Dad is going deer hunting, mom and kids are having Thanksgiving in Cozumel - Magic Western PTR

[egesicki]

Hi everyone, welcome to my first pre-trip report. I have learned so much reading reports others have written, and have very much enjoyed living vicariously through trip reports, so I think it's time I try my hand at one. Bear with me, I am a little intimidated to learn how to link the posts for a table of contents, and I have heard posting photos takes a little patience so I will do my best to catch on. Any helpful tips are appreciated!

Cast of Characters:
For this cruise it will be me, Liz, age purposely left out but let's say I have a good chuckle when I get carded buying alcohol, which happened earlier this month. But I digress.. As the title indicates, DH Chuck is not sailing with us. More about that in a sec. I am bringing our two boys, Ted, 10 when we sail, and CJ, 5 when we sail. We are from NE Wisconsin, a small town, but less than an hour from Green Bay, and DH is a huge Packer fan. We all love to travel, and we have a goal of visiting all 50 states. We are not quite to 40 states yet. DH is a commercial carpenter, I manage the Material Planning team for a packaging company.

This is us at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone earlier this month.


Chuck, Ted and I have been on two Disney cruises before. We sailed the Dream the February she launched on a 4 night Bahamas with Nassau and Castaway Cay. After CJ was born we sailed on the Wonder, a 4 night Bahamas with Key West, Nassau and Castaway Cay, that time my dad went with us. I am totally hooked, on cruises and on DCL in particular. Before we had kids, DH and I were on vacation in Key West, and were kind of just hanging out in Mallory Square, and we happened to see a ship depart. I cant recall which one, it was white, lol! But we were both amazed how big it was, and in particular how it rotated 180 degrees in place to depart. Ever since then I wanted to try a cruise and I was able to convince DH twice. Now, the novelty is worn off for him and he'd rather try something new. I on the other hand have really come to appreciate the service, the cleanliness, the time the kids can spend on their own, in short, peace of mind so I can relax. We could probably find this on other lines as well, and for our budget we may very well try another one. But for now, knowing where everything is, how stuff works, etc is one more thing that takes the stress off me. Our first time I felt like we missed things, the second time was better but still had a list of "next time" things. Seriously, it's like you can study for a cruise! But this studying I thoroughly enjoy. I spend hours reading up. So on to the other sections, and I will fill you in what I have planned so far.

 

[egesicki]

Cruise Selection

There were a lot of twists and turns to get this cruise booked. Sometime around our second cruise I became aware of opening day pricing. When Fall 2015 (yes 2015 not 2016) opened up, I booked an October 5 night Western on the Magic. I was excited, it lined up with my birthday and a week when our school district generally does two days off for teacher in-service. Having been on Dream and Wonder, I was excited to see a new ship, and neither of our first two went to Cozumel. Then, really on the opening day kick, when Jan 2016 came out, I booked a 7 night Eastern on Fantasy in a Navigators Veranda. I think they are really neat looking, and bonus they are a little less expensive than other verandas. But, neither of these two were meant to be. Mid 2015 I took a promotion at work, and it was quickly apparent it would be very difficult to take the time off. Cancelled they became. I kept watching the opening days. When Fall 2016 came out, I was up early and booked a 4 night on the Dream. I had a budget and it was within it, but all day it just didn't sit right, and that evening I went back and changed it to the Magic Nov 20 Thanksgiving 7 night Western. I felt so much better! New ship for us, new itinerary. We went down a few categories to an inside to stay in budget, but heck, you only sleep and get ready there. And for me with two boys, I won't need eyes in the back of my head to see who is climbing where they shouldn't be. Win win! I have been diligent with my Target Red Card and Raise to get a little more bang for the buck. Anyone else frustrated with the DCL website? Every time I try to apply a giftcard it errors out and I have to call. But at the end of the day the payment gets made. PIF is early August, I only have a couple hundred to go, one more good day on Raise! We also have a Chase Disney Visa. When we opened it we got the $200 bonus, used that on the Wonder. Ever since I have been banking points and we'll have enough for excursions, tips, and maybe a few more things on board. More about those when I get to the Activity Planning section. I love a good reward program. I do several others. I use my Walgreen points, when I get enough to redeem $50, which is not good on gift cards, I get $50 of stuff I would normally buy anyway plus a gift card. So while it's literally not free, it's practically free. I've maxed out my Disney Movie Reward $10 Disney redemptions, but again, I am happy to redeem a different one, like a movie ticket or concession, that I know I will use, and put $10 more into the cruise kitty. Two more: Coke rewards, just had $10 Amazon on that one, and Kelloggs rewards. Can't recall my last significant one, lately it has been printables for a few points, but I think maybe I had a $10 WalMart a while back. I suppose I need some sort of disclaimer - I don't work for any of them, use them at your own discretion blah blah blah, lol.

 

[egesicki]

Flight Selection

I booked flights and hotel this week. Ever since booking, I have been stalking flights, and I feel like by now I can quotes times and flight numbers on Delta, United, American and Southwest. We are not extremely close to any major airport, but just close enough that I had to think about it. My preference is the local airport about 8 miles from my house. We have two options through Appleton, Delta with a connection through Minneapolis, Detroit or Atlanta, or United with a connection through Chicago. A little further away is Green Bay, that opens up one more option, American. Milwaukee is about two hours away, Southwest flies there, Chicago O'Hare about 3.5 hours for the whole smorgasboard of choices. I really wanted to stay with Appleton or Green Bay because the day we come home, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I expect will be a heavy travel day, possibly weather up north, and we all have work and school the next day. I don't want to spend a few hours on the highway in the evening, and I wanted to fly as early in the day possible, like 11:30 ish to be home in time to unpack and do laundry and get to bed at a decent time. I have miles on both United and Delta and was hoping to be able to get one ticket free. I also have United and Delta credit cards so I get free checked bags so I really hoped one of them would work out. Need those extra bags so we can finally do Fish Extenders! I have flown through Miami and Ft Lauderdale before, so I knew to check both options, but I would prefer Miami both for proximity to the port on the way home, and I want to use Magical Express and onboard airline check in. I haven't used it before, but the way I understand it, DCL can check your luggage and transport it for you with certain participating airlines at MIA. Sounds like a great convenience so I can focus on keeping the boys on track. I actually started stalking before Nov 2016 dates were out. I was coasting along in a state of bliss seeing September and October fares in the $400-500 range. Holy sticker shock batman when Thanksgiving came out. $1000 easy to MIA. For a long time FLL was showing a couple hundred dollar advantage. Also FLL generally had better mileage redemption options. That made me sad I would miss out on onboard airline check in, and it would be trickier to get an early flight if we had to allow more drive time to the airport. I had read somewhere the best rates are generally about 100 days before the trip. I was a little skeptical considering this one in particular is a holiday, but I kept stalking. Somewhere along the way I noticed a little thing in the Delta app called multi-city. Hallelujah! I can do a hybrid into FLL and out of MIA, get some $ savings, and still do OAC and fly early. If only the rates and miles cooperate. Late in May I thought I had it nailed. Called the Delta agent to make the reservations - when one is miles and two are paid for its two reservations which they have to link. However, the agent on the phone did not have the same rates I had on the app. 40 minutes down the drain and no flights. I kept checking, and then I was so frustrated, the Delta mileage tickets for MIA spiked way up to more than I have in my account. I did see a Green Bay to FLL option on United for about $700 each, but no miles tickets, so out of pocket would be more, and no option for OAC. We left for a week of camping - go see Yellowstone, amazing! - and I resolved to pick it up when we got back. Sure enough, Delta had Appleton to FLL, and MIA to Appleton, fare $910, I figure it's about as good as I'll get, havent seen anything lower for the times I want, and a miles ticket available. Called the 800#, a very nice woman pulled up the exact same ones I was seeing, and wha-la, we are booked!

Did I mention, I highly recommend flying the day before. Out first cruise we were blissfully unaware. Everything worked fine. Our second one I was aware of more pitfalls and booked the day before. As it turned out, O'Hare had an ice storm the day before we were travelling, shut the whole thing down, and it was still backed up when we got there. So much so they thought we would be stuck over night and fly the next day. Not good! To the counter I went to plead our case. It took a ton of finagling (sp?!) to get an alternate flight arriving late in the evening. Instead of a leisurely travel day it was very stressful, but, thank goodness we did make it in time. So this time we are also travelling Saturday for a Sunday departure.

I didn't realize how long this is already! I was going to put flights and hotel together, I think I'll split them instead. And sorry it's all text, no glamorous photos to share of endless cycles of internet searches.

 

[egesicki]

Hotel Planning

I had a few strategies in mind. I wanted to be prepared for FLL or MIA so I could pounce on hotel if necessary right after booking flights. If we got in late in the day, I would look for an airport hotel with a shuttle, free wifi and breakfast, and if they had port transfers that would be nice too. If we got in early in the day, I would look for a hotel on the beach so we could have some play time and it might almost feel like vacation was already starting.

Our last cruise we stayed at Comfort Suites Miami Airport North. I found it to be a good value for the cruise package, which included a bottle of wine and transfers to the port, I think it was $189. They have free wifi and breakfast and airport transfers. We didnt use the pool due to arriving late, but they have one. If you are in their rewards club, yes I am, they also gave two drink tickets in their bar. No reason not to stay there again if we came into MIA late in the day.

For FLL late in the day, I narrowed it down to the Hilton Garden Inn and the Holiday Inn south of the airport. HGI had a package they could arrange Port of Miami transfers, wifi and breakfast, free FLL shuttle, a pool, close to a few restaurants, would be about $300. HI has a nice pool, kids eat free, free FLL airport shuttle, but no POM transfers, I think it was running about $200. I was leaning HI, good value with kids eat free and convenient to have a restaurant onsite. I knew I could arrange transfers for about $15 each from reading about SAS here.

One thing I did realize is SAS does not service all hotels. No Miami Beach, so flying into FLL I knew I would have to find alternates. We actually don't have transfers booked yet. I'll do a post on that later on when we do.

Our flights are early enough, 2:48 into FLL, so I am going beach option. I have always wanted to see the architecture at South Beach. Also I wanted to be closer to POM rather than stay further up the beach. We might even be able to see some ship traffic I am hoping. I am probably not exaggerating to say I read reviews and amenities and map locations and specials for 100+ hotels. I considered staying a couple blocks off the beach to save $100. But it seems then you are right in the middle of the nightlife, and it can be noisy. Would be OK if it were DH and I, but probably not so hot for the boys and I. I did like the look and value and reviews at Stiles, Essex, Beacon, and Edgewater if it helps anyone looking for those. On the beach, I narrowed it to Loews, Hilton Bentley and Marriott Stanton. Full service properties, right on the beach, name brands that should be fairly reliable, and walking distance to shopping and restaurants. I ended up picking Marriott because they offered a kids eat free for $389.

 

[egesicki]

Cruise Activity Planning

I don't think I mentioned yet, the boys don't know about this trip! When I booked it, nod to the title of the PTR, DH and I had decided since he loves his fall deer hunting the week of Thanksgiving, and I wanted to cruise, that we were both OK with doing a separate holiday. I know not all families would do the same, but it's good for us. I want to surprise the boys with a special week just the three of us. They will be thrilled I am sure, but the downside is I have to keep the FE secret, figure out how to convince them we are on a plane to FL for something believable, and planning all the excursions etc I know they would have fun with. We'll see, maybe I spill the beans at some point.

I think I mentioned before, I still have a list of things to do on a Disney Cruise that we either didn't know about or couldn't fit in the last two. Here they are:
1) Excursions! Boys were so little last time we skipped them. Our ports are Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Castaway Cay. I have been to Key West a few times so we'll go on our own, maybe to Mel Fishers, I think the boys would like the Atocha exhibits. Gold, emeralds, silver, neat stuff. The boys might want to go back and see the cats with the extra toes at the Hemingway House. I myself MUST make it to the Key West winery for Key Lime wine. I really enjoy fruit wines, and I love this one. I was at a resort in another part of Florida and asked for it and the guy looked down his nose at me, to each his own I guess. In Grand Cayman I think we will do the Turtle Farm and beach break. In Cozumel, I am so torn. I would love some silver or pottery shopping. I would also like to go to the Kakao chocolate shop. and I would like to see some Mayan ruins. From what I understand the ferry to Tulum on the mainland is a hard trip, not one I would subject the boys to yet, but on the island there are some smaller ones. Hoping we can get a combination chocolate and ruins tour. Grand Cayman and Cozumel are new ports for me, so I am planning on doing excursions through DCL for the peace of mind. And we have that Chase reward to use but only with DCL, not an outside vendor.
2) Rainforest room! Me time, nuff said.
3) See a movie.
4) See a show. We have early dining, hoping to get to a show finally. Someone did post a tip that maybe you can also watch them in your stateroom on the TV, that would be OK too I guess, get the PJs on and watch in bed.
5) Tasting or mixology. Chocolate and wine tasting would be great.
6) Fish extender and pixie dust. I have a cabin gift planned, and some ideas for individuals. I have a whole sack full of stickers and tattoos and stuff for pixie dust.
7) Palo brunch. Will it be weird to go by myself??
8) Pirate night for the boys - we didn't take them last time
9) Stateroom door magnets. Probably the pilgrim one someone was kind enough to make and post on here.
10) Drink carrier - what a great idea! I have one saved from a restaurant that I will decorate up. It's the little things!
11) A family portrait. OK 3/4 of the fam.
12) Bingo or some other family game.
13) Castaway Cay 5K. I am not a great runner, but I want that medal!
14) Room service! Cookies and milk, cheese plate seem to be popular choices.

 

[egesicki]

Transfers
Well I don't have them all figured out, but I have a start. I got quotes for FLL to south beach from QLS and Family Limo Service. (several referrals on these boards). Both about $120 for the 3 of us in a car. Many great references for SAS here but SAS does not service South Beach. Go Shuttle looks like it will be about $75, and if I read it right you don't need a reservation. But, I'm really hoping my brother in Tampa will play along helping us surprise the boys. If he does, I will ask him really nicely to pick us up.

I decided to do Magical Express from the hotel to the port. We didn't book the hotel through DCL but it is one they are using so we can get transfers. I asked about the list of hotels on one of several calls to the DCL 800#. It costs a little more, $60 vs a cab for $20some. But, we'll get to meet some of our fellow passengers and I think the boys will enjoy it.

I had already planned to do Magical Express from POM to MIA. If you do, and you are on one of the eligible airlines you can do onboard check-in and they take your checked bags the night before all the way to your final destination. Sign me up for convenience! I had a little scare when I read somewhere your flights had to be after 130pm - ours are 1130am. So one more call to DCL. Happily she said the earliest flight for ME and for OAC is 1130. I told her our flight is exactly 1130 and she said it qualifies. Whew! I was all set to console myself with the idea if getting home by 430pm is still much better than 830pm and carrying our own bags is really no hardship with the earlier time. But we're fine apparently, so I feel like we got our first little bit of pixie dust!

 

[tink1970]

Liz-your travel planning sounds like mine...book, reschedule, cancel, wait impatiently for opening day prices, book, change category

I've done Palo twice alone and it's still a nice meal (well, the first time I did it they forgot my main dish so it was a short meal but still nice!).

All 50 states here...it was such a fun challenge for my travel planning skills.

Thanksgiving will be here before you know it!

 

[egesicki]

PIF!

Last weekend I applied as many gift cards as I could, I still seem to have about 50% error rate on the website. Then it was after hours Sunday so I had to wait to call to do the rest. We are now paid in full! I actually had a surplus of gift cards because I had for a time thought about DCL trip in insurance and bought enough cards to cover it. More on insurance later. Once I added $120 in transfers I still had $135 left so I asked it to be pre-loaded to our on board account. She was happy to do so, but one thing I learned is it must be even dollars. I forfeited about 21 cents, horrors!

 

[egesicki]

For Travel Insurance
After much thought, I decided not to purchase. Strong feelings on this topic out there I know. We didn't have any our first two cruises either. I priced it out, and researched what my credit cards have. And, flying in a day early is also part of the equation.

 

[egesicki]

For Online Check in

It went really well! I should have posted when it was fresh in my memory, Silver check in was Aug 22. I had no trouble with the website, despite hearing other people have had troubles. Although, I waited til midnight central and maybe that's why. The first thing I selected was Palo brunch, then Dis Jr. breakfast, then our Cozumel and Grand Cayman excursions. In Cozumel we chose the chocolate, island tour and beach break. in Grand Cayman we chose the SeaWorld explorer semi-sub. Nothing for Key West or Castaway, having been to both we're comfortable on our own and some what of a relief to the budget. I got an 11:30 PAT. I didn't do any spa reservations, I am only planning to prebuy a Rainforest pass. Although I do sort of wish for a cabana massage on CC day. There are some still open, so maybe.

 

[egesicki]

Goodness it's been a long time! So here's what's new. We're no longer flying to FLL, were flying to MIA! Last week Delta emailed me a flight change on the way home. 15 minutes earlier, which disqualifies us for tranfers and oac. I called DCL to confirm times, and was again told 11:30, so 11:15 doesn't work. There was a later option, but only 35 min connection in Minneapolis, which I don't trust traveling with kids. On my own for work I don't even like to cut it that close. And, I didnt want to get home that much later. School night and all. I finally got time to call Delta today. I decided to forego the later flight that qualified for OAC in favor of getting home earlier in the day. Keeping their selection I didn't have to call, but I really wanted to see if they might do anything for the flight before the cruise. A few days ago when I looked at schedules I noticed our flight to FLL was less expensive. I also noticed there were seats to MIA two hours earlier which was what I really wanted before but wasn't willing to pay for when the rates were higher. I am so pleased, the very helpful rep changed our flights to MIA at no charge! Two less hours of layover, two more hours of vacation, and easier to get to our hotel!

 

[100acrewoodfan]

Great pre-trip report!!

 

[KalamityJane]

Hubby is hunting right now and I so wish I was on a cruise instead of at home! Hope yours is amazing (and yours has good luck hunting!)

 

[egesicki]

Great pre-trip report!!

Thanks! Sorry somehow my notifications were off and I clearly haven't checked in in a while, took me a while to see this.

 

[egesicki]

Hubby is hunting right now and I so wish I was on a cruise instead of at home! Hope yours is amazing (and yours has good luck hunting!)

Thanks! Sorry it took me so long to check in! DH left a few hours ago, forecast is cold and windy. He loves it, I am so happy we're headed south!

 

[egesicki]

Well it's almost here! Bags are packed, FEs turned out nice, shopping is all done. We got one small excursion change from DCL, moved up a couple hours on Cozumel, but no biggie. That's Thanksgiving day and I was actually worried we wouldn't be back in time for first seating dinner. Now we for sure will. Our cruise group on another site had some last minute mixology changes, apparently during merrytime cruises private sessions are scheduled on port days now, but several weeks ago DCL was telling us sea days. So of course people planned excursions, spa, nursery etc, and in the end with the change we are now mostly going to guest services embarkation day to see what sessions are available.

Something funny happened last week you might enjoy. Almost foiled by technology. My son doesn't have his own email but he does have a phone, and apparently my google password is saved on it, through which he saw DCL in my calendar. He asked what it was- I tried to do some fast thinking- I said some work stuff. He said he thought it was Disney cruise line because I don't work on Saturdays. Eek! I played it cool and changed the subject. He hasn't brought it up since, but I just have a feeling when we get the character call tomorrow night he won't be all that surprised.

Boys are almost asleep, alarm is set for 3:30. Our flights are checked in, I've looked at the cruise docs and passports about ten times to reassure myself they are in the bag. Now if only I can fall asleep...but I'm so excited!

 

[egesicki]

I was going to post all my crafty things I made, door decor, kids FE, and my drink carrier. But I am having technical difficulties, file sizes are too big, and I don't have the patience to figure it out right now!