Day 12
We had set the alarm call again in time for Walk A Mile. We enjoyed our morning walk and then headed to Triton's for some breakfast. Graham had his usual Fresh Fruit with Yoghurt and Granola followed by the Express. I decided to have something different that day and had the Eggs Benedict that came with a Grilled Tomato and a Sausage. When we finished our breakfast, we went down to the cabin and settled down on deck 4. I made myself comfortable on a lounger with my book and Graham admired the wildlife.
My lazy morning did not last very long that day. There was something very special on the Navigator that day that I could not resist: a behind the scenes tour of the Walt Disney Theater. Having dabbled in the performing arts between the ages of 9 and 19, this was a dream come true for me. The starting time for this was 11:30 and they said that they would close the line promptly at 12:00. I got there about 10 minutes ahead of the starting time and found a sizeable line. I ended up waiting for about 40 minutes, but it was definitely worth it. It did not feel that long either as there seemed to be a real festive atmosphere and people were just chatting while waiting.
When it was our turn, we were welcomed by our host, who was one of the stage performers. They had put a time-lapse video of one of the shows on the screens outside the theater and he talked us through the show and what goes into this. He also talked about the audition and rehearsal process. Whereas all other members of crew are replaced as and when required, the performers all get replaced together. There contract starts with two months of rehearsals in Toronto before they all move to the ship together. When they get there, the old team still stays on for a couple of cruises to allow the new team to get all the training that they need for the ship for aspects like emergencies and also to give them a chance to familiarize themselves with the ship and the theater. Then the old team leaves and the new team takes over. We also learned that while
Disney Cruise Line is not tied to union rules as the ships are registered in the Bahamas, they have adopted them voluntarily for the performers.
After this introductory talk, our group was split in two, as the next spaces we were due to visit were rather tight. I ended up in the second group. Next up was the area where the stage manager is. The talked us through the process of staging the show in a bit more detail. The whole show is mapped out down to the second. All the performers and technical crew all wear earpieces through which the stage manager and his assistant can communicate with them. He explained that the theatres on the Magic and Wonder are pretty advanced, but that the theatres on the Dream and Fantasy are more state of the art than anything on Broadway or in the Westend of London. We were also shown the controls for the pyrotechnics. To set off the pyrotechnics, a button and a key are needed.
Next up was the booth for the sound engineer. Whereas the booth for the stage manager has a window, the booth for the sound engineer does not so that the sound engineer can hear the show the same way the audience does and can make adjustments if something is not quite right. He also showed us an example of the kind of script he has for a show, which has various stage directions on it and is colour coded. From there, we moved to the theatre itself and to the desk of the assistant stage manager, which is at the back of the theatre. He could take over the running of the show if something should happen to the stage manager booth.
We then walked down to the stage and met the person in charge of lighting and special effects. He demonstrated the dry ice and also the different light effects that they have. We then went onto the stage and got a ride on one of the stage lifts. We also got talked through the safety features that they have on stage. Then it was quite literally time to go backstage. We headed to the costume department. All the costumes are machine washable. We did not see any character costumes as such, but saw plenty of other costumes from the shows.
Our last stop was the area for props and sets. We were told that the sets for Disney Dreams had been on the Wonder since 1999 and had never been replaced. They have the facilities to repair the props and sets on the ship as and when required. The area where the props and sets are stored is a little spooky. You can see some of the construction of the ship and it is quite dark in the area. Once we had finished in this department, we left the theatre through the back entrance, which leads to Diversions. There our buddy Kieran from Preston was waiting for us. I had wondered what he was doing on the ship. He is in overall charge of all the technical aspects of the theatre. He asked us if he had any more questions and offered that if we could think of any afterwards, we could always approach him when we saw him around the ship. I thanked him for giving us this opportunity. This was an absolutely amazing experience and definitely one of the highlights of the cruise.
Once the tour was finished, I went to find Graham who was still in his favourite spot. We took our stuff back to the cabin and then went to get some lunch. Graham quite fancied Triton's and I was Ok with this. Unfortunately there was nothing on the menu that really grabbed me. Graham had the Seafood Paella and really liked it. I went with the Ravioli from the kid's menu. They were meant to come with Peas, Corn and Fries. When our food arrived, I got no vegetables or Fries and four Ravioli with tomato sauce. The Ravioli were filled with Portobello Mushrooms and both the Ravioli and the sauce were delicious, but there were just not enough of them. Essentially this was a starter portion. I have no idea why I was not given any sides. I had also ordered from the kid's menu on previous cruises or lunch and for dinner and I was always brought an adult-size portion. Graham suggested that I should order some more, but I told him that I rather check out what Beach Blanket Buffet has on offer. He said he would come with me to have some dessert. So I waited until he was finished with his Paella and then we headed up there together.
This turned out to be a stroke of luck. The buffet theme that day was Tex Mex, which is one of my favourite buffets on the ships. I had a Beef Patty with an Onion Ring, a Beef Burrito, some Pulled Pork and some Beef Fajita strips. Graham had a Fruit Crumble of some description with Custard. He enjoyed this much more than he would have done any of the dessert options at Triton's.
After lunch, we headed to Diversions. Next up was the Airline Tail Trivia. I do not only work for an airline, but since early childhood, I have had a real passion for anything to do with aviation. When I grew up, there was a visitors area overlooking the runway at Frankfurt airport and I spent many happy hours there looking at the colourful tails and learning where the planes came from. So I fancied my chances with this. Diversion was actually rather busy. We were trying to find somewhere to sit. Suddenly somebody called out my DIS name. We headed over there. It was somebody from our cruise meet thread. We had chatted a lot online as we are both airliners and therefore have quite a bit in common. He works for Southwest. We had never met in person before even though this was the third time we were on the same cruise. We decided to team up. Shortly afterwards, we were joined by another couple and it turned out that the husband works for Delta. I was deeply amused by our Interline team. We did very well. I did OK with the American carriers apart from one very obscure one, but our American teammates had no issues with those. One of them was very good with the Far Eastern carriers and I came into my own with Europe and the Middle East. All three of us got to see the tail of our carriers. Mine was actually the last one for the trivia. We managed to get them all right. The other teams were not very impressed when they found out that we were all airline staff. We got one
Disney Cruise Line water bottle for each couple.
As we were on fine form, we decided to do some more trivia. Famous Places Trivia was about to start in the Promenade Lounge. So we headed over there. We did OK and only dropped 3 points. One was for some skyscrapers in Singapore that I thought were in Kuala Lumpur and two on obscure landmarks in the USA. We were however the only team that recognized the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Of course, we have been to Dubai plenty of times and have actually been on the observation deck. We did not get enough points to win this, but it was definitely a lot of fun.
Graham was staying in the Promenade Lounge after this, as we wanted to do Pirate Trivia, which was due to start shortly afterwards. I quickly went back to the cabin to get changed. Unfortunately I was not able to bring my pirate gown as my suitcase was overweight, but I had a red dress, which with a few pirate accessories turned into suitable pirate attire. I quickly got changed and then joined Graham again. This has become a bit of a tradition since our Western Caribbean cruise in 2009. We always play the Pirate Trivia when it is offered and we have always won it. It has changed quite significantly over the years and this time round was completely different again. Still, we must have pirate blood inside us as whatever the throw at us; we seem to cope with it. This time I got one answer wrong and Graham thought we had broken our winning streak, but we still had the most points and won Pirate Trivia once again. We got another Disney Cruise Line water bottle so now we had one each. We also got two keyrings and a nice notebook.
Once Pirate Trivia was over, I was on a mission. They had a rather special photo opportunity. It was listed as Mickey and Friends Pirate Photo. I could not resist this. By the looks of it nor could half the ship. I got there about half an hour ahead of time and the line was about halfway along the hallway between Triton's and the Promenade Lounge. Still, once the characters arrived, the line moved quickly as they did not allow autographs and only one pose per stateroom. I also really like the resulting photos so it was worth the wait.
As most of the pirate characters were in the group photos, there was only one other photo opportunity at that time: Captain Jack Sparrow. The line was manageable, but I knew that this would move slowly as he likes to take his time with each family. Still, in the end I waited for less than 30 minutes, which for a relatively rare character is great.
Afterwards I headed back to our cabin to get showered and changed. With all the pirate characters tied up in the group photo during the first session, there were lots of individual character sets in the second session especially as there would not be third session because of the pirate party. So as much as I regretted it, I had to get changed for Palo before the character sets. I was still not sure I would get all the characters I wanted. At least the characters that I really wanted to see, Pirate Stitch and Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, were in different sets.
Graham had come upstairs with me. I got in the rather short line for Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Graham offered to act as my proxy and get in the line for Chip and Dale. When I was done with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, we swapped places and he got in line for Pirate Minnie for me. I had my photos taken with Chip and Dale and by then he was nearly at the front of the line for Minnie so I got my photo with her pretty much as soon as I got there.
There was still a little bit of time until the lines opened for the next character sets. So we headed both up to deck 4 and sat down. Once Stitchs line opened, I got in it and Graham headed back downstairs to get in Mickey's line for me. This is where it nearly all came apart. Mickey was a bit early and his line seemed to be moving very quickly. Stitch was fashionably late. Graham was near the front of the line by the time Stitch turned up. Fortunately he could see me and let a couple of families go ahead of him. When I was finished with Stitch and got down to deck 3, there was one family ahead of him. This had worked like clockwork.
Fabulous photos! 
