Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust! Jenn & Kevin 10/12/14 Italy/ADH/France - The End (7/2016 New TR Link!)

[kanadar]

So exciting you started your honeymoon TR!!! This makes me want to do a cruise!! Too bad poor DF is not a fan :/ maybe I can get him on one someday! He's not a fan of pools either but I got him to go in one day this trip so thats something!

Also, that dress you are wearing looks super cute from the little bit I can see in the bathroom picture

 

[Seia]

Great start to the cruise report! Your room looks so nice. A Disney cruise is on my list of future vacations for sure! Did you use your verandah a lot? I feel like I would definitely want one, but others have told me that they aren't in the room enough to justify the price difference.

 

[Disney_Alli]

I would have had an absolute panic attack if I'd left a necklace that important behind. Kudos to you for keeping it calm and so glad you have it back! I'm glad you enjoyed The Fantasy. I had a blast on her in '12 and can't wait to check out the Wonder next summer.

 

[elphie101]

Aww how I love the Fantasy!! She is such a beautiful ship and what a great start to your honeymoon trip and smart thinking on making sure to check your dining your honeymoon you want that alone time! and I would have been so panicked if I lost a necklace like that but thank God you found it! Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip was and how you enjoyed Palo I love their brunch!

Ok, is it silly that I kind of think of her (the Fantasy that is) as our ship? Like "aw, that's our girl!" I have a feeling it'll always be my favorite one in Disney's fleet, just because it was our first one, and it was just soooooo romantic.

We've only just hit the tip of the iceberg! (Bahaha cruise joke ) Trust me, we ADORED Palo brunch! I can't wait to try dinner on our next cruise! (We didn't want to miss any MDR menus for our first cruise out).

So exciting you started your honeymoon TR!!! This makes me want to do a cruise!! Too bad poor DF is not a fan :/ maybe I can get him on one someday! He's not a fan of pools either but I got him to go in one day this trip so thats something!

Also, that dress you are wearing looks super cute from the little bit I can see in the bathroom picture

Maybe you can get him on something non-beachy, like an Alaska cruise? Or tack a 3/4 nighter on a WDW trip? Kevin was a little apprehensive but I think knowing it was Disney comforted him a little. He ended up just loving how relaxing it was, and adored the sea days. He still says he prefers WDW though.

Great start to the cruise report! Your room looks so nice. A Disney cruise is on my list of future vacations for sure! Did you use your verandah a lot? I feel like I would definitely want one, but others have told me that they aren't in the room enough to justify the price difference.

I've heard that too - we absolutely made use of our verandah, especially just people watching while we were in port. One of our favorite things to do was open one of our beers or the champagne we brought onboard with us and just sit out there and relax. I'm pretty sure the only day we didn't actively sit out there was our one bad weather day (which I'll get to eventually...). Our next cruise will almost definitely be an inside room, just for money saving reasons, so I'm interested to compare the experiences (unless our next cruise is Alaska - because I'll be insisting on a verandah for that!)

I would have had an absolute panic attack if I'd left a necklace that important behind. Kudos to you for keeping it calm and so glad you have it back! I'm glad you enjoyed The Fantasy. I had a blast on her in '12 and can't wait to check out the Wonder next summer.

I'm dying to get on another ship! I'm almost a little bummed our next cruise will probably be on the Dream (again, money reasons, just because the Dream does the short itineraries) because I want to check out the Classic ships!

I mostly just didn't want to sit in the car for another 40 minutes with the ILs also worrying about the necklace, but mostly I think the fact that Kevin didn't totally lose his cool was what kept me calm. I don't think they actually found it till that following Thursday or Friday (this was Saturday) because I remember checking in with our folks on St Thomas day and there was no word yet - I know it was after the ILs left on that Monday because it did need to be mailed to them. What luck though! I'll definitely never be that stupid again...

 

[charliegirl76]

Bahaha just wait till I get to the cruise food pictures - I think I stopped taking photos of Kevin's meals after Day 2 because they were ALWAYS the same! You guys would get along swimmingly I do love my Disney food so I hope that inspires you to try something!

You need a park hopper to ride the Hogwarts Express, since the original HP section (with Forbidden Journey, Hogsmede etc) is in Islands of Adventure and the Diagon Alley expansion is in Universal Studios. A one-day hopper is usually what we do when we visit Universal, so it worked for us, and depending on what else you want to do at Universal it's definitely enough to see all the HP stuff.

You should keep an eye on the Galveston DCL sailings - sometimes those are deeply discounted!

Good to know about WWoHP. Since we went during our planning session before the wedding, I don't think I'd care to see much of anything else besides HP, so a one day park hopper would suffice. I'm really happy to know about the discounts for the Galveston sailings because I think we're going next December! It will be an anniversary/my 40th birthday/my mom's 70th birthday trip. We plan on surprising my mom with it.

I'm loving the DCL portion so far! Can't wait to see more!!

 

[twinkybel81]

Friday, October 17th

Our last morning at WDW. We woke up and got ready to check out of our villa, and Kevin remarked he was a little sad, like he always is after a WDW trip is over. As for me - we were getting on the FANTASY the next day - I didn't exactly want to rush through our last day in FL but I couldn't WAIT for the second part of the honeymoon.

We didn't have any set plans - change rooms, explore whatever parts of the park we felt we wanted to see (presumably Epcot/Food & Wine) and just enjoy the last day. As we were getting ready though, I was browsing Facebook and happened to notice something in one of my Facebook groups - the Haunted Mansion Dooney & Bourke purses, previously sold out everywhere, had just been restocked at Magic Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom only. I wanted a wristlet so badly, but we hadn't planned to go to MK and I didn't know when I'd be able to get one in our day.

Kevin stepped in with a sweet husband of the year award moment, and offered to pack up the rest of the room on his own (and we had a LOT of stuff, thanks to the wedding) while I ran to MK to get a bag. Ecstatic, I rushed through getting ready and dashed down to the bus stop, and before long I was on a bus and driving past this sweet sight:



I hustled into the park and ran into Uptown Jewelers, where a pyramid of Haunted Mansion bags were guarded behind the counter. To control the (potential) crowds, the CMs had laminated sheets with the different bag styles and prices, and would bring you a bag on request before you made your purchase. No fussing with the other bags though - one wristlet for this girl! A few minutes later I was leaving MK with my shiny purchase in hand and confusing the heck out of the CMs and bus drivers as to why I was leaving the park at 9:15am.


Bye MK! Short but sweet!


My spoils

As the bus left for Beach Club I sent Kevin a text to tell him I was coming back, and he let me know that not only was our room ready, but it was HUGE! I was a bit bummed we hadn't gotten a mythical concierge upgrade, but my curiosity was peaked. I met Kevin in the Beach Club lobby, where he led me up to the second floor and allllllllllllll the way down the hallway to our new room. "It's different, but AWESOME" he said - and he was right.

He opened the door to a long hallway:










I freaked out and started taking tons of pictures of the place. In reality I'm sure the actual room square footage wasn't much different than the rest of the resort, but the weird layout and long hallway certainly made it feel bigger. But best of all was the balcony:



It was HUGE! It was a standard view, so we were facing the woods (with the villas on our left), but we were facing in the direction of Epcot, and given that we saw the tops of Illuminations on previous nights from around the Boardwalk we reasoned that we might have a fireworks view room! We decided to test it out that evening, and wandered into Epcot (now that much closer thanks to the conveniently placed stairwell next to our room!) to use our FP+ for the day and enjoy a little more Food & Wine. This trip really made me fall in love with the Epcot resort area and the ease of the International Gateway (and really, deluxes overall - we're in trouble now!)


Always a pleasure to walk right by our DP spot with every entrance into Epcot

We had a valid Fastpass for Test Track at that time, so we decided to stroll in that direct and pick up some food & drink along the way. For whatever reason, nearly every food picture from this day is out of focus, so I'll spare you most of them. I grabbed a Honey Wine from Ireland (meh), the CraB’less CraB Cake from Terra aka the vegetarian booth (also meh) and a husband and a beer in the Odyssey beer booth (wish this was open year round!) Knowing Kevin's tastes and not remembering what the beer was, I'm going to guess it was anywhere from all right to bland.



We got in the Fastpass line at Test Track and decided to make the most ridiculous, horribly inefficient car we possibly could - I think we succeeded!



After Test Track we decided to skip our Mission Space FP in favor of going to get some food. In the grand tradition of us, we headed to Liberty Inn for Kevin's chicken nuggets & fries while I grabbed something more adventurous for myself along the way.


Roasted pork lettuce wrap with kimchi slaw from South Korea (pretty bland - I just made a kimichi slaw last week and it was waaaaaay spicier!) and Pepper Bacon Hash (OUTSTANDING! Quite possibly my favorite item from Food & Wine this year)


Apple Maple Spice Latte, iced, which I got because of a) tiredness and b) a misguided attempt to complete a passport (I'd call it an adequate coffee beverage)

After eating, we were in a very "go with the flow, relaxation" kind of mood, so we wandered next door to American Adventure. We caught a Voices of Liberty show (love them so much!) and explored the historical display on the ground floor (never noticed it!) before enjoying some American history, air conditioning, and seats.



After the show, we decided to check out the Chase Lounge aka the AA Parlor, because Kevin has a Chase card and I wanted to see another DFTW venue.





Maybe it's just the nature of the space, but it felt a lot more crowded than it looks in these pictures. The lines next door for the freestyle Coke machines were crazy, and Disney Infinity was set up to demo - we briefly picked the game up before noticing the eagle-eyed kids lurking in the distance waiting for their turn, so we grabbed some quick water to rehydrate and left. Since we hadn't done Figment yet (and who leaves WDW without going on Figment? Not us!) we headed in that direction, while I grabbed a glass of champagne for the walk.


One of my favorite candids from the whole trip


If I had my passport, I could tell you what this was.......but let's just leave it at being yummy shall we?

After visiting Figment, we decided to do a driveby of the Festival center just in case we wanted any specific souvenirs (or more alcohol for the cruise).




Kevin almost bought this shirt (he settled on a Rose & Crown one instead), but my parents bought us each this shirt for Christmas anyway!

Our four parents were going out to dinner that evening again (this time at Yachtsman), and we wanted to meet them at our room to show off the new space and pass off some of our wedding-related items (like our wine box, wedding accessories and so on) for them to take home so we would have less to worry about coming home from the cruise. We had about an hour till their reservation, so we decided to take the long way back to International Gateway.


I had to stop in Poland to get the Frozen Szarlotka (yay booze! and apple!) and because I'm half Polish and needed to get a photo for all my Polish family


We found this in the crystal shop in Germany - somewhere, a CM is a How I Met Your Mother fan! The date is actually the airdate of the first episode!


The Berliner, which replaced my beloved apple strudel, and was a poor substitute

We got to Italy and couldn't help but wander in - it was our first time back at the pavilion since the wedding day. Having been back to WDW since, I have to say I love, love, love that we got married in a location that wasn't of any special significance to us before the wedding day. Every time we walk by Italy now I'm instantly sucked into my happy memories of our wedding day, and what was once just a pavilion with a decent restaurant or two now is the most special place in WDW for us.


A much different view than the last time we stood up there!


A picture for the road - we've decided to get a photo here on every WDW trip going forward

I really, really wanted to get a souvenir from Italy to commemorate the trip - but being that it's one of the pavilions that doesn't have as much operated by Disney I personally find the merchandise to be a little lackluster. I was browsing the room with the masks, when I noticed this tucked in the back corner:


Now, we'll always have the way the pavilion looked on our wedding day (complete with where our first look happened!), just in case big changes ever come through Epcot (as we found out the hard way given that our proposal spot is now a giant pile of dirt)

We made one final pit stop in France to get ice cream, where I had the caramelized apple deliciousness for probably about the third time that trip. Yum, yum, yum. We strolled back to Beach Club, really just taking our time, enjoying the Disney atmosphere, enjoying being on our honeymoon and excitedly gabbing about the cruise the next day. We met our parents in the lobby and took them up to our room (cue ooooing and ahhhhing), then took some time to do a proper repack of our luggage to get everything where it needed to be for the cruise such as swimsuits and booze in carryons (we still had a bottle of champagne plus something like 8 or 9 beers from our parents that we were bringing with us - yay DCL!). Kevin grabbed a flatbread pizza from the Marketplace downstairs to be his dinner, but I wasn't about to pass up the chance to continue eating around the world, so we went back into Epcot once more!


The little second floor balcony in the Beach Club - love it!



Since it was a Friday night during Food & Wine, Epcot was predictably crowded. Kevin was full from his pizza, I sent him off to wait in line at Brazil for me while I headed to Belgium.


Potato and Leek Waffle with Braised Beef (I literally have no memory of my opinion of this, so we'll just call it good!)


Cocadas from Brazil (boring, wish I had gone with the cheese bread instead!)

I don't really have much detail on what we did for the rest of the night - I think more atmosphere-soaking and wandering through the park, though I do have this gorgeous shot:



We made a loop around the World Showcase and then headed back to our resort to get situation for Illuminations, but not before making a detour in the gift shop just for kicks.


We are not ear people. Some of you wear these ears wonderfully! We do not.

We headed up to our room and relaxed, and about a minute before the show headed out to our balcony in hopes of getting a glimpse of the fireworks. And we could see them!





Ok, just barely. Best of all, the wind was blowing in our direction, so we could hear the music perfectly. Quick access to Epcot, huge floor plan, AND fireworks viewing? Best standard room we've ever had! Exhausted but happy, we went back inside, watched a tv show episode or two, and passed out - the next day was EMBARKATION DAY!

Firstly, I love seeing your two smiling faces!!! I know that it probably sounds weird since we've never met, but it's the truth.

Secondly, I have to tell you that I got a good chuckle out of your D&B wristlet buying expedition, because it's so similar to how I got mine! We were out at the World right before you came out for your wedding trip, and I had been wanting one of those purses for the better part of a year (pretty much since I discovered their existence), which was saying a lot for me because I've never been an expensive purse kind of girl. I learned that they were going to be releasing a new batch sometime in the fall, but there was no exact date. Starting probably the first week in September, I would ask CMs every time we were at the parks (I'm local to DL) and no one ever had an answer for me. Finally, one of the CMs gave me a business card with the phone number for Disney Merchandise, so that I could call and ask them. So I started calling them every week, and got the same answer of there was no release date yet. Fast forward to our last night in Florida (10/5), we were in MK at MNSSHP, and now I can't remember if we were in Memento Mori or Uptown Jewelers, but I decided to ask one last time, only to be told that they were being released the following morning at Uptown Jewelers! *cue majorly excited me* The downside/challenge was that we had not planned on going into any parks that day and we had breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's with the other family we were travelling with. My husband knew how much I wanted one of those purses, so we rearranged our whole morning, which involved waking up and packing much earlier than planned so that we could make MK opening. We got there probably about 15 minutes after opening, so I grabbed my stepson and we ran inside and went to get in line, while my husband took all of our bags through security and came to join us in line. After waiting 20 minutes, we made it inside! I had decided to buy one large purse and one wristlet to use as a wallet. When I got up t the counter, my husband told me to buy two of each so that I would have back ups for when things wore out, or something more dastardly happened! I couldn't believe it, but took his suggestion. It's been almost 10 months and I still love carrying it with me every day.

Sorry this got so long, I'm not good at being brief!

 

[elphie101]

Good to know about WWoHP. Since we went during our planning session before the wedding, I don't think I'd care to see much of anything else besides HP, so a one day park hopper would suffice. I'm really happy to know about the discounts for the Galveston sailings because I think we're going next December! It will be an anniversary/my 40th birthday/my mom's 70th birthday trip. We plan on surprising my mom with it.

I'm loving the DCL portion so far! Can't wait to see more!!

Ahhhh I hope you can go! After the paid-in-full date passes (usually 75 days before sailing) is when the serious discounts have a chance to come out, depending on how the ship is selling. They're IGT, OGT or VGT rates, which means you're only guaranteeing the view you're booking (Inside, Outside, or Verandah) and you can't pick your specific room. I remember seeing the Galveston sailings not selling as well in the past, so they've thrown in deals like Kids Sail Free and stuff, so I bet you might get some discounts!! I don't know if you frequent the DCL section of Disboards but I very highly recommend it, it's how I learned everything I needed to know for this cruise.

Firstly, I love seeing your two smiling faces!!! I know that it probably sounds weird since we've never met, but it's the truth.

Secondly, I have to tell you that I got a good chuckle out of your D&B wristlet buying expedition, because it's so similar to how I got mine! We were out at the World right before you came out for your wedding trip, and I had been wanting one of those purses for the better part of a year (pretty much since I discovered their existence), which was saying a lot for me because I've never been an expensive purse kind of girl. I learned that they were going to be releasing a new batch sometime in the fall, but there was no exact date. Starting probably the first week in September, I would ask CMs every time we were at the parks (I'm local to DL) and no one ever had an answer for me. Finally, one of the CMs gave me a business card with the phone number for Disney Merchandise, so that I could call and ask them. So I started calling them every week, and got the same answer of there was no release date yet. Fast forward to our last night in Florida (10/5), we were in MK at MNSSHP, and now I can't remember if we were in Memento Mori or Uptown Jewelers, but I decided to ask one last time, only to be told that they were being released the following morning at Uptown Jewelers! *cue majorly excited me* The downside/challenge was that we had not planned on going into any parks that day and we had breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's with the other family we were travelling with. My husband knew how much I wanted one of those purses, so we rearranged our whole morning, which involved waking up and packing much earlier than planned so that we could make MK opening. We got there probably about 15 minutes after opening, so I grabbed my stepson and we ran inside and went to get in line, while my husband took all of our bags through security and came to join us in line. After waiting 20 minutes, we made it inside! I had decided to buy one large purse and one wristlet to use as a wallet. When I got up t the counter, my husband told me to buy two of each so that I would have back ups for when things wore out, or something more dastardly happened! I couldn't believe it, but took his suggestion. It's been almost 10 months and I still love carrying it with me every day.

Sorry this got so long, I'm not good at being brief!

Dawwww thank you I'm glad you're not sick of our mugs!

Oh my god, the quest for a HM Dooney! I totally understand, I can't believe you got two!! I loved using mine as my dinner bag for the cruise (since I always wore a dress).

 

[lthiesfeld07]

Love your TR!! I can't wait to stay at the Beach Club for 2 nights during my wedding next month. I am using our complimentary night there and paying OOP for the other.

Did The Beach Club find your necklace? I always seem to leave something back at a resort.

I'm jealous of your DCL Fantasy Cruise! Charles and I are taking a cruise in December on Norwegian. We couldn't justify the expense of DCL vs. NCL. Charles says someday when we have kids we can justify DCL... sigh... lol

Can't wait to read more!

 

[elphie101]

Love your TR!! I can't wait to stay at the Beach Club for 2 nights during my wedding next month. I am using our complimentary night there and paying OOP for the other.

Did The Beach Club find your necklace? I always seem to leave something back at a resort.

I'm jealous of your DCL Fantasy Cruise! Charles and I are taking a cruise in December on Norwegian. We couldn't justify the expense of DCL vs. NCL. Charles says someday when we have kids we can justify DCL... sigh... lol

Can't wait to read more!

They did find the necklace! They found it amidst the bedding sometime on that Thursday or Friday after (which I only know because we called Kevin's parents when we were in St. Thomas that Wednesday and there was no word yet). So exciting you're staying at Beach Club, you'll love it! Especially getting to walk into Epcot.

Oooo, that sounds so exciting! Norwegian would probably be the next line I would try if I could (mostly because they sail out of Boston, although not after what happened recently with that ship getting stuck - that was the itinerary that leaves from Boston!!). I wanted to cruise so badly, and I knew the best way to get Kevin on board with it would be DCL - I'm a little mad we booked at 11 months out, because we knew exactly what we wanted before the 12 month mark and it price jumped at least $300! Grrrr. Oh well.

Maybe you can do a last minute fare on a WDW trip, a 3 or 4 night! It could happen! I hope you can win Charles over sooner!

 

[elphie101]

Cruise Day 1 Continued

Even though the sailaway party technically happens on Deck 11, we chose to watch from Deck 12 so we didn't have to be in the center of the action, and I succumbed to the excitement and bought an overpriced sail away drink. Hey, now we both had souvenir glasses!


I think it was a Pina Colava? Eh who knows


Ready to start the party! That's Kevin's refillable beer mug, which he filled at the Currents bar on Deck 12 - you get 20oz for the price of 16oz - not a bad deal! And unlike WDW's refillable mug, these can be brought back for future cruises (all bars with draft beer have tokens that you can exchange the dirty mug for, so you don't have to walk around with a big 20oz glass)

The Sailaway party started right at 4:30, and it was cute, just not really our cup of tea (like most stage shows at WDW). Kevin was a little annoyed to have staked out a spot for it, and wants to skip it on future cruises (me, I'm not as sure!)


There's the gang!

Finally, with a blast of the most magical sound, 'When you wish upon a star' from the ship's horn, we started moving! We were sailing away! The cruise finally started!


Here we go!

Kevin was feeling a little hungry (if you recall the amount of food on his plate in Cabanas vs mine) so we swung by Flo's on Deck 11 and brought some pizza back to our stateroom. Kevin was a little disappointed it wasn't "Disney Pizza", aka the doughy kind from Pizzafari/Pizza Planet, but it was still yummy

We had late dining rotation (where dinner started at 8:15pm) so we were due to see our first show of the cruise, A Fantasy Come True at 6:15, which was an hour away. We took this time to look through the Navigator for the evening's activities and unpack our checked baggage, which had been delivered to the room while we were away. The one thing I really, really wanted to do on the cruise was Match Your Mate - being that we had only been married for 6 days I was sure we'd get picked as one of the couples, and I told Kevin we could win champagne, or spa services, or god knows what else. He reluctantly agreed (he doesn't exactly relish in being the center of attention). We changed into dinner attire (I like the idea that you dress up slightly for dinner on cruises, so I always wore a dress and Kevin a collared shirt and khakis) and headed down to the shops on Deck 4 to check out their wares, especially their Dooney & Bourke selection now that we were away from port and they were open.


All of these plus a few of the sketch print bags, which I don't love - I ended up buying the charms print iPad case. I didn't find out till later that some people literally wait outside the shop to get the first Dooneys they can!

Purchase in hand, we headed over to the Walt Disney Theatre for our first show - being a huge theater person I was determined to make it to every performance during the cruise.




Excuse me sir, you're ruining our honeymoon selfie


Beautiful detail of the ceiling

Like a good little theater kid, out of respect for the performers I didn't take any pictures, since they (technically) aren't allowed. The show was AWFUL though. It felt like an hour long commercial for the cruise, showcasing all the stuff we could do on the ship. I wanted to tell them to stop selling the cruise to us, we were already onboard weren't we? I know some people love this show but we absolutely hated it, and won't go back again if we find ourselves on the Fantasy anytime soon.

After the show we still had an hour till dinner, so we decided to run back up to the stateroom to drop of my iPad case - and I'm so, so, so glad we did, because outside our verandah was the most spectacular view I've ever seen:









Utterly, simply stunning. It didn't look like a real sunset, it looked like a painted backdrop. Hands down the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. We spent some time admiring it, and really reflecting on the beauty and the romance of the whole trip. Perfectly gorgeous.

We headed over to Europa for some pre dinner drinks. I had one place in mind - Skyline. I sat down at the bar with a menu, which Kevin quickly decided was not for him and went next door to O'Gills (the pub-style bar) to get some beer. The bar was virtually empty, only a handful of people were there, though one of them was my friend with the 12-person Palo reservation from earlier in the day (so weird how you run into people like that).


The skyline of Athens - the concept of Skyline is that every so often the scenery changes to be a different city at night. The menu (all martinis) reflects each of the countries.




I ordered the Catalan - Sangria, Absolut Vanilla, Grand Marnier, Chambord, Mountain Berry Tea, mostly because I can't resist anything with sangria in it.


It was so incredibly yummy! Exactly my kind of drink

In Skyline they have a passport - you get 7 drinks for the price of 6. I thought this sounded like an excellent idea and considering how much I loved my drink and the ambiance, I bought one then and there and applied my martini as my first drink. Kevin came back with his beer and the staff inquired after where he had gone, then informing us they could have gone for him to the other bar to get his beer. Huh. We finished our drinks and chatted with the bartenders (all lovely people), then decided to do a little more exploring before heading down to Deck 3 for our first dinner at Animator's Palate.

There was a bit of a line to get in as people cleaned their hands with the provided wet wipes, then needed to be led to their table by a member of the serving team. As we approached the front of the line, I heard the family in front of us being led to Table 29 - which was our original table! Sadly I didn't get to see where our not-tablemates went, but I hope we didn't abandon them at a four-top if they had been hoping to meet people. Instead, we were led through the restaurant to Table 81.


The adorable butter knife (for sale in the shops!)


Our table sign, which I wish had been for sale in the shops

And now, some blurry menu pictures, if you're anything like me and love salivating over menu descriptions:






If you can't tell, the lighting in here is utter crap



In two seconds our server appeared - Alfredo from the Dominican Republic. He introduced himself, gave his recommendations of the menu, and said that his assistant server "Queen Victoria" would be over momentarily to take our drink orders. We weren't quite sure what he meant by Queen Victoria, until she appeared - Victoria was from Scotland! We ordered our drinks, Kevin a Coke and myself a 'Golden Breeze' - I thought it would be fun to try a specialty drink from each menu.


Pano of the restaurant!


The other side of the restaurant (and one ridiculous husband)


The Golden Breeze - Vodka, Amaretto, Galliano, Orange Juice and Pineapple Juice. Honestly I should have realized I need to pay attention to EVERY ingredient - I really, really don't like pineapple juice and that kind of ruined the drink for me (still drank it though!)

Alfredo came by and took our orders for our meal, and pretty soon our appetizers came out:


Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes - Pasta Purses filled with Truffle-scented Cheese and coated with a Champagne Sauce (we both got this) - It was delicious!! Hands down the best part of this meal. Yum yum yum.


My Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup - tasted exactly what you'd expect it to be. Yummy but not outstanding like the pasta. Kevin skipped the soup & salad course as he didn't see anything that interested him.

It was at this point during the meal that Kevin accidentally spilled his drink in his lap. He was agitated that it had happened and decided to go back to the room to change rather than sit in wet pants. In the meantime I took a few more pictures of the restaurant.


Mickey in the carpet!


This is not a zoom......this is literally how close we were to the table next to us (you can see our table number paint cup at the bottom). It's very obviously with tables for 2 people that they are just an 8-top broken in half (we found this to be true in every dining room, that we could easily find the table we had been 'split' from).



A few minutes later, Crush came out and started interacting with the guests. He paid a lot of attention to the 12-top next to us, especially since almost every child in the party was facing the screen. During this time, our entrees arrived, and poor Kevin still wasn't back yet. It was right about now that I really felt the dependency on texting and cell phones, since I couldn't even shoot him a message to see where he was (I think they have since added this feature to the DCL app!)


My Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin on Wasabi mashed Potatoes with Bok Choy and a Tamarind-Barbecue Reduction


Kevin's Lemon-Thyme Marinated All Natural Chicken Breast with Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Root Vegetables, and Grain Mustard Jus

When Alfredo brought our entrees, he commented on how Kevin had been gone for a few minutes. I told him how he had run back to the room, so Alfredo brought a cover to keep his dish warm (even though I was still waiting on Kevin to eat mine).

A few minutes later Kevin appeared, and surprisingly he was in an even worse mood than when he left. As he was walking back to the room, the ship hit a swell of a wave and he stumbled over into the wall. Two CMs saw him he said, and started pointing and laughing at him. Complete with the drink incident he felt completely embarrassed and was livid, and wanted to finish dinner as quickly as possible so we could go back to the room. I kissed my hopes of being picked for Match Your Mate goodbye and we ate our entrees - I didn't bother to ask Kevin what he thought of his chicken, and my beef was all right, like the soup nothing special.

Alfredo brought over dessert menus and we browsed - Kevin wanted nothing to do with dessert, and I ultimately agreed, since the only non-chocolate options had lemon and raspberry in them, neither of which I particularly like


Dessert for your pleasure

Alfredo reappeared a few minutes later with a chocolate celebration cake (which we obviously didn't touch) and something I had been meaning to grab earlier - Just Married pins!! He wished us goodnight and told us we would see him and Victoria tomorrow in Enchanted Garden on Deck 2 (we had our dining rotation printed on our KTTW card, but I thought it was nice they reminded us anyway).


Ariel and Eric! Bestill my heart. Oddly they are about an inch smaller than the ones in the parks - so weird.

We headed straight up to the room to get ready to turn in. Okta had been there with turn down service and our first towel animal of the trip. Kevin told me as we entered our stateroom that he had been so angry after being laughed at that all he wanted to do was punch the towel, but stopped because he knew I would want to get a picture.



As soon as I snapped the photo, he gave the snake a good wack, enough to make him feel slightly better and even chuckle a bit. We got ready for bed and dove into the wonderful library of on demand movies, starting with Halloweentown (they had Halloweentown!!!) We noticed we could definitely feel the swells of the waves rocking the ship, though thankfully neither of us felt nauseous, and pretty soon we were fast asleep.

 

[Disney_Alli]

I'm sorry Kevin's first night onboard wasn't a great one. How incredibly rude of the CMs to make a spectacle of him!!! I'd have been furious too I HATE to be embarrassed in public even if it's only one or two people! Since you say the cruise was amazing I know it gets better so I'm glad that didn't color your opinion of the whole cruise. It's funny the "friends" I ran into all over the Fantasy was the newlywed couple from Match Your Mate - I was even in the spa when they came in for their complimentary service, haha!

 

[Seia]

It stinks that Kevin had a bad first night. I can't believe the CMs did that. They should have at least asked him if he was okay! Hoping that tomorrow is better for him. The picture of you against the sunset sky is absolutely gorgeous!

And you're killing me with all these food/drink/menu pictures. I need to go on a Disney cruise, stat! Haha!

 

[Belle612]

Ok first, THANK YOU for posting a pic of the room number for the best standard room at the Beach Club - we are staying there over Labor Day weekend and I fully intend to request this room!

I loved reading about your first day on the ship - my husband and I decided to skip the Sail Away party on our honeymoon and just had champagne on our balcony. I'm glad we did as like Kevin, my DH is not super into stage shows in the parks, I can take them or leave them.

You were SO LUCKY to get a Disney Dooney! They were completely sold out of them on our cruise for the entire cruise...I kept checking back and nope nothing!

SKYLINE WAS OUR FAVORITE BAR. Seriously, we went there so many times. It was awesome and the CM's there were always super friendly. Did you notice the Hidden Mickeys waving from some of the windows in the skylines?

I'm sorry that the first dinner wasn't super enjoyable for Kevin, but I hope things turn around on the rest of the trip!

 

[elphie101]

I'm sorry Kevin's first night onboard wasn't a great one. How incredibly rude of the CMs to make a spectacle of him!!! I'd have been furious too I HATE to be embarrassed in public even if it's only one or two people! Since you say the cruise was amazing I know it gets better so I'm glad that didn't color your opinion of the whole cruise. It's funny the "friends" I ran into all over the Fantasy was the newlywed couple from Match Your Mate - I was even in the spa when they came in for their complimentary service, haha!

That's too funny! We ended up meeting more people over the course of the cruise (like in our Mixology class) that we saw throughout the ship that week. I guess there's only so many places you can go in the middle of the ocean!

It stinks that Kevin had a bad first night. I can't believe the CMs did that. They should have at least asked him if he was okay! Hoping that tomorrow is better for him. The picture of you against the sunset sky is absolutely gorgeous!

And you're killing me with all these food/drink/menu pictures. I need to go on a Disney cruise, stat! Haha!

The nice thing about Kevin (he's not reading this right? ) is even after the worst day I've seen him have, a night's sleep resets everything and he's good to go in the morning, so no worries about the rest of the trip!

Every time I look at these menu pictures I glance and the vegetarian section and think of you! Plenty of delicious options.....

Ok first, THANK YOU for posting a pic of the room number for the best standard room at the Beach Club - we are staying there over Labor Day weekend and I fully intend to request this room!

I loved reading about your first day on the ship - my husband and I decided to skip the Sail Away party on our honeymoon and just had champagne on our balcony. I'm glad we did as like Kevin, my DH is not super into stage shows in the parks, I can take them or leave them.

You were SO LUCKY to get a Disney Dooney! They were completely sold out of them on our cruise for the entire cruise...I kept checking back and nope nothing!

SKYLINE WAS OUR FAVORITE BAR. Seriously, we went there so many times. It was awesome and the CM's there were always super friendly. Did you notice the Hidden Mickeys waving from some of the windows in the skylines?

I'm sorry that the first dinner wasn't super enjoyable for Kevin, but I hope things turn around on the rest of the trip!

You're welcome!! I hope you get that room again!

If we don't have a verandah room on our next cruise (I'm assuming we'll book inside, unless we do Alaska!) we'll probably still go out and watch the sailaway (with a drink!), just maybe at the bow or stern and not in the middle of all the fuss - otherwise what you said sounds perfect! We'll probably only watch the sail away again if we're with new cruisers who haven't seen it.

They were sold out?! So weird! I wonder if it's because we were cruising in October - they never ran out on our ship! I really wanted the charms print as a purse and I was going to get one, but I just didn't like the size/style of the bigger bags. Oh well.

I didn't know there are hidden Mickeys in Skyline!! Of course there are! Ok now I need to go back.....

 

[Doodlebug25413]

OMG!!!! So amazing!! I'm going to look into a cruise now for us. Well, it's going to have to be after the wedding is paid off now LOL

Food looks amazing. Room looks amazing.

 

[Disneyducks12]

You know something so funny! Your guys table was the exact table we sat at in the restaurant at Animators, we sat right across at the ten top for when it was the wedding trip then they literally slid us over to that table for our honeymoon trip for just the two of us! and that stinks about Kevin spilling the first night and then the CMS laughing but your view in your room was so STUNNING it really did look like a painted backdrop! and I love your just married buttons DCL style super cute! and i ordered that pasta both cruises seriously was the most amazing thing!

 

[NikkiEla]

So I just spent the last 2 days (don't tell my boss) reading your whole PJ!
I'm may or may not be obsessed with it!

for one, You guys are Doctor Who fans!!!
My heart skipped when I saw the numerous doctor who shirts everywhere!
I'm actually changing my wedding theme up to Doctor Who
It's much more us & that would have been our theme if we would have had a wedding at home!

Two, Your planning was amazing! You go girl! I love your unique ideas and the way you organized and executed it all!

Three, Your wedding was STUNNING!!!!! Your dress, hair, makeup, bridesmaids, groomsmen, colors, pictures, accessories, everything!! I legitimately sent a text to my DF telling him that I'm now questioning our decision after seeing your wedding

I cant wait to read more about your honeymoon.
I still can't believe those CM laughed at your husband!
I can't blame him for being so angry! I would be too!
What jerks!
Hopefully there were no more encounters with those CMs on the rest of your sailing!​

 

[charliegirl76]

Ok, you're seriously making me super excited to go on a cruise! Too bad Kevin's first day ended with him in such a bad mood, but he sounds a lot like Shane in that he "resets" overnight. Every day is a new day in their eyes!

 

[Amanda132]

I literally squee-ed when I saw you started posting about your cruise! Everything so far looks like it was awesome (other than the incident during dinner, I'm glad that Kevin felt better the next morning). Can't wait to read more!

 

[elphie101]

OMG!!!! So amazing!! I'm going to look into a cruise now for us. Well, it's going to have to be after the wedding is paid off now LOL

Food looks amazing. Room looks amazing.

You absolutely should! One of the things I liked about cruising is we paid it off about 2 months beforehand (since you have to, though I think they've pushed the date out since then) so really, it was like an already paid vacation! Except for the alcohol......and we did a LOT of damage on alcohol.....

You know something so funny! Your guys table was the exact table we sat at in the restaurant at Animators, we sat right across at the ten top for when it was the wedding trip then they literally slid us over to that table for our honeymoon trip for just the two of us! and that stinks about Kevin spilling the first night and then the CMS laughing but your view in your room was so STUNNING it really did look like a painted backdrop! and I love your just married buttons DCL style super cute! and i ordered that pasta both cruises seriously was the most amazing thing!

That's so funny! Was yours table 81 too, or a different number?

God that pasta is amazing, hands down the best thing on that menu.

So I just spent the last 2 days (don't tell my boss) reading your whole PJ!
I'm may or may not be obsessed with it!

for one, You guys are Doctor Who fans!!!
My heart skipped when I saw the numerous doctor who shirts everywhere!
I'm actually changing my wedding theme up to Doctor Who
It's much more us & that would have been our theme if we would have had a wedding at home!

Two, Your planning was amazing! You go girl! I love your unique ideas and the way you organized and executed it all!

Three, Your wedding was STUNNING!!!!! Your dress, hair, makeup, bridesmaids, groomsmen, colors, pictures, accessories, everything!! I legitimately sent a text to my DF telling him that I'm now questioning our decision after seeing your wedding

I cant wait to read more about your honeymoon.
I still can't believe those CM laughed at your husband!
I can't blame him for being so angry! I would be too!
What jerks!
Hopefully there were no more encounters with those CMs on the rest of your sailing!​

Awwww you are just too sweet! Thank you! We love ourselves a little Doctor Who (and I thought it was the most appropriate shirt to wear to Universal!) I'm glad you enjoyed our planning! Don't worry, all the CMs from this point on were wonderful and just what you'd expect from Disney.

Ok, you're seriously making me super excited to go on a cruise! Too bad Kevin's first day ended with him in such a bad mood, but he sounds a lot like Shane in that he "resets" overnight. Every day is a new day in their eyes!

I'm excited for YOU to take a cruise! I may or may not have priced out Galveston just for the heck of it (just as cheap to fly to Houston from here as it is to Orlando!) What is it about guys and the whole "reset" process? It's so weird to me but it really does work for him.

I literally squee-ed when I saw you started posting about your cruise! Everything so far looks like it was awesome (other than the incident during dinner, I'm glad that Kevin felt better the next morning). Can't wait to read more!

Writing this makes me want to cruise again so badly It's so fun to relive the memories!