A reader just sent me these Navigators from the Magic in 2002! It was her honeymoon so she saved everything. I loved looking over these and seeing how much has changed (and what has stayed the same!). I’ll include my thoughts throughout on things that I find noteworthy.
These are the Daily Navigators from the March 16, 2002 7 night Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Disney Magic:
Day 1 (Port Canaveral)
-Michael Harrison and Max Winfrey were onboard 16 years ago! They both still perform today.
-The Cruise Director was Jacqui (who was onboard the Wonder in 2004 – see that Navigator here).
-Staterooms were ready at 1:00 (today it is 1:30).
-In addition to brunch and dinner, Palo offered high tea. Brunch was $10, dinner was $5 (today they are each $40).
-Character names are not given for the character appearances.
-You had to take your life jackets to the safety drill.
–Early dining was at 6:00 (today it is 5:45).
-You could “phone a friend or family member” for $6.95 per minute.
-There was an “unlimited soda package” which included soda from all of the bars.
Day 2 (At Sea)
-“Hercules The Muse-ical” was one of the stage shows. I’m still mad I never got to see this as Hercules is my favorite soundtrack of all the Disney movies.
-There was a behind the scenes tour of the Walt Disney Theater at 1:30 PM. I wish this was still offered.
-There was a “Gala Desserts Buffet” from 11:30 PM – 12:30 AM in Lumiere’s
-Belly flop contest at the Quiet Cove Pool, 3:00 PM
-At 9:30 AM you could pick up tickets for “Tea with Wendy Darling”. This sounds like a Peter Pan version of “Tea With Alice”, which we did on the Magic in 2013 (review here) and “Tea with the Princesses” which we did in 2013 on the Wonder, but both were done away with soon after.
Day 3 (At Sea)
-There were snorkeling demonstrations in the Goofy Pool at 1:30 PM.
Day 4 (St. Maarten)
-All aboard was not until 10:30 PM, which is much later than usual for a Caribbean island.
Day 5 (St. Thomas)
-On this day, all guests had to present themselves person to customs officials before disembarking the ship. This no longer happens today in St. Thomas.
Day 6 (At Sea)
Day 7 (Castaway Cay)
-The “Disembarkment Presentation” was given in the Walt Disney Theater at 4:30. Today, it is shown all day on the TV.
-At 11:30 AM there was a testing of the emergency generators, and guests were asked not to use elevators during this time. I’ve never heard of this happening today.
-There is an announcement about the brand new 7 night Western Caribbean sailings, to begin on 5-11-02 and stopping in Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Castaway Cay.
On this map, it shows a teen beach in the area that is now the far end of the family cabana area:
There was also a “Cruise Highlights” flyer:
She saved her dining tickets. They no longer hand these out.
Here’s the onboard booking offer:
Note that the onboard credits ($200 for a 7 night, $100 for a 4 night) have not gone up at all from 2002 to 2019 (I’m no mathematician, but according to my calculations, the price of Palo brunch has gone up by 300%, and dinner has gone up by %700). Also, it appears that all sail dates were the same price (which is definitely not the case today).
Finally, here’s the ship map:
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You can see Daily Navigators from other sailings by clicking here.
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