A Little Bit of Magic from New York - Oct. 15 - 22, 2016 Trip Report

[NYGirl1002]

We had cruised out of NY in May of 2012 and loved it so I cancelled the Carnival cruise I had scheduled for September and booked the October 8th Magic to the Bahamas.

 

Fast forward to 2 days before the cruise. I get an email from Disney stating that our cruise is now going to Canada instead of the caribbean cruise I dreamed of. I quickly went to my Disney website and researched the excursions. I have to say we were really bummed. I had planned this cruise to get my Disneyworld fix for the year and my daughter enjoys the beach and swimming.

 

Therefore I made a quick decision to cancel. We were offered a complete refund and 20% off a future cruise. A quick email to my TA and she was able to book us on the cruise leaving the following week. The only difference is that it was 7 days rather than 8, excluding Nassau. Okay...I saved $600 just on the Atlantis excursion so I was happy. Even better I got a $1,000 credit and was able to upgrade to a verandah cabin. A win/win.

 

I had joined a FE group on FB for my original cruise and had all of my stuff packed. I was debating what to do when I joined the new FB group and believe it or not there was a lot of use "refugees" so to speak, that moved over so we were able to create a new FE group. All I had to do was change some name tags and believe it or not I had just enough stuff.

 

Do I have to tell you how slow the next week went?

[Ex techie]

Good start! And a great deal too!

 

ex techie

[NYGirl1002]

Finally the day arrived.

 

 

People cruising: Me and my daughter Jennifer. Jennifer is special needs and 33 years old. She's crazy about Disney shows and since I babysit for my grandsons, I know all of the Disney Junior stuff. We are a good team! We've been on about 12 cruises since 2008 on all of the cruise lines except for Celebrity. I'm an equal opportunity cruiser. This is us in the car on the way to the port:

 

 

Since we live about 1/2 hour from the port, my son picked us up around 9:00 am. I had heard the our original cruise which was the cruise before this one had about 1000 cancellations and since we were at 60% to begin with, so I knew the terminal would not be a mad house. I was right. The longest line was going through security...from there it was easy.

 

We got on the previously cruised line and before you know it we were checking in. The only hiccup was that they had us down as this being our first Disney cruise. I went to see a supervisor and was able to score lanyards but I was told to go over to Guest Services once we boarded. I was able to score Boarding Group #1.

 

As we were walking over to the chairs to wait i noticed Mickey coming out so we got on the line to take a picture with him. We were second on line! The week before we cruised I transferred the photo book I had purchased from shutters and I prepaid our gratuities.

 

I had originally scheduled all of the meet and greets for my original cruise but I was out of luck with this one. I knew I had to get to GS or PA in order to book them for this cruise.

 

After our pictures we went over to the waiting area. They had chosen a large family for the family of the day and they were sitting in the first row.

 

We ended up boarding right after they did and even had time to take a boarding picture.

Edited October 29, 2016 by NYGirl1002

[Ex techie]

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[NYGirl1002]

We went straight to GS as soon as we got onboard. My daughter was delighted when the Welcomed our family aboard the ship. GS told me we had to go to Port Adventures to get tickets to the events so we moved over there and we were right behind the family of the day to book stuff. I was able to get the princesses/Frozen/Disney Junior breakfast so I was able to breathe much easier.

 

We then went back to GS to solve the mystery as to why our first Disney cruise was not on our record. After that was taken care of we went up to Cabanas and secured a nice table for 2 right by the window. As we were eating lunch a CM came by selling water so I ordered 12 bottles to be delivered to our cabin, along with the cooler bag. Here's my daughter enjoying her lunch:

 

 

After lunch we spent some time walking around the ship and getting acquainted. It was basically the way I remembered it from 2012 and in fact our cabin was 2 floors below the cabin we had on our last cruise..in the same exact area.

 

 

The cabins were ready fast so we were able to drop off our carry ons and in fact 2 of our pieces of luggage were outside the door so we were able to unpack.

 

 

 

We then went down to the Keys Lounge for the FB meet and greet. I have to say the FB group was very active and everybody was so nice, even though I had been on the group for only 1 week.

We chatted for about an hour and before you knew it it was time for muster.

 

Painless! Our station met in the Animators Palate. We sat at a table and the whole thing must have taken 15 minutes if even that much.

 

We then worked our way up to Deck 9 and the dance party. For a full ship it wasn't very crowded. We were able to score a good spot to watch the show.

 

 

 

The show ended yet we were still docked. We made our way back down to the cabin to find the rest of our luggage so we sat on the balcony for sailaway. We were on the starboard side so we were able to see the Statue of Liberty and of course the Verrazano Bridge.

 

Before we knew it it was time to go to the Welcome Aboard show. We had late dining so our show started at 6:15 and it was 45 minutes. After the show we went back to the cabin to wash and change for dinner, which was in Animators Palate.

 

I had requested a table for 2 but Disney put us at a table for 4 and our table mates were a mother and daughter just about our ages. I really wonder how they pair people because we were such a perfect match. I was so happy to sit with such nice people at dinner every night to discuss our day. Well done DCL.

 

I had bariatric surgery in April so I am not a big eater. I didn't take any pictures of food. I will tell you that everything we had was absolutely delicious. I didn't order any appetizer or salad/soup but my daughter did and I would taste hers. I know I ordered some kind of steak the first night and it was perfect. I ate maybe 1/4 to 1/2 of it.

 

Our servers were Antonio from India and Ampari. I don't know where she was from. Our head server was Simone from Italy and he visited us most night to chat with us.

 

We ended up spending quite a bit of time at dinner that first night, getting to know each other and our servers. So right after dinner we went back to the cabin where Jennifer watched some TV...she was in her glory with all the Disney shows and movies, while I read my book.

[NYGirl1002]

Are you inserting the URL into the insert picture box from the message bar?

 

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As I was putting the image address it didn't show the picture so I thought it wasn't working but when I previewed it it showed the photo so I'm good to go.

 

Thank you!

[NYGirl1002]

I have to say the bed was very comfortable. Since it was a queen size bed my daughter chose to have the Room Host, Nigel, open the couch for her since that's where she slept last time. Plus the TV was in that room.

 

We finally met Nigel. Since we were way in the back of the ship he had both port and starboard cabins. I usually give the RH a tip before the cruise so that I know he will take good care of us. This was the only cruise where that was not the case. I gave him $20 as soon as I met him and he was very thankful. More on the disappointment later on.

 

We had our breakfast with Disney Junior on our first sea day at 8:15 am. The only disappointment was that the only characters there were Mickey, Goofy and Jake. No Doc McStuffins, no Sofia, no Minnie, etc. I have to tell you this breakfast lasted all of maybe 1/2 hour. The characters go around with their handlers to every table for pictures. There is no professional photographer there but the handlers were happy to take pictures with your own cameras.

 

 

 

 

And no we didn't feel like big goofs because we had no kids with us lol. Even when we were on character lines we didn't because there were tons of just adults taking pictures with the characters. I promised my daughter that even though we've done many trips to WDW and the other Disney cruise, we've never really interacted with the characters, so this trip that's what we would do.

 

It was still too cold to swim so we went up to Deck 9, got coffee at the Cove and sat at a table. I read my book while Jenny did some crocheting work.

 

We had lunch in Lumieres. Jenny had the meat loaf and I had a burger. The only food that was consistently bad on the whole cruise was the burgers. They were very thin and tough. It was the same on Castaway Cay and at Pete's Boiler Bites.

 

After lunch we had our scheduled meeting with the princesses. I swear I had tears in my eyes meeting Cinderella, one of the only princess that dates back to when I was a child. She's my favorite. I don't know why I wanted to cry. I didn't expect it! We also met Rapunzel and believe it or no Sofia! That big headed Sofia. So out of place...why? why? why? Where was Ariel? Belle? Mulan?

 

 

 

 

Since we had ticket this took all of 15 minutes. We went back to the cabin to change and went to see the show, which was Mike Super, Magician. He was really very good.

[NYGirl1002]

Since it was formal night we got on line to take pictures with Minnie. This is my favorite picture of the whole cruise.

 

 

We then went to the cabin to get ready for dinner. Before dinner they had the captain's party in the atrium and we took pictures with Captain Andy and the rest of the officers. I don't have that picture as I didn't get my photo book yet.

 

We had dinner in Carioca and the banana bread was outstanding! I can't remember what we ate but the server had my glass of wine and Jenny's Shirley Temple waiting for us. Our servers were fabulous. (pictures later).

 

By the time we finished chatting it was already 10:00 so we rushed over to Fathoms for Magic Quest. We've done Quest on Royal Caribbean many times and it's the funniest thing I've ever seen. I knew this was Disney so it was not going to be racy or even close to being the same as RCL. We were just going to watch but a couple came over to us and asked us to be on their team. They were well prepared for everything they threw at us! However, we did not win. We lost by 1 point. The prizes were DCL baseball caps. We did have a lot of fun though. The CM running the show was very funny.

 

Bed time

[NYGirl1002]

Sea Day #2 - Monday

 

Today was the day that the Magic celebrated Halloween. We ate breakfast in Lumiere to start our day. Finally warm enough to sit by the pool. We both went in the hot tub at the Cove pool but neither of us felt like swimming. We then had lunch in Cabanas, which was packed. But since it was such a beautiful day we were able to get seats outside.

 

Notice Jen's Halloween shirt? I had the same one in black.

 

The party was at 2:00 so we decided to go see the Nightmare before Christmas Scream and Shout and then meet Jack and Sally. But first we went to our cabin. I was hoping that Nigel left Jenny a trick or treat bag but he didn't So we went to find him. I told him my daughter is special needs and could I have a trick or treat bag. He told me no. He said he didn't have any extra. We were pretty disappointed. As we were walking down the hall to the elevator we passed another Room Host. This guy was the hardest worker on that ship. No matter what time we walked by he was in the hall working. I even mentioned him on my comment card. Anyway I asked him for a trick or treat back bag for Jenny and he happily gave me one. Later on in the week I gave him a tip too.

 

Anyway we then went to the movie and then the meet and greet afterwards:

 

 

Trick or treating has started! Jenny got lots of candy from all of the stations. There were lots of "adults only" with trick or treat bags so I don't see what the problem was with the Room Host.

 

This was the atrium:

 

 

 

 

I don't have pictures from the party and trick or treating. It was crazy in the atrium! As far as the tree, the pumpkins appeared on it on the last day of the cruise. I don't know why they didn't do it earlier.

[NYGirl1002]

By the time the party ended we went searching for characters.

 

 

 

My timeline is screwed up because I didn't take notes. I believe we got Donald in the morning. I see I had my workout clothes on so it was morning. Chip and Dale were before dinner.

 

 

 

On the way to Lumiere's for dinner we ran into the best cruise director ever, Clayton. Here's a picture of us with him.

 

 

After dinner we went to Fathoms for the adult Halloween costume contest. After seeing so many adults dressed in such great costumes during the day we had hoped we'd see them win prizes at night. But before the costume show we saw a ventriloquist I don't remember his name but he was not memorable. There was hardly anybody in Fathoms watching the show.

 

As I expected the costumes were great. We laughed a lot and really had a good time.

 

Tomorrow -- Castaway Cay!! Land!!!

[NYGirl1002]

Tuesday - Castaway Cay

 

Well we definitely didn't need an alarm to wake up. The ship's vibration almost knocked me off the bed..lol. I ran out to the balcony to watch us start to back in to the dock. Jenny and I went upstairs to Cabanas for a quick breakfast and then grabbed our bags and walked down to Deck 1 to disembark.

 

The first thing I wanted to do was get a picture with Jack Sparrow. We were first on the line. I have to say he was so charming and a perfect Jack Sparrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently our Jack Sparrow on the island pictures were only in our photo book but I have some from later on I will post when I get to that part.

 

We walked over to the tram stop and took the tram to Serenity Bay. Castaway Cay is the most beautiful island I've ever seen.

 

On the way we got a float for Jennifer. Everything in the adult area is very close..not a lot of walking at all.

 

We found 2 lounges with an umbrella and made ourselves comfortable. It didn't take Jennifer long to jump into the water.

 

Our view:

 

 

I could post a million pictures of Castaway Cay but this is just a sample.

 

It was nice and warm, the water was refreshing and clear and it was so beautiful. At around 10:00 I ordered a Cronk Cooler and it was delicious. 10:00 am???? LOL I didn't even think about it when I did it. Hey I'm on vacation.

 

Around 11:30 I noticed lots of people walking to Cookies for lunch. We waited until around 12:15 and there was no line and plenty of seats. We met the Magic Quest couple and we sat together and had good food and fun conversation. On the way back to our spot we changed the float to a tube so Jenny could have a different experience in the afternoon. She played around in the water for awhile while I read my book and had another Cronk Cooler.

[NYGirl1002]

Around 3:00 we decided to head back to the ship and we wanted to stop for shirts at the Castaway Cay store.

 

 

 

I had wanted to see Captain Hook at the gangplank but that was going to be at 4:00 so we skedaddled onboard to the cabin for showers. Tonight was pirate night and we found 2 bandanas on the bed.

 

After showers and changing we went searching for characters.

 

 

 

 

By the time we finished with the character pictures we went up on deck for the pirate party. We actually got seats on Deck 9 and had a good view of the stage. It's amazing how people dress up like pirates. Some were so elaborate. I was jealous while wearing my red bandana. Mickey zip lined across the ship and there were the fireworks ..right in front of us. It was lots of fun. I enjoyed it way more than I did in 2012.

 

Dinner time!! Our table mates had Palo reservations so it was just Jennifer and I tonight. Our rotation brought us to Animators.

 

 

[NYGirl1002]

If I recall correctly after dinner we went to see Mike Super's show again. I know we saw him 3 times during the cruise...all at the beginning so it was probably this night.

 

 

This guy was really fabulous. We enjoyed his shows so much.

 

We went to bed right afterwards because tomorrow is Disneyworld Day!! I filled out the room service card for 6:00 am and it was nighty night for us.

 

[NYGirl1002]

I'm just going to put the extra pictures of Castaway Cay in this post:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you ever see a more beautiful island? Look at that water color.

[NYGirl1002]

Wednesday - Disneyworld Day! (Yay) Hollywood Studios

 

The day we waited for has finally arrived. Room Service knocked on our door at exactly 6:00 am with our continental breakfast. We were already docked and I can see it's going to be a beautiful day. In between quick showers and eating we were ready for 7:00 am. We had to go through customs as we were returning to the US today. Our bus was scheduled to leave for Hollywood Studios at 7:30 am. Customs was easy peasy and before you knew it we were on the bus heading for Disneyworld.

 

I had planned our day before time and since we've been there many times I wanted to limit it to stuff we've never done. The park hopper ticket given to us by DCL contained 3 fast passes that could be used on any ride, at any time.

 

Our first stop was Hollywood because I had never seen the Star Wars stuff. I have 3 sons, 2 of which are in their late 30's and they were and still are big Star Wars fans.

 

 

But first....Toy Story Mania!

 

 

While waiting on line I purchased the photo pass package for the day. It was $60 and well worth it. We actually sought out the photographers at the parks rather than avoiding them for a change. Once you take the first picture you can activate it. It was relatively easy once you have the Disney Experience app for your smart phone. You can also reserve fast passes on it. You do need to link your admission cards to it and everything stays in one place.

 

Okay back to Toy Story...before you knew it we were in our cars. I was beating Jennifer by lots of points throughout the whole ride..and then...Missy just pulled the string and held it and boom..she beat me. LOL..We really enjoyed the competetiveness of the ride.

 

We then went over to the Launch Pad to meet Rylo Ken. As we were waiting to go in 2 storm troopers came out and everybody was trying to get them to pose for pictures but they wouldn't. They said they were protecting the perimeter.

 

 

The line was about 20 minutes for Kylo Ren but there were tons of things to look at while on line. We finally got in and met him. He preached to us about the dark force for quite awhile and then called Jenny a traitor. I am going to show you that picture..it's my most favorite picture of the whole trip. Look at her face.

 

LOLOL!!

 

So here is my picture with him. I tried to copy his pose but apparently according to my son it looks like I'm asking for money. You be the judge.

 

 

Once we were able to convince him Jenny was not a traitor she was able to take a picture with him. You can see how fast she recuperated.

 

[NYGirl1002]

We then went over to Star Tours. Let me tell you about Jennifer. She does not like roller coasters or water rides. She trusted my son when he told her that Star Tours was not either one. The line was maybe 30 minutes until we got on the ride. She LOVED it. I loved it too.

 

 

We then ran back to catch the march of the storm troopers and it was all it was hyped up to be. I will try and upload the video when I get a chance.

 

We then went to do my favorite ride for the last time. The Great Movie Ride. My late husband always loved movies so this ride always brings a tear to my eye as many of his favorites are shown.

 

 

 

By now we had seen everything we came to see and ran to catch the boat to Epcot.

[NYGirl1002]

Epcot!

 

By now it was starting to get very hot out. I'm guessing it was around 12 noon by the time we got to Epcot. We always eat lunch in China but I figured I can't eat a lot so let's just get a quick serve. I decided on France. The boat took us right between England and France so it worked out perfect.

 

 

We both had ham and cheese on a croissant but the only problem was there was no place to sit and eat lunch. We ended up standing up at a counter and it wasn't so bad.

 

We then worked our way around the countries and we used our first fast pass on Frozen. It was meh..but it was new for us. The air conditioning felt really really good.

 

I've always wanted to go on the Mexico boat ride but we could never find it. We found it this time and really enjoyed it. I love rides like that. After Mexico we trudged over to Test Track. The line wasn't that bad believe it or not. Jennifer loved it! Here's our car.

 

 

By now it had to be around 3:00 so we headed to Soarin and used our fast pass. We liked the new concept and I never fail to duck when it looks like something is going to hit me.

 

I was very excited as we were exiting Epcot to spot this:

 

 

We went to catch the monorail to Magic Kingdom.

[NYGirl1002]

Magic Kingdom

 

I want to say that I am starting to wane by now. The heat and humidity gets to me way before the walking. I hate the monorail because of the ramps. I think I'd rather do the steps. Someone told me that it goes directly to MK but that was not the case. We had to go to the transportation center, get off, walk down a ramp and then up another ramp to catch the monorail to MK. Ugh.

 

I was walking much slower by now. I had already hit 10,000 steps on my fitbit somewhere in Epcot.

 

But here we are! Finally!

 

 

 

First things first...the 7 Dwarves Mine Train. My son had told Jenny it was not a roller coaster but I knew better. But I also knew it wasn't a bad one so she'd be ok with it.

 

We used our last fast pass on it and we were put in the first car. As soon as it turned there was the hill and I looked at her. She didn't even say anything. I cannot tell you how much she loved it. As soon as we got off she wanted to go on again. Since I used all our fast passes I quickly got another one for later on. That ride is all she talked about.

 

 

We worked our way over to the Haunted House and waited on the stand by line for at least 45 minutes. By then we were starving so we went to Columbia Harbor quick serve for dinner. Jenny had a sandwich and I had a lobster roll.

 

We made our way over to Pirates of the caribbean and then we shared

 

 

By now it was time to use our fast pass so we went back to Fantasyland. Well they put us in the last car this time. We loved it even more at night. She was so happy. Therefore I was happy.

 

I could hardly walk by now but I wanted to make it to Monsters Inc because it's my grandson's favorite movie. The show was so cute!

 

By now we have had it. We went to the emporium on Main St to do our shopping. We had all to do to carry all the stuff to the bus to the port. By now it was 10:30 at night. Our all aboard time was 1:00 am so I knew we were good. I think most people had the same thought because there was a long line for the bus however there was 3 buses all in a row.

 

 

The bus ride back to the ship took about 90 minutes. I swear the driver was going 30 mph in a 70 mph zone. It was very quiet on the bus. My fit bit battery was beeping the whole time as I didn't have my charger with me. So after walking 22,000 steps we made it back to the ship. Cabanas was open until around 12:30 so we went up to grab a snack to bring back to the room.

 

All in all our Disneyworld Day was all we wanted it to be..we had a ball.

[Ex techie]

Great review so far! Looking forward to the rest!

 

ex techie

[NYGirl1002]

Great review so far! Looking forward to the rest!

 

ex techie

 

Thank you so much!

[Tkerniroc1986]

Great review! I'm looking forward to our cruise on the Magic out of NYC next year. Hoping that it doesn't get changed like your first one.

 

 

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[Steelers0854]

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us! I'm so sorry your cabin steward was so rude, but I'm glad you didn't let that stop you and you both had a great trick or treat experience!

[CarrieAP]

Loving your report! I have a special needs sister a few years older than your daughter who's also an ardent Disney fan. She's eager to check out a Disney cruise so we're going to start out with a 4 day on the Dream in May (hitting Universal first because unlike your daughter Teresa loves rides :)

 

She's easy going and loves to travel but I've never taken a big trip like this with just her and me. Am very interested in hearing about your experience, as well as any advice you have to make the trip most enjoyable for us.

 

 

 

 

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[NYGirl1002]

Great review! I'm looking forward to our cruise on the Magic out of NYC next year. Hoping that it doesn't get changed like your first one.

 

 

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Thanks for reading. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

[NYGirl1002]

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us! I'm so sorry your cabin steward was so rude, but I'm glad you didn't let that stop you and you both had a great trick or treat experience!

 

 

Thank you! I felt so bad when he said no. That other steward was always working..every time we passed him by he was working. On CC day he even filled up our cooler with ice. I gave him a tip and also mentioned him on the comment card.