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Friday, August
14 - Day 6, The Disney Magic
After everything I had heard about the maiden voyage, I
was expecting glitches and came on board expecting problems, but determined not to let
anything spoil the trip. But as my report will attest, the cruise went beyond my wildest
expectations. I honestly did not have my Disney blinders on when writing this, although it
may seem so at time. We had a wonderful time.
We checked out of the BW and were on the road by 11. We arrived at the terminal around
12:15. We were there early enough that we were able to park in the lot in front. Check in
stations were set up by the first letter of your first name. The A-C line was about three
families deep, but we were taken care of at another line that had nobody waiting. The
characters were there to greet everyone. Everything went smoothly. No sooner did we get on
the line to board, than they started letting people on. Even though boarding is at 1:00,
it was 10 minutes early. Even Mickey and Donald got in line. |
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The Keys to the World serve three purposes, the room key, charging
privileges and your access to the ship. This system turned out to be very efficient, since
it made embarkation and disembarkation painless. It also made it very easy for the crew to
keep a tally of everyone on and off the ship. No head counts required. While we had no
problems with our keys, I did meet some people who did and they were all on the combined
land/cruise package. They did say that the problem was
resolved quickly, although one couple still had trouble getting into their room.
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We found our room easily.
We had stateroom number 7566, which was on the starboard side of the ship
and almost perfectly midship. All
the descriptions and pictures didn't do it justice. Between the desk and the chest of
drawers, there was ample space and plenty of hangers. There was a complimentary bottle of
champagne waiting for us. Not sure if all guests received it, or if it was because we were
DVC members. I did check the wet bar, and other than a bottle of wine, it was empty.
Topsiders was open for lunch. Getting there early helped, as the lines didn't build up
until later. The selections were plentiful. There was tomato and mozzarella salad, jumbo
shrimp, tortellini, chicken marsala, yellow rice, cold cuts, a carving station, and more plus desserts, of course. Plus all the iced tea and cranberry
lemonade you can drink.
After lunch, we walked around decks 9 and 10, then went to Palos to make our reservation.
This was a switch from earlier reports. Reservations were being made at Palos starting at
3:00. We got there at 2:15 and there were already 7 people in front of us. One of the
servers, Charles came out and told us about Palos and they started taking reservations at
around 2:45. I had run to the room to get our navigator, while Judy waited on line and our
luggage had already been delivered to the room. We made our reservation for Sunday at 6
and went back to the room to unpack and wait for the boat drill. There were two boxes
waiting for us from DVC - complimentary DVC beach towels with a picture of the Disney
Magic on them. The boat drill went off smoothly. We had to convene on deck 4 and a drill
assembly leader took attendance We also got to see an incredible lightening show, as a
storm rolled in at the same time. |
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dinner, which was in Lumiere's. We arrived shortly before the doors were opened, so if any
long lines developed, we didn't see them. Our escort had trouble finding our table, even
with a layout in hand, but Judy found it, only one table away from where we were circling.
We were seated with two other couples, Scott and Ginger, newlyweds from Cincinnati and
Peter and Antonella, from Westchester, celebrating their 3rd anniversary. Our servers were
Paul and Dale. Paul had the distinction of being the only American server on board.
Lumiere's recreates the style from the movie, down to the glass covered rose centerpiece.
I indulged and had the lobster bisque and Fruit de Mer, a combination of lobster, shrimp,
scallops and mussels. Judy had a fruit cocktail, nicoisse salad and a mushroom and ricotta
ravioli. The lobster pieces were a little dry, but the four pieces of shrimp were huge,
and the scallops sweet. For dessert, Judy had ice cream and I had the fresh fruit. I
didn't realize until later that I was not offered coffee, which annoyed me slightly, a
little because I forgot and a little because I wasn't reminded. From dinner, we went to
Off Beat to catch the 8:30 show. There were four performers, plus an accompanist on
keyboards. Two other performers work at Studio Sea. All six rotate throughout the cruise.
They weren't as polished as the group at the Comedy Warehouse, but they put on a good
show. I suspect this was due to the group only having a month together before the first
cruise. The style was similar to the Comedy Warehouse. We had about 3/4 hour before Disney
Dreams, so we went to Sessions for a cappuccino and some relaxation. Sessions is a
wonderfully intimate bar with the |
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most comfortable chairs and couches, big plush, velvety seats you
just sink into. Kenne is an entertaining performer and I know we'll be back this trip. We
still had some time, so we checked out the two shops and bought the bulk of our souvenirs
here. We then walked into the Disney Theater and found ourselves fifth row center seats.
Again, the seats were very comfortable, albeit a little tight for a larger person
like me. I think this is due to the large arm rests that held cupholders. I'm no theater
critic, all I can say is that we enjoyed the show. It was on par with any performance in
the parks. The set changes were well designed and staged and the performance entertaining.
The only number I didn't care for as much was The Circle of Life, which served as the
finale. I think mostly because the female singer's voice was not suited to the African
music style of Circle of Life. After the show, we headed back to our rooms, but ran into
Rich and his daughter Samantha from the Backstage Magic Tour and talked for an hour.
  
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