Trip Report: September 30, 2019 5 Night to Maine/Canada on the Disney Magic – Day 1

You can see all of the daily navigators for this cruise by clicking here.

Day 1:  NYC

I left off in my last post from the cruise right before this (we did a back-to-back) as we were pulling up to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal after spending a few hours in the city.  Our Uber driver dropped us off on level 2 at the passenger drop-off area.

We had no luggage to hand off to a porter, so we proceeded into the building to get into the security line.  The line moved quickly and then we walked down to the other end of the building to get into the check-in line.  We went through the platinum Castaway Club line and got checked in rather quickly. Our girls were excited because this would be their first cruise at platinum level (my husband and I have taken 2 cruises without them) and they would be getting platinum lanyards – only, they didn’t.  When the CM handed me 3 gold and 2 platinum, I asked her why the girls weren’t listed as platinum and she said she didn’t know and that I would have to take it up with guest services after boarding.  Bummer.

I think it was about 12:10 at this point, and boarding had not yet started which was unusual.  On our last cruise, it had started about 11:45.  I also noticed a group of cruisers who appeared the be the back-to-backers (who had not left the terminal like we had) standing together to one side.  I listened to some conversation around me for a few moments and began to think that the Coast Guard inspection must be holding things up.  I have read that the CG inspections are unannounced, but that is not true because our server had told us about it the night before at dinner. So in this case, the back-to-backers were not able to board the ship before general boarding began like they usually can.  When we did a back-to-back last year in Vancouver, we re-boarded the ship well before general boarding started and had a nearly empty ship for a couple of hours.

Boarding ended up starting at about 12:15. FYI, when talking to our server later that night, he told us that boarding would have been delayed even further had the CG made them complete the “abandon ship” drill. Had they been required to do that drill, boarding would have been delayed an additional 1-2 hours.

I think we ended up getting on the ship about 12:30, and we must not have gone to Cabanas right away although I can’t remember (and didn’t write down) what we did.  By the time we did make our way to Cabanas a little while later, it was SUPER crowded so we decided to get lunch from the counters on the pool deck.

At 1:30 we went to our rooms to drop off our stuff and rest for a bit.  I think since we were back-to-backers, we technically could have accessed our rooms prior to 1:30, but I was afraid that people will see us go past the barriers and follow suit, and I don’t want to do that to the room hosts who are feverishly working to finish things up.  So, we waited until 1:30.

We had the same rooms for this sailing, so we were able to leave all of our stuff in them.  We were in rooms 2643 and 2645 on deck 2 aft.  For this sailing, I had preordered the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Stateroom Decor package (details here) and Abhay had it all set up for us. By the way, I noticed these were available on the website in late July and ordered ours then, and I never did go back to check and see if they sold out.  I know the Christmas ones usually become available in September and sell out very quickly.

The set included a treat bag, 4 magnetic glow in the dark hanging ghosts, a plush blanket, double-sided pillow, and a carrying bag.

We also received 2 more Castaway Club backpacks and luggage tags, so we were now up to 4 for this trip.

I found our onboard credit statements:

FYI, DCL just eliminated the onboard credit as part of the onboard booking benefits (details here) which accounted for $200 for us on this sailing and it’s such a shame.  We already pay such a premium over other cruise lines and the onboard credit surely just encourages even more onboard spending so I really don’t understand it. If you want more tips about how I build up my onboard credit as much as possible, you can read them here.

My husband and I were pretty tired from getting up at 4:30 AM, so we spent some time resting in the room.  I know I did go down to guest services at some point and ask about the platinum lanyards.  The CM was very apologetic and said the computer system must not have updated the girls’ statuses right away.  Last year, my husband and I became platinum in Vancouver in the middle of a back-to-back and that time it did update immediately and we received the correct lanyards at check-in, so who knows.  She gave me the platinum lanyards so all was well.

I think the next thing we did was go to the safety drill at 4:00.  We were station Q and met in Animator’s Palate. After the drill, the girls wanted to go back to the room and watch movies, and my husband and I went up to deck 9 to check out the Sail-A-Wave party. The weather was not nearly as nice this time as it had been 5 days earlier.  It was overcast, windy, and pretty chilly.

We didn’t have jackets with us, so we decided to skip the party and go down to the Quiet Cove area.  One of the things I love about back-to-back cruises is the ability to skip things without feeling like you are missing out.

It was warmer in the Quiet Cove area since it is sheltered from the wind, and we got some coffee to help wake us up.  We ended up watching most of the sail away from chairs right next to the windows in the Quiet Cove. It was a very cool, dreary afternoon.  Thankfully the weather had been nicer earlier in the day while we were at Central Park.

We texted the girls (iMessage now works on the ships for free!) and told them to meet us at the Walt Disney Theater at 6:00 for Tangled: The Musical.  We had watched it on the previous sailing but enjoyed it so much that we wanted to see it again. I was disappointed that we had not yet sailed past the Statue of Liberty.  When we had sailed past it on the previous sailing, the sun was bright and the angle had made it hard to both see it and get good photos of it. We waited until the last minute to go down to the theater on deck 4, but we still weren’t to the statue yet.

However, as we were walking into the theater, I glanced out the doors to deck 4 on the starboard side of the ship and saw it! We quickly went outside to get a few pictures, which was much easier today with the cloudy skies.

I think we sat down in the theater at 6:00 on the dot.  The timing had worked out perfectly.

We enjoyed the show just as much as the first time. Afterwards, we went to the shops to see if there was any Maine/Canada-specific merchandise.  Unfortunately, there was not.  I guess it was because this was the only Canada sailing of 2019. They still had the Bermuda stuff out (and kept it out the entire sailing) which I thought was a little strange.

Next we went to the Promenade Lounge to kill some time before dinner. I didn’t write down what we did, but probably listened to live music and ate some of the chips and salsa/guacamole that they put out in the evenings.

At 8:15 we went to Rapunzel’s Royal Table for dinner.  Our dining rotation was different for this sailing: RLARL.  I found it interesting that they changed the pattern of the dining rotations from the previous cruise (we had ARRLA), even though they were both 5 night cruises with ports on days 3 and 4.

We had requested Leo as our main server (whom we had met last year in Palo on the Wonder), and met Thiago (asst. server) and Ramsay (head server). I think this was the first time we have ever had a server whom we had met on a previous cruise, and it was nice because you could skip past all the awkward getting-to-know-you stuff and just be able to talk comfortably right away.

I decided to try totally different dishes from the previous cruise.  I had the Ravioli Tiroler (very good):

And the Tangled Pasta (very good):

My husband skipped the first 2 courses and just had the Pan-Seared Sea Bass Filet (very good), which I had ordered on the previous cruise:

I included more details about this restaurant and the birthday celebration in my last trip report (which you can read here), so I’m only going to include a few photos tonight.

Leo taught her how to hang the spoon on her nose:

One of the thugs was kind enough to take a selfie with us:

 

The Birthday Cupcake Sundae (very good):

I ordered Rapunzel’s Fry Pan Sweet Bread tonight as my dessert (I had tasted my husband’s on the previous cruise) and it was incredible! One of the best desserts I’ve ever had on DCL:

After dinner we went to the Promenade Lounge for Disney Trivia at 10:00, then to the D Lounge at 10:30 for karaoke.  I’m surprised I was still able to keep my eyes open at this point since I had been away since 4:30 AM. After karaoke, it was finally off to bed.

Up Next:  Day 2 – At Sea