Harris Family 20th Anniv. Trip - Cruise Day 1 COMPLETED 8/25/06 About This Page:

[IdahoDisneyMom]

Great job Jenny! I can't wait to read some more!!

[disneydani]

Sounds great...waiting for more! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Mickeysgal]

Just got caught up on the cruise part of your trip. Great start! Can't wait to hear more - hurry back!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[JennyinMD]

Cruise Day 1 Part 5 - Saturday June 24, 2006 - Dinner and Evening of Magic

Who: David (DH), Jenny (me), Mike (DS, 14), Kim (DD, 12), Rob (DBIL) and Ann (DSIL)
When: June 17-July 2, 2006
Where: Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, Shades of Green Resort, and the Disney Magic Cruise Ship
Why: To celebrate David’s and Jenny’s 20th Wedding Anniversary, and coincidentally celebrate David’s 41st birthday and Jenny’s 38th birthday

I’m just reminded by Mike that he actually went to check out the Stack before dinner, right after the Sail Away Deck Party. I guess he was back in time for getting changed for dinner, because I know he was with us. Kim, on the other hand, we couldn’t shake loose. She had no intention of going to the Oceaneer Lab before dinner – and was not interested after dinner either. But we’ll get to that…

When we arrived in our room earlier that day, we found an envelope on the desk which contained our dinner tickets and our excursion tickets. We had the 5:45pm seating for dinner all week long – we planned it this way because we eat around that time of day at home, and we felt it would make for a better vacation to keep our meal times as normal as possible. So after getting dressed, we took our meal tickets with us to Parrot Cay. We arrived a few minutes early. They did not take our tickets – they let us keep those, and just checked the table number. Table #34 was our assignment. As it turned out, we had no other cruise guests at our table because we were already a party of six. So while we didn’t have the pleasure of meeting and getting to know other guests at meal time, we also had the comfort of knowing that we didn’t have to be sociable with strangers. Frankly, that was a relief I think for all of us introverts.

We were shown to the back of the restaurant, right next to the door to the kitchen, right in the center of the room. We were pretty well separated from the rest of the room, it felt. We weren’t sure if that was going to be good or bad – as it turned out, it was neither. As we walked to our table, the ship was underway and we were still getting our sea legs. We all felt a little wobbly, and David said he was wondering if he was going to have seasickness problems. But as the evening wore on, no one got sick, though we continued to feel the sway of the ship as it sailed through the waters.

Once seated, we were introduced to our server, Claudio from Italy, and our beverage server, Rodel from the Philippines. Both were extremely helpful, friendly and generally wonderful all week long.

From the menu we each ordered a starter course and then an entrée. I won’t remember what any of us had for meals on most of this cruise trip report, sorry, but I do know that the kids both tried a lot of new foods this week. I think tonight one or both of them had salmon on this night – to keep their streak going from WDW. That’s one fish they both do enjoy. We also ordered the wine package from Rodel. David and Rob took turns ordering a bottle at each dinner during the week to use up our seven bottle package. We got the standard package, not the premium one. We recognized and liked more labels on the standard package, and figured we should drink what we like.

I’m not remembering anything very out of the ordinary about this meal, so it must have been good. We did notice that the room was very noisy – there was engine noise and kitchen noise, but the din of the guests talking was surprisingly loud as well. I wonder if they could have done something about the acoustics of the room during the design phase.

At dinner


After dinner, I wanted to get some photos of the family in our “dinner” clothes. This was a goal of mine for the trip – to end up with some good looking but casual family portraits. Well, due to various trips to the restroom and then Mike’s impatience with getting back to the Stack, we ended up not getting a full family photo, but some small groupings.

Family Photos


Once we set him free, Mike was off like a shot to the Stack, promising to meet us at the Walt Disney Theater for the 8:00pm show. So now was the time we hoped to take Kim to the Oceaneer Lab to get her bearings. She insisted that she did NOT want us to hang there with her – if she had to go, she’d go by herself. She agreed very begrudgingly to go to see what was up, mainly because we’d been hyping this up for over a year and we had long ago told her that she should go to the events on the first night so that she doesn’t miss out on the initial friend-making.

So we dropped her off at the Oceaneer Lab at 7:00 or so, and told her we’d meet her at the Walt Disney Theater a few minutes before the 8:00 show. At this point, David and I took a brief walk around the ship, and took a look through the souvenir shop on Deck 4. We picked up some post cards, a license plate, and some scrapbook stuff, and a lanyard with a plastic sleeve for Kim to hold her room key around her neck. By the time we were done, it was time to meet the kids.

View of the horizon


Mike arrived at the show excited and happy – he loved the Stack and couldn’t wait to get back. Kim arrived at the show relieved and a bit let down. Apparently “all the kids at the Lab are little”. Well, it’s true that on much of the itinerary, they do have the 8-10 year olds doing activities with the 10-12 year olds. Also, there were not many 12 year old girls, and those that were there didn’t look as old (tall, developed) as Kim. So she felt like she was in “baby camp”. The other problem was that most of the other kids were there with their parents, and weren’t exactly mingling yet. So Kim was basically swearing off of the Oceaneer Lab before she even really got started. Bummer!

We all settled into our seats for the “All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin” show. We met the cruise director – well, she introduced herself to the whole theater so I guess that counts. Her name was Rachel, but she said “feel free to call me Julie, I’m quite used to that by now”. The show had a small skit at the beginning about a family coming aboard and the son in the family wanted to be a Captain of a ship but didn’t believe in himself. Then commenced the Disney stage show with songs and dancing, and the story was of course that the boy should believe in his dreams and anything can happen.

Next there was a brief magic show by Mike Super – he was pretty talented – and then a “physical comedy routine” by Jeff Civillico – he was pretty funny. Also the real Captain of the ship, the First Mate, and a few other high ranking crew members made brief appearances. Then back to the Disney stage show for a grand finale and appearance by the Captain Mickey and his favorite furry gang. The show was very well done, and we all enjoyed it.

The Show's Closing Scene


Afterward, Mike headed back to the Stack, and Kim went with us back to our room. She could not be convinced to give the Lab another try, no matter what we said. We didn’t want to push her into an unfamiliar environment, and we also didn’t want her to feel like we didn’t want to be with her. So we told her she could be with us, of course, at any time, and that she only had to go to the Lab if she wanted to give it another try. We did tell her we were concerned that she’d be missing a lot of fun stuff if she didn’t go back. But we also didn’t want to push her away. So, we ended up going up to the stateroom and changing Kim into her PJs. She climbed up into her bunk and watched a little TV until she fell asleep. We warned her that we might be leaving the room, and she was cool with that. She has been a “home alone” kid on occasion and is comfortable with that. So once she was asleep, David and I headed back out to see what was going on in the ship.

Beds made up for the night


We ended up going to the Rockin’ Bar D to check out the “Match Your Mate” game. This was a take off on the Newlywed Game. There were three couples: married for one, twenty and fifty years, respectively. The game was pretty funny, hosted well by Chris the Assistant Cruise Director. The oldest couple (the fifty year couple) were by far the funniest, with their dry wit and “been there done that” answers to the risqué questions. It was an easy way to spend a half hour or so.

After this, I think we headed back up to go to bed. Mike rolled in sometime between 11:30 and 12:30 – which would be typical for the week – and we all were asleep pretty soon without any problems.

What a wonderful first day on the cruise!

Up Next: Port of Call: Castaway Cay

[WishIwasinDisney]

Great update, our son was too shy to try the club on his own at first but then made friends with one of our dining companions' children and we hardly saw him again the entire cruise! I hope she is able to have more fun. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Mickeysgal]

What a great first day you had! Glad you're enjoying it so far! Look forward to more......

[DrDolphin]

What a great report!!! Can't wait to read more!

[gwugirl03]

Great update! Keep it coming!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great first day Jenny [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] Love the pictures! I feel like I'm reliving my vacation again [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

More please [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[mrskpete]

Just finished the land part of your trip and nhow on to the sea....sure is a great report. Thanks so much for sharing. Cannot wait for more!

[JennyinMD]

Who: David (DH), Jenny (me), Mike (DS, 14), Kim (DD, 12), Rob (DBIL) and Ann (DSIL)
When: June 17-July 2, 2006
Where: Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, Shades of Green Resort, and the Disney Magic Cruise Ship
Why: To celebrate David’s and Jenny’s 20th Wedding Anniversary, and coincidentally celebrate David’s 41st birthday and Jenny’s 38th birthday


Cruise Day 2 Part 1: Sunday June 25, 2006 - Family time at Castaway Cay

Sunday morning we woke up in our stateroom around 7am, got ourselves ready for a day at the beach. Today we would be at Castaway Cay, and we were all looking forward to a great day.

We watched the ship pull into the dock area – the captain backs into the dock area, and then the ship is situated to steam straight ahead when it’s time to leave. We had a pretty good view of the beach from our stateroom, and we took an opportunity to take pictures from our verandah throughout the day.

After getting a quick breakfast at Topsider’s Buffet and gathering up our stuff, four of us headed out. Rob and Ann would meet us on the island a little later.

Immediately upon debarking, we saw big racks of towels for guest use – we picked up a handful of those. What a nice thing to not have to worry about bringing our own towels!

Walking toward the tram stop, there were three or four photo opportunities with a variety of backdrops. I made the four of us stop and get photos taken. At this point I was still on a mission to get some good Disney portraits of us as souvenirs, and I know from experience that the more pictures you take, the more likely you are to get one you like. So yes, we had to stand beside the silly props and smile for the camera!


The one portrait I bought from this day


Mount Rustmore - my camera, not Disney

Soon we were on a tram and headed to the main island area. The island reminded me a lot of the lushness of Typhoon Lagoon – ok, that sounds very strange, considering that TL is totally 100% made up and this island, while developed in the Disney style, at least is a natural environment to begin, with the real ocean and everything. But if you have been to TL, then you can have a little bit of a feel for what Castaway Cay looks like in décor and so forth.

We passed by a souvenir shop selling sand toys for little kids, souvenir towels, t-shirts, other stuff. We also passed the kids club area on the right – what few kids were there were definitely of the younger crowd – we would not have any chance of losing Kim to that area today!

We made our way down past the main dining facility, toward the family beach. We found a nice place to camp out and put our stuff down under an umbrella. The beach was not very crowded – certainly not by water park standards or Ocean City, MD standards. As the morning wore on, it did get a lot busier, but we didn’t find that to be a problem at all.

Rob and Ann joined us after a short while, and then we spent the morning together mostly just bumming around in the water or lounging in a chair. The water was a perfect temperature – not cold, but not too warm either. It was very clear, especially first thing when we got there. The sky was blue with white clouds floating by – and dark clouds surrounding the whole island but they never came to bother us! The day was really perfect.


Perfect!

At some point I believe we rented a float – or did we? I can’t really remember now! And there is no photographic evidence either way. Anyway, we enjoyed swimming and playing in the water. Mike took off at one point to check out the teen beach. He wasn’t gone too long, but went back and forth a couple of times looking for someone to hang out with. He said most of the kids were either on a teen excursion together or with their families.

David, Mike and Rob went on a walk at one point, found some sports and game equipment a little further down the pathway away from the ship. I never did make it past the family beach – I was pretty happy where I was, and Kim hung with me all the time. She and I are the two “fish” in the family.

Ann rented snorkel gear and went out in the snorkel trail for quite a while. She seemed to enjoy it, and said that there were some interesting things to see, but not terribly exotic. I had thought about checking out the snorkel opportunity but decided to wait until later in the week, when we would return to Castaway Cay on Friday.

Because we had a 12:30 parasailing excursion planned, we decided to eat an early lunch around 11:00. We were all pretty hungry anyway by that time, after our swimming adventures. We ate at Cookie’s BBQ, which was ok I guess, but not exceptional. I think it depended on whether you chose food from a fresh buffet service tray or not – I got a stale burger and some mushy corn on the cob. Not exactly gourmet. The fresh fruit, though, was spectacular. It was so wonderful having the cast member carve up a perfectly ripe mango just for us – that’s heaven! (actually, the mango was supposed to be for David, but we made him share once we saw how fresh it was!) The BBQ had yummy chocolate chip cookies – my favorite indulgence of the trip. They also had soft serve ice cream machines, and probably had one or two other dessert selections.

After lunch, we gathered up our stuff and headed to the tram. Rob and Ann hung out on their own for a while – not sure what they ended up doing that afternoon. Mike, Kim and I had a 12:30 appointment for Parasailing, and David’s plan was to go back to the ship and try to video tape our excursion from the top decks. So we headed to the pier for check-in, and soon were on our big adventure!


Photos of the ship while we waited for our parasailing boat

Oh! I almost forgot to mention one of the coolest things about our day in Castaway Cay. In honor of the upcoming opening of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Disney had arranged for Davy Jones’ Flying Dutchman prop ship to be anchored in Castaway Cay’s waterways! They had brought the ship in on Saturday, and while we were at the island on Sunday we could see cranes and other machinery working on it. The ship was anchored off of the port side of the Magic, outside the dock area away from the island. But we had a really neat view of it and took an opportunity to take pictures of it both from the dock and later from the parasailing boat. Very cool! It was even cooler to see it in the movie once we got back and the movie opened in theaters. Wow!

The Flying Dutchman (with cranes in the background)


Up Next: Parasailing!

[JoanW]

Ooooh, I've been checking for an update from you all! How lucky to be there when they brought the Flying Dutchman in!

[WishIwasinDisney]

Love the update, excellent pictures! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Colexis Mom]

Great update [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] Can't wait to hear how the parasailing was [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[katspjs]

Great update! More please! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img]