Trip Report September Mediterranean Magic DCL

MagicalMaci · May 4, 2017

Day 3 - All to ourselves!

Once they did the typical family announcement we headed to the pool so we could camp out with our carry ons. I’m about 90% positive we had put our swimsuits on under our outfits before we headed to the port. Since we were so close, we already knew it would be a nice day. I had really struggled to find swimsuit cover ups/dresses before this trip to go with my bathing suits, so I actually had stolen mom’s dress today!

We got some Drink of the Days (I forget what it was now and didn’t upload the Navigator pics, but something tropical!) and I settled in for some relax time. It was so lovely being on the ship with so few people! We basically had the pool area all to ourselves

I think we got to port around 11:30 and it was maybe 12:30 by the time we got through everything and settled onto the ship.

seriously... no one around!

Okay… maybe there were several rounds of drinks

MagicalMaci · May 4, 2017

Mom eventually went off on a walking photo adventure around the ship. I think she was searching for the smoking area but definitely explored more than that!

Peek into Palo

Kids play area slide

Some entertainment by the family pool - Flamenco!

MagicalMaci · May 4, 2017

Eventually we realized it was past time for rooms to be ready so we took a break from the sun and headed off to find our stateroom and drop our carryons.

So happy with her clear balcony!

I forget our stateroom number now

Something in the 86## range I believe. Again, it was a Deluxe Family Stateroom with Veranda. So there’s an extra set of drawers by the veranda essentially and I think and extra bed if you needed to sleep 5. Had I known those were the differences, I would have taken more specific photos for you - sorry!

We got dressed and headed off to find a late lunch…

It was hot out there!

Up Next: Day 3 - Lunch and a Luggage Hunt

DisneyJeff · May 5, 2017

I had to Google what a "white wall veranda" was, but once I found out, I agree. The clear veranda is definitely the way to go.

MagicalMaci · May 30, 2017

DisneyJeff said:
I had to Google what a "white wall veranda" was, but once I found out, I agree. The clear veranda is definitely the way to go.

We really enjoyed it and were able to have some lovely moments sitting outside watching the world go by!

MagicalMaci · May 30, 2017

Day 3 - Lunch and a Luggage Hunt!
We easily found our way up to Cabanas and washed our hands at the new(ish) handwashing stations outside the restaurant. We walked the buffet to get the lay of the land and then made some yummy choices and found a table.

Some of our selections include... kids mac and cheese and chicken tenders (surprisingly good, but were different the rest of the cruise) salad (minimal dressing choices) cheese cubes, chicken curry, meatloaf (yum), turkey with cranberry, self saucing berry pudding, rum raisin and mint chocolate chip ice cream, and carrot cake!

After lunch it was a short break before our safety drill. We were in Animator’s Palate (I seem to always end up here for safety drills!) We took some photos before heading down.

We found a seat and chatted with the others at our table as everyone filed in and then they went over the mandatory safety info and in no time we were back on our way!

We headed back to our room and found that we were the unfortunate guests with missing luggage

We waited a bit at first thinking we might have just been last on the list. However, the luggage still hadn’t come and it was about an hour late so we called Guest Services to inquire.

We explained that we had done an upgrade and wondered if our luggage hadn’t gotten the memo… they said they would send someone to look for our luggage and bring it as soon as possible. So we waited some more and still had nothing. Mom went down to our initial room assignment and lo and behold, there it was. She somehow managed to bring it all back to our room (I think she found a CM to help her) and we were finally able to get ready for the night ahead!

I did call back to Guest Services to let them know we had found our own luggage, they were very apologetic but honestly I was a little peeved they couldn’t figure out that our luggage was at our old room and deliver it correctly? It was all solved and we moved on. We unpacked a little as we got ready but we had a full night ahead!

Up Next: Day 3 - First Night Dinner Jitters

MagicalMaci · May 30, 2017

Day 3 - First Night Dinner Jitters

After we finished getting ourselves ready we headed over to the DVC Member gathering. It was a fine presentation but we aren’t interested in adding on at this time and we didn’t win anything

We had the late seating for dinner and we skipped the show this night. It was All Aboard, Let the Magic Begin! The DVC Member Celebration was in the little time between the dinner seating and the shows so that everyone could attend.

Am I the only one that gets jitters on the first night of a cruise before dinner? I can definitely be socially awkward and the thought of eating dinner with a bunch of strangers always makes me very anxious. Thankfully my mom is a social butterfly so that helps a lot! We headed off to dinner at Lumiere’s and met our table mates. There were two other mother/daughter duos from England and then a pair of sisters from South Korea who now live in Amsterdam. When I commented on their impressive English accent the one mentioned she got it when she studied at Penn State!! That is where both my mom and attended college so it’s just so cool how Disney brings people together and you really realize it’s such a small world!

We got to know everyone and enjoyed our four course meal here. I’ll do my best to match the foods with the appropriate descriptions! I didn’t do the best at taking pictures of the content of the menus so I have to rely on the internet a bit here

Warm French Country Bread – With an Olive Spread

Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp – With Green Asparagus, Horseradish Cream and Dill Dressing

Breaded and Deep Fried Brie – With an Orange and Cranberry Chutney

Potage Parmentier – Leek and Potato Soup

Onion Soup Gratinee – With Baguette and Gruyere Cheese

Crispy Roasted Duck Breast – With Cabbage, Bacon, Shallots, Honey Parsnip Puree, and a Duck Red Wine Jus

Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak – Roasted Filet Steak, Crushed New Potatoes with Shallots, Buttered Green Beans, Red Wine Jus, and a Bearnaise Sauce on the Side

Grand Marnier Souffle – Infused with fresh Orange Zest and served with Grand Marnier Creme Anglaise

I have no idea what this was, the menu I found doesn't list anything that resembles...

Strawberry Shortcake Sundae – Strawberries, Vanilla Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, and Shortcake

The food was fine, the appetizers and desserts were the best. The “filet” was clearly not filet and left a bit to be desired. If I ordered something and it's described with potatoes, I typically got double veg or rice. (If anything looks off, my notes weren't great on what we ordered so I'm guessing here) But yes, we did get three desserts because I couldn’t decide which I wanted! Overall it was a great first meal and great meeting the tablemates

Up Next: Day 3 - Evening Entertainment

MagicalMaci · May 30, 2017

Day 3 - Evening Entertainment

After dinner we headed over to After Hours to check out the evening entertainment on schedule for tonight. Fathoms is the main “club” in the district for the adult events on the Magic so that’s where we headed.

We got some seats and got some drinks.

Of course, there needs to be a glow cube at some point!

The performer for tonight was String Fever and they were sooo right up mom’s alley! They were very entertaining and talented and we enjoyed the show!

We didn’t stay for the DJ and dancing instead headed back to our room after the performance.

Anna popped by to leave us a scavenger hunt!

Amazingly, after the show we were awake and hungry so we ordered some Room Service and watched Now You See me 2. (It was starting when we were settling in, there's no on demand on this ship

) I don’t have photos of the room service though, sorry!

We also realized at the end of the night that we didn’t have tickets for any of our onboard activities or excursions. Another issue with the upgrade not getting processed thoroughly. We had to go down to Guest Services to have them reprinted as we had something tomorrow morning!

Day 3 (Embarkation Day)
Location: Barcelona/Disney Magic
Activities: Traveling to Port, Embarkation, Lumiere’s, After Hours
Weather: Stunning once again!
Highlight: enjoying the empty adult pool

Up Next: Day 4

MagicalMaci · Jun 16, 2017

Day 4 - Day at Sea

Day 4 Location: Sea Day
Day 4 Activities: Character Breakfast, Frozen M&G, Twice Charmed, Formal Night, Captain’s Reception

The cruise started with a lovely day at sea and we had pre-planned a few things online for this day already! We started pretty early with a character breakfast in Animator’s Palate. This was something I hadn’t been aware of a few years ago on my first 7 night Disney cruise so I was excited to give it a try. We were lucky (for us anyway) and got the Fab 5 characters for this cruise because later when I went on the Wonder with my boyfriend it was the Disney Junior gang which doesn’t appeal to us!

Views from our room this morning!

We were sat with two other parties and the boys were quiet and finishing up when we sat down but (I’m pretty sure on the names, sorry!) The pair of ladies with us were super friendly and hit it off with mom immediately! They were expert Disney cruisers - I believe one of them was a Platinum Castaway Club member! We reviewed the menu and placed our order while we chatted.

Fun menus for the morning

They come around with pastries similar to most of the sit-down breakfasts on the cruise. We both picked something different - I can never pass up a chocolate croissant / pain au chocolate!

Looks like I didn’t do a great job photographing all the food - I’m sorry! According to mom the hash browns were great (I don’t eat potatoes!), but I’m not sure entirely what she actually ordered that included them. The Denver omelette (I think I had ordered it…) left something to be desired so that was a bit disappointing

I always like to start with a grapefruit when I can (I never eat them fast enough at home, so it’s a treat when I go out!

Some sort of sampler plate...

But of course the food wasn’t why we came - it was all about the characters! I think the photos in here actually came out pretty great so I was glad we chose to do this

Mickey, Minnie and Goofy in their cruise attire are just so cute!

Now we were fueled up and ready to face the day ahead!

Up Next: Day 4 - Downtime and Relaxation!

MagicalMaci · Jun 16, 2017

Day 4 - Downtime and Relaxation

After our tummies were full we wanted to go the pool but unfortunately it was already crowded at 10am. This was the adult pool, but I’d have to assume they were all busy. Downsides of perfect weather! We had also toyed with the idea of hitting one of the drawing classes but managed to just miss them.

So what to do? Shop of course! This was the second to last Med cruise of the year, sooo there was 50% off Med stuff! How could I pass up that great deal? I purchased a shot glass, DCL Pandora Bead, and an anchor print tshirt. The shirt actually didn’t make it though, after I tried it on again in the room it didn’t fit right and we took it back later.

After some shopping we stopped and got a tequila sunrise at the Promenade Lounge (this lounge is so underrated! Always fantastic service and never too crowded!) while we determined our day. I was going to head to Trivia to get us settled and mom was going to take a break and meet me closer to the start. Well this is where I learned not to be early for Disney Cruise activities…

I accidentally Crashed the Diamond and Gold reception because I was early for trivia and didn’t realize what was going on. A nice crew member noticed my lost-ness and offered me a beverage (champagne or mimosa? I forget) and said I could hang out while they wrapped up.

I headed out to find mom as they set up for trivia. This time it was Movie Quote
Trivia and Jo was FANTASTIC at hosting it. She was doing all the voices and impressions as she went through the quotes. Didn’t matter though, we definitely lost with a score of 12/25

Still had a great time!

Up Next: Day 4 - Lunch and a Chill!

MagicalMaci · Jun 16, 2017

Day 4 - Lunch and a Chill!

After our defeat, we watched Pocahontas a bit in the room and tried to plan our day/the rest of the week browsing the Navigators for guidance and the app to see if things would be offered again.

Enjoyed some wine on the veranda!

Decided as beautiful as Cinque Terre is, we will wear ourselves out and wanted to see about cancelling that so we headed down to the shore excursion desk. Turns out we can't cancel in any way shape or form. I will never learn my lesson here - I always want to have my excursions pre-planned but can never keep up with my desire to do it all! There were still excursions available to book on board and I wish we would have just taken a chill pill and left a day empty!

After dealing with that, we headed up to Cabanas to grab some lunch. Something that was a surprise to me is this afternoon we were sailing past Corsica. We had great views from our table at Cabanas!

We enjoyed the view as much as we enjoyed filling our bellies with some yummy food! Today’s selection included: falafel with mint sauce, sweet potatoes and butternut squash (very tasty), gnocchi(it was gummy

), beef curry (tasty but not as good as the chicken yesterday), chicken tikka masala, samosas, and pineapple mango salad.

And of course a sampling of desserts!

Next up it was time for our Frozen Meet and Greet which we had scheduled for 2:15 today. The whole area was done in a Frozen theme so you felt colder when you walked in

We loved that Olaf was there but here’s a tip, you can’t take a photo with any of the characters separately. Just the group shots. I really found the lighting in here to be lacking which was a disappointment since I don’t have a lot of photos with these characters. We were out of there by 2:35 so it was great how efficient this was run!

On our way out, we also saw these super heroes wandering the halls!

We went back to the room to change and headed to the pool next. It was still very crowded but since we had a nice break we toughed it out. A nice young lady leaving offered us her chair so we snagged it and shared for a bit. Spent some time in the actual pool and listened to an acoustic duo who sang covers. They weren't too shabby and really added a nice atmosphere to the pool.

Eventually the lounger next to me opened and mom grabbed it but about 10 minutes later the shade had taken over our area. It was just before 5pm at this point so the heat of the day was wearing down.

Decided to show mom the Rain forest Room since we were in that general area anyway and ended up getting a scrub and staying for about 30 minutes since there was only one other person in there. Utilized the shower in there to wash my hair since I'm about too tall for the shower in the stateroom. (seriously, amazing tip to use the spa showers!) It was so peaceful and a great way to transition for the next part of the day!

Up Next: Day 4 - Formal Night

Trip Report September Mediterranean Magic DCL

MagicalMaci

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