Christmas on the Magic 2016 - COMPLETED

They are back! Excellent pictures! I wondered how you got around the 10 picture limit. Clever girl! But now I can't see your Avitar picture, FSU Girl. :crazy2: I think Flossbolna is right. Must be a DISboards problem, but that is good becasue I know they will fix it.

Something I noticed, the line was always very long on the right side of the theater and almost no one was on the left.

I found the same thing when I was on the Fantasy! Noticed it the first night, kept up the whole time.
 
DAY FIVE - SAN JUAN (DECEMBER 27) PART FIVE

Hopefully the pictures show up for this post (fingers crossed)

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We walked through the hallway with art and I just had to take some pictures of them. I really wanted to buy one of these paintings. I find them to be so beautiful and detailed, but they were $1,100 so I couldn't really justify the cost. Plus my mother is a professional artist so I was hoping she could paint me something similar for free. (It's not really her art style so I don't think that'll happen, but at least I have the photos as memories) These were just a couple of my favorites. If I could I would have bought every single one. They are just so detailed and beautiful. And the longer you look at them the more little hidden gems you find.

We went down to the Snuggly Duckling to see the show. There wasn't much of a description from anyone on here before I went so I wasn't sure what to expect. They had told us that there was a password you had to say to be allowed inside. It was something that ended in Quack Quack Quack lol. I didn't pay attention when they told us, but luckily my boyfriend did and David the adult cruise host let us inside. We got a table right in front of the piano since a cast member had told us that would be the front of the show.

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Before the show started they had us play a game of Thugo. It was basically the same thing as Bingo, but with characters from Tangled and David would call out a character. We were one off from winning (the coveted keychain lol)

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So the show (if you want it to be a surprise don't read this part) had the two actors from the Tangled performance who played the Stabbington Brothers come in the bar. They were complaining about Flynn Rider and then bumped into David who interacted with them. He had them do a contest where they would each explain the backstory to how they got a scar. The first brother to go had a silly story about how he got his. The second brother had the piano man play him a tune that he could sing to. He walked all over the pub singing about something and was very funny. There was a little bit more banter and then they left and that was the show. I thought it was fun.


We went up to the pool deck and got some late night pizza and headed back to the room. I didn't take any pictures of the pizza we had pretty much every night at 11:30pm. I sure do miss being able to just run upstairs to get a slice when I'm hungry.

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This little guy was waiting for us in the room. We stayed up a little longer watching some Disney Classic movies. Tomorrow was our last Sea Day.
 


DAY SIX - SEA DAY (DECEMBER 28) PART ONE

It was starting to feel like our cruise was coming to an end. We were past the halfway mark and had reached our last sea day of the cruise. I was determined to get in as much activities as possible that we had yet to experience. We had taken a look at the navigator the night before and found everything we had wanted to do. Some of the activities were annoyingly early so we didn't get to sleep in much. One thing I had really wanted to try was the Anyone Can Cook sessions. There had been a couple on the cruise, but we hadn't gone to any yet. This one was serving scallops so I definitely wanted to go. I didn't really know what to expect from this. I thought we would actually get to cook and was a little disappointed that you only get to watch a chef cook in front of you.

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This was the sign outside of the D Lounge where the seminar would be held. We got there early and there wasn't that many people there yet. We got seats at the front and were handed a recipe sheet of what would be cooked today. This class was starting at 10:30am, which I think it a little early to be eating dinner type food and drinking wine.

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I want to try making this at home, but haven't done it yet. I've never made scallops before and have heard they can be very difficult to not screw up.


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Jamezy was leading this cooking seminar. He always makes everything very fun and entertaining I'm glad we did so many activities with him. The picture on the right is of a precooked scallop that they passed around to everyone who was attending. This was another thing I was disappointed in. I thought at least we would be eating freshly cooked food, but the scallop did taste delicious. My boyfriend even liked it and up until this point he hated scallops.


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I loved this artsy shot I took of the chef between of our complimentary wine. I wish the lighting wasn't so weird in here, on the right are the two dishes the chef was cooking in front of us. The plating was very pretty, but it's hard to tell with the pink and blue lights.

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This was the free wine they were pairing with our scallop. I normally hate red wine and never drink it, but I actually really liked this one. It's a French wine and I found it in a Publix (food shopping center) near my house and it was only around $20. I was excited I thought it might have been some exotic wine you could only import from France.

Once we were done with the cooking class it was almost time for Jack Jack's Diaper Dash. I had read about this and insisted to my boyfriend we must watch it. It was still a little early so there wasn't a huge crowd yet. We decided to hang out on the fourth floor looking over the balcony to watch. I ran down to the third floor to get a picture of Mickey decked out with little toy Jack Jack's.

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Here's our view of the race. So apparently a lot of crawling aged babies were taking their midmorning naps so there were only three babies would actually participated in the race. Since they didn't have that many they had just learned to walk babies race before hand. The main event was hilarious. There was this one little boy who was I think 8 months old, all he wanted to do was be with his dad. There was this one girl who looked like she might win, she scooted to the center of the mat, but she ended up clapping for the winning girl which I thought was cute. I've decided when I have children I'm going to bring them on the ship to enter this competition lol.

We had some lunch in Lumier's (no photos unfortunately) and then went back to the room to relax. My boyfriend wanted to take a nap so I decided I'd attend a DVC meeting where there was a chance to win a $200 on board credit.

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We had gone to Disney World back in September and had been invited to a meeting with DVC for the Polynesian. This meeting was basically a rehash of what I had learned then, but I did get a free alcoholic drink and water and a limited edition pin. I sadly did not win the $200. We've thought about buying into DVC, but that won't be for a couple of years after we've started a family.

I don't remember what I did after this. I think my boyfriend was still napping so I probably watched more Disney movies on the TV.

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Tonight was our last night in Animator's Palate. They were going to be doing the big show where your drawings come to life on the screens. I didn't take pictures of the show, but it was cute to see my terrible drawing dancing around. I was not happy with the food this night.

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Since they have the show they have to condense the menu so you don't have too many courses. The appetizers were only one option of shrimp, salmon something and duck something. The only thing I liked on the plate was the shrimp. Then tonight was lobster, which I had been looking forward to the entire cruise. I looove lobster. I ordered two tails I was so excited. One was somewhat edible, but the other was rubbery in places and mushy and disgusting in others. I ended up having to order something else, but at that point I was just over the food and didn't eat much.
 
DAY SIX - SEA DAY (DECEMBER 28) PART TWO

After dinner we went to the show, it was Buckets N Boards. They had preformed the night before for just the adults in Fathoms and were pretty hilarious. I was excited to see what they would do for everyone and they did not disappoint. If they are on your ship I highly recommend going to see them.

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I took a picture of our cruise director Leslie after the show had completed. She was giving the usual rundown about the next day and what was happening around the ship for the rest of the night. We had late night plans for this night. At 10:45pm they were showing Rouge One again. Since I had fallen asleep in the middle the last time I really wanted to watch it again. I was a little worried since it was so late and we both had to get up early tomorrow for Castaway Cay, but we both managed to stay awake. I really loved this movie I think it was great. And I didn't fall asleep! :cool1:

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In that teeny tiny print is the schedule of when all the movies were showing.

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Next door to the movie theater is the nursery.

We wanted around deck 5 and saw princess Daisy taking pictures. She had a really long line so I just took a picture of her from up there.
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By the time the movie let out it was really late and we both wanted to go to sleep.
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Next up was our last day of the cruise :sad2: and my first visit to Castaway Cay!:yo-yo:
 
We've thought about buying into DVC, but that won't be for a couple of years after we've started a family.

There is a great forum here on the DIS about purchasing DVC. If you think it is something you are interested in, I would definitely recommend reading around there to get as much information as possible. The DVC guides tend to sometimes present things in a light that is a little more favourable for DVC than the cold reality. I am a DVC member myself, so I do think it is something that can work out well. But I spent a lot of time trying to understand what I was going to spend that large amount of money on. Now there are things about DVC that I do not like (like no daily housekeeping), but at least I knew that before I bought and now I just grumble and don't feel like I was cheated.

Since they have the show they have to condense the menu so you don't have too many courses.

Yes, that's the reason why that night has become my standard Palo (or Remy if on the new ships) night.

We wanted around deck 5 and saw princess Daisy taking pictures. She had a really long line so I just took a picture of her from up there.
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Oh! I have never seen a Princess Daisy! How cute!!
 


@Flossbolna Thank you for that helpful tip about DVC! I'll definitely be doing more research on it before we consider buying in or not. When I was at Disney they kept us for three hours (told us it would be one) and we learned a lot about it. It probably won't be for a couple years I have to talk my boyfriend into it.

I just realized I read through one of your trip reports just now, where you were going through the Panama Canal, it was really interesting! I've never thought about a cruise through there, but now I'm considering it.
 
@Flossbolna Thank you for that helpful tip about DVC! I'll definitely be doing more research on it before we consider buying in or not. When I was at Disney they kept us for three hours (told us it would be one) and we learned a lot about it. It probably won't be for a couple years I have to talk my boyfriend into it.

I just realized I read through one of your trip reports just now, where you were going through the Panama Canal, it was really interesting! I've never thought about a cruise through there, but now I'm considering it.

Wow, three hours instead of one!

How funny that you are one of my readers! I am happy that you enjoyed it. And that itinerary is amazing. It was mainly my boyfriend who first wanted to do it, but I was quickly convinced.

I am really enjoying this report, so would love to read one if you end up doing a Panama Canal cruise!
 
Wow, three hours instead of one!

How funny that you are one of my readers! I am happy that you enjoyed it. And that itinerary is amazing. It was mainly my boyfriend who first wanted to do it, but I was quickly convinced.

I am really enjoying this report, so would love to read one if you end up doing a Panama Canal cruise!
It is really funny, I only noticed that it was yours since I got an alert you posted while I was reading it and was like, oh the names are the same! Doing that cruise will probably be a long way off, especially since it seems like it will be a very long trip and I don't think I could get that much time off from work right now. I am going on another Disney cruise in May for my birthday I will probably do a trip report for, but it's no where exciting just the Caribbean. And I think the DVC meeting went so long because she thought we were going to buy into it that day, even though we told her we wouldn't that we were just interested. I find it interesting the lady will send follow up mail, but it's only addressed to my boyfriend. I guess she doesn't think I have anything to do with the decision process.
 
DAY SEVEN - CASTAWAY CAY (DECEMBER 29) PART ONE

So bear with me, I took a lot of pictures on this day. Most of them were taken with my underwater camera that seems to have all oversided photos so will probably be having quite a few parts to get all the pictures in.

Today was a bittersweet day since it was the last full day of the cruise and that meant back to reality tomorrow. :scared:

But it was also the day I was most looking forward to - Castaway Cay! I had heard so many great things about their private island and couldn't wait to experience them for myself. My boyfriend wanted to run the 5k they offer on the island so we had signed him up for that the night before. He had to get up much earlier than me and meet up with everyone doing the run. I planned on getting off the ship when they cleared the rest of the boat. I am not a runner and didn't even bring sneakers on this trip, so my objective was to go to Serenity Bay to get us two hammocks and wait for him to arrive.

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A view from our balcony. I liked being able to watch the crew setting up the island. It also allowed me to take my time getting ready since I could see no one was allowed off the boat yet. I was a little concerned about how my boyfriend would find me once his race was done. I planned on not taking my phone off the ship, just my underwater camera, and was bring his phone with me in our complimentary beach bag from the cruise. Once the ship gave the all clear I made my way down to deck one to disembark. It was weird doing this alone and I felt a little claustrophobic as every single person on the cruise squeezed into the stairs to get off all at once. I'm also only 5'3'' so many people around me towered over me. Once off the ship I got two towels that they were handing out to everyone and walked over to the first tramp stop. I noticed the sign didn't mention Serenity Bay so I asked a Cast Member who told me this tram would take me two stops, where I would then need to get off and transfer to a different tram that would take me to the adult only beach. I missed the first tram and the second one took about 10 minutes to get to us. The wait for the second tram wasn't so bad. The difference between the two trams: the family tram has doors, the adult tram does not. I guess they figure adults don't need safety.

Finally after all my traveling I made it to Serenity Bay!

I scoped out the beach (which was basically entirely empty when I arrived) and picked two hammocks to set up camp at that were right next to the main path. I figured that way my boyfriend could easily spot me when he got there.

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I got into one hammock and relaxed. We brought two six packs of beer with us on this cruise and hadn't really drank any of them so I brought four cans with me to the beach. It was still a little early for a beer (which I actually hate and much prefer vodka) so I just relaxed and enjoyed the peacefulness of the beach.

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I noticed these birds on the beach by the water and thought they looked familiar.
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If any of you have seen the short before Finding Dory, I think these birds were the inspiration for that mini movie. They look exactly like the birds in the short and they behaved the same too. They held my attention for most of the morning while I was alone. After some time had passed I began to worry I might have missed my boyfriend arriving. I hadn't walked down the beach to look around and the chairs went very far down. Of course I was worrying needlessly and he arrived about an hour after I had been there. Apparently they hadn't been allowed off the ship early and had gotten off with everyone else.

We decided to go into the water for a little bit. The water felt freezing at first, but after a while you adjust to the temperature. It was very shallow and you could walk out really far with the water only going up to your waist. The water was also completely crystal clear, letting you see all the fish swimming around. I guess since so many ships come here the fish were used to the people around them. We even saw a barracuda swimming around, but he wasn't interested in any people.
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All the underwater pictures I took were just me putting the camera just below the surface of the water. We didn't snorkel here.
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DAY SEVEN - CASTAWAY CAY (DECEMBER 29) PART TWO

I was fascinated by all the fish everywhere. You couldn't walk two feet without seeing different fish. They would come right by you too, nothing seemed to scare them except when you were walking and splashing in the water.

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I believe these are parrot fish.
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We walked all the way to the end where the safety buoys were. I wanted to see if there were different fish the farther out in the ocean we went. What I noticed was the majority of the fish stayed closest to the shore.
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Sorry this post seems to be all fishies. It's the first time I've owned an underwater camera and was very excited by the marine life.
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We interrupt these fish photos to bring you a topside man jet skiing. They had a rope dividing the area people were allowed to swim in and the side that had jet skis. There was also a little water in between no one was allowed to go in.
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Ok back to fishies. Here are some angel fish that were swimming around. I took five pictures of them, but I'll save you the torture and only post one. They were sweet and followed me around the water for a bit.
 
I'm going to miss your vacation when it is over, too! Great pictures. We didn't actually make it over to the Adult Beach, so it is great to see some pictures of it. Also, I didn't realize how many more fish there were in this area than the family beach. Wow!
 
DAY SEVEN - CASTAWAY CAY (DECEMBER 29) PART THREE

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In the distance you can see a person parasailing. We had opted to not do any of the cruise excursions on the island and just relax on the beach. I think I could be persuaded to parasail on another visit, I've never tried it before.

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This day was perfect to be spent at the beach. The sun was shining brightly and it wasn't too hot or too cold to be in the water. The water was so pretty too! Look how clear it was!

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Here's a view of the other side of Serenity Bay. I heard some people saw a giant Sting Ray over there.

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Grass was found in patches along the ocean floor. We were warned not to walk on this, although I'm not sure if it was because it felt gross on your feet or their might have been marine life hiding in it.

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Here's a view when we walked all the way out to the end of the rope looking back at the beach.

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I'm glad the only thing we saw on this list was a Barracuda.

After this we had had enough of the water and went and relaxed in our hammocks. Around lunch time we went over to the BBQ they have set up at the adult beach and I had a hot dog. The one difference between this location and the family beaches is that they have steak here. My boyfriend had that. After eating we relaxed some more in the hammocks. It never got that busy at this beach. It was very quiet and calm, many people had put their chairs into the water and were enjoying drinks there. We headed back to the ship around 1pm. We wanted to shower and get dressed to take pictures with Captain Hook (my favorite villain) He was meeting people by the ship at 3pm. We hopped in the pool for a quick swim and then showered. We made it off the ship just in time to see him.
 
I'm going to miss your vacation when it is over, too! Great pictures. We didn't actually make it over to the Adult Beach, so it is great to see some pictures of it. Also, I didn't realize how many more fish there were in this area than the family beach. Wow!
You should definitely try to go at least once, the beach was really nice. The family beach doesn't have as many fish? I had considered going to the snorkel area the next time I go to the island.
 
You should definitely try to go at least once, the beach was really nice. The family beach doesn't have as many fish? I had considered going to the snorkel area the next time I go to the island.
The snorkel area had fish. Some larger than the ones you showed, some not. Not as numerous as what you showed, but definitely some. But this water was deeper. I just meant the swimming beach didn't have many fish. Probably because there were so many people. In your pictures you could see fish in shallow water. That is cool to me. I come from Jersey where the shallow water has too many waves to see fish.

I will definitely hit that beach next time. After all, my teen-aged boys are likely to be adults by then. LOL
 
DAY SEVEN - CASTAWAY CAY (DECEMBER 29) PART FOUR

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We were back on the island all nice and showered. It felt good after being in the ocean most of the morning. This time I left the waterproof camera behind and brought my iPhone to take some pictures.

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We had a couple minutes to kill before Captain Hook was due to arrive, so we wandered around the ship a little. The water here is so pretty and blue. I don't think my photos do it justice.

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The island was decorated for Christmas, which I think added an extreme bit of charm to the place. Traveling during the holidays for my first Disney Cruise experience was a great idea.

Then finally the man of the hour arrived.
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Growing up Peter Pan was my favorite movie. Captain Hook has always been my favorite villain and I told him as much when I met him.
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I've never seen these characters at the parks before so this was a great thrill for me.

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Captain Hook and Mr. Smee were having a bit of an argument. Mr. Smee told me that Captain Hook was his favorite too.

After spending sometime with them we decided to go explore the island. I hadn't really seen anything but the adult only beach, so I wanted to walk to the Family Beach locations and see what was there.
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That teeny tiny sign said it would take 7 minutes to walk. It was really nice out and a perfect day for a stroll.

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I love this photo spot, it frames the ship so nicely.

While walking we saw another person parasailing off in the distance.
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This sign is over the bridge. The island wasn't very crowded at this point since the all aboard was in an hour. We wandered around in the shops for a bit looking at the cute shirts. My boyfriend had considered getting a shirt that mentioned the 5k race, but they were all very expensive and he decided not to.
 
We always walk from the ship to the tram stop for Serenity Bay. It is really a nice walk. On the way back we might be too tired from the sun and be lazy though...

How nice that you got to meet a favorite character!! In my experience the interaction on the ship is often much better than in the parks, so you should not be sad about not having met him in the parks before.
 
What a great report! I love all the pictures. I haven't been on the classics yet, but AP looks so fun. Can't wait for the Wonder this summer!
 
What a great report! I love all the pictures. I haven't been on the classics yet, but AP looks so fun. Can't wait for the Wonder this summer!
Thank you :) You're going to love the classics, they are great ships. The two shows in Animator's Palate are a lot of fun.
 

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