Imalismom
07-19-2009, 10:05 PM
Greetings from the Magic….
It has been a whirlwind 24 hours, believe me!
We got to the port at 9am… people were still getting off the Magic, and people were lining up waiting fore their various plans of ground transportation. We were told to start lining up our luggage by Gate “3”, and the line would start a little from it.
A little about us: we are three families traveling together, we have two cat 6 rooms, one family is ion one cat 6, and the three”girls” are in another cat 6.
We started talking to “Bob”, and he told us that we really did not need to be there that early… I told him, yes, I know, but I wanted to check on upgrading our cabin. He said “Disney does not do free upgrades at the port”, and I told him “Yes, I know, I was willing to pay for the upgrade”. Carol overheard me, and she called upstairs to see if there was going to be any upgrades offered. She then came and told me that there was only one upgrade being offered and it was to the “Roy” Suite – room 8530. The people that had booked it had had to cancel the night before. Wow... I went back and told my traveling companions, and we decided that we all could fit in the suite together… so, back to Carol I went… the upgrade was only $2900 (divide that 3 ways!).. So, we UPGRADED… so…. I am reporting from The Roy Suite on the Magic.
Back to yesterday….
As soon as we finished paying for the upgrade, we had our pictures taken right there – we did not have to go to the special picture line. After we got our cards, which are Gold in color, not the normal blue, we were taken to a roped off area to sit. I’m not sure that was really a “perk”, as DD and I felt isolated – so we left the area and went out to explore and take pictures with Mickey.
At 11:45 they opened a side door for us to enter the Magic. We did not get to go through the Mickey ears, which was okay with me. We were announced and then we were whisked away to a concierge reception. There we met with several people, who took care of Palo (we had to make a change and add Figgie to it), we made hair braiding appts, a change to the Palo Tea (we added Figgie), we were happy with our dinner rotations, so they made no changes to it. Vista was also there in case we wanted to make Salon or Spa appts. Once we had everything settled, we were on our way to Topsiders…
Topsiders…. We had our fill of peel and eat shrimp, some desserts, and by then it was 1:25 and time to go find our room.
The room is beautiful. It is so big that you would not know that we have three families in this suite. Pictures will follow when I can get them uploaded.
Once we were settled in, it was time to go explore the Magic – we walked around, watched a rain cloud get closer and closer and closer… and then the skies open up and poured. It rained so hard they moved the sail-away party inside. Sail away was in the 3rd floor atrium – I did not stay, as I had a balcony that was calling my name.
Back to the room, some of our luggage had arrived – so we started to unpack and explore all the drawers and cabinets. One of the cabinets was stocked with kid games – most of them were not even unwrapped from the original wrapping. We enjoyed sail away from our balcony, and were even able to see some porpoises as we hit the open waters. The captain was trying to outrun the storm; however the storm followed us for most of the evening. Watching an electrical storm while out to sea is something to experience -- it is truly magnificent! I could never get a picture of the lightening though - could never time it just right with my camera. We paralleled the Glory until about 10 pm – you could see the lights of their ship all lit up at night – it was a nice contrast to the black of the ocean and sky.
We have first rotation, and our first night is at Parrot Cay, followed by Lumiere’s on formal night. We are in the middle of Parrot Cay, in table 49. Our servers are Melwin and Gabor, and Gabor was working very hard to have our names learned by the end of the night. I started out with a Baked Crab Martinque – which was a jumbo lump crab in creamy sauce served with colorful Tortilla and Plantation chips. That was followed with a Parrot Cay Salad – Fresh tender Spinach tossed with sliced red onions, mushrooms, and a warm bacon dressing topped with crisp bacon and chopped eggs. Dinner was Island-spiced grilled Rib-eye topped with handmade spiced butter, corn on the cob, and a double baked potato. Dessert was a trio of crčme brulee cheesecake, lemon meringue, and s’mores vanilla cake.
After dinner, I was too tired to go seethe show, so I opted to return to the room, where the rest of the luggage had finally arrived. Our animal(s) tonight was a sweet bird, sitting next to a large elephant. After finishing unpacking, I sat on the balcony and watched the storm a little more before my bed was calling my name. The gentle rocking of the ship quickly had me sleeping
Sunday – Day at Sea
This morning the room service phone call to let us know that room service was on its way woke me up – and soon, they were putting a table cloth on the table and setting out breakfast. Breakfast was a continental breakfast this morning – from today on, we can order anything from Lumiere’s for breakfast.
After breakfast, I went to the worship service they offered at 9am. It was led by a cast member, not an ordained minister, who had a heart for God, and liked to lead the service – it was a combination of worship songs on the TV and a small study on Paul. It was about 30 minte4s long, and was very nice. I am glad Disney offers this. There were maybe less than 30 people there, in contrast, DVC had a welcome back meeting, and that room was packed with standing room only – I really wish more had attended the service.
After the service, I went to the Art of Entertaining. Today was a Tuna Tartar with Edgar from Animators Palate. He said it took 3 hours to prepare – 2 hours to catch the fish –15 minutes to clean, 15 minutes to quick-freeze, and 30 minutes to fix. Everyone got to taste, and they even paired it with a white wine – which is why I think this is adult only.
I spent the rest of the day just being lazy – and then at 3:30 I had an appt with the hair-braiding lady. This is the one that does the kids hair in the teeny-tiny braids. I had her French braid my hair – one braid on each side of my face into a half up braid. It looked perfect for formal night. I also had DD done in one French braid done the center of her head. Total cost without tip - $5.00. Total cost with tip $15.00 – had this been done in the spa’s salon - $75.00. Tip to the readers – if you want a nice hair style for formal night – and your hair is long enough for a French braid – try the kid braiding station.
Tonight was Golden Mickey’s night – I just got back from dinner. DD is out watching Golden Mickey’s – I’m opting to watch it from my stateroom – no one is here, and it’s like having the suite to myself.
Dinner started out with a Prosciutto with chilled honeydew, followed by a Broccoli and Maytag Blue Cheese soup topped with crushed Walnuts. My main entrée was Rack of New Zealand Lamb with a Dijon Mustard Crust, Gratin Potato cakes, and baby Mediterranean vegetables with rosemary flavored Jus. Dessert again was the trio (I love that they have this option!), just a 2 bite portion of all three – a ricotta crčme brulee, a golden Mickey’s chocolate award, and a raspberry cheesecake.
Golden Mickey’s is about to start, so I’m saying goodbye for now… sea day again tomorrow, with a Palo Brunch at 11am. Bruch will be followed by the Proposal showing at 1:45, and after that dinner at Animator’s Palette.
Okay, so I thought I was gone for the night – the concierge lady (Nicole) just came in and spent about 30 minutes with me – making sure everything is perfect. She is such a nice lady – form Germany – she worked with Disney –Paris before she came to work on the Magic. It was nice getting to know a cast member up close and personal.
She even helped me get connected to the Internet. Tip; If you are in your stateroom, which now all staterooms have access, and having trouble connect, go to your stateroom door – open the door and connect there – then you are feel to move about your cabin.
She even left this mutli-page list of DVD’s we can check out – so DD is now looking and saying Mo, we can watch…. Only trouble – I’m not sure when – but I guess it’s the Devil Wears Prada tonight…..
... oh, and my Mickey Bar just got here.....
It has been a whirlwind 24 hours, believe me!
We got to the port at 9am… people were still getting off the Magic, and people were lining up waiting fore their various plans of ground transportation. We were told to start lining up our luggage by Gate “3”, and the line would start a little from it.
A little about us: we are three families traveling together, we have two cat 6 rooms, one family is ion one cat 6, and the three”girls” are in another cat 6.
We started talking to “Bob”, and he told us that we really did not need to be there that early… I told him, yes, I know, but I wanted to check on upgrading our cabin. He said “Disney does not do free upgrades at the port”, and I told him “Yes, I know, I was willing to pay for the upgrade”. Carol overheard me, and she called upstairs to see if there was going to be any upgrades offered. She then came and told me that there was only one upgrade being offered and it was to the “Roy” Suite – room 8530. The people that had booked it had had to cancel the night before. Wow... I went back and told my traveling companions, and we decided that we all could fit in the suite together… so, back to Carol I went… the upgrade was only $2900 (divide that 3 ways!).. So, we UPGRADED… so…. I am reporting from The Roy Suite on the Magic.
Back to yesterday….
As soon as we finished paying for the upgrade, we had our pictures taken right there – we did not have to go to the special picture line. After we got our cards, which are Gold in color, not the normal blue, we were taken to a roped off area to sit. I’m not sure that was really a “perk”, as DD and I felt isolated – so we left the area and went out to explore and take pictures with Mickey.
At 11:45 they opened a side door for us to enter the Magic. We did not get to go through the Mickey ears, which was okay with me. We were announced and then we were whisked away to a concierge reception. There we met with several people, who took care of Palo (we had to make a change and add Figgie to it), we made hair braiding appts, a change to the Palo Tea (we added Figgie), we were happy with our dinner rotations, so they made no changes to it. Vista was also there in case we wanted to make Salon or Spa appts. Once we had everything settled, we were on our way to Topsiders…
Topsiders…. We had our fill of peel and eat shrimp, some desserts, and by then it was 1:25 and time to go find our room.
The room is beautiful. It is so big that you would not know that we have three families in this suite. Pictures will follow when I can get them uploaded.
Once we were settled in, it was time to go explore the Magic – we walked around, watched a rain cloud get closer and closer and closer… and then the skies open up and poured. It rained so hard they moved the sail-away party inside. Sail away was in the 3rd floor atrium – I did not stay, as I had a balcony that was calling my name.
Back to the room, some of our luggage had arrived – so we started to unpack and explore all the drawers and cabinets. One of the cabinets was stocked with kid games – most of them were not even unwrapped from the original wrapping. We enjoyed sail away from our balcony, and were even able to see some porpoises as we hit the open waters. The captain was trying to outrun the storm; however the storm followed us for most of the evening. Watching an electrical storm while out to sea is something to experience -- it is truly magnificent! I could never get a picture of the lightening though - could never time it just right with my camera. We paralleled the Glory until about 10 pm – you could see the lights of their ship all lit up at night – it was a nice contrast to the black of the ocean and sky.
We have first rotation, and our first night is at Parrot Cay, followed by Lumiere’s on formal night. We are in the middle of Parrot Cay, in table 49. Our servers are Melwin and Gabor, and Gabor was working very hard to have our names learned by the end of the night. I started out with a Baked Crab Martinque – which was a jumbo lump crab in creamy sauce served with colorful Tortilla and Plantation chips. That was followed with a Parrot Cay Salad – Fresh tender Spinach tossed with sliced red onions, mushrooms, and a warm bacon dressing topped with crisp bacon and chopped eggs. Dinner was Island-spiced grilled Rib-eye topped with handmade spiced butter, corn on the cob, and a double baked potato. Dessert was a trio of crčme brulee cheesecake, lemon meringue, and s’mores vanilla cake.
After dinner, I was too tired to go seethe show, so I opted to return to the room, where the rest of the luggage had finally arrived. Our animal(s) tonight was a sweet bird, sitting next to a large elephant. After finishing unpacking, I sat on the balcony and watched the storm a little more before my bed was calling my name. The gentle rocking of the ship quickly had me sleeping
Sunday – Day at Sea
This morning the room service phone call to let us know that room service was on its way woke me up – and soon, they were putting a table cloth on the table and setting out breakfast. Breakfast was a continental breakfast this morning – from today on, we can order anything from Lumiere’s for breakfast.
After breakfast, I went to the worship service they offered at 9am. It was led by a cast member, not an ordained minister, who had a heart for God, and liked to lead the service – it was a combination of worship songs on the TV and a small study on Paul. It was about 30 minte4s long, and was very nice. I am glad Disney offers this. There were maybe less than 30 people there, in contrast, DVC had a welcome back meeting, and that room was packed with standing room only – I really wish more had attended the service.
After the service, I went to the Art of Entertaining. Today was a Tuna Tartar with Edgar from Animators Palate. He said it took 3 hours to prepare – 2 hours to catch the fish –15 minutes to clean, 15 minutes to quick-freeze, and 30 minutes to fix. Everyone got to taste, and they even paired it with a white wine – which is why I think this is adult only.
I spent the rest of the day just being lazy – and then at 3:30 I had an appt with the hair-braiding lady. This is the one that does the kids hair in the teeny-tiny braids. I had her French braid my hair – one braid on each side of my face into a half up braid. It looked perfect for formal night. I also had DD done in one French braid done the center of her head. Total cost without tip - $5.00. Total cost with tip $15.00 – had this been done in the spa’s salon - $75.00. Tip to the readers – if you want a nice hair style for formal night – and your hair is long enough for a French braid – try the kid braiding station.
Tonight was Golden Mickey’s night – I just got back from dinner. DD is out watching Golden Mickey’s – I’m opting to watch it from my stateroom – no one is here, and it’s like having the suite to myself.
Dinner started out with a Prosciutto with chilled honeydew, followed by a Broccoli and Maytag Blue Cheese soup topped with crushed Walnuts. My main entrée was Rack of New Zealand Lamb with a Dijon Mustard Crust, Gratin Potato cakes, and baby Mediterranean vegetables with rosemary flavored Jus. Dessert again was the trio (I love that they have this option!), just a 2 bite portion of all three – a ricotta crčme brulee, a golden Mickey’s chocolate award, and a raspberry cheesecake.
Golden Mickey’s is about to start, so I’m saying goodbye for now… sea day again tomorrow, with a Palo Brunch at 11am. Bruch will be followed by the Proposal showing at 1:45, and after that dinner at Animator’s Palette.
Okay, so I thought I was gone for the night – the concierge lady (Nicole) just came in and spent about 30 minutes with me – making sure everything is perfect. She is such a nice lady – form Germany – she worked with Disney –Paris before she came to work on the Magic. It was nice getting to know a cast member up close and personal.
She even helped me get connected to the Internet. Tip; If you are in your stateroom, which now all staterooms have access, and having trouble connect, go to your stateroom door – open the door and connect there – then you are feel to move about your cabin.
She even left this mutli-page list of DVD’s we can check out – so DD is now looking and saying Mo, we can watch…. Only trouble – I’m not sure when – but I guess it’s the Devil Wears Prada tonight…..
... oh, and my Mickey Bar just got here.....