Still living the Dream: Day 19 – Sea day

[Peebee]

Day 19 – Sea day

Wednesday 1st June

After seeing the crowds yesterday for the princess meet and greet in the main atrium, we decide this is the aim for this morning, and Emma and I leave the room at around 8.30am to get in line with Ryan and Helen joining us later. Good job we left when we did – there were already probably 50 groups in front of us, and by the time the princesses appeared probably 150 groups behind. In fact the back of the line was completely out of sight and snaking round to the other side of the ship!

Emma had a great time as she always does with the character meets, and was sure to get lots of photos and an autograph with each princess, smiling at the Disney photographer and then us to make sure we got as many shots as possible. I think they came out pretty well, what do you think?

While all this girly princess stuff was going on Ryan sat very nicely on one of the nearby sofas, and found a cushion or two to play with…

We finally make it through the princess procession by around 10.15, and by now are pretty hungry, so rush down to the Enchanted Garden for breakfast. Fresh fried eggs, and a ‘full american’ of sausage, bacon, pancakes and more! The place is pretty quiet by now, though service is excellent as always. So nice to have the option of this place alongside the help yourself style of Cabanas.

After breakfast we tour the ship a little and take a few photos before dropping the kids off at the club. Helen and I have passes for the Rainforest room at the Spa today, so we head off here. I don’t actually have any photos of this – I’m not sure if you are allowed to take a camera in, but it didn’t quite seem the right thing to do

The Rainforest area is comprised of a variety of saunas, showers with different massage settings and scents, a decking area with a pair of large hot tubs, and some heated benches to just lie and relax. I took my Kindle and Helen had a magazine, and we just chilled out and enjoyed our ‘us’ time. You really can lose yourself here, and I would recommend the place to anyone. The passes were about $15 each, and were easily worth that. Even though it’s a sea day the place was never busy, with less than a dozen people at any time we were there.

Around 1pm we decide we have had enough peace and quiet (yeah, right!), and get dressed so we can pick the kids up. We nip up to Cabanas for a quick snack and then decide to play some shuffleboard on deck.

Shuffleboard on deck

Cute

Helen has a hot stone spa treatment booked for this afternoon, so she returns for this and I take the kids to the Walt Disney Theatre for the afternoon show – more on this later…

We meet up back at the cabin around 4.15pm and Helen is suitably relaxed and chilled from her massage. The kids decide they would like to do the detective agency activity again, and Helen suggests I go and make the most of another hour in the Rainforest room….bless her! It’s even quieter now, and I spend time in the sauna, showers and hot tub before chilling out on the benches again watching a small ship in the distance – there is nothing else on the horizon. Sadly all good things come to an end, so I leave the spa around 5.15pm and meet up with the family to get ready for our formal night dinner.

We’ve decided to go for the smart look tonight, with suits for Ryan and myself, and pretty dresses for the ladies. We head down to dinner in the Royal Palace which is absolutely gorgeous. Sadly we only had one meal here, but it was definitely memorable. There are paintings on the walls of all the Disney princesses, and at one point during the meal Sleeping Beauty right past our table and waved Lovely food and incredible desserts once again, and as you’ll notice from the lack of photos, the food was usually to irresistible to wait for pictures to be taken

Beautifully decorated walls at the Royal Palace

After the meal we went out into the atrium where the photographers were set up and got some lovely semi-formal shots of us all. Luckily we seemed to have timed things right and were near the front of the lines, but 10 minutes later the place was very crowded. We also managed to get a formal photo with Captain Mickey!

Continued below…

 

[Peebee]

The show this evening was the Golden Mickeys and I’ve got to say this probably my favourite of the whole trip. So much so that we watched it twice – once in the afternoon with the kids while Helen was at the spa, and then again in the evening with the whole family.

It’s a kind of mock awards ceremony like the Oscars, and there is a mix of live action and some projections from classic movies, and the two merge together incredibly well. My all-time favourite from years of visiting WDW is the old Hunchback of Notre Dame show at the Studios, so when Quasimodo appeared singing Out There it made it for me.

Other movies covered included Pocahontas, Lion King, Tarzan, Lady and the Tramp, Mulan…far too many to list, but all brilliantly done and exactly what you hope for on a Disney cruise. We even had a section with Rapunzel singing ‘I see the light’ from Tangled which made it even more special for Emma.

After the show we went out for a walk around the deck, and the kids decided to play shuffleboard again. We were in the middle of a game when who should appear but Donald Duck in his evening attire! Some priceless photos for Ryan and Emma followed, before we made our way back to the cabin for tonight’s towel animal – a rabbit – and bed.

Day 20 – Castaway Cay, Part 2
Setting the Scene and Index

 

[Chilly]

I love that the characters just wander around on the ships. I didn't realise the rainforest room was so cheap, i'd def do that if I get to cruise again.