UPDATED 01/20/11 -January 2, 2010- First Timers Cruise on the Magic!- Tons of pics!
- Thread starter mmackeymouse
- Start date
mmackeymouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2008
- Messages
- 2,855
When I was done, I headed back to the room. Mom was sitting on the couch reading one of the guidebooks DCL has. I asked her why she was in the room when she could be out exploring the ship. By this point, it was darkish. The sun had gone down, but it was not pitch black yet. Now, to understand the miracle of this cruise, you have to understand my mother and why we had never cruised before.
Mom was definitely the most anxious about the cruise of all of us. Without going into great detail, she had a life experience many years ago, that left her wanting nothing to do with boats (except the kind that sails on 3 feet of water). So, the idea of being on a huge boat out on the open water was never even an option for us. She vowed that it would never happen. However, through bribery or coercion, or a bit of both, we were able to talk her into a cruise, provided we met all the conditions of the deal. She agreed. And, well, we came through on the deal.
She told me, in jest, that she may cry before getting on the boat, and I imagined a scene where we would have to drag my sobbing mother onto the ship. Luckily, it was not that bad. She read the DCL books that I had at home and kept up with the DIS boards. She watched the Travel Network specials on general cruising and DCL. She took notes! I think getting informed was the best medicine. Also, all the planning was able to help her focus on the little things, all the fun activities to look forward to, and kept her mind off the big issue of being on a boat.
Anyway, the day seemed to be going well. She was in high spirits at lunch and at the party. Of course, at those points, we were still next to terra firma. So, I found her in the stateroom, reading. She looks up at me, and says, When are we leaving? I said very matter-of-factly, Mom, were moving and nodded out the window. One of the funniest moments of the whole trip happened next. She looked out the window, saw the water moving, and shrieked! I wish I had it on video; it was sooooo funny! But, it just speaks to how little movement you feel on those big ol boats.
I had initially hoped to be on deck as the Magic left the channel and wave at the people eating at Grills. However, due to the late departure and the darkness, I opted to take another little nap instead. Maybe another time it will be light out and I can enjoy it that way.
Second nap of the day
When I awoke, Jess and Dad were back to the room. It was sometime after 7, so we decided to get ready for our first supper at Animators Palate. Our dining rotation was APLAPLA. Which is easy to remember by thinking, Apple Haha. We had late seating. This worked out pretty good for us. We never felt rushed.
We must have arrived, like, RIGHT after AP opened, because we were pretty much able to walk right up and walk right in. We had table 24. The location of 24 in each restaurant had positives and negatives. A waiter came up and escorted my mother (and the rest of us) to our table. He was sort of being sing-song about it and marching in a silly way. I tried to get a photo, but trying to take a photo of action walking backwards is a little difficult.
Our escort
Our table ended up being a 4-top, which was fine. I was torn going in. Did we want to eat with others and chance being with someone that was really weird or annoying? On the other hand, dining with new people seems to be part of the cruising experience. Did we want to miss out on that? Since we could not choose either way, I did not call in ahead of time to make requests. I just decided to let the powers that be decide our cruising fate. It worked out fine. Some days it would have been nice to have someone else to converse with instead of just us. Other days, it was nice to not have to worry about forcing conversation with other people. In the future, I will probably again go with letting the cruising gods make the decision for us. I wont be upset either way.
Table 24 in AP was near the kitchen, tucked away in a little corner. There was a wall behind us and beside us. Then, in front of us was the pathway for the servers and guests. This was nice, as we really only had one other family to worry about. Luckily, the tables were adequately spaced apart, so we never really felt like we were encroaching on other peoples territory. We did feel a little far removed from the central action of the restaurant, but the views of the show were fine.
Some photos of us enjoying Animator's Palate:
Mom was definitely the most anxious about the cruise of all of us. Without going into great detail, she had a life experience many years ago, that left her wanting nothing to do with boats (except the kind that sails on 3 feet of water). So, the idea of being on a huge boat out on the open water was never even an option for us. She vowed that it would never happen. However, through bribery or coercion, or a bit of both, we were able to talk her into a cruise, provided we met all the conditions of the deal. She agreed. And, well, we came through on the deal.
She told me, in jest, that she may cry before getting on the boat, and I imagined a scene where we would have to drag my sobbing mother onto the ship. Luckily, it was not that bad. She read the DCL books that I had at home and kept up with the DIS boards. She watched the Travel Network specials on general cruising and DCL. She took notes! I think getting informed was the best medicine. Also, all the planning was able to help her focus on the little things, all the fun activities to look forward to, and kept her mind off the big issue of being on a boat.
Anyway, the day seemed to be going well. She was in high spirits at lunch and at the party. Of course, at those points, we were still next to terra firma. So, I found her in the stateroom, reading. She looks up at me, and says, When are we leaving? I said very matter-of-factly, Mom, were moving and nodded out the window. One of the funniest moments of the whole trip happened next. She looked out the window, saw the water moving, and shrieked! I wish I had it on video; it was sooooo funny! But, it just speaks to how little movement you feel on those big ol boats.
I had initially hoped to be on deck as the Magic left the channel and wave at the people eating at Grills. However, due to the late departure and the darkness, I opted to take another little nap instead. Maybe another time it will be light out and I can enjoy it that way.
Second nap of the day
When I awoke, Jess and Dad were back to the room. It was sometime after 7, so we decided to get ready for our first supper at Animators Palate. Our dining rotation was APLAPLA. Which is easy to remember by thinking, Apple Haha. We had late seating. This worked out pretty good for us. We never felt rushed.
We must have arrived, like, RIGHT after AP opened, because we were pretty much able to walk right up and walk right in. We had table 24. The location of 24 in each restaurant had positives and negatives. A waiter came up and escorted my mother (and the rest of us) to our table. He was sort of being sing-song about it and marching in a silly way. I tried to get a photo, but trying to take a photo of action walking backwards is a little difficult.
Our escort
Our table ended up being a 4-top, which was fine. I was torn going in. Did we want to eat with others and chance being with someone that was really weird or annoying? On the other hand, dining with new people seems to be part of the cruising experience. Did we want to miss out on that? Since we could not choose either way, I did not call in ahead of time to make requests. I just decided to let the powers that be decide our cruising fate. It worked out fine. Some days it would have been nice to have someone else to converse with instead of just us. Other days, it was nice to not have to worry about forcing conversation with other people. In the future, I will probably again go with letting the cruising gods make the decision for us. I wont be upset either way.
Table 24 in AP was near the kitchen, tucked away in a little corner. There was a wall behind us and beside us. Then, in front of us was the pathway for the servers and guests. This was nice, as we really only had one other family to worry about. Luckily, the tables were adequately spaced apart, so we never really felt like we were encroaching on other peoples territory. We did feel a little far removed from the central action of the restaurant, but the views of the show were fine.
Some photos of us enjoying Animator's Palate:
Señor DonDuck
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 573
Great updates!
LVaughn
DVC and Platinum Castaway Club
- Joined
- May 22, 2006
- Messages
- 275
the person who MC'd was Tisa prob, I saw her in a few pictures and had her as the host person back in 2009 and my back-2-back so just guessing that, great picture
I was on this cruise, and I can confirm that it was definitely Tisa. She was great, whether it was a family activity or adults only late at night.
mmackeymouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2008
- Messages
- 2,855
Yes, Tisa was great! I agree.
Who's ready for some food porn?
At this point, I think it would be good to mention that we did bring along seasickness medicine and never had any trouble. We bought generic Bonine (enough to last a lifetime, I think) at Sam’s Club for about $5 for 100 caplets. We took one pill the night before. We took another right before we boarded and another right before supper. I know a lot of people have posted that AP the first night can be a bear when it comes to the motion sickness, but we did okay.
We were soon greeted by our server Igor and our assistant server Marija (pronounced Maria). They were from Bosnia and Serbia I believe. Not 100% sure on that. They were both lovely, but my family absolutely fell in love with Marija. I think my parents wanted to adopt her. I wasn’t sure how my folks would take to the whole over-the-top being waiting on hand and foot thing. But, we never really looked at them like “servers.” More like new people to get to know who just happen to work on the ship.
One thing I was particularly nervous about was fakey fake waiters. You know how it is when you go to a restaurant, and a waiter is just SO fake and so obviously angling for a tip that it is a turn off? I was worried we’d have to go through 7 nights of that. One thing I will say for poor Igor. He was definitely trying to get us to expand our simple palates. With not much success, I might add, but he tried. It did not come across like he was pushing something the kitchen wanted pushed. It more came across like he wanted us to step outside the box and try something different.
So, here is a tip for the newbies. Find the menus and print them off, even the kids’ menus. You can find them; they are out there. It is so nice to kind of have an idea going in what you are wanting. I did this, and put them in my blue folder. And every afternoon, everyone went to the blue folder to find the menu for that evening. Even though we had seen the menus, we still asked for a kids’ menu that first night, because you never know if anything has changed. I think Igor was amused by this.
So, for our orders: I got a Shirley Temple, loaded with cherries. Everyone else ordered pop of some sort. (Yes, in Indiana, we call it “pop”) Of course, I had seen the Shirley Temple on the DIS boards before, but the rest of the family was pretty wowed by it. In fact, when they came back for refills, Jess went with the Shirley Temple instead. They brought out foccacia with garlic dip, which I just LOVE foccacia. They also had regular rolls and butter and they were both quite nice.
My sister and I ordered the Taleggio Cheese Tart. Dad didn’t see anything on the menu that sounded good to him, so Igor offered to just bring him a regular side salad, and Dad accepted. Mom got some fruit salad from the Kiddie Menu. For our main course, Dad, Jessie, and I all got the Pennette Pasta. Mom and I both got the Beef tenderloin, carved the order. She ordered hers medium well and mine was medium. I asked for mine, “meat only,” but they brought the whole dish. She asked for a baked potato instead of the Wasabi mashed, and that was accommodated, no problem.
So…..about the food. Jessie liked the cheese tart. I was not a huge fan. Someone on the DIS had mentioned that if you like BBQ chicken pizza, that you would like this dish. So, I decided to try it out, even though I had never really had Balsamic Vinegar before. I was concerned about the micro greens, but they were a total non-factor. I found myself wiping the Balsamic sauce on the plate, and I was trying not to seem rude about it. Igor commented that Balsamic vinegar does have a very distinct taste. For me, it was not really the taste of the Balsamic, more like the quantity used. With any pizza, if there is too much sauce on it, I wipe it off. I like very minimal sauce on my pizzas. But, I really did want to try it, so rather than not eat it at all, I just wiped the excess sauce on my plate. I don’t think I would get this dish again, or if I did, see if they could go with little to no sauce.
The Tallegio Tart. You can also see my Shirley Temple in the corner.
As for the pennette pasta, I thought it was fabulous! It seemed to be a very popular dish around the room. I am kind of picky about turkey, and the thought of it on pasta seemed odd to me. But, I will eat it, and I did not want to go through the trouble of asking for it without turkey. You almost couldn’t even taste the turkey at all. It just faded to the background. The cream sauce and pasta were the stars. Also the prosciutto was perfectly crisped, which I loved. And the shaved parmesan was my absolute favorite part of the dish. It was top notch quality parmesan cheese. I loved it. Dad and Jess seemed to like it as well, as they both finished theirs.
Pennette Pasta-Great dish! This is actually one of my favorite food pictures (not bragging- the camera did it, not me). It really shows every part of the dish really well. Enjoy!
The tenderloin, I probably would not get again, but it was not BAD, so I don’t want to give that impression. Mom liked hers. Mine was fine. I asked for it Medium, and it did come medium. It was reddish pink in the middle, just like I like it. But, it did not taste medium at all. It did not taste overcooked, but I just did not get that hint of (please don’t be grossed out by this, as now being a vegetarian, I am grossed out even typing it) that bloody taste. But, like I said, mom liked hers, so to each their own.
The carved to order tenderloin: cooked medium
For dessert, Jess and I both got the Warm Apple Crumble. Mom got a Mickey Bar. And Dad asked for exactly one scoop of chocolate ice cream. I think- no I know- he was just testing them. The apple crumble was delicious. The crumb topping was very nice. The apples were the weak point of the dessert, as they were not as sweet as I prefer. But, it was topped with my favorite, vanilla BEAN ice cream. The whole dessert together really worked. Mom enjoyed her Mickey Bar, of course.
Another nice picture- Apple Crumble
Mom and her Mickey Bar
Now, here is where Dad gets….well, Grumpy. Igor brings him TWO scoops of chocolate ice cream. Now, bear in mind, he eats it all. But, he grumbles about “following directions” and stuff like that. Again, he ate it all, so why was he complaining? Who knows? He’s a man. I told mom later to have a talk with him, because that attitude all week would not make the trip pleasant. I guess she did, because he was fine-ish the rest of the cruise.
The show was fun and neat. Mom and I had the better views, as we were facing the entire restaurant, and Jess and Dad were just facing the wall. But, they turned their chair around and enjoyed the view too. Overall, it was a nice end to a nice day.
Up next: a wrap up of Day 1, plus some more photos!
Who's ready for some food porn?
At this point, I think it would be good to mention that we did bring along seasickness medicine and never had any trouble. We bought generic Bonine (enough to last a lifetime, I think) at Sam’s Club for about $5 for 100 caplets. We took one pill the night before. We took another right before we boarded and another right before supper. I know a lot of people have posted that AP the first night can be a bear when it comes to the motion sickness, but we did okay.
We were soon greeted by our server Igor and our assistant server Marija (pronounced Maria). They were from Bosnia and Serbia I believe. Not 100% sure on that. They were both lovely, but my family absolutely fell in love with Marija. I think my parents wanted to adopt her. I wasn’t sure how my folks would take to the whole over-the-top being waiting on hand and foot thing. But, we never really looked at them like “servers.” More like new people to get to know who just happen to work on the ship.
One thing I was particularly nervous about was fakey fake waiters. You know how it is when you go to a restaurant, and a waiter is just SO fake and so obviously angling for a tip that it is a turn off? I was worried we’d have to go through 7 nights of that. One thing I will say for poor Igor. He was definitely trying to get us to expand our simple palates. With not much success, I might add, but he tried. It did not come across like he was pushing something the kitchen wanted pushed. It more came across like he wanted us to step outside the box and try something different.
So, here is a tip for the newbies. Find the menus and print them off, even the kids’ menus. You can find them; they are out there. It is so nice to kind of have an idea going in what you are wanting. I did this, and put them in my blue folder. And every afternoon, everyone went to the blue folder to find the menu for that evening. Even though we had seen the menus, we still asked for a kids’ menu that first night, because you never know if anything has changed. I think Igor was amused by this.
So, for our orders: I got a Shirley Temple, loaded with cherries. Everyone else ordered pop of some sort. (Yes, in Indiana, we call it “pop”) Of course, I had seen the Shirley Temple on the DIS boards before, but the rest of the family was pretty wowed by it. In fact, when they came back for refills, Jess went with the Shirley Temple instead. They brought out foccacia with garlic dip, which I just LOVE foccacia. They also had regular rolls and butter and they were both quite nice.
My sister and I ordered the Taleggio Cheese Tart. Dad didn’t see anything on the menu that sounded good to him, so Igor offered to just bring him a regular side salad, and Dad accepted. Mom got some fruit salad from the Kiddie Menu. For our main course, Dad, Jessie, and I all got the Pennette Pasta. Mom and I both got the Beef tenderloin, carved the order. She ordered hers medium well and mine was medium. I asked for mine, “meat only,” but they brought the whole dish. She asked for a baked potato instead of the Wasabi mashed, and that was accommodated, no problem.
So…..about the food. Jessie liked the cheese tart. I was not a huge fan. Someone on the DIS had mentioned that if you like BBQ chicken pizza, that you would like this dish. So, I decided to try it out, even though I had never really had Balsamic Vinegar before. I was concerned about the micro greens, but they were a total non-factor. I found myself wiping the Balsamic sauce on the plate, and I was trying not to seem rude about it. Igor commented that Balsamic vinegar does have a very distinct taste. For me, it was not really the taste of the Balsamic, more like the quantity used. With any pizza, if there is too much sauce on it, I wipe it off. I like very minimal sauce on my pizzas. But, I really did want to try it, so rather than not eat it at all, I just wiped the excess sauce on my plate. I don’t think I would get this dish again, or if I did, see if they could go with little to no sauce.
The Tallegio Tart. You can also see my Shirley Temple in the corner.
As for the pennette pasta, I thought it was fabulous! It seemed to be a very popular dish around the room. I am kind of picky about turkey, and the thought of it on pasta seemed odd to me. But, I will eat it, and I did not want to go through the trouble of asking for it without turkey. You almost couldn’t even taste the turkey at all. It just faded to the background. The cream sauce and pasta were the stars. Also the prosciutto was perfectly crisped, which I loved. And the shaved parmesan was my absolute favorite part of the dish. It was top notch quality parmesan cheese. I loved it. Dad and Jess seemed to like it as well, as they both finished theirs.
Pennette Pasta-Great dish! This is actually one of my favorite food pictures (not bragging- the camera did it, not me). It really shows every part of the dish really well. Enjoy!
The tenderloin, I probably would not get again, but it was not BAD, so I don’t want to give that impression. Mom liked hers. Mine was fine. I asked for it Medium, and it did come medium. It was reddish pink in the middle, just like I like it. But, it did not taste medium at all. It did not taste overcooked, but I just did not get that hint of (please don’t be grossed out by this, as now being a vegetarian, I am grossed out even typing it) that bloody taste. But, like I said, mom liked hers, so to each their own.
The carved to order tenderloin: cooked medium
For dessert, Jess and I both got the Warm Apple Crumble. Mom got a Mickey Bar. And Dad asked for exactly one scoop of chocolate ice cream. I think- no I know- he was just testing them. The apple crumble was delicious. The crumb topping was very nice. The apples were the weak point of the dessert, as they were not as sweet as I prefer. But, it was topped with my favorite, vanilla BEAN ice cream. The whole dessert together really worked. Mom enjoyed her Mickey Bar, of course.
Another nice picture- Apple Crumble
Mom and her Mickey Bar
Now, here is where Dad gets….well, Grumpy. Igor brings him TWO scoops of chocolate ice cream. Now, bear in mind, he eats it all. But, he grumbles about “following directions” and stuff like that. Again, he ate it all, so why was he complaining? Who knows? He’s a man. I told mom later to have a talk with him, because that attitude all week would not make the trip pleasant. I guess she did, because he was fine-ish the rest of the cruise.
The show was fun and neat. Mom and I had the better views, as we were facing the entire restaurant, and Jess and Dad were just facing the wall. But, they turned their chair around and enjoyed the view too. Overall, it was a nice end to a nice day.
Up next: a wrap up of Day 1, plus some more photos!
Señor DonDuck
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 573
Food porn is always appreciated! 
Do they charge extra you for the shirley temples or it it included free like pop?
Do they charge extra you for the shirley temples or it it included free like pop?
princesspiglet
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2001
- Messages
- 2,626
[IMG said:http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5082/5317516784_dfeaff6025_z.jpg[/IMG]
B]*Just a note: if you see any magnets you are interested in, let me know. I still have them all saved in Publisher format, and would be happy to email the files. If you have Publisher, you can just change the Names or Wording. Some of the fonts I used were custom fonts found online, so the fonts may not come out exactly right. [/B]
I would love it if you could email me the magnets! I especially love the Let the Magic Begin, Yo Ho Pirate and the smaller one where the Fab 5 are looking into the sun- two magnets up from the door handle.
Thanks so much and really enjoying reading your report!
Oh, email is athenasmommy@comcast.net
LVaughn
DVC and Platinum Castaway Club
- Joined
- May 22, 2006
- Messages
- 275
Señor DonDuck;39623387 said:
No, they don't charge extra for them. My kids drank them every night. It was basically a glass of cherries with a splash of Coke each night. I can't imagine how the ship doesn't run out of cherries, because a lot of kids love them.
Señor DonDuck
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 573
Thank you. My daughters will be very happy to hear that.
And sorry for my typos (I was multi-tasking during my lunch break)
And sorry for my typos (I was multi-tasking during my lunch break)
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