"Witty Trip Report Title" 2 --Bigger, Longer, Uncut

[MrRay]

I love your TR so far! I love the balance of pictures with commentary. I'm like a kid. I don't want to just read. I like pictures too. Your TR keeps me interested. I even went back and read your review from last year. Loved it! I'll be on the Fantasy in Nov with my husband and teenager. I keep thinking that this will be our last Disney cruise since he's getting older, but you have me considering even going without the kiddo.

We obviously love the cruise as two adults with no children. You can have loads of fun in a different way.

 

[MrRay]

Awesome TR...thanks for sharing.. Would've loved to share a table with both of you..you seem such awesome people, you make a lovely couple and I wish you all the love and success and, of course, many many more DCL voyages together... Cheers..

Thanks so much!

 

[MrRay]

We awoke as we were pulling up to Castaway Cay. Sadly it was still looking pretty, um, terrible. The sun was nowhere to be seen. We were supposed to go parasailing but we were secretly hoping, and pretty confident, that it would get canceled. Sure enough the cruise director came on to say that every excursion with the exception of feeding the rays and rentals were cancelled.

We set out to see the island. It was early yes but this place was EMPTY.







20140108-_MG_0396 by goingrobert, on Flickr


I dipped my toes in the water at Serenity Bay and we were done. I don't think we spent more than an hour off the ship. Back on board we decided to take another shot at the hot tub. It was less windy this time around and it was very nice, then I decided to test the pool water. Even coming from the hot tub it felt surprisingly warm. They must have been heating them a little extra because I jumped right in and we both swam around for another half hour with the whole pool area completely to ourselves.

We opted to stay on the ship for lunch. On our last cruise the BBQ was the only bad meal we had so we didn't think we would miss much. We got a table right by the window in Cabanas and saw a sea turtle swimming right next to the ship. One of the staff said they swim by from time to time. His shadow grew and grew and finally a little green head popped up to take a breathe. We watched him swim out of sight and began to plot the rest of our day. Our eyes fell on the perfect cold rainy day activity that started at 2:30 p.m....

Mixology.

 

[disprincess4ever]

Thanks, I gave this a try and you are right it is light years better. Thanks!

Your most welcome! I wanted to save you from the pain that is Photobucket. Another recommendation is to edit your old posts and reupload the photos and links with Flickr. If too many people view this report, those old Photobucket photos will disappear.

Not really sure, I did have a small rolling bag. I would assume the dog is probably kept busy sniffing all the checked bags during the day, but since that was done maybe they felt like giving us the extra pat down.

To whom ever asked about the security dogs; the dogs do stiff all bags and check for explosives.

 

[MrRay]

We stopped by guest services to see if we could still get tickets and were pleased when they took our money. Honestly with all the cancelled excursions that day I think Disney would take money however they could get it, they probably would have added 5 classes if they could fill them.

It took place in Keys, the piano bar.



It's a really nice space. We never had any after hours fun here but it's very classy.



We sat in large groups and were greeted by our host.


On the menu today...

Rum runner


Caipirinha


Vodka martini


B52

We got to work...




The martinis were made by one member of each group behind the bar. This was where things got a little silly. People were pretty heavy handed with the vodka, and at one point our hosts went in the back room and everyone took a few more pours in each shaker. It was all in good fun and I'm sure our hosts, being the only 2 sober people, were fully aware of what was happening.



It gets a little fuzzy after that. We were allowed to finish all our drinks, including the insane amount of vodka being passed around, at our leisure. $15 well spent.

Eventual we went up on deck to grab a snack before returning to the room to relax.
I have to admit I was surprised that the shawarma station never became anything else. Just shawarma all the time. Seems random to me, but it was decent.


We watched us sail away and it got colder and windier.

It was pirate night and we were in Animator's again.
Nothing really stands out about this meal. Traditional pirate night food. I think there was a pirate conga line at one point. It was fun but we were getting really depressed about the weather and didn't feel much like going up on deck for the fireworks, mainly because we really didn't think they were going to happen.

We never did find out if they did or not, but we certainly didn't hear them from our room.

 

[aneshka]

I am enjoying your trip report!

I want to do mixology but my husband is not really a drinker and can only tolerate a glass or two.

Can he come with me as a spectator?

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

great report! On the Magic we saw alot of shwarma too, not that Im complaining I loves me some shwarma

 

[MrRay]

I am enjoying your trip report!

I want to do mixology but my husband is not really a drinker and can only tolerate a glass or two.

Can he come with me as a spectator?

This is one of those things where you will get a different answer depending on who you talk to and who is actually leading the class. But it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[MrRay]

We awoke to another grey sky. We clicked on the bridge channel and saw that the captain tried really hard to find some sunshine for us...




We tried swimming a bit more, the water was still warm but the wind was pretty bad, especially if you were wet. I really wanted to try the aqua dunk but I couldn't imagine standing on the stairs in the wind waiting in line.

This wasn't too crowded either.


Finally desperate for something to do we tried to go see an afternoon showing of “Saving Mr. Banks”. Sadly the theater was the opposite of this…


There were only a few scattered seats. After the third person we asked said that they were saving the seats for someone we got frustrated and left.

We attended an adult’s only animation class where we attempted to draw Pluto then spent most of the rest of the day in our room packing our things and watching tv.

Our final dinner was in...






The food was mixed...


The Empanada appetizer is huge and easily the tastiest thing on the menu.


I think this had some fancy name and looks pretty but didn't really taste like anything.


There was a lot of things that interested me on the menu so I ended up getting two entrees. The pork belly was pretty good.

I also had the Beef, Lamb, Sausage, and Shrimp skewers.


the beef and lamb were too tough to eat, completely inedible. The sausage and shrimp were pretty good, but nothing amazing here.

They also have to do some clumsy presentation where they try to stick a couple of the skewers into that metal thing. They don't seem to fit too well so they would get one or two of everybody's and then give up. We watched the "reimagineering the magic" special on tv the other night and they showed this dish with all the skewers standing upright so that's obviously the goal but whether there is something wrong with them or it's just too difficult they don't really bother with it.


We said goodbye to our table mates, we were doing express walk off the next day and wouldn't see them. We then went to see a juggling comedian in the nightclub but we didn't think he was either terribly funny or a decent juggler.

We packed up the last of our things and went to bed.



It was extremely rocky over night. We would wake up literally rolling back and forth. I usually feel fine on the ships but my stomach was a little upset from it. We tried to sleep through it but neither of us got much rest.

 

[missmdr]

The weather was a real downer, huh? That happened to us the last 4 night cruise we took a few years ago (ironically, also in January). We had rain/wind and overcast skies each day EXCEPT Castaway day - that was our saving moment. It was pretty miserable. But what can you do? Can't control the weather. Will you book another cruise is the question?!!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Ugh....we've had that experience in the Buena Vista theater, too.

 

[MrRay]

The weather was a real downer, huh? That happened to us the last 4 night cruise we took a few years ago (ironically, also in January). We had rain/wind and overcast skies each day EXCEPT Castaway day - that was our saving moment. It was pretty miserable. But what can you do? Can't control the weather. Will you book another cruise is the question?!!

I doubt we would ever do Bahamas in January again. As you'll see we had much better weather on the Fantasy in the Caribbean and last year on the western we were fine. But all the Castaway days were very chilly.

 

[tweis]

I'm sorry to hear that you had such terrible weather and ended up not having much to do. We sailed last May and while it wasn't cold, it was definitely rainy. I'm looking forward to reading about the Fantasy portion of your vacation.

 

[corykay]

I'm sorry to hear the weather was so bad (a lot better than where you left, but still, not ideal for a vacation). I know you enjoyed DCL because I read your other review. BTW, you're an excellent writer. I checked this thread everyday anticipating your next update.

I hope your return travel was comfortable and uneventful. Thanks for taking the time to write this review.

 

[MrRay]

I'm sorry to hear the weather was so bad (a lot better than where you left, but still, not ideal for a vacation). I know you enjoyed DCL because I read your other review. BTW, you're an excellent writer. I checked this thread everyday anticipating your next update.

I hope your return travel was comfortable and uneventful. Thanks for taking the time to write this review.

Thanks so much. Luckily within the next couple posts things turn around for us for the rest of the trip. Thanks for following along.

 

[MrRay]

We were in cabanas at 6:30 for the early breakfast. Pretty standard fare. We wanted to be off the ship as early as possible because we were going to drive to Orlando to visit a friend who works at Disney that was going to burn a couple guest passes on us. A nice orderly line had formed in the lobby and right about 7 a.m. they started letting us off.

There was a decent amount of us but the line for customs didn't take too long. We ended up being the only people waiting for hertz so we had our second private shuttle of the trip.





Our driver was very nice, he filled us in on the current events we missed. We were the first customers of the day so we were in and out of the office quick and I want to say we were on the road to Orlando by 8a.m.... Not too shabby.



Magic final thoughts

All in all we left the Magic pretty underwhelmed. We’ve been racking our brains to figure out why. The weather certainly affected our moods and activities. Across the board we felt like most of the staff was pretty nice, but not outstanding. It almost felt like because it was such a short cruise they just didn't care as much. Even our servers seemed like they were just going through the motions. I rarely saw too many cast members smiling, and for us that's what really makes the "Disney Difference" with cruising.
There was only one cast member that stood out. His name was Raphael and working in O'Gill's. After only one night he remembered our names and what we had to drink the night before, including that we had water with them.
But aside from that it just felt kinda sad and not that special.

Of our table mates 2 were platinum cruisers and 2 were young newlyweds on their honeymoon. The latter did everything they could despite the weather. Dolphins in Nassau, anything in the water they could at castaway, aqua dunk on the sea day, and loved every minute. The veterans were more content to watch movies and nap. We fell right in the middle.

We don’t want to discourage anyone from the Magic or cause great concern; I think we just had a rough few days.

If this was the whole trip I can't help but think we would have been really disappointed, but luckily there was a lot more to come...

 

[MrRay]

Driving down the highway leaving port canaveral behind we could feel our fortunes changing. The weather was warming up and the sun was finally peeking out. The temperature dial was creeping up to 80 degrees.
We headed to our hotel in Kissimmee, Legacy suites. We wanted a place with a washer and dryer in the room so that we would be able to clean our clothes when we got back from the park that night. If I had to do it all again I would probably just do laundry on the ship, it's really easy and we always had time to kill before second dinner so it's really not much of a hassle. We ended up doing one load on the magic anyway because we wore our 1 pair of pants each a lot more than we thought we would.

Anyway we got a good price and at first look it seemed nice enough. It's bigger than our apartment in New York.








Nice enough... Until we got back that night and there was no hot water, the shower, sadly we didn't take a picture of, doesn't seem like you could use without getting water all over the bathroom, the floors were so dirty that our feet were black after walking around for only a few minutes, the dead bolt on the front door didn't close all the way, and this....


How is this helpful?!?!


We slept with the bedroom door locked all night.
We Do Not Recommend!

But anyway, we made such great time driving to Orlando that we stopped off to get a bit more food and drove by a Publix so I could get some of their unsweetened iced tea...which I love.



We happily changed into shorts but planned for the worst by packing a bag full of warmer clothes to keep in a locker...just..in..case.


We pulled up to our favorite park a little after 12...

We grabbed a fast pass for test track and rode some smaller rides "The Land", "Nemo", until we could get another fastpass and grabbed one for soarin'. Both were for later in the day so we set out for our 3 p.m. reservation at "Via Napoli".

This wasn't open the last time we were in Epcot.


It's very lively, open, and exciting.
We shared a large pizza.


It was really fantastic and we had a very energetic and enthusiastic server. Words could never really describe him so I won't try. If you ever see him though, you will know. Jenna described him is "human spirit fingers".

Side note I have a dairy intolerance but can manage it on my own and can eat small amounts so we requested half the pizza have no cheese. It wasn't a problem at all but required me talking to 3 different people. Can't fault them for taking allergies seriously though.



We leisurely strolled back to use our fast passes and hop on spaceship earth. It was probably one of the calmest but at the same time super efficient days we've ever had at Disney. The weather was great, we never had to break into our bag of clothes.








We dropped by the Margarita Bar in Mexico and strolled through the countries.



The day flew by so fast that it was time for Illuminations before we knew it.



And then it was time to say goodnight.

Feeling energized from the great weather we were excited to get some sleep and drive back to Port Canaveral to see our old friend the Fantasy....

 

[tweis]

I'm sorry that you left the Magic feeling underwhelmed. We will be on the Magic in April for the first time and I'm hoping we have a wonderful time. I know sometimes the weather can set the tone for the entire vacation. I'm hoping the Fantasy was much better for you all.

 

[lin7]

Thanks for the update, looking forward to reading more.

 

[MrRay]

We took a bunch of screenshots of the Disney Cruise app in action throughout the cruise so people could get an idea how it works.


We woke up feeling good. Despite the somewhat shady state of our hotel, and not really taking showers do to the lack of hot water, we slept wonderfully and were excited to get on the road and drive back to Cocoa Beach. We checked outside and were delighted to see that the warm and sunny weather was sticking around. We left the hotel at 9, grabbed a quick bite for breakfast and drove back to the coast.

By 10:30 we could see the iconic red stacks peeking over the horizon. We had a little time to kill so we found a parking spot by the beach and took a stroll. The weather was great and plenty of people were out already. It was feeling like a perfect day.





We honestly could have sat there all day but after the excitement of a few days earlier we were looking forward to being on the ship at a reasonable hour.

Dropping off the car at hertz was pretty painless and a shuttle bus pulled right up.





There was a little bit of a line to get into the security area and it wasn't until we had already done a bit of time that we realized that you could go across the street into the parking garage and check in on the upper level where there was no line. It was warm and comfortable so we weren't complaining, it still didn't take too long.

Check in was a breeze, we were given boarding number 11.

To our delight they were already calling number 12 so we walked right on.



As we walked onto the ship the first impression was different than I remembered. The first time that I saw the Fantasy lobby I thought, "this is pretty big for a cruise ship". This time having just been on the magic a day earlier I thought "this lobby is ENORMOUS!" We skipped like children through the lobby and straight up to Cabanas for lunch. Our grins were ear to ear. It felt good to be home...