After the sailaway party, we headed back to our rooms to start unpacking. On our very first cruise we never unpacked because we did not want to waste the precious time onboard, and lived straight out of the suitcases. It was chaos, so now we always take the time to get ourselves unpacked and organized the first evening, as much as we don’t want to. We tried to get Sarah to take a nap but she was having no part of that. The older two wanted to go watch the All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin show, so Ron accompanied them down to the theater and the three of them enjoyed the show while I finished unpacking.
I’ve always wanted to catch the Mickey Mania show, but being at 7 PM it was not to be yet again this cruise. Sarah was a handful and a half, as she was waaay wound up and overstimulated, and now also hungry. We had also planned to get the kids signed into the clubs and pick up our pagers, which we did not do in the terminal, that did not happen either. But we did get all unpacked and decently organized. That in itself was no simple task due to the massive amount of Trick or Treat gifts, supplies, and candy I had to prepare for the next morning. We had checked a huge box, probably 4 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet completely full of ToT candy and supplies, and I began to get nervous when it did not show up at our rooms with the rest of our luggage. All of the luggage arrived sporadically, and very late (most of it arrived after sailaway), again due to the Coast Guard Inspection. Finally though the big box showed up- thank goodness!! I unpacked all of that stuff to the top of the desk, which it completely covered in a pile several layers high- it looked like something you might see in a house on the TV show Hoarders, with things falling off the top of the pile and such. Luckily we only had to deal with most of it until the next morning!
Before we knew it, the kids were back from the show and it was 8:15- already time for dinner!! Our rotation was APLLAPL and so that meant our dinner this evening would be in Animator’s Palate, and this would be our “show” dinner. We headed down to AP, and there was still a line heading into the restaurant. At the front of the line, we were asked for our dinner tickets, which being veteran cruisers (and a little rushed), we had not paid much attention to and thought we had forgotten them. We did not think this was a big deal, as we knew our table number (55) and it was also on our KTTW cards. They did not want to seat us without the tickets though and told us to stand aside. I thought this was strange, but I fiddled around in my bag and it turned out I did have them, so we were then seated promptly.
We were happy to discover we did indeed score a table to ourselves as requested. In fact, it was already set up with a highchair and a kids’ water with lid for Sarah! As soon as we approached we were greeted by our server, Mahendra, who if I recall correctly was from the Phillipines and our Assistant Server Passayu from Thailand. Later we would meet our head server Godwin (I believe from India). They were a wonderful serving team!
I love Animator’s Palate!
We got situated at our table and were very quickly served our drinks and had our menus to look over. Animator’s used to be my favorite menu, but I was less than thrilled with the removal of the Mushroom Puff Pastry, filet, and worst of all Peanut Butter Pie. I was expecting this meal to be not so great, but I will say I was very pleasantly surprised.
Ron and I have similar likes in the food department so we often choose the same food items. We both selected the Wild Mushroom Risotto for an appetizer. While we both preferred the mushroom pastry appetizer that used to be served in AP, we did both really like this risotto. It was very rich, creamy, and thick with a delicious earthy mushroom flavor.
Since I lost all of my pictures from this evening, I borrowed these from PrincessTrisha’s great food report: (Thanks Trisha!)
Wild Mushroom Risotto with Porcini Twist:
For soups and salads, Ron chose soup and I selected salad. He said the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup was good. I had the Confetti Tomato Salad which was a very small portion and a very basic salad, but also very good. (Photo Courtesy of Ellen!)
The kids’ entrees arrived while we were eating our soups/salads. Brendan and Savannah had the Minnie’s Mini Burger, which has not changed a bit over the years. Sarah enjoyed the famous
DCL Chicken Tenders, served with “trees”:
Soon after our entrées arrived, both Ron and I chose the Asian Marinated Beef Tenderloin with Wasabi Mashed Potatoes. (picture courtesy of PrincessTrisha)
Mine was much more done than the one pictured above, as I prefer my meat Medium Well. It was still juicy and flavorful, and though I am a steak purist and often prefer my beef without sauce, I thought the Asian Barbecue Sauce that accompanied the steaks was tangy and delicious, a perfect complement. I also love wasabi, so those potatoes were super yummy. We were overall delighted with the quality and preparation of the food not only this evening but the entire cruise. It was a big improvement over our last DCL cruise, for sure!
Our serving team on this busy first evening kept us moving along at a fast pace, which was great since Sarah’s attention span is short. We were served our desserts prior to the beginning of the show, which is just perfect timing.
Ron, Brendan and I all chose the Double Fudge Chocolate Cake with Caramel Orange Sauce, which was pretty good, but not as moist or rich as I would have liked:
Savannah had a sundae:
And Sarah had a Mickey Bar:
As we enjoyed our desserts, the lights dimmed, the colorful show began, and afterwards was the best part (skip ahead if you don’t want to be spoiled)
Mickey!
Video ( click to play)
We were one of the first to leave the dining room after the show. Our plan was to get the kids settled back in the room, hopefully get Sarah in bed and with Brendan babysitting, hopefully get down to Magic Quest and Match Your Mate.
Fish Extenders are already full! A lot of Disers have been busy!
We aren’t quite sure what these towel animals are, maybe Space Shuttles? (the shuttle was on the pad for the launch anticipated for 11/1, and if so, that was an inventive design). We would find that as the week went on, our stateroom host Ryan would craft us location-appropriate animals, so the shuttle interpretation does make sense.
Sarah’s bed all turned down and made:
She did have a big day and did fall asleep relatively quickly but we did not make it to Magic Quest on time. We debated whether or not we should even bother, but in the end decided to just go check it out, and I am so glad we did, we saw Ellen and Pods right as we walked in and took a seat with them! We had a blast enjoying the show together, which is hilarious! I would love to participate in this someday, it looks like so much fun.
We ended up having a cruise mate to cheer on, Sarge, who is the gentleman in the blue with the beige bra! In our opinion he should have won, especially since the tall guy (who did win) clearly had played many times before, as we saw him get fully dressed in his bra, shoes, purse, and lipstick well before they even announced what was coming next.
We stayed through to watch Match your Mate, which was also fun, but not as racy or over the top as we had hoped. I enjoyed a delicious and strong Chocolate Martini which packed quite a punch and left me feeling no pain.
After the show, we had to stop by Guest Services as I still had a set of lanyards that I could not deliver, as that person had never given me their stateroom number. I also had another couple of sets to deliver, and ended up meeting Denise who happened to be one of the people I needed to deliver to, and that saved me a trip. Unbeknownst to me, I still had one more lanyard to deliver, but because I was feeling a little tipsy somehow I overlooked it and instead Ellen and I smooched in the elevator lobby. (I noticed the last lone lanyard the next morning after breakfast and dropped it off then!)
We couldn’t believe how quiet the rest of the ship was, it probably wasn’t even midnight but every body was already in bed, no doubt preparing for Halloween the next morning.
I still had quite a bit of work to do, last minute divvying up of candy and getting everything all set for tomorrow’s Trick or Treat event! By the time I had all that done, I collapsed into bed and slept like a baby!
Up Next: This is Halloween!