The changing cast of characters:
Peter, DH 51
Tink, DW, me 51
Gameboy, DS 10
Gma, DM, 86
Whistler, DS 7
Rack, DN 23
January 10th. Day 5. My SIL has to go back to work Monday and cannot join us on this cruise, so she boards a shuttle for the airport at 7:00 A.M. after teary goodbyes to the kids. The morning in Orlando is very cold and windy. We load everything into the van, still a squeeze, but we dont have to bungee anything to the top. We drive to Epcot, since Peter still has not had enough Disney. The plan is to just ride the monorail roundtrip from here to the TTC and back, so Gma stays in the car since it is so cold. But once we get to the front gate Peter decides we need to go in and find our preliminary pictures for our Leave a Legacy tiles, but we cannot remember what day we raced back to get the pictures taken and cannot recognize our own mugs. Peter decides we need to ride Spaceship Earth. Im envisioning breakdowns such as I have read about recently where we end up being evacuated from the ride and miss the sailing of the Magic. Things get testy. We ride anyway, with several long pauses, me wondering if this is another breakdown for the ride. Then everyone loses track of each other in the exit displays, and now we are running pretty late. I wanted to be in line and on the ship when the rope drops. We race back to the car, Gma wondering what took us so long, we dont tell on Peter. We stop at the WDW gas station, then leave the property and stop at the Publix store to get wine and other supplies. We finally get on the road for Port Canaveral.
We had put off filling out the documents and now I was stuck with filling them in on the drive. It took me the whole way to Canaveral. Advice to all: Fill out your documents when you get them!!!! I get carsick, so you can imagine how I felt by the time we crossed the causeway and saw the Magic in the distance. Not ecstatic, just reaaaal sick.
Peter drops us at the terminal, leaves to return the rental van at Avis, a porter gets the luggage which we are madly tagging at the curb and we get in line for security. The line isnt very long but it takes a while to get through. We finally get upstairs and check in, the CM holds Peters docs until he shows up. Restroom break, then Peter arrives, we board the ship pushing 1:00. We are announced, and again our last names get kind of mangled. We move en-mass to Parrot Cay, are seated (the only time we got close to a window in the dining rooms) and the kids, Rack and Gma go to get food. Peter and I rush off to Rockin Bar-D to get Palo reservations. Our first time choices for dinner are gone (you just had to ride Spaceship Earth, didnt you), but we get a 7:30 for St. Maarten night, Tuesday, when we wont miss a show, since this is always movie night and we can see whatever it is at home, the Navigator confirms this (more about this later). The line for the dinner reservations moved very fast, but now we get in line for brunch. There is only one CM doing this. There is a woman sitting there talking, and talking and talking. Peter notes she was sitting there when we walked in. I cannot fathom what in the world was taking her so long. She could have booked the whole ship into brunch and tea in the time she was taking. The line grows; the woman still sits and talks. Fifteen minutes pass. I give Peter the schedule of possible times for brunch and high tea and race to the Spa. By the time I get there nearly everything for the Surial is taken, only 8:00 times remain, except for a 1:00 on Thursday, so I grab that, praying we wont be sunburned by then. Then get a hair appointment for Sunday for Gma, a bit later than I wanted, but again all that was left. Peter and I meet up, he has managed to get brunch when we wanted, Sunday. But of course the tea reservation, that was supposed to be special, just for my mom and me, was Sunday, the only thing left, conflicting with her hair appointment. I did go up to Palo, supposedly with priority since I cancelled a reservation-in-hand, and get on the waiting list for the other days, but all the concierge folks had booked the times. I have seen enough on these boards to know many people are closed out of the tea and I do think that DCL needs to get rid of the tea, make no-shows pay a penalty or allow more to attend. If any of you did have tea reservations that week and didnt show, grrrrr. But finally, a sense of relief, at least this rush is OVER.
Peter and I return to Parrot Cay, where everyone else is done eating. We grab just a little food. Love that mango soup. We see Zouhiar (which I have probably misspelled, sorry) from France who was our dining captain on our last cruise. He is such a nice man, and had kept our kids entertained with great tricks. He looked at our KTTWC and said we had a good table location with a great team. I had been concerned about this, and had called the week before to reiterate that we did not want to be at the back of the restaurants as last cruise. (Bless you, nameless CM who arranged this new table when I called.) We had trouble getting the wheelchair through and Gma often needs to leave early or take breaks. Now we are cruising!! The restaurant had been emptying out, since rooms have long been available. We gather up all our junk and go to our cabins. We are deck 6 aft. We have chosen aft because the mid ship elevators are always impossible to get on, everyone seems to take the elevators one floor, and we like the convenience of not having to cross the ship at mealtimes when the corridors can be congested. When you have a wheelchair, stairs are not an option. We have the cabins we had booked nearly a year before, a verandah category 6 opposite a category 11, Rack and Gma will share the category 11, the rest of us in the 6. I had forgotten the category 11 did not have a split bath (Oh, oh for Rack) and was smaller. It is missing the other storage cabinet within the room also, so I shoveled some of my hangers their way. If you book an 11, bring a bunch of extra hangers, there is plenty of closet space but drawer space is poor.
But ah, the category 6! This was our really big splurge on this cruise. We had cruised on the Magic over a year ago, had booked two category 10, then upgraded to two category 8 because Gma was having some claustrophobia. We figured the category 6 would be fun and an escape for Gma on the verandah that Rack and she could sleep and shower in their cabin and hang out in ours. I loved the verandah. We popped the cork on our Asti Spumanti and crowded onto the verandah to watch the activity on the dock, this included loading a bunch of new mattresses. Boat drill, enough said. Another toast, with the kids getting just a sip (could not find kid champagne at Publix). We all did some unpacking, bundled up, popped a Meclazine or a Dramamine and went up to deck 9 for the sail-away.
The weather had cleared a bit as we drove to Port Canaveral, but was now pretty grey and there was a wicked cold wind on deck nine. We huddled under the plexi-glass covers and watched the dancers and band. Servers circulated with frozen drinks, but there were few takers. Now if it had been hot chocolate . The deck was not particularly crowded. A very few hardy souls were in the pools (I'm blue, a biddy-boo a biddy-boo). At 5:00 When You Wish Upon a Star was sounded, the streamers were launched and, deep-breath, drum roll...well, um.... the ship stayed at dock. We had noted that the gangway was still in place, and after 15 minutes or so Peter saw six people, carry-ons in hand, madly run across and board. Another fifteen minutes and we pulled gently away from the dock. We stayed on top a bit. There was only one brave soul, a woman CM from the desks in the terminal, who stood in the cold and waved her Mickey hand to see us off. Kind of sad. But as we moved down the canal there were a bunch of cars parked near a restaurant, they waved from the cars, and a few great kids hopped out of their cars, donned their Mickey gloves and waved madly. Thanks, guys, whoever you are. (And Andy saved our departure on cam, thanks!) We saw a few turtles in the water as we headed out.
Back to our cabin, we all changed for dinner, casual night. We kept diverting to the verandah and were lucky enough to see the Port Pilot boat pick up the pilot as he jumped from the Magic, quite a feat in the cold, dark waves. Then the most wonderful aspect of our whole cruise began.
We had early seating, PLAP rotation, just as I had expected and planned for (if we had had a different rotation I would have been sunk). The standard schedule appears to now have the rotation menus for the first three nights and our cruise was no exception. So tonight was Parrot Cay with the Parrot Cay menu. Our Dining room head was Maclean, who I had heard was great. He led us to table 58, a table for just the six of us. Location was not the greatest, no window, but not buried at the back, either, and at least somewhat close to the uncarpeted aisle. Our server was Adina from Romania, Transylvania, no less, and assistant server was Anton from Bulgaria. Adina is beautiful, blue eyes, black hair and just the nicest person you could hope to meet. Anton is a handsome young man with black hair in a front-spiky-do my kids loved. There were two other tables in their station, but the occupants were no shows. So boy, did we get spoiled. Anton and Peter consulted and the Premium wine package was purchased and the first bottle poured, Conundrum, a long time favorite of ours. Anton quickly produced Gmas martini in perfect form, gin, up, lots of olives and two swords, perfect (the martini had been a source of irritation on the last cruise). Bless you Anton, all was now right with Gmas world. Adina made her recommendations (which we often did not take, which was usually a mistake, but when we ordered something less-than-stellar, she would always bring one of her choices to try). Peter, Rack and I had the Crab Newburg, Gma the onion soup, Whistler a salad and Gameboy chicken noodle soup. All cleaned up in short order. Gameboy was upset because the only offering of pizza was not pepperoni. Adina exits, running. Reappears quickly, cold and wind-blown. She has gone all the way up to Pinocchios and cached a few pieces of pepperoni pizza for Gameboy. Amazing, do you think my kids will be spoiled by the end of this trip? Entrees are grouper with gnocchi and spinach (note the spinach, more comments on this later) for me, mixed grill for everyone else, except Gma who opts out of the main course. Rack mentions quietly he is still hungry, Maclean appears out of nowhere and fetches him another mixed grill. Pecan pie for me, cheesecake for Gameboy, Peter and Gma. A mini-nap for Whistler. A trick by Anton for the kids.
I was under whelmed by the food on the last cruise. I thought it was much improved this time. Still not the ranks of fabulous gourmet, but better. Of course, the amazing service helped.
We rolled (not just Gma this time) out of there and all headed for our cabins. We skipped the variety show, figured we would see the entertainers as the first part of the week passed. Gma and Rack watched the kids while we went to Sessions to listen to Daryl Lockhart and have a coffee drink. The piano was nice; we had not managed to go here on our last cruise. But the hot coffee drinks we ordered can you say nasty? Whoever decided that a nice coffee drink could be made with Nescafe is fooling themselves. The coffee on the ship is not the best, but if the Cove can make the good stuff now, so could Sessions. We retrieved our children, Whistler fast asleep, Gameboy wound tighter than a tick, from Rack and all went to our cabin. Alejandro, who performed miracles nightly, all through the cruise, had put our cabin in good working order. We would leave in chaos and return to order. We realize today has ended with no tiffs, sulks or volcanoes erupting. We must finally be on vacation. Gameboy ate all the chocolates, we shivered a bit on the verandah, polishing off the last of the Asti Spumanti, located Orions Belt, then went off to a different type of star land.
Next, first full day at sea.
Carla, aka Tink
Peter, DH 51
Tink, DW, me 51
Gameboy, DS 10
Gma, DM, 86
Whistler, DS 7
Rack, DN 23
January 10th. Day 5. My SIL has to go back to work Monday and cannot join us on this cruise, so she boards a shuttle for the airport at 7:00 A.M. after teary goodbyes to the kids. The morning in Orlando is very cold and windy. We load everything into the van, still a squeeze, but we dont have to bungee anything to the top. We drive to Epcot, since Peter still has not had enough Disney. The plan is to just ride the monorail roundtrip from here to the TTC and back, so Gma stays in the car since it is so cold. But once we get to the front gate Peter decides we need to go in and find our preliminary pictures for our Leave a Legacy tiles, but we cannot remember what day we raced back to get the pictures taken and cannot recognize our own mugs. Peter decides we need to ride Spaceship Earth. Im envisioning breakdowns such as I have read about recently where we end up being evacuated from the ride and miss the sailing of the Magic. Things get testy. We ride anyway, with several long pauses, me wondering if this is another breakdown for the ride. Then everyone loses track of each other in the exit displays, and now we are running pretty late. I wanted to be in line and on the ship when the rope drops. We race back to the car, Gma wondering what took us so long, we dont tell on Peter. We stop at the WDW gas station, then leave the property and stop at the Publix store to get wine and other supplies. We finally get on the road for Port Canaveral.
We had put off filling out the documents and now I was stuck with filling them in on the drive. It took me the whole way to Canaveral. Advice to all: Fill out your documents when you get them!!!! I get carsick, so you can imagine how I felt by the time we crossed the causeway and saw the Magic in the distance. Not ecstatic, just reaaaal sick.
Peter drops us at the terminal, leaves to return the rental van at Avis, a porter gets the luggage which we are madly tagging at the curb and we get in line for security. The line isnt very long but it takes a while to get through. We finally get upstairs and check in, the CM holds Peters docs until he shows up. Restroom break, then Peter arrives, we board the ship pushing 1:00. We are announced, and again our last names get kind of mangled. We move en-mass to Parrot Cay, are seated (the only time we got close to a window in the dining rooms) and the kids, Rack and Gma go to get food. Peter and I rush off to Rockin Bar-D to get Palo reservations. Our first time choices for dinner are gone (you just had to ride Spaceship Earth, didnt you), but we get a 7:30 for St. Maarten night, Tuesday, when we wont miss a show, since this is always movie night and we can see whatever it is at home, the Navigator confirms this (more about this later). The line for the dinner reservations moved very fast, but now we get in line for brunch. There is only one CM doing this. There is a woman sitting there talking, and talking and talking. Peter notes she was sitting there when we walked in. I cannot fathom what in the world was taking her so long. She could have booked the whole ship into brunch and tea in the time she was taking. The line grows; the woman still sits and talks. Fifteen minutes pass. I give Peter the schedule of possible times for brunch and high tea and race to the Spa. By the time I get there nearly everything for the Surial is taken, only 8:00 times remain, except for a 1:00 on Thursday, so I grab that, praying we wont be sunburned by then. Then get a hair appointment for Sunday for Gma, a bit later than I wanted, but again all that was left. Peter and I meet up, he has managed to get brunch when we wanted, Sunday. But of course the tea reservation, that was supposed to be special, just for my mom and me, was Sunday, the only thing left, conflicting with her hair appointment. I did go up to Palo, supposedly with priority since I cancelled a reservation-in-hand, and get on the waiting list for the other days, but all the concierge folks had booked the times. I have seen enough on these boards to know many people are closed out of the tea and I do think that DCL needs to get rid of the tea, make no-shows pay a penalty or allow more to attend. If any of you did have tea reservations that week and didnt show, grrrrr. But finally, a sense of relief, at least this rush is OVER.
Peter and I return to Parrot Cay, where everyone else is done eating. We grab just a little food. Love that mango soup. We see Zouhiar (which I have probably misspelled, sorry) from France who was our dining captain on our last cruise. He is such a nice man, and had kept our kids entertained with great tricks. He looked at our KTTWC and said we had a good table location with a great team. I had been concerned about this, and had called the week before to reiterate that we did not want to be at the back of the restaurants as last cruise. (Bless you, nameless CM who arranged this new table when I called.) We had trouble getting the wheelchair through and Gma often needs to leave early or take breaks. Now we are cruising!! The restaurant had been emptying out, since rooms have long been available. We gather up all our junk and go to our cabins. We are deck 6 aft. We have chosen aft because the mid ship elevators are always impossible to get on, everyone seems to take the elevators one floor, and we like the convenience of not having to cross the ship at mealtimes when the corridors can be congested. When you have a wheelchair, stairs are not an option. We have the cabins we had booked nearly a year before, a verandah category 6 opposite a category 11, Rack and Gma will share the category 11, the rest of us in the 6. I had forgotten the category 11 did not have a split bath (Oh, oh for Rack) and was smaller. It is missing the other storage cabinet within the room also, so I shoveled some of my hangers their way. If you book an 11, bring a bunch of extra hangers, there is plenty of closet space but drawer space is poor.
But ah, the category 6! This was our really big splurge on this cruise. We had cruised on the Magic over a year ago, had booked two category 10, then upgraded to two category 8 because Gma was having some claustrophobia. We figured the category 6 would be fun and an escape for Gma on the verandah that Rack and she could sleep and shower in their cabin and hang out in ours. I loved the verandah. We popped the cork on our Asti Spumanti and crowded onto the verandah to watch the activity on the dock, this included loading a bunch of new mattresses. Boat drill, enough said. Another toast, with the kids getting just a sip (could not find kid champagne at Publix). We all did some unpacking, bundled up, popped a Meclazine or a Dramamine and went up to deck 9 for the sail-away.
The weather had cleared a bit as we drove to Port Canaveral, but was now pretty grey and there was a wicked cold wind on deck nine. We huddled under the plexi-glass covers and watched the dancers and band. Servers circulated with frozen drinks, but there were few takers. Now if it had been hot chocolate . The deck was not particularly crowded. A very few hardy souls were in the pools (I'm blue, a biddy-boo a biddy-boo). At 5:00 When You Wish Upon a Star was sounded, the streamers were launched and, deep-breath, drum roll...well, um.... the ship stayed at dock. We had noted that the gangway was still in place, and after 15 minutes or so Peter saw six people, carry-ons in hand, madly run across and board. Another fifteen minutes and we pulled gently away from the dock. We stayed on top a bit. There was only one brave soul, a woman CM from the desks in the terminal, who stood in the cold and waved her Mickey hand to see us off. Kind of sad. But as we moved down the canal there were a bunch of cars parked near a restaurant, they waved from the cars, and a few great kids hopped out of their cars, donned their Mickey gloves and waved madly. Thanks, guys, whoever you are. (And Andy saved our departure on cam, thanks!) We saw a few turtles in the water as we headed out.
Back to our cabin, we all changed for dinner, casual night. We kept diverting to the verandah and were lucky enough to see the Port Pilot boat pick up the pilot as he jumped from the Magic, quite a feat in the cold, dark waves. Then the most wonderful aspect of our whole cruise began.
We had early seating, PLAP rotation, just as I had expected and planned for (if we had had a different rotation I would have been sunk). The standard schedule appears to now have the rotation menus for the first three nights and our cruise was no exception. So tonight was Parrot Cay with the Parrot Cay menu. Our Dining room head was Maclean, who I had heard was great. He led us to table 58, a table for just the six of us. Location was not the greatest, no window, but not buried at the back, either, and at least somewhat close to the uncarpeted aisle. Our server was Adina from Romania, Transylvania, no less, and assistant server was Anton from Bulgaria. Adina is beautiful, blue eyes, black hair and just the nicest person you could hope to meet. Anton is a handsome young man with black hair in a front-spiky-do my kids loved. There were two other tables in their station, but the occupants were no shows. So boy, did we get spoiled. Anton and Peter consulted and the Premium wine package was purchased and the first bottle poured, Conundrum, a long time favorite of ours. Anton quickly produced Gmas martini in perfect form, gin, up, lots of olives and two swords, perfect (the martini had been a source of irritation on the last cruise). Bless you Anton, all was now right with Gmas world. Adina made her recommendations (which we often did not take, which was usually a mistake, but when we ordered something less-than-stellar, she would always bring one of her choices to try). Peter, Rack and I had the Crab Newburg, Gma the onion soup, Whistler a salad and Gameboy chicken noodle soup. All cleaned up in short order. Gameboy was upset because the only offering of pizza was not pepperoni. Adina exits, running. Reappears quickly, cold and wind-blown. She has gone all the way up to Pinocchios and cached a few pieces of pepperoni pizza for Gameboy. Amazing, do you think my kids will be spoiled by the end of this trip? Entrees are grouper with gnocchi and spinach (note the spinach, more comments on this later) for me, mixed grill for everyone else, except Gma who opts out of the main course. Rack mentions quietly he is still hungry, Maclean appears out of nowhere and fetches him another mixed grill. Pecan pie for me, cheesecake for Gameboy, Peter and Gma. A mini-nap for Whistler. A trick by Anton for the kids.
I was under whelmed by the food on the last cruise. I thought it was much improved this time. Still not the ranks of fabulous gourmet, but better. Of course, the amazing service helped.
We rolled (not just Gma this time) out of there and all headed for our cabins. We skipped the variety show, figured we would see the entertainers as the first part of the week passed. Gma and Rack watched the kids while we went to Sessions to listen to Daryl Lockhart and have a coffee drink. The piano was nice; we had not managed to go here on our last cruise. But the hot coffee drinks we ordered can you say nasty? Whoever decided that a nice coffee drink could be made with Nescafe is fooling themselves. The coffee on the ship is not the best, but if the Cove can make the good stuff now, so could Sessions. We retrieved our children, Whistler fast asleep, Gameboy wound tighter than a tick, from Rack and all went to our cabin. Alejandro, who performed miracles nightly, all through the cruise, had put our cabin in good working order. We would leave in chaos and return to order. We realize today has ended with no tiffs, sulks or volcanoes erupting. We must finally be on vacation. Gameboy ate all the chocolates, we shivered a bit on the verandah, polishing off the last of the Asti Spumanti, located Orions Belt, then went off to a different type of star land.
Next, first full day at sea.
Carla, aka Tink
