WDW, DL and DCL!!! Part 3 July 23rd Magic

[wendym]

Players
Me, Wendy 35 year old High School Biology Teacher
Mum, Doreen, 72 year old going through her second childhood!
Well this was our usual summer extravaganza! I save all year to spend a month in the US and usually spend some time in either WDW or Disneyland. For the past 5 years we have also done a DCL cruise. So with the Magic moving to the West Coast for the 50th celebrations we decided to do all 3! Well I decided to do all 3 – mum just says yes – I pay and she drives so it a perfect arrangement.
I’ve split this report into the three parts but will link them at the end. Be warned they are long!

Saturday 23rd July
We had breakfast and took the luggage down to the front desk. Our shuttle driver was bang on time!!! Although I had booked a shared ride we actually had it to ourselves. We were at the Port of San Pedro by 10.20am. They had a huge inflatable Sorcerer Mickey on top of the terminal and a Nemo one in front. We were dropped opposite the terminal and got a porter to take our luggage – I think he was really pleased with his tip but I was so glad to get rid of the luggage!! As we went up the steps we were given Boarding card 4 and they directed us to an elevator to save Mum. We headed to the US National line and they were really nice going through all the procedures and we had our fingerprints taken (the US have so many copies of our fingerprints now!) and digital picture taken. Then we waited in a very short line to get checked in. as usual they forgot to give us a map of the ship and the highlights of the week – I got one later by going to the concierge line! To my disappointment at the time we had Parrot Cay restaurant first but this later worked out great – I had requested Lumiere’s when I booked on board.
The terminal was much better than expected although I missed the ship’s model and you weren’t allowed to take any photos – despite all the signs people kept taking pictures and were asked to delete them by officials. We ate a muffin and watched the happenings. There was a Mexican band playing.
We were boarded by numbers and we were on board by 12. We had the welcome aboard photo taken opposite the ship and then entered on Deck 4. We were in front of Renee’s (one of the cruise staff) parents and to see her announce them was lovely. We then walked down to Deck 3 and made our way to Parrot Cay for lunch. It was so nice knowing our way around! We shared lunch with grandparents and their grandson and granddaughter. It was their first cruise. Loved the cold mango soup!
Left Mum to sit in the promenade lounge while I went to check on the Palo reservations I had made online. It was nice to see Louise there and she immediately recognised me and asked me where Mum was. She wasn’t busy so while she checked my reservations we chatted and caught up. She had been very ill at the beginning of the year so had missed going through the Panama Canal but had got be there when her niece had been born. During our visits to Palo’s we learnt about the Make a Wish Event. On July 16th instead of the Magic sailing they had a special fundraiser. 30 – 40 wish families were invited along with people who bought tables. They had special areas to meet famous sports people, characters etc. Brad Pitt was supposed to be there but was in hospital, Arnold was on conference call but Raven was there although according to some of the other cruise staff she was rather full of herself. Kelly Preston was also there. They raised $1 million on the night, which Disney matched.
By 2pm our room was ready and as we were walking to the room we saw somebody checking it. When we walked in we realised why – there was a bottle of champagne and petit fours from Jeanne and John. It was a lovely surprise. There was also the special castaway club gift of a blanket – nice but I hope we get a bag next time – much more useful to us!
I had packed my swimsuit in my day bag so I went for a swim in an empty pool! Cool but refreshing. When we went back to our room we saw our old room host Eric – he recognised us and made sure we went to see him most days – what a gem he was! This year we had Benny and he was very good but a lot quieter and more reserved. By this time 3 of the 4 bags had arrived so we unpacked and put the cases under the beds.
Lifeboat drill for us was in Animators Palette – much better than outside. We went up the sail away, we had a California Dream and a strawberry Colada. Then as we were hungry we went to Pluto’s – I had a taco and also had an ice cream.
I went to the Welcome Aboard show and Mum went to the Rainforest room – she bought the weekly pass. The show had much more of theme this year and I really enjoyed it. Then I went shopping and signed up for the art auction – bad move! - and met mum back at the cabin. We enjoyed the champagne and petit fours before going for dinner. This was going to be odd for us, as we didn’t know any of our tablemates. However after a shaky start it worked out great. Amy and Vince from Virginia were newly weds, Trinny and Vanessa were from Orange County and are getting married in Disneyland next year and Nancy and her granddaughter Tasha – it was her graduation from High School present.
Dinner at Parrot Cay was very good. Ancelle our server was good but Stoyan our assistant server was excellent – he is from Croatia. I spent a lot of time speaking to him and he is actually a server but is waiting for a position. I had spicy chicken wings, tropical fruit salad, prime rib and twice-baked potato and French toast banana bread pudding.
I think we were both tired so after visiting the shops again we crashed.


Sunday 24th July
Our first of many room service breakfasts – a lovely way to be woken up! Today the shops had 30% off of Hot Diamonds jewellery so of course we had to buy some! Then it was time for Palo brunch. We had Louise and it was a joy as usual. We sampled everything but the seafood. I was pleased to hear they know do ½ portions of the entrees as there was so much waste. So I had a ½ portion of the best eggs benedict ever, mum had a ½ portion of pancakes and we shared their sweet pizza. I think we even managed some of their desserts – what pigs we were! PJ (the manager of Palo) came to speak to us and made us so welcome.
We went to the shopping talk and I had a winning raffle ticket. I had to go up on stage and pop a balloon and won a voucher for topaz earrings. I had to collect them in Cabo San Lucas – it was a nightmare to find the shop and they could have done with a clean but they look nice! I then went to the art auction, they even remembered my name! Enjoyed the free champagne and we ended up buying the Sorcerer Mickey in the blind auction.
I then went swimming and shared some chicken tenders. We dressed for formal night and then went to the Captain’s reception. I enjoyed 2 Mai Tai’s. I also spoke to the gentleman who was wearing different hats. Today’s one was the Golden Mickey ears but on the back he had had it signed by Margaret Kerry. Turns out he is Middle School Principal and knows Margaret and a lot of the Laughing Place community. We had a lot of great chats over the week.
Then it was time for The Golden Mickey’s, which is bit like the Oscars – great show. Tonight’s dinner was in Lumiere’s. I had the duck liver pate with the potato pancake, then the roasted vegetable salad. Main course was Parmesan crusted chicken fettuccine. To finish I had the Golden chocolate, chocolate award dessert. We went to the Michael Harrison adult comedy show, which was really funny. As usual our room was wonderfully done with towel animals, chocolates and tomorrows navigator. I finished off the evening sitting on deck 4 writing my journal.
At some point today we went to guest services to cash some travellers cheques for Mexico. As Jonathan was so helpful I asked him to check our on board credit – we always get $200 for rebooking the previous year. Well we didn’t have $200, we had $400!!! No idea where it came from and Jonathan couldn’t trace it either – all it said against it was enjoy – well we did! So if anybody reading this gave us this – THANK YOU, we really appreciate it.

 

[wendym]

Monday 25th July
Started with a room service breakfast and then I went to the Art of Entertaining series – Dazzling dessert today. It was the Artist Point berry cobbler, which was lovely. We also got a small glass of port to go with it – far too early in the morning! I then went to the Richard Sherman talk in the Buena Vista theatre – it was so good that they repeated it (but with some changes) on the last day in the Walt Disney theatre. I could have listened to him for hours.
Mum had joined me in the middle of the talk after being at a shopping talk. We went to lunch together – Oriental Buffet at Parrot Cay. We were sat with a couple of retired teachers who were so nice. We even joined them for an excursion on Friday at Cabo San Lucas. The stir-fry station was really good.
While mum went to the Rainforest room I sat on deck 7 aft for a while before going for a swim. Then it was time for High Tea. This was wonderful as usual and the only time of the year I ever drink tea! We had the little finger sandwiches, scones (ok I make better ones myself but these are pretty good!), little tartlets and éclairs. We passed on the English trifle – far too full for it and anyway I am not a great fun of it.
We went down to deck 4 and watched the flying fish for ages, then it was time for the Castaway Club party – love the ice sculptures here. The free drinks were good as were the appetizers although we ate very little – honestly! Captain Tom said very little and certainly nothing we didn’t know. Nice event though. I went to the Michael Harrison family show before meeting Mum for dinner. Tonight was Animators Palette. I started with the duck and goat cheese flat bread, then butternut squash soup, sirloin steak and the ice cream sundae. I loved the hologram menus. We also had a visit from Mickey Mouse!
We caught the end of the Rich Purpura show and I had a very strong martini – Jose, one of the servers in Rockin Bar D seemed to adopt me and always encouraged me to try other things! We watched a bit of the 80s Time Warp and then hit the midnight buffet. I again sat on Deck 4 to write my journal.

Tuesday 26th July
Puerto Vallerta (PV)
We had breakfast at Parrot Cay and saw that it was actually raining! When we left the ship it was still quite cloudy but this made it pleasant to walk around. We shared a taxi with several other people into the centre of town. We found everybody really friendly in all the places. Ok most of them may have been timeshare sellers but as it was Mum and I they never tried to sell us anything. Lots of vendors approached us on beaches etc but a polite no thank you and they didn’t bother us either.
We walked along the boardwalk and bought a couple of things and then needed a drink. Went into a very nice bar – ordered a beer and sprite. Well he came with a bucket with 2 beers – it was 2 for the price of 1. I let him choose the beer – Indio was very nice. The glass even came with margarita salt round it – even if it was just 11am I enjoyed them!
We got a taxi back and I checked how we could get to the Krystal Hotel. Somebody had said you could use their pool and beach if you bought drinks. Found the short cut so joined Mum back on the ship. Took a much needed shower and had lunch from room service.
We walked to the Krystal Hotel – wasn’t the hotel I thought it was but I found it eventually. I went to the front desk to pay for a wristband but they said it was my lucky day and not to bother. Hotel itself was great and we loved the swim up bar. The beach wasn’t anything special – we have been spoiled by the Caribbean! We stayed for a couple of hours and then walked back to the ship. Another shower and we headed back to the flea market – by this time it was raining! However we still had fun although we are not very good at the haggling!
Once back on the ship I had a swim and a mariachi drink and taco. I then booked next year’s cruise – I had the request for a quote in Saturday night!
Tonight was Pirate Night – what a fun night. I got my photo taken with Stitch. It was perfect having our meal in Parrot Cay. I had bought skull beads and necklaces in Disneyland and we wore the bandanas we were given. I had the chicken drumsticks, gumbo soup and beef tenderloin – also a very nice cocktail. We gave up dessert to allow us to get up to the deck party. We had a great view on Deck 10 of the party and the fireworks. We had our dessert from the buffet. I went to see Dark waters – very spooky and I was glad my cabin wasn’t far away!

Wednesday 27th July
Mazatlan
An early start today and a rainy one. We had room service breakfast and then met for our City Tour at 8.15am. We saw the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, cliff divers and the folklore show. The show was excellent. We contemplated staying in the Golden Zone to shop at this point but we were glad we didn’t. Instead we finished the tour and went to a look out point and mum did more haggling! She felt so sorry for the young children selling stuff she even paid $1 for 1 little packet of chicklets! We then did some shopping at the terminal. I had a Pacifico beer there after going round the stalls. Then we took the little trolley back to the ship. Carnival Pride was also in port – our ship is far nicer!
We had our only meal at Topsiders – Mum just doesn’t like it for some reason! We had tacos and lots else. Then I went for fruit and ice cream from Scoops. I went for a swim and then we went to the matinee performance of Twice Charmed. This was new to us and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were glad we had gone to the matinee performance as some of the scenes had to be cut from the evening shows.
After the show we went up for a coffee at Cove Café. We went back to the room and ordered an All Hands on Deck cheese platter and a Mexican fiesta pizza. We took these out to deck 7 to watch the ship sail away.
Went to the atrium and had a conundrum wine from Jose. Our meal tonight was in Lumiere’s. I had the escargot, salad, roast duck and crème brulee and also shared the honeyed apple tart with mum.
We watched a little bit of the 60s show then I went to see National Treasure, which was excellent.

Thursday 28th July
Cabo San Lucas
I think this was our favourite port. We went to Parrot Cay for buffet breakfast and then went to meet for the Harbour Cruise and Scenic Drive. We got the tender over and were shown to a lovely catamaran. I sat outside on the front deck – they would even serve you outside. The narration was really good and the scenery stunning- we saw Sylvester Stallone’s house This part of Mexico is the largest peninsula. We saw Los Arcos – the arch and went round the pacific side also.
Once back on dry land we went on an air-conditioned bus to Giorgio’s restaurant – the view was stunning and the Corona beer good too! They dropped us off at Cabo Wabo and we went for a walk. We had lunch at the marina – 2 for 1 beers again, chips, guacamole, and chicken tacos. Finally got the free earrings I had won. Found a supermarket to get some Mexican sweets to take back and then got a Bicce taxi back to the terminal. We had a walk round the stalls and I bought a sundress. We got back on the same tender as Richard Sherman and his wife.
After a swim we had some ice cream and enjoyed the wonderful views. Mum shared a hot tub with the Sherman’s. We also enjoyed 2 for 1 margaritas and split a hamburger.
I went back for a shower and then booked the LA city tour for Saturday – our flight was until 6pm so this would fill in the time – however 10 mins after I booked it they decided to cancel it! I slept through Disney Dreams – I do like the show but I was exhausted!
We went up to Palos and had a wonderful meal. PJ wasn’t happy at the first table we were put at so he moved us – said the tablecloth was dirty! So we got a wonderful sea view. Louise gave us excellent service as ever. We had the antipasti, pizza levante, salad and fillet mignon. I also got a ½ portion of the linguine – next time I will just have the pasta – it was amazing! For dessert I had the soufflé and mum had the panacotta and the banana and walnut gelato. We tried to make it down for the balloon drop but just missed it! Did some shopping and then I went to the PREMear of Sky high at 12.01– light but fun.

Friday 29th July
Our last room service breakfast – will really miss that treat! I went to making of the entrée – stuffed chicken which they served with chardonnay. I also got the galley tour tickets without standing in line. I went to the debarkation talk, as I knew things were going to be very different than in Florida. I also love listening to Brent’s, the cruise director, voice. Had a very quick lunch at Lumiere’s before going to Richard Sherman’s talk, which again was out of this world. We went to have coffee at Cove Café and then did the Galley tour – it was a chef from Palo who took us round and he was excellent. Also enjoyed the fresh baked cookie they gave us.
Finally we started packing – awful task. We took the split of champagne I had bought in Anaheim out to deck 7 so we could get some air. Well this is when I did something really stupid I forgot our room key – so we were locked out for about 45mins till guest services could send somebody up to open the room – I felt really stupid but then this is the only time in 5 trips this has happened!
We went to collect our passports – this was great and much better than having to go through immigration at 6am on the last morning. Did our final tour of the shops, got showered and changed and finally made it to Sessions – I had an Apple Cosmo and mum had a Bellini.
Back to Parrot Cay for our Till we Meet again dinner. I had the spinach and artichoke dip, florida citrus salad, tenderloin and banana crème brulee. I watched the festivities in the atrium – the characters and then all the pixie dust! Joined mum in Diversions for British Pub night. Well we have never laughed so much. The best bit (apart from all the cruise staff speaking to us) was the skit “If I were not upon this sea this was what I would be” – Ian was a sergeant major, “swing those bloody arms”, Jesse a blackjack dealer (with a much enhanced bust!!) “21 or bust”, Travis a tennis player “new balls etc”, a undertaker, a seamstress, Renee was a lighthouse keeper, in a yellow raincoat which she would through open to reveal her bikini when she said “Flash”. However the funniest was Scott, the assistant cruise director. He came dressed out as a ballerina and as he twirled he lifted his tutu to reveal something else!!! Brent crouched down not far from us watching the whole skit and he looked very worried – I am not sure if he were scared they would go to far or what but the whole audience loved it.
We finally got to bed about 12.30am

Saturday 30th July.
Breakfast was back in Parrot Cay and it was at 8.30am – timing was perfect, as you have to be out of the cabin by then. We had a nice breakfast but it was sad to say goodbye to both our servers and our tablemates. We weren’t hurried at all even though during our meal they send we could leave anytime. I think we left breakfast about 9.45am and were through immigration (got our fingerprints and photo taken again) and customs and on the bus to the airport by 10.30am. Line to check in was horrendous but that probably worked in our favour as they let us check into our 6pm flight early – however I have never met a more dour faced United check in person.
Got through security and got a sandwich and salad at Boudin bakery. LAX is the only US airport we have been at that really raises the prices, however we had to eat. Later we had a pizza and salad at Wolfgang Puck’s. If mum was up to walking more I think we would have tried Ruby’s diner – that looked better value.
Flight itself was ok and we landed in London at 11.45am the next morning. Spent a couple of hours in Heathrow before our flight back. Fortunately my brother and sister in law were meeting us to help with the luggage – one case didn’t make it but we got it the next day.

All in all another magnicifent vacation - I know how fortunate I am!

WDW part http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9519281#post9519281
DL part http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=9519330#post9519330

 

[Clare D]

Wendym
What a fantastic trip report. I have read the DCL one first as we are going on our first DCL trip next November on the Wonder for 4 days. If you have any tips they would be very much appreciated.
I'm off now to read your WDW report. We'll be off to WDW in October for our 4th trip - can't wait.
Clare

 

[wendym]

We have never been on the Wonder but love the Magic. Biggest tip - use these boards! We get to the port as early as we can. I would also book Palos online - you should be able to do that quite shortly - and any excursions you want to do. Even if you have booked through a travel agent you can do this - you just need the reservation number.
Enjoy!
Wendy

 

[dawnrose]

Your trip sounds wonderful! I enjoyed reading all three parts....how fun to do WDW and DL and the Cruise! I want to do that too!