Disney Magic, Oct 7 – 12, 2024

[carohs]

Our flight leaves tomorrow and I just can't wait!! I'm positively giddy. That's the TLDR version. The rest that follows will be a long, probably over winded, chronological narrative of our family's fourth Disney cruise. You've been forewarned. I know lives on Disney aren't very often done and this board is relatively inactive. I don't mind. I hope those that do happen to view this get one or two helpful bits of info, but for me I get to relive my moments of joy along the way. DH is adamant we disconnect and is wildly opposed to so much as Verizon's Travel Pass.... This will be a post review. I apologize in advance to anyone who feels like I've left them hanging in the time between starting this and coming back to finish it up. Maybe I'll be able to convince him or sneak in some wi-fi uploads!

 

Cruising His(Her)story

Total Cruise Count: DD and DS # 8, +1 for me and -1 for DH

We only began cruising after COVID and now we’re hooked. Well, I’m hooked, but DH enjoys it too, so he happily lets me plan these vacations. The kids love being on vacation (duh, who doesn’t?), and they especially love DCL kids club. The last cruise we had on DCL was Nov 2022. To get us through the long countdown (2 whole years, how could I ever survive?) from the last DCL trip to this one, we sailed NCL to the Mexican Riviera, another NCL on the POA around Hawaii, and I added a quick 3N girl’s weekend on CCL earlier this year. As much as I enjoyed all our vacations, Disney wins out as the most family friendly. I never have to worry about smoking, they still do evening turndown service, the nightly towel animals are the best, the serving team interacts with the kids, the kid’s dinner menu offers a daily variety, and it offers the best balance of adult and kid targeted entertainment.

 

Why did we book this cruise? The private islands, of course. We’ve only been to Castaway Cay once, back in Feb 2022. We did encounter some weather, but besides running out of sunscreen mid-way through our 7N cruise, the day at CC couldn’t have been more perfect. Never having been to the Bahamas prior, the softness of the sand just awed me, not to mention the clear blueness of the water. The water, even in Feb, was warm and enjoyable. We live near the beach, okay? We go and enjoy the breeze, sometimes even fly a kite, but I refuse to go in the water. In Feb? You must be insane. But the CC beach was a whole different experience.

 

After going to the Riviera and Hawaii, I said to DH I really want to go back to the island. I hate to spend $ on flights to cruise, and I love the Wonder, really, but that beach. I guess I could thank COVID because we had flight credits to use and that’s the only reason we ever ended up on that side on the US for a cruise in the first place. We had the placeholder, for the first time, and an expiration date, so we looked at vacation time, itinerary, and kid’s days off from school. This one was just a little bit sweeter with an included stop at the new island, and now here we are. Here we are, except the weather forecast is looking bleak. What’s going to happen to my beach vacation? The whole reason for travelling across the country has been negated by that dastardly thing they call a hurricane season. I mean, I knew it was hurricane season I was just wildly optimistic we’d somehow manage to sail in a good weather window. They tell me this is tropical weather and normal and it shouldn’t rain all day. Staying cautiously optimistic!!

 

Itinerary on this adventure:

Day 1: Embark at Port Everglades

Day 2: Castaway Cay

Day 3: Nassau

Day 4: Lighthouse Point

Day 5: Sea Day

 

 

This is our first cruise since they changed the ages of Oceaneer’s so we’ll see how it goes. TBH, my kids are unique individuals and have different areas of interest. DD is more social and makes friends in the blink of an eye, while DS would rather play Lego or Minecraft. When we gave DS the “bad news” about the ages and having to go to Edge, he just said “yes, yes!” and jumped up and down with excitement.

With two private islands, and a stop at Nassau (to which we’ve never been but still have little interest in), the goal for this trip is to disconnect and unwind. We will smell the sea, feel the sand, hear the wind, see a sunset or two, and taste… my hair that will somehow inevitably fly into my mouth… JK can’t wait to try the food onboard and go for some soft-serve too.

Edited October 4 by carohs

[carohs]

Still waiting to check in for flights. Making travel arrangements for this vacay was a little challenging. DH had a trip planned and will be flying from a different airport which means I’m on my own for transportation, and keeping an eye on 3 suitcases, my stuff, the kids' stuff, water bottles, and the stuff the kids unpack “because I’m bored." Security will hopefully not present an extra challenge. Oh, and the kids, gotta keep an eye on them too. Despite rumors of eyes in the back of my head, I don’t in fact have enough eyes for this. Because of the time zone change from west to east, the options were being in the air all day or flying red eye. Ability to get a good night’s sleep notwithstanding, I chose red eye. Two things are also true. One, we will be checking bags (due to lack of eyes, and arms). Two, the relatively recent FAA Bill added rules for family seating. Other than refundability or changeability of fare, I had no additional benefits in choosing main cabin vs basic economy tickets. The way I see it the “upgrade” to main is almost like a built-in travel insurance fee. I have yet to buy Travel Insurance, why start now? That was rhetorical, don't judge. The morning after booking the flights AA had already assigned us 3 seats in the "preferred" seating section. Wow had not expected that! So although I don't have that one stress, on AA I'm having to wait til 24 hrs before the flight to pre purchase checked bags. DH will fly out approx one hour later than us, but we will meet at the layover airport. Yay for an extra set of hands! And eyes 👀!! He is also on a basic econ ticket. Wish me luck for getting him a decent seat and maybe even one next to us on the second flight!

 

I finished typing this out and checked the seat map for DH. AA had a link that asked if I was flexible with flight dates and would like to volunteer to change my flight. Um, no thanks. Now I'm paranoid cuz he's a single BE ticket he'll get involuntarily bumped 😬😬. Wish me double luck!

Edited October 5 by carohs

[carohs]

All checked in. Cannot get mobile passes for us because AA is requiring a unique email address for each passenger. I know there's workarounds, but seriously? Why would an airline expect children to have a unique email. Or that I would want to open 3 different email links rather than altogether? DH was assigned a window seat on the fist leg, and an aisle on the 2nd. I had thought it may be possible to change his assigned seat at no or reduced cost, but nope, same pricing. Sigh. Overall experience on AA? So far 4/5. 

 

DH and I packed 99% of everything on Wed. In addition to the regular cruise packing list, this is a Halloween on the High Seas DCL cruise. We've got Halloween costumes, pirate night costumes, ears, door decorations, and other Disney themed items. Still managing to keep us four to two checked suitcases and one carryon. Just 8 more hours til we board now.

[carohs]

When we got to the airport there was absolutely no line to print boarding passes, drop luggage, or even security. It was all looking gravy until we got to the gate and saw our flight was delayed by half an hour. Ooh boy. This flight was already leaving an hour past bedtime but that was the least of my concerns. I had also been fighting a migraine all day, most likely because of the stress and lack of sleep this week. Those bright airport lights tested the limits of my endurance, and I was not the least embarrassed to wear my sunglasses until the lights dimmed on the plane. Perhaps the most distressing was knowing our layover was only supposed to have been 1:15. We started boarding about 20 min after the originally scheduled takeoff and didn't start taxiing until about 1 hr past. I wasn't liking this math. Fortunately, we still had over 24 hrs to get to Fort Lauderdale from Charlotte. I mean, could be worse right?

 

Something to note is that both sides of the row behind us had families in the last boarding group with young children. Like still playing with the tray and crying young. If I had payed the upcharge for these seats (remember these are 'preferred') and I was less tolerant of younger kids I might have been a little upset at the situation AA created. Unlike the over tired whining happening behind us, my kids were armed with neck pillows and sleep masks, and fell asleep before we ever took off. 

 

I got next to no rest on this flight. Oh well. Pilot mentioned several times they were aware of tight connections. Just after landing he asked passengers if they could please allow us to deboard first. No sooner did the seatbelt sign turn off then half the passengers were up grabbing bags. I almost freaked. Oh no, are people not going to be courteous? But those standing unloaded overheads in record time and although we were about halfway back on the plane, once the doors opened, we made it out in less than 30 seconds. Whoosh you've never seen people so efficient. Absolutely shocked, really. Our second leg was delayed 15 min, phew. That gave us approx 35 min instead of 20 to get from A12 to C18. Not only did we make it, we had the time to stop at a restroom, and we weren't even the last to board! DH was getting worried though. Apparently they had already started announcing last calls, but we made it. 

[carohs]

I knew I'd be tired today so didn't make plans for the day. Works out fine because the weather is cruddy anyway. We're spending the day in our hotel room at the Hampton Inn North. I wonder what the demographic of the area is when what you have nearby is a Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and a car dealership that advertises they'll approve anyone. There's a McD's and a Winn Dixie, too. Room is typical for a Hampton Inn and works just fine for us. 

 

Radar right now:

[carohs]

CRUISE DAY! CRUISE DAY IS TODAY. 

[mommb]

I am happy to read that you made your connection successfully. I would have been panicking too. I hope the cruise is far less stressful (though if Stitch is coming with you, I'd be worried).

[CarolynFH]

I’ve read that Milton caused your itinerary to change. Hope it’s a good cruise nonetheless!

[carohs]

The itinerary changes worked out pretty good, just debarked. Promise to work on updates soon.

[carohs]

We received the update on port changes almost as soon as we boarded. 

[carohs]

Day 1: Embarkation Day

Check in day, at 12am EST, I logged in and attempted to get the earliest PAT available to silver castaway club members. Unfortunately had a little unforeseen sitch that caused a delay getting through the screens, but we still ended up with 11:45 am. Too impatient to wait that long, we packed up, checked out, and had called the uber by about 11am. Fifteen min later and bags handed over to the porters, we showed our boarding passes and were let through to the check in desks. We were checked in right about 11:30 which was also the time they announced the family of the day and began boarding. Groups were called relatively quickly (we were grp 9) and we were in Cabanas having lunch no later than 12:15.

 

From the parking garage where we were dropped off:

 

Alcohol policy. We brought on 3 bottles.

 

Cute mural as we walked in: 

 

The search for hidden Mickeys begins. Concierge lounge up there on the 2nd floor.

 

Found One!

 

Photo op here, while waiting to be called:

 

[carohs]

After lunch we got DD registered into club, magic band put on and explored the open house. To me it looks very similar to the Wonder but the kids noticed some few differences.

 

Oceaneer's Club

 

 

Love the bathrooms, especially the automatic handwash stations!

 

Oceaneer's Lab

 

Edge

 

 

Then it was off to the stateroom to get our KTW cards and unpack the carry-on. That done, the first activity the kids chose was Disney Trivia. We knew we weren’t die-hard enough to compete but still it was fun to learn some new facts. Like, the Disney Magic is longer than Main St. Magic Kingdom. Not by a whole lot, but technically longer.

Since we had some time after, the kids decided they wanted to go back to their clubs, but it turned out they had moved up muster and had less than 5 minutes to play. Aw. Immediately after muster is the Sail-A-Wave party which was moved indoors to the atrium due to weather. It was a packed madhouse. It was difficult to even move past the crowd to get a picture. Rather than fight the crowd, we headed back to the stateroom to find our luggage had been delivered and unpacked. We also saw the sheriff escort us to a point, then the pilot boat catch up to us to pick up the pilot. 

 

Embarkation day must-dos completed, it was time to check out evening activities. I opted to go to the shop raffle thing where I got the charm of the day and a bracelet. It was a sales pitch, obviously, but it’s a cute souvenir anyway. Then we met up to go to the theater to watch Twice Charmed. This cast is particularly good, and Disney always impresses with their production and special affects. Twice Charmed is a cute story about how the evil step mother and the two step sisters team up with their Wicked Fairy Godfather to rewind time and prevent Cindy from marrying the prince. The whole cast did a wonderful job at bringing their characters to life and they even had the whole audience shouting “bippidy boppity boo” at one point.

[carohs]

Some stateroom pics. 6106. Something to note with this room is that it's a connecting room, but the balconies are separated by a solid white wall. 

 

 

Kudos to DCL who provides these in the public restrooms and which saved me from another possible sitch, since my supplies were all in the checked bags. 

 

[carohs]

7:30 is that time in the evening between the two dinner services, and usually Disney will schedule something during this time which is popular and well attended. Tonight's programing featured the Halloween tree lighting. It was so much fun! I didn't get great videos or pictures but if you ever get the chance, get there early or go up a deck (but still early) for better views. You'll get to see the tree go from this:

 

to this:

 

 

And you'll be entertained by a story and a song or two. It's cute. 

Edited October 15 by carohs

[carohs]

Dinner was at Animator's Palate that night. 

 

Kids menu

 

Bread service, salmon tartare, dinner, and is that or isn't it another Mickey on that bread basket?

 

After dinner, we had a glass at wine in the stateroom while the kids went back to their clubs. Then we headed to see Deadpool & Wolverine. I profess I'd never seen a Deadpool movie before but hey. It was funny, but in an utterly ridiculous sorta way. DH says they're all like this. By the time the movie ended the kids had made their way back and were already sleeping. It wasn't very long before we were too. All in all a good first day. 

 

[carohs]

No post. Dinner menu isn't legible.

Edited October 15 by carohs

[carohs]

Buena Vista Theater where we saw Deadpool and later on Inside Out 2

[carohs]

Day 2

 

DD woke us up. She heard a small noise and said "finally you're awake...I've been waiting for an hour!" No way, besides it was still only 730 am. Went outside on the verandah where the humidity promptly fogged up my sunglasses. They seemed to be okay after I wiped them clean but anytime thereafter I stepped outdoors, boom, fog city.

 

The day started out with the announcement that conditions were to windy to dock at Castaway Cay and today would turn into a sea day. Such a letdown! But I had sorta been expecting to hear it. Captain sailed us south to clearer skies and we set out to make the most of our sea day. Speaking of announcements, the whole cruise anytime there'd be one, we heard the melody to Wish Upon a Star first. An announcement of the announcement, if you would. 

 

After breakfast, we met Minnie and Chip and Dale. Also ran into Pluto.

 

Then we waited for anyone can cook. I had heard they do these but hadn't yet been able to attend one. It was okay. The presenting chef is a chef from Palo. We had the opportunity to ask questions but only DS had one. He wanted to know why pasta starts out sinking but then floats. Chef says as soon as it does, that's how you know it's done cooking. They have screens so we could follow along but the tech guy often was zoomed into the wrong area. Chef said what ingredients he was using but used no measurements. They did give us a recipe card though. About halfway through they passed around a sample for everyone, except the sample came from the kitchen. Chef only demonstrated making a single raviolo. DS noted that this is the Ratatouille font/logo. He says his favorite scene is when they say "regrettably, we are all out of wine.." Um, why? Is that a snark at me and DH for drinking wine? 

 

With some time before the next activity of interest, DS and DD decided it was time to try the pool for a bit. I watched Finding Nemo on Funnel Vision while they swam. Funnel Vision is great and has movies on back-to-back all cruise long. I love having the always on options for entertainment but keep in mind that the pool deck will basically never be quiet. I still find it possible to tune it out to read my book if I want tho.  

 

Typical crowds for the pool

 

It was getting hot on the deck so DH and I went back to the stateroom to chill on our verandah in the shade. DD watched to watch Frozen and DS went to Edge for a bit. After lunch, we reconvened for napkin folding. We learned to fold a tuxedo shirt, an ear of corn, and a bird of paradise out of napkins. 

DH and I attended Mixology sometime in the afternoon.

After Mixology we checked DD back out of club and retrieved DS from Edge. They put on their Halloween costumes, and we spent the evening in line for pictures until it was time for trick or treating. Standing in line can be a chore, but it was fun to see all the people around in costumes. We saw so many group costumes! Incredibles, Inside Out emotions, crayons, Toy Story, Star Wars, etc. I think my favorite of the day was the family who went all out in Mighty Duck costumes. 

 

While we had been excited for it, trick or treating wasn’t a big ado. Basically, you walked in a line around Cabanas where there were about 5 CMs handing out a handful of candy each. There weren’t even any extra decorations or anything. If the characters were there…well it would have slowed things down entirely… but that would have been cool. Having just walked around the flooded floor of the pool deck I guessed correctly the mouse-querade would be moving to the lobby, too. Remembering the havoc of sail-a-wave, we decided to wait it out in the lobby, getting there about 40 min early. Well apparently not eating lunch and staying out til midnight last night caught up with DS because he fell asleep waiting and even when roused and encouraged to dance, he preferred to go back to the stateroom. I had him wait a few minutes to see if it was grogginess but no. The only one who didn’t take a nap today was DD. Then it was off to dinner. Dinner was very good. Tonight we ate at Rapunzel’s where we had a little dinner show to celebrate her bday. DS said, “what are he chances?” when about 12 other people raised their hand saying their birthday is also today. 

[KLMB]

Thanks for sharing your cruise as our first Disney cruise is next year.

[carohs]

1 hour ago, KLMB said:

Thanks for sharing your cruise as our first Disney cruise is next year.

You're welcome! How exciting! What ship are you sailing on?

[carohs]

First night's surprise Halloween costumes, mousequerade, and Dale doing his thing. Really wishing we had had (arg, can't think how to rephrase double hads here) better weather so we could have seen this on the pool deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[carohs]

Going back to dinner at Rapunzel's. Going back to DS's question. Hmm, well I imagine the chances would be increased since a lot of people will book a cruise specifically to celebrate a life event, birthdays included. We enjoyed the show very much. It actually reminded me a lot of Tiana's on the wonder with the music and the parading at the end. Between the two, I may give the lead to Rapunzel's.

 

Kids menu

 

Towel animal day 2

[carohs]

Day 3: 

Lighthouse Point and Pirate Day. Well this day turned out to be a non-starter. DS and I woke up with stomach issues and could hardly stand to be awake let alone get moving for the day. DH waited to see what we wanted to do, but in the end I decided we needed to rest and he should take DD to see LP. Stateroom host here ended up being aces. Besides cleaning our room, he brought DS sickness bags and later on did the occasional wellness check per DH's request. When he cleaned our stateroom though, we went out to the verandah to get some air and eat the green apple I'd gotten from Daisy's De-Lites but as soon as we tried to get back inside we discovered the door wouldn't open!

 

Talk about a freak-out situation. I was sure the stateroom host had locked us out at this point and I hadn't brought my phone out with me. To add, almost everyone had left the ship hours ago and there was no one around to yell to for help. Not to mention, I had no real energy for yelling. Oh no! I did not want to wait for DH to come back, as it was only mid morning and all aboard wasn't until 4:45. Easily 6 hours later. But...way aft there were two crew painting. Try as I might I could not get there attention. I waved, I shouted, I knocked on the verandah wall. Noooo. Then I looked around. No phone, but what else did I have for inventory? An e-book, deck chairs, half an eaten apple. Also, the cutlery and the napkin used to roll said cutlery. I waved that white napkin like some kind of flag out there and still had no luck! I knew they were our only hope, so I persisted. It took what seemed like ages to get their attention but couldn't have been more than 20 or so minutes. It wasn't until one of them turned to look in our direction that they realized anything was up. I tried to mime to them but instead got to watch the very slow progress of ship scaffolding make it's way over to in front of our room. We explained the situation and they made a call over to ship security. Not too long after, our stateroom host was at the verandah door pulling at it. He says it wasn't locked but was just hard to open due to air pressure. Um? That sure made me paranoid for the rest of the trip, but we never had an issue with the door after that. A couple times, yes I had to pull with more force, but never was it closed so tight I couldn't open it (unless it was locked). Phew, anyway, I was just grateful to no longer be stuck out there.

 

Maybe it was the adrenaline or the green apple, but I was feeling better now. I figured I could sleep on the bed, or I could sleep on the sand and at least get to see the water here. DS took some convincing, but I really didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to visit LP. Who knows when, if ever, we'll have the chance to come back. Luckily, the golf cart driver invited us on, and we didn't have to walk the pier. There was also a tram that was getting ready to leave, and we made it aboard just in time. We found DH and made the most of what we could of our day at the beach.

[Tee & Chilli]

Great review 

[carohs]

19 hours ago, Tee & Chilli said:

Great review 

Thanks! I'm trying to finish up but life keeps going.