Cindy D. - December 2005

Who: Cindy D. (41), Gary (49), Nathan (9 1/2) and Zachary (8)
What: Disney Cruise - on the Magic - our 1st cruise ever!
When: December 17 - 24, 2005
Where: Port Canaveral, Key West, Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Castaway Cay
Why: Celebrating achievement of our black belts in Taekwondo (Cindy, Nathan and Zachary - August '04)

More Saturday December 17th:
Life Boat Drill: There is a mandatory life boat drill on the first afternoon. We put on our life vests and took the obligatory photos before going to our assigned Assembly Station (P, on deck 4) We found that the adult life vests have cabin numbers on them so that helped the Cast Members with their roll call. We could not hear our Assembly Station leaders even with the megaphone, but the announcements over the PA were fine. Our kids were fine with the drill, but some younger ones around us were not - especially since each family stands in a line, shortest to tallest, which meant the 2 yr old next to us wanted to be with his mom but his sisters were between him and her. The CMs did allow them to switch around when it became obvious that he wasn't going to settle down about it. Knowing ahead of time that you have to be in height order may help prepare young children that they get to be the "line leader" for their family.

Sail Away Party: After the life boat drill, people headed up to Deck 9 for the Sail Away Party. We initially went up to Deck 10 to watch, but Zachary and I decided to go into the fray and be up close for the show. It was loud but fabulous! Of course Mickey and the gang came out to party, too, and then we heard the ship's horn (When You Wish Upon a Star) and we were underway! The people at the Port wave you off with Mickey Gloves!

Dining: Our dinner rotation was LAPLAPL, main dining at 6:00. They had changed the staggered seating times even from what we had read online the previous week. The new times were 5:30, 5:45 and 6:00 for Main dining, and then 8:00, 8:15 and 8:30 for Late dining. We had 6:00 all week which was perfect for us because it gave us plenty of time in the late afternoon to get ready for dinner and we would finish right at 7:30 each evening which allowed us to do the activities before the 8:30 performances of the shows. I think that 5:30 would've been too early for us, although we would've enjoyed a little more time between dinner and the show. I know that we would not have liked the later seating (except for having a later Character breakfast time and a later Debarkation breakfast time).

Our first dinner was in Lumiere's which was so beautiful and classy. I didn't know if we'd have dinner mates or not, but we did. We were at a table for 8 and had a wonderful view of the Atrium's Christmas tree from our table. Our table mates were from Georgia and had a 14 y.o. daughter and an 11 y.o. son. It turned out that I knew who the mom was - she's a travel agent with the Magic for Less Travel which is the company I use for my Disney travel. Small world, eh? I started off dinner by telling them that I planned to take pictures of all my food so they wouldn't be surprised As it turned out, by the end of the week, sometimes I would start to eat before taking a photo and someone would remind me to take a picture Nathan felt a bit queasy at dinner so I got him some Dramamine and that seemed to help. He was the only one of us bothered by the motion of the ship to the point that he needed something. We would feel the motion of the ship, but not to the point where we needed anything for it.

Our Server was Sachin and our Asst. Server was Richard. They were fabulous with the children and the service was excellent. Maclean was the Head Server for our rotation, and he made an appearance at every dinner. I was surprised a bit because I had read that you often wouldn't see the Head Server beyond the first night or two.

Entertainment: There is nearly always something to do on the ship, scheduled or otherwise. Gary opted to go back to the cabin, so the boys and I went to the Oceaneer's Lab and then to the Welcome Aboard variety show which was very enjoyable. After the show, we found Gary coming back in from being up on Deck 9, so we all went for a walk. It was so breezy that I was afraid it would lift Zachary right up. The kids weren't ready to go to bed yet, so I took them back to the Oceaneer's Lab and we played Pinball on the computer for a while and then went to bed.

Sunday, December 18th - Key West
We weren't scheduled to dock until late morning, so there were plenty of activities on board for the morning. We had breakfast at Topsiders (buffet) and then took the kids to the Lab. I went to one of the Cooking shows - the chef prepared crab cakes, mmmmm. Gary got the kids out of the Lab before lunch and then we ate up on Deck 9 from Pluto's (hot dogs, burgers, chicken tenders, grilled chicken, tacos) and Pinnochio's (pizza) because we couldn't decide what we wanted to do, Gary and I weren't hungry, but we didn't want to buy food in Key West since it was already included in the price of our cruise. We made a few phone calls while we still had cellular service, including one of Gary's friends who lives in Key West so we could make plans to meet him.

Key West: We didn't have anything planned, so we walked around a bit, went to Ripley's Believe It or Not (over-priced IMHO), and then met his friend at Sloppy Joe's. The boys were tired and Zachary fell asleep at the table. Afterwards we walked to the Southernmost Point and took a few pictures and then hiked back to the ship. It really is a long walk to the Southernmost Point from the pier area. I wish we had researched the sight-seeing trains with on/off privileges a little more. We recently went to St. Augustine and did that (same company that they have in Key West) and found it to be a good way to see the area without having kids with “crumbling feet.”) We didn't leave Key West until 1 a.m. because the crew had received a high score on their rating from the previous cruise, so the Captain decided to reward them with some extra hours in Key West.

Our second dinner was at Animator's Palate, and of course our wait staff follows us each night, so they knew that I would want a Diet Coke and Gary would have unsweet tea! Dinner was delicious and they had the best caesar salad I have ever had (in fact, I had it the next night, too). Dinner each night was an appetizer (or two, if the server decided you needed an extra one to try), salad or soup (or both), entree (and usually a spare one to try) and dessert (or two or three). The kids' menus were fairly standard including chicken tenders, mac/cheese, pizza, but they could also order off the adult menues. The way they are set up for the 7-night is that each of the three restaurants serves its signature meal three nights in a row so that everyone gets to have it, and then for the rest of the nights, all the restaurants serve the same thing. So if there is something you really really really like the first night, you can have it the 2nd and 3rd night, too Makes me wish we'd had Parrot Cay the first night because that creme' brulee cheesecake was divine!

Entertainment: There was a Magician for the 2nd night's entertainment that had Nathan on the edge of his seat. He was funny and wow'ed us with his illusions. Gary again opted to skip the show in favor of the verandah.

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