Saturday morning was our character breakfast at 8:30 in AP. (first sea day after your show dinner in AP) The girls were very much looking forward to it!
Our servers Art and Dan seemed frazzled this morning, and they didn't seem very "into" the whole hat-making thing. Fine by me! But DD7 had been asking about her hat all week long, so it's a good thing she got one! She and DD4 got bows. DH got the Mickey ears. I didn't get anything, which was just fine. We saw other tables getting all kinds of elaborate hats.
Breakfast was fine. Nothing memorable. Dan made a special trip somewhere to get a donut for DD4.
Note: I thought our servers were fine, but I've definitely heard of better servers here on the DIS and wouldn't request Art and Dan again. (In Dan's defense, he'd only been with
DCL for two months.)
The characters were a bit slow coming. We were done eating before they all came to our table, but we waited since the girls really wanted to see them all. We saw Pluto, Minnie, Mickey and Goofy.
On our way out of breakfast, we stopped for a few minutes at the Playhouse Disney dance party in the Promenade Lounge. Both our girls think they're great dancers (so not true), so we let them burn off a little bit of energy.
DH and I wanted to go to the Art of Entertaining: The Dessert in Studio Sea at 10:15, but the Club wasn't secured until 11:00. We checked the girls into the Lab and explained they could ask to move over to the Club as soon as it opened. Both of them were fine with that, and it worked out well.
DH and I enjoyed the presentation once again. It was the same chef from AP, and he made some crepes. I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I did take a sip of the little sample they served with our crepes. I thought the wine choice really complemented the crepe.
DH and I had dropped off our gratuities form in the box at Guest Services on our way to breakfast. When we stopped by our room before lunch, the tickets were already there. We stopped by Guest Services again to put a Disney Visa Rewards Card payment on our account. Even though our rewards card had a balance, it was getting declined. Ashley called the card company for us (at no charge to us), and they were able to get it all straightened out. I think we also did a little bit of packing/organizing.
We picked up the girls to take them to lunch. We ate at BBB again. Both girls were being extra picky. We sat outside because it was nice enough to do so, but they whined about being cold the entire time. We actually moved to eat dessert, just so they'd quit their fussing.
Note: it was probably about 65 degrees or so, though it was windy. Still, I thought that was pretty great for a sea day.
After lunch, we took the girls to the Lab for the one activity they were interested in there: Ratatouille Cooking School where they got to make their own cookies. When they finished that up, they asked to move over to the Club.
Meanwhile, DH and I packed up some more. It was sad to take our magnets and FE down. I gathered up a bunch of the candy we got in our FE and packaged it up for our stateroom host. We left him a nice little bundle of treats with his tip envelope.
I called room service to order some fruit bowls, cereal and milk, so we could skip the early call for breakfast the next morning. It all stayed fine in the "cooler" overnight. I ordered a Mickey bar, too, so I got a sweet afternoon treat.
I went up to the Club to check on the girls, as I had a feeling DD4 wouldn't want to participate in Friendship Rocks. I was right, so I checked her out. DD7 wanted to stay, so I left her there.
DD4 was happy to play in the room while DH and I did more packing up until it was time to go get a seat for the show. DD7 really enjoys performing, and it was a lot of fun to watch her. She's worn her yellow tee shirt at least once a week since we got home. The picture is her with A DIS friend who happens to live just about 25 minutes from us.
After the show it was time to make our way to dinner at AP. We went to dinner very casual this night, and it seemed a lot of other cruisers did the same. I didn't feel out of place in jeans and tennis shoes. I thought the menu was cute with all the characters on it.
DH and I both got the tenderloin. The potato thing that comes with that is just weird and not at all tasty either. I also asked to try the crab-stuffed roughy, as I enjoy crab with steak. I only ate part of the fish, which was good because my stomach was a little upset later on, and I think the fish was the culprit. Anyways... I think I got the dessert trio, though I don't quite remember. I'm pretty sure DH skipped dessert. The girls were impatient, so we finished up dinner and said good-bye (passing out tips) to our servers before the little parade with the international flags and the Baked Alaska.
The girls went to the Club for one last time (sniff, sniff
).
DH and I went back to the room to finalize packing and put suitcases out in the hall. When we arrived, we found an envelope stuck in our fish. Could it be? Yes! It was an invitation to a special meet and greet to be held in Studio Sea just before the Till We Meet Again show. Woo-hoo!
We decided to skip the Remember The Magic show. We went into this cruise determined to NOT try to do it all, and we definitely did that with the various shows. I guess it's something to look forward to for next time!
We picked up the girls and took them get their Mickey bands removed. I had read on the DIS to make sure you get a receipt for returning the bands, which was no problem.
Note: I was impressed with the Mickey bands and how they stayed put all week long, even through the water in Cabo. I had wanted to remove the bands prior to going ashore, but DH was sure they'd be fine. And they were! Having them on the ankles rather than wrists worked really well for us, and the bands were easier to hide in pictures.
We took the girls to the room to just settle down a bit before going to "say good-bye" to all the characters. Soon it was time to go to Studio Sea. They were definitely checking for invites. It was us and maybe 10 or so other families in there. Then someone made an announcement, and the room FILLED with all the characters and performers who were going to be in Till We Meet Again. It was a crazy, chaotic free-for-all in there! The girls took off in two different directions, so I had to chase them down. The lighting was bad and the picture-taking too quick to get any fabulous shots, but it's the memories that count, right? And the girls were on cloud nine.
Captain Hook took DD4 aside so he could sit down and show her his hook. When we mentioned Tic Tock, he took off running like he was scared. DD4 chased after him yelling, "It's okay, Captain!" Cute memories for sure.
Pretty amazing to get all of that in under 15 minutes!
We were ushered out and found a spot to wave to the characters and performers as they came out of Studio Sea to go down the atrium staircases. That was good-bye to the girls, so we didn't stay for the "show" part and headed back to the room. Our last towel animal of the cruise:
We all crashed. It had been a fairly full day, and past-10:00 is definitely a late bedtime for our girls who go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 when we're home!
Next up: disembarkation (that dirty word!) and final thoughts