a very scary experience, but finally the plane landed. My ears were terribly clogged, I felt a little exhausted from the experience, but we were safe and sound in Orlando.
I was practically deaf because the plane I had left my ears clogged. It was bad enough that my wife and I tried to talk to each other but actually just ended up saying “what?” a lot. To get from the gate to the terminal at the Orlando Airport, you have to take a monorail which is always fun I guess. We got to the monorail and since we're doing the Disney transportation we didn't have to do the baggage claim. It was a long walk to the Disney Bus (although it was all indoors),but we found the place to board the bus and were greeted with typical wonderful Disney customer service.
We boarded the bus and I texted my daughter to let her know we had arrived safe. We watched the videos and texted as we drove toward Port Canaveral. We were able to see the ship from the bus. The Disney Magic looks wonderful. Also there was a carnival cruise ship.
When we reached the port, a Disney cast member came on the bus while the bus driver unloaded the luggage. Her instructions were fairly simple and she was bright and shiny like all Disney employees. She explained that we should have our document and passports or in our case State IDs and birth certificates ready to show the cast members inside.
We were there at about 2 o'clock and had managed to miss most of the crowd. We walked right up to the Disney cast member at the counter, who told us we came at just the right time as there had been crowds there all day. After giving her our cruise contract, photo IDs and birth certificates she gave us a key to the world card and we were free to board.
Before we went on the ship, we went out to the viewing platform and took some pictures of the ship and us with it. We then officially boarded the ship, which was very exciting. The cast member of that greeted us on the ship just in front of the main lobby asked us if it was our first Disney cruise yes and then asked us if it was our first cruise. Yes and yes. She told us we had a magnificent time in store and then asked the party name. She announced on the loudspeaker “Please welcome on board the Murphy Family”. The other cast members around applauded and we walked into the Magnificent opulence of the main lobby on the Disney Magic, a wonderful gold and silver room with a chandelier at the top hidden Mickeys around and of course off to our right there was the grand staircase leading up to the next level, and elevators to our left. We walked in and around the corner and there was the customer service desk.
A small line was forming in front of the customer service desk.There were cast members behind the customer service desk and at the end of the queue there was someone in an officer's uniform to answer questions. I asked the gentleman if there was anything we needed to do at the customer service desk he said, “you can do anything you want now”. We decided to go to our stateroom we walked down there. Opening the door, we entered a pleasant room with a couch, a bed, dresser, a closet, and a bathroom. The room was an inside stateroom so I knew not to expect any type of grandeur or anything. It didn't really strike me at the time, but in Disney World we usually stay at the value resorts. My remarks at the time were that those were the smallest rooms I've ever seen. This room was actually much smaller, however that did not occur to us when we first saw it. At the time we thought it was a very nice stateroom but we were a little concerned that our luggage wasn’t here. We picked up our navigator from the bed and saw that it was almost time for the sail away party and after the sail away party there would be a little time for us to get dressed up and then go to our Palo reservation. We did have our fish extender in a carry-on luggage so we hung that outside the door on our way out.
We didn't have much choice but to hope that our luggage would show up in the next hour or so while we were at the sail away party, so we went there. We found the area that usually has the goofy pool, the pool for families, was closed up now covered over with a cement closure. A moderate number of people were starting to gather for the sail away party, and there were cast members selling frozen drinks. My wife and I decided to buy them since they came in a plastic commemorative cup. Both cups survived the journey home and are in our cupboards now.
The sail away party was pretty much as I imagined. Disney performers came out, singing and dancing very nicely “hip hip hooray we're about to sail away”. Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, and then of course the mouse himself appeared. There was a countdown and we heard the ship's whistle blow in the familiar “When You Wish Upon a Star” tune. All the performers, and our fellow Cruisers were very excited. Of course, we were as well! The show concluded as the costumed performers departed and the non costumed performers remained on stage to lead a small dance party.
I want to say that I deeply appreciated the level of fun provided. I had always been turned off by the idea of a cruise which would play loud raucous dance music while hardcore adults partied all around me. That was not my idea of fun. This light-hearted Disneyesque celebration going on all around us was much more our speed and something we could enjoy fully. We stayed for a bit enjoying our frozen drinks. When we were finished, it was time to go get dressed for Palo dinner and we headed down to our stateroom.
When we arrived, Joy of Joys! We did find all of our luggage in our stateroom ready for us. We were able to dress in our fancy evening clothes and head off to Palo. We found the restaurant without too much bother. We had ridden the elevator to the top and the door opened revealing a couple of cast members. We thought we had another level up to go, but we were already on the 10th floor. The cast members tried their best to describe where we should go, but honestly their accent was a bit much for me and my clogged ears. I couldn't really understand anything they were saying. We kind of wandered off; it made me a little bit wishful. I wish that Disney did not hire so many people on foreign visas.. I remember in my childhood the wonderful customer service we had received from the American employees at Disney World. Wiith so many foreign-born Disney workers, language barriers like this often occur. But to their credit, the cast did as best they could to politely direct us, and did it with a smile. We did find Pollo of course. I mean the ship is big but only so big; you can't really get lost on it.
Palo was very nicely decorated; you can find pictures of it all over. The wait staff was fantastic and very attentive. We were directed to our seat, the waiter explained everything about the menu, and asked if we would like wine service. We decided just to have a glass of wine with dinner and not the entire service. For my appetizer I chose the gnocchi, for my entrée I chose the lamb. My wife had calamari for her appetizer and the fillet for her main course. she also chose a mushroom rosoto to go along with as the waiter prodded her to choose a pasta/starch.
The service was extraordinary and the food was incredibly delicious. We may not return to Palo again simply because they've raised the prices. But everyone should experience Palo at least once. Even with the slightly higher prices now, the experience is definitely worth it. For dessert the waiter ordered us two of their widely renowned chocolate souffles. We let him know that we also wanted to try the tiramisu. The desserts were equally fantastic. The waiters excellent service continued.
Just before dessert was served I noticed something strange going on with the ship it was listing more and more to the port side it started at 3 or 4 degrees but by the time the desert has come it was a noticeable 12 degrees. The waiter noticed my concerned expression and announce that Goofy must be driving because Mickey had gone to bed. I chuckled and it was a good joke, however, since I’m not five this didn't really allay my fears and I continued to wonder what was going on. The waiter offered to bring us more of anything we wanted, but really I knew there was nothing I could do about the ship leaning more and more. I didn't understand what was going on so I decided it would just be best to do an out-of-sight out-of-mind thing and go below decks.We excused ourselves, having finished our dining experience. We were there for about an hour-and-a-half. Typically they like the dinner service to last two hours, but even if I wasn't having these concerns about the ship, I don't think I would have stayed for 2 hours sitting at a dinner table no matter how fancy it was.
We walked down to the Disney theater to see Tangled and got in the queue for the show. There was quite a lot of going on in that area because in addition to everyone lining up for the show, right in front of the Walt Disney theater, for some reason they were also having a photo opportunity with Pluto. This meant that even the people that weren't going to Tangled were lining up in the same area to have their picture taken. Strangely enough, even members of the crew were there to have their picture taken with Pluto.Perhaps they had family on board with them.
Obviously it was a bit crowded. This was the most throughout the whole cruise and it was only once that I felt crowded like this. Every other time even though there were over two thousand people on board I never felt unduly crowded.There wasn’t too much of a wait until they opened the doors to the show and then I was feeling better, since the ocean was out of sight. The ship continue to rock but it didn't really bother me. The show was delayed five or ten minutes due to technical issues because of the rocking, but I didn’t mind.. I will note that at this point I had just finished the largest meal I would have on the ship. Although the ship rocking was not making me feel nauseous, and indeed became comforting, I was feeling a distinct loss of appetite throughout the whole cruise, which was a shame because the food presented was so very tasty. Anyway like I was saying the door was opened up and we filed and we were able to snag some very nice seats in the second row and we watched a stage production of Tangled.
This was my wife's favorite and I liked it a lot too. The show had some very talented people in it, excellent dancers, fantastic singers, a funny story line that was engaging, and at 90 minutes no one could think that the performance was too long. My favorite memory of this was when Flynn Rider leapt off stage, practically landing in my lap due to a strange rock the ship had taken. My wife jokes that it would be much more preferable for him to almost landed her Lap. I am a great lover of theater. I participate in community Theatre whenever I can on stage and off. I can say with authority that this was the finest show I had seen outside Broadway or Broadway tours.
After the show we returned To our stateroom and noticed that our fish extender with now stuffed with gifts. It was a wonderful thing. We went inside and grabbed our gifts that we were going to give out. We then found each state room in turn. We were on a small fish extender group, all things considered, so it didn't take too long to distribute the gifts. Then we noticed that even though it was quite late for us anyway (10:30), that there was a showing of The Force Awakens starting very soon. Being the geeks we are, we decided to go. It was a 3D showing. We had seen the movie three times previously; this would be our fourth time. I drifted in and out of sleep starting right about after they get aboard the Millennium Falcon; it made the movie move very nicely actually. We did hang out in the theater, so I noticed several people all around us giving up and going back. It was very good to see the ending where Ray tries to present the lightsaber to Luke. There was nothing else for it, we were exhausted. We returned to our stateroom after the movie and fell asleep for the first night.
It being our vacation, we slept in the next day. We woke up just in time to catch the latest ending breakfast at Cabanas, the breakfast buffet. Even though it was a buffet the food was quite good. At this point I didn't have much of an appetite but the food was very tasty. My only wish was that I could have eaten more. The only thing totally unsatisfactory was the breakfast sandwich that they had available at the end of the line. I had snagged one but the English muffin it was served on was hard as a rock. When the waiter cleared that, he did ask me about the sandwich and pretty much indicated that that was the General consensus about them. Disney customer service abound and all the staff members everyone was very polite no one even among the guests seemed to be having a bad time.
We returned to our stateroom gathered the rest of the fish extender gifts that we were going to give away, then went out and distributed them. This is a lot of fun for some reason. I don't know exactly why, but it's nice to know that you're giving a little something extra to someone's fantastic weekend that they can take home with them and enjoy for a while.
We looked at the navigator to decide what to do next and we noticed there was a wine and chocolate tasting. This seems to be the perfect fit for us. Although we had not pre-registered we walked to the event and asked if we could still attend. They explained to us it was $35 apiece and that they did have space. If they could charge the cost to the room we could participate. We agreed and took our seats. This was in the luxurious Keys Lounge the upscale nightclub where they usually have live piano in the evening. The spread was quite the site 4 glasses of wine, well not all wine, arranged above 4 distinguished-looking chocolate, well they weren't even all chocolates. But there was a champagne, a red wine, a port, and a whiskey. Underneath these there was a white chocolate, a dark chocolate, an expensive cheese, and a chocolate caramel (in that order).
One of the ships Sommelier explained to us in great detail what all the drinks were,, what the chocolate and cheese was, why they were paired etc. I have no idea or recollection of any of what he said, but believe me this was delicious. This is probably the best money we spent on the cruise probably equalling our Palo experience. During the tasting, I noted to one of the people sitting next to us that the water seemed so much less choppy than it did yesterday. In fact when I had woken up that I felt like the ship was barely moving at all. They responded back to me that the ship actually had had to return to Port Canaveral for a medical emergency that night so now only just now was the ship getting back out to the deep ocean where the water was extra choppy.
I wondered if this was an explanation to the great list I was feeling yesterday while we were in Palo but never quite bothered to confirm this for a fact. Since our cruise was a 3 night cruise with only one destination, Castaway Cay, the first and second nights were supposed to be all-water nights. One gentleman explained that this meant we were just really making Giant Circles in the water anyway for the second night, so no time had been lost on the voyage at all. Besides the wine and chocolate tasting we attended, there's also a whiskey tasting and one other tasting that I can't quite remember available aboard ship. I'm sure these are all wonderful experiences. Participate in one if you get the chance.
After the wine tasting we noticed that Bingo was an option available aboard the ship. Being Catholic something about Bingo has always spoken to something deep in my soul. We went and we bought an electronic board with 24 cards loaded into it. It came with 4 pages of the paper boards, each page had 3 Bingo cards for each game up on it (4 games in total for the session). The person selling the cards was very patient and explained us all are possible purchase options the package we bought for $40 was probably the most popular, but if you want more than that you can get more paper cards and more electronic cards loaded into your electronic device at more cost. The only package less expensive was one where you only got paper cards (but a little bit more paper cards than we got with our device). The Bingo puller was great at his job. There were lots of funny quips and snips of music played during the game. The game was very very fun. I only got to stand up once this game and didn't win anything, but it was still worth the entrance fee.
After the game of Bingo, we went to the cruise’s ad hoc premier of zootopia. It was a grand showing at 3 p.m. The theater was the most full we had seen it I didn't feel as crowded here as I did before Tangled. (No character meet and greet here this time). Zootopia did play some other times on Funnel Vision, but this showing happened in the Walt Disney Theatre (the main theatre), not in the movie theater that we had seen Star Wars in. Zootopia was shown in 3D. It was a wonderful movie and it was great to see it with a lively audience.
We had about an hour and a half to spare before the next show we wanted to see, so we set about exploring the ship. We grabbed some complimentary pizzas. I also had a hot dog. These little food booths by the pool are mainly included in the price of the cruise. There is one dessert share and 1 coffee bar and of course any alcoholic drinks to get from the 3 or so alcohol Bars by the pools are not included in the cost and they cost extra.
After exploring the ship for a while and enjoying our snacks we went off to see our second show which was Twice Charmed. I was expecting a drop in quality as it was the same cast that performed in Tangled,, but was pleasantly surprised. Even though I found the storyline of the Twice Charmed a little bit derivative, the actors pulled no punches in their performances. They were still just as bright and shiny and emotive and well acted and sell sung in this show as they were in Tangled. The storyline involved a wicked fairy Godfather coming to assist the wicked stepsisters to go back in time and once again have their shot at stopping Cinderella from getting the prince. I'm sure it's no big surprise that they lose again and that their fairy Godfather, the evil one, comes to claim his due. The person playing the evil Godfather really shone in his role, and I enjoyed his performance a lot.
Now it was time for the pirate party my wife and I were well prepared for. We had brought our Renaissance Fair costumes a long. With some minor modifications to them they easily became pirate outfits. It was quite fun to dress up, and one family even took a picture with us as if we were part of the show. We got to see Captain Mickey, whom I noted was not wearing the cruise line outfit but wearing a early American Captain's uniform. Captain Hook took up the middle part of the show. Captain Jack was not a part of our pirate party show. Even though there was a zip line set up across the whole pirate party area no one went down the zip line. I have no idea if this was cancelled due to strange rocking or wind. But for whatever reason it didn't happen and we didn't get to see Captain Jack at the pirate party. I thought I saw Captain Jack hiding near the zip lines but this was not part of the show, just something I noticed. It was a great party; we had a lot of fun pretending like we could dance while having the cruise line and cast members admire our costumes.
After the pirate party, we went to Animator's Palate for dinner. We decided to stay in our costumes to try to freak out the norms. Everyone was still very appreciative of our costumes. The wait staff were acting like we were old friends even though this was the first time that we had met them. They were warm and inviting, and their familiarity didn't seem like level jumping at all. They asked us where we were yesterday and we explained we had dinner at Palos everyone understood. There were two couples that we ate with that night. They asked us what Palo was, and we described in detail how great of a time we had there. They mentioned how much they liked our costumes and when the wait staff asked if everyone enjoyed the pirate party, one of the couples said that we must have had a much better time than they did. Dinner at the animator's palate was wonderful. We got to watch the drawings come slowly to life, and there was a show at this dinner where we got to see my favorite Mickey, Sorcerer Mickey, come out and direct the living paintings in a small performance. Then all the wait staff who had previously been wearing black and white vests now re appeared wearing color vests. it was fantastic and everyone applauded loudly. Of course in review it's pretty obvious that they were just reversible vest at the time it was a wonderful little performance.
The wait staff at the free meals were pretty much on par with the professional level that we had become accustomed to. We immediately became friends with our servers Carolina and Mardy (TechnicalLy I MADE). We couldn't wait to see them again the next day.
After dinner we went to get our pictures taken with Mickey and we also got our pictures taken in front of a shipwreck backdrop that was supposed to be Pirates of Caribbean themed. The pictures turned out lovely. We then decided to go to a karaoke event. I am usually asked to sing at karaoke but I was still feeling a bit stuffy and we left as the room was a bit hot. Plus it seems most of the people singing were kids. We didn't stay to see everyone sing. I was a bit crabby because I was overtired so we decided to head back to our stateroom and go to sleep for the night.
The next day was the big day. We had arrived at Castaway Cay. My wife and I dressed in our swimwear with shirts over, we went back to Cabanas to enjoy another wonderful breakfast buffet, and then left the ship. Which was not as much of a process as it seemed it might be; we simply had to show our key to the world cards and ID on the way out. It was a short line. I don't know if it was because the time we left but there it felt like virtually no wait at all to get off the ship. We had seen the Captain Jack would be on Castaway Cay that morning, so we just hung around at the small area of shops that are right off the ship with not a lot to do for about 30 minutes but just take in the view. As soon as we saw the line forming we got in line and were only the third group to get to see Captain Jack that morning. While we were waiting, I asked if Captain Jack was on ship with us or was a performer from Castaway Cay. I was told that Captain Jack was aboard the ship but have made no appearances. Or maybe there was a photo appearance somewhere that I missed but like I said before he was not part of the Castaway pirate party show the night before. Anyway after not much of a wait we got our turn to get talk to Captain Jack and I had a very nice chat with him. I got to ask him about his relationship with Captain Mickey and it was fun. We got a wonderful picture with Captain Jack unfortunately it was not in our costume garb but in our swimwear with beach towels. Still a very nice picture though.
We went to the bike rentals I had signed up in advance for bike rentals, floats, and snorkeling package. For me this turned out to be too much to do in one day. Unless you are really a go getter and want to do a lot of activities, this probably isn't the way to go; just choose one. Anyway the bike ride was really nice.Unfortunately there wasn't too much to look at, just some shrubs and short palm trees all around. It was wilderness but not the fun kind of interesting to look at wilderness just scrub wilderness. The most interesting things to look at on the bike ride were the props planted there by Disney. Wonderful foresight by Disney made sure that there were hydration Stations well planted along the way. I'm Right out and thirsty during the trip. Halfway through the bike trip there was an observation deck which we climb to the top of and a got a lovely picture of the ship. We then returned the bikes and got back on the tram after enjoying a frozen beverage. By the way even though the frozen beverage was not alcoholic, I didn't realize until after we ordered that they cost extra money.. The drinks were nice but if I had known beforehand that they cost, I probably wouldn't have gotten them. After all, the soft drinks and ice cream are free and included. But anyway we got on the tram and we went to the serenity Cove adults-only beach. This was probably the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. The water was crystal clear, the trees surrounding it were wonderful, and there was a decided lack of crowds. While there only seems to be a handful of hammocks there was enough available for me and my wife to snag one. We went out into the into the crystal clean water. My wife enjoyed the floaties that we had rented, she chose the inner tube style. She got us each one. At this point I decided I was a little too tired to deal with a floaty, but I did just enjoy walking out into the crystal clear water and dunking myself. I had a nice conversation in the water with my wife and we had a great time here. After playing in the water for a while we went to the lunch provided barbecue. It was nice not to have to go back on board the ship for lunch, and the food was good.
The only minor complaint I have about this dining experience and other dining experience was that the bread is usually a little stale, but it seems maybe there's just no way to avoid this. So anyway do go to the buffet. The barbecue on Castaway Cay is awesome the ice cream is free, beverages are free, the food is free, don't get anything that you need bread to eat with because it's going to be a little stale.
We caught just the tail end of the barbecue and again no crowds. There were only a few other people around. Amazing Disney crowd control as again there were over two thousand people on the ship and this was a ship during the public school spring break. But Disney Magic provided and I only felt crowded that one time I mentioned.
After lunch it was time to go try the snorkeling experience I had signed up for. Actually, it wasn't the full experience, I had just rented the snorkeling equipment in a bundle and as I said before. I was just too tired to mess with the snorkeling. My wife had wanted to try it together this morning but I was just too tired. She went out for a little bit on her own, but said it would be better with a buddy. Next time since we're only going to do one thing I'll just do the snorkeling since we've already done the bike ride. Maybe I'll sign up for the full snorkeling experience so we can do it as a group and get to see everything.
We decided to beat the rush a little and get back on the ship just slightly ahead of the crowds, so we only had to wait in a brief line to get back on the ship. Before we got on board, just outside the ship, was a variety of different waters available - pineapple, cucumber, apple, lemon, and Ice. The line to the ship was not very long 10 or 15 minutes to get back on the ship you just have to show your key to the world card and go through a metal detector. We went back to our stateroom to chang back out of our swimwear.
I noticed after just a little bit but even though I was apply sunscreen to my ears and cheekbones every hour somehow I had forgotten to Sun protect my legs any of those times. I had a sunburn on both legs but it wasn't very bad it didn't really stop me from doing anything and I could deal with it. the sun is much more direct in the bahamas than it is in Indiana where we are from. It doesn’t take as long for a burn to form.
We took turns in the shower and got dressed. We heard the Disney Magic ship horn sound When You Wish Upon a Star to call the laggards back aboard, and the ship began moving very soon after. My wife and I took a brief rest but before too long it was time to go see another wonderful show.
I had assumed that the third show would be presented by mainly the costumed characters as the non costumed characters had presented the first and the second show. To my surprise this same cast gave another stellar performance of a third and separate show called Disney Dreams. This was the least attended show as from my understanding this show is performed on all the different Disney cruises. The show was still the same caliber even though the script was not a show in itself but a montage of different things from different Disney movies. The Montage was tied together by a loose storyline of a girl trying to find her Disney Dream so that she can fly with Peter Pan. There were scenes from Aladdin which was very exciting as everybody knows there's a current broadway show Aladdin.There were also scenes from Peter Pan and the Lion King which we had seen on a tour, and several other Disney shows. Although the show was not terribly surprising I enjoyed it immensely and it was a professional caliber show.
After the show we went to the last bingo game. Although it was our second, it was the last Bingo game for the ship and it had a $10,000 possible cash prize. Nobody won the $10,000. Someone did win just over $2,000. I got to stand up once. I still didn't win anything but it was a good time and again worth the price of admission.
We went to our rotational dinner this time in a Spanish themed restaurant. I was slightly disappointed by this experience. You see, on the cruise ship they of course want to make sure they serve you what they consider to be fully cooked meat. I enjoy my steaks on the rare side. Several times during the cruise I tried to specifically order my steak somewhere under medium rare. I would say under medium rare, the server would come back with medium I would again propose a little under medium rare and they would come back with medium. I would give up and accept medium. This time and only this time the stakes came back over medium and I didn't eat much of what I was served, which was a selection of Spanish meats. They were good but I didn't eat a lot of it.
After dinner it was time for The farewell party. We went and we saw a brief show with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald. Also some of the cast was there for photos. I got to talk to some of the actors, including the evil fairy Godfather who I got to have some nice banter time with. Also there were some of the ensemble there in their fancy white wigs and costumes. I got some lovely pictures with the cast members. And of course there was a wonderfully-perfect-feeling-of-nostalgic goodbyes show where we got to say “see you real soon” to Mickey. Because of course you never really say goodbye to Mickey.
We went back to our rooms but decided after a bit of packing that we weren't quite ready to end the cruise. So we returned to the Keys Lounge to hear some really beautiful live piano. We got to talk to the piano player a bit and enjoy each other's company late Into the Night. But then of course the inevitable came and we returnd to our stateroom to fall asleep being rocked by the ocean one last time.
Since we were slated to have the second breakfast. we expected to be able to sleep in just a bit, however such delusions were crashed upon a rock as at 7 a.m. on the dot a shipwide announcement was made that those who did not wish to have breakfast we're able to leave the ship immediately as the ship had cleared customs. We slowly raised to life, got dressed and headed down to shutters to select a few pictures to take with us. We had many pictures taken with our cell phone, but we did want to take and finally settled upon 3 photos from the professional photographers.
We then went back to the Spanish themed restaurant for our final breakfast. It was pretty much the same breakfast fare and delicious that we had become accustomed to you the past 3 days. We got together with a couple that we had dined with all Cruise, except the first night. We got to see our servers one last time and then went to debark the ship.
Again the Disney magic shines through as the night previous, people had come to collect most of our luggage and it was already waiting for us off the ship. Most people get to experience even more magic as their luggage collected would be waiting for them in the luggage Return of the airport they were traveling to. Since we were traveling with a budget airline,Southwest, they did not participate in this program and we had to claim our baggage at customs immediately after debarking the ship.
Debarkation was slightly chaotic We got to say a fond farewell to the Disney Magic and stepped off the ship for the last time into the customs area of Port Canaveral. We found the luggage, filled out the custom forms, and waited in the longest line of the trip.But of course this is Port Canaveral Customs not Disney running the show here. I have to say that despite predictions I saw of Doom and Gloom by traveling with photo IDs and birth certificates, there was absolutely no problem getting back into the country through customs. The customs officer asked us if we had more than $10,000, he asked us if we had any fresh fruit, and stamped re-entry forms without even really looking too hard at the photo IDs and birth certificates. 0 problems getting back into the country through customs.
After that, we simply made our way to the Disney buses, gave our luggage to the driver who stowed them underneath the bus, and began the bus ride back to Orlando. at this point I realized that I could now turn the on cellular service on my cell phone, and the real world flooded back in.
We arrived at Orlando International Airport and as I had chosen a flight later in the evening specifically for this purpose, we had a rental car reserved. We went to the Car rental company counter and picked up the car without too much difficulty. Then we were off to the Basilica of our Lady Queen of the Universe to attend Mass. After mass, we went to Disney Springs to have a brief lunch. Then we returned to the Orlando Airport, checked the car back in, and had a much nicer flight back to Indianapolis that we had on the way out. Even so, I don't know if I will be brave enough to get back into another plane.
All told, this really was an unbeatable experience and I simply cannot wait to repeat it. When pricing the Disney cruise I had been told that other cruise lines are much less expensive. However in pricing the vacations out I really didn't see that. Dollar-for-dollar for what I saw Disney cruises were pretty much exactly on par with the other cruise line prices. Plus added into the Disney cruise are the Disney experiences, free meals, and customer service that you know you simply won't receive on another cruise line.
Disney corners the market on selling nostalgia. I May at some point try another cruise just for comparison, but I think Disney Cruise Lines has sold me is a lifelong customer. My one wish is that we had gotten another day at Castaway Cay. I don't see how it would be any more expensive for Disney to have two days at Castaway Cay on the cruises that only offer the one destination.
I can think of little else to complain about; it really was a tremendous experience. Please feel free to post any questions or responses that you might have. I will be monitoring this thread and will be glad to respond to anything. Please tell me about your similar experiences if you happened to take this Cruise. Also please do post if you saw the silly chubby people in their pirate outfits at the pirate party or animator's palate immediately afterwards. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you for reading this review and I hope to hear from you soon...
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I had decided to fly in the day of the cruise. I had never flown before and thought it would be fun. But the flight was very very rough. It was an hour and 40 minutes White Knuckles all the way; the plane rocked and bumped. It was a very scary experience, but finally the plane landed. My ears were terribly clogged, I felt a little exhausted from the experience, but we were safe and sound in Orlando.
I was practically deaf because the plane I had left my ears clogged. It was bad enough that my wife and I tried to talk to each other but actually just ended up saying “what?” a lot. To get from the gate to the terminal at the Orlando Airport, you have to take a monorail which is always fun I guess. We got to the monorail and since we're doing the Disney transportation we didn't have to do the baggage claim. It was a long walk to the Disney Bus (although it was all indoors),but we found the place to board the bus and were greeted with typical wonderful Disney customer service.
We boarded the bus and I texted my daughter to let her know we had arrived safe. We watched the videos and texted as we drove toward Port Canaveral. We were able to see the ship from the bus. The Disney Magic looks wonderful. Also there was a carnival cruise ship.
When we reached the port, a Disney cast member came on the bus while the bus driver unloaded the luggage. Her instructions were fairly simple and she was bright and shiny like all Disney employees. She explained that we should have our document and passports or in our case State IDs and birth certificates ready to show the cast members inside.
We were there at about 2 o'clock and had managed to miss most of the crowd. We walked right up to the Disney cast member at the counter, who told us we came at just the right time as there had been crowds there all day. After giving her our cruise contract, photo IDs and birth certificates she gave us a key to the world card and we were free to board.
Before we went on the ship, we went out to the viewing platform and took some pictures of the ship and us with it. We then officially boarded the ship, which was very exciting. The cast member of that greeted us on the ship just in front of the main lobby asked us if it was our first Disney cruise yes and then asked us if it was our first cruise. Yes and yes. She told us we had a magnificent time in store and then asked the party name. She announced on the loudspeaker “Please welcome on board the Murphy Family”. The other cast members around applauded and we walked into the Magnificent opulence of the main lobby on the Disney Magic, a wonderful gold and silver room with a chandelier at the top hidden Mickeys around and of course off to our right there was the grand staircase leading up to the next level, and elevators to our left. We walked in and around the corner and there was the customer service desk.
A small line was forming in front of the customer service desk.There were cast members behind the customer service desk and at the end of the queue there was someone in an officer's uniform to answer questions. I asked the gentleman if there was anything we needed to do at the customer service desk he said, “you can do anything you want now”. We decided to go to our stateroom we walked down there. Opening the door, we entered a pleasant room with a couch, a bed, dresser, a closet, and a bathroom. The room was an inside stateroom so I knew not to expect any type of grandeur or anything. It didn't really strike me at the time, but in Disney World we usually stay at the value resorts. My remarks at the time were that those were the smallest rooms I've ever seen. This room was actually much smaller, however that did not occur to us when we first saw it. At the time we thought it was a very nice stateroom but we were a little concerned that our luggage wasn’t here. We picked up our navigator from the bed and saw that it was almost time for the sail away party and after the sail away party there would be a little time for us to get dressed up and then go to our Palo reservation. We did have our fish extender in a carry-on luggage so we hung that outside the door on our way out.
We didn't have much choice but to hope that our luggage would show up in the next hour or so while we were at the sail away party, so we went there. We found the area that usually has the goofy pool, the pool for families, was closed up now covered over with a cement closure. A moderate number of people were starting to gather for the sail away party, and there were cast members selling frozen drinks. My wife and I decided to buy them since they came in a plastic commemorative cup. Both cups survived the journey home and are in our cupboards now.
The sail away party was pretty much as I imagined. Disney performers came out, singing and dancing very nicely “hip hip hooray we're about to sail away”. Pluto, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, and then of course the mouse himself appeared. There was a countdown and we heard the ship's whistle blow in the familiar “When You Wish Upon a Star” tune. All the performers, and our fellow Cruisers were very excited. Of course, we were as well! The show concluded as the costumed performers departed and the non costumed performers remained on stage to lead a small dance party.
I want to say that I deeply appreciated the level of fun provided. I had always been turned off by the idea of a cruise which would play loud raucous dance music while hardcore adults partied all around me. That was not my idea of fun. This light-hearted Disneyesque celebration going on all around us was much more our speed and something we could enjoy fully. We stayed for a bit enjoying our frozen drinks. When we were finished, it was time to go get dressed for Palo dinner and we headed down to our stateroom.
When we arrived, Joy of Joys! We did find all of our luggage in our stateroom ready for us. We were able to dress in our fancy evening clothes and head off to Palo. We found the restaurant without too much bother. We had ridden the elevator to the top and the door opened revealing a couple of cast members. We thought we had another level up to go, but we were already on the 10th floor. The cast members tried their best to describe where we should go, but honestly their accent was a bit much for me and my clogged ears. I couldn't really understand anything they were saying. We kind of wandered off; it made me a little bit wishful. I wish that Disney did not hire so many people on foreign visas.. I remember in my childhood the wonderful customer service we had received from the American employees at Disney World. Wiith so many foreign-born Disney workers, language barriers like this often occur. But to their credit, the cast did as best they could to politely direct us, and did it with a smile. We did find Pollo of course. I mean the ship is big but only so big; you can't really get lost on it.
Palo was very nicely decorated; you can find pictures of it all over. The wait staff was fantastic and very attentive. We were directed to our seat, the waiter explained everything about the menu, and asked if we would like wine service. We decided just to have a glass of wine with dinner and not the entire service. For my appetizer I chose the gnocchi, for my entrée I chose the lamb. My wife had calamari for her appetizer and the fillet for her main course. she also chose a mushroom rosoto to go along with as the waiter prodded her to choose a pasta/starch.
The service was extraordinary and the food was incredibly delicious. We may not return to Palo again simply because they've raised the prices. But everyone should experience Palo at least once. Even with the slightly higher prices now, the experience is definitely worth it. For dessert the waiter ordered us two of their widely renowned chocolate souffles. We let him know that we also wanted to try the tiramisu. The desserts were equally fantastic. The waiters excellent service continued.
Just before dessert was served I noticed something strange going on with the ship it was listing more and more to the port side it started at 3 or 4 degrees but by the time the desert has come it was a noticeable 12 degrees. The waiter noticed my concerned expression and announce that Goofy must be driving because Mickey had gone to bed. I chuckled and it was a good joke, however, since I’m not five this didn't really allay my fears and I continued to wonder what was going on. The waiter offered to bring us more of anything we wanted, but really I knew there was nothing I could do about the ship leaning more and more. I didn't understand what was going on so I decided it would just be best to do an out-of-sight out-of-mind thing and go below decks.We excused ourselves, having finished our dining experience. We were there for about an hour-and-a-half. Typically they like the dinner service to last two hours, but even if I wasn't having these concerns about the ship, I don't think I would have stayed for 2 hours sitting at a dinner table no matter how fancy it was.
We walked down to the Disney theater to see Tangled and got in the queue for the show. There was quite a lot of going on in that area because in addition to everyone lining up for the show, right in front of the Walt Disney theater, for some reason they were also having a photo opportunity with Pluto. This meant that even the people that weren't going to Tangled were lining up in the same area to have their picture taken. Strangely enough, even members of the crew were there to have their picture taken with Pluto.Perhaps they had family on board with them.
Obviously it was a bit crowded. This was the most throughout the whole cruise and it was only once that I felt crowded like this. Every other time even though there were over two thousand people on board I never felt unduly crowded.There wasn’t too much of a wait until they opened the doors to the show and then I was feeling better, since the ocean was out of sight. The ship continue to rock but it didn't really bother me. The show was delayed five or ten minutes due to technical issues because of the rocking, but I didn’t mind.. I will note that at this point I had just finished the largest meal I would have on the ship. Although the ship rocking was not making me feel nauseous, and indeed became comforting, I was feeling a distinct loss of appetite throughout the whole cruise, which was a shame because the food presented was so very tasty. Anyway like I was saying the door was opened up and we filed and we were able to snag some very nice seats in the second row and we watched a stage production of Tangled.
This was my wife's favorite and I liked it a lot too. The show had some very talented people in it, excellent dancers, fantastic singers, a funny story line that was engaging, and at 90 minutes no one could think that the performance was too long. My favorite memory of this was when Flynn Rider leapt off stage, practically landing in my lap due to a strange rock the ship had taken. My wife jokes that it would be much more preferable for him to almost landed her Lap. I am a great lover of theater. I participate in community Theatre whenever I can on stage and off. I can say with authority that this was the finest show I had seen outside Broadway or Broadway tours.
After the show we returned To our stateroom and noticed that our fish extender with now stuffed with gifts. It was a wonderful thing. We went inside and grabbed our gifts that we were going to give out. We then found each state room in turn. We were on a small fish extender group, all things considered, so it didn't take too long to distribute the gifts. Then we noticed that even though it was quite late for us anyway (10:30), that there was a showing of The Force Awakens starting very soon. Being the geeks we are, we decided to go. It was a 3D showing. We had seen the movie three times previously; this would be our fourth time. I drifted in and out of sleep starting right about after they get aboard the Millennium Falcon; it made the movie move very nicely actually. We did hang out in the theater, so I noticed several people all around us giving up and going back. It was very good to see the ending where Ray tries to present the lightsaber to Luke. There was nothing else for it, we were exhausted. We returned to our stateroom after the movie and fell asleep for the first night.
It being our vacation, we slept in the next day. We woke up just in time to catch the latest ending breakfast at Cabanas, the breakfast buffet. Even though it was a buffet the food was quite good. At this point I didn't have much of an appetite but the food was very tasty. My only wish was that I could have eaten more. The only thing totally unsatisfactory was the breakfast sandwich that they had available at the end of the line. I had snagged one but the English muffin it was served on was hard as a rock. When the waiter cleared that, he did ask me about the sandwich and pretty much indicated that that was the General consensus about them. Disney customer service abound and all the staff members everyone was very polite no one even among the guests seemed to be having a bad time.
We returned to our stateroom gathered the rest of the fish extender gifts that we were going to give away, then went out and distributed them. This is a lot of fun for some reason. I don't know exactly why, but it's nice to know that you're giving a little something extra to someone's fantastic weekend that they can take home with them and enjoy for a while.
We looked at the navigator to decide what to do next and we noticed there was a wine and chocolate tasting. This seems to be the perfect fit for us. Although we had not pre-registered we walked to the event and asked if we could still attend. They explained to us it was $35 apiece and that they did have space. If they could charge the cost to the room we could participate. We agreed and took our seats. This was in the luxurious Keys Lounge the upscale nightclub where they usually have live piano in the evening. The spread was quite the site 4 glasses of wine, well not all wine, arranged above 4 distinguished-looking chocolate, well they weren't even all chocolates. But there was a champagne, a red wine, a port, and a whiskey. Underneath these there was a white chocolate, a dark chocolate, an expensive cheese, and a chocolate caramel (in that order).
One of the ships Sommelier explained to us in great detail what all the drinks were,, what the chocolate and cheese was, why they were paired etc. I have no idea or recollection of any of what he said, but believe me this was delicious. This is probably the best money we spent on the cruise probably equalling our Palo experience. During the tasting, I noted to one of the people sitting next to us that the water seemed so much less choppy than it did yesterday. In fact when I had woken up that I felt like the ship was barely moving at all. They responded back to me that the ship actually had had to return to Port Canaveral for a medical emergency that night so now only just now was the ship getting back out to the deep ocean where the water was extra choppy.
I wondered if this was an explanation to the great list I was feeling yesterday while we were in Palo but never quite bothered to confirm this for a fact. Since our cruise was a 3 night cruise with only one destination, Castaway Cay, the first and second nights were supposed to be all-water nights. One gentleman explained that this meant we were just really making Giant Circles in the water anyway for the second night, so no time had been lost on the voyage at all. Besides the wine and chocolate tasting we attended, there's also a whiskey tasting and one other tasting that I can't quite remember available aboard ship. I'm sure these are all wonderful experiences. Participate in one if you get the chance.
After the wine tasting we noticed that Bingo was an option available aboard the ship. Being Catholic something about Bingo has always spoken to something deep in my soul. We went and we bought an electronic board with 24 cards loaded into it. It came with 4 pages of the paper boards, each page had 3 Bingo cards for each game up on it (4 games in total for the session). The person selling the cards was very patient and explained us all are possible purchase options the package we bought for $40 was probably the most popular, but if you want more than that you can get more paper cards and more electronic cards loaded into your electronic device at more cost. The only package less expensive was one where you only got paper cards (but a little bit more paper cards than we got with our device). The Bingo puller was great at his job. There were lots of funny quips and snips of music played during the game. The game was very very fun. I only got to stand up once this game and didn't win anything, but it was still worth the entrance fee.
After the game of Bingo, we went to the cruise’s ad hoc premier of zootopia. It was a grand showing at 3 p.m. The theater was the most full we had seen it I didn't feel as crowded here as I did before Tangled. (No character meet and greet here this time). Zootopia did play some other times on Funnel Vision, but this showing happened in the Walt Disney Theatre (the main theatre), not in the movie theater that we had seen Star Wars in. Zootopia was shown in 3D. It was a wonderful movie and it was great to see it with a lively audience.
We had about an hour and a half to spare before the next show we wanted to see, so we set about exploring the ship. We grabbed some complimentary pizzas. I also had a hot dog. These little food booths by the pool are mainly included in the price of the cruise. There is one dessert share and 1 coffee bar and of course any alcoholic drinks to get from the 3 or so alcohol Bars by the pools are not included in the cost and they cost extra.
After exploring the ship for a while and enjoying our snacks we went off to see our second show which was Twice Charmed. I was expecting a drop in quality as it was the same cast that performed in Tangled,, but was pleasantly surprised. Even though I found the storyline of the Twice Charmed a little bit derivative, the actors pulled no punches in their performances. They were still just as bright and shiny and emotive and well acted and sell sung in this show as they were in Tangled. The storyline involved a wicked fairy Godfather coming to assist the wicked stepsisters to go back in time and once again have their shot at stopping Cinderella from getting the prince. I'm sure it's no big surprise that they lose again and that their fairy Godfather, the evil one, comes to claim his due. The person playing the evil Godfather really shone in his role, and I enjoyed his performance a lot.
Now it was time for the pirate party my wife and I were well prepared for. We had brought our Renaissance Fair costumes a long. With some minor modifications to them they easily became pirate outfits. It was quite fun to dress up, and one family even took a picture with us as if we were part of the show. We got to see Captain Mickey, whom I noted was not wearing the cruise line outfit but wearing a early American Captain's uniform. Captain Hook took up the middle part of the show. Captain Jack was not a part of our pirate party show. Even though there was a zip line set up across the whole pirate party area no one went down the zip line. I have no idea if this was cancelled due to strange rocking or wind. But for whatever reason it didn't happen and we didn't get to see Captain Jack at the pirate party. I thought I saw Captain Jack hiding near the zip lines but this was not part of the show, just something I noticed. It was a great party; we had a lot of fun pretending like we could dance while having the cruise line and cast members admire our costumes.
After the pirate party, we went to Animator's Palate for dinner. We decided to stay in our costumes to try to freak out the norms. Everyone was still very appreciative of our costumes. The wait staff were acting like we were old friends even though this was the first time that we had met them. They were warm and inviting, and their familiarity didn't seem like level jumping at all. They asked us where we were yesterday and we explained we had dinner at Palos everyone understood. There were two couples that we ate with that night. They asked us what Palo was, and we described in detail how great of a time we had there. They mentioned how much they liked our costumes and when the wait staff asked if everyone enjoyed the pirate party, one of the couples said that we must have had a much better time than they did. Dinner at the animator's palate was wonderful. We got to watch the drawings come slowly to life, and there was a show at this dinner where we got to see my favorite Mickey, Sorcerer Mickey, come out and direct the living paintings in a small performance. Then all the wait staff who had previously been wearing black and white vests now re appeared wearing color vests. it was fantastic and everyone applauded loudly. Of course in review it's pretty obvious that they were just reversible vest at the time it was a wonderful little performance.
The wait staff at the free meals were pretty much on par with the professional level that we had become accustomed to. We immediately became friends with our servers Carolina and Mardy (TechnicalLy I MADE). We couldn't wait to see them again the next day.
After dinner we went to get our pictures taken with Mickey and we also got our pictures taken in front of a shipwreck backdrop that was supposed to be Pirates of Caribbean themed. The pictures turned out lovely. We then decided to go to a karaoke event. I am usually asked to sing at karaoke but I was still feeling a bit stuffy and we left as the room was a bit hot. Plus it seems most of the people singing were kids. We didn't stay to see everyone sing. I was a bit crabby because I was overtired so we decided to head back to our stateroom and go to sleep for the night.
The next day was the big day. We had arrived at Castaway Cay. My wife and I dressed in our swimwear with shirts over, we went back to Cabanas to enjoy another wonderful breakfast buffet, and then left the ship. Which was not as much of a process as it seemed it might be; we simply had to show our key to the world cards and ID on the way out. It was a short line. I don't know if it was because the time we left but there it felt like virtually no wait at all to get off the ship. We had seen the Captain Jack would be on Castaway Cay that morning, so we just hung around at the small area of shops that are right off the ship with not a lot to do for about 30 minutes but just take in the view. As soon as we saw the line forming we got in line and were only the third group to get to see Captain Jack that morning. While we were waiting, I asked if Captain Jack was on ship with us or was a performer from Castaway Cay. I was told that Captain Jack was aboard the ship but have made no appearances. Or maybe there was a photo appearance somewhere that I missed but like I said before he was not part of the Castaway pirate party show the night before. Anyway after not much of a wait we got our turn to get talk to Captain Jack and I had a very nice chat with him. I got to ask him about his relationship with Captain Mickey and it was fun. We got a wonderful picture with Captain Jack unfortunately it was not in our costume garb but in our swimwear with beach towels. Still a very nice picture though.
We went to the bike rentals I had signed up in advance for bike rentals, floats, and snorkeling package. For me this turned out to be too much to do in one day. Unless you are really a go getter and want to do a lot of activities, this probably isn't the way to go; just choose one. Anyway the bike ride was really nice.Unfortunately there wasn't too much to look at, just some shrubs and short palm trees all around. It was wilderness but not the fun kind of interesting to look at wilderness just scrub wilderness. The most interesting things to look at on the bike ride were the props planted there by Disney. Wonderful foresight by Disney made sure that there were hydration Stations well planted along the way. I'm Right out and thirsty during the trip. Halfway through the bike trip there was an observation deck which we climb to the top of and a got a lovely picture of the ship. We then returned the bikes and got back on the tram after enjoying a frozen beverage. By the way even though the frozen beverage was not alcoholic, I didn't realize until after we ordered that they cost extra money.. The drinks were nice but if I had known beforehand that they cost, I probably wouldn't have gotten them. After all, the soft drinks and ice cream are free and included. But anyway we got on the tram and we went to the serenity Cove adults-only beach. This was probably the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. The water was crystal clear, the trees surrounding it were wonderful, and there was a decided lack of crowds. While there only seems to be a handful of hammocks there was enough available for me and my wife to snag one. We went out into the into the crystal clean water. My wife enjoyed the floaties that we had rented, she chose the inner tube style. She got us each one. At this point I decided I was a little too tired to deal with a floaty, but I did just enjoy walking out into the crystal clear water and dunking myself. I had a nice conversation in the water with my wife and we had a great time here. After playing in the water for a while we went to the lunch provided barbecue. It was nice not to have to go back on board the ship for lunch, and the food was good.
The only minor complaint I have about this dining experience and other dining experience was that the bread is usually a little stale, but it seems maybe there's just no way to avoid this. So anyway do go to the buffet. The barbecue on Castaway Cay is awesome the ice cream is free, beverages are free, the food is free, don't get anything that you need bread to eat with because it's going to be a little stale.
We caught just the tail end of the barbecue and again no crowds. There were only a few other people around. Amazing Disney crowd control as again there were over two thousand people on the ship and this was a ship during the public school spring break. But Disney Magic provided and I only felt crowded that one time I mentioned.
After lunch it was time to go try the snorkeling experience I had signed up for. Actually, it wasn't the full experience, I had just rented the snorkeling equipment in a bundle and as I said before. I was just too tired to mess with the snorkeling. My wife had wanted to try it together this morning but I was just too tired. She went out for a little bit on her own, but said it would be better with a buddy. Next time since we're only going to do one thing I'll just do the snorkeling since we've already done the bike ride. Maybe I'll sign up for the full snorkeling experience so we can do it as a group and get to see everything.
We decided to beat the rush a little and get back on the ship just slightly ahead of the crowds, so we only had to wait in a brief line to get back on the ship. Before we got on board, just outside the ship, was a variety of different waters available - pineapple, cucumber, apple, lemon, and Ice. The line to the ship was not very long 10 or 15 minutes to get back on the ship you just have to show your key to the world card and go through a metal detector. We went back to our stateroom to chang back out of our swimwear.
I noticed after just a little bit but even though I was apply sunscreen to my ears and cheekbones every hour somehow I had forgotten to Sun protect my legs any of those times. I had a sunburn on both legs but it wasn't very bad it didn't really stop me from doing anything and I could deal with it. the sun is much more direct in the bahamas than it is in Indiana where we are from. It doesn’t take as long for a burn to form.
We took turns in the shower and got dressed. We heard the Disney Magic ship horn sound When You Wish Upon a Star to call the laggards back aboard, and the ship began moving very soon after. My wife and I took a brief rest but before too long it was time to go see another wonderful show.
I had assumed that the third show would be presented by mainly the costumed characters as the non costumed characters had presented the first and the second show. To my surprise this same cast gave another stellar performance of a third and separate show called Disney Dreams. This was the least attended show as from my understanding this show is performed on all the different Disney cruises. The show was still the same caliber even though the script was not a show in itself but a montage of different things from different Disney movies. The Montage was tied together by a loose storyline of a girl trying to find her Disney Dream so that she can fly with Peter Pan. There were scenes from Aladdin which was very exciting as everybody knows there's a current broadway show Aladdin.There were also scenes from Peter Pan and the Lion King which we had seen on a tour, and several other Disney shows. Although the show was not terribly surprising I enjoyed it immensely and it was a professional caliber show.
After the show we went to the last bingo game. Although it was our second, it was the last Bingo game for the ship and it had a $10,000 possible cash prize. Nobody won the $10,000. Someone did win just over $2,000. I got to stand up once. I still didn't win anything but it was a good time and again worth the price of admission.
We went to our rotational dinner this time in a Spanish themed restaurant. I was slightly disappointed by this experience. You see, on the cruise ship they of course want to make sure they serve you what they consider to be fully cooked meat. I enjoy my steaks on the rare side. Several times during the cruise I tried to specifically order my steak somewhere under medium rare. I would say under medium rare, the server would come back with medium I would again propose a little under medium rare and they would come back with medium. I would give up and accept medium. This time and only this time the stakes came back over medium and I didn't eat much of what I was served, which was a selection of Spanish meats. They were good but I didn't eat a lot of it.
After dinner it was time for The farewell party. We went and we saw a brief show with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald. Also some of the cast was there for photos. I got to talk to some of the actors, including the evil fairy Godfather who I got to have some nice banter time with. Also there were some of the ensemble there in their fancy white wigs and costumes. I got some lovely pictures with the cast members. And of course there was a wonderfully-perfect-feeling-of-nostalgic goodbyes show where we got to say “see you real soon” to Mickey. Because of course you never really say goodbye to Mickey.
We went back to our rooms but decided after a bit of packing that we weren't quite ready to end the cruise. So we returned to the Keys Lounge to hear some really beautiful live piano. We got to talk to the piano player a bit and enjoy each other's company late Into the Night. But then of course the inevitable came and we returnd to our stateroom to fall asleep being rocked by the ocean one last time.
Since we were slated to have the second breakfast. we expected to be able to sleep in just a bit, however such delusions were crashed upon a rock as at 7 a.m. on the dot a shipwide announcement was made that those who did not wish to have breakfast we're able to leave the ship immediately as the ship had cleared customs. We slowly raised to life, got dressed and headed down to shutters to select a few pictures to take with us. We had many pictures taken with our cell phone, but we did want to take and finally settled upon 3 photos from the professional photographers.
We then went back to the Spanish themed restaurant for our final breakfast. It was pretty much the same breakfast fare and delicious that we had become accustomed to you the past 3 days. We got together with a couple that we had dined with all Cruise, except the first night. We got to see our servers one last time and then went to debark the ship.
Again the Disney magic shines through as the night previous, people had come to collect most of our luggage and it was already waiting for us off the ship. Most people get to experience even more magic as their luggage collected would be waiting for them in the luggage Return of the airport they were traveling to. Since we were traveling with a budget airline,Southwest, they did not participate in this program and we had to claim our baggage at customs immediately after debarking the ship.
Debarkation was slightly chaotic We got to say a fond farewell to the Disney Magic and stepped off the ship for the last time into the customs area of Port Canaveral. We found the luggage, filled out the custom forms, and waited in the longest line of the trip.But of course this is Port Canaveral Customs not Disney running the show here. I have to say that despite predictions I saw of Doom and Gloom by traveling with photo IDs and birth certificates, there was absolutely no problem getting back into the country through customs. The customs officer asked us if we had more than $10,000, he asked us if we had any fresh fruit, and stamped re-entry forms without even really looking too hard at the photo IDs and birth certificates. 0 problems getting back into the country through customs.
After that, we simply made our way to the Disney buses, gave our luggage to the driver who stowed them underneath the bus, and began the bus ride back to Orlando. at this point I realized that I could now turn the on cellular service on my cell phone, and the real world flooded back in.
We arrived at Orlando International Airport and as I had chosen a flight later in the evening specifically for this purpose, we had a rental car reserved. We went to the Car rental company counter and picked up the car without too much difficulty. Then we were off to the Basilica of our Lady Queen of the Universe to attend Mass. After mass, we went to Disney Springs to have a brief lunch. Then we returned to the Orlando Airport, checked the car back in, and had a much nicer flight back to Indianapolis that we had on the way out. Even so, I don't know if I will be brave enough to get back into another plane.
All told, this really was an unbeatable experience and I simply cannot wait to repeat it. When pricing the Disney cruise I had been told that other cruise lines are much less expensive. However in pricing the vacations out I really didn't see that. Dollar-for-dollar for what I saw Disney cruises were pretty much exactly on par with the other cruise line prices. Plus added into the Disney cruise are the Disney experiences, free meals, and customer service that you know you simply won't receive on another cruise line.
Disney corners the market on selling nostalgia. I May at some point try another cruise just for comparison, but I think Disney Cruise Lines has sold me is a lifelong customer. My one wish is that we had gotten another day at Castaway Cay. I don't see how it would be any more expensive for Disney to have two days at Castaway Cay on the cruises that only offer the one destination.
I can think of little else to complain about; it really was a tremendous experience. Please feel free to post any questions or responses that you might have. I will be monitoring this thread and will be glad to respond to anything. Please tell me about your similar experiences if you happened to take this Cruise. Also please do post if you saw the silly chubby people in their pirate outfits at the pirate party or animator's palate immediately afterwards. I would love to hear from you.
Thank you for reading this review and I hope to hear from you soon...
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