Our Cruise Aboard the Disney Magic, Part 1

We have seen a lot of things and covered a lot of miles. To that end I thought I’d start off with our travel itinerary.

Please indulge me if I ramble a bit. I will be writing with all the wide-eyed wonder of someone who has never been on a cruise before. And besides, this is something our family will come back to and read years from now.

PACKING. We couldn’t get away with any early packing since our travel plans were a secret from the kids. Well, Vicki might have been able to have done some of it, but she put in a lot of time at church to have things in place while we were away. As it turned out, we went out to eat with Mom after telling the kids the news and then came home and tore into packing.

The whole process went smoothly, though not without an incident or two. For example, just before we left I noticed the bird feeder was almost empty. Having taken the lessons from Mary Poppins to heart I decided to refill the bird feeder only to spill about ten pounds of bird seed all over the kitchen floor. We were only an hour later than we meant to be when we got on the road.

I will say here that I decided not to pack any electronic entertainment so the laptop, iPad, and iPod all stayed home. And when we got to port the cell phone was turned off and left in the van. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

ROAD TRIP. We decided to drive to Galveston so the road trip is a part of the adventure. All of the first Friday (the 11th) was devoted to driving and we covered some 750 miles through West Tennessee, Arkansas, and down the eastern edge of Texas before stopping in Livingston for the night.

The kids all traveled very well. The ban on electronic entertainment was only for me. They kept themselves busy between their own tablets, watching I Love Lucy and Gilligan’s Island on the van’s DVD player, and doing homework.

The next morning we had plenty of time to cover the remaining 150 miles to Galveston and do some last minute shopping for necessities.

ARRIVAL AT PORT. We were due to check in at the port by 2:30 that afternoon. We knew it was foggy when we first got to Galveston, but we had no clue the fog had closed the port and kept all ships at sea, delaying the arrival of the Magic. (Disney Cruise Lines had left us messages about this, but they were calling our home phone.) Since the ships weren’t in we were told to go kill a few hours time in Galveston. We found a neat bookstore and then ate a late lunch at Star Drug Store. We were finally able to check our luggage a little after 3:00, but then had to wait an hour and a half to park. It was after 7:00 by the time we were processed and stepped aboard.

All this is to say that this delay was the only thing that went wrong over the whole trip. We wound up missing a lot of the boarding celebration and didn’t know about a show we could have gone to, but we still had time to explore the ship a bit and find our stateroom before supper. We were too excited about our first cruise ever to let a little foggy weather get us down, though we did feel sorry for all the people getting off the ship who had missed flights home and for the crew who had to serve and unplanned meal and deal with a smaller window of time to be ready to sail again.

CRUISE ITINERARY. To speed things up a bit, the ship actually didn’t leave Galveston until 4:30 the next morning (the 12th), and I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t been awake and noticed the street lights moving outside.

We were at sea for two days (Sunday and Monday) covering the 1100 or so miles around the western end of Cuba to our first port of call, George Town on Grand Cayman Island. The next day (Tuesday) we had about eight hours to go ashore and see the island before the ship weighed anchor and sailed the next 370 miles to Cozumel overnight. We enjoyed Cozumel on Wednesday, but had a little less time to be ashore before the Magic had to leave and head for home.

Thursday was our last full day at sea. We covered the last 790 miles and arrived as scheduled on Friday morning. There were a lot of sad, dejected children -- young and old -- walking off the ship. We were back in the van and on the road by 10:00.

DRIVING HOME. We decided to take a different route on the way home so we took the ferry over to the Bolivar Peninsula and headed up the coast a bit before turning inland to catch the interstate near Beaumont. We drove across Louisiana and into Mississippi and spent the night in Laurel. That leg of the journey was about 460 miles. Yesterday we drove through the northern half of Alabama and straight up Middle Tennessee to cover the last 430 miles home. Nate got sadder and sadder every mile of the way. We had the van unloaded by 5:00.

Since getting home the kids have dug out a couple of Disney movies to watch.

WEATHER. Overall we had great weather when driving. It was only overcast and foggy for the short hop from Livingston to Galveston. That weather continued for our first day at sea. We could see ships and oil rigs in the distance, but visibility was low. The sun did try to break through, but it was short lived. It was also cool, but none of us felt the need for a jacket when on deck.

The weather changed for the better as we approached the northern end of the Yucatan Channel and entered the Caribbean Sea. It was sunny and warm by lunchtime of our second day, and we were enjoyed temps in the low 80s on Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

Even in the southern latitudes we still had lots of clouds. I only got a couple of chances to enjoy the stars without city lights around. It really reminded me of how things were here in Cross Plains before Nashville, Springfield, and White House got so bright.

Our last day at sea was the chilliest. I wore my jacket and the crew were offering blankets to those sitting on deck. By lunchtime the windchill was bad enough that they closed the pools and all the poolside food service counters.

The wind was something I didn’t expect. It only makes sense; I’d just never thought about it. If you’re on a ship moving 20 knots into a 15-20 knot headwind it’s going to be windy. I felt wind-whipped all the way to Grand Cayman whenever I was on deck.

Speaking of weather, while we were enjoying the sun and warm temps the folks back home were dealing with snow. We got an unexpected opportunity to call home for free on Tuesday while on Grand Cayman. Mom told us school had dismissed early the day before and was two hours late that morning. When we returned to port we learned that they wound up dismissing two hours early on Tuesday as well, and were closed all day Wednesday.

SEA LEGS AND SEASICKNESS. I thought the seas in the Gulf of Mexico were a little rough, but keep in mind my only shipboard experience before now was the summer I was a deckhand on the General Jackson which runs the Cumberland River. However, I chatted with one of the junior officers on deck and he said the sea that day had been rougher than they normally experience there. He estimated the waves to be five to six feet. (He told me they had experienced 10-15 foot waves once when crossing the Atlantic which even made some of the crew sick.) Naturally, it was hard to walk a straight line at times. All this smoothed out along with the weather when we sailed into the Caribbean.

Only Nate complained of a little seasickness in our family, but that was brief for him and he never wanted to go to the health clinic. I was surprised we fared that well. Our seasickness problems actually started when we got back to land. Both Vicki and Nate said they felt the ground was rocking all day. I felt a little of this yesterday morning while showering. Vicki is still feeling it after two full days of being ashore. I’m wondering if she’s dealing with a small sinus infection due to all the rapid climate change which is contributing to her inner ear troubles.

TRAVEL SUMMARY. Just to summarize the distance we’ve traveled, I’m estimating we sailed around 2260 miles, though a ship’s officer would express it as 1960 nautical miles. One of the onboard TV channels continuously displays a map plotting the ship’s current position along with heading, speed, and a few other details. Unless we were near a port we were usually doing 19-20 knots, or 22-23 mph. We also traveled through waters over 11,000 feet deep.

Nate and I looked at the map after our first day at sea and he asked if we would make it Grand Cayman on time to which I replied, “Well, they sure aren’t going to pull this thing over and stop for the night.”

Additionally, we put 1787 miles on the van getting to and from Galveston (of course, some of that included local driving to find a hotel or a place to eat). Both routes we took were about the same distance. That means we traveled about 4000 miles total!

Stay tuned. There’s more to come!

Joe