Newsies Cruises (or, How We Braved Hurricane Erin on the Magic) - Our First DCL Adventure! - Aug '25 *NEW 10/20*

[Stacybaeasm]

Your day sounds wonderful! You really are selling me on the idea of going on a cruise. Is it weird that I feel like I would stay on the boat except for Castaway Cay? The boat, the beach, and that spa. That's all I want out of the vacation.

 

[Newsies]

Sounds like a fabulous day! Great job in describing the island. I'm surprised at the difference in the family and adult beaches. All in all it looked like the perfect day with perfect weather!

It was absolutely perfect, I couldn't have asked for better weather or a better day on the island! And thank you very much -- I felt bad that I didn't have any photos of the adult beach and really didn't take too many photos of the island in general, so I tried extra hard to describe them

Your day sounds wonderful! You really are selling me on the idea of going on a cruise. Is it weird that I feel like I would stay on the boat except for Castaway Cay? The boat, the beach, and that spa. That's all I want out of the vacation.

Oh it was the most amazing day on the most amazing vacation! And no, not weird at all -- there were a lot of people who stayed on the ship in Nassau! Disney sometimes has 3-day itineraries that stop at Nassau, Castaway Cay, and then a day at sea. If you're curious about cruising, it sounds like a shorter itinerary where you can just enjoy the ship & the island might be a great "gateway" to other Disney cruises in the future!

 

[Newsies]

Changing our Course​

As soon as I got back on the boat, I went straight up to deck 9 for just a few minutes in the Rainforest Room to refresh after a long day at the beach. A little wash in the Cold Fog shower, a little nap on a heated lounger, a little time spent in the sauna and I was good to go!

When I got back to the stateroom, Grace was in her element – hair wrapped in a towel, room service dishes from lunch on the table, TV playing High School Musical 2. After confirming she was okay, I took a super-fast shower and dried my hair before rushing down to Deck 4 for a meet & greet.

Tonight, we would enjoy the Tangled show in Walt Disney Theatre, so Rapunzel was meeting guests in the Atrium. She didn’t really have any more M&G ties beyond this for the rest of the cruise, and I didn’t know if I’d have the opportunity to take a photo with her at the restaurant, so it was now or never if I wanted to take a photo with her.

We had some type of conversation about her upcoming birthday party (it was part of the storyline in the restaurant show), and I told her how excited I was to see the show tonight.

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I went back up to the room afterwards to lay down for a nap, but it was more like laying there on my phone for half an hour until 4:00, when mom & dad asked if I was going downstairs to wave goodbye to the Castaway Cay crew as we pulled out of port.

Goodbye, Castaway Cay!

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There was a 90’s Music trivia happening in Fathoms next, so we headed down one flight from where we were and grabbed our paper & pencils and a table. It was supposed to start at 4:30, but… when technical difficulties happen, plans change. After 5 or 6 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get 90’s Music trivia on the screen, the CM running the game announced that we’d have to do another activity now, and they’d reschedule 90’s Music trivia to another time tonight. Drats! I was confident in my 90’s Music expertise, too.

She announced that we’d be doing the 80’s Challenge instead right now. I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but we didn’t have any other plans before dinner and I would have felt bad walking out, so we stayed to see what this could have entailed.

She split the room down into two halves for two “teams,” and said that each team needed a captain.

Well, a guy on the right side of the room almost immediately shot up and volunteered for his team, and ran on to the center of the room in front of the stage where the CM host was.

She turned to our side and asked who was going to be captain.

Went once… moment of awkward silence….

Went twice… nobody on our side of the room willing to play this game…

Went three times…

With 15 full seconds of awkward silence and nobody getting up to be team captain, I took one for the team and volunteered myself. I made my way to the center of the room to the tune of moderate applause from those who were relieved someone else volunteered.

I had no idea what was about to happen, but I shook the hand of my worthy opponent and the first order of business was for the two of us to each come up with a name for our teams. She said to name it after our favorite “80’s group” and my mind went completely blank. My opponent chose “Team Fish,” I had to embarrassingly say I couldn’t think of a group and ask to be “Team Cyndi Lauper” instead and the games began.

The game was basically a mix of music trivia and physical challenges. Each “round” would begin with each team leader having to guess the 80’s song that was playing overhead, they’d give us the first 5 seconds of it and our team members could help us guess what it was if we didn’t know (but they were pretty easy). Then there would be some type of physical challenge that went along with it where they encouraged as many team members to join in as possible. Stuff like “pretend you’re in an 80’s rock band playing air guitar and drums etc.” “do your best 80s model catwalk” “everyone do the locomotion and make a train” “have your team captain hold as many items as possible.”

It was very “the rules are made up and the points don’t matter”, I think the captain appointed Team Fish the winner but everyone in the room got a prize anyway, which was a tiny metal keychain of the DCL logo.

It was cute, fun. Not 90’s trivia but entertaining enough to fill half an hour. The real prize was that one of the girls on my team told me I reminded her of Jenny Slate.

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With only about half an hour until dinner time after that, we decided to hang around the Atrium. We heard something called “Who’s Behind the Curtain?” was happening at D-Lounge above us and we were curious, so we went in there to see what that was all about. It’s an activity for younger kids where the CM gives three hints and the audience literally has to guess which Disney character is behind the curtain. We only got there at the very, VERY end of the activity where everyone was just about to guess that Minnie was the last character behind the curtain (Donald and Pluto had already been revealed).

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It was actually very fun to watch the kids get so excited to see Minnie, and then the characters all danced and made a conga line with the kids around the room and Pluto came up to me and licked my phone while we were sitting in the back. It was really cute.

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So at 5:30, as we were just about to get up and go downstairs for dinner, we heard the “When You Wish Upon a Star” chimes ring overhead, which ended up being an announcement from the captain.

We’ve been monitoring the weather at Lookout Cay over the past few days, and unfortunately, due to wind, we will not be able to dock at the island tomorrow.

Womp-Womp!

When he was done with his announcement, our Cruise Director, Ann, got on the mic and did what she did best: hyped us up for another day at sea, telling us to refresh our Navigators in a moment because they’d be adding all sorts of super funky-fresh activities AND Palo would offer brunch again.


So, we ended up not going to Lookout Cay and got an extra sea day out of it instead. This is going to sound so bizarre but in that moment, I was a little relieved to hear it. Don’t get me wrong, I would have preferred to see the island, but I was exhausted and toasty at the end of a long day at Castaway Cay, and the thought of having to brave the Lookout Cay pier twice the next day was intimidating me. I really just wanted to chill at the pool and go back to the Rainforest Room again.

Also, in that moment, I needed to be reminded that Hurricane Erin even existed because we had just wrapped up an absolutely gorgeous, perfect day at Castaway Cay. When I was stressing out about Erin on land the week before, I had this mindset where I was like, “I don’t care what happens on any other day, I just want a perfect day at Castaway Cay.” So… I guess I got what I bargained for. I told myself I’d be satisfied with just Castaway Cay, and I was. It is sad that we didn’t get to go to Lookout Cay on this past cruise, but I had a really positive mindset about it in the moment knowing that I could look forward to another day to fully enjoy the boat and that we’d probably book a placeholder while we were still onboard to see Lookout Cay another time.


When Ann said to check the Navigator for more activities being added to the next day, I refreshed it immediately and desperately started scrolling through for one very specific activity: Broadway Music Trivia. I knew it existed, because I had seen it on vlogs, but I was a little disappointed when I scrolled through every day’s activities and it didn’t appear once! With more trivia games being added to the sea day, I had a renewed hope that Broadway Music might be one of them, but no dice. She was nowhere to be seen in the new lineup of activities.

We walked out of D-Lounge to go to dinner, but I noticed that Guest Services was totally empty. It was weird, because I figured they’d be flooded after the announcement, but… with nobody down there… I figured, maybe it would be worth mentioning Broadway Trivia to them while they had a free moment. I told my parents I’d be right back and walked down the stairs to plead my case.

I walked up to the Guest Services CMs and I was like, “Hey, so– I know that you guys don’t really plan the activities, and it may be too late for this, but I just want to say that if you’re still adding more activities to tomorrow, I bet Broadway Trivia would be a lot of fun!”

And they were like “Noted!”

Finally, it was time for us to head to Animator’s Palate for dinner.

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This was our “normal night” at Animator’s, where we’d get to experience the usual menu and the usual entertainment. Instead of deep, intense red lighting and pirate portraits on the wall, we were greeted by bright, white light that illuminated the restaurant. Picture frames on the wall were filled with hand-drawn pencil sketches. Everything was black and white for now… but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

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Every night, our Assistant Server would have some type of paid offering to present to us. Usually, it was a cup, or one of those light-up characters that attach to a cup, and tonight she had some fun straws that I think were $8. She had Remy from Ratatouille on a spoon, which caught Grace’s attention, then she was like, “we also have this very special only-5-in-stock straw of Goofy and Max in the winter” and I was like you know what… sure. Mom & Grace got the Remy one and I got this one because I’m a sucker for anything Max & Goofy:

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I got a smoothie included with the straw purchase, which was Strawberry flavored. It had a questionable consistency to it but it tasted fine.

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Tonight’s signature bread service was a delightful Focaccia with an even more delightful garlic dip to go with it. I liked both!

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My appetizer tonight was the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes – Pasta filled with “truffle-scented” cheese and covered in a champagne sauce.

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These came highly recommended by previous cruisers online AND by our server, so I was more than happy to give these a try. SO good. Nice and light, the cheese wasn’t funky, the champagne sauce was creamy and delightful. I am very excited to have these again on a future cruise!

We also had a photographer walking around taking photos:

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For dinner, I had the Herb-Crusted Pork Chop. This was a roast pork chop brushed with Dijon mustard and crusted with herbed bread crumbs, served with sun-dried tomato risotto and a Barolo wine sauce.

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I was going to try a different dish on the menu (the teriyaki beef tenderloin was calling my name), but this was recommended by our server and, hey, I love a pork chop moment, so I ordered this instead. It was pretty good, maybe like an 8.5/10. It was a shockingly good quality pork chop, albeit it was a little dry from being cooked just a smidge longer than it should have been. Still, it was tasty, and the sauce saved it a little bit. The real star with the sun-dried tomato risotto. Very creamy and flavorful. I was very satisfied with this meal.

As you’re eating your dinner, you’ll notice that the sketches on the wall start to “come to life,” with shading, detailing, and color being added slowly but surely until it’s time for the show to begin. Then, the lights dim in the restaurant, and the sketches take you on a journey through all of Disney’s animated classics. And of course, the finale includes a visit from our friend Mickey Mouse!

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It was all very magical, and even the waiters are part of the show, which is nice. It’s honestly a very cute, short show.

Once it’s over, it’s time for dessert. I had the Warm Sticky Date Pudding with butterscotch sauce, vanilla ice cream, and a phyllo dough crunch.

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I loved this! This one was a lot better than the one from the Let The Magic Begin menu. Not too sweet, not too heavy.

When we were done eating dinner, it was basically time for us to go line up for tonight’s stage show, which was a Broadway-style adaptation of Tangled. It was 7:15ish, and we knew that we’d want to be early to get seats tonight, so we went right to the theatre and they opened the doors close to 7:30. We took our seats and mom decided she wanted the refillable Mickey popcorn bucket, so I went with her to get Mickey and some water bottles for the family.

One thing I will say about being in the theatre, especially at night – you could always feel the boat rocking. Whether it was because were so close to the storm or because the Magic is so small and the theatre is all the way forward, we were swaying every single time we sat down here.

When we sat back down, I decided to check the Navigator again before the show started to see if anything fun was happening after the show and to start planning the next day.

That’s when I saw that Broadway Trivia had been added to the next day’s lineup at 1:00 PM!

I was so happy! Maybe it was there earlier and I had missed it, maybe I was one of several people who asked for it, maybe I was the only person who asked for it. But it felt like they added it because I asked, so that felt special to me.

Ann, once again, delivered a spectacular pep talk before we got to see the stage adaptation of Tangled. No photos or videos allowed but it was spectacular. I love a stage adaptation of anything, even if it’s not 100% accurate to the movie, as long as they add new music/elements and that’s exactly what they did! They added some new songs that splashed some color onto Flynn’s backstory and Corona and they made “I’ve Got a Dream” longer. It was truly a Broadway-quality show, and it was only 45 minutes long, so it didn’t eat your entire night.

Whatever happened between 9:00 PM-11:00 PM on this evening is anybody’s guess. I don’t have any more photos or footage except for tonight’s towel animal and proof that I was at Mainsail at some point to buy this funnel shirt I adored that was running low on sizes:

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I am literally sure that at some point I went up to the pool deck again for an ice cream cone, that was one of my favorite things to do. I also think I stopped by karaoke at one point? I think this was the evening I unsuccessfully tried to find the “midnight buffet” at O’Gills but I was too early. I do remember walking by Fathom’s and some girl was singing Year 3000 during karaoke, so I walked in to support a fellow Jonatic, then clapped and left.

I do remember being in Mainsail with mom close to the time it closed and getting a very flattering compliment from the CM at the cash register, who saw my almost-sun-burnt-but-not-quite nose and said “Somebody remembered their sunscreen today, great job!”

And here's our towel animal for the evening:

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Wings & cookies were more likely than not ordered before we went to bed after a FANTASTIC 10/10 day at Castaway Cay.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

You know you were having a great time when you didn't take any notes and can't remember what you did. It means you were living in the moment! And YAY for Broadway trivia!!!

 

[alohamom]

Pluto came up to me and licked my phone while we were sitting in the back

LOL and what a fantastic little fun photo of the moment as well!