When I woke up on our last day, my stomach still was not quite settled enough from my rough overnight ordeal. While my parents enjoyed the serene ocean on the verandah with their room service selections, I tried to assess just how bad I was and pointedly avoided orange juice. To assure anyone, I never had the usual alarming symptoms that would have confined me to my room. No, it was more like the previous night's dinner was just sitting in my stomach and my cough had returned with a vengeance. I took special care to cough into my elbow and frequently wash my hands.
The ship seemed to alternate between a slow, leisurely pace and a dead stop. After all, it's not that far from CC back to Port Canaveral. We got dressed and finally had breakfast down in Enchanted Garden. We never saw our servers, and found out later that due to pirate night they weren't working in there that morning. We encountered the
only line for a meal for the entire cruise. We waited about 15 minutes, while CMs commented how everyone must've slept late from "all that partying" and that the restaurant closed promptly at 10:30 (I think) so it didn't matter if anyone was still waiting in line. I took the opportunity to take some photos and chuckle at the kids.
Greetings, from our stateroom!
Obligatory porthole photo on the way to breakfast. A member of the bridge crew, amongst a group of them walking by, stopped without us asking and told us to "Line up, I'll take your picture!" We were blown away by how nice everyone was, especially the crew.
A perfect, calm day at sea!
What was strange was there were plenty of tables available by the time we were being seated. A waiter took our drink orders, and we headed over to the buffet. There didn't seem to be as much available as there was in Cabana's ... but between my simple palate and my health at the moment, it was just fine. They at least had Mickey waffles! I wore my "Doctor Pooh" shirt, hoping to get a chuckle out of some of the crew. I was a bit bummed that only one seemed to notice, and he didn't even know the show, thus, didn't get the joke. Oh well!
While eating, one of the restaurant managers came by to socialize. Seriously, he stood chatting with us for at least 30 minutes. I forget which country he was from (sad, I know), but he told us about his fascinating experience serving on cruise ships in Europe and his reasons for joining
DCL. My dad, who was a career flight engineer in the Air Force, always wears his rank pins on his hats (Chief Master Sargent). We were especially proud of the passengers and some of the crew who took a moment to thank him for his service. The manager and Dad had a very nice conversation about serving for royal families and the like.
After breakfast, I decided I wanted to do the Mid Ship Detective Agency first (along with the rest of the ship, unsurprisingly). I had to wait behind 3 or 4 families to choose which game and get the supplies. This took about 20 minutes, since you watch a little video and practice and get instructions. I noticed a few of the magic portraits (like the ship you can "steer" using the wheel next to the game desk) weren't working. By the time I finished getting my supplies, we decided to check out Shutters and look at our photos. My mom wanted to wait in case we had photos that evening, but I told her that we'd have a miserable time trying to buy them with the crowd at the last minute before disembarking. Plus, what more photos would we want?
Getting our photos on this ship was A LOT easier than other lines that use the traditional method of walls and walls of photos that you have to search through. There were several shots in our folder, all of them that we had posed for. I noticed that most of the character photos were just as bad as the ones on my own camera. There were at least 4 of the shots we took by the Admiral Donald statue. The shots we had on the staircase, which my mother had most looked forward to, came out
terrible. Unless you're supermodel thin, don't do it. Photos taken pointed up at you will NOT bring out your best features! I got into an argument with Mom over which statue photo to choose; we ended up compromising on which shots we liked best. We ended up with 5 prints, one being the best character shot of us with Pluto at CC. My dad, as his souvenir of choice, also always gets a professional photo of our ship. So we added a shot of the Dream.
This was our only encounter with sub-par service. I'm not sure if the personnel who work Shutters are considered cast members, or if we just managed to get the girl with zero personality and slow on the uptake. Not that she was
bad, per se, but compared to everyone else we had encountered, it was a surprise. We put our selections down and ask for a photo of the ship. OK. She tried to upsell us to get a leather folder that included a photo of the ship and all the characters. When she first offered it, she made it sound like it came with the photo of the ship, which we wanted. We tell her OK. She looks confused. We find out that no, the folder is
extra on top of the photo of the ship. We tell her no. She rings up just our portraits. We ask her about the ship photo. She looks confused. "So, you want just the photo of the ship?" In addition to our portraits, we tell her.
So that took several minutes more than it probably should have, and we walked away with over $100 in photos that was still cheaper than a package.
Note to self: Budget in photos to next cruise.
Mom determined that that was the only customer service she didn't like.
We then parked Dad outside on deck 4 in the "Titanic chairs" to relax while Mom and I did some of the portraits.
We also took the opportunity to check out the kids' clubs. My mom is now eager to take her youngest granddaughters on DCL (and even my teenage nephew is begging to go when we go next time, LOL). We felt a little odd trolling around the kid areas without having a kid, and some of the counselors looked at us curiously and asked if we were looking for someone. Mom wanted to look around the clubs, but we didn't realize that there were several open houses throughout the cruise. There would be one later in the day, but we never made it back.
The theatre, which we never used ... boo.
My favorite art on the ship, LOL
What was nice about the Mid Ship game was how you don't have to go in any specific order. So, your barcode is connected to your progress, no doubt stored on some sort of server on the ship, and so when you use a portrait ... your clue/task is different from the other people playing ahead/behind you. This was good, because there was always at least one group ahead of me already playing. It'd take away the fun of the game if you were spoiled ahead of time. I chose the missing paintings mission, BTW. By the time I had done a few portraits, my energy was pretty spent. A good bit of my energy was being spent on the denial necessary for overcoming being sick. On the way to retrieve Dad, we noticed the Jack-Jack Baby Race was starting down in the atrium:
This was hilarious to watch! Unfortunately, by the time we thought to get Dad so he could see, it was over. Even if you don't have a baby/kids ... check it out for the LOLs. One parent was baiting their child by putting their smartphone in front of him, and getting him to follow it. Sign of the times!
I think at this point, I decided it was time to get into the bathing suit and check out the Quiet Cove hot tub. Please note that it was after noon at this point, and our stateroom still hadn't been cleaned. This was the only time this happened, and we ultimately had to put our "please service room" tag out on the door when it
still wasn't clean by 3 PM.
Mom and I got into our suits, and we grabbed 3 lounges directly in front of the hot tub. There were several people in it, and a handful of people in the pool. I decided that it was the right time to get Mom on the Aquaduck! With a lot of trepidation, she agreed--knowing she had promised--and we made our way over, leaving Dad to guard our spot. Thus, sadly, no photos of the hilarity that ensued.
The pools were no more crowded than they had been, and the wait for the Aquaduck was actually
less than what it was at CC. Don't get me wrong, the pools were ALWAYS overflowing with bodies. Nevertheless, I found this very strange. There were certainly more sunbathers, though. It was around a 20 minute wait for our turn, and Mom was definitely nervous. To be honest, I was shocked silly she was going through with it. You can't get this woman on any ride more thrilling than Spaceship Earth. Perhaps it was all the "pixie dust" in the air? I'm telling you, they pump it through the air vents. Mom was very gung ho about basically
everything, and that's not entirely normal. Usually she'll do things for my sake, but usually only after some convincing. Disney definitely knows how to bring out your youth!
Well, Mom
screamed for the entire ride. Laughed and screamed, I should say. For the first half, it was, "OH GOD I'M DYING, OH GOD, OH GOD I'M DYING, I'M GOING TO DIE!" while I laughed and she interrupted each oath to God with laughter. The second half, she admitted how cool it was, and screamed during the very slight, gentle decline to the end of the ride. By the time she recovered once we were back in Quiet Cove with Dad, she admitted to how fun it was. My mother!
From there, we hopped into the hot tub with 3 other people. It was a mom, dad, and adult daughter (omg, it's a small world after all). They were very nice, and we chatted about the cruise. We could see a Carnival ship out in the distance, and they jutted their chin toward it and remarked about how the difference in quality is staggering. Yes, you pay for the quality on Disney, but we all agreed that it's worth it. I'm sure that if I can just get my brother on Disney, he'll see what he's missing.
The water wasn't terribly hot, but the hot water and the sun shining heated us up pretty quick. The glass bottom was cool, and the infinity edge was neat, too. But we got out, relaxed on the lounges for a bit (I went to get more ice cream, shock) ... and then we headed up to deck 13 forward to our favorite circle bench for a nap. There was next to NO ONE up there! We loved this area.
All to ourselves
A look at the pool crowds mid-afternoon
After our nap, we decided it was time to think about heading back to the room to ... alas ... get ready for
dinner. I can see why many prefer late seating so they get more out of their day. Honestly, eating so late wouldn't work for us, but it would be nicer if dinner was a little later than 5:45.
While getting ready, the spiel about disembarking procedures was turned on in our room. We took the opportunity to just go ahead and pack. We laughed at all the jokes, and like pros, we had all the non-essentials packed and the luggage ready to go in no time. So, the jibe at making sure to leave out PJ's and toiletries for overnight and not packing it?
....
Yeah, I packed
everything. Pajamas and all. All I had out were my clothes to go home in. Ugh. That wasn't fun.
But then the subject of rebooking came up. Now, I didn't expect my parents to even entertain the idea, as this was a special trip and we were only able to pull it off due to the discount. So, imagine my surprise when my parents became very open to the idea of rebooking onboard for a discount and the idea it could be cancelled with a full refund up to 75 days. My mom decided to discuss it over dinner. I decided not to believe it until I was on a Disney ship for a second time.
So, did we rebook? How was the Animator's Palate show? Did we cry during "Believe"? You'll have to find out next time, because it's bed time right now for me!
