A Christmas Ship Comes Sailing In (A Cam and Luke TR) Completed 2/18 - Page 33 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Your last night on the ship was very nice. That was a long drove home. We drive to Disney for every trip but it'd be a 16 hour drive if we drove straight through. We usually stop in S. Carolina and then get to Disney the next day.
Liz
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That wasn't a bad trip home. Glad the weather was on your side (I just came in from driving through snow, so it's on my mind).
Not bad at all. We both had hoped that we wouldn't end up with icy or snowy weather to travel home in. Thank goodness it worked out to be nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Wow, that was a long drive! I can understand wanting to just get home, though. This has been such a nice cruise. Looking forward to your final thoughts.
I don't think Luke or I would have predicted just how much fun this cruise would be.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
It sounds like your trip home was uneventful. We haven't driven to WDW in several years now, but it is about 13.5 hours from our house. We usually would split the drive in 1/2 going down, but do the whole thing in one day coming home. There's something about just getting home after a vacation. I can't believe you did laundry when you got home. I certainly would not have even thought about it until the next day.
Laundry is one household chore that I actually enjoy. I know I might just be a little crazy.
Thank you for sharing your trip with us! It looked and sounded amazing!
for reading along!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Breakfast sounded yummy along with the eats on the way home. We have Freddy's here and the boys are big fans. You're trip home sounds similar to ours until you get to Nashville as we take 24 through Clarksville up to Paducah (I looked it up on Google maps). you made it home at a decent hour though as our trip is several more hours.
We keep hearing rumors that our town might be getting a Freddy's. I hope we do as we love so many items there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldmom
We do the drive from Missouri and make it two days because I'm a wimp and just can't deal with the traffic in/around Atlanta anymore. But all in all we find driving much better and cheaper than flying.
love your trip reports. I'm sad that this one is ending but have hopes for another one soon.
Your last night on the ship was very nice. That was a long drove home. We drive to Disney for every trip but it'd be a 16 hour drive if we drove straight through. We usually stop in S. Carolina and then get to Disney the next day.
Liz
We realized we could be home by 8:00ish, we just didn't feel like stopping overnight. Our own beds were calling our names.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jenseib
how can this be over???
I love the seasonal decorations on CC. I hope some day to get there when it is decorated for the holidays.
That is a long drive home. I have no patience anymore for driving like I used to...but if it was the only way for me to go..I would suck it up.
I didn't use to have the patience for the drive, but it wasn't too bad at all.
Transportation: Now that we’ve experienced our first road trip to WDW, we have found that not only is it a huge financial savings, but it is quite doable. My arthritis was never an issue, and we didn’t have to stop for stretching breaks nearly as often as I had feared. We almost always drove for at least 3 hours between stops, making the trip down in 13 hours 9 minutes and the trip home in 12 hours 34 minutes. We did the trip down in two days, which worked well for us since I had an appointment the morning of our first travel day. The trip home was done all in one day simply because we were ready to be home. Our total fuel costs were $215.08. So helpful since we hadn’t originally budgeted for this trip. The end result is that we’ve decided to drive down again this May, splitting the trip down in two days. We’ll be able to leave earlier than noon on that trip, and we hope to drive at least 8 – 9 hours the first day in order to have more time at WDW. More than likely, we’ll do the trip home in one day just like in December.
Christmas at WDW: We had experienced Christmas at WDW once before on a mid-November trip in 2010. Because of that, we knew some things we wanted to do again and some we hadn’t done that we’d like to do. We only had a day and a half to experience the parks so we planned the few, most important things we wanted to do. My number one choice was Illuminations with the holiday tag, “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” That was the main reason for our leaving home a day early in order to arrive our first day with time to make it to Epcot. Luke’s number one choice was the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. So that became the main goal of our second night. We both agreed that we wanted to see the Magic Kingdom in its holiday finery. It was the only park for which we made FP+ selections. I mentioned to Luke that I’d wanted to see home, Animal Kingdom Lodge, decorated for Christmas for quite some time. He suggested that we make one of only two ADRs at Sanaa. That way we could explore both Kidani Village and Jambo House. We happily made all our must dos plus we were surprised by a chance to watch the Candlelight Processional even if we had to stand. Next time we go at Christmas, I plan to book the dining package for this so we can take advantage of the priority seating. Overall, we were very relaxed during our park time as we felt no need to rush from one attraction to another. Knowing our priorities beforehand made for no stress touring.
Resort: This was our second stay at OKW, and we enjoyed it as much as the first time. We did have a ground floor room, so no need to lug suitcases upstairs. Our only complaint might be the inability to get into our room when it was already cleaned and ready. We also enjoyed our breakfast ADR at Olivia’s Café, some place we’ll return to in the future. Transportation here was fairly speedy both heading to and from the parks. Luke was tired of driving so this worked out very well. J
PassPorter Meets: We were able to meet Stephanie and her DH again, even after missing them on our first night. Thank goodness, we had both planned to be at MK on the same day. To our surprise and joy, we also got to meet Lesley and Tom and Bob and Larry for Illuminations.
Disney’s Magic: On our previous cruise, we had sailed aboard the Wonder, and thoroughly loved it. I was very excited to see a refurbed Magic for our trip, especially after reading Cheryl’s TR about their Mediterranean cruise. She had so many great photos of the ship, so I felt I knew the ship before I boarded. From the moment we boarded, I was enthralled by the beauty of the ship, finally witnessing it firsthand. We never felt lost or confused as there really is a flow to the decks along with helpful signs.
Merry Time at Sea: We both were excited to sail during the holidays, knowing how well Disney does the holidays at the parks. We were correct. Everywhere you looked there were touches of Christmas from the atrium to the dining rooms to the decks. Our first night had the Tree Lighting Ceremony, which felt sort of like turning the lights on the tree at home. We did not make either the arrival of Santa or Mrs. Claus story time, but heard that both were very good.
Luke and I were not looking for nonstop entertainment, but every night as I read through our Personal Navigator, I was aware that if we had wanted to fill every minute it would have been very easy to do. Even in the staterooms, there were a numerous good movies showing on the TV. We did enjoy every single show in the Walt Disney Theater, such amazing talent. What we discovered was that cruising allowed us to do as much or as little as we wanted. In the end we balanced activities with relaxing and came off the ship in the end rejuvenated.
On Deck 9, the pools, even Aqua Dunk for Luke, were well-maintained, and I appreciated all the available lounge chairs for napping, movie watching, and sunning. The easy access to a variety of foods on Deck 9 was perfect. We often took advantage the drink refill station and the free ice cream. At sea days were perfect for spending time here.
Fitness Room/Spa: I did not book any spa treatments as I needed to keep costs down. For the next cruise, I hope we have more time prior to the cruise to save as I’d love to try one of the massages. Our second At Sea day we spend an hour or so in the Fitness Room, wishing that we’d come in each day. Lesson learned for next cruise. Being on a treadmill isn’t so bad when you are facing the ocean.
Stateroom: Our room (6080) was midship, which we selected specifically to cut down on my chances of feeling seasick. On the second day, we discovered when we saw them beneath the water that we were directly above the stabilizers. Our room never felt rocky in the least. We spend the extra money to book a deluxe ocean view stateroom with a verandah. Luke was initially skeptical about how much we would use the verandah, but he realized just as quickly as I did how nice it was to spend time out there any time of the day. Because we were on the port (left) side, we had the cool advantage of being able to see each port of call as we arrived and departed. This made for lots of fun photos. Our stateroom host Rurie was immaculate and efficient while also being very friendly and helpful. I the towel animals.
Dining: We’ve never cruised on any other line so I’ve nothing for comparison, but I do love the rotational dining aboard Disney’s ships. It is easy to keep up with where you are eating each night as it is included on the Key to the World as well as dining tickets we received our first day. I stowed the tickets in my purse in case I needed reminding, and we both had our KTTW with us at all times. With our rotation we dined in Lumiere’s three nights and that may explain why it became my favorite. It feels like the most formal of the three. Animator’s Palette is fun, especially now that there are two different scenarios here. We really enjoyed our temporary stint as animators. We had two very different experiences in Carioca’s as we were the only ones from our table to dine here on formal night, and the restaurant seemed fairly quiet this evening. Our second night here, the last night of cruise, was much noisier as I had expected. None of these dining rooms would have been the exceptional experience they were without Agus and Servet, our server and assistant server. From the first night, I felt that both of these gentleman were attentive and excellent at taking care of us. My favorite dish was the Black Truffle Pasta Pursiettes. I enjoyed dressing up each night for dinner; Luke tolerated it for my sake. him!
Port Adventures: Key West: Exploring on our own was not a bad choice, though I think I should have done a wee bit more planning other than finding a place to purchase Key Lime pie. We were neither one impressed, so we’ll not be rushing back. Grand Cayman: I was disappointed that our original excursion the Nautilus Undersea our was cancelled, but the backup excursion, a bus tour of the island, was okay. Our bus was very small and cramped for the 24 mile, 3 hour tour. Hell was odd, but at least we can say we’ve been there and didn’t stay. If we ever make it back here, we’ll try for the Nautilus again and hopefully, the seas will cooperate.
Cozumel: our Mexican Cuisine Workshop and Tasting with Chef Luis. We couldn’t find any fault with the margaritas, food, waterpark, and beach. Playa Mia was a fun experience. We’d even do this port adventure again.
Castaway Cay: We didn’t book any specific excursion here, planning to lounge at the beach and complete the 5K walk on our own. And we did just that. The water here is such a beautiful blue, almost too blue to be real. The Christmas decorations fit in beautifully with the décor of the island, and kept the holiday spirit already created aboard the Magic.
DVC: We did not stay on points, but still received the DVC perks of the cruise, a magnet on our stateroom door, a welcome aboard gathering with free drinks, Tervis tumblers, trivia, and commercials, and a small gift for each of us every night of the cruise (we just had to stop by the DVC desk on Deck 4).
Will we cruise again? Most definitely! At least that is my opinion. But right now we don’t have one budgeted for this year. We’d like to do the Alaskan cruise, and I’m very interested in learning what Pris thinks of the Norwegian cruise as I’d love to go to Norway. So maybe in the not so distant future, I’ll set sail again.
Thanks so much for reading along as I relived one of my favorite vacations. ‘Til we sail again!
Great wrap-up! Thank you so much for sharing another wonderful TR! I've been on two Disney cruises, but have no idea when my next one will be, due to my kids being on different vacation schedules now (one in college, one in high school). That only leaves us with July/August (too hot) or Christmas week (too expensive). But at least I can enjoy cruises vicariously through all the wonderful TRs on here!
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There was a moment when I was driving through Nashville after dark where I felt a bit uncomfortable. But otherwise, driving or riding wasn't bad.
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Overall, we were very relaxed during our park time as we felt no need to rush from one attraction to another. Knowing our priorities beforehand made for no stress touring. 
Our only complaint might be the inability to get into our room when it was already cleaned and ready. We also enjoyed our breakfast ADR at Olivia’s Café, some place we’ll return to in the future. Transportation here was fairly speedy both heading to and from the parks. Luke was tired of driving so this worked out very well. J
the towel animals. 
If we ever make it back here, we’ll try for the Nautilus again and hopefully, the seas will cooperate.
PassPorter Guide Author
I'm glad the road trip worked out for you and that I could help out with the photos of Magic! 
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