Here is half of my trip report I have the other half Coming soon
My vacation started Thursday night...
Late Thursday night around 10pm EST I packed up the car and went over to Steven’s house to pick him up. It was me and his family that went. So it was Steven his mom and dad his sister and her boyfriend Jeremy. Steven and I took my car and his parents and his sister and boyfriend took his fathers truck. We drove from here to Titusville FL. about 15 min away from Port Canaveral. 1,298 miles driven from chesterfield MI to Titusville FL. about 20 hours of driving and we made it by Friday night. Woke up early in the morning and headed over to Port Canaveral after breakfast.
I arrive at the Disney Cruise terminal to see a few post September 11 changes to security.
They now require passports or birth certificates with photo ID just to get into the parking lot. And also Disney used to be responsible for checking carry on luggage now the government does it before you get into the terminal rather than just before boarding the ship. After getting into the terminal we had to stop to pick up our key to the world cards at the desk another change here as well. They are stricter as to what type of birth certificate you may use. Steven and I both have passports so it was no problem with us but his sister Mary had a few issues with her birth certificate. Because of September 11 they made a few restrictions and prefer that you carry a passport. They did let her go with what she had but said it will not be accepted again in that means. Other than that everything else went smoothly.
We boarded the ship at 12:00 it was a bright sunny day and before we left port I walked around and tried to get some photos in of the ship before all the people were onboard and blocking the view
This ship is identical to the Disney wonder except for the main Atrium chandelier and Mickey is the statue instead of the little mermaid and the main restaurant is Luminaries rather than Tritons. The rest of the ships layout is exactly the same except for the color scheme of the carpet and curtains.
Saturday night / Day 1
After boarding the ship and taking pictures the ship was set to sail at 5pm but before we could do that according to maritime law EVERYBODY must complete a safety drill. On the TV’s in the staterooms it gave a explanation of what we needed to do in the event of an emergency. Even though I have been through this 2 times on the Disney wonder it is still a requirement every time you sail with any ship be it Disney or anyone else. You must get your lifejacket on after hearing the ships alarm and follow the emergency signs to the lifeboat deck / deck 4 After you arrive you must go to your assigned emergency station and wait for further instruction. They then explain to you what will happen in the event of a real emergency and then you get to go back to your room and the fun begins. It only takes about 10 min. Its not really a big deal and it makes me feel safer knowing that everything is planned out… Unlike titanic….. hehe. Anyways we went back to the room and Disney Cruise ship goes on a system called dinner rotation there is a 6:00 Dinner and 8:30 The 6:30 is more for the Parents with kids and the 8:30 is for mainly adults. We were all scheduled for the daily 8:30 Dinner. So before the ship leaves we went back up on deck to the sail away party. Right before the ship leaves they covered up the family pool to make it a dance floor. They played music with a live band first. Then all the characters came out for a few songs then we here the characters start a
countdown. After the completion of the
countdown the ships horn went off playing When you wish apon a star. Disney is the only cruise ship to have a horn of this nature. Then we were off the ship begun to move. After hanging out at the party for awhile we went back to our room. Anyways The dinner rotation means that we get to go from restaurant to restaurant with the same server’s / people… If there were other’s placed at our table.. But being a party of 6 we had our own table. Between 5 and 8:00 we roamed the ship taking many pictures. At 8pm we got ready for our first dinner at Luminaries it was such a beautiful restaurant themed to beauty and the beast. So at 8:30 it was off to deck 3 midship to go to our first dinner. This is when we got to see where our table was “table 40” and we got to meet our server staff. By far this cruise was my favorite for the servers. Christophe pronounced christoff was our head server / manager. He was from France. He was a really funny guy who checked in from time to time to make sure things were going great. Then we have Ernistine our server. She was very funny and very engaging. We all miss her very much!!!! She was from Croatia. She did everything she could to make sure we were happy and also had a great sense of humor. Then we had Xaldy. He was the assistant server and was very funny like Ernisitine sidekick. He was from another country… I don’t remember what one though so many different nationality’s on board. The food was beyond excellent. The desert was to DIE for!!! Everything was cooked to perfection and placed on the plate with a touch of Disney magic. After dinner we went back to our room and started reading through the personal navigator to see what was going on tomorrow. Before falling asleep I sat out on the verandah of my room. What a view!!!!! The moonlight reflecting for miles off in the ocean all the billions of stars shining ever so brightly in the night sky and miles and miles off in the distance you could see lightning almost looking like snowflakes lighting up the sky in the distance.
Day 2 / Day at Sea
We woke up and met with the family to eat breakfast at “Topsiders Buffet” One of the things I will miss is the FRESH cut pineapple…. I’ve never had such fresh fruit anywhere before. We all were talking about how wonderful the ship is and everything there is to do.
Shortly after breakfast we get back to the room and realize that our room has already been cleaned the bed made etc. We turn on the TV to Disney’s shopping in paradise channel to see what kind of things to look for shopping on the islands. I then decide to join his sister and her boyfriend for a swim and some sun in the adult pool. It was very hot that day about 90. We had a blast. I then went back to my room to change and we went up for lunch. We ate at one of the fast food places called Pluto’s The food was ok not the best on the ship but hey its FREE!!!. Dinner was the highlight of the food on board. It was nice to have a nice relaxing day on board there were many activities going on but we decided to take advantage of the ships relaxing atmosphere. I loved sitting on my verandah. My last 2 cruises We had a room with a porthole on deck 2. Having a verandah made a HUGE difference well worth the price upgrade. Before dinner we went out on deck to get a few more pictures.. and went to the onboard shopping stores to have a look around. They sell some of the most beautiful stuff in treasure ketch mostly a jewelry store .. And some more expensive Disney cruise merchandise. Then there is Mickey’s mates a all in one store selling everything to your hearts desire.. After shopping we went back to the room to get ready for dinner… We head out for dinner tonight we were dining at Animators Palate. I got really excited thinking that tonight was going to be the show… But it was not .. It would be our second time here that they would have the show. Dinner and desert again were excellent. Our servers were a blast and we were all having a great time. After dinner Steven went to bed and I joined his family to watch a movie in the Buena Vista Theater. We watched Sweet Home Alabama. The movie was better than I expected it to be. Very funny but had a love twist in it. The greatest thing was being able to see movies in a theater for free!!! No ticket charges nothing… After this it was really late and I headed to bed.
Day 3 / Day at Sea
After all of us being up late that night we got up kind of late but when your at sea there is not such a rush to get up first thing. Plus this is vacation we went to relax!!! Anyways we got up and had breakfast at Topsiders again it was great food especially for a buffet. After lunch we went to see a show at the Walt Disney Theater called Morty the magnificent It was a theatrical comedy. They started the show by making us think it was a new act and they were not to be found on the ship. But as he was saying that they came running in and the show started. It was about how they were looking for a “gig” and Mortys magic was never working. Till it was his assistant’s birthday and she made a wish for morty to have magic for just ONE day. Ashe she blew out the candle sorcerer mickey came out and granter her wish and that’s when things started to get out of hand. I don’t want to spoil the rest of it for you all. Since you may see this someday
. But it was a great show with many surprises. After the show Mary , Jeremy and I took advantage of the adult pool and some more sun…. After being in the pool for a few minutes I saw that one of the hot tubs next to the pool was vacant so we all loaded up in there it was so relaxing. After the hot tub we layed out in the sun with a cool breeze blowing. We were all not used to how powerful the sun is down there and we were starting to get a sunburn… Then we were off to dinner. Today it was at Parrot Cay. A restaurant themed like the Caribbean or the tiki room in WDW. Today we had to dress formal so we all went to deck 3 midship to have some pictures taken by the professionals. We all got one group photo “family” photo then we all had separate pictures taken in our groups. After the pictures we proceeded to parrot cay. During dinner there was a steel drum band playing Caribbean style music. And then the characters came out and did a song / dance. It was a lot of fun. Once again the food was excellent and our servers a lot of fun. Before we left from dinner we were invited to a character breakfast tomorrow morning. Being that we did not have kids traveling with us we were reluctant to want to go. But we decided to go. We headed off to bed for the night.
Day 4 / Arrive at St Marteen
I woke up at sunrise and took a few pictures and roamed the ship to see another ship come dock next to us called The Explorer of the seas by Royal Caribbean cruise lines . This ship was slightly higher than the Disney Magic but shorter. As far as I could see the ship did not look as nice as our ship. Anyways we headed off to character breakfast. IT WAS A BLAST… I did not expect it to be so much fun all the characters went to every table and we all had pictures taken by the pro’s…. Defiantly do not miss this!! After breakfast we got off the ship and headed to the Island of St Marteen. We took a taxi to the shopping district and there are many people trying to get your business downtown almost all the stores were the same run down kind of the same old thing not very nice area. Except there are very many nice looking jewelry stores there. One of the great things is you can lower the price by a lot. Stevens mother was able to get 30 bucks off a tea set made of wood for decoration in her house. All you have to do is name your price they will refuse then turn your back to leave and they will give you what you want. For the price you want. Everything is much cheaper here then it is in the US Then we stopped at a store called del sol. This store sold clothing that went from black and white to full color in the sun. some of the shirts were absolutely amazing we all purchased shirts from here it was a very respectable store... After doing a little more shopping we headed back to the ship after walking around town all day we were all tired. We headed back to our room for a nap. We then got up when it was time for the ship to leave. We had a deck party going on… Once again blowing our unique horn and off we go.. There was another ship like I mentioned before but they left before we did. Disney I noticed usually holds their party’s on days we are docked next to other ships. Well this time the ship left before we did at 7pm They made an announcement during the party saying that the other ship left early because the ship captain did not want them to see the party’s we have on board the Disney magic. This party was a blast.The music and the characters came out for a few songs… Then we headed off to Dinner again we Dined at Lumiere’s the main restaurant. Tonight for dinner it was Hawaiian dress apon arriving at dinner we were giving lei’s and dinner was the best dinner I had on board the steak was so tender you didn’t need a knife and to top it off with a triple choc cake it was excellent. After dinner they had a party going on with full desert bar and they played a few songs and were showing people different dances for the songs instructing people how to do them… That night the drinks at the party had electronic ice cubes that light up in the glass. It was really neat the way the drink glowed in the night. After the party it was late once again and we headed to bed after a very fun filled day.
Day 5 / Arrive at St Thomas
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