Surprise New Year's Cruise on the Magic Updated 1/19 About This Page:

[FairySafara]

If any of you had been following my WDW trip report ( Christmas In Florida, which is still a work in progress ) you knew that the day that I thought was planned for my family and I to leave Orlando, my husband surprised me and the girls with a cruise abroad the Disney Magic departing December 27th. So here's where that part of the trip will be documented at

Cast-
Kara ( mom ), Will ( dad ), Simone ( 12 ), Maddy ( 10 ), Becca ( 6 ), and Riley ( 6 ).

We stayed in 2 category 12 rooms which we were next to each other. ( would prefer not to say the room # for safety reasons )

[chezp]

That is such a wonderful surprise! I can't wait to read all about it.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great surprise!! More please!!

[FairySafara]

I'm assuming you all want to know how my husband went about telling us. Well, he goes- We had planned to leave my mom's house in downtown Orlando around 9am for a 12:30pm flight. So we all woke up, ate a quick breakfast of cereal, said our goodbyes to my mom and the extended family still there, packed up my brother's car, and headed out. I don't really know all of the roads to take to get from my mom's house to the airport, but I assumed we were heading that direction. I was talking to the girls during the ride about the trip, and their Christmas presents. I glanced out of the window a couple times, seeing a sign for Pt. Canaveral a couple times. I didn't really think anything of it. Realizing we had been the car for over a half hour w/o traffic, I was starting to wonder. I was waiting to see airport signs, but didn't see them. Simone even commented how she thought we would be there by now. Will, who had been in the front passenger seat next to my brother, turned around and said ' Look at that sign up ahead. ' It was a sign advertising DCL. That's when it all clicked for me, and for the girls as well. At first I didn't believe him ( I still don't ) so he pulled out all the paperwork, with the girls passports that I didn't think we took.
He apparently booked the cruise soon after my mom suggested we come down for Christmas. He figured he could pull the surprise off easier if we were already down there. He got all the cruise emails sent to his email address, not our joint one. He got the mail for a few days when the cruise papers were supposed to arrive. The only person he told was my brother, to make sure that this was actually a good idea. My brother was all for it.
* Just a little fyi, we didn't book for another cruise while onboard ( and I made sure Will didn't try to pull it off again )

[iamgrumpy]

What a neat surprise! Can't wait to hear about how it went.

[chezp]

What a wonderful surprise! I can just imagine your faces as it dawned on you.

[Colexis Mom]

What a great surprise!

[shellybelly72]

nice!

[jagmom08]

Wow. That is a great surprise. Hope you had fun.

[DyanKJ130]

What a great surprise!

[disneydreamer33]

I've been following along on you WDW report. What a great husband you have. Can't wait to read all about it.

[FairySafara]

We parked the car since my brother wanted to see us off. The girls were going crazy. So was I. After we calmed down enough to be able to think straight, we headed to the DCL terminal for security, and such. I remember asking a few questions on the boards about some things about DCL ( in the event we ever did take a cruise ) but still forgot a lot of what I had knew about DCL and cruising itself ( it was my first cruise ever.) The model of the Magic in the terminal was impressive, but then again, the real thing was definitely better! We were one of the first groups onboard. We boarded, and I still couldn’t believe I was actually onboard. I seriously thought the whole thing was a dream. Will figured out where our staterooms were located. Simone, Maddy and I were going to stay in one, and Becca, Riley and Will were going to stay in the other. ( That changed mid cruise but for the mean time it was that.) The girls and Will unpacked a little while I went through all of the paperwork. I hadn’t even asked what ports we were going to. It was a Western Caribbean cruise, docking at Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Castaway Cay. Will hadn’t booked any shore excursions, but I was ok with that. It was fun just exploring the ports on our own. The girls started to get hungry so we headed to the buffet for lunch. For what I remember, it was good. We headed back to the staterooms so that we could change into our swimsuits. We figured we could get some pool time in as most people continued to board. In the past, the twins had been too scared to go down water slides, but something about the Mickey Pool made them want to do it once, and then again and again. The pool started to get more crowded, and since I wanted to make sure Simone was 100% better, we headed back to the stateroom. Will told us how he pulled off the surprise as we flipped through the movie channels. We explained the girls about the muster drill, ( thanks to Passporter boards I knew what I was talking about =D ) They did fine. We put our lifejackets in our staterooms then headed to the deck for the Sailaway Party. It was crowded ( then again, the ship was probably full, so that goes without saying. ) We stayed up on deck so we could watch the trip up the channel. I was worried that the girls, especially Simone, was going to get sea sick, but they never did. We checked out the kids clubs, and met Mickey and Minnie along the way. We had main seating for dinner. That was the best seating for us. That night was Animator’s Palate. No complaints. We decided to turn in early so we could rest for the rest of the cruise.

[chezp]

I can just imagine how the first afternoon and evening must've seemed like a dream - how wonderful to have that as a surprise!

[disneydreamer33]

Sounded like a great start to your lovely surprise cruise. Can't wait to read more.

[Colexis Mom]

Glad the cruise is starting off great!! More please!!