A) You are a very good writer. Good detail, a nice turn of phrase and an interesting perspective as a DCL first-timerDay 3 Part 2: the "Cram it all in!" Lounge Tour 2k24
The boat was surprisingly empty (I know Castaway Cay is beloved but it was SO COLD!) so we spent some time exploring the Grand Hall and taking in all the details we hadn't lingered over before. It really is such a beautiful area when it's not people-soup!
That crunch time feeling of "hey we need to try all these places before we go!" hit us, and we wandered over to Keg & Compass for a drink and a snack.
Keg & Compass
The lounge was pretty quiet, only a couple guests at another table and one at the bar. We'd popped our head in once before during a trivia event and it had been packed, so I appreciated the chance to look around. All the dark wood and nautical details would have been right up my Dad's alley! But I ALWAYS appreciate a heavily-themed approach by Disney!
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DH ordered a beer, a rarety for him but when-in-Rome and all! I went with a Midori sour.
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I can never resist soft pretzels, so when we saw one on the menu we had to give it a try.
GERMAN PRETZEL: A giant Bavarian Pretzel baked soft on the inside, crispy on the outside and Salted. Served with German Mustard and Beer Cheese
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It was MASSIVE, but it looked better than it tasted. The cheese served with it was most definitely not beer cheese, it had a nacho flavor to it. It tasted like Tostino's cheese dip, fresh out of the jar, except water and served ice cold.Maybe they had run out, or it was an off day? The mustard was better, but there just wasn't enough for the massive pretzel, so we wound up knocking off most of the salt and eating it dry.
Keg & Compass was also the first time we had anything less than stellar service. The server was kind of weirdly wandering the area, but not in a checking-on-guests way. He'd stand and stare at the wall, then he'd go and stand in the doorway looking out...I think he needed a nap. We had to flag him down from the doorway to order, then he brought out the pretzel with no plates, no napkins, no cutlery, and without the waters we asked for. We hadn't planned on staying long so we didn't bother him again, but I did have to go walk over to his newest hiding spot in an empty back corner and ask him for the check. We still tipped him, but it was just an odd experience! We won't be in a rush to return here next time.
We went right over to Luna afterwards where they were doing Disney Songbook Starring YOU (aka karaoke) where we experienced one of the highlights of our entire trip!
The entertainment CM welcomed a little 3 or 4 year old girl to the stage, with her mother, to sing. The little girl made it clear she did NOT want her mother singing with her, but her mom explained to the audience "she can't read the lyrics!"
Then the chorus would hit, and this little girl's voice would EXPLODE in volume, and she's stomp her feet to enunciate each word as she belted out the song. When I tell you everyone in the audience was absolutely dying! I laughed and cheered so hard I had tears running down my face. This was the kind of moment that could have easily gone viral and gotten this girl onto Good Morning America, or something. She was a legend!
We attended a few rounds of trivia in the Triton lounge; we got annihilated in Beauty & the Beast trivia thanks to questions about christmas specials and the broadway production. We fared a bit better in movie quotes (especially when I was the only one able to identity a quote by Gramma Tala!) and snagged a coffee in-between trivia games.
Today's latte art:
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When we were finally trivia'd out, we went to The Bayou, our next stop on the lounge tour.
The Bayou
Coming here at least once was a must for me as a princess and the frog fan!
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We got to enjoy a full set from The Wishers, as we happened to sit down right before they took the stage. I told DH the vocalist reminded me of Sting. He then proceeded to sing both Fields of Gold and Every Breath You Take. Way to call it, me!
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We ordered-
Three Beignets
Smoked Fashioned
Bayou Rum XO Mardi Gras, Bitters
Absinthe Frappé
Pernod Absinthe, Anisette|, Abita vanilla Cream Soda
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DH got the smoked old fashioned and it was yet again a big production! The server brought it out in a wooden box, had DH open it, and a huge waft of smoke came out. DH absolutely hates being the center of attention so it was funny that he kept unknowingly ordering the drinks that would get every other table nearby turning to stare.
I absolutely should have ordered a tried-and-true Hurricane here, but I fell for the absinthe frappe purely for the novelty of it. I made it two sips in and couldn't stomach it further. I knew it would taste like a black licorice slushy, and I despise black licorice, so that's totally on me. Luckily, DH LOVES black licorice and gulped my drink down, along with his own!
The beignets were mid; lukewarm, kinda doughy, and not flavorful. "Not up to Tiana's standards," DH said.
DH really, really enjoyed the drinks here though and declared it his favorite lounge!
We went back up to the room before dinner, and were greeted with our final towel animal:
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A) You are a very good writer. Good detail, a nice turn of phrase and an interesting perspective as a DCL first-timer
B) You are obviously a very nice and kind couple to go out of your way to reassure Ed and make sure there were no repercussions for him. Thank you for this.
Thank you so much for all of the info and photos! And thank you for the second post too.Day 1 Part 1 - embarkation and exploration with a side of room celebrations
We had a 12:30 PAT, which to us as baby silvers actually seemed early, and arrived just on time.
This was by far the smoothest embarkation process we've had, even including when we had some sort of paid VIP status with Carnival. We were through the port terminal so quickly I didn't even have a chance to snap any pics before we were on board walking out into the Grand Hall!
We oohed and ahhed at the chandelier and how pretty everything was, and I immediately sent this blurry pic of Belle to a friend who adores her.
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I saw the crew member walking around handing out the magic wands and deep in my heart I absolutely wanted one, but he was only offering them to kids so I didn't pipe up and ask.
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As lovely as the hall was, it both kind of hit us as somewhat small (foreshadowing for the THEME FOR THE REST OF DAY 1). We started wandering around and, hilariously, I saw a guy snapping a photo of the deckplans and since I hadn't yet opened the Navigator app I thought "hey, how smart!" and followed suit. Feel free to laugh!
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Since we'd made the stupid decision to skip breakfast (although who wants to do any cooking or dishes the morning before they leave for a cruise?!) our hunger poked through our excitement, and we went straight up to deck 11, bypassing the buffet (more foreshadowing) to get right to the good stuff.
Mickey's Festival of Foods (warning: extreme gluttony ahead)
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Donald's Cantina - chicken bowl with cilantro rice, pico, corn, cheese, sour cream, and chipotle hot sauce
My expectations might have been too high for this place based on all the love it gets here! I loved the huge variety of options (and sauces) here but I was disappointed in the flavor, everything was sort of bland. But it was nice and light, a rare pool deck fast food option you could grab and not feel gross about after! ...Unless you ruin that by indulging in 52 more things, like we did.
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Daisy's Pizza Pies - pepperoni
Unlike Donald, I had no expectations for Daisy and she made a fool of me quickly. I loved this pizza and I couldn't figure out why! It had that 'puffy' nature to it like most WDW CS pizza that almost prohibits it from even qualifying as pizza, but man did this hit the spot. Loved that they had red pepper and oregano shakers on the side!
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Goofy's Grill - chicken tenders
These beauties? Chef's kiss. The simplest food on earth and so immensely satisfying. I'd be eating these more on the cruise and they were perfect every time. And their giant dispense of honey mustard? Please and thank you.
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After we ate and on our way out we HAD to pick up cones from Sweet Minnie's Ice Cream, naturally. The CMs were clearly anticipating the embarkation rush, because they had vanilla cones already swirled and ready in a holder, and were just handing them out to everyone who approached.
Now, I didn't take a pic - the cone was not pretty and I could tell by looking at it that it wasn't going to be great. The texture was so gritty! I assumed it was non-dairy ice cream and was instantly turned off, I'm not a fan of any non-dairy soft serves, even, blasphemous as it may be, dole whips (although DH would die for them). So I wrote off Sweet Minnie's and thought "oh well, this will be an ice cream-free cruise." (MORE FORESHADOWING!!!)
Our rooms were ready by this point so we made the quick and easy walk downstairs to our stateroom, 10620.
My birthday was a couple days before the cruise, and while DH had told me he ordered a cake he didn't say anything about room decorations, so I was surprised to walk into this festive scene!
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The birthday goodies came with a giant beach towel, a neck...towel...thing? with pockets? (I wore it like a scarf when we got home and I was cold, LOL) and...birthday pillowcases?! That's something I've never seen, and they were surprisingly silky!
There was also a birthday tapestry and a giant birthday magnet on our stateroom door. We had a brief moment of weirdness over that magnet - we heard a commotion outside from what sounded like kids freaking out over the magnet, then a thump on our door. DH opened the door, saw the magnet was gone, asked the family in the hallway "hey, did you happen to take a magnet from our door?" and the kids' dad immediately offered it up and said "sorry, they got confused." Which kind of indicated to us he saw them take it and thought nothing of it? But oh well. We kept it on an inside door after that.
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Also - I was overjoyed to see we had a Moana stateroom! I hadn't looked it up in advance, and Moana is my favorite Disney movie!
We were really impressed by our stateroom. Since DH and I have only ever taken short cruises from PC, our experience has been on mostly older ships. Like, old, OLD ships. We had a suite on our NCL cruise that cost us more than this room, but had a weird layout and the most archaic, awkward bathroom known to man. This statement though was so bright and airy, and we LOVE the split bathroom layout.
Our luggage had arrived shortly after we got into the room (efficient!) so we unpacked and then ventured off for more exploring!
(PHOTO MAX REACHED! to be continued)
How was Enchante? Was it worth it?
We did not experience Enchante. Most of my family would be too 'picky' to enjoy it.
