Day 13
After two busy days, we had another leisurely day. I had set the wake up call for 9:30 as our first commitment that day was the character breakfast at 9:45. We were awake at about 9:00, got up and got ready. We used the extra time that we had to walk a lap around deck 4 where we got the first impression of the beautiful scenery that was waiting for us. Once we completed our lap, we went to Parrot Cay for our breakfast. They already had the decorations for the Golden Mickeys up so I took a couple of photos on the way.
As soon as we entered the restaurant, our serving team welcomed us. They took our drinks order and brought us the menu. We both had coffee. Graham had some orange juice and I had some apple juice. We both had fried eggs, sausages, hash browns and mushrooms. Graham also had some white toast and some fresh fruit and yoghurt. It did not take long until the first character appeared. Dale headed straight for Graham and gave him a hug. Graham complained that he now had fleas. Dale sympathised and then started scratching himself like he had caught fleas from Graham. It was so funny. Dale then came to me for a hug and a photo and then he insisted on a group photo. Minnie, Pluto and Goofy came by in quick succession and gave me a hug first and then positioned themselves in a way that Graham and I were both in the photo. Then there was a bit of a gap before Mickey and Chip visited. Chip must have caught up with Dale at some point before visiting us as he was teasing Graham about his fleas. This was probably the best character breakfast I had on a ship. Before we could escape, our serving team equipped us with some silly hats. I am honestly not drunk in that photo. I think I was just struggling to keep my Minnie bow on my head long enough for a photo. We finished our drinks and said goodbye to our serving team.
Graham went back to the cabin as he wanted to get his camera, tripod and telescope. I had a few errands to run so he told me roughly where he would be. My next stop was the shops. I was very disappointed on the first cruise that there was no special merchandise at all. So I wanted to check out the situation on this cruise. Well, I was impressed with offerings. They had t shirts, sweatshirts and jackets with the logos for the Alaska cruises, soft toys of the characters in their Alaska outfits, two pins (one of which featured Stitch), a totem pole ornament, nesting dolls, a special Vinylmation, fleece blankets in various styles, photo albums and scrapbooks and some merchandise that was produced in Alaska. This was pretty impressive. My main reason for coming to the shop though was to get a gift card to put on my account to cover the photo CD and some souvenirs. I had no problem purchasing the gift card with my debit card.
With the gift card sorted out, I quickly went back to the cabin to pick up the 9 inch Create Your Own Vinylmation that I had brought to be signed. I had a green one signed last year by the gang and Stitch and this time round I was torn between the princesses or the Pixar characters, but decided to go with the princesses. I then went to Guest Services to have the gift card applied to my onboard account and to drop off the Vinylmation. With this taken care off, I went upstairs to Shutters to purchase the photo CD. I then went back to the cabin to get changed. In 2011, I had a pink tea length dress made that I wore for one of the Halloween parties at
Disneyland. I had brought this dress along to the cruise as I had an event that afternoon for which the dress code was pink and tiara. As the Princess Gathering would take place straight after the
Castaway Club reception and I was not sure how much time I had to get changed between that and the other event, I decided to get changed at this point. I figured it would be nice to be dressed up for the Princess Gathering anyway.
Once I was changed, I joined Graham on deck 4. We enjoyed the view together for a short while and then we went to the Castaway Club reception. This time round we got a table right by where they had set up the Castaway Club backdrop where Captain Mickey would appear later. Pretty much as soon as we had sat down, we were offered a drink. Graham had some sparkling wine and I had a Bellini. We were also offered some fruit and some cookies. The officers arrived shortly afterwards and the cruise director and Captain Thord said a few words. Then Captain Mickey came in and I got in line. Even though I was so close, there were two or three families in front of me. We spoke to a couple of officers that came by our table and we were offered another drink. Once the line for Captain Mickey had gone down, I convinced Graham to have a photo with me and Captain Mickey. After this we left as I had somewhere else to be.