A Magical voyage across the pond LIVE UPDATE 9/30 About This Page:

[Cam22]

It will be interesting to see what excursions Disney actually has when the time comes.

[SuperDave]

Sounds like some good excursion possibilities! I hope things work out in your favor when you re-board the Magic with your stateroom! The Intepid Museum is a great place to visit and certainly worth going to.



I figured you knew I was talking about palm trees from my post yesterday.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

It will be interesting to see what excursions Disney actually has when the time comes.

Well, it certainly was interesting... I'll just give a little spoiler and say they weren't as great as I was hoping for...

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part six: what to do during that time?

So, with our plans established, it was only the last couple of days up in the air. We knew we’d be in Newark, arriving off a flight from Quebec City early on a Thursday afternoon, and flying home from Newark just over two days later on a Saturday night. The question now was what to do during that time?

There were so many different options that I threw around. I looked at perhaps driving down to Washington DC, spending the evening there as it’s a beautiful city at night, then going on to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis and Mount Vernon the next day, before driving into Shenandoah National Park and staying the night there. Then on the Saturday, we’d drive back for our flight home.

I also explored the idea of heading west to Philadelphia, Longwood Gardens (both of which we’d visited before) and Gettysburg National Military Park.

A third idea was going into upstate New York. I’d always liked the idea of seeing the real Saratoga Springs, Albany and the Adriondack Mountains.

Then again, we could go south and perhaps visit Cape May, or what about going back into the southern end of New England?

There were just so many choices, how on earth was I going to make a decision? Well, I decided the best way to do it was to ask on the boards and see what people suggested.

People seemed to either favour the New England or upstate New York options and, of those, New England was the one I liked the idea of, as maybe we could also meet up with Dave, plus we have other friends around there (Marnie and Sara, I’m thinking of you here! ), so that’s what we opted for. I really wanted to go back to Mystic, as we’d never got around to Mystic Seaport, but the one thing I wanted to see was Newport and the Breakers, as that sounds amazing. It was on our itinerary back in 2015, but the weather was so bad as a storm moved in that we gave up. There’s a lot to see in Newport and we’ve also put Providence on the itinerary, as a short stop, after watching Michael Portillo’s Great American Railroad Journeys. That should give us plenty to see during the final part of this trip…

With that set, there wasn’t much more planning we could do, as we were still talking early 2018. I did keep an eye on the Disney Cruise Line Blog, which is a wonderful resource for Disney Cruise Line planning. I quickly learnt that we’d have Captain Fabian in charge of our cruise. We’ve never had him before, so I found out a bit about him. He’s been with the company since 1996 and is Argentinian. He was part of the site team in Italy during the construction of both the Magic and Wonder, so how we’ve managed to avoid him on all our cruises up until now, I don’t know!

It was around this time that the Magic also began its short two-week dry dock in Freeport, Jamaica. The major change is in restaurants, with Carioca’s transforming into Rapunzel’s Royal Table. I’m quite happy to see the back of Carioca’s. Don’t get me wrong, it was an improvement on Parrot Cay, but it was a quick change and doesn’t have the theming of Tiana’s Place, which arrived a while ago on the Wonder. As the name suggests, the new restaurant will be based on Disney’s Tangled and Disney are promising “characters and live entertainment that will transport you to the kingdom of Corona for an evening of music and interactive fun featuring Rapunzel and the mischievous Snuggly Duckling Thugs.” It sounds great.

Another major change is the Cove Café. It’s being “redesigned in a sophisticated tropical style”, which is interesting. Apparently, adult beverage tastings will also be available and I know we’ll be looking to book those when we can.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what they do with the Rainforest Room. I suspect it may be like the new look version on the Wonder, and if so, that will be a big improvement.

Of course, it wasn’t long before photos started to emerge of the new look Magic, and wow, what a transformation. Rapunzel’s Royal Table looks absolutely wonderful and I really can’t wait to dine there.






Isn’t it beautiful?

As for the menu, I’m impressed at first glance with what’s on offer. I am disappointed that the Crisp Isle of Corona Shrimp contains pancetta and the fact it’s served with lemon-tarragon mayonnaise is also a major turnoff. However, the not-so-snappily named Romaine Wedge and “hot” smoked salmon salad (told you!) with raspberries, candied pecans and brie cheese served with a creamy lemon-parsley dressing sounds amazing to me. I just hope it lives up to its hype.

For main course, the pan-seared sea bass fillet with white asparagus, leeks, spinach, broccoli, peas, tangled kohlrabi and carrots served with a champagne-truffle vinaigrette, the Tangled pasta (angel hair pasta tossed in basil-pesto with caramelised sea scallops, roasted vine tomatoes and a sun-dried tomato tapenade served with roasted meyer lemon and the spinach, zucchini, eggplant and ricotta-filled potato crepe baked in a tomato provencale sauce and topped with buffalo-mozzarella cheese and basil all sound good to me. There’s even a lighter note offering of a lobster salad, which also tempts me…

Now I’m a bit more limited on desserts, as the Gothel Black Forest Tower comes with cherry compote, and the warm braided apple strudel is also out. However, Rapunzel’s Fry Pan Sweet Bread – Fry Bread dusted with powered sugar, chocolate-hazelnut sauce and vanilla bean ice cream served in Rapunzel’s Fry Pan. Sounds fun!

Shortly afterwards, photos also emerged of the new-look Cove Café. I have to say it doesn’t look that much different, but having said that, I like the mint green aspect of the new colouring scheme.





Then there’s the new-look Rainforest Café. I had an idea of what it might look like, given the Wonder had similar makeover a couple of years ago.






And finally it looks as if video on demand has finally been added to the Magic with the introduction of smart TVs – about time! We have been saying they needed to go back and retro fit these on the older ships, ever since experiencing them on the Dream and the Fantasy. It’s probably this news that makes me happiest, especially if the seas are rough and we’re stuck in our room.

Next: it was obviously meant to be

[cubfancolleen]

Ooo, I hadn’t heard about the tv update on the Magic. We don’t watch a lot of tv on a cruise, but on the TA crossing last year we were having fits trying to hit it just right with the start of one movie.
I didn’t recall that DC was in the running for Post cruise. That would’ve had my vote! Although I can safely say you couldn’t do Mount Vernon and the Naval Academy in one day, AND drive out to Shenandoah....

[Big Baloo]

Just found this--sounds like you're going to have an amazing time!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Ooo, I hadn’t heard about the tv update on the Magic. We don’t watch a lot of tv on a cruise, but on the TA crossing last year we were having fits trying to hit it just right with the start of one movie.

Yes, we've played that game before as well!

I didn’t recall that DC was in the running for Post cruise. That would’ve had my vote!

Oh trust me, had we opted for that, I would have let you know!

Although I can safely say you couldn’t do Mount Vernon and the Naval Academy in one day, AND drive out to Shenandoah....

Good to know for any future plans.

[Colexis Mom]

Sounds like the planning is coming along. Great changes coming to the ship!

[SuperDave]

Great plans for the trip and looks good by spending a few days in new of the woods in New England. Looking forward to hearing the specifics on this! Some nice updates to the Magic and especially like the idea of finally adding Smart TVs and Rapunzel's Table really looks nice. I did like Carioca's but this is certainly an improvement.

[Cam22]

I love all the upgrades to the Magic!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Great plans for the trip and looks good by spending a few days in new of the woods in New England. Looking forward to hearing the specifics on this! Some nice updates to the Magic and especially like the idea of finally adding Smart TVs and Rapunzel's Table really looks nice. I did like Carioca's but this is certainly an improvement.

I liked Cairoca's, more than I thought I would actually, but I agree with you, from everything I've seen, this does look much better.

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part seven: it was obviously meant to be

Now here I’m going to make a quick diversion, if you don’t mind. And if you do, well heck, it’s my trip report, so it’s up to me when I do. I think it’s fascinating the routes that Disney take each year with the Transatlantic. I’ve only looked at the westbound, as that’s the one we’re taking, but here’s what I found:

2017 – 11 nights from Barcelona to New York via Cadiz, Lisbon, Ponta Delgado (Azores) and St. John’s (Newfoundland) a total of six sea days
2016 – 11 nights from Barcelona to New York via Ponta Delgado (Azores), Sydney and Halifax (Nova Scotia) and a total of seven sea days
2015 – 11 nights from Barcelona to Port Canaveral via Funchal and Castaway with a spectacular total of eight sea days
2014 – 14 nights from Barcelona to San Juan via Malaga, Tenerife, Antigua, St. Maarten and St. Kitts with eight sea days
2011 and 2010 – 14 days from Barcelona to Port Canaveral via Gibraltar, Funchal, St. Maarten, Tortola and Castaway Cay with eight sea days

Now I can only pull this together from the personal navigators from the wonderful Disney Cruise Line Blog which is why it’s a bit incomplete to say the least, given Disney have been cruising the Mediterranean since we did the inaugural one back in summer 2007.

As you can see, the route we’re going to be taking is a little unusual to say the least. I’m not going to say we’re the first people to take it, as I just don’t know, but I can’t recall any Transatlantic going from Dover to New York previously. This does make any planning for this trip a real challenge, as usually you’d look up previous cruises to get an idea of the activities they have on board. If you’re on a regular cruise, such as the Bahamas, Caribbean or Alaska, it’s easy. Not so much with our Transatlantic and of course our second cruise is an inaugural, so who knows what wonderful delights will be waiting for us on that?

You can probably also see why I was so keen on this Transatlantic, as look at the number of sea days on some of these itineraries! Normally we love sea days, but given we’ll be in the middle of the Atlantic and obviously you never know what the pesky weather’s going to be like, four sea days during the crossing is fine with me.

If you’ve read any of my previous trip reports, you’ll know that answer isn’t good enough for me. I know it’s very sad, but I like to have some idea of what we’ll be doing, particularly on the at sea days. I also know that Disney will have lots to entertain passengers, but I felt a bit awkward in a way not cruising with anyone with so many sea days. Sure, we’ll probably meet people on board – we’ve made some fantastic friends over the years on our various cruises – but I couldn’t help but think that it was a shame we didn’t know anyone who’d be on board. It was just a shame no-one from the boards would be cruising with us. I even looked at Cruise Critic and nothing… which is about usual for our cruises. I don’t know. I think it’s just bad luck.

So what happened next was a bit like serendipity. It was obviously meant to be. I was diligently reading Colleen’s (cubfancolleen) wonderful trip report - Battered, bruised, and a little bit intoxicated - a Transatlantic Crossing. I had been eagerly looking forward to reading this to get some ideas for our Transatlantic crossing, although, as I’ve already mentioned, I knew they had taken a very different route to the one we’d be doing.

She’d talked about a Facebook group, but I wasn’t sure about what you’d get out of joining one. I’m part of a couple of Facebook groups, but generally they tend to be either Disney (no big surprise there ) and people share news updates and I’m also part of a group dedicated to America’s national parks. A friend invited me to join and people share the most amazing and stunning photos of these beautiful parks. That’s my experience – short updates and photos. What more can you get from a Facebook group? Well, I was about to find out, courtesy of Colleen…

It was when I got to this part in her trip report that my interest was definitely piqued…

This was an Open Bar in O’Gills, for members of our Facebook cruise group. This was the first cruise where we’d joined a Facebook group, and I must say it was a lot of fun! When we first came in, they were circulating with trays of wine and prepared cocktails, so I started with a Bahama Mama, but then I switched to mojitos. I’d only had two drinks by 4:30 (the event was 4-5 pm) but then somehow I got 2 more mojitos all at once. Then the table next to us decided to start on lemon drop shots. But the bartender did them in a full sized cocktail glass (highball I think) instead of shot glasses. So my table decided we needed those, too! So if you’re counting, in one hour I had at least 5 drinks - more if you count the “shot” as the 3 shots it equaled, rather than the one glass it was in.

That was it – I was sold! The idea of an open bar for a private group sounded too good to be true.

I joined up there and then for the Transatlantic. I wasn’t so worried about the New York to Quebec City cruise, as we’d be with friends for that one.

Almost immediately, I found that they were organising a Palo group brunch in the private room they have there. I signed up straightaway, although the group had been going since May 2017 and we were very late to the party. It was first come, first served, and our names were way down the list. They did warn us that Disney would only confirm the private dining quite late on, later than when we’d need to book our brunches anyway. I still plan to grab a brunch and then if the private dining room comes through, great. If it doesn’t, we’ve still got a brunch anyway.

A few weeks later, there was a load of drama that I really didn’t understand if I’m being honest. It was something about some of the administrators decided to split up and, as a result, a whole heap of names fell off the Palo group post. I have no idea if there’s a competing Facebook group now and they’ll be trying to get the private dining room as well, but you know what? Whatever will be will be, as the song goes. It was definitely too much drama for me to follow…

There were also fish extenders, which I wasn’t interested in, and then there was a tea exchange, which was a nice idea, but I like my PG Tips, so I’ll stick with that, thanks. The most activity on the group appeared to be about the ports of call, although most of that focus was pre-cruise with loads of questions asked about London and how to get to Dover. At least I was able to help with that.

Equally, some people were also asking about New York City and what to do there or getting back home. Those questions I couldn’t help with, as we’d be staying on board.

It seemed as if there was quite a contingent of Brits who’d be on board this sailing, along with of course a lot of Americans. I think there are some Europeans and someone from Israel as well, so it’s a very cosmopolitan group.

Next: this is what I’d signed up for

[purplegal]

Sounds like some great information from the Facebook group, hopefully you will meet some great people.

[lindawdw]

Your plans sound wonderful. Can't wait to hear what you finally decided to do in New England. I continually say this when I read your PTR's that it all seems so complicated planning such a multi-faceted trip! I'm so impressed with your attention to detail that is involved in cruise/land excursions! The refurbishment pictures of the ship look beautiful!

[disney_duke]

Decisions, decisions..... So many choices for excursions! The fjord area is somewhere we were looking to explore when we were in Quebec City a few years ago. We soooo wanted to but we simply didn't have enough time to drive out there.

Cove Cafe and adult beverages sounds wonderful. Sign me up! A lot of the changes to the ship look and sound good too. Especially the TV's!

That is really interesting comparing your TA to the previous sailings. Wow, so many differences! Kinda cool.

This FB group sounds interesting! Sounds like you have the option to be more involved or not involved, but either way, you're able to get some good information. But if they like to indluge in both spirits and food, they can't be all that bad. Right?!