14-night Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise (May 14-28, 2011) Lots of pics! COMPLETED 9/8

[cannp123165]

Great update! Love the photos of the show.

 

[KevieKev05]

Great update! Love the photos of the show.

Thanks! That's one of the main reasons why I got a better camera...I love taking pictures of the shows, and my old one just wasn't cutting it.

 

[LuvEeyore]

I am just loving you trip report. It is great to see you traveling with your parents. I love traveling with my Mom. She is my best friend and traveling with her is making great memories for when traveling with her will not be an option as she has early alzheimers.

Love your pictures and sense of humor. Cant wait for more.

 

[SeaSpray]

I'm loving your trip report. Thank you!!

 

[Tink rules]

If it's ok... can you please post a picture of your group? I always like see who I am following!

 

[squitty]

Love the update

Thank you for all the lovely photos.

 

[KevieKev05]

DAY 4 - May 17th, 2011 - Day At Sea #2 (Part 1)

My eyes opened and all I saw was pretty much pitch blackness. Ah, the joys of having a stateroom with no window, haha. I check the clock and it reads almost 10:00. Uh oh. We had a wake-up call set for 9:00. What happened?! We were supposed to be heading to breakfast with Mom and Dad at 10:00. Eeeeeks! So, I call their room and they are ready to go. Whoops. We tell them to go ahead and we’ll meet up with them later.

About two minutes later, the phone rings. It’s our wake-up call. Looks like the system didn’t update to one-hour forward today like it did yesterday. It seems this will be unreliable, so we decide to triple check our clock and set the alarm on that one each night. So frustrating though!

By 10:40 we were ready and head downstairs to purchase the special Transatlantic pin with our wristbands. After purchasing those, we run into Mom and Dad in the lobby. Today was the Castaway Club reception, so James and I were on our way to that (Mom and Dad weren’t invited since they’re just at the Silver level). We walk over to Rockin’ Bar D and see a fairly decent line of people and crew members handing out nametags. We decide to skip it (it appeared to be a lot of “mingling” to us and we really didn’t want to do that). So, we walk swiftly back to the lobby hoping Mom and Dad hadn’t left. They were still sitting enjoying the view, so we rounded them up and invited them to have brunch with us at Lumiere’s! (I know, I know...they already ate, but they were willing to keep us company, haha.)

Brunch menu:

And so, into Lumiere’s we went. Marianne’s section was full, so we had a different server (don’t remember who it was, but we weren’t impressed. I guess we were spoiled with Marianne!). I got Froot Loops and a chicken caesar panini. James got fish and chips.

My panini:

For dessert, we both got the banana crepes (so good!):

At the the Guest Services desk (it cracked me up every time I saw it!):

Upon devouring the scrumptious dessert, we proceeded to Diversions to play games. The DVC presentation was starting soon, so we went to the Promenade Lounge instead. What game did we play? Why Phase 10 of course! While playing, we sat through Pictionary and origami. I ran upstairs and got our glasses and got a round of the drink of the day (“Blue Heaven”). To be honest, I don’t quite remember what was in this drink or if we enjoyed it.

We finished playing at about 1:30 and dropped off the games and glasses in our room. At 1:40, we went to the Walt Disney Theatre for a wonderful special guest performance! We had the pleasure of having Alton Fitzgerald White (current Mufasa in “The Lion King” on Broadway) sing for us! He started at 2:00 and it was a wonderful “concert”. He was to perform twice on the cruise: this one was Disney specific songs, and his second one was more his “favorites”. In this performance he sang:

“Be Our Guest” - Beauty and the Beast
“Beauty and the Beast” - Beauty and the Beast
“Fortune Favors the Brave” - Aida
“Radames’ Letter” - Aida
“You’ll Be in My Heart” - Tarzan
“Feed the Birds” - Mary Poppins
“Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious” - Mary Poppins
“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” - The Lion King
“Hakuna Matata” - The Lion King
“Part of Your World” - The Little Mermaid
“Under the Sea” - The Little Mermaid

I was in heaven to be quite honest. I’m a huge Broadway fan, and Aida is my absolute favorite musical! He did such a phenomenal job. It was him and a piano player (from the band that was on board). Alton messed up “Under the Sea” but was able to get back in it and finish the song. Afterwards he confessed he worked so hard on that one and was mad he still messed it up, haha. Here are pictures from this performance:

By 2:45 the performance was over, and we went to Diversions. What game shall we play this time? Well, Scattergories was sitting out, so we grabbed that and played it! While playing they had trivia going on. At 4:30, James and I went upstairs to grabbed some food and drinks for everyone. We got chicken fingers and pizza (surprise) and who served us at Pluto’s? Why Marianne of course! She harassed us for eating all that food before dinner, haha. Back downstairs we went, and after we ate, they had 70s music trivia! My Dad was actually excited for that, so we participated. I believe we came in 2nd or 3rd! I was in complete awe and how much he knew! I had no clue, that’s for sure.

We left Diversions just after 5:30. On our way to the room, I took another picture of the chandelier, and then we took a picture of the dinner menu (tonight was the rotational dinner at Animator’s Palate).

We collectively decided to skip the show tonight (Alfred and Seymour). James and I instead went to see “Gnomeo and Juliet” in the Buena Vista Theatre at 6:00. It was...alright. By 7:15 we were leaving the theatre and heading back to the room to get ready for dinner. Within 30 minutes we were out the door again with the lobby as our destination. We grabbed a picture with Mickey and snapped a photo or two outside on deck 4. Within 15 minutes or so, we went back upstairs to collect Mom and Dad for dinner. I was REALLY looking forward to dinner. I love the show night in Animator’s and I love the menu! Once again, the doors opened at 8:30, and into the black and white scheme we went!

 

[KevieKev05]

DAY 4 - May 17th, 2011 - Day At Sea #2 (Part 2)

First thing’s first...appetizer! James and I both got the mushroom risotto:

James also got the tuna appetizer:

Then, it was soup time! I got the baked potato soup (yum) and James got the butternut squash soup (also yummy). Before long, the restaurant started changing!

For our entrees, I got the pennette pasta dish and James got the veal.

As a table, we shared the chicken entree:

More interior shots of the restaurant:

Then it was dessert time! I got the chilled lemon souffle and James (and I believe both Mom and Dad) got the apple crumble.

Then it was time for more interior shots of the restaurant, as color was taking over!

Within a few minutes, it was time for the parade of servers and SORCERER MICKEY! (We’ve never seen him come into the restaurant before!)

Assistant server Zuzana, server Marianne behind her, and our head server Ali with his eyes closed behind them:

At about 10:00, we were leaving the restaurant.

We went to the lobby and got pictures with Chip and Dale, and then Daisy and Donald. After that, it was about time to start thinking about going to bed! It was going to be yet another hour forward tonight. When we opened the door to our stateroom we saw this:

I always loved seeing what towel animal we were going to have each night. At 10:30, we turned on the Yogi Bear movie. At 11:45, we shut it off as we were falling asleep. After all, it was really 12:45 now! This one-hour forward each night was already starting to take it’s toll on us. And so, off to sleep we went, excited for yet another day at sea tomorrow!

 

[squitty]

Lovely photos of AP & the food

Another great day.

 

[KevieKev05]

Lovely photos of AP & the food

Another great day.

Thanks! Everyone was trained to NOT touch their food until a picture was taken, haha. I think I still had to slap their hands on day 14, though! They just wanted to dig right in!

 

[Shell54]

Just finished your Dream TR (great!!) and followed your links here... and am now really enjoying this one Your photos are so great. Looking forward to more updates!!

 

[Schmendrick54]

DAY 3 - May 16th, 2011 - Day At Sea #1 (Part 1)

[ stuff snipped ]

Around 6:00, the doors opened to the Walt Disney Theatre (and yes, we were waiting right outside). We got “our” seats and waited for the show to start! Tonight was “Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story”. I saw it on my very first Disney cruise, and hadn’t seen it since. Everyone else hadn’t seen it before, so we were all very excited for the show! It started right at 6:30...Drizella slipped, there was a fall or two, and the pyro for Franco’s exit didn’t work. Other than that, it was a wonderful show. At times, though, I feel there is too much use of the projection screen. I took LOTS of pictures (shocking):

[ more stuff snipped ]

Thanks for the great trip report. I am another future cruiser on the WBTA, so I am really enjoying all of the pictures. I especially like the show photos. Looking forward to the next installment.

Regards,
Jerry

 

[cannp123165]

Another great day - the concert sounds great.

 

[bonnielynn]

Feel like Ive taken the trip with you so far.. thanks for allowing me to come!!
Great report.

 

[marie714]

Loving the report, can't wait for more!

 

[Grumpysjgio]

Well, it actually wasn't that deserted. This was right around the "all aboard" time, so everyone was practically back on the ship.





I want to do the WBTA since I enjoyed this one so much! Hahaha...if only I had the time and money. And thanks for the photo compliments!




I'm sorry...I'm afraid I don't remember. I can't give her enough praise though! Phenomenal server.



Thanks! I'm truly hoping to have the next installment up tomorrow!

I had wanted to do this cruise, thought I would wait till next year only to find out no TA next year, hopefully again soon though.
Love reading about the experience anyway.
As far as the servers names they should be on the stub from the gratuity.
Speaking about gratuities, being new to cruising, how close to the recommended gratuities does the consensus say is considered appropriate for good/excellent service?

 

[bonnielynn]

great report.. thanks for sharing!!

 

[dvcspain]

waiting for your update, i love this trip report

 

[KevieKev05]

DAY 5 - May 18th, 2011 - Day At Sea #3 (Part 1)

After another peaceful slumber, I wake up and see that the clock says 9:30. Hmmm. Mom and Dad said that since they would be up, they would just call us at 9:00 so that we could leave for breakfast at 10:00. So, I hop in the shower and I call them after I get out at 9:40. Oh no! Looks like it was their turn to have a snafu in the morning! Apparently they forgot to set their clocks forward one hour. Whoops! The next thing I do is call the wake-up call line to check the time, and it’s correct. Hmmm...to trust this option or not...

Anyway, at 10:15, we head upstairs to Topsider for another scrumptious breakfast.

As we’re eating, we notice how eerily calm the water is outside. We couldn’t believe it! After we ate, we went downstairs and I snapped some pictures of the calm water:

I also snapped some more pictures of random things on our way to Diversions for game time:

I believe that today was the first day they set out the Dooney & Bourke things, so there were quite a few people sorting through all the bags.

When we finally arrived at Diversions, we spent almost four hours playing various games. We started with Bananagrams, then moved on to Uno, and then ended with Phase 10.

At 2:30, we went up top to grab some food! We enjoyed cheeseburgers and pizza and as luck would have it, bartenders were walking around offering 2-for-1 Bahama Mamas! Now, this is my FAVORITE drink, and I was upset that it wasn’t the drink of the day on the first day like it normally is. So, we naturally got some! YUM! We sat around enjoying the sunshine and watching the big TV before making our way to Rockin’ Bar D for bingo. Dad wanted to go back to the room as he had a headache, so Mom, James, and I stopped by the Vista Spa before heading downstairs.

As we went downstairs and walked through Beat Street, I naturally took more pictures:

We then got settled for BINGO! We decided to go for the $50 package which included 24 electronic cards and 6 paper cards. The game started at 3:30 and there were to be four cash prizes and ten prizes to be raffled off.

Believe it or not, we didn’t win a single thing. Again. On the last bingo game, we were one away when someone called bingo. Darn!

The whole experience ended at about 4:45, and we went back to the room to clean up for the evening’s festivities. At 5:15, James and I went back downstairs and tried to get on the internet. Naturally, it wasn’t working, but that’s okay. We walked around a little bit and found some characters in the lobby!

We then went back through the shops (I know, we were ALWAYS in here, always looking, rarely buying) and I took a few more pictures.

 

[KevieKev05]

DAY 5 - May 18th, 2011 - Day At Sea #3 (Part 2)

And then I took some more pictures of the wonderfully calm waters:

At 6:00, we had found our way back to the Walt Disney Theatre and the doors opened promptly. Tonight’s show? “Once Upon a Song.” Now, I quite enjoy this show. A lot. But I realize that it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It’s basically a concert-style show with five singers singing various Disney songs (both popular and obscure). Sure, there is some incredibly corny and bad staging/movement/”dancing”, but for this show, it’s more about the singing. Get ready for pictures galore! I brought my zoom lens, so I could get some good close-ups.