Disney Fantasy Trip Report Part 8: Day at Sea

Trip Report Links:
Part 1--Getting There
Part 2--Embarking the Disney Fantasy
Part 3--First Sea Day
Part 4--Second Sea Day
Part 5--St. Maarten

Part 6--St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Part 7--Royal Court Royal Tea

Part 8-- Day at Sea

Thursday, October 9, 2014

We all had a restless night of sleep, with about half of us coughing throughout the night and one of my kids getting up a lot. We got out of bed around 7:45 a.m. Brian went to Cabanas and brought back breakfast for the kids to eat in the room. Brian and I decided to drop the kids at the clubs and have a leisurely sit-down breakfast at Royal Court by ourselves. I had been wanting to try a sit-down breakfast all week.

Kids' breakfast in the cabin

We dropped the kids off a little after 9:00 and made it to Royal Court around 9:10 a.m. We were seated quickly, and the server asked us almost immediately what we wanted to order and reminded us that the restaurant was closing at 9:30. So we felt like we were kind of rushed, unfortunately...

So after our quick breakfast, we picked the kids back up from the clubs to hit the sports deck. We played a round of miniature golf and some basketball. We hadn't done those activities on previous cruises and wanted to make sure we had a chance this time.

The golf was fun...it was windy and there was a brief rain shower while we were up on deck.

The basketball court was a nice size. We are not the best at shooting baskets, but it was still fun.

Today was also our last chance to play the Mid-ship Detective Agency game. There are 2 mysteries to solve (you can choose one at a time), and the answers are in the enchanted art scattered throughout the ship. Nathan wanted to solve the Muppets mystery by himself, so we agreed to let him go on his own and decided on a meeting time and place.

Joshua picked the missing puppies mystery, and he had some help from Brian.

Alyssa and I wandered off for a bit, I can't remember what we were doing, but we ran into Minnie Mouse wandering around on Deck 5.

Joshua also ran into her while he was playing the Mid-ship Detective Agency.

And Alyssa and I ran into Stitch on Deck 4. So thrilled that we had some unplanned character encounters!

Alyssa and I joined back up with Joshua and Brian to finish the game. We passed through part of the adult nightclub area, and the kids tried out this vehicle:

We met back up with Nathan for lunch on the pool deck. After lunch, the kids and I went back to the room to rest. The kids picked a movie from the on-demand list, and we just chilled. Alyssa sat in the porthole. I think I fell asleep for a few minutes. Brian went to get some coffee and read in the adults-only area.

At 2:30 p.m., Brian took the boys to the kids' club so that he could go on a galley tour. I had read that galley tours were available on some Disney ships, but they are never advertised. Apparently they are offered to concierge guests, but I asked about it on embarkation day and free tickets were available (for adults only). I couldn't make it since it conflicted with the Royal Court Royal Tea, so Brian went by himself.

I wanted him to write a guest post on the galley tour, but he wasn't interested. So I'll post some of his photos of the Animator's Palette galley.

The orders are tallied on a white board:

They have bug light zappers in the galleys.

Hopefully I can make a galley tour on our next cruise! I can only imagine how challenging it is to feed over 4000 people every day.

Meanwhile, while Brian was at the galley tour and the boys were at the clubs...Alyssa and I were off to the Royal Court Royal Tea! See my previous post for photos and details of this special event.

It was about 5:00 when we returned from the tea. I took Alyssa back to the cabin to change before dropping her off at the club. Joshua also wanted to eat dinner at the club, but Nathan decided to join Brian and I for dinner at the Royal Court restaurant.

This should have been our 2nd time eating at this restaurant this week, but we missed the first night due to our Palo dinner.

This is the elegant restaurant with princess theming.

After dinner, I saw that Pluto was going to be out at 7:30 p.m. Alyssa had been asking about meeting Pluto, but I only saw him on the schedule one other time. So I picked her up from the club to see Pluto. Unfortunately, the theater show for people with late dinner just let out and Pluto was appearing outside of the theater...so there was a very long line to see him. This was the longest line we waited in to see a character on board--almost 40 minutes. I kept asking Alyssa if she wanted to skip it...but she insisted on meeting Pluto.

While we were seeing Pluto, Brian and the boys went to a magic/illusion show. We met back in the room around 8:15 p.m. for another round of night-time swimming. We knew that this would be our last chance to enjoy the pools and water slides because tomorrow we were docking at Castaway Cay, and we would spend our last night packing.

Just like the other night, the pools were very empty. It was raining on and off, but the kids didn't mind.

The kids had some treats from the fast-food restaurants on deck.

I was coughing miserably, but trying to make the best of it. Brian offered to deliver the remaining Fish Extender gifts for me so that I could try to get to bed.

As usual, chocolates and a towel animal awaited us in our cabin.

Up next: Castaway Cay (Disney's private island in the Bahamas)