It was only the first day of our cruise when we figured out that with late seating we were going to have to eat something before dinner to tide us over. So we became hobbits and started the tradition of Second Lunch. Sometimes we had room service, sometimes we had pizza, sometimes we had tacos (until I had a Very Bad Thing happened but more on that later) and often we would have fruit and ice cream from Goofy's Galley.
Grapes make a great Second Lunch
After getting recharged (because we were exhausted from all that dancing and cheering for dancing) we spent a little more time exploring the ship. I wanted to take more pictures but my family was in no mood for slowing down to let me fiddle with my aperture so I didn't have much success.
I did manage to get one of an empty Studio Sea.
FYI, those film canister columns are cute but if you sit any where near them you won't be able to see what is going on up front at all. We liked the games and activities in Studio Sea but the seating felt weird and disorganized. Just a small quibble though.
Next we walked through the art gallery area where I fell in love with (and took a terrible picture of) this Up oil painting.
Look at the tiny characters!
I looked my husband dead in the eye and said "I need this picture."
He looked back at me and said "You lugged all our clothes through three airports so you didn't have to pay a baggage fee and now you want to buy an oil painting off a cruise ship?"
And I never mentioned buying that painting again. But I still long for it.
It was getting close to show time for All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin so we went to the theater. Even though we were on a packed full ship we didn't have any problem finding a good seat just fifteen minutes before the show started.
If you're tall like me you might enjoy sitting in the first row of the second section. You get all the leg room you need and there's no one sitting in front of you trying to secretly film the show with their ipad. The bar in front of you doesn't get in your way at all. In fact even my small kids said it wasn't in their way.
Another tradition my family started was ordering the Drink of the Day while we waited for the show to start. If he deemed it too "girly" of a drink my husband would sometimes order a beer but I always got the Drink of the Day. This annoyed my kids to no end because they wanted to order something too but I always refused. "There's all this free food on the ship! I am not paying for popcorn and candy!" Sometimes they whined a little but I didn't care because I was sipping on the Drink of the Day. I am not a big drinker at all and in spite of my size I am a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol. In spite of that not a single thing I drank on the cruise ever made me feel the least bit tipsy. I don't know if that's because they make their drinks really weak or because all the alcohol was being absorbed by the 3 dozen tacos I ate every day but something was going on with those drinks. Still, it was fun to try a new drink every day and I thought it was worth the 5 or 6 dollars.
So, All Aboard. It was cute. There's some singing and some dancing and a few jokes and the cruise director came out and talked and it was all fine. I imagine we will skip it when we go on our next cruise because I'm not sure it's anything we will need to see twice. If I had to use a smiley to describe the show I would use this one:
I will say that E really like the show because she's at the wonderful age where everything new is special and fun and makes you sit on the edge of your seat and clap wildly.
After the show we made what would turn out to be our biggest mistake during the entire cruise.
We went to the gift shop.
Take it from me folks, there is no reason to visit the gift shop the minute you walk out of a show. Everyone else in the world is doing the same thing and it makes people very crabby. Huge sensory overload even for people who don't have sensory issues. By the time we realized we were fools to try and browse the souvenir selection at the same time as 600 other people it was too late and we were trapped in the store. After a lot of "Excuse me, excuse me, sir, you're stepping my my daughter, excuse me, I SAID EXCUSE ME!" we managed to wiggle our way out. Don't be like us. Don't visit the gift shop right after a show. Go during the middle of the day when you will literally be the only person in there and cast members will slip you trading pins because you are small and cute. (This works best if you are a small and cute child.)
After our retreat from the Mob That Ate the Gift Shop we made a quick stop at the bathrooms.
People don't look at you funny at all when you take pictures of the bathroom signs. No, that's not true. They do. Just enjoy my picture and save yourself from getting the looks that clearly say "Is this person a bathroom fetishist and perhaps would I be safer using the bathroom in my cabin?"
Can I just say that we used a LOT of bathroom on the ship because E's philosophy is life is that whatever we're planning on doing is fun but certainly doing it five minutes later so we can make a bathroom stop will be even more fun. I never saw any of the bathrooms in anything less that spotless condition. I'm sure that it happens but I never saw it. None of them even had that usual tell-tale public restroom smell. I and say that as a person who spends a lot of time hanging around outside public restroom stalls while E ... I don't know, composes symphonies or whatever it is she does in there that takes so long.
After spending eternity in the bathroom we went to Studio Sea to watch and maybe play Mickey Mania. It's a family game that's sort of like Jeopardy but with teams? And without the answering in the form of a question? And with Disney questions? I don't know. I'm terrible at describing things. You can kind of see the set up in the background of this picture.
We didn't get picked to play. Sad! I will say that although I bad at describing things I am super awesome at Disney trivia. If we had been picked to play J and I would have swept the competition. Oh well. The people who were picked were good too and it was enjoyable to watch. The crew member who ran it did a nice job and kept it entertaining.
After Mickey Mania we headed to dinner. Our first restaurant in our rotation was the Animator's Palate. For some reason I kept calling it the Artist's Palate and this made my kids scream with laughter each time I did it. We made a second blunder here by arriving early and standing in line. Don't do that. There's no need. Just show up on time and you'll be able to walk right in and be seated. Standing in line is for noobs.
We were seated with another family of four. This was instantly a cause of angst for our little group. I had really debated requesting a table of our own but I wondered if we would get sick of talking to only each other every night so I decided to chance it. Jesse is a very friendly guy who can talk to anyone. I however am extremely shy and tend to say awkward things around people I don't know well. J is also uncomfortable around people he doesn't know well. E is seven and has the social skills of a seven year old which is to say that she's a sweet girl and very likeable but she really doesn't care much what's going on with you when she's got chicken fingers and broccoli in front of her.
So our first dinner was a little uncomfortable. I think none of us were sure how much we were really supposed to talk to the other family. I tried to think of a way to break the ice but all I could think of was asking "So .... do you like ...stuff?" so I kept my mouth shut and tended to my kids. This was difficult as about 10 minutes into dinner E got a major case of the I Didn't Sleep Enough Last Night And Now Everything Makes Me Cry and J was eager to get out of there and do some of the getting-to-know-you activities in the Edge.
Let me talk for just a minute about food. As I said earlier I didn't really take pictures but I do remember what I ate:
Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist - I don't really like mushrooms but I love risotto more than I hate eating fungus so I gave this a try. I wish I had asked for a second serving. This was the bomb-diggity. It was so good that it made me say stupid things like bomb-diggity.
Ahi Tuna Tartare - Yeah, I ordered two appetizers. That's how I roll. This was pretty good but TINY. On the menu it said it should have caviar on it but mine didn't seem to. Still pretty good.
Smoked Salmon and Trout with Goat Cheese Salad - Not bad at all. I love goat cheese and salmon though so you could probably serve them on a mushroom and I would eat it.
Lemon-Thyme Marinated Chicken Breast - I will go on record and say this was my second biggest disappointment of my MDR meals. The piece of chicken I had was fatty and the mashed potatoes were somehow both runny and dry. I will say that Jesse ordered the same thing and loved it. In fact he ate mine when I quit halfway through.
I don't remember what I had for dessert. Most likely the trio of min-desserts that they offer with every dinner. I'm sure it was good but ...
At this point I was mostly trying to get E to watch the "show" going on around her. Everything was lighting up and changing colors around us. Even the servers changed from their black and white vests to colorful vests. Fun fact - Over-tired seven year olds care very little about the clothing choices of waiters. I on the other hand really enjoyed the show. It felt very Disney to me and in spite of the fact that E had fallen asleep using my arm as a pillow I really got into it. This was helped along by the fact that our serving team was awesome. They were so friendly and cheerful that they helped set the mood for me.
Finally we decided to head out of dinner. If things had been awkward with our tablemates at first I certainly didn't make it better when we suddenly got up and left without saying goodbye to them. Not my best move but my arm was asleep and both my kids had dissolved into sad, mopey piles of whine and I just needed to get them out of there.
When we left the restaurant E instantly perked up and asked if she could go to the Lab to make jewelry. We agreed and Jesse went to drop her off. I took J to the Edge. I had to stand outside with him for minute and help him work up his nerve. He really wanted to go in but he needed a second to feel comfortable. I was really proud of him for going in because I know it was hard for him.
Jesse and I met up in the stairwell stairwell by the Edge. Then we headed down the hall to our cabin.
Once we got to the cabin, just the two of us, we did what came naturally. Yeah baby, that's right. We unpacked.
That's not entirely accurate. I unpacked. Jesse laid on the bed and watched Mickey Mouse cartoons.
I also ate all the chocolate our room hostess left because the rule is that for every suitcase you unpack you get a piece of chocolate. Unpacking didn't take too long because we hadn't brought that much. I was able to fit all the empty bags into the closet and still have plenty of space for hanging clothes. We had more than enough space for folded things in the drawers and the steamer trunk. The only problem I ran into was trying to find outlets to plug our various chargers into. Jesse had to rent an extension cord from guest services ($50 fully refundable upon the cord's return) so that he could plug his cpap machine in.
After I was all unpacked I went to pick up the kids. I found E in the lab sitting at a computer showing a very tiny girl how to play Peggle. I know some people worry about their older kids not wanting to be around the young kids in the Club and Lab but E really enjoyed it. I think she liked feeling like a big kid.
I also picked J up at the Edge. Kids in the Edge don't have to be checked out or picked up and are given the run of the ship but J preferred having us pick him up. He liked knowing what time we would be there because he prefers to operate on a schedule that he knows ahead of time. I found him sitting at a table coloring a picture and talking to a girl. He talked about this girl a lot over the coming days. He started off calling her "my new artist friend" and then changed that to "my new artist friend who lives in Canada" which then became "my new artist friend who lives in Canada and is Korean" and then at last "my new artist friend who lives in Canada and is Korean and I think her name is R___". (If you are reading this and that is your daughter please know that your child helped make the cruise a lot more fun and comfortable for J. He really enjoyed her company and her friendliness towards a kid who can be a little awkward and unsure of himself was a real gift. You're raising a winner!)
At the end of a long day, bed time. I don't even remember laying down. I don't often sleep well in new places but I conked out pretty much right away this night. The ship was rocking noticeably and I felt like I was being rocked to sleep. It was a nice way to end a pretty awesome day.
Coming up: What happened with the taco? Would we ever make friends with our tablemates? Did Jesse's bathroom stuff keep ending up on the floor? Stay tuned for another griping installment where a total stranger tries (and maybe fails) to remember what she ate one night several weeks ago!