Disney Magic 14 Day Cruise Daily Updates

Introduction

This is Chip Young , Brian’s business partner with Mouse Surplus… I got to know Brian several years ago when he worked at another company here in ORlando. We decided to start our own business together. I have collected Disney memobrillia for years,,,I bought the original monorail red from disney about three years ago…That seemed to make me famous with all the disney collectors. I live in Tyrone Ga about 20 miles south of the Atlanta Airport.

I was one of the first passengers on the Disney Magic, I was on the inaugural cruise on July 1998, My daughter was with me for that special event, she was about 6 yrs old at the time. The next year we went on a 3 day and 4 day cruise back to back , so I guess we made it a week cruise before they offered it….I was on the first week cruise also , in August of 2000… i think that was it…when they started the eastern week cruise. SO this time I am on the first 14 day cruise to the west coast,,,Wonder if anyone else has this distinction also….This is my 12th cruise on the cruise line.. I have taken about 4 other week cruises with my daughter and several 3 and 4 day ones also..

Brian and his family and I went on a 3 day cruise last January and they had a great time. Brian was finding all kind of things to bring back for his displays and for ebay… he wore out mickeys autograph hand signing several things he got at the onboard auction,,he really tried hard to get the new menus from Animators palate restaurant, But the head waiter came over and explained how he could not have it. Well not to be out smarted, he got a lot of the menus the next night from the pirates of the Caribbean night….

The cruises are a great way to relax and just play like you are a child again… guess i am like peter pan,… forgot to grow up… like why! don t everyone have a monorail at their house, The shows on the ship are really great, I have seen them many times and always look forward to seeing them again. There are some great places for adults to hang out also, The piano bar is always a great place to hang out after dinner with the dueling pianos with the guys singing crazy songs is really funny, The Cadillac bar is more laid back and relaxing, guess I am showing my age a little more…They usually have great bands on board also, they play up on deck sometimes late at night and really get everyone going. If your child is with you, their programs are really the best. My daughter really enjoyed them and some of them remembered her from each year.

During our last cruise a few years ago, i let her check herself in and out of the programs, She knew the ships layout and would meet me for dinner and then go back playing with the kids, She got these pair of light up finger tips from a magician onboard and was entertaining the people by the glass elevators,,, I am here at our office in Orlando and some people came by the warehouse a little while ago,,,they were looking around the place and I heard them talking about going on the cruise,,,small world for sure…well not around here,,,they have been on 9 cruises on Disney. Got a few more on them.

 

[MOUSESURPLUS]

Day 1 Cruise Update

First Day on Board

Well here we are on the way out to sea for the 14 day Trans Canal cruise, Like I have said this is my 12th cruise on Disney Cruise Line. Check in was a breeze since I arrived about 2:30 or so, only a hand full of people in line. While boarding thru the gangway, I saw some new signs hanging from the gangway gate, so I took some pictures for Brian knowing we will probably get those someday. I am in room 5150 at the far end of deck five in the back Room is nice as usual, my balcony is a little bigger because its at the rear of the ship where it curves around the back, but the sides are solid, no glass like the rest. Met the room steward as he was moving in our bags. He did figure out the foam mattress I brought along also. Went up stairs for the party. We were about 30 minutes late leaving for some reason, looked like some entertainers were late getting here. They came up in a truck with their baggage and ran onboard. Then off we went. The usual deck party was in full swing. Yes Brian I got some of the Mickey hands with the dates on them, they are plastic this time, not the cardboard ones from before, Since we were late leaving the band quit when their time was up, but everyone was enjoying waving at people at the bars on shore as we cruises by.
We went to the first show at 6:30. met by the cruise director and she welcomed all of us onboard. If you have ever been on a Disney cruise, you know their shows are really great. Well this first one was really great also. I think it was called Let the Magic Begin, so appropriate, Had the performers in cruise line uniforms singing and dancing to a new song and routine. Then Mickey and friends come out to welcome everyone onboard, The first performer was a juggler, well this guy was the world champion juggler, his first show was just a warm up of his talent probably, had a great time with a member in the audience, who happpened to be a lawyer,,LOL He finished his act and the next guy was a ventriquilist, hope I spelled that right. He had several puppets that he introduced and was really a great show, he will perform his full show tonight and look forward to his performance. I got to hand it to the Disney folks for finding these two performers, really a class act for the whole family. The captain was introduced in the end of the show and his top officers,
Then to dinner at Animaters Palent, got to find spell check on this thing, Their are new menus and they seemed to have better quality of food finally, maybe it just the new menu and the way if was prepaired. Guess it is really hard to cook for over 3,000 on this ship each day. After dinner we turned in for the night.
I am posting this message on Sunday morning, could not get into the computer till today. We are at Castaway Cay today and will report on the activities later today

 

[MOUSESURPLUS]

Day 2 Update

Monday at Sea

We are into our first full day at sea and there are lots of things to do as usual. The presentation on the Panama Canal was in the movie thearter and was very full , standing room only, so they added a presentation later today, There is a lecturer on board that will give us the history of the canal as we go thru it. I have watched the ones on the History Channel several times and have always been facinated with how this was accomplished almost 100 yrs ago.
We had dinner at Parrot Cay last night and I have to say the new menus are a welcome surprise so far, I have complained that the food onboard was not up to the Disney standards, but feeding about 3,000 people all the time would be tough for anyone. If they could get the seafood from Fulton Seafood at Downtown Disney that would be the best, Their crab legs are better their than in Alaska, been to Alaska last year on a cruise. The meat that was served was never up to what you could get from like a Longhorns, But this seems to be the trend for all cruise lines lately, to get you to upcharge to the better restraunts. Palos is still the best onboard, they only charge 10 bucks I think, so that is not too bad, but last nights meal was really good. After dinner we went to check out the shows, their was a comedian in the night club, he was ok not nearly as the ventriquilist. Went back to the cabin and retired for the night.

This morning we were up a little late, well it is vacation, went to brunch in Parrot Cay and had a great meal. We are looking at shore excursions but lots have already booked up , so we will just take a taxi and can just wing it…They have art auctions now onboard like some of the other cruise lines. There are some unique disney artwork, but mostly just the same artwork you find on other cruise lines. We will be off the coast of Cuba this afternoon, maybe Fidel should loosen up a little and come cruise with us, might let him light up a cigar on the top deck

 

[MOUSESURPLUS]

Day 3 Pin Fiasco Starts

Tuesday at Sea,

I am trying to catch up on things here, internet has been down lots of times. Kind of a laid back day again, Had breakfast , well sort of lunch as late as I got up, in Topsiders, nice layout again , say on the back deck, No land in site for sure, we are in the middle of the Caribean Sea, got another 400 or so miles to get to Curacao. Think we will go visit the caves on the island and beach on our own, The name of the ventriquilist is Taylor Mason, he has an adult show tonight in the Rock Bar D, will catch that for sure, I have to say we are getting some nice gifts from Disney lately, When I got back in my room on Saturday night, I have this big basket full of things from the cruise line, don t know if everyone got one or just those who have sailed numerous times. Last night they gave us a book on the Panama Canal. Nice little touch, I will let everyone know what the latest is on the pins and other memobrillia, something has to be worked out on this situation. So see yall later,,,,


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on May 17, 2005 at 1:17 pm Comments (0)

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Tuesday at Sea Part 2

Lots have happen since I logged on yesterday afternoon. We hung out on the adult pool area for several hours. They had a leg contest by the pool, thought that was a cool contest with all the ladies, they chose me to be a judge, cool,, well they turned the tables on us and we were going to show off our legs, OK I bailed on that one, hard to compete with all the 20 something guys, LOL, still fun to watch, of course everyone won, Sailed past the eastern tip of Cuba, We were off the coast only a few miles looked like. Took some pictures and videos for later, Still cannot send pics from the ship, The internet is down lots of time, they said they were having network problems, but there are only 10 terminals here in the internet cafe and 4 upstairs in the cove. Asked why they do not have wifi here and they said they have not been able to get it done. There are over 2,000 guest onboard and everyone these days uses the internet, thought Disney would have expanded on this. I thought the Magic went under a major referb but I cannot see that much that they have done. Its alway clean around the whole ship but maybe they will get some update down this year while at drydock again.
GOLDEN MICKEY AWARDS ,,, I was on the Wonder back in January with Brian and his family and the Golden Mickey Awards in the thearter was a great show, They have expanded this show to include a preshow live video from the entrance of the thearter near the shops, Its like a pre acadamy awards show, This was the first formal night and mostly everyone was dressed up, They really did a great job with this and continued thru the show. After the late show they had a big party in the atrium with a big ballon drop and confedee, All the characters were there and made quite a spectacular event,
Went to the movie thearter and saw “The Pacificer” with Van Diesel as a baby sitter after being a Navy Seal, cute story.
OK I usually like to be upbeat about things on the ship but one thing is getting way out of control. The Pins that are for sale each day. It has been a mad house getting those each day, There are only 500 available each day,, People are getting quite upset with not getting any after standing in line for hours. Yes Hours, They sent out a letter to all the staterooms that changed the way you get a voucher, well that did not work,,people were sleeping in the hallway in front of where you get the vouchers, like over 300 people. so we will see how the figure this out, My suggestion, give each passenger a voucher for all the pins, you have a chance to pay for them by a certain date and then they will be available for others. Also the T Shirts were gone in like minutes, when the staff brought a handfull into the shop they were mobbed by the passengers, my hats off to the the cast members who are handling that situation. Well I will keep everyone up to day on whats going on with these problems,,

 

[MOUSESURPLUS]

Day 3 Sleep On Floor For Pins

Wednesday, Curacao

Well we just got back from shopping here in Curacao, I will never complain again about how hot and humid it is standing in line at Disney, The temperture is about 80 or so but the humity is sky high, This is a great little port. We docked right in town and had a gangway to just walk off of and into town. The shops here are about like everywhere else in the caribean, the folk are really nice and polite, There are lots of police everywhere and are very friendly to ask questions. I did not buy anything but some people that I am with have told me that there are great deals on jewerly and linens. The town is very clean and neat compaired to other islands. There is a cool floating bridge in the middle of town that connects the two islands and downtown, when a boat comes up they swing the bridge one direction and if you are on the bridge, you are in for a ride, I bet OHSA would scream about this back in the states,
PINS< PART 2, well the pin saga continues, lots of passengers, and especially yours truly here, did not get a chance to get any of the special pins for this voyage, even talking to Disney people on this cruise they said this was one big fiasco. There were about 300 people sleeping in line in the floor all night to get the voucher to buy all the pins on Tuesday morning. Even the comedian made fun of it last night during his show. I cannot believe that they only made 500 pins for this voyage, this ship hold about 2500 passengers when full ,, you would thing they would have know everyone on this ship would have wanted one, My suggestion, they should have given each passenger a voucher when you got onboard the first day with a chance to BUY on set. We have been given a few gifts each day sometimes, this would have been great also, and I would have paid for a set. Brian is finding out how many are on ebay already and I will give this to the staff here, Don t expect too much but who knows. Also heard the Eisner and Roy Disney will be onboard from Cabo San Lucas to LA,,, not that will be iteresting. Bet they both will not be seen with each other, Also read that Boys 2 Men will be onboard for the last two night also to perform. If any of you are coming on the return trip back to Port Canaveral this August, I sure would start asking questions now about the pins. Also can you believe this, Palo’s is fully booked the whole cruise, people signed up before the cruise and even when you first came on board most of the reservations were gone, Again this is 14 night that everyone should have a chance to dine in the best restraunt on the ship. I will have to commend the chefs on this cruise for the better food that is served. Still not near the quality that should be Disneys name on it. I get better steaks at Longhorns. I hope that lots of passengers will complain about the pin deal the way it was handled. sure was a black eye for Disney on this deal. Wish I would have taken pictures of the 68 yr old lady laying in the floor with all the other guest. She was really ticked about it also,,,can t blame her either. Most of us paid around $7,000 or more to go on this special cruise, and usually it is worth it, but now just the deal with the pins makes you wonder how special they want to make you feel,,,Remember all the questionaires they ask you during your visit to the parks and the cruises,,”Did we make you feel special” Well in this case NO. Thanks for the special gifts that I have gotten so far and do really appreciate the gesture. The Disney name should be worth something like it use too, OK I will get off my soap box for now and get back to the cruise. There are new entertainers coming onboard today, Taylor Mason was really a great entertainer for the whole family, even his adult show was not off color or too adult oriented. He has some dvd’s out, missed getting them here onboard but I bet he has a website to get some. We leave port today at around 5;30, will be a neat departure thru town. If you have any questions or comments , please email us at mousesurplus.com and Brian will forward them to me, so TTFN……

 

[ImaginEAR]

I hope you're enjoying your trip! I love that pin on ebay, but it's VERY expensive... I'm so jealous! Hope you had a nice time in Curacao. Off to the Panama Canal then. Tell us of some new activities onboard, such as the slumber party, murder mystery, Belle and Beast dancing in Lumiere's, and more!

 

[MOUSESURPLUS]

Pin Rebellion

News Flash, really funny

There is a passenger here onboard that had t shirts flown in to Curacao in the matter of a day and a half, they say,
Disney Cruise—$8,000
Logo T Shirt—-Sold Out
Waiting in Line
Sleeping on Floor
PRICELESS

Now if this guy can do this with Fed Ex in the matter of days why cannot Disney do this with their own t shirts and pins. I think they need to hire this guy for their purchases or at least delievery. Now we will work on the pins next,,,,

 

[SpeedFigure]

More positive Info

You should post the more POSITIVE points of the new cruise, then all the negative. Half of your posts are complaining about the pin lines. Tell us about the parties, the shows, anything new, the islands, the excursions.... I've been on 3 Disney cruises and they were amazing. I can't say a single bad thing about them. My family is going on the West Coast Cruise on the 28th, so the first one after you guys get off. This will be there 4th cruise. They want to know about anything special that's going on....they don't care that people are camping out for a dumb pin. Give better details about the new cruise, not complaining about Pins and Steaks.
Disney is the best Cruise line.

 

[DisneySaint]

He's been on the cruise so many times, though, I'm sure it's hard for him to do that.

 

[MOUSESURPLUS]

Thursday Update

Thursday at Sea

Leaving port yesterday afternoon was a really cool event, Lots of the people of the island were onshore waving at us as we backed out of the harbour. When they blew the ships horn, you know it plays, When you wish upon a star, everyone went wild, Dinner was in parrot cay and had a great meal again. I have to admit the food is a lot better that most of the cruises I have been on here over the past few years. I had a T bone steak, it was ok but far from where it should be on the quality scale, but still was good.
When I return to the cabin I had another letter from Tom McAlpin, President of Disney Cruise Lines. He was apoligizing for the pin goof ups and t shirts. He said that they will be taken orders for the t shirts for the remander of the cruise and will be shipped to your home address and there would be no charge for shipping, This is a great jesture on Disney for the t shirts. He also said that he will be providing each guest with a very special cpmplimentary pin to honor our time together. He said that the disney artist have created a new design for this dated commemorative pin. He said it will be mailed to your home within 4 weeks following the voyage, This is nice for them to do this , but it comes not even close to the original 500 sets of pins for this voyage, Those were 14 different pins for each day of the voyage. I cannot understand why they did not figure out that everyone on board would have loved the chance to purchase a set of these pins. Well at least we get one pin and I do appreciate them making one for all of us. Well the t shirt that that guy made and had shipped to Curacao has caused quite a stir. I guess the Disney people on board did not think it was too funny. I heard this morning that he was approached by the Disney people and asked to leave the ship, Well he told him that his lawyer was onboard also that they should talk to him, I will try to keep everyone up to date on this as things happen, Well its really hot and humid outside but will go up on deck to see whats going on for awhile and will be back with yall later,


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on May

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Nice report - thanks

 

[Neptune]

good job! Very well put together!!

 

[CTXRover]

Thanks for all the great updates! If you get the chance, I'd love to hear more about the shows, entertainment, ports of call, all the daily events, etc. Personally I've never understood the pin craze but can understand the frustration it can create among some collectors and those who just want to have a once-in-a-lifetime memory collection, but I sure hope a few pins aren't the only thing people on the cruise are talking about. Its beginning to seem like that's the only thing the cruise is about :lol:

I can't believe some guy actually went as far as to make a shirt over the debacle with the pins. I just can't understand letting a few pins get in the way of enjoying a once in a lifetime Disney cruise through the Panama Canal. I am so envious that I couldn't free up 14 days to go on this cruise and, no offense, but I have little sympathy to hear what appears to be some guests not appreciating that over some pin collection, especially since it sounds like Disney is trying to rectify the problems they technically created. Complaints like these will just have Disney decide to not even bother doing special pin collections like this in the future if it creates such a problem.

 

[AngryEyes]

Yeah. Free gifts all over the place, great entertainment, etc. But, I'm going to just complain about pins. I, too, don't get the whole pin thing. Personally, I'd be having a ball just making fun of people sleeping in line for pins and/or whining about them.

 

[adjonline]

So...did they *really* kick someone off a ship because of a t-shirt?!