Sunday, April 9, 2017

The Time I Did A Disney Transatlantic Cruise - Days 5 & 6

(Previously: Days 1 & 2 and Days 3 & 4)


Day 5 - Wednesday, September 23rd 

I had a slow morning. A little breakfast, then back to the stateroom for Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Dumbo on TV. I still felt dizzy and pretty bad. My sea bands may have been helping a little, but they weren't doing enough....



Suddenly I remembered that I had packed Bonine -- the chewable tablets. I hadn't thought to take them yet, because I'd mainly brought them in case I had stomach issues. But looking at the Bonine box, I saw that it treated dizziness, too. So I took one and... a little over an hour later, I felt much better! I wasn't at 100%, but there was a definite improvement.

At 1:45 I went to the Walt Disney Theater for a show called: "Ice! Fire! Strings!" where a lovely, talented singer/violinist named Greta Salome performed several of her own songs, plus music from Pirates Of The Caribbean and Brave. It was a great show and I really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, I made an attempt at doing that day's scavenger hunt. At Guest Services you could pick up a paper that had maybe 10 photos on it from around the ship. If you could find the locations of the photos and write the locations on the paper, you could win something? I guess? I just figured it would be a fun way to explore the ship -- and it was! On this day, the theme was Artwork. (Other days it was walls, carpet, etc.) I didn't find all the artwork, though. I'll bet even some veteran Disney Magic cruisers had a challenge, because I heard that some of the artwork had been moved around when the ship was in dry dock prior to this sailing.

I popped into Family Karaoke and listened to about half a dozen acts.

Caught a glimpse of Donald and Daisy in the atrium...


There weren't really any activities in the later afternoon that interested me, so I went back to my stateroom and ordered room service. I got a veggie sandwich, which came with chips and coleslaw. All was delicious.



This was one of the days I noticed that my stateroom sometimes had an odd, oily smell (it wasn't like that every day). I talked to some veteran cruisers about it, and they said it was fairly normal. I had read advice on a Disney Cruise message board to pack an air freshener, and I had done so, but lesson learned -- one little car air freshener can only do so much. So because of the smell bothering me, I left my stateroom, and, armed with my iPhone and headphones, went up to the porthole seats on Deck 3 and listened to an audiobook and watched the ocean go by.

At 7:30 I walked the short distance to Keys, where they were having "Live Piano With Kenne Ledford." Keys has got to be the most stylish place on the boat, besides Palo (more on that in a few days.)


I ordered a "Lava Smoothie."



Dinner that night was at Lumiere's. I ordered two appetizers -- fried brie and soup. For the main course, I ordered the portabello pasta. When my main dish came out, it had lobster on it! And, well, I'm a vegetarian! (I don't mind eating soup that has chicken stock in it, but an actual lobster? It may have just been his legs. I don't even remember.) Obviously, I'd been sent the wrong dish. And I know they would have fixed it for me, but... after the A) Room service lunch B) Smoothie and C) 2 appetizers, I wasn't even very hungry anymore, and didn't want them to have to bring another full plate of food that I wouldn't be able to eat even half of. So I put the lobster to the side and ate as much of the pasta as I could.

When our server came to clear the plates, I did feel I should let him know what had happened, but I assured him that I wasn't upset or anything. He was very apologetic, and was like "Why didn't you tell me you were a vegetarian? On the first night I asked if anyone had any food allergies." I didn't know what to say. Does vegetarianism really = a food allergy? And it wasn't as if I'd ordered an item and been surprised by the fact that it happened to have meat. I was careful to always order from the vegetarian part of the menu. In this case, I had been brought something different than what I had ordered.

Okay, so now my server knew I was a vegetarian. From now on, I wouldn't have any surprise meat on my plate... right? Riiiight.

Dinner that night would have been a mediocre affair if not for the fact that it was the night Belle and the Beast came out and danced! Yay favorite Disney movie!!!

Later that night, they were having another Super Sloppy Science event in the Oceaneer Lab. Although I was tired, I decided to go, and I'm glad I did! We got to make erupting volcanoes! Professor Makeamess was back, and we worked in teams to decorate our plastic volcano with little colored foam pieces. We also got to choose what colors of food coloring we wanted. The food coloring and vinegar went into a plastic bottle that was attached inside the volcano. One by one, Prof. M. would bring one team's volcano to her table and add baking soda to it. It's funny how entertaining this activity seemed to be for everyone present (all of us adults.) Hurray for messes and explosions!











Another day, another time change, and another towel animal....



Day 6 - Thursday, September 24th

I made sure to wake up in time to go to "Story Time With Belle" in the Oceaneer Club.



Prior to story time, they had a dress-up time, so when I arrived, I saw dozens of kids (mostly preschool aged) already dressed up like Rapunzel, Elsa, Tink, Buzz, and... at least 3 or 4 Belles in yellow ballgowns. Too cute!


We sat on the floor, and an Oceaneer Club staff person tried to get all the tykes excited about Belle coming out. They played a clip from the movie (Bonjour!, etc.) and then... out came Belle! She sat and "read" a 5-minute version of BATB that glossed over everything remotely scary, and left out Gaston entirely. There was an interactive part where everyone had to get up and walk around the room. Then it was over and Belle went away. I heard one little girl ask, "Why wasn't she wearing her yellow dress?" and heard someone tell her that the ballgown is so big, it's hard for Belle to get through doors, so she prefers her blue dress. Ha.



A few pictures from around the Oceaneer (Kids') Club...















After leaving the club, passing by the atrium, I noticed that they were getting ready for some Frozen festivities. That evening we'd be having the "Freezing The Night Away" event.


There were icicle decorations hung about...



There was even a maypole...



Now, looking back at the Navigator, I'm having a couple of regrets when it comes to what I chose to do on this morning. It turns out I missed two events that just might have been awesome. One was Oaken's Maypole... and the other was "Anyone Can Cook: Lava Cake." HOW DID I MISS THE LAVA CAKE? (Okay, I did get to eat some in one of the dining rooms toward the end of the cruise. Still... fail.)

Instead, I went to the open house in Vibe (the teen hangout), where I played Mario Kart with some counselors and teenagers. :D

Pictures from Vibe:






Well, I do love Mario Kart.

At noon, I went to Lumiere's for my 2nd Cruisin' Solo Lunch. This time, we had a full table and we even had to squeeze in an extra chair so we could include everyone. I have to say, as a solo cruiser, it's nice going to the lunches, but they're 3-course meals and take an hour or so, and I'm perfectly happy with Cabana's buffet and everything. However, the social aspect is nice, and so are gummy bear sundaes.


Walking by the atrium after lunch, I saw that the maypole was finished....



At 2:15, I went to O'Gill's pub for "Creative Crafts." We were given a paper with Mickey on it. We cut him out, folded, glued, and made him stand up....



Not to be picky (okay, yes) but it's not exactly "creative" if we're all given the same thing to cut and fold. I suppose I could've taken some liberties and made a mutant Mickey, but... nahhh, I just followed the directions.

The ship's position at 5:00 that afternoon...



That evening I got my photo taken with Belle!



Then I went up on deck 10 and watched the sun go down...











Tell  me that cloud doesn't look like an elephant.

It was sooo windy up on deck, especially at the very front of the ship. I could lean back against the wind and it would hold me. I haven't been able to do that since I was a little kid. My hair got blown into wildness.

At 7:30 there was to be something called "4th Pigs Pasta Palace" in Edge (the tween club) for adults. It sounded intriguing, so I went.



A lady dressed as a chef related the story of the 3 Little Pigs to her audience, and told us there was a twist... that there was actually a 4th pig who built HIS house out of his favorite thing, pasta! We were given supplies to create a "house" that would withstand multiple forces trying to work against it. The supplies? Mickey pasta... spaghetti... lasagna noodles... and Model Magic pseudo-clay.


Then the Chef ran "tests" on all our pasta houses. She sprayed water at them. She dropped them from a few feet up. She blew air on them. Some houses cracked under pressure, but even those that withstood those challenges were no match for the 4TH PIG. This is where the chef took a rubber pig and had him hit the houses, hard!


That's the pig she's holding, there.

All in all, it was pretty funny. Though this wasn't billed as a Sloppy Science event, it had that same vibe.

Dinnertime! Tonight was my 2nd visit to Animator's Palate, and the night we got to draw! I had read about that and was looking forward to this night.

First we drew our characters...



Okay, so my hair doesn't look like that (I hope) but it's not like I could erase once the curls started to get out of control. Oh well!

Then they whisked the papers away, and after a nice meal...


(Okay, this was merely the dessert, but isn't it grand?)

We got to watch our cartoons come to life!



I LOVED THIS! Once again, Animator's Palate proved to be one of the most magical places on the entire ship.

After dinner, it was time for the main event of the evening...



We were outside on the top decks, and I was pretty darn cold, so I guess the name was appropriate.

So this show had a storyline and some singing, but mostly it was short and underwhelming. Maybe if I were really into Frozen or maybe if I'd done the other related events throughout the day (the movie playing in the Walt Disney theater, Oaken's maypole, etc.) this would have been a nice way to conclude that sort of day. Otherwise... eh.

But the night wasn't over. Captain America: The First Avenger was playing in the Buena Vista Theater, and I went and watched it, even though I've seen it twice. He's so dreamy.



A very late bedtime, but no big deal -- we got to turn the clocks back yet again!


Next: Days 7 & 8

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