Today we woke up to a cloudy day at sea, but the bright side was we were heading to Palo's for brunch. I have to say that everyone talks about how much you eat while on a cruise and we didn't really stuff ourselves at all ... except at Palo's!
We had a 10:00 reservation for our brunch and were seated promptly. Our waiter, Michael, was such a joy during this meal. He is from the Philippines and we enjoyed his stories of his family and career with Disney Cruise Lines. After we were seated, Michael brought our complimentary mimosas and took us back to explain the buffet ...
Dessert Buffet
Pizza's
Pastry & Fruit Buffet
Bread & Rolls
Italian & Antipasto Buffet
Seafood Buffet
We spent time sampling from the buffet and enjoying ourselves. Michael then said he was going to bring us each a pizza .. we opted for only one. It was delicious. After a while Michael came and gave us a menu to order our entree. We were laughing and saying we order more food! I ordered the Rum Raisin Pancakes and Curt ordered the Chicken Parmesan ... both were fantastic.
I cannot believe it, but Curt and I actually went to the dessert buffet after our main meals. Atleast the desserts are small so you can try a few. We spent a little over two hours dining at Palo and will ALWAYS have brunch there on any other Disney cruise we take.
We changed and toured the ship some more .. then I found a comfy place to sit and read. Curt enjoyed watching some of the activities they had going on inside. He also did a tour of the ship, which I will join him on next time.
This is where you will find me more often on our next cruise ... loved deck 4!!
Our dining that night was in Animator's Palate. This was my favorite themed dining room hands down. Here are some shots of Animator's Palate.
I just loved looking at all the illustrations and memorabilia displayed throughout the dining room. There is so much to take in ... look at the chairs!! Our first night dining there was the "Crush" show where you get to enjoy an interaction with Crush swimming from screen to screen talking with people. It's really cute and funny when the kids realize Crush is really talking with them.
Our show that night was ...
"Wishes" was my favorite show from the cruise. I loved how it went from one beloved Disney story to the next! Very enjoyable ... even shed a tear. :)
Thanks for dropping by and tomorrow will be our adventures in St. Maarten.
Here is a picture of our stateroom door. I had entered the door decorating contest and the theme was "Let's Celebrate!". I know it is hard to see, but I put my Cricut to work and made Mickey & Minnie and each of them is holding two "Mickey balloons". I used some of the incredible digital artwork from Milliepie for my Mickey balloons. Since the theme was celebrating I had each one represent something we celebrate: 1st Disney Cruise, Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, and Just Celebrating Everything! AllEars had a forum we could introduce ourselves and ask questions on so I went through all the posts and pulled those who said they were celebrating their anniversary, birthday or if it was their first Disney cruise ... like Curt and I. I listed them in their corresponding Mickey balloon. The other magnets on there were Curt's Buzz Lightyear Mickeyhead, my Tinkerbell Mickeyhead, AllEars Fantasy Cruise & MouseFan Travel (love them) and some others. Here are some close-ups of my celebration Mickeyheads ...
The hanging pockets on the left is my Fish Extender for the gift exchange. Now, I am NOT good at sewing and I waited until the very last moment to finish this project. While I love how it turned out, it will definitely be the last fish extender I will sew - that is why there are no dates on this one! As I mentioned yesterday, I will have a separate post on the Fish Extender after my trip report. :)
Today is a sea day and our opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the ship. One perfect way of doing this is delivering the gifts I made. Curt and I got pretty good at getting to those Forward and Aft elevators and stairs. We did have breakfast on this day too, but I have a scrapbooking confession to make:
Scrapbooking Confession: I was so mesmerized by this ship and every detail that I spent my time exploring and didn't take pictures!!!! Yes, you heard me right! Our sons would be shocked to learn this, but since they don't read my blog (shocking, I know) and I definitely won't mention it to them, they won't know. You see .. their complaint is that I ALWAYS have a camera out on vacations snapping away and the rule is they must not complain and indulge me this one (YES, ONLY ONE) quirk.
Whew, now that I got that awful burden off my shoulders, let's continue! The other way we got used to the layout of the Fantasy was by playing the Midship Detective Agency ... we chose the Muppet adventure "The Case of the Stolen Show".
You receive a detective badge and a Crime Scene Map:
As you can see, this map takes you to several decks and you move forward, midship and aft. They have enchanted artwork and when you hold your badge up to the art then your clue appears. The back of the map has the "suspects" and a place to take notes:
We had a fun day completing and solving this crime. Curt was the lead detective on the case and yours truly as the Watson to his Holmes, i.e. I took the notes ... oh, and I solved the case ... eh eh eh! Now I said it took us the day because as you went to a new deck, well, it's like in the Disney move "Up" ... can you say "SQUIRREL!!". The intent was to solve the crime then enjoy looking around the ship, but the reality was we got side tracked quite a bit.
I forgot to mention that on the Disney Cruise Lines your evening meal is not in the same dining room each night. Disney has a rotational dining experience with three wonderfully themed dining rooms. Our first night was in Enchanted Garden and tonight was at Royal Court and it was formal night.
This was right after we got to the table. We loved that our table was by a huge porthole ... gorgeous view. James & Linda had Palo reservations so they were not joining us tonight. We really enjoyed our time with Ryan and Gail in this beautiful restaurant. I actually did spend one of the days going in to each dining room to take pictures ... here is Royal Court ...
The show tonight was Aladdin.
This was a very funny and enjoyable show. Loved the songs and the genie and magic carpet were great! We came back to our room to see ...
I had a hard time figuring out exactly what this towel animal was, but thought maybe a bunny???? Well, thanks for dropping by and tomorrow we have our Palo brunch ... LOVED, LOVED, LOVED THAT! :)
This is a picture they take before you board the ship. I had the frame signed by all the characters on the ship. You are allowed two items per stateroom to be signed so I had this frame mat and a hat signed.
I have to admit that after they announce you as you enter the ship - Yes, they actually announce your names ... kinda made us giggle! Anyway, you are just overwhelmed with how grand this ship is. We were standing there just staring at everything.
I have to add here that a fantastic source to get you ready for a Disney cruise is the DIS Discussion Forums. Just scroll down to the Disney Cruise Line Forum .. click there and start reading. I had joined the meet for our cruise (Under Cruise Meets) and also joined the Fish Extender Exchange group through the Dis Boards. I will post more on that later ... it needs its own separate post.
Well, I had read that it was good to just go straight to Cabana's to eat lunch. Curt and I found our way there and had a relaxing lunch. I am posting what I had for lunch EVERY day on the cruise.
These shrimp were so incredibly good. They had already removed the vein so peeling the shrimp was quick and easy ... oh they were heavenly! I tried to get Curt to try a shrimp, but he refused. :)
We then went to our meet for AllEars and signed in ... then off to Palo's to get a brunch for one of the sea days. We were fortunate enough to get a brunch and were just so excited to get this ship moving!!!
Our stateroom was ready about 1:30PM and we went to check it out. The stateroom was mid-ship and perfect. Here are some pictures of our view before we left and the stateroom itself. These were taken with my phone camera so that combined with me be overly excited, well, they effected the quality of these shots.
Disney designed their bathrooms so well. It is a split bath. In one part is the shower (a good sized shower too) and a sink. The other room had a sink and the toilet. This made it so easy when it came time to get ready each day!
After getting settled in we went to the top deck for the Sail Away Party! Oh what a blast this was!!!
I took a video of the Sail Away party and I hope no one gets seasick watching it. I tried to keep it steady. It runs a little over two minutes.
This was a lot of dancing and jumping around ... not by me, but the dancers and characters. Well, the children were dancing and a few adults! When the ship started moving Curt and I decided to go to the railing and start waving. There is a port webcam that watches all ships leaving Port Canaveral. My sissy, Wren, was watching the webcam and, while I was on the phone with her, she was screaming that she saw us!!! I recently ordered some pictures, but haven't received them yet.
Curt and I had to hurry down to our room and get ready for our first dinner. We had the main seating dining and that was at 5:45PM and our show time was at 8:30PM. This was perfect for us and we chose this on our next cruise too. This is when you find out who your table mates will be. Boy were we blessed to have great table mates!!
This was taken on our last night. Sitting next to Curt is Ryan and Gail. They celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary on the cruise and are such a sweet couple. Sitting next to me is James and Linda. Now I could have sat and listened to them for hours. For our friends who think Curt and I are Disney fanatics ... well, these two are us times a thousand! Believe me, if there is a Disney trivia game and James & Linda walk in ... you know the best you can do is second place. Having these couples join us in the evenings was always such a pleasure and just made the cruise all the more enjoyable. We're all Facebook buds now. However, that means I need to actually sign on to my Facebook some times. :)
To sign off for today I'll leave you with what we saw every evening when we got to our stateroom ... the towel art and our Navigator with all the activities on the ship the following day.
Our second day and possibly third coming tomorrow ... thanks for dropping by ...
Wow .. again! Been away too long. Just going to jump in to what a fantastic anniversary trip Curt and I had. Here is our trip report!
It's been almost a month since we've been back and both of us cannot wait to go again. We went on our first Disney cruise on their Fantasy ship and to say we had a great time just doesn't describe it. I had scheduled this cruise while the Fantasy was still being built. We, very excitedly, watched them bring the Fantasy from Germany (where it was being built) to New York to be christened. The first actual passenger (not press related) cruise was on March 31st so by the time we sailed it was only her 8th trip .. kinda exciting!!
We were sailing with the AllEars group. Now if you have never been on their website then click here. Deb Wills heads the AllEars site and is an absolute joy. Every time we saw her during the cruise she always talked with us and made sure we were enjoying ourselves. We made our reservations through Mouse Fan Travel ... MEI ... and click here to see what trips they are now offering. It was great that our fabulous travel agent, Vicki D, was on this trip too so it was easy to book our next cruise ... which we did!!
Curt and I arrived at Disney World a few days before the cruise so I could get some pictures of the Flower and Garden show at Epcot. On the flight over we met a wonderful couple (our age) who were going to Disney World for the first time and asked for some tips. Well, as you know, I can talk for a few days on favorite things to do at WDW. They were only going to be at Disney World for three days! Just told them to realize they would NOT see everything they wanted to and to relax and enjoy what they were able to see. A few tips I did give were to try to ride Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios and make that your FIRST stop when you enter the park ... same with Soarin' in Epcot. We ran into them that evening at Downtown Disney and recognized the look of "there is just so much to see". Again, just enjoy yourselves and see what you want the days you are there.
We were staying at one of our favorite resorts .. Beach Club Villas. It is walking distance to Epcot and just such a beautiful resort.
We enjoyed a full day at Epcot and loved the Fower & Garden show. Here are some pictures:
I have to say that this year my favorite part of the park was where the fairies were. I cannot remember what they named it, but LOVED it!
Aren't they just gorgeous! It was a beautiful section to walk through.
That evening we went to Beaches & Cream at Beach Club. While sitting at the counter enjoying watching them create their sundaes, the lights were dimmed and the "disco ball" started. Now, this usually announces that someone ordered a Kitchen Sink, however, we did not see them making one. Curt and I were looking around trying to see what was happening and then they announced the celebration of Curt & Cheryl's 30th wedding anniversary and they brought these balloons to us ... truly magical moment. :)
We then got to watch them create their yummy-licious Kitchen Sink's. There was one table that ordered two of these beauties and I got a few shots of them ...
Ha! You can see Curt and I in the mirror!!! We had front row seats! Now, let me explain just some of the goodies in this creation ... eight scoops of ice cream, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, butterscotch, strawberry and pineapple topping, chunks of brownies, whole oreos, pound cake pieces, milky way bar chunks, a whole can of whip cream, a huge handful of maraschino cherries & sprinkles!
Curt and I woke up bright and early the next morning ... we were taking a town car to the port today! We sailed on May 19th thru the 26th. It was the 7-night Eastern Carribean itinerary where we visited St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Castaway Cay (Disney's private island). The check-in process was incredibly easy ... Disney really knows how to run things here. All we had to do was wait until our boarding number was called. Oh, and get our picture taken!
I'll post some more tomorrow ... the cruise begins ...
On a side note ... I apologize for the spacing in this blog post. Apparently while I have been away from posting for some time things have changed. I am trying to get used to the new blogger format and don't quite have the hang of it. :) Thanks for dropping by.
