Day 2: A Frosty and Felindro's Surprise
I awoke the next morning to the same thought I had every single morning of the cruise... what time is it? The DIS is teeming with tips and tricks and suggestions about planning and packing for a
DCL vacation, and one of the tips that I fully endorse is to bring some sort of GIGANTIC glowing clock that could be used as an S.O.S. signaling device from miles away. Maybe one of those clocks that projects the time onto the ceiling or the wall. Or maybe one that screams out the time every hour on the hour in a gruff crazed lunatic sort of voice. But it also helps if you actually follow the tips and tricks and suggestions that the wonderful DISers share and pack said clock, which we did not do. Somehow it never made it onto one of the 174 lists that were made in prep for this trip. All I brought was my Mickey dress watch, and it was over on the counter next to the closet, and unfortunately I have not yet developed telekinetic powers.
So there I was, sitting up in bed staring into the pitch blackness of the stateroom. In the early morning hours, with the divider curtain closed, the staterooms are black.
It looked like this.
The only light was coming from the hallway through the miniscule space between the stateroom door and the doorjamb, a perfect line of light from floor to ceiling. Just enough to make it safely to the bathroom without breaking a toe or a tooth or falling through the divider curtain on my soundly slumbering daughter. Now, if youve read my previous trip reports you have read my account of turning on the bathroom light when you have been behind closed eyelids for the last 7 9 hours so I will spare you the terror and the agony, so let me just say that you need to be very careful when doing this so as not to singe the retinas out of your skull or cause your rods and cones to wail.
Once the world came back into focus I saw that it was 6:20 am. Wow. Later than I imagined! For this morning I had planned a full video tour of the ship with the video camera so I threw some clothes on, brushed my teeth, grabbed the video camera and quietly made my way out the door. As I said before (I think), weve never brought a video camera with us so I was excited about getting video of certain things for my parents to see. So I started right there outside of our door and I wandered all over the place in one continuous recording stream, no stops.
I toured up the steps to Deck 3 which put me in the middle of Beat Street, where I visited my most favorite bathroom on the ship.
I love the Deck 3 aft restrooms because I'm a big nerd. I walked through Sessions, Diversions, and Rockin Bar D
through the Atrium, Promenade Lounge, Parrot Cay, Lumieres, then up the glass elevators to Deck 9
the whole length
looking at the pools, Goofys Galley, Plutos Doghouse
and then
as I was approaching the extreme forward of the ship I ran out of juice. Battery kaput! DRAT!
Ah well
the view off the front of the ship was the same as the view off the back of the ship was the same as the view off the sides of the ship. Ocean.
Early morning is the most awesome time for me on the ship. Its practically deserted! I think I ran into three people at most in my journey from the room to Deck 10. I felt as if I had the ship to myself, and I could just wander and enjoy to my hearts content without having to dodge crowds. I actually forgot to do something that Id always wanted to do through four cruises! There is a large DCL emblem on the floor in the hallway leading to the Walt Disney Theater on Deck 4 right outside of Treasure Ketch and Mickeys Mates. I have always wanted to lay down on the floor with my head directly centered in the Mickey ears and take my picture. In the six oclock hour of the morning this would have been perfect without a soul around
any other time in the day, especially sea days, not so much. Id be embarrassed and would probably get something stepped on. Out of curiosity
has anyone done this or am I completely and totally more off my rocker than I ever imagined?
Anyway
I went back down to the room to check on the family and drop off the dead video camera. The family was still sleeping so I grabbed my journal and my iPod and headed right back up top. I got a great spot up on Deck 10 and just sat there in the breeze listening to Lady Gaga and writing and just being
there were crew members everywhere doing their morning routine, washing, and scrubbing, and painting, and hosing, and straightening, and smiling, and offering greetings, and holding doors open, and keeping that ship in tip top shape. They do a fantastic job!
So after I lounged for awhile I was getting a bit antsy for companionship so I went back down to check on the family again and my wife was up. So I grabbed her and I took her up to Topsiders for some breakfast! Then we went to the Cove pool and enjoyed that and the hot tub. The weather was ridiculously amazing!
At 10:00 am we met up with my daughter (who had decided to stay lounging around the room) in Shutters to check out our pictures from last night. They were awesome! So we started up one of the photo packages and got a few.
We went up to Treasure Ketch and Mickeys Mates and looked around there for a bit. We went back up top and had some chicken fingers and some chicken ceasar wraps (one of our new discoveries on this cruise!) and some ice cream. We were just lazy and it was wonderful!
It was at about this time, sitting on Deck 9 to the side of Topsiders, a mouth full of luscious glorious ice cream, that I had a realization. The spoon was literally sliding from my lips when my eyes widened and a thought zapped like lightening straight into my cerebellum. The chocolate ice cream on the Disney Magic tastes exactly
EXACTLY like a Wendys Frosty!
After approximately 273 cups of DCL chocolate ice cream over four cruises I dont know why Id never had the thought before. That made the act of eating Disney Magic ice cream even better! Frostys are fab if you didnt already know that! They are a curiosity, but they are fab. They arent really ice cream, but they arent really a milk shake either. They are just smooth luscious goodness.
So after we had sufficiently frozen our innards, we continued in the laziness by wandering some more, eventually ending up out on the Promenade Deck on 4 and lounged in the blue cushioned chairs for a bit. Ive read that there are a lot of DISers that find the chairs on Deck 4 to be the primo suprimo location, but I am way way WAY partial to the Cove area on Deck 9. No offense against the Deck 4 chairs or those who love them, but Ive claimed my spot and its up on Deck 9. I need to have a plaque made.
There were tons of joggers and walkers making the laps out there, and we just stared out at the water. It was so blue!
Heres my view.
Like my new water clogs?
While we were out there, there was a bit of commotion to our left when Mickey and Minnie were taking a stroll.
After wed had our fill of fresh air we decided to head back to the room for a bit. Well when we opened our door we were greeted with a wonderful surprise! Felindro had made up our room and left us with surprises! There was a giant glittery starburst congratulatory thingy surrounded by towel creations and a personalized postcard wishing us a Happy Anniversary and a Happy Fathers Day!
Isnt it fun?
Does anyone know what this thing is?
It looks to me like some sort of Aztec Sun God
maybe to bless the bed?
I had a moment of confusion because, quite honestly, I dont remember telling anyone from DCL that this cruise was in celebration of our anniversary. I must have, but I really couldnt recall saying anything when we made the reservation. Magic aboard the Disney Magic I guess! So after we photographed our bed and examined our purchases for a bit, my daughter decided it was time to take her leave to the Stack, and my wife and I headed back up top, because dont you know thats what a DCL day at sea is supposed to be: from the room to the pool to eat to the pool to shop to the room to the pool to the room to shop to the pool to eat. I mean
right?
So there we sat in our place in the Cove area, as we deemed it the day before, with a plate of chicken fingers and pizza and ice cream.
But wait a minute, youre saying
but wait RV
didnt you just have chicken fingers and ceasar wraps and ice cream? Um
yes dear reader, I did
whats your point?
Next Up: Three Minutes of Suffering and The Sink
However, we were on the opposite side of the dining room...with Putra as our head server (awesome!).
