DisneyWorld and Disney Magic Review, Part III, Beach Club Villas

On our return from the cruise, we took the Disney shuttle back to DisneyWorld and stayed for two nights in a one bedroom villa at the Beach Club. The Beach Club shares a pool with the Yacht Club and this is, by far, the best pool on Disney property. There is sand all around giving the illusion of being on a beach, there is a lazy river in the pool, and the whole feeling is that you are at some sort of tropical beach.



The villa was a bit of a disappointment. We have stayed there in the past, but this time the sleeper sofa in the living room was stained and worn. The whole villa needed new furniture, a paint job, and a good dusting. Certainly not up to Disney standards. We had leftover no expiration park hoppers so we headed off the Epcot and enjoyed ourselves there.

Polynesian Resort and Luau Cove

We had dinner at the Polynesian luau on the first night and enjoyed that. Our seats were good and close to the stage but there was a pole that blocked our view just a little bit. It is all you can eat, but they bring so much out the first time that I don't know how people could eat any more than that. The second night we ate at the Captain's Grille at our resort, but to be honest, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant.

A great amenity offered by Disney is their Magical Express transportation to and from Orlando airport. As long as you are staying on Disney property you are offered this at no cost. It is so convenient and certainly a cost savings.

Would I stay at the Beach Club again? Yes, without a doubt, but I might ask to have one of the villas that has been refurbished. I hope the one we were in is being refurbished as I write this!

DisneyWorld and Disney Magic Review, Part II, Disney Magic

Our cruise on the Disney Magic took us to St Thomas, Tortola, and Castaway Cay, which is Disney's private island in the Bahamas. We stayed in an oceanview cabin with a navigator's veranda. The navigator's veranda is a balcony that is not fully open-air because there is a porthole on top of the balcony railing. We weren't sure if we would like this, but we were very pleased with this and it had more of a private feeling to the balcony.







Check in at the port was very smooth and when you check in you receive a number. They board the ship by group numbers which makes for an easy boarding experience. We had made reservations for Palo, which is the adult only restaurant onboard, but decided to cancel the reservation since our dining room staff was so great and the food was the best of all the Disney cruises we had taken. A word about the pre-reservations - you can book these in advance and even by going on to the site the day we could start booking, the brunch at Palo was sold out as was the afternoon tea.

Navigator's Veranda

We purchased a week pass for the Rainforest Room, which used to be $75 per person but was not $90 per person. The Rainforest Room is a thermal suite with an Arabian theme. Inside are two steam rooms, one which incorporates aromatherapy; a sauna; tropical rain showers; and the best part of all, heated tile lounge chairs. There is a fountain in the center of the room and spa music plays softly in the background. We have always loved this part of our cruise experience but this time we were disappointed. It seems as though there are people using this room without paying. There is no one to check on this. You are supposed to leave your room key at the front desk but you end up waiting a long time to do so. We finally gave up on doing this. The spa area was short staffed and it showed. The one sauna was not hot at all and we, along with others, asked all week about it being repaired, but it never was. The music was not playing and the aroma shower had no "aroma". I had made a reservation for Tommy to have a massage the first day we were on the ship.
As Disney Vacation Club members we received more lanyards (these were a bit nicer), more pins, and a really nice Captain’s Log scrapbook. We also had a Castaway Club reception as well as a DVC member reception during the week.

Also located at the Vista Spa is the fitness center. The fitness center has been enlarged, but it is still small compared to other cruise lines.

Dining: There are three early dining times (5:30, 5:45, and 6:00) and three late dining times (8:00, 8:15, and 8:30) and three restaurants through which you rotate during the week. We started at Lumiere’s restaurant which would be considered the fanciest of the three. On Monday we went on to Animator’s Palate and Tuesday we were at Parrot Cay, my favorite of the three. Animator’s Palate starts out in black and white and by the end of your dining time, the room is in full color. Color is “magically” added to the walls and to the waiter’s vests. There are tv screens on the walls and they first show the old black and white cartoons then the color cartoons. Parrot Cay has a colorful tropical theme to it. Your wait staff also follows you to the various restaurants throughout your week. The food was very good to excellent, especially when you ordered one of the waiter’s suggestions. There were various themes, such as Pirate’s night and International night. The lobster tail dinner at the Captain’s dinner was great. Pirate's night has gotten extremely popular! Our tablemates, as well as many of the guests, went all-out with their pirate costumes, to the point of having a Mickey and Pooh dressed as pirates as well.

There are not a lot of late night things to do even though the one bar stays open late. It seems that most people leave around midnight. The staff does a good job of getting people involved and dancing and just having a good time. One thing I miss is the casino. Disney does not have one onboard, even though they do have bingo. Who knows, maybe they will add them to their new ships they are building. It would also be nice to have some things like miniature golf onboard as well.

As for our ports of call, we grabbed a taxi and headed to Magen's Bay in St Thomas. This is our favorite thing to do and is quite economical compared to booking this through the cruise line. In Tortola, we took an excursion to a beach club and enjoyed our time there. The island is the most mountainous I have been on and it made for an exciting ride. And of course, Castaway Cay is the best. We were off the ship bright and early and headed off to the adult only beach. It started raining, then lightning started so we had to move off the beach and take cover. This only lasted about 20 minutes and the rest of the day was great. We had our buffet lunch right there at the beach and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Overall, the Disney Magic is a great ship and I would recommend it to any age group.

DisneyWorld and Disney Magic Review, Part I, Kidani Village

We took a cruise on the Disney Magic the end of July. We flew down a day early and stayed at the new Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Villas, part of the Disney Vacation Club Villas, then followed our cruise with a two night stay at the Beach Club Villas.

Kidani Village

We chose to stay in a Savanna View one bedroom villa. The village opened May 1, 2009 and was such a great place to be that we only wished we were going to be there a few more nights. A map of the Animal Kingdom Lodge is below. The rooms are larger in the Kidani Village than in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

One bedroom villa


The one bedroom villa (807 square feet) has two balconies, one from the living room and the other is from the bedroom. The bedroom has a king bed and a flat screen tv. The bathroom has a very comfortable jacuzzi tub with shutters that open up to the bedroom to watch tv if you are so inclined. There is also a separate shower which is quite large and a separate toilet area (the lighting was on the dark side here, mostly because they have energy-saving lightbulbs in use).

There is a stackable washer/dryer combo, and you are provided with one box of detergent. More detergent is available for purchase. The kitchen is fully stocked with dishes, etc, although the wine corkscrew was missing as was the dishwasher detergent. There is a table and chairs in the living/dining area as well as another flat screen tv. There is a queen sleeper sofa as well as a sleeper chair. Being new, it was extremely clean and comfortable.

The most wonderful part of the location was the view from our balcony. We saw zebras, giraffes, Ankole Cattle, Roan Antelope, Okapi, Nyala, Thompson's Gazelle, White-Bearded Wildebeest, Cranes, Flamingos, Ostriches, Vultures. We looked out at 11 pm and saw zebra laying down on the ground, sound asleep, and an hour later they were up again, eating and playing.

We ate at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge where they serve traditional African specialties along with other choices for the less adventurous. The entire Animal Kingdom area is beautifully decorated. The lobby in the Lodge showcases hand-made crafts from various tribes throughout Africa.

This is definitely a place we will visit again.

Disney Specials BOGO and New Experiences

Disney is now offering free nights and tickets with purchase.

Buy a 4-night vacation package at a MODERATE, DELUXE or DELUXE VILLA resort, get a 7-night.

Buy a 5-night vacation package at a VALUE resort, get a 7-night package.

Both packages include tickets in to the parks.

This vacation package offer is valid for stays November 1 - December 24, 2009 and January 3 March 27, 2010.

On Sept. 12, 2009, Disney announced detailed plans for these future attractions and adventures:

• First, a new 3-D version of the tremendously popular "Star Tours" attraction will debut in 2011 at both Disneyland® Park at the Disneyland® Resort and Disney's Hollywood Studios™ at the Walt Disney World® Resort. The attraction will include new immersive and interactive elements that will take guests to familiar places in the Star Wars galaxy.
  
• Plans were announced for the largest expansion in the history of the Magic Kingdom® Park at the Walt Disney World® Resort, nearly doubling the size of the Fantasyland® Area by 2013. Guests soon will be able to:
  
• Visit their favorite Disney princess in her castle, cottage or chateau to share a dance with Cinderella
  
• Celebrate Sleeping Beauty's birthday with the Good Fairies
  
• Join Belle in an enchanting story performance in the Beast's castle library.
  
• "Be Our Guest" and dine in one of three enchanted rooms inside the Beast's castle.
  
• Fly with Dumbo high above brand new circus grounds, twice the size of the existing attraction with a new interactive, three-ring circus tent.
  
• Journey under the sea with Ariel (from Disney’s "The Little Mermaid") in her very own attraction.
  
• Meet Tinker Bell and her friends in the magical world of Pixie Hollow.
  
• In addition, Disney has a multi-year expansion of Disney's California Adventure® Park. Projects include The Little Mermaid attraction scheduled to open in 2011; the new "World of Color" show slated to open in the spring of 2010, and the addition of the 12-acre Cars Land scheduled to open in 2012, where Guests will literally step into the town of Radiator Springs and its six acres of hand-carved rockwork.
  
  Call Mary at 732-747-8187 for details

Carnival Fantasy to Sail from Charleston in 2010

Starting on May 18, 2010, the Carnival Fantasy will sail year-round cruise from Charleston, S.C. Carnival Fantasy will operate from the Passenger Terminal in historic downtown Charleston. Charleston's centralized location within the southeastern U.S., as well as the city's strong appeal as a tourist destination, were key factors in the decision to launch year-round service. The Carnival Fantasy is expected to carry more than 140,000 passengers annually from the port.

Carnival Fantasy will operate five-, six- and seven-day voyages on a variety of different departure days. Five-day voyages departing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will call at Nassau and Freeport, The Bahamas. Six-day voyages departing Saturdays will visit Freeport, Nassau and Key West, Fla. Seven-day voyages depart Saturdays and will feature Grand Turk, the private Bahamian island of Half Moon Cay, and Nassau.Replacing the Carnival Fantasy in Mobile will be her sister ship, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation, which will reposition from San Diego to launch year-round service from that port May 15, 2010.

Carnival Introduces Laser Show at Sea

Carnival Cruise Line will have a laser show at sea on the new Carnival Dream which debuts September 21. The show lasts 15 minutes and will project blue, red, and green lasers in to the sky at night time. The show will be choreagraphed to rock music by Styx, Rush, Van Halen, Boston, and Pink Floyd.

The lasers will be situated on the top of the Lido deck and the "Seaside Theatre" screen will display graphics and the artists' music videos during the show.

The Dream will be sailing in the Mediterranean before coming to New York in November to debut in North America. The 3,646 passenger ship will then be sailing the Caribbean round-trip from Port Canaveral beginning in December.

Yoga Tour to India with Devin Morgan

14 Day Itinerary:

Nov 12 Thu: Los Angeles-Singapore-Delhi by SQ Depart the west coast this evening on board Singapore Airlines

Nov 13 Fri: Across International Dateline

Nov 14 Sat: Arrive Singapore Arrive Singapore and connect with your flight to Delhi. Early morning arrive India's capital city of Delhi You are greeted with a traditional Indian welcome and escorted to the TAJ PALACE HOTEL (Superior Rooms). Overnight at the hotel.

Nov 15 Sun: Delhi This morning, a Yoga session could be arranged at a local Public park in Delhi (at no extra charge). Enjoy a full day tour of Old and New Delhi today. Among your stops are the Red Fort, Raj Ghat, Ashoka Pillar and the mile-long Chandni Chowk bazaar. Afternoon at leisure. This evening, enjoy a Welcome Dinner. (BD)

Nov 16 Mon: Delhi This morning, a Yoga session could be arranged at a local Public park in Delhi (at no extra charge). This morning drive along Rajpath to view the Parliament House, the President's House and India Gate. Visit the Humayun's Tomb, Qutab Minar and Birla Temple. Afternoon at leisure for shopping etc. Overnight at the hotel. (B)

Nov 17 Tue: Delhi / Varanasi by flight Today fly to Varanasi (India's holiest city), located on the sacred Ganges River. Upon arrival, you are met and transferred to TAJ GATEWAY HOTEL (Superior Rooms). In the afternoon visit the stupas, ruins and museum at Sarnath, scene of Buddha's first sermon.

Nov 18 Wed: VaranasiEarly morning enjoy, the sunrise on the Ganges River with a boat ride. After the boat ride, you may wish to attend a Yoga session at the hotel (gardens at no extra charge). Later, enjoy a city tour and in the evening you will meet with a Numerologist. (B)

Nov 19 Thu: Varanasi / Khajuraho Morning you may wish to attend your Yoga session at the hotel (gardens at no extra charge). Later in the day enjoy a walking tour of the old city. Afternoon fly to Khajuraho, capital of the 9th to 13th century Chandela Dynasty. Upon arrival you are met and transferred to TAJ CHANDELA HOTEL (Superior Rooms). Visit the Western group of temples containing the largest and loveliest temples, including Kandariya Mahadev (representing Chandela art at its best). (B)

Nov 20 Fri: Khajuraho / Agra This morning visit the principal Eastern group of temples, modest and less ornate than the Western Group. These temples reflect the simplicity inherent in Jainism. Later, drive to Jhansi to board the train to Agra, en route visiting Orcha, a medieval city frozen in time and space, existing to this day as it must have in the 17th century. Upon arrival you are met and transferred to TAJ GATEWAY HOTEL (Superior Rooms). (B) TAJ MAHAL IS CLOSED ON FRIDAYS FOR PUBLIC.

Nov 21 Sat: Agra / Fatehpur Sikri After breakfast proceed on an excursion to Fatehpur Sikri. Built by Emperor Akbar during the 16th century, this city is perfectly preserved although it was abandoned due to a lack of water. Later this afternoon enjoy a city tour of Agra visiting the Fort and the Taj Mahal. (B)

Nov 22 Sun: Agra / Jaipur drive This morning you have the option to visit the magnificent Taj Mahal for a sunrise view. After breakfast depart for Jaipur. Check in upon arrival at TAJ JAI MAHAL PALACE HOTEL (Luxury Rooms). The afternoon is at leisure. (B)

Nov 23 Mon: Amber Fort Excursion & Jaipur Sightseeing Morning you will visit the mountain fortress of Amber, riding royally atop regally painted and decorated elephants. Later, enjoy a tour of Jaipur City, visiting Hawa Mahal or the "Palace of Winds," City Palace and the ancient observatory. (B)

Nov 24 Tue: Jaipur/Delhi drive / Delhi - Singapore by SQMorning at leisure. Afternoon drive to Delhi's international airport for flight to Singapore. (B)

Nov 25 Wed: Singapore - Los Angeles by SQ Arrive Home

If interested, please contact Mary McGrath at 732-747-8187 or email Mary@thetravelbugonline.com