We need a little “Magic”, right this very moment! – Completed

[FergusBC]

Welcome! I'm glad you came out of lurkdom! I'm really not sure if it was even that brand of Whisky. I zoomed in on my picture of the bottles and made my best guess on what the label said. I'm glad you finally spoke up, we're almost done here!

Jumping in because I sent the link to dh and he recognizes the bottle as Glenmorangie. He heartily approves . I'm just in silent awe that you did both that and the mixology on the same day! If I tried that, I wouldn't even remember being on a cruise . But just in case, I'm bumping up the tastings budget for our next cruise

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like a perfect day to me. Dark, white and milk chocolate are all the same to me....yum, yum and yum! Loved the look of the mixology class too. If you suffer from seasickness and you have a little bit too much to drink, do you think the seasickness would be worse or balance it out?!!?

Congratulations on booking your next cruise! Which classes do you feel you missed out on this time? Any you would do/not do again?

I'm really curious about your band. Genre? Instruments? Number of band members? How awesome is it that you'll get the opportunity to meet/play with similar bands from around the world. Sign me up for that TR!

I find that I don't notice the ship rocking as much once I've had a few beverages.

I was happy with all the classes. I didn't like the wine tastings so much on the last cruise. I already know what wines I like and don't, so I don't need to taste what someone else thinks is a good set of wines. I'd do all of these again!

This is our band.











I don't have any pictures of the massed band easily accessible. I know I have them somewhere!

I'm going to find some chocolate as soon as I finish typing this.....actually I'm not. I need to get something to clean my screen. That chocolate tasting is just AMAZING! Glad that Fran managed to crash in and enjoy as well.


Good job on booking another cruise.

The cocktails look great. Pity about the Dis Filter. And I'm deliberately typing asterisks here. *** ***

The chocolate was wonderful! I would do that again in a heartbeat!

I'm here I'm here! First time on the Dis today, it's been a doozy. I'm just surprised you have so much time between now and the next cruise. And when you commented that you look forward to a longer cruise so you could go to Palo more I was hoping you'd be joining me on the transatlantic. I'm glad you were able to find one that works with your schedule the band meet sounds like great fun! How long will you be away from the kitties?

I'm glad Fran was able to get in to the chocolate tasting.

At the time we thought we were going to F&G next year in March, now we're going to Monument Valley, I want to fit in Aulani, so Fall was the next time we could go to the East Coast.

Hopefully we can book the Panama Canal for 2016.

I'm here too. Think it's just a slow DIS day. I updated too today and hear crickets.

Woo hoo on your cruise! You've got an amazing Fall planned that's for sure. So you're doing WDW then going back to cruise, is that right? I'm glad you are able to really travel and plan again.

What excursions have you got your eyes on?

The chocolate tasting looks killer. That with the booze would have me in a sugar coms for sure. Michael is the chocolate fan- maybe that coupled with Palo coupled with kids having their own space will talk him into a Disney Cruise?

I still can't believe that's not butter.

It's the following Fall for the cruise, 2014. We want to do the ones that we didn't get to do this time!

Jumping in because I sent the link to dh and he recognizes the bottle as Glenmorangie. He heartily approves . I'm just in silent awe that you did both that and the mixology on the same day! If I tried that, I wouldn't even remember being on a cruise . But just in case, I'm bumping up the tastings budget for our next cruise

Thanks! I could only read the word "Glen" on the bottle so I took my best guess as to the brand. Well in the next update, you might not be quite so in awe!

 

[Linda67]

Oh wow, the chocolate tasting looks awesome!

I've never seen a review of this before so thanks for sharing

 

[kid-at-heart]

I need new glasses. I am trying to see your instruments but cannot quite see, what do you play, sax? and oboe?

Great report. Thanks!

Kate

 

[franandaj]

Oh wow, the chocolate tasting looks awesome!

I've never seen a review of this before so thanks for sharing

They said that the chocolate tasting was new, so there probably have not been a lot of posts about it yet. I would definitely do that one again!

I need new glasses. I am trying to see your instruments but cannot quite see, what do you play, sax? and oboe?

Great report. Thanks!

Kate

Does this help? I didn't just want to post gratuitous shots of myself, but since you asked.

 

[kid-at-heart]

Beautiful! Thank you! How long have you been playing professionally? I am envious.

Kate

 

[franandaj]

Beautiful! Thank you! How long have you been playing professionally? I am envious.

Kate

Actually, while these look like professional venues, it is strictly a Community Band. I did get my degree in saxophone performance, and played my share of professional gigs. But now I do it just for fun. In fact if you had any idea how much money we PAY to keep this silly band going. It would be astonishing!

 

[dgbg100106]

The update was wonderful and you two look so relaxed and happy.


So did you pick a cruise yet?

You can always change it, we have been known to pick one and then change it once we get home.

Palo looked amazing as always and I love the mixology class.

 

[franandaj]

The update was wonderful and you two look so relaxed and happy.


So did you pick a cruise yet?

You can always change it, we have been known to pick one and then change it once we get home.

Palo looked amazing as always and I love the mixology class.

I guess you missed the one that we picked in the updates. Did we choose it!

Fran was talking about one of our 2015 trip saying we could add a 3 day cruise on there. They don't have a day at sea on three day cruises and so no brunch at Palo! I want a brunch at Palo on my cruise!

 

[Minniemum]

Thanks for sharing your band photos. Great effort keeping the community band going.

 

[rentayenta]

I'm really enjoying the band photos. I am in awe of anyone who can perform live like that. Brava friend!

 

[franandaj]

Thanks for sharing your band photos. Great effort keeping the community band going.

Thanks, sometimes we question our reasoning, but usually we are happy that the band is still going.

I'm really enjoying the band photos. I am in awe of anyone who can perform live like that. Brava friend!

I've been doing it since I was five years old, whether it was ballet, tap, piano, flute, band or sax solos, it's like second nature to me. I have no problem getting up in front of people and making and a$$ of myself!

 

[franandaj]

We came back to the room. Fran needed some food, so she ordered a BLT from room service.



After that we packed up our bags. It was quite a feat since we really had to cram things in there. After we finished that we got ready for dinner and headed out. On our way out the door, I found the quote for our cruise in the Fish.

Here are the pictures of the menu.









Both of us ordered this drink, the Eclipse.



As we were getting closer to the port, the seas started getting a little bit choppy. By the time we got to dinner I was feeling pretty queasy. I think it was a combination of dehydration and the rocking motion of the ship. I don’t think the Eclipse helped either. I had to excuse myself from the table and go out on the deck to get some fresh air. I ended up being OK, but it was touch and go for a few minutes there.

I wasn’t all that hungry due to the queasiness so I just got the Potato and Leek Soup, I had ordered it before I had to get up and by the time that I got back the cup our waiter had brought was cold, so he offered to get me a replacement cup of soup. That was very nice of him!



Fran got the Lobster and Crawfish Bisque



She got the Beef Wellington for her Entrée.



I ordered a half order of the Seafood Linguine Pasta



I don’t know what this dessert is.



I got the Baked Alaska, it was OK, but nothing special.



After dinner, we discussed the cruise quote and both agreed that it was a good price. She wanted to go and take care of booking it and I went back to the room and lay down. A few minutes after getting into the room, she called and said that the lady was there, and if I could bring her the wallet of gift cards, to the 4th floor elevator she would pay for the cruise.

When she came back, she told me that all but $100 of the cruise was paid for. They didn’t pay in full in case we wanted to make any changes. So we are officially going on a Western Caribbean cruise out of Miami for five nights on October 31, 2014. There are stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Hopefully we will be in better shape by then and we can go on some more energetic tours.

By the time she returned to the stateroom, all of our bags had been picked up and we settled in for our final night on the ship. We found this in our stateroom.





If you noticed on the Disembarking guide, your breakfast is served in the restaurant where your dinner was served the previous night. Our dinner was at Animator’s Palate and we were the second seating so 8:15AM is when we could start breakfast. Our paperwork for the Disney Transportation stated that the last bus left at 9:30AM (which can’t really be true), but we didn’t want to chance it.

There was no way that we would have been able to gather our luggage, go through customs, and get on the bus if we started breakfast at 8:15AM. We found out that Top Siders was open for breakfast starting at 7:00AM. That seemed like the best option to us. We could arrive when we wanted, eat our breakfast and then get in line to leave the ship.

The meal offerings were exactly the same as we had the day we went to Grand Cayman, so I didn’t bother to take any pictures. This was Fran’s last breakfast on the ship.



And this was mine.



As we were leaving the restaurant we ran into our server from Palo. I asked if he knew whether or not he would be on the ship in October/November 2014 and he said, “Yes.” I mentioned to him that we had booked another cruise on the Magic for then and he suggested that I “friend” him on Facebook, so that he can “get to know me better.” What a sweetie he was! After saying our goodbyes, we headed towards the exit. We got in this huge long line only to find out that it was the seating line for Lumiere’s and not disembarking!

Once we got past that getting off the boat was easy. They had two exits once you got off the ship. If you did not need help with your luggage, you could just go out and get it and head to customs. Most people opted to wait for a porter. As we waited in line, I gave Fran the ticket to retrieve our “prohibited item”. As the porters returned from assisting other guests they came to the front of the line with their cart, and the person who was working the line sent each family off with a porter. It only took about 10-15 minutes to get to the front of the line, and soon we were picking out our bags and heading towards customs.

It was a breeze getting through customs and our porter accompanied us to the bus that was currently loading. There was some confusion since we weren’t technically catching a plane, but they got our bags loaded and the scooter too. Surprisingly enough the two front seats were still vacant, and soon we were underway. We were on the bridge leaving Galveston island when it hit me. “Doh! We forgot to pick up the iron!”

The trip back to the airport was uneventful. I had my camera out, but there was nothing photo worthy. It was pretty much metropolis the whole way back. Not sprawling metropolis like we have in LA. There were some amount of empty fields, but no rolling hills, amber waves of grain, just chain stores, pawn shops and auto body shops.

 

[jedijill]

So sad that this cruise is over but so glad to hear you have another one booked!

Jill in CO

 

[PrincessInOz]

So glad that you weren't sick. I don't think I could have coped with you being seasick!

Nice pictures of food. I liked the Beef Wellington.

And YAY for a cruise next year.

 

[dgbg100106]

An iron is no biggie glad you did not fret over it much.


Sorry to hear that you did not feel well. I have found that sometimes it is an inner ear problem. I can take half a Benadryl to dry up everything and e queasy goes away. It is something with the barometric pressure and getting closer to port. Or if there are storms out at sea.

Glad you have a cruise scheduled, I left on one from Galveston on Halloween and a lot of people were dressed up. I am sure it made for interesting pictures on your key cards for security...

 

[Pinkocto]

Dinner looked scrumptious. I'm sorry you weren't feeling well though, that's never good.

I was so stressed by the last bus leaving at 9:30, it isn't true. They wait until everybody is where they need to be.

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us, that was great fun

 

[franandaj]

So sad that this cruise is over but so glad to hear you have another one booked!

Jill in CO

It's going to be long wait until then so I hope that I can fill in the remainder of 2013 after WDW and the first part of 2014!

So glad that you weren't sick. I don't think I could have coped with you being seasick!

Nice pictures of food. I liked the Beef Wellington.

And YAY for a cruise next year.

I'm glad I wasn't seasick too!

It will be nice to have another cruise to look forward to.

An iron is no biggie glad you did not fret over it much.


Sorry to hear that you did not feel well. I have found that sometimes it is an inner ear problem. I can take half a Benadryl to dry up everything and e queasy goes away. It is something with the barometric pressure and getting closer to port. Or if there are storms out at sea.

Glad you have a cruise scheduled, I left on one from Galveston on Halloween and a lot of people were dressed up. I am sure it made for interesting pictures on your key cards for security...

I think the queasy was more from all the booze! Some glasses of water really helped. That's funny about the costumes, I didn't think of that!

Dinner looked scrumptious. I'm sorry you weren't feeling well though, that's never good.

I was so stressed by the last bus leaving at 9:30, it isn't true. They wait until everybody is where they need to be.

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us, that was great fun

I figured they would do that on the buses, but why worry and stress. Breakfast was just a good at Topsiders and it was quicker and I could have just as much as I wanted.

 

[rentayenta]

Do not tell me that is cream on those pancakes. I know it's butter.

Breakfast looks great.

I seriously had to read *I found the quote for our cruise in the Fish* about 10 times until I could figure out what you meant. I'm like: what's the Fish?

What exactly is Baked Alaska? It's looks like Neapolitan ice cream with cake around it. Like ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.

Good to hear that clearing customs was easy.

Chloe is a performer like you. It is a skill I'll never possess.

 

[jennorthernireland]

I've loved reading your trip report, thank you so much