Someone must’ve been eating on the go and left their bowl on top of this sign.
I think about 10:15 people started lining up. We had been told that the doors should open around 10:30.
By now it was getting pretty hot outside too, so we were anxious to get in and cool off.
Finally they started letting in a few people at a time and then more a little later. We made our way through security, which was very easy and went to the check in counter line for silver and gold members. I was now officially a silver member and Lisa got to come in that line since she was in my room.
Our girl was VERY slow. I know this was all new to them with Disney being there, so I was patient. I did have to ask for a silver lanyard though. I think she was leery about giving me one, but then looked it up and found that I did indeed get one. It’s not a huge perk…but darn it, I wanted it!
We got done and found the other girls sitting down near glass doors that you could see the stairway that went up towards the ship . This is NOT where you enter though. You actually go in on the complete opposite side of the terminal and then down a long hallway and then back to those stairs to swipe your card and go up.
We sat next to this, which we assumed would be where the characters would come out for meets.
We all compared our boarding numbers. Now this was weird. Carolyn, Shelly, Susan, Lisa and I all had port arrival times for 11:30, and this is “supposed” to be what they base your boarding number on. Brook had a 12:30 port arrival time. Brook had a 12, Lisa, Shelly, Susan and I had 8’s and Carolyn had a 2!!!! So weird since Shelly and Susan were her roommates, you would assume they all got the same number. We sat and talked and we met a few more people from our facebook group….and then we found out from some experienced cruisers that if 1 person in your group has a higher number, you can all board at the same time with them. Jackpot! We now all had a 2!
I asked a CM nearby when the characters were coming out and if we could line up…she said soon ,and no, we couldn’t line up quite yet. So we chatted some more and looked over the navigators and I took some pictures.
We noticed a ship tour was scheduled for around 2Pm . It sounded really interesting, but I wasn’t sure if I would have time. I had wanted to get pictures of some areas right away that day while I could. I will tell you I did end up missing it, but Shelly and Susan went on it and they said it was very interesting. They told them that they put the cowboy had on just before they entered the channel and it wasn’t very secure, so they had to go very slow. It was removed already by 2 PM because they didn’t want it to fall off on to people.
More pictures.
These are the glass door I was talking about, where you could see the stairs leading up towards the ship.
We then saw Donald come out to the character greet spot. You would’ve thought we were crazed kids. We all practically ran to get in line. I think we were about the 3rd group in line. Well some were slower than others and we told them to get a move on for a group shot.
The nice CM used all our cameras and took a photo or 2 with each.
From left to right, that is Susan, Carolyn, Brook, Donald, Me, Lisa and Shelly.
We sat back down and again chatted and looked over the navigator and I decided it was time to take a picture of my KTTW card.
Speaking of Navigators, here is the one for the first day.
I have to admit I thought there would be more to it. I swear on the Dream they were at least 6 pages…and I went and looked at some posted online and I am right, they are a few pages bigger. I didn’t look closely, so I am not sure why the longer cruises have less to write about.
I decided it was time to take a potty break and took a few pictures on the way.
This is the kids club registration area.
Then it was time! They were announcing boarding and we gathered our things. When number 2 was announce, it was a race….the place went crazy. LOTS of people had 2’s. We all walked together to start with, but a lady with her stroller and family decided to step in front of us and fold it up and she got put a stop to Brook, Lisa and I. They started moving too and made it pretty clear they wanted to board before us. Really? She couldn’t see that she just separated a group of people wearing matching shirts? So we walked fast and Brook made a pass…after a bit I did the pass too and she gave me a VERY dirty look. Lisa was stuck behind them and I think the lady took action NOT to be passed again. So I said to her, “My friend got behind you and she is part of our group, will you let her around, and she flat out told me no, I won’t let her.…..what a Witch with a capital B.
We went down the long hallway to get to the ship and they had photographers set up there to take the welcome aboard photos. We made a stop and we all were caught up with each other. Crazy lady and her family on the other hand had bypassed it and kept going.
We had a nice photo taken, but I don’t think any of us actually bought it.
We then headed to have our cards swiped. Carolyn, Susan, and Shelly got through right away. Lisa wasn’t far behind. They stopped Brook as her photo was from her last cruise and she was wearing a hat, so they needed a new one. I then went to another line and got swiped and headed up the stairs to meet with Lisa and we waited for Brook.
As we walked down the gangway I said we needed to think of a name to have announced for us…but we are not good with quick thinking evidently, because none of us could think of anything clever.
When we got to the doors, we still hadn’t thought of a name and the CM basically just asked our 1st names and we were announced that way.
We walked in and I looked up and all around and my first thought was WOW……………........................ …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
This Atrium is sooooo SMALL. It looks big in pictures, but compared to the Dream it is TINY. That was probably my only major disappoint in the ship. Now it isn’t really small and it is beautiful, but it was the very first thing I noticed….smaller ship means smaller atrium. As time wore on, it came to where I never noticed how much smaller it was.
We were stopped by a CM and told we could go eat lunch right away at either Parrot Cay or Topsiders and that all rooms were ready already. YES!!! We had boarded the ship at 11:50 AM and rooms are not supposed to be ready till 1:30 PM. We had hoped that since this was a first sailing coming into port with a pretty much empty ship that this would happen.
Now to find Carolyn and gals. Aha! There they are….getting interviewed by a local news station.
This is the footage from the interview. I am not sure how long this link will stay active though.
The lady had info wrong too. She said this is a 6 night sailing and it’s an 7 nighter. Carolyn said she was kind of anti-Disney and wanted to know why a group of only adults would ever even consider sailing on Disney. Oh well…not everyone gets it.
I had to get a quick shot of this too.
And this
We separated to go to our rooms and said we would meet back up in the atrium and then head off to Parrot Cay for lunch. Our bellies were starting to rumble a bit.
Brook and Carolyn’s gang both had ocean view rooms and were down on deck 2 right next to each other. Lisa and I had a veranda room on deck 5 towards the aft.
We found our room easily and I took a couple of quick pictures.
That was my gift for being a silver Castaway Club member. It had some pretzels, Disney shaped goldfish crackers and a keychain inside I believe. (I think I took a picture of it later on)
This room was 5130. I looked for reviews online and one person made mention that it did NOT have a split bathroom. I figured this person must’ve been off their rocker, because there aren’t any veranda rooms on the Magic in this category without a split bathroom. Sure enough I was right, it did have 2 bathrooms. I do plan to go in and make a review myself and correct the info.
We then headed back towards the atrium to meet up with the gals. As we walked I really liked what I saw. My friend and co-worker Jeanne has sailed the Magic many times…..I think she has sailed with Disney something like 40 times!!!!! She had told me the Magic was still her favorite, but it did look a little worn. I was expecting it to look much more worn than it was. Most things were still bright and clean and we saw them daily doing maintenance on painting and floor boards, etc. Only a few spots did I find it look less than Disney standards.
We decided to take the stairs down from deck 5 to 3.
Look! Oil Rigs right outside the porthole….and nasty green water.
And the girls were just coming in the Atrium at the same time.
And we didn’t mingle too long, we were starving!
There was practically no one in the restaurant too.
We were seated and I went and took a few pictures before I ate. I guess the desserts were calling my name first…..actually they were still full and not picked over, so I wanted to get shots like that.
The ultimate, best dessert EVER! I just love their chocolate chip cookies. I don’t know what it is, but they are to die for. I will push you down and step on you if you get between me and those cookies!
My only complaint was the salad dressing. I am a French dressing kid of girl….and I never saw it offered….though I never asked if they had it either.
A view up from our table.
After sitting and chatting and eating a bit, we saw Mary walk in. We said hellos and she said her friends were already seated and we glanced back at their table and gave a wave.
I was not done yet. I went back up for a 2nd round…and then desserts too!
And dessert. This was really good, but I can’t remember what it was. I think some sort of mousse type thing.
After stuffing myself silly, I took a few pictures of the tables.
We chatted a little longer….Can you believe that Susan isn’t a dessert fan. I almost had to leave the room! LOL. Actually I wish I wasn’t a big dessert lover…I would probably lose weight a lot easier then.
We decided it was time to tour the ship a bit. We still had lots of time till we had to attend the muster drill. We had finished eating about 12:45.
Off we went. The plan was to go sign up for the drawing at the Vista Spa. We headed to the midship elevators.
I stopped and took this picture of this boat, but got a lot of my own reflection in it.
And we all tried to crowd into a very full elevator. Guess what…the elevator will have a light that says overloaded when you exceed its weight. LOL…..Yep we found that out the hard way. Lisa and I stepped back out and said we would meet up later. We got on the next one and Lisa was now paranoid that every time she stepped into one the light would alert.
After the fiasco with the overloaded elevator, Lisa and I cautiously got on the next one that came. All was fine. We didn’t set off any alarms this time.
We headed up to deck 9 and got our first glimpse of the outdoor area. I have to admit….I only took a few pictures for now…but have many more later.
And we headed into the Vista Spa and found the rest of our gang there too.
It is really a beautiful spa. I was impressed. It wasn’t as beautiful as the Dreams, but darn close.
We all signed up for the drawing that was gonna take place at 3 PM. They were going to give away several different things and though I am not really a spa kind of gal….I would take anything for free. LOL
We proceeded to walk down the hallway to take a look and get some pictures.
The rooms all looked so nice.
Another complaint. …. This hot tub was not very pretty. This is Disney and they need to put some kind of nice covering around the sides of it. This looked kind of disgusting and falling apart. I surely didn’t expect to see that.
At the end of the hallway, all the way to the front of the ship is the gym.
One of the instructors asked if we would like a picture together.
We all made our strong look and posed.
Shelly is not in that picture…not sure where she had roamed off to at the moment.
The instructor was from Austria. I couldn’t help but think of the Saturday Night Live skit with Hans and Frans. This guy sounded just like them and he was ready to “pump you up”!
Some of the gals looked at a few classes, like detoxing, etc. I skimmed it, but I didn’t want to comment just yet to anything. I wanted to think over exactly what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to sign up and then not show up.
While he talked, I took some pictures out the front window of the ship.
This is the crew pool….which was almost never used. Even our waiter made a comment one night that no one ever uses it as they just don’t have much time to. On a side note…one afternoon Lisa was watching the camera on TV that shows the front of the ship. She was all excited to see a couple of people out on that deck. It was kind of twilight out and the camera doesn’t capture it great, but I swear there was a girl and 2 guys…and though I am sure this “wasn’t” going on…it almost looked like there was some sort of standing threesome going on. Lisa was cracking up so much. She kept saying to me…”look now…..what do you think that looks like?”
I am not sure how this works? On the Dream they have water coolers with fresh lemons in the water. Here there is a drinking fountain with lemons next to it. LOL! Do you filter your water with a lemon slice as you drink it?
Back to the spa.
If you ever finding yourself needing a razor…come here…they have tons you can use.
These are hot saunas. When Brook opened the door the steam was pouring out.
These benches were heated too. I didn’t know that till several days later when I was making the rounds early morning to take pictures with the tripod and I sat on one and WOW…they are really hot.
On we went down, the hall. They had several rooms decorated so cute. I only took a picture of a few of the rooms. Each was slightly different, but I actually was tired of taking so many spa pictures at that point.
