Hello my Friends...A MARVELous Anniversary cruise on the Magic with MDAS Jan 2019

xavier2001

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 31, 2016
Hello all. I'm back again with another trip report. This will be my 3rd time doing this, the links to my other reports are down in my signature (at least I think they are, I'm not the most computer literate). I loved re-living our travels, so thought I would try my hand at writing again.

A quick intro for those who haven't read a trip report of mine before, I am a nearly 40 (eek) year old Occupational Therapist, my DH a definitely 40-something year old businessman who live in the Midwest. Our 15th wedding anniversary was the week before we sailed, gosh that makes me sound old. We have 11 year old twins, who for the first time, were not coming with us. Although they were bummed that they were not cruising, they were super excited to spend a week with their grandparents, less excited about having to go to school while we were gone. This was the first time DH and I have travelled solo since our honeymoon, so it was long past due. I was a little worried that we'd be bored and have nothing to talk about, you'll have to read on to see if that happens.

Here are a few photos of us throughout the years, we have very few photos of just us, we set out to remedy that this trip:

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We just disembarked yesterday, hoping to get this all written down before my memory gets too foggy, I took LOTs of photos to help me along the way. This was our fourth Disney cruise, first time on the Magic. By good fortune, we found out after we booked that we we were going to be on one of the 'Marvel Day at Sea' cruises, BONUS. So new ship, new exciting day at sea, and first time solo.....a definitely FUN adventure. And as for the title of the report, you'll have to wait and see...ok, onwards!
 
Day 0 - Travel Day

Our cruise was leaving on a Sunday. With it being January, and us living in the Midwest we decided we better fly in a day early in case we ran into bad weather. We would have left Friday, but DH had to work and the kids had school. Friday afternoon, I picked the kids up from school and met my Dad halfway (my parents live about 3 hours away). We had an early dinner at Bob Evans, then kissed the kiddos goodbye, as they were spending the long MLK weekend at my parents, then heading home to get back to school.

I got back home early evening, and finally got the suitcases out and started packing. I also was fervently watching the updated weather reports as 'Winter Storm Harper' had begun and was in our path. Where we live in Southern Ohio, we are often on the 'rain-snow line', meaning we don't know whether these storms will produce, rain, ice, or snow until the last minute. The forecasters were predicting anywhere from 1 inch of rain up to 8 inches of snow. Our flight was due to leave around noon Saturday, right as the storm was to begin. I crossed my fingers and said a few Hail Marys that we would get out before the ice and snow came. In addition to the weather, DH was worried about getting through airport security, due to the government shutdown, our poor TSA workers were not getting paid, and there were lots of media reports out about worker shortages, and airport delays.

I tossed and turned Friday night and woke up Saturday morning before the alarm. First thing I pulled up the weather channel app, and saw this glorious photo, looks like luck was on our side and we were on the 'rain' side of the line until at least late afternoon/early evening.

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Hopped in the shower, and finished our last minute packing, and were on the road by 8:30. We enjoyed a breakfast of champions along the way:

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We made it to the airport about 50 minutes later, parked in the ValuPark long term lot, hopped on to a waiting shuttle, and were at the terminal shortly thereafter. There was only 2 guests in front of us in the Delta baggage drop off line, a few short minutes later and we dropped off our bags. I had asked the check in clerk about our seats. For the first time we were flying Delta Economy as I had bought our tickets with credit card reward points, and I did not have enough points for anything but economy. With Delta Economy you do not get to pick your seats until you check in online 24 hours before the flight. I checked in right at 24 hours, however instead of getting a seat assignment, I was told I would be assigned a seat at the gate. The check in clerk confirmed the same thing, reassuring me that I was not on 'standby', just had not been given a seat yet.

After dropping our bags we headed to security, and were relieved to find a fairly short line. Within about 10 minutes we were through the metal detectors and on our way. By this time it was still before 10 and our flight was not due to take off until 12:50. I guess early is better than late.

DH decided he was hungry, apparently a half a cookie is not a breakfast of champions after all. We headed to the only sit down restaurant in the terminal, Max and Ermas. I did my very best this whole trip to take food photos for all you foodies, but fair warning, I often took a bite or two before I remembered. That was the case here. I ordered Erma's original breakfast, which included eggs, meat, potatoes, and toast. I broke the egg before the photo, sorry!!

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After a leisurely breakfast, we pursued the bookstore, and I could not resist picking up this to read along the way.

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Then we headed to scope out some good seats at the gate to charge our electronics. We were entertained by this friendly bird, he flew and hopped around all over the place.

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It was just as fun to watch people's reaction to the bird as they came to sit down, everything from shock to delight to disgust. One lady suggested we try to catch him and take him to TSA!

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As we were chilling, I remembered that I had intended to get a drink carrier to take on the ship so we could carry multiple drinks back to the room more easily. DH suggested we see if the food court had one, so we wandered down there, where I bought a cookie at McDonalds because I felt I should buy something if I was going to ask for a carrier.

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Then we hit up the restrooms, and headed back to our seats. I opened the Delta app, and found that yes indeed, we had been assigned seats, as well as a boarding zone. Was thankful to get Boarding Zone 1, pretty sure that was only because I have the Delta credit card.

After some more patient waiting, we saw our plane arrive, and soon after, it was time to board.

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We walked ALL the way to the back, we were in the very last row, along with all the other economy folks. Thankfully we were sat together. We took another selfie for good measure, then off we went for a bumpy but uneventful flight to Atlanta. We had some snacks:

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Funny story about that snack mix. The flight attendants started beverage service, with one cart at the front of economy, and one cart at the back. Just as they got going it got REALLY bumpy and the captain announced he was stopping beverage service due to safety. Our row WAY in the back was the only one that got snacks. How's that for 'Delta basic' economy class!

And then finally saw some blue skies:

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Once we landed in Atlanta, we had a 2 hour layover before our final flight. We decided we should get some grub as we knew we'd be having a very late dinner. Again, we aren't big food court eaters, we looked at the sit down options and saw a PF Changs. We headed that direction, but saw that it was closed for remodeling, boo. We ended up at Gordon Biersch, which we had never heard of before, but their menu looked good. It was pretty busy, which we took as a good sign. We were given a table right next to the open kitchen. We ordered our food fairly quickly, then waited, and waited, and waited. There was some commotion going on in the kitchen, then one of the employees was yelling, then yelling obscenities, then throwing a plate, then being escorted away by someone who we presumed was the manager. Our waitress came back out, apologizing, saying the kitchen was in some chaos, but our food was coming. 10 minutes later she came out again, asked us to repeat our orders, then promised it was coming. Another 10 minutes, she said it would be out in 5. 10 minutes after than, we finally got our food. Good thing we had that long layover. By this time it was getting pretty close to boarding time, so we quickly ate, hit up the restroom, and headed to the gate, where pre-boarding was happening.

Here is half of my ham and cheese flatbread, it was pretty tasty!

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I had checked the weather again while we waited for our food, was happy to see we were sneaking out before the storm hit Atlanta.

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We hopped on the plane (yep, back row again), took a selfie to mark the time, and then we were once again up in the air. This flight was bumpy too, but I spotted the sun out the window, which made me so happy as we had not seen the sun it what felt like weeks back at home.

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Here are some pretty clouds:

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And a gorgeous sunset:

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We landed safely in Fort Lauderdale, headed to baggage claim, and then called for an Uber to take us to Miami. Backing up just a second, we decided to fly into Fort Lauderdale because it was cheaper, and again, I did not have enough credit card points to get us to Miami. It is about 30 miles between the 2 cities. We debated spending the night in Fort Lauderdale (it was cheaper), but ultimately decided to stay in Miami near the port, so we could have a more relaxing morning. Uber was very efficient (it was our first time), and with a little traffic, pulled into the Marriott Biscayne Bay hotel about 7:30 p.m.

We had booked a 'port view' room in hope of catching a glimpse of the Magic the next morning. We got our port view but were bummed we were only on the 4th floor, hoping to have been up higher. But it was just one night, and the room was clean, and comfy. Upon bringing our baggage up we discovered this, thanks Delta:

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I tried to go online to file a baggage damage claim, but there was no way to do that without a claim number that was supposed to be given to us at the airport. We did not notice the damage when we were at the airport. There was an 800 number to call, to which the recording said there was a high call volume due to Winter Storm Harper. I did not feel like being on hold forever, so I hung up and just send customer service an email with a photo and decided to deal with it when we got back. For the record, they promptly replied to my email, and so far are being pretty efficient in dealing with the situation.

After that debacle, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. It was warm enough to sit on the patio without being too hot, so we sat outside where I enjoyed snap chatting about this lovely adult beverage:

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And had a Cuban sandwich which was pretty darn delicious (and look, I remembered to take the photo before I chowed down):

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I think I had a second drink, then we headed back to the room, tired, and ready for a good nights rest.
 
Day 1 - Let the Magic Begin!

It did not take long at all to fall asleep, and I slept very, very soundly. I am normally a bad sleeper to begin with, even worse when not in my own bed. So I was very surprised to wake up feeling refreshed and rested. First thing, I snuck to the window and was just in time to catch the sunrise:

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If you look to the far right of the photo you will see some familiar funnels!!

As it was still early I hopped back in bed and played on my phone until DH woke up. I took another peek at the weather, noting that Harper was almost finished with her wrath:

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We decided we wanted a little sustenance to get us going. We ordered room service and I hopped in the shower to get cleaned up. Before too long this arrived:

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We decided to split some Cuban pastiellos (which were pretty bland):

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And for protein, we shared this bacon, egg, and jalapeño skillet. (We learned our lesson last trip only eating donuts for breakfast, we were all fading by the time we finally boarded the ship):

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And of course, some elixir of the Gods, funny to be drinking 'Seattles Best' in Miami:

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As we enjoyed our breakfast, and cable TV (we cut the cable cord at home long ago, so now its a treat), we got to talking. We originally had booked an inside cabin to save money. Previously, we had always sailed with a verandah, and decided that we might miss it. Fittingly, a family member had shared this photo on facebook:

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After some discussion, we decided we would try to upgrade our cabin at the port, and let fate be the deciding factor. Our port arrival time was 11, we decided to try to get there a bit early to increase our changes at an upgrade. We still had some time to kill so we did some more watching out the window:

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Let me zoom in for you:

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Along with the Magic, there were several other ships in port. We face timed with the kids, who were having a great time with my parents and said our last goodbyes for the week. At some point we stopped by the front desk so we could fix our suitcase, now we were looking really classy:

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About 10 o'clock, we checked out of the hotel, and called for an Uber. It was less than 5 minutes until he arrived, and only took about 10 minutes to get to the port. We dropped off our luggage, and headed inside. The port security had not opened yet, there were maybe 20 people in front of us in line. Just before 10:30 the line opened and we moved quickly through security. We then headed up the escalators to check in. One big advantage we had is that there were only 2 of us, and being both adults, we were able to move quickly, even though we were not particularly hurrying. We were probably 5th in line to check in. Once we checked in we asked about upgrading. We were walked to the supervisor's desk, where one couple was ahead of us. I tried to listen in and see what upgrade they got, but I couldn't without being too obvious. Then it was our turn. We were able to upgrade from our 11C inside room to a 5C verandah room on Deck 6. The room was on the starboard side of the ship midway being the midship and aft elevators. We excitedly accepted the upgrade and were given new key to the world cards. We were also given our boarding number:

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This was a new experience for us, as in all our past cruises we arrived later, when open boarding had already begun. We headed to the nearly empty terminal to wait. We were able to get seats right up front to watch the action. From the time we took a photo of the Magic from our hotel room to the time we snapped this boarding number photo was 55 minutes. Pretty efficient all around if you ask me.

We read the navigator and passed the time with another selfie:

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About 30 minutes later (around 11:30), the announced the family of the day and then started calling boarding numbers. Our number (4), was called at 11:45, I took a photo of the clock to mark the time. We headed up another escalator, down a long hallway, and then on the walkway to the ship:

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We boarded on Deck 4, which was another first for us, and from my research, par for the course in Miami. We were announced onto the ship and headed down to a very empty atrium:

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At this point we decided we better get lunch before it got too busy. Just like I am an anti-food court snob, I don't particularly care for buffets. It was my goal not to step foot in Cabanas the next 5 days. So we decided to head to Lumieres for the sit down lunch. I think I will leave off here and start fresh with a new post.
 


Day 1 - Part Two, Welcome Home.

Ok, so we left off deciding to head to Lumieres for lunch. We decided to hit up the facilities first, so headed to the aft section of Deck 3. I think we threw the cast members off when we walked past the side entrance, but we were on a mission and they did not say anything. We then circled back and headed in to the side entrance. There were only a few people inside at the time. Having been on the Wonder twice, and never the Magic, it was strange to me that everything was the same, yet a little bit different. It took awhile to get used to that. I admired these beautiful lighting fixtures:

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For lunch, I ordered the potato soup:

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The steak (this was such a huge portion, DH had to help me eat it):

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And for dessert, the sundae:

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DH ordered the gumbo, the muffuletta sandwich, and the sundae, but was not yet down with taking photos of his food, so you'll have to use your imagination. After a long and leisurely lunch, we headed up to Deck 9 to orient ourselves.

As we walked the Deck, we realized just how many kids were on board. It was a little bit of a madhouse. The majority of kids were young (toddlers and preschoolers) as it makes sense given the time of year, most of the older kids were in school). Our last 2 cruises (Panama Canal and Alaska) had had very few kids on board, so it was a little bit of a shock to our system. After making the loop around the deck, we were happy to find ourselves back in the comfort of the Quiet Cove, the adults only pool and and deck. Quick shot of the empty adult pool:

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I snapped a shot of our hotel for some distance perspective:

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And then wandered over to Signals bar to get my first of many 'drinks of the day'. Pro tip, on embarkation day, order the drink from the actual bar instead of the pre-made drinks the servers are carrying around, they make it fresh and its usually stronger/less watered down.

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Also of note, all of the straws on board are now paper straws, better for the environment, but definitely not the same quality as plastic, most days I just took the straw out completely.

I took a few sips, and then realized it was past 1:30, so we headed down to our room. I had packed my magnets in my carry on, so got to work putting those out. Most of these were from last cruise, although I did add the anniversary one and the maps of our past cruises.

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After relaxing in the room for a bit, and enjoying sitting on the balcony with that drink, we went on a search for our luggage. Because we had switched rooms, our luggage tags had our old room numbers on it. We knew they would eventually come our way, but decided to wander down to our old room location (on Deck 6 forward) to see if we could expedite the process. Sure enough both suitcases were sitting in front of our old room, so we went ahead and grabbed them an navigated them down the hallway to our new home. Then we unpacked, and just chilled out until muster. We were on Deck 4 for muster, but it was cool, shady, and rather painless.

We decided against the Sail-a-way party, and instead got a snack (hey we split this):

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And sat on Deck 9 forward, seeing the sites. There was a little excitement when a small Coast Guard tug came racing down the channel with its lights and sirens. Following the tug was this NCL ship:

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The ship pulled all the way to the end of the channel, where then a helicopter took someone off the ship, then the ship turned around and headed back out. We sent some good thoughts to whoever was involved in that emergency. Soon after it was our turn to get on our way. What I did not remember/anticipate is that the horns are REALLY loud on Deck 9 forward. I wish I had a photo of DH's startle when they went off unexpectedly. We enjoyed the sites, and just soaked it all in. Every cast member that we had seen had said 'Welcome Home' when they saw our 'returning cruiser' lanyards. And sure enough, even though we had never been on the Magic before, it felt like home.

At some point we moved from Deck 9 back to our balcony. Here are a few photos we snapped as we headed down the channel:

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And just when we got to the end, and headed into open water, we were greeted with this beautiful sunset:

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By this time it was getting close to dinner, so we changed into something a little nicer. I think I'll pause here and finish out Day 1 in the next post.
 
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Alright, where did I leave off, dinner!! Our dining rotation this trip was LAARR, which put us in Lumieres tonight with their standard rotational menu. I did not snap photos of the menus, they are posted on the DCL blog if you are interested in seeing them. I was excited this trip to try 2 new menus, the Marvel Day at Sea and Rapunzel's Royal Table. As you see above, those were the last 2 nights of the cruise, adding some anticipation to the trip. I digress.

We got to Lumieres just after 5:45, it was enough time that the line to get in had died down. We were shown to our table, which was set for 4 people. I was a little bit anxious, as I had requested a private table, it was supposed to be a romantic anniversary trip after all. Our server, Rey, soon came over and assured us that yes, it was just us, however they like to set all the table places on the first night. Our lead server was Rey, his assistant, Oliver. Both were very nice, and efficient, albeit much quieter than the outgoing Jose on our last cruise. It took a bit to get used to the quiet, but in the end we were very happy with our service. I snapped this photo of the pretty menu cover:

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The Lumiere's menu is virtually identical to Tritons on the Wonder, so I knew quickly what I wanted to order. For an appetizer I had the fried brie, it could have been warmer, but was delicious as always:

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The next course I had one of my favorites, the French Onion soup. Sorry, I stirred in the cheese before I remembered to take a photo:

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For my main course I ordered the Chateaubriand. At this point I was regretting ordering that big steak for lunch too, try as I might, I could not clean my plate:

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DH however, did clean his plate, and Oliver joked with him that they had a private room for 'plate licking' if he wanted that service. We enjoyed some after dinner coffee (which always makes me feel like a real adult):

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And then, went to work on this delicious Opera Creme gateau:

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After dinner, we were thoroughly stuffed. Another difference when dining as a table of 2 is that the meal goes faster, even though we were definitely not hurrying. We were finished with dinner by 7:30, giving us some time for a nice walk to settle our stomachs, I think we perused the gift shops as well, it was pretty crazy in there that first night.

A little after 8 we headed to the Walt Disney theater for our first Broadway show, Twice Charmed. It was advertised to be a twist on the classic Cinderella. I behaved and did not take photos during the show, but did snap this one before it started:

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Overall, I was impressed by this show, it was funny and had a good story line. I was excited to be seeing something new. After the show let out, we stopped by the room, finding this fun towel creation:

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Then we headed over to Fathoms for the adult entertainment. This is one of the things I really wanted to do last cruise, however got sick on Day 2, meaning I went to bed early most nights. In preparation of this trip I loaded up on Vitamin C and obsessively washed my hands, which seems to have paid off, as I stayed healthy the whole trip. We were among the first people to arrive, we chose a booth in the center back, which became our home for the next 5 days. We are more 'observers' than 'doers', and it gave us a great view of the stage and the audience. While we waited we met our favorite bartender, Luis, and he hooked me up with a Mai Tai:

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Soon thereafter, the place started to fill up, I love these Jellyfish inspired lights:

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Not long after that, the adult entertainment host, Tim, came out to introduce himself. We weren't sure about him at first, he seemed a little quiet and awkward, little did we know, he would become our favorite Magic cast member. He started every activity introduction with 'Hello My Friends.' In fact, every activities cast member used that phrase 50 billion times throughout the cruise. Not sure if its just a 'Magic' thing, or something new Disney is using in their training, but its something DH and I found increasingly hilarious as the trip went on. First activity was a game of Intuition, we did not play, but enjoyed watching the audience. Following Intuition, was an adult comedy and ventriloquist show, we enjoyed that as well, although I think the Mai Tai's made the jokes much funnier. Here we are being silly sitting back in our color changing booth:

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The next photo in my phone is this one:

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I'm guessing we stopped by the pub for some late night snacks to soak up all that rum, I do not have any photographic evidence to back that up. After our mysterious visit to O'Gills, we headed up to the top deck, as word on the street is that there was a Lunar Eclipse tonight. It was VERY cold and windy, DH soon retreated back inside. I watched for a little bit, and snapped these blurry photos:

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Then, headed back inside to to the warmth of our room. It was near midnight at this point, we fell into bed, tired, and happy to finally be 'home.'
 
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Day 2 - At Sea

So far, the ship had been pretty rocky, and last night was no exception, we were rocking and rolling all night long. I did not sleep fantastic, but again, that's pretty typical for me on vacation. Thankfully, neither DH or I were feeling sick, just having a little trouble walking upright. DH was up early, and snuck out of the room to get some grub at Cabanas. I woke up a little before 9, which is pretty early for me. Snuck out on to the balcony, never get sick of this view:

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We had blue skies, but lots of wind and waves, DH said they had shut down portions of the top deck earlier for safety. We texted back and forth and decided to meet for breakfast at Lumieres. I quickly got ready and met him down there, only the side entrance was open as they were doing Princess Meet and Greet in the lobby. When we checked in, they asked if we minded sharing a table. We said 'sure why not', and were led to a 4 top where another lovely couple was sitting. We chatted with time, learning they were traveling with family, and enjoyed our breakfast. I felt silly taking photos in front of another couple, so you'll have to imagine my delicious eggs benedict, and DH's french toast.

After breakfast, we headed to O'Gills for Ultimate Disney Trivia. They had already begun to transform the bar into the Snuggly Duckling for the festivities later tonight:

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We did terrible at Trivia, but had fun trying, the 'ultimate' trivia is no joke:

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After trivia, we headed to the D-lounge for Napkin folding. It was listed as an 18 and older activity, which I only bring up, because there were definitely kids there. For the most part, it was fine, but a few people brought their toddlers, who were clearly bored and unhappy to be there. Just thought I'd share that rant as I know its been discussed recently on these boards, the cast members allowed anyone in who wanted to participate, regardless of age. We started off with a fan, simple enough right?:

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Clearly DH has more skills than I do. I redeemed myself with the tuxedo:

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And then, my piece de resistance, the bird of paradise:

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Here are the best of our final products, my only contribution was the bird of paradise, DH beat me in all the rest:

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This was a fun activity, surprisingly DH enjoyed it as well. The ship was still really rocking at this point, DH decided he needed some fresh air so we headed up to the top Deck. It was lunch time by now, we braved the very crazy midship pool deck to secure some grub:

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We took our food up to the Quiet Cove, ahh, much better!! We both wanted a little something sweet, but were not brave enough to head back to the family area, then we remembered Cove cafe, and snagged some 'adult' treats, yum!

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After chilling for awhile, we headed back indoors (DH was chilly, I thought the temperature was perfect). We ended up back in our favorite color changing booth in Fathoms:

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Where we watched an adults only version of The Feud. We did not participate but had fun people watching:

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At this point, we were getting a little tired, it had been a busy day so far. So we headed back to the room for a little rest, I enjoyed this view from the balcony, the seas were starting to calm down:

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At some point mid afternoon we ordered some room service for a second lunch:

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And enjoyed some time reading and chilling:

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Love watching some sunsets, did not get to see the end of this one as the ship turned out of view and it was getting close to dinner time:

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I think I'll stop here for now and pick back up with dinner later.
 


Day 2, Part 2.

Dinner tonight was in Animator's Palate, with their standard rotational menu. We arrived a few minutes after 5:45 and were led right to our table. I am a sucker for the Animator's show on the classic ships so was excited for dinner. We were shown to our table, tucked away near one of the server stations. Snapped a photo of the menu, and of our table number, as this is different than the ceramic paint brushes I've seen in the past:

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To start, I had the pasta pursiettes, one of the most beloved appetizers here on the Disboards. They were exceptionally good tonight, the sauce was hot and fresh:

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Then I had the potato soup, I enjoyed this one more than the one on embarkation lunch, something about the cheddar and bacon:

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Then it was time for the main course, where I went for something new and tried the herb crusted pork chop. I really enjoyed this one. The pork was a little dry, but with the breading and the sauce, delicious (um yeah, I meant to cut it open so you could see the inside before snapping a photo):

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After dinner, Oliver brought out our after dinner coffee and tea, I love that they do this without asking:

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For dessert, both DH and I ordered the sundae, and then we ordered the chocolate walnut tart to share:

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The main dining team, had a surprise for us as well. Right before the big Animation show, Rey, Oliver, and our head server, Dimitru, brought out a surprise anniversary dessert, some anniversary buttons, and sang us an anniversary song:

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The well time photographer was there to snap a photo of the festivities:

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Just then, the show stated, I got a little teary as usual, and then Sorcer Mickey was making his rounds. We were very near the door that he came out of, so was fun to get to see him first thing. Then the servers did their magic vest change while we enjoyed our desserts, yep we are piggies:

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Of the 3, the sundae was the best. The chocolate walnut tart was good, but rich, I ate the walnut crust and left most of the chocolate. We each had a bit of the anniversary dessert, it was ok. We were very full when they rolled us out of Animators.

We were done with dinner by 7:30, next up we headed to O'Gills, which had completed its transformation into the Snuggly Duckling:

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There were 2 thugs at the door, they did not ask us for a password, just asked if we were thugs and to prove our worthiness by acting thug-like. They were satisfied and let us in, handing us a Thug-O board:

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I ordered a Mai-Tai (yep, predictable), and we settled in to a corner booth:

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We enjoyed the game of Thug-O as well as the piano show the thugs put on, overall, I thought this was very well done. We headed out of the pub and to the Walt Disney Theater to see Tangled. I was very excited about this show, again because it was a new one for us, and because its one of my favorite Disney movies. Apparently I still had some room after those 3 desserts as I ended up with one of these:

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I thought the show was great, very well done, I especially loved the lanterns, it was a nice touch. After the show was over, we headed back over to Fathoms, we were a little early, having no trouble snagging our favorite round booth. There were a few games, that I cannot recall at the moment, before the main event for the evening. I had another Mai Tai (probably why I can't remember the other games), and settled in for some fun:

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Tonight they were doing Match your Mate, which is the Disney version of the Newlywed game. We had no interested in being picked, they did a great job picking couples though, and lots of good, clean, pg-13 adult fun was had. I may have ordered a 3rd drink.

After the show we hit the top deck for a late night snack,

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And then headed back to the room to find this crabby friend:

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By the time we enjoyed our pizza on the balcony it was close to midnight, we fell into bed, tired and happy after an amazing day at sea.
 
Day 3- Grand Cayman, Pirate Night

Ok, backing up a minute before getting into this next post. When we first booked this cruise we were trying to save money (clearly that is out the window by now) so we did not book any excursions for Grand Cayman. Most of what was offered were beach adventures, which does not particularly interest us, or snorkeling, which you can read about in my PC trip report. So we decided to play it by ear and see what we were in the mood for. I booked our Palo dinner reservation for this evening, knowing it was Pirate night, and knowing its a menu we've had several times before.

Backing up again to before the trip began, I had had a crazy few weeks, and told my DH that he was in charge of his own packing, somewhat of a foreign concept in our 15 year marriage. The night we were packing, I asked him if he had something nice for Palo, he pointed out the dress shirt, and 2 ties in his packing pile. He was on top of it. Or so I thought. Rewind to embarkation day, when we were unpacking, and he realized he did not have his dress pants. Yikes!! He had several shorts, and 1 pair of jeans, but no dress pants. From reading these boards, I knew they allowed jeans in Palo for brunch, but could not remember for dinner. And we were a little aghast, because we are in the 'if you are going to go to a nice restaurant, dress the part' camp. So we debated what to do. DH did go down to the Palo dining change area embarkation day and ask, they assured him it would be fine if he wore jeans, as long as they were in good condition. 'Good' is a subjective term.' We decided to keep our reservation and see if we could find a better option in the shops of Grand Cayman.

Ok, fast forward back to Day 3. I did not sleep fantastic, but better than the night before, I woke up just before 9, still to early for vacation. I peeked out of the balcony to get a glimpse of the island and saw that the tender boats were already up and running:

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We decided to head to Lumiere's for breakfast. This time we were seated by ourselves, which made for a nice, quiet meal. I got my coffee, and we both ordered breakfast. Before long the pastry cart came along, and I settled on a croissant, here's a half eaten photo for you:

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For breakfast I ordered the breakfast skillet, which was potatoes, chorizo, cheese, and eggs. I would not have thought to order it, but yesterday's tablemate did, and it looked good so I gave it a try. It was delicious, but very greasy:

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DH (who was now all about the food photo taking), ordered the French toast, to which our server made a HUGE deal about it being the Frenchest thing on the menu. It looked delicious:

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We enjoyed a leisurely meal, then went for a walk to work off the calories. We spotted the Fantasy pulling into port around this time, she's way in the distance:

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By now it was after 10, so we headed to the room to gather our belongings, had to get a photo of the matching pirate shirts:

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We headed down to the Buena Vista Theater to get our tender tickets, thinking by now the line would be down. We were surprised to find half the theater full, waiting for their tenders. We grabbed our tickets and joined the line, again noting just how many toddlers and preschoolers were onboard, it was hard for them to wait patiently, most were doing a pretty good job. We didn't have to wait too long until our row was called, and we were off to the tender boat. We were nearly the last ones on, so we had to go downstairs and way to the back to find a seat. The good news is it wasn't too long and we were off:

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Pretty view of the Magic:

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There were 4 ships in port this particular day, meaning the port area was VERY busy. We tooled around the shops across the street, not finding much. We wandered into one store that had some nicer clothes, one of the workers asked if she could help us find something, with a little communication difficulty, finally it clicked and she said 'church pants, yes we have these.' I was getting a little excited as she took us to the back of the store where there was a very nice rack of dress shorts. While they were nicer than DH's jeans, I knew they would not be allowed in Palo. We headed back outside and sat near the fountains, using the free wifi to check in with home. I even tried to google clothing stores in Georgetown, but came up empty handed. At this point we were tired of the crowds, sad we did not accomplish our mission, and ready to head back on board. So we headed back across the street, and hopped on a waiting tender boat. A short while later we were 'home.' Took this to show just how close the boats got to the ship:

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From the time we got on the tender, to the time we got back on the Magic it had only been 90 minutes, it was a short visit to Grand Cayman. We decided to take advantage of the quiet ship, put on our swimsuits and headed up to Deck 9. We had worked up an appetite again, so got pool food. I had my usual hotdog:

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DH got the special of the day, the philly cheesesteak, he was not overly impressed:

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So they he got some pizza for us to share:

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And I had this drink of the day:

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We spent some time in the pool and hot tub, and just relaxed. It was cool in the shade, warm in the sun. A few hours later we headed back to the room to get cleaned up, then headed to O'Gills for more Trivia:

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We did better this time, but still not well enough to win. Right after Trivia they were doing adult only craft hour. We thought why not:

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Here was the finished product, which we gave away to a friend:

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After this we headed to the Promenade Lounge for more trivia, snapped a better picture of this beauty on the way:

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After this trivia (for which I have no photographic evidence), we headed back to the room for a rest and to get ready for Palo. There was a note on our bed asking us not to leave anything on the veranda, and to please not watch the fireworks from the veranda, as there was a chance ash could blow on us. We made a mental note.

Next up, dinner at Palo and Pirate Night.
 
Day 3 - Part 2 Palo and Pirate Night!

Hope someone is out there listening, if you are, give me a holler hello!! I know I'm trying to get these out fast, will have to go back and clean up the grammar and typos once I'm done, otherwise I'm afraid I will forget the story!

Ok, where were we, Palo. So we left off in room, with poor DH with nothing but jeans to wear. Add to that, the bottom of one pants leg was a little bit frayed. He had stopped in the gift shop and bought a sewing kit to try to fix the fray, it was interesting watching him work. We figured no one would be looking at the cuff of his jeans, right? He did have a shirt and tie, and dress shoes, so we hoped to just quickly slink to the table, and then hope nobody noticed his jeans.

Our reservation was at 6 oclock, we got there a few minutes early, the doors were not yet open. So we admired the art in the glass case in the lobby until it was time. There was another couple ahead of us. First thing the host did was look down at their feet! The gentleman in the group was wearing dress pants and sandals, apparently a no go for Palo. They sent him back to the room to get different shoes. Now DH was sweating, he had dress shoes, but remember that frayed hem on the jeans. Thankfully, the host did not notice (or at least did not say anything), and we were escorted to our table. Because we were the first ones in the door, we had to pass by all the servers who were lined up to greet us. We heard a familiar voice! It was Sasha, the server who waited on us twice on the Wonder. It amazes me how good their memories are, he remembered us from our Panama Canal cruise 8 months earlier.

After saying a quick hello, we were escorted to a table by the window. We would have had the perfect sunset view, except for the fact that it was very cloudy out now. Our server, Melwin soon came to greet us. He had been on the Wonder for the PC canal cruise as well, working the main dining room, this was his first contract working in Palo. He was very nice, and eager to please. While we perused the menu, he made us the traditional antipasti plate:

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And the bread basket, the focaccia bread was fresh out of the oven:

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I had asked for a wine suggestion, something similar to a Pinot Noir. The sommelier came over, in the end I forget which wine he chose for me, but it was delicious, very smooth:

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Soon after, we made our dinner selections, and enjoyed a quiet meal. I think it was during this meal that DH and I talked about how much fun we were having, and wondered why we hadn't done a get-a-way before now. We promised not to wait 15 years until the next one. Soon our appetizers arrived, I went with the gnocchi:

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And DH the cannelloni bean soup:

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Both were delicious. For dinner we both ordered the beef tenderloin:

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As well as a stuffed pasta dish that Melwin suggested to share:

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The pasta was stuffed with veal and mushrooms, it was good, but the tenderloin was better. For dessert, I had the chocolate souffle, and DH the limoncello tart. And we enjoyed our after dinner coffee and tea. Someone I neglected to get photos of the desserts, I'm going to blame the second glass of wine on that. After coffee, Melwin brought us out this lovely plate:

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Then we had our traditional limoncello shots before rolling out of the restaurant. During this time, one of the roaming photographers, Javier, came by, we instantly bonded because he insisted on straightening DH's collar and tie before snapping a photo. From here on out, we would see Javier everywhere, and gave him a special shout out on the end of cruise survey.

We headed from dinner back to the room, where we found this pirate guy:

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At this point, it was just before 8 o'clock. We knew the Pirate show was going on upstairs, but had no desire to see it again, or to be in the large crowds. I went out on the balcony to see the dark water, then got a brilliant idea. There was no wind, and we had already broken the unspoken Palo rule of 'no jeans', so why not (again, this may be the wine talking). We sat outside (with the door closed), and enjoyed what felt like our own personal fireworks show:

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It was at this moment, I knew the balcony upgrade was worth it! After the fireworks were over, I took a photo of this gorgeous moon (the photo doesn't do it justice):

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We debated calling it a night, but both got a second wind. We headed down to O'Gills for brain teaser trivia. I had it in my head that I really wanted a Mickey medallion. Looks like another drink of the day was consumed as well.

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And DH had some snacks as well:

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Several teams played but DH and I rocked this one out and actually won!

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Sadly, this was one of only 2 trivias all cruise where NO Mickey medallions were given out, just key chains. I was bummed, but still excited because in 4 cruises its the first trivia we have ever won.

From here, we had a very important date, my DD is a Stitch fanatic and she made us promise we would get a photo for her. I figured the 10 p.m. meet and greet would be the least busy with the preschool crew, I was right!! We were there a little early, guess who the photographer was, Javier! While we waited (first in line) we chatted him up for awhile, interesting to hear how their contracts/duties are different being Shutters versus Disney employees. Soon Stitch arrived and we snapped this photo:

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Then we rushed off to Fathoms, where I think Majority Rules was going on, here are Guy and Tim, our 2 favorite club hosts:

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Oh look, another Mai Tai:

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The last event in Fathoms is called Wonderquest (I think). Its where the host asks for something silly (like a man wearing a women's bra or a bald man with a lipstick kiss), and teams have to race to complete the challenge. Again, we sat back in our color changing booth and watched, it was pretty hilarious. Pretty sure there was another MaiTai after this one. This is also the night that Luis gave us the recipe for these awesome MaiTais. There is a video of a very tipsy me recording the recipe, I'll spare you that torture.

Around 11, we headed back to the room. We hopped on the elevator, and much to our surprise, Dr. Strange (and his handler) were in the elevator. I was too tipsy to think of getting a selfie, wouldn't that have been awesome. I did crack a joke about an elevator time loop, to which, I got a very arrogant look back from Dr. Strange. I'm still not sure why he was in the elevator at 11 p.m., but I was stoked.

Upon getting back to the room, DH ordered some room service to soak up the rum, we sat out on the balcony and ate, then fell into bed, after another long and fun day.

Coming up next, Marvel Day at Sea!
 
Day 4 - Marvel Day at Sea

When we first booked this cruise, it was just because it fit our travel dates and budget. Sometime after, it was announced that it was one of the Marvel Day at Sea cruises. I'm not a huge Marvel fan, but have seen most of the movies, DH was a big Marvel comic fan in the movies. I thought he would be more excited about the MDAS, but he seemed pretty indifferent, I was hoping that would change once he saw what it was. I was just excited to be experiencing something new and different. We had pre-booked character meet and greets with the 'Heros of New York' and with Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. DH has initially said he had no interest in the meet and greets, but he seemed to be very relaxed on this trip, and got into the spirit. Our first meet and greet was scheduled at 9:15 a.m.

After all the rum consumed yesterday, I slept very well, so well in fact that I woke up with a sore neck. Nothing a few ibuprofen wouldn't fix. I hopped in the shower and hurriedly got ready, we made it downstairs just after 9:15. What I wasn't anticipating is how long the line would be, even with the tickets. We waited a good 30 minutes to see the characters. Lots of kids, lots of coughing at this point. I tried not to breathe too much. Finally it was our turn. First we met Spiderman:

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Then Black Panther:

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Then Ironman:

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All of the characters stayed in character very well, we were impressed with this meet and greet. Afterwards though, it was time for some caffeine, stat! We had just enough time to sneak into Lumieres for a sit down breakfast. Along the way, we saw there was no line at this photo spot so we jumped in, she had us pose as the Hulk and Captain America shield:

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Then into the restaurant, where I got my much needed coffee:

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Today, I ordered the French Toast, it was amazing:

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DH got an omelet, which he seemed to enjoy:

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We perused the Navigator app while we dined. When we left the restaurant we took the opportunity to capture Captain Mickey:

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Then we headed to Fathoms for the first Marvel Superfan challenge.

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We got there early and chatted with Guy, by the time the game started it was packed. DH knew most of the answers but was too slow raising his hand to get onstage. We made it to the end, where they crowned the winning Superfan. Then we headed to the atrium to watch the Marvel themed baby races.

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This event never disappoints. We had to watch from Deck 5 as the line for Thor/Loki on Deck 4 stretched all the way around the atrium, and never got any shorter as the day went on. If you want to see them, plan on waiting a good hour.

From here we headed to O'Gills for Marvel Trivia. DH stopped for a costume change along the way:

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It was pretty empty when we got to OGills, DH decided he was craving one of their pretzels. It took a LONG time to come out, but he says it was worth the wait, I had just a bite, as they aren't really my thing:

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This trivia ended up being packed, every available seat was taken. We half shared our booth with another family, which was fine except for the 5 year old kid who was clearly not interested in Trivia. He squirmed and whined and sneezed and coughed the whole time, he would have been much happier in the kids club. This was my general MDAS rant, choose activities appropriate to your kids level, and if you see they aren't having fun, move on to something else. I digress. We did well, but not well enough to win the coveted Mickey Medallion.

After Trivia we had some tough choices to make. Our Groot meet and greet was scheduled for 1:45. By this time it was just after 1. My all time favorite pasta was being served for lunch in Lumieres. The top deck had a MDAS burger. In the end, the pasta won out, we raced over to Lumieres to try to eat and get out before 1:45. Here is the pasta in all its glory, it was as good as I remembered:


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DH had the pasta as well, he enjoyed it, but wasn't terribly hungry on account of the pretzel. We had time for dessert, so I had this chocolate cheese tart which was delicious, but very rich, I only ate half:

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DH had the apple strudel:

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We left the restaurant right at 1:45 and hot footed it over to Animators for our Groot meet and greet. This was a much shorter line. Within 10 minutes we were hanging out with the big tree, who was very amused by DH's shirt:

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At this point, we headed back to Fathoms for the Marvel Super Showdown Challenge. Again, it was a packed house, full of overstimulated, tired, needing a nap preschoolers:

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I coped by drinking a drink of the day 'Hulk Smash':

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After this activity, we were feeling the need for a break from the crowds, so we headed back to the room to chill for a bit. We found our cool MDAS blankets, as well as our tip envelopes, how was it time for these already!?

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DH hung out on the couch watching AntMan while I watched the waves on the balcony. We both felt better after some down time. At 4 o'clock we headed to the Dr. Strange show in the Walt Disney theater. I thought it was just ok, I think the 10 and under set would really enjoy it:

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From here I was on a mission to catch the sunset, it was very windy and wavy outside. The Mickey pool was sloshing around like crazy. We tried to head down to Deck 4, but it was closed off due to the wind. In the end we ended up back in our room, this is the best I could capture before the boat turned and the sunset was out of sight, made me feel better it probably went behind the clouds too:

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I think this is a good stopping point, I'll be back to talk about dinner and the evening festivities.
 
Reading, following along, loving this! We will be on the Magic for a 4 night in 2 weeks for our 10 year anniversary, so this is getting me VERY excited!

If you don’t mind my asking, how much did they charge to upgrade from an inside to a veranda? We are thinking about trying to upgrade at the port, but I’ve never done that before. Feel free to PM me if you don’t want to post publicly.
 
I'm enjoying your trip report as well! Happy Anniversary! We celebrated our 25th last October! I'm about 9 yrs older than you...married when I was 23!

So jealous of your Panama Canal cruise...it's on our 'list'...maybe 2022 after DD14 graduates, lol, assuming we can afford it with 4 yrs of college both ahead (dd14) and behind us (dd18) at that point!
 
Day 4 - Marvel Day at Sea- Part 2

Now that vacation is over and I'm back at work, I'll probably be a little slower with updates, but working hard to get this finished THIS week. Where were we, yes dinner.

Tonight we were at Rapunzel's Royal Table with the Marvel Day at Sea menu. I was SO excited to see this new space, and let me tell you it BLEW. ME. AWAY. The theming was just so beautiful and perfect. I took loads of photos but I think I'll wait and post those when I talk the Rapunzel's dinner menu and show (which would be Day 5).

Loved these cute Avenger napkin folds:

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And the way the menu looked like a comic:

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The special Marvel Day bread, to me it looked a little moldy LOL:

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For an appetizer, I ordered the Wakandan piri-piri chicken skewer. This might be the best appetizer I ate the entire cruise. The chicken was moist and tender, and the chutney underneath was amazing, I'd definitely get this again:

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DH got Captain America's farmhouse appetizer, he said it was good:

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For the main course, I went with the Huntsman's pork loin, this was another amazing dish. The star was the sauce, which was like a mushroom stroganoff, delicious!

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DH ordered the Hulk giant ribeye. This is the only steak he didn't care for, he said the texture was off, he still managed to eat half of it:

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For dessert, I went with the Rocket Road sundae, because rocky road is my favorite ice-cream:

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DH went with this chocolate cake, I forget the name of it, but he was very pleased:

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All in all, a great meal! And nice to sit down and relax after running from one activity to the next all day.

After dinner, we headed to Fahtom's for the Captain America USO show, I wasn't sure about this one, but it ended up being really nice. Oh look, another drink (even the menu's got Marvelized).

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We hung around in Fathoms as they were doing another Marvel Superfan challenge. They gave us these cards so we could play along from our seats:

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The idea was, you stood up until you got one wrong, then sat down. The last 10 people standing got to come up on the stage and compete. We got annoyed with a group of young boys in front of us, who despite getting every question wrong, kept standing. At one point their Mom reminded them they need to sit down when the got one wrong, to which they replied 'If we sit down we won't get to go on stage.' She just rolled her eyes and let them keep going. Way to teach your kids to cheat. We left soon after, heading to the Promenade for more Marvel Trivia.

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We didn't last too long here, there were a group of preschoolers running around like crazy, jumping on the stage, running into people, stealing all the pencils while several parents just sat around looking tired and watched. Even the cast member in charge was annoyed, but doing his best to try to corral the kids. Again, I get they are young kids, I have kids myself, but being on vacation does not mean you get a vacation from parenting. You still have to keep your kids somewhat under control, or send them to the kids club for gosh sakes to burn some energy, clearly they weren't into the trivia. Ok, judgmental rant over.

After trivia, we were feeling pretty done with kids and crowds, so we headed back to the room for some respite. Thor's hammer was there waiting for us:

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DH wasn't sure he wanted to go to the Deck show, because of the kid and crowd factor. We watched some more Ant Man, and finally at 10 o'clock (15 minutes before showtime), we decided we'd be mad at ourselves for missing it and headed upstairs. All of Deck 10 was full, but still plenty of room on Deck 9. We secured a spot near the back, leaning against the railing, which was somewhat protected from the wind. I won't give too much away (you can search on youtube if you are really interested), but it was an EXCELLENT show. I'd definitely give it 2 thumbs up (and this is coming from someone who doesn't like the Pirate show lol). The only photos I got were at the end:

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This one of everyone taking photos made me laugh:

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After this, we had our second wind, so we headed back to Fathoms, which they had turned into the Ravagers club from Guardians of the Galaxy. They had these cute desserts:

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And of course more MaiTais:

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We really enjoyed the Ravagers jumping on the furniture and disrupting the club hosts, very well done event, even Starlord and Gamora showed up:

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Here is our club host Tim visiting our color changing booth, we had so much fun with him!

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Yep, many MaiTais made this photo possible:

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It was close to midnight by this point, we headed back to the room and fell into bed, exhausted, after another busy and fun day.
 
Last edited:
Sounds exciting. Looking forward to more.

Thanks for following along!

Reading, following along, loving this! We will be on the Magic for a 4 night in 2 weeks for our 10 year anniversary, so this is getting me VERY excited!

If you don’t mind my asking, how much did they charge to upgrade from an inside to a veranda? We are thinking about trying to upgrade at the port, but I’ve never done that before. Feel free to PM me if you don’t want to post publicly.

Thanks for reading along, you are going to have an AMAZING time, so fun!! Upgrading at the port was so easy, when you go to check in, just ask about upgrades, once they process you, they will walk you to the supervisors desk, where they have a chart about what rooms are available and what the cost was. We paid $600 to upgrade from an 11C inside to a 5C verandah. It was a lot, but less than it would have been had I booked beforehand.

Reading along!
Happy Anniversary :love:

Thanks for reading along!

I'm enjoying your trip report as well! Happy Anniversary! We celebrated our 25th last October! I'm about 9 yrs older than you...married when I was 23!

So jealous of your Panama Canal cruise...it's on our 'list'...maybe 2022 after DD14 graduates, lol, assuming we can afford it with 4 yrs of college both ahead (dd14) and behind us (dd18) at that point!

Thanks for reading along, PC is still my favorite, we hope to do it again someday, maybe when the kids are in college like you said!
 
This has been great to read. We will be on the magic in April (not a Marvel but still). We loved Tony as the club host on the Fantasy so were a bit worried about the Magic. But seems like the hosts are great. By the way, are you by any chance from the Cincinnati area? I grew up there and just your intro was leading that way. :)
 
This has been great to read. We will be on the magic in April (not a Marvel but still). We loved Tony as the club host on the Fantasy so were a bit worried about the Magic. But seems like the hosts are great. By the way, are you by any chance from the Cincinnati area? I grew up there and just your intro was leading that way. :)

I did not grow up in Southern Ohio, but yes live somewhat near Cincinnati now! Tim and Guy were great. Really all the cruise staff members were great. Tim told me his current contract ends in April, hopefully he's there when you are, he's awesome!
 
Day 5 - Castaway Cay

Wow, how did we get to Day 5 Already!?! This is the shortest cruise we have taken, and it really did seem to go by in a blur.

After yesterday's busy day and last nights antics (aka MaiTais), I slept very soundly. I did not hear DH get up and wander off at some point in the morning. When I arose from my slumber it was nearly 10 clock, man did that feel good. Thankfully I had been drinking enough water and eating enough yummy food, that I was feeling no pain. I peeked out the window and saw we were docked at Castaway Cay:

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I sent DH a text through the navigator app to see what he was up to. He had eaten at Cabanas and was chilling up on the top deck. Soon after he showed up with some pastries and caffeine for me, what a guy. And technically I did not step foot in Cabanas, so I was on track with my 'no buffet' goal ;)

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After scarfing down my goodies, I got ready for the day and took some more photos from the balcony:

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We did not have any big plans for the day, we wanted to check out Serenity Bay and maybe hit up the adult pool in the afternoon while the ship was quiet. Backing up a bit, I at one point was able to snag a Serenity Bay Cabana thanks to a tip in my cruise group. After holding on to it for a few weeks, we decided it wasn't really worth the money so I gave it up to someone else in the cruise group who snagged it pretty quick. We had talked about doing the Jetski excursion but DH was hesitant about it, something about videos of fat people on Jetskis on youtube. In the end it didn't matter because nearly all the excursions on Castaway were cancelled today because of the wind. It was warm out, but definitely windy.

We headed off the ship around 11:45, and took the tram to the second stop, then got off and waited for another tram which took us to Serenity Bay. By this point we were both pretty hungry, those pastries were little. The serenity bay is pretty much the same as the regular buffet except they have steak and you get your meat right from the grill. Here is my plate (don't ask what happened to the bun, I have NO idea):

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And here is DH's:

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It was a little hard to eat as it was very windy, and my chips and napkins kept blowing all over. After lunch we wandered over to the adult beach. It was busier than I expected. There were no free chairs in the shade and all the hammocks were full as well. The wind was whipping pretty good as well. We decided we'd rather relax by the pool, so we headed back to the ship. We were back on the tram by 12:30, very short visit to the island today:

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Once back on board, we headed to the pool. It was virtually empty except for a group of off duty cast members blowing off some steam. They stuck to one corner of the pool and 1 hot tub so did not bother us at all. We spent a good long time floating, and swimming, and just relaxing. At some point I somehow ended up with a second lunch and, you guessed it, a MaiTai:

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At some point we headed back to the room to get changed and watch the waves. Sometime, late afternoon we ended up back in O'Gills to play some more Ultimate Disney Trivia, I was still determined to get a Mickey medallion. I guess we also played some rummy:

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We did not win at Trivia, and decided to head over to the last Bingo of the cruise, the $10,000 Jackpot. We did not win but had fun people watching. No one won the Jackpot, but some pretty big prizes were given out:

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From here we headed back to the room to chills out and get cleaned up for dinner. I'm going to start a new post as I have LOTS of photos from Rapunzels.
 

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