We're Going on a Disney Cruise ! But wait.... where's the ship? Feb 13th Eastern

[MassDisLovers]

We're just back from a 6 night Eastern on the Magic - yes, that's right, a 6 night cruise because the first night was canceled when the ship couldn't make it back from Castaway Cay the day before! In spite of the delayed start, many adventures were to be had (some quite unexpected) new friends were made, and a very good time was had by all!

Our cruising group - This trip was originally booked for me, DH and our high school aged daughter Kelly who would be celebrating her birthday. Due to a variety of circumstances, DH was unable to travel, and Meg, my 20 year old DD - who should have been at college that week - lobbied long and hard and eventually convinced me that a.) she could make up all her missed work and b.) she really couldn't bear it if we went on a Disney cruise without her (yes, I fell for it). Then my friend Jody said she'd be happy to go in DH's place, not knowing that we had already changed the reservation to DD. We called DCL and there was room for her, so our trip quickly became a "Girl's Trip". All trip planning and preparation was kept secret from the Birthday Girl - which wasn't always easy. This was the 5th DCL cruise for me and the girls, the first for Jody. Our trip was booked with DVC points, as was a night before the cruise at Boardwalk. I bought decent airfare out of Boston when it was released (11 months out), but we had a little trouble getting decently-priced airfare for Jody when we added her to the reservation many months later. She wanted to fly to FL with us, so she eventually paid a crazy price to do that, but we found her a much cheaper flight home after the cruise, so it averaged out to be high but, in her opinion, "do-able".

The months passed by with planning, obsessively reading the boards, getting the newest Passporter, and most importantly, getting to know our fellow cruisers on our Meet Thread. We had a fun and active group and, in addition to the "usual" onboard meet and FE plans, many folks also linked dining reservations, made Palo reservations together and planned excursions. We found that many women in our group were traveling without their husbands so we formed a "Ladies Lunch" plan for a sea day. At the lunch we had a "Yankee Swap" which was initially a little confusing for some of our NY/NJ ladies!(more on that later )

The weeks before our cruise brought very cold weather to Florida and many other parts of the country, so while we here in Massachusetts are used to cold and snow and more cold and more snow, we were looking forward to a respite from lousy weather on our cruise. We anxiously watched Florida's weather, hoped that a storm wouldn't prevent us from leaving here, and waited for the magical day to arrive. I contacted my Disboard friend Denise (AKA "Hypermommy) who I had meet on a previous cruise, and we arranged to meet for dinner on Friday night at WDW. The excitement was building and it was all still a secret from Kelly!

 

[pmama]

Excited to read this. I've been waiting for TRs from this special cruise! Can't wait to read along.

 

[RLP817]

subscribing.. can't wait to hear more!

 

[DisneyDaddio]

Signing up.

 

[A's Princess]

Subbing! Can't wait to hear more...

 

[MassDisLovers]

The week before the cruise I packed for Kelly while she was at school. I was pretty sure about her summer clothes fitting, but I had bought her a new dress for formal night in an after-holiday sale, and I was just hoping that it was going to fit! She went about her week, every so often commenting about plans she had made for her winter break . I called her volunteer job and told them she'd be gone all week, informed the school drama teacher that she wouldn't be at vacation week rehearsals, canceled a made-long-ago doctor's appointment, and tried very hard to keep the secret going. In the beginning of the week she said she had a math test on Friday, which was a bit of a problem since we were flying on Friday and she wouldn't be in school. OK, one test to make up afterwards - not so bad. But then soon she had a chemistry test on Friday also and by mid-week she had an history test too. 3 tests the day before vacation! Yikes. But not much I can do about it now. I couldn't ask her to take them early without telling her about the trip, and after a year of secret planning I wasn't about to let 3 tests ruin the surprise!

Thursday evening Jody came to our house and we told Kelly we were invited to go on an " mystery adventure" for the weekend. She was immediately excited, but I then told her she would have to miss school (and the 3 tests) on Friday. "No problem, Mom". She was hooked. We told her to pack a backpack with a change of clothes, pajamas. etc. (the rest of her stuff was already packed in a suitcase hidden in the car).

At 5:15 AM on Friday Jody arrived at our house and we got in the car, along with my son Patrick - "Wait a minute....why is Patrick driving us?" Kelly asks "Well, you know how we hate to drive into the city (Boston is about 1.5 hours away) so he's going to drop us off." OK, she buys that explanation and now she thinks she's spending the weekend in Boston and she's happy about it. On the way I call the attendance line at her school and report that she'll be absent. I don't give a reason, just say that she'll be out. She sleeps most of the way there, and only wakes up when we arrive at Logan Airport. "What are we doing here" she asks? "SURPRISE!" we say -" This is your first surprise of the day, many more to come!" Two minutes later her sister shows up - she goes to college outside of Boston and had taken a bus and subway to the airport. "Surprise #2". We are now officially on the adventure.

We board a plane to Washington DC (where we will connect to Orlando) and now Kelly is very excited... "Can we go to the VietNam Memorial?" she wants to know. "Sure" we tell her. When we land at Dulles, she is impatiently pointing the way to Baggage Claim, but we tell her that we need to use the restroom and head off in the opposite direction. The three of us sit down in a waiting area for another gate and she is mystified. "Surprise #3", we say "The adventure continues". We try not to let her see where we are flying to, but the gate agent says "Have fun in Orlando!" as we board, so now she's convinced that she's headed to Disney. I thought it would be mean to let her think that we are going to WDW , so I tell her that we are only going there for 1 night and are NOT going into any parks (that turned out to not be true!) We say that the rest of our adventure will continue on Saturday morning. (THAT turned out to be an understatement )

We arrive in Orlando around 2 pm to cold, rain and general grayness. It's a good thing we're all wearing warm clothes... looks like we're going to need them. We take the Magical Express to Boardwalk and while on the bus the man makes a big deal about Kelly's birthday, which she loves. He gives her a "Happy Birthday" button and Jody tells the story of our "Mystery Adventure" and everyone on the bus thinks it's a lot of fun. We quietly tell some people where we are really going and they think it's a great birthday surprise.

Once we leave the bags in the room we head to Downtown Disney to meet up with our Disboard friends Denise and her husband Jim (AKA "HyperMommy" and "King Charming") for dinner. Unfortunately she ended up having to work late, then later and then very late so we never got together . We were really looking forward to seeing them (we cruised with them in April '08) but it was not meant to be. The night was still cold and rainy so after eating at "The Earl of Sandwich" and browsing in the shops, we headed back to Boardwalk. The three of us were excited about getting on the ship the next day, and Kelly still didn't know where she would end up, but she was enjoying the fun of it. It had been a long day of travel and we were all tired, so we decided to call it an early night. We heard the Illuminations fireworks but no one even had the energy to get up and look out the window to see them!

 

[DisFamily10]

Can't wait to read more! Heading out in two weeks. Did you notice a lot of motion on the ship?

 

[MassDisLovers]

Can't wait to read more! Heading out in two weeks. Did you notice a lot of motion on the ship?

Not too much motion on the ship - but I think if you asked the folks who were stranded on the Magic in the storm Friday/Saturday they might disagree! Have a great cruise!

 

[DisneyDaddio]

Great start. You are very sneaky (in a good way).

 

[barbarasc]

Karen I'm waiting for you to get to the best part of the trip....meeting me!!

 

[jessica52877]

Coming along. We got off on the 14th. The motion actually wasn't that bad at all after being stuck. I was surprised and actually found the trip back to PC much smoother then a couple of other cruises. Maybe by then I was just immune to everything! LOL!

 

[Dahly]

looking forward to hearing the rest of the story...great job keeping the secret from your DD!

 

[parrotheadmom]

Can't wait to hear the rest of the story!

 

[MassDisLovers]

Karen I'm waiting for you to get to the best part of the trip....meeting me!!

SO TRUE SO TRUE! Just you wait, though, you will be featured soon

 

[Stevegriswold]

adding myself to the thread

 

[4 mickey]

 

[MassDisLovers]

Saturday morning Jody and I were awake and up very early (we had gone to bed so early on Friday night, no wonder!) We left the girls to sleep in and went down to the Boardwalk Bakery in search of coffee and a little something to eat. No use having a big breakfast when we would soon be eating that wonderful buffet lunch at Parrot Cay! We put on our matching Mickey and Minnie valentine t-shirts (bought especially for our embarkation photo) and left the girls theirs as a surprise (Meg was less than thrilled but she did wear it). Armed with yogurt , bananas and a bran muffin to share we made our way back to the beautiful Boardwalk lobby and sat in front of the fireplace eating our treats and drinking coffee. People watching is always fun at Disney, even at 7 AM. Our limo was scheduled to pick us up at 10:00 to go to the port. A quick call to DH to let him know that all was going as planned and then..... the phone call that changed the day!

The limo service (FL Tours) called to inquire if I had "had any communication from Disney Cruise Line that morning?". "Should I have? " I asked, wondering why they would ask such a stupid question... I mean, does Mickey call everyone on the morning of their cruise? This was my 5th DCL adventure and he'd never checked in with me before...... The very nice man patiently explained the situation at the port and said that he'd be in touch as they day went on, not to worry, he would get us there no matter what time embarkation was. I hung up and tried to process what he had said. The ship is stuck? In Castaway Cay still? Just as I was beginning to tell Jody the news, who should present herself in the Boardwalk lobby but the Birthday Girl herself. Thankfully I saw her before I spoke (a rarity for me). We sent her off to get some food and called DH. He searched the DCL website and could see nothing. Finally he gave us the 1-800 number for DCL and said he would keep trying from home as well. My second call was to Barbara ("barbarasc") my self-proclaimed "new best friend" from our meet thread. I knew that Barbara, John and their daughter Jen were driving to the port from her brother's home in Jacksonville. I had hoped to catch her before they left, but too late... they were nearly there. Barbara is a travel agent though, and she had the super-secret-travel-agents-only-DCL number so she quickly got the scoop and kept us posted all day long.

The concierge at Boardwalk was clueless about the situation, and , I was disappointed to find that they really didn't care to help me out much, dismissing me with a simple "Well, we are two separate companies and we know nothing about the cruiseline". Jody finally got through to the DCL rep who told us about the EPCOT tickets, so we decided to go over there. We packed up the room, left the luggage with the Bell Captain and told Kelly some crazy story about a storm (not a lie) keeping us from our "next part of the trip". We sort of implied that we were flying somewhere else, but left it all kind of vague. Before we left the hotel I inquired about a room for that night, should we need one. I was told "not to worry about that yet" but that they were completely booked for that night. Luckily, Barbara had told us that more info would be available after 1 pm , so I figured I'd head back there then. Around the same time I got a call from another disser, my friend Denise ("Hypermommy") who heard about our plight and gave us the updated information. At the same time I have my son Patrick at home (much to his dismay) searching the boards for more information. He's not happy about it, (he thinks I am crazy to always be on the DIS) but he does it. He keeps us up to date with the information he gets from the current posts until he has to leave for work. Gotta love those disboards!

Once at EPCOT we got the free tickets and a $15.00 gift card each. No one ever mentioned the "command center" set up at the Wonders of Life Pavillion, so we just did our own thing. We had a lot of fun, ate lunch at the Coral Seas ($60.00 of our $120.00 bill was covered by our gift cards) and shortly after 1 pm I headed back to Boardwalk alone to see what the update was. Once there the pleasant and helpful DCL Rep took over, filled me in on the delay, processed our ship check-in so we wouldn't have to wait in line the next day and sent me over to see about a room. I didn't have much faith in that, having been told they were booked earlier in the day. But wonder of all wonders, a room was magically made available to us... a spectacular $470.00 a night room at that! Back to EPCOT I trekked to meet up with the other 3. We crafted a story for Kelly that we were going to St. Thomas (not a lie, really) for a few days, and that due to a storm all flights were canceled but that we would try again in the morning. She swallowed that fish story... hook, line and sinker.

Over the course of the day we had several calls from FL Tours and by late afternoon , once the sail date was definitely postponed, we were assured that they would pick us up Sunday morning. The man did explain that his company was very booked due to the two ships coming in at once, and said he would have to pick us up earlier than originally planned. I told him we were at a Disney hotel and could take the DCL bus if he was too busy to take us, and he assured me that he was not. We were happy to not have to make the bus arrangements so we agreed to the early time. That would turn out to be one big mistake the next day!

We enjoyed EPCOT until evening when Kelly decided she had enough and wanted to go back. We were all headed back, but something told me to check in at the ticket booth at the International Gateway (where we had received our tickets and meal cards that morning). When I did, the girl told us about the Wonders of Life and strongly encouraged us to go over there and "get the updated information". Luckily Kelly agreed to head back to the hotel herself, and the three of us pretended that we wanted to stay for Illuminations. Once she was out of sight we headed over there. We were glad we did. The place was bustling - characters, balloons, movies, snacks, free use of computers ( I did have to sneak in a quick post on the Disboards ) All the folks who had stayed at Disney hotels on Friday night had been kept in their hotel for Saturday night as well. Everyone else was divided up into various 5 star hotels according to the rep. we spoke with. She asked if we had a room (we did) if our ship check-in had been processed (it had) and gave us each another $15.00 gift card for breakfast since it was going to be provided in the other hotels but not the Disney hotels. She explained the on-board credit -$100.00 per cabin and $20.00 per person and told us that the Magic had left CC at about 5 pm and that we were absolutely, definitely sailing on Sunday. Encouraged by that news, we headed back to our beautiful suite where most of us would soak in the in-room jacuzzi. We used the washer and dryer to wash the clothes we had worn for the first 2 days of the trip... the way the weather was looking those jeans we were wearing might just continue to be needed !

We ended the evening watching the news and, of course the featured story was the saga of the Disney ships (the Wonder had missed their day at CC and was circling around, just waiting to be able to safely make it's way back to Port Canaveral, so in reality both ships were affected). We nearly choked on our Diet Coke when Kelly said "Oh no! I feel so sorry for those people! They must be so sad to not be on their cruise!"

 

[LisaSp]

Great story so far...can't wait to hear what happens next!!

 

[Kay1]

Goodness, what a lot of surprises for all of you! You sure made the best of it.

 

[MassDisLovers]

Sunday morning dawned cold and overcast. We were up early again, packed and went back to the Boardwalk Bakery for coffee, etc., and you could see your breath outside! Jody and the girls opted for their freshly-washed jeans, but I just couldn't do it. We were, after all, in Florida, and that means shorts and flip flops to me. However, even I had to concede that shorts would probably look stupid with a sweater and LLBean fleece jacket, so I had to compromise on capris. The flip flops made the cut. Shoes were packed away for the week. (I hoped)

Our driver arrived promptly at the appointed time, 8:00 am, and Jody took him aside and told him NOT to say we were going to the cruise port. He was a really nice guy and immediately got into the game of keeping the secret. At this point Kel thinks we are going back to the airport to take a flight to St.Thomas.

Our ride was uneventful and pleasant. The sun came out and it although very cool, it was a nice day. When we zoomed past the Orlando airport Kelly asked Jody why . Jody replied that we had to stop for some supplies first. Again, she bought it. We were in Cocoa Beach before we stopped at a Publix. We bought wine to take onboard, candy for Kelly (a necessity in her opinion) and various forgotten items such as a hairbrush. Kelly opted to wait in the car, and the driver got into the game and told her how lucky she was to be going to the "helicopter pad for her quick flight to St. Thomas". She was all excited! Apparently he had heard her questioning Jody as we passed the airport and he took that opportunity to throw her off track.

In a few minutes we are on the bridge approaching the port. Three ships are in port, a RC, a Carnival and..... the WONDER. We don't immediately see that it's the Wonder, not the Magic, so when we are all ooohing and ahhing over the ships and Kelly says "Oh, I wish I was going on a cruise!", Jody, Meg and I look at each other and say "SURPRISE! You ARE going on a cruise!" It takes her a few minutes to process our announcement but she soon starts laughing and saying "Really, really?" We are all so pleased that we've kept the secret for so long but our happiness is short lived. The driver says - "Uh, ladies, the Magic isn't here" and we are immediately sobered up.


WHERE IS THE MAGIC???? Come on, this isn't funny! The driver gets on the phone to his company and the dispatcher says he was told the Magic docked at 6:30 AM. That may be true, but exactly WHERE did it dock? We pull in to the port and a DCL worker directs us to a different terminal. "It's where the old Sterling Casino ships used to dock" she tells him. We drive around and soon we can see a glimpse of the Magic.... whew! We pull into the terminal and it is bustling with chaotic activity. Disney buses are everywhere, as are DCL employees. People are streaming off the ship , porters running (literally) with luggage, and news crews with microphones and huge cameras lined up trying to interview passengers about their experience. The time is about 9:30 am and it's confusing.... these folks should be long gone! The driver stops to ask what's going on and we learn that the ship didn't dock until 6:30 and it took a long time to clear Customs so they were not able to start letting people off until 9:30am. She tells him to "take them back - no new passengers can be dropped off here until noon". He gets upset and calls his dispatcher back. He is told that it NOT what Disney said last night when they made the plans for all their runs today. It makes sense, because the disembarkation delay was caused by the problems Customs had in clearing the ship in this terminal with no provisions for luggage (it was originally used for casino ships that went out for day trips only), scanning KTTW cards, etc. Our driver is expected back at Universal Studios in less than an hour for his next run, and the company has no extra cars to send in his place, they are severely overbooked due to both the Magic and Wonder leaving on the same day. Our driver feels terrible, but he has no choice but to leave us there- outside in the cold with our piles of luggage. We assure him that we understand, that we'll be fine, and he's soon on his way to Universal Studios and we are amidst the chaos with the thought that we'll be there until noon. I call Barbara, my Disboard friend , who is at a nearby hotel, to tell her not to head to the port yet, (although I AM dying to finally meet her!) and she tells us that the hotel has said that their shuttles will not begin until noon. I guess THEY got the updated word from DCL! Barbara offers to send her husband to pick us up but that seems crazy, so we say we'll wait and keep her posted.

We stand watching the folks leave the ship. They look worn out, resigned, not refreshed from their vacation. We hear snippets of their stories as they are met by friends/relatives picking them up - there were 24 foot waves - it was an awful night- the captain tried to leave CC several times- we saw the Wonder yesterday- DCL was great- it really wasn't that bad, they kept us busy- they had taken all our luggage on Friday and had to return it all to us- everyone had a tale to tell. They seem to be leaving in groups based on where they are headed. Some of the buses will take people back to the port where they have cars parked, some to WDW, the airport, etc. We wonder how many were able to make alternate air arrangements and agree that although our day was crazy on Saturday, we were in better shape than those who may have lost their travel plans due to the delay. It's a wild scene with DCL doing the best they could to move people out quickly.

We notice another family who seem to be in our same predicament. We begin talking to them and find that they, too, were left by their car service. In an "it's a small world" kind of way we also learn that they are also from Massachusetts and they were on our Meet Thread. It was nice getting to know John, Leslie, Allison and John while we waited. It was windy and cold- even for northerners like us! We pass the time talking with our new-found friends and I have to search through a suitcase for shoes. My feet are freezing! Good-bye for now, flip flops!

I had been watching the various DCL workers for an hour or so, looking for one who might be sympathetic to our situation, and decided that I would approach a silver-haired woman who looked very pleasant. I go over to her and tell her that we understand they need to get the departing passengers settled but explain our plight. I ask if maybe we can wait inside once the final passengers are gone. She suggests that we move near a cement storage building to get out of the wind and says she will see what she can do. We do move and it's immediately warmer! We settle in, sitting on suitcases. Meg gets out her laptop and starts working on a paper that needs to be submitted via e-mail by Tuesday. In about 10 minutes a gentleman from DCL comes by and tells us he's sorry, but due to the restrictions on this inadequate terminal, they can't let us in. Customs has concerns about luggage storage and other matters of safety. He understands our situation but says we should not have been left there so early, and there's nothing he can do. We take the attitude that we're at least closer to the boat than we were yesterday so we'll just wait.......

Shortly after they finish with the final passengers a man comes over to us with one of the luggage "cages" and offers to take our luggage. We are happy to give it to him - it's a step in the right direction. Then another DCL employee comes over and says we can cross the street and wait nearer the terminal entrance. At least it's sunny over there. By this time many members of the crew are arriving and lining up to enter the terminal. We join the line, thinking that we'll be there for a while , but are invited inside when the crew is let in. YAY! Warmth! Once inside we are quickly processed through, given our KTTW cards and told to line up. They say they have no ability to take photos for this cruise, which makes me wonder what else they are dealing with. We thank them for all they have done for us in the past 24 hours and they seem happy/relieved to hear it. They thank US for "understanding".

It's just our two families and crew for a while then others start to arrive. It's getting closer to noon and more people are arriving by car (no DCL buses or hotel shuttles yet) and the check-in lines are already getting long. There are lots of uniformed DCL employees in the terminal - computers are going down and everything just seems "off". I tell Jody how sorry I am that she will not get to experience the DCL terminal and the announcing of our names as we board, and she says "next time". I call Barbara to report that we are IN and she says they are getting ready to go on the hotel shuttle. It's about 11:30 by now, 2 hours after we were left at the port. All of a sudden the security guard drops the rope and says, "Follow me, please". We are ON THE SHIP in a few minutes! Instead of entering the typical way we are brought up through Beat Street. I am disoriented and don't realize where we'll end up until I see the familiar "Captain Mickey at the Helm" statue in front of us and realize we are approaching the atrium. We are stopped and asked our family name "Welcome to the ***** family - the first family to board the Magic today!" they announce and clap. Meg is overjoyed - being the "first family" has always been her wish! I'm happy (and surprised) that they were able to do this - it's such a great touch. We stop for a quick embarkation photo, even though our matching shirts were worn yesterday, and head to Parrot Cay. It's not even quite noon and we are off to lunch. I call DH to report the good news.... we are on our ship at last!

Next up .... the long-awaited DisMeet where we finally get to meet our New Best Friends and lots of other fun stuff