The Disney Magic

Sunday, March 20

On Saturday, we had driven from our house to Jacksonville, so we drove from Jacksonville to Port Canaveral on Sunday morning.  We checked in to our cruise, boarded the ship at about 1 pm, and went to one of the restaurants on board, Carioca's, for lunch.  Its theme is The Three Caballeros, a Disney animated classic from 1944, whose characters are Donald Duck, Panchito Pistoles, and Jose Carioca.  After lunch, we went to our room, immediately ordered two Mickey Bars (Did you know that you can order unlimited Mickey Bars on Disney Cruises?), and waited for our luggage to be delivered.  I could have spent forever sitting on our verandah staring out at the ocean.

We spent a few hours wandering around the ship before going to Animator's Palate for dinner.  This was the only restaurant we were really interested in, and so we were happy it was our first dining assignment.  As you can see from the photos, the restaurant starts off black and white, with animation sketches on all of the walls and the screens around the restaurant.  Slowly, as dinner progresses, the restaurant seems to come to life with movement and color, until Sorcerer Mickey makes an appearance right after dessert.  It is such a fun experience!  We loved it on The Disney Wonder and it was even better on The Disney Magic!

We ended the evening by checking out the piano bar, Keys, which was just a beautiful place to sit and relax, and then we attended a whiskey tasting class at Cove Café.  Great way to end our first night!

Monday, March 21

We got up early because it was supposed to be our day at Castaway Cay.  The captain tried twice to dock, but apparently the winds were too high.  To say we were disappointed would be an understatement!  The only other Disney Cruise we'd been on, back in 2014, did not stop at Castaway Cay, so we had been soooooo looking forward to finally going there!  The weather was not our friend that day.

After eating breakfast at Cabana's, we went back to our room and we slept for most of the day.  If you know me, you are already well aware of how much I love naps and daytime sleeping in general.  So this was definitely my idea of nirvana.

When we finally got up, we ordered room service for very late lunch before going to see Tangled the Musical.  I was a little worried because I didn't want the show to be some cheesy, over-the-top, cruise ship version…because I love Tangled.  SO much!  And the show was amazing!  The acting was great, the sets were beautiful, and the music was a spectacular mix of songs from the film and new tunes and/or lyrics.  Seriously, I was incredibly impressed!  I recently bought a purple S'well water bottle and put a yellow Tangled sun decal on it, I have a Rapunzel alex + ani bracelet, and I have Rapunzel, Eugene, Pascal, and Maximus tsum tsums.  And yes, I brought all of these items on the cruise because I knew I wanted to take some pictures on the ship – I still can't believe I forgot my Rapunzel ears at home!

After the show, one of the lounges on board, O'Gills, was transformed into The Snuggly Duckling.  I could not even handle how cute everything was.  I felt like I was living in the world of Tangled.  The cast members were dressed at thugs and the royal guard, and there were nods to the film all over the place.  Disney theming at its best!

Tuesday, March 22

The weather decided to cooperate and we were able to dock at Castaway Cay, so after breakfast at Lumiere's, we got off the ship to spend the day on Disney's private island.  Although the weather was less than perfect weather because it was very windy, it was still a fabulously beautiful day.  One of those days you know you will always remember and recall with great fondness years and years from now.

That night was Pirate Night on the ship – not something we were particularly interested in, but we did want to see the fireworks before going to the movies.  We saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens again, and I've already shared how I was emotionally destroyed the first time I saw it back in December.  This time?  Nothing.  I felt almost nothing.  Well, disdain.  Disdain for the terrible characters, awful dialogue, and atrocious acting.  Disdain for the direction a franchise I have loved for so long has taken.  Disdain for the unoriginal story.  Disdain for the most pitiful and pathetic "villain" imaginable.  Love only for Leia and Han.  Being an optimist, I am hopeful that the next movie will be better!

Wednesday, March 23

This was a port day at Nassau, but we did not get off the ship.  We've been to Nassau and had no interest in returning.  Instead, we had brunch at Palo, which was fabulous, and took a mixology class, which was so much fun.  Unfortunately, we also had to pack in order to have our luggage picked up that night, which is always depressing because it means the fun is coming to an end.  However, we ended our final night on a high note by seeing Zootopia – and if you haven't seen it, you should!  It's adorable!

Thursday, March 24

We got up early, ate breakfast at Lumiere's, and were off the boat at about 8:30 am!

A few other thoughts…

- We had a great time – it is not often that we have so much time to relax!  I read Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, which I highly recommend, and we watched countless Disney and Pixar movies in our room eating Mickey Bars with the endless ocean right outside our verandah.  There were so many moments where I caught myself in a state of disbelief that I was so incredibly fortunate.

- The service is second to none.  Every single cast member we encountered on the ship was phenomenal.  It is almost too much and it spoils you for the return to real life!

- Music is everywhere.  Live music, recorded music, the ship's horn (which plays the first seven notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star")...everywhere.  And it's awesome.

- We only ate dinner in the restaurants one out of the four nights.  We are not foodies; in fact, we are probably just about the furthest thing from foodies.  Being vegetarians on a cruise is not great to begin with, but pair that with our preference for simple food, and it becomes more trouble than it's worth.  Why restaurants insist on making all vegetarian food with eggplant, squash, and mushrooms is beyond me!  Why can't breakfast foods be served around the clock?!?  Since they aren't, we mostly stuck with room service, which was super delicious and convenient and came with Mickey Bars. 

- Disney Cruise Line markets itself as having "adult-only" areas on their ships.  And they do.  Sort of.  Some genius designed the "adult-only" area on the upper decks to be walk-through areas so that kids are constantly traipsing through these "adult-only" areas.  There is no supervision and/or policing to keep the kids' behavior in check, and unfortunately, kids are allowed to run all over the ship without their parents.  Suppressing the teacher in me who wanted to tell the kids to stop yelling, stop running, and stop stomping so loudly took every ounce of self-control I had.  Only once did I hear a mother tell her children, "This is the adult area.  NO talking." when they passed through.  For that alone, she deserved a mother-of-the-year award…pointing out to her children that there were people other than themselves on the cruise.  The problem wasn't the babies, the toddlers, or the young kids…it was the tweens and teens.  I teach this age group, and I love kids this age, but most are fairly oblivious to the reality that their behavior might be disrespectful or inappropriate or bothersome, which is all the more reason for DCL to have a cast member presence to monitor behavior!

Disclaimer:  I understand that the above paragraph makes me seem like an old grump, but if DCL markets "adult-only" areas, they need to do a better job of providing them.

Finally…you know you're a nerd when...

I did receive what I consider a pretty great souvenir – a letter from the entertainment team after I complained about their carelessness.  

There are several channels on the TVs in the staterooms that show nothing but Disney and Pixar movies, and when one film ends, there is a "coming up next…" screen so you know what will be showing.

Without even trying, I found four errors:  "Dalmatians" was misspelled, "Docter" was misspelled, there was no comma in "Monsters, Inc.", and when the next movie was 101 Dalmatians, the incorrect movie poster was displayed (it was the Glenn Close version, not the 1961 animated classic version). Additionally, the movie theater displayed trivia questions before the films, and "Dalmatians" was misspelled there, too!

It was too much for me to handle.

Take the teacher in me, mix it with the perfectionist in me, and add in my love of Disney and adoration of Pete Docter, and well…I simply could not overlook all of these errors.

I went to guest services and explained the mistakes that needed to be corrected.  The cast member immediately handed over some paper and an envelope and asked me to write everything down.  I wrote out my concerns and was told that my letter would be passed along to the broadcast team.  I was fairly certain that it would go no further, but I felt like at least I had brought the errors to their attention.  However, when we got back to our room after seeing Zootopia, I found this:

I was a very happy, nerdy girl.  It's the little things, right?

As I write this, we are back on land, but there's just something about being out on the ocean, with very limited internet access, nowhere to really go, and nothing but time that makes you feel so removed from reality!  Even when I'm at home, trying to relax, there are a million things to do.  But on the ship, it is so easy to forget about laundry and bills and homework and grading and just actually relax!  The salty sea air and the canopy of a million stars each night don't hurt, either.

And to spend all of this uninterrupted time with your best friend who just happens to be the love of your life?  Magical.

Happy Tails to you!