Can I get a Light Saber? Our January '19 SWDAS TR *Updated 1/28: Cozumel, part 1*

[cadien]

I perused the navigator and Donnie played his Nintendo Switch for a bit, and before we knew it, it was 1:30 and the staterooms were ready!

This made me laugh a bit because my husband plans to bring our Switch.

View attachment 376342
Star Wars room decorations!
​

I preordered this to surprise Donnie, and he loved it! The blanket is super cozy! The package came with hanging decorations, a giant door magnet, the blanket, pillow, and an 8x10 photo frame for $65, which I thought was actually not a terrible price. We LOVE the blanket!

We bought the Marvel Day Sea blanket and it is the softest, coziest thing!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

This made me laugh a bit because my husband plans to bring our Switch.

He really enjoyed having it. He played a lot of Super Smash Bros. before bed and sometimes we’d sit on the veranda and read or play.

We bought the Marvel Day Sea blanket and it is the softest, coziest thing!

I’m obsessed with ours. It is the coziest blanket ever! Between the blanket, photo frame, pillow, magnet, and hanging decorations, it was totally worth the cost.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Star Wars Day at Sea Merchandise
​

While I didn't get photos of everything offered, I did at least take photos of things we purchased.

This is the magnet and photo frame that came with the room package I preordered:


The magnet is huge! Like, a foot tall.


The only photo we purchased in Shutters. I can't believe we spent $20 on this photo...


My hoodie: The front


My hoodie: The back


Donnie's pullover. It's the Nike Golf brand. Very $$, but he loves it! At least we saved 10% on all this by being Gold CC.


Tervis Tumbler. 24 oz. We debated buying one or two and ended up with just one. We should have gotten one for each of us!


Christmas ornament. Love this one!

 

[DLo]

Popping over from your PTR. Looking forward to reading about your adventures. Glad you had great table mates this time

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Popping over from your PTR. Looking forward to reading about your adventures. Glad you had great table mates this time

Thanks for following me over here to my TR! I was so relieved and excited to finally feel that “Disney Magic” of getting paired up with such similar and awesome people.

 

[Jess_S]

Following along. I can't believe the story about the table mate honeymooning alone. What kind of employer stops an employee from going on their honeymoon.

Everything in your shopping haul looks great. I definitely want one of those ornaments now.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Thanks for following along!!!

What kid of employer stops an employee from going on their honeymoon.

Right?! Apparently he had coverage for the time he would miss, but then they fired the people who were supposed to cover him. He also couldn’t “officially” request off until 1/1 because the request had to happen in the year it was happening (2019). It was such a mess.

Kudos to our table mate for going alone and making the best of a really crummy situation, though!

Everything in your shopping haul looks great. I definitely want one of those ornaments now

We had a good time shopping the first night! We also had received LOT of Disney gift cards for Christmas, so we had a good amount of extra fun $$ to spend.

 

[amiskell28]

Right?! Apparently he had coverage for the time he would miss, but then they fired the people who were supposed to cover him. He also couldn’t “officially” request off until 1/1 because the request had to happen in the year it was happening (2019). It was such a mess.

Well, that's just ridiculous. I've been a manager for quite some time. This is the kind of thing you MAKE happen for your staff, even if it's hard to do! That poor thing.... I hope they get to have their time together soon!!

 

[cinderaimee]

Followed over from your PTR, can’t wait to hear about the rest of the cruise, it sounds like so much fun!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Well, that's just ridiculous. I've been a manager for quite some time. This is the kind of thing you MAKE happen for your staff, even if it's hard to do! That poor thing.... I hope they get to have their time together soon!!

She really did try to make the best of her solo vacation, but I can't imagine how much it must have stunk for her. We're friends on FB now (as with all our table mates), so I might have to check in and see how she's doing!

Followed over from your PTR, can’t wait to hear about the rest of the cruise, it sounds like so much fun!

Thanks for following me here for the cruise TR! We had such a blast!!!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Day at Sea pt 1 (Palo brunch)
Sunday, January 6
​

After an excellent night's sleep, I woke up to the sound of breakfast arriving!

​

I groggily tipped our room service person and we set to eating. We had a lovely continental breakfast in bed: I had fruit, a toasted bagel with cream cheese, orange juice and coffee, and Donnie had the same, only with Froot Loops instead of the bagel. It was such a relaxing start to the day. We had a relatively light breakfast, since we'd be having brunch at Palo later on!

Also, since I knew Palo was on the horizon, we decided to head up to deck 11 and check our the fitness center. I'm not a huge gym goer, but Donnie enjoys our treadmill at home, so we had grand aspirations of visiting the gym every day. Spoiler: this is the only day we made it up there, but we did do a LOT of walking on deck 4 and took the stairs almost every time we went anywhere. We each spent about 30 minutes on the treadmills before getting bored and decided to go walk around deck 4, instead. I think we did 5 laps, so 2 miles on deck. It was a bit windy, but sunny and beautiful!

Soon, it was time to get all gussied up for our 11 a.m. brunch! We made the long walk across deck 9, and then took the Aft elevators up to Palo.

Everyone neat and pretty?​

We arrived and were directed to Meridian for a few minutes before being escorted to our table. I wish I had taken a photo: we had a perfect window table! Our server was Dejan from Serbia, and he did a lovely job taking care of us. We were given our menus and shown the buffet. We each got our 'complimentary' glass of Prosecco and made our hot order selections. Then, we went to town!

All the breads. All the deliciousness!


Seafood table. Yum!


Can I take this antipasti table home with me!?


My first plate!
​

Holy goodness! Everything on this plate was delicious. I had marinate artichoke, all the delicious cheese, arancini, shrimp cocktail, and the infamous and totally wonderful sticky bun!

This is the life...


Where do I start?!
​

We both enjoyed everything on our first plates. I loved all the cheeses and meats the best. Dejan asked if we wanted our entrees or were planning on enjoying more of the buffet and to take our time. It was nice to have such a leisurely meal. We both took another trip to the buffet for seconds on our favorite items. Soon after we finished our second plates, our mains arrived.

Ali's main: Parmesan crusted chicken breast over risotto


Donnie's main: Lasagna Bolognese
​

Both were delicious! I think Donnie's won for overall taste, though. Dejan called it "the best lasagna you've ever had" and it was a very accurate statement. I wished I had ordered it, too! We both completely clean our plates. Dejan asked if we'd like to order anything else, and as must as I was tempted to try some Eggs Benedict or a Waffle, we were both getting quite full at this point, and there was still dessert to be had.

My dessert plate!
​

I don't know which was my favorite, but I ate every bite on that plate. Thank goodness we had walked 4 miles already today, haha. I think perhaps it was the little chocolate bite on the bottom left that took top billing as my favorite? I dream about this brunch.

After we were completely stuffed, we settled the bill. I am glad we booked this before the price increase! $30 pp okay, totally fine. $40 pp... that starts seeming a bit much, in my opinion.

I am SO glad we were able to have brunch on the first sea day! We weren't sick of food at this point, and it really set the mood of relaxation and pampering. Initially, I had booked us to tickets for the Frozen M&G at 1:00, and the Princess Gathering at 1:30. However... we just wanted to take off our dress clothes and relax! So we skipped the meets. I felt a little bad, since we took a spot away from someone else, but in the moment, laying by the pool won out.

We headed back to our room, put on our swimmies, and found a nice spot in the adults area to read and relax. The sun was shining, but it was only about 72 and very breezy. I fell asleep for awhile and digested all the brunch goodies. We definitely made the right choice in skipping out on princesses. After about an hour, Donnie was getting antsy and asked if I'd like to ride the AquaDuck. So that's what we did!

​

There was a bit of a line, and I think we waited about 25 minutes. It was verrrry chilly waiting! But we had a blast riding it together, and it was unfortunately the only time we made it over there to ride it. We were a bit cold, so we headed back over the adults area and got in the hot tub for about 10 minutes. It was busy! I was feeling a bit peckish, so I got some chocolate/vanilla soft serve to snack on, and we each had a cup of hot cocoa since we felt so chilly. We dried off and finished our cocoa, and then headed back to the room to get showered and ready for the rest of the day. Tonight was formal night!

To be continued...

​

 

[FSU Girl]

We arrived to Royal Court and were both anxious and excited to have our first dinner on the ship. We were at table 39. We arrived at a table set for 6, and one couple, M and D from California, were already there. We sat down and made a little bit of small talk and introductions, and then another woman, A from Minnesota, was seated. We made introductions again, and found out that we were all married couples in our early 30's. Well, we were supposed to be all couples. One of our table mates was on her honeymoon. Alone. She and her husband had been married a year, but he was unable to get off work at the last minute to go on their trip (or he would come back to no job). The other couple, as well as myself, realized we knew who she was via our FB group.

A lot of people from our FB group kept mixing up us and her, thinking her husband did actually make it onto the cruise. It sounds like a really fun group for dinner!

While I didn't get photos of everything offered, I did at least take photos of things we purchased.

Thanks for the pictures of the Star Wars merchandise, we didn't buy anything, or even really look at stuff so this is the first I'm seeing them.

Our server was Dejan from Serbia

He was our server for both dinner and brunch, he was really nice!

After we were completely stuffed, we settled the bill. I am glad we booked this before the price increase! $30 pp okay, totally fine. $40 pp... that starts seeming a bit much, in my opinion.

We booked everything before the price increases and really glad we did. I had been on the fence about doing Remy again and then before I could book it they jacked the price up a lot so that became a for sure no.

You were smart to do the brunch in the beginning of the cruise. I was so full from the week of eating by the time we got to ours I didn't enjoy it as much as I normally would have.

The aquaduck is so fun! Glad you got to do it at least once.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

A lot of people from our FB group kept mixing up us and her, thinking her husband did actually make it onto the cruise.

Oh, Gosh! I didn’t really meet anyone from the FB group besides our table mates. I wanted to go to the meet up day 1, but we went to the DVC event instead.

Thanks for the pictures of the Star Wars merchandise,

I wish I thought to take pics of everything, but I kinda of stunk at photo taking this trip! I’m glad we made the purchases we did. DH has worn his pullover so much already, both in the ship and off.

I had been on the fence about doing Remy again and then before I could book it they jacked the price up a lot so that became a for sure no.

The Remy price hike was huge! I know as a whole $10 more for brunch isn’t a lot when you consider the cost of the cruise, but for just the brunch... I’ll probably forego it in the future.

You were smart to do the brunch in the beginning of the cruise.

It wasn’t completely intentional, it just worked out that way since it was the first sea day! By the end of the cruise, I was definitely getting “fooded out!”

 

[Newsies]

I feel a little late, but I'm here! It looks like you guys are off to a great start so far!

I really love and appreciate your honesty about the DVC hosts pushing for people to buy more points on the cruise. Also... Tisa, why are we screaming on the boat?

I'm sorry to hear about your Sail Away experience but again, I really appreciate your honesty! I watch DCL vlogs a lot, and Sail Away definitely seems like a stressful situation. Stressful, but magical. I get goosebumps when I hear the "When You Wish Upon A Star" horn!

Yay for awesome table mates! And that creme brulee looks to die for!!

Your Palo brunch pics...

Can't wait for more!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

I feel a little late, but I'm here!

Hiya, Kaitlyn!!! Welcome to my cruise TR! Thanks for reading

I'm trying to be as subjective and honest as possible, because we know no vacation is all just sunshine and rainbows... even a Disney Cruise! We had a truly magical trip, but that still didn't mean it was without flaws, ya know?

Sail Away definitely seems like a stressful situation. Stressful, but magical. I get goosebumps when I hear the "When You Wish Upon A Star" horn!

It really had to do with our muster drill seeming to take a long time and being the last to be let out of the theatre. We booked it upstairs (9 flights I think?!), but clearly some people had been let out of their drills a lot earlier and were able to get there faster. I just wanted everything to be *perfect,* and it was so hard to let it go and just be. The horn blowing "When you wish upon a star" made everything better, though!

Your Palo brunch pics...

It was the best! We didn't eat again (well, not counting my soft serve and hot cocoa) until dinner.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

Day at Sea, pt 2
Sunday, January 6
​

Around 5:15, we headed down to the atrium, since tonight was Formal Night and also the Captain's Reception! What does the mean... free drinks! (Are we beginning to see a pattern here?) They had an alcoholic fruity drink, non alcoholic punch, and beer. Donnie and I each had a beer. I have no idea what kind of beer, but it was light. Apparently the fruity drink was really sugary and didn't have a lot of booze in it, so we were both happy with our beer choice. We had a bit of time to kill before dinner, and Donnie noticed that Mickey's line was actually not too long, we we headed up to deck 4 to get a photo with the main mouse! We only waited about 20 minutes and had a drink in hand, so the wait went by rather quickly. It was fun to see so many people dressed up, too.

Mickey hugs!


Happy hand shakes


Formal pic with the captain!
​

This might be my very favorite photo from the whole cruise! I love it so, so much. When else do you get to have such a fancy picture with Mickey Mouse?

It was time to head to dinner at this point, so we each got another (free) drink from the reception and headed down to deck 3: dinner was in Animator's Palate tonight.

​

The lighting makes taking photos in the restaurant a little odd, since everything comes out so blue. Tonight was the Turtle Talk with Crush show, and although our table was very near a screen, Crush never made it over to talk to us. We weren't too bothered by it, as we were all gabbing away about our days! A had just come from Mixology, so she was feeling good, and M&D had done Palo brunch as well this day, so there was a lot to chat about. Dinner was delicious! We once again devoured our 2 bread baskets plus one extra. Yum!

On to my meal:

Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes


Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin


Mickey Ice Cream Bar!


Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake
​

Oh, those black truffle pasta purseittes! SO yummy! My steak was cooked perfectly and was so tender. As I cut in and started eating, I realized that my plate was missing the wasabi mashed potatoes! Luckily, Marcos came over and checked on us soon after, and he quickly whisked my plate away and returned with a new plate complete with mashed potatoes. I would have been fine with him bringing out just a side of potatoes, but he wanted to make sure the kitchen was aware that plates were going out incomplete. The second steak was just as perfect as the first! I ate every bite. Nothing was jumping out to me on the dessert menu, so I went with a Mickey Bar! The cheesecake was Donnie's dessert.

At some point during dinner, Crush had all the servers dancing/swimming. It was hysterical. I got a photo of Marcos, but was sad I missed Nicholas swimming, doing the backstroke, and being super silly. He was the best. We were cheering them both on, and they seemed to really appreciate our enthusiasm.

Go Marcos, Go!!!
​

After dinner, we headed back to the room and changed out of our dress clothes and put on comfies (a trend for us after dinner). We walked a few laps around Deck 4 before heading to the show. Tonight's production was Wishes.

If you want all sunshine and rainbows, skip this next paragraph. I don't mean to seem negative, but I was pretty disappointed with the Disney shows on the cruise. I just want to know who wrote the shows and came up with the "stories" to Wishes and Believe, because they were terrible. The performers were great, both vocalists and dancers. The costumes, sets, production value: all top notch! But the "story lines" were so painfully contrived to us. That's not to say we didn't enjoy parts of the shows, but as a whole... meh. I just wish the throughline made more sense and the way the Disney sections were incorporated flowed better. The women who played Mulan (and subsequently Jasmine and Pocahontas in the other shows) was phenomenal.

I have no idea what we did for the next hour, but I know we decided to go see Star Wars: A New Hope, which was playing at 10:30. We got some sodas from deck 11, got our WDW popcorn bucket filled ($1.50 refills!) and set in to watch some Star Wars. I made it until 11. My legs were getting restless and I was dozing off, so I headed back to the room. About 15 minutes later, Donnie showed up. He said he was falling asleep, too. Oh, well... Maybe we'd fair better tomorrow night!

Tonight's towel creation. A... frog?
​

We had a pretty big day lined up tomorrow, since we had an excursion planned for Cozumel, so we didn't feel too bad about skipping out on the movie... not to mention the fact we own it and have watched it multiple times. We were both super excited for our Cozumel day and I'm pretty sure we were both out cold by 11:30.

 

[FSU Girl]

Oh, Gosh! I didn’t really meet anyone from the FB group besides our table mates. I wanted to go to the meet up day 1, but we went to the DVC event instead.

Not a lot of people went to it. We weren't there long and only talked to a couple people. I think because I had posted pictures of us in our wedding ears right when we were getting on the ship so I think people recognized us more as we walked around the ship. There were a few in concierge so we hung out with them in the lounge sometimes. I'd never joined one of those groups before a cruise, but my DH can be really shy about meeting new people so I thought this would help. Before I met him I'd make friends on cruises all the time that turned into lasting friendships so I was trying to get that to happen lol.

Mickey hugs!

I think next time I'll go for the character pictures instead of the fancy backdrop ones. At least with the characters they usually have someone to take a picture on your phone. Still a little bummed we didn't get any pictures this night.

Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes

My favorites

Mickey Ice Cream Bar!

I love these things! I ordered a few throughout the cruise. When I was recently in Magic Kingdom I looked at the price of one and it was $5.75! Eating these alone makes the cruise financially worth it lol.

If you want all sunshine and rainbows, skip this next paragraph. I don't mean to seem negative, but I was pretty disappointed with the Disney shows on the cruise. I just want to know who wrote the shows and came up with the "stories" to Wishes and Believe, because they were terrible. The performers were great, both vocalists and dancers. The costumes, sets, production value: all top notch! But the "story lines" were so painfully contrived to us. That's not to say we didn't enjoy parts of the shows, but as a whole... meh. I just wish the throughline made more sense and the way the Disney sections were incorporated flowed better. The women who played Mulan (and subsequently Jasmine and Pocahontas in the other shows) was phenomenal.

I did think the storyline of those two shows were a little strange. I liked Wishes way more than Believe. I'm a hopeless romantic so I think thats why I liked it lol.

I have no idea what we did for the next hour, but I know we decided to go see Star Wars: A New Hope, which was playing at 10:30. We got some sodas from deck 11, got our WDW popcorn bucket filled ($1.50 refills!) and set in to watch some Star Wars. I made it until 11. My legs were getting restless and I was dozing off, so I headed back to the room. About 15 minutes later, Donnie showed up. He said he was falling asleep, too. Oh, well... Maybe we'd fair better tomorrow night!

A lot of the movies I wanted to watch were showing very late in the theater, I am not a night owl and usually was asleep during these.

Your fuzzy blanket looks so warm and cozy!

 

[amiskell28]

If you want all sunshine and rainbows, skip this next paragraph. I don't mean to seem negative, but I was pretty disappointed with the Disney shows on the cruise. I just want to know who wrote the shows and came up with the "stories" to Wishes and Believe, because they were terrible. The performers were great, both vocalists and dancers. The costumes, sets, production value: all top notch! But the "story lines" were so painfully contrived to us. That's not to say we didn't enjoy parts of the shows, but as a whole... meh. I just wish the throughline made more sense and the way the Disney sections were incorporated flowed better. The women who played Mulan (and subsequently Jasmine and Pocahontas in the other shows) was phenomenal.

I'm actually glad to read this. We're going on our first DCL on 2/9 (Eastern SWDAS). I want to see the main show (Aladdin), but we're just not show people overall, and the accounts I've read of these two shows tell me we should skip them. I think we'd actually have more fun hanging at the pool or whatever!

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

I want to see the main show (Aladdin)

Aladdin was definitely my favorite of the 3 Disney shows. I would rank them Aladdin, Wishes, and then Believe way at the bottom. If you aren’t big show people, I’d say enjoy some quiet pool and or/ aquaduck time!

 

[lizzyb]

Your brunch at Palo looks amazing! I hear you on the shows.. I wish they would update them.