You might wonder why I titled my trip report as such - well, as soon as we heard Disney would be repositioning the older ships to new ports (at least for the foreseeable future), and knowing the new ships are too big to call on Key West, we booked ourselves a nice, little 5-night cruise on the Magic. Considering she just so happens to be our favorite ship, this took a lot of arm twisting. :ROFLOL:
We planned this cruise about a year prior, with our actual sail date being May 4th. Those plans did not hold up (due to a date conflict); we ended up switching to the May 9th sailing about four months prior to the cruise. About a month after that, I found out I would be presenting at a huge conference in Orlando the week we returned, but we were tired of switching dates around and decided we would just hightail it back upon our return to the port. Whew!
So, let’s get underway!
Although we live only 2 1/2 hours from Port Canaveral, we always drive down the night before to make things easy as possible for getting up the morning of the cruise, and boarding the ship. Our spoiled “puppy” (she’s 15 going on 2) was dropped off at WDW’s Best Friends kennel, and we were on our way to the Residence Inn Cocoa Beach. Since we needed to leave from the port ASAP when we returned from the cruise, we decided against the Park and Cruise package, and I scored a decent state government rate instead (when adding that with the $90 port parking price tag, it came fairly close to the park and cruise rate, so it wasn’t too disturbing to pay that port parking fee - although it still makes me want to gag).
Klondike at Best Friends (she had an itchy eye, which is why it looks a bit dark around it)
After an uneventful evening and morning, we headed over to the port somewhere between 11 and 12. Check-in was a breeze, we were given boarding number 3 (due to our early scheduled arrival time of 11:00, even though it was past that), and we headed to the supervisor’s desk just to see what the going rate for an upgrade would be. As tempting as it was to book a one-bedroom suite again, we finally decided against it. All our Disney cruises prior to this have been in balcony staterooms (with the last in a one-bedroom suite), and we promised ourselves we were going to try out an inside stateroom just to see how we would like it. I figured that just meant more spending money for me as well!
Once onboard, our arrival announced by the wonderful CMs, we hightailed it straight for Parrot Cay (I much prefer this to Topsiders for embarkation day lunch). There was a short wait for a table, but nothing too terrible, and soon we were enjoying a nice lunch of salads, pastas, and cold strawberry soup! I went back up to the buffet for dessert and who should I happen to see but Val, our assistant server from our 2010 cruise on the Magic! We loved Val, and I was thrilled to see he was still with the Magic! He quickly remembered who I was, and came back to our table to chat us up a bit. He is now a server, and happened to have the same rotation we had for dinner; alas he would not be our server this cruise. Bright side though, we still saw him often!
I digress. Soon it was time for staterooms to be available. We made a quick stop at Guest Services (where we had a less than magical CM assist us) to make a reservation for me for the Margarita and Tequila tasting. Once that was taken care of, we were on our way up to Deck 7, and our stateroom for the next five nights - 7625! An interjection here - we loved our cabin! It was surprisingly roomy, and even with the single bath, we did not have issues getting ready in the evening. Granted, there were only two of us, but we still found it to be a very comfortable stateroom, and in a superb location! We were just beyond the aft stairs and lifts, exactly two decks below the drink station and Topsiders (and very conveniently located to the secret stairs that lead into Topsiders), and just steps from the secret aft deck on 7. Perfect!
I love the elevator banks on the Magic!
I must have had a drink before taking this picture!
I apologize for the disarray - this photo was taken a few days into the cruise, and we were amassing a nice collection of gifts from our gift exchange!
One of the things I love about Disney cruises over other lines - all staterooms, all the way down to us lowly standard inside staterooms, have a couch.
More than ample closet space...and we used every square inch!
We planned this cruise about a year prior, with our actual sail date being May 4th. Those plans did not hold up (due to a date conflict); we ended up switching to the May 9th sailing about four months prior to the cruise. About a month after that, I found out I would be presenting at a huge conference in Orlando the week we returned, but we were tired of switching dates around and decided we would just hightail it back upon our return to the port. Whew!
So, let’s get underway!
Although we live only 2 1/2 hours from Port Canaveral, we always drive down the night before to make things easy as possible for getting up the morning of the cruise, and boarding the ship. Our spoiled “puppy” (she’s 15 going on 2) was dropped off at WDW’s Best Friends kennel, and we were on our way to the Residence Inn Cocoa Beach. Since we needed to leave from the port ASAP when we returned from the cruise, we decided against the Park and Cruise package, and I scored a decent state government rate instead (when adding that with the $90 port parking price tag, it came fairly close to the park and cruise rate, so it wasn’t too disturbing to pay that port parking fee - although it still makes me want to gag).
Klondike at Best Friends (she had an itchy eye, which is why it looks a bit dark around it)
After an uneventful evening and morning, we headed over to the port somewhere between 11 and 12. Check-in was a breeze, we were given boarding number 3 (due to our early scheduled arrival time of 11:00, even though it was past that), and we headed to the supervisor’s desk just to see what the going rate for an upgrade would be. As tempting as it was to book a one-bedroom suite again, we finally decided against it. All our Disney cruises prior to this have been in balcony staterooms (with the last in a one-bedroom suite), and we promised ourselves we were going to try out an inside stateroom just to see how we would like it. I figured that just meant more spending money for me as well!
Once onboard, our arrival announced by the wonderful CMs, we hightailed it straight for Parrot Cay (I much prefer this to Topsiders for embarkation day lunch). There was a short wait for a table, but nothing too terrible, and soon we were enjoying a nice lunch of salads, pastas, and cold strawberry soup! I went back up to the buffet for dessert and who should I happen to see but Val, our assistant server from our 2010 cruise on the Magic! We loved Val, and I was thrilled to see he was still with the Magic! He quickly remembered who I was, and came back to our table to chat us up a bit. He is now a server, and happened to have the same rotation we had for dinner; alas he would not be our server this cruise. Bright side though, we still saw him often!
I digress. Soon it was time for staterooms to be available. We made a quick stop at Guest Services (where we had a less than magical CM assist us) to make a reservation for me for the Margarita and Tequila tasting. Once that was taken care of, we were on our way up to Deck 7, and our stateroom for the next five nights - 7625! An interjection here - we loved our cabin! It was surprisingly roomy, and even with the single bath, we did not have issues getting ready in the evening. Granted, there were only two of us, but we still found it to be a very comfortable stateroom, and in a superb location! We were just beyond the aft stairs and lifts, exactly two decks below the drink station and Topsiders (and very conveniently located to the secret stairs that lead into Topsiders), and just steps from the secret aft deck on 7. Perfect!
I love the elevator banks on the Magic!
I must have had a drink before taking this picture!
I apologize for the disarray - this photo was taken a few days into the cruise, and we were amassing a nice collection of gifts from our gift exchange!
One of the things I love about Disney cruises over other lines - all staterooms, all the way down to us lowly standard inside staterooms, have a couch.
More than ample closet space...and we used every square inch!
