Disney Magic 1.16.10 Eastern Caribbean Cruise - Day 1...Port Canaveral

[DisneyFreak]

We spent the night before the cruise at the Radission Resort at the Port like we have always done. We like getting there the night before so that Saturday isn't as hectic. The price of the room is less than the cost of parking at the PC terminal. The Radisson has a free shuttle to the port and you can leave your car at the resort free of charge for the length of your cruise.

Our shuttle left the resort at 10am. Since we were a group of eight we had the shuttle to ourselfs which was nice. We arrived at the DCL terminal in about 10 minutes. Once we got off a Disney baggage handler was right there to take all our checked bags. There currently is a lot of construction there due to the expansion of the DCL terminal and new parking gargage. This did not effect any of the check-in process.

They started boarding zones 1-2 at around 11:30am. We were in zone 5 and were on the ship by 12:15pm. We headed up to Topsiders for lunch and remained there outside until around 1:20pm and then headed to our stateroom which is supposed to be ready by 1:30pm. We got to our stateroom (5022 secret porthole room) and there was already two of our bags waiting there for us. The stateroom, of course, was wonderful! Love the new flat panel TV! Our Castaway Club gifts were there waiting for us along with our first Navigator and additional information for the entire cruise. (see links later in this thread).

After relaxing and unpacking a bit (our third piece of luggage came about 1/2 hour later) we left the stateroom and walked around the ship a bit. It had been 5 years since our last cruise but felt like we had only been away from the Magic for a couple months.

Our dinning started that evening at 5:45 at Lumiere's. The food was just as good as we remembered it. This was a first time at the early seating since my nephew and niece were with us. It was nice having the early seating since it still gave us a full evening afterward but we didn't like it as much on days we were at port. Overall I think we enjoyed the late dinner seating on previous cruises.

Everyone was pretty tired from a full day so not much was done after dinner. Plus we still have the entire cruise ahead of us.

To be continued......

[Tinkfan]

Sounds like a great start! Waiting......

[Slowhand]

A great start DF.
It`s good to know about the Radisson, especially if they offer free parking, it`s something we`ve never considered.
I also prefer the later dining schedule because as you say it can be a bit of a rush with the early seating if you have a shore excursion on that day. Also as we don`t have any kids, the later dining has more of an adult feel to it I reckon.
Keep `em coming.

[catrancher]

Great start!

We always have stayed at the Raddisson also. It's just so darn convenient. And it's so much fun on the morning of your cruise having breakfast in Flamingo's and trying to figure out which of the other guests are also headed for a Disney Cruise.

However...

Tom (... wishing he was on a cruise!)

[DisneyFreak]

Pictures are coming, I promise. With Keith's help I am linking the Voyage Navigator that you first get when you enter your stateroom along with a couple bits of info.

http://wdisneysecrets.com/cruisepdfs...lNavigator.pdf
http://wdisneysecrets.com/cruisepdfs...staTheatre.pdf
http://wdisneysecrets.com/cruisepdfs...rPriceList.pdf

[DisneyFreak]

Here, Minnie is slipping me her stateroom key.

[DisneyFreak]

Here is our stateroom. The secret porthole room was great!!

[DisneyFreak]

Our view from bed.

[Slowhand]

Great shots DF.
We also tend to go for a stateroom on Deck 5...[5630 usually], as it is a lot quieter than say Decks 6 & 7 as most of the deck is taken up with the kid`s clubs etc.

[DisneyFreak]

Great shots DF.
We also tend to go for a stateroom on Deck 5...[5630 usually], as it is a lot quieter than say Decks 6 & 7 as most of the deck is taken up with the kid`s clubs etc.

That's the same reason we love Deck 5. You only have staterooms forward and aft. I get tunnel vision when walking on Decks 6 & 7.