Disney Magic 2.0 Day 5: Unexpected Day at Sea

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Navigator

I woke up around 6 a.m. to heavy rocking of the boat. I was so glad I had taken Bonine the night before! I managed to fall back asleep, despite the heavy rocking. Everyone woke up at 7:30 a.m. While I was taking a shower, the captain announced that due to high winds we were unable to dock at Castaway Cay (Disney's private island). Instead, we would do a day at sea today and try to dock at Castaway Cay tomorrow. Pirate night would remain.  He also announced that if we had Palo brunch reservations for tomorrow, they would be today instead. We dressed the kids in their pirate shirts and took them to breakfast before dropping them at the kids' clubs.

ARRRRRR!

Then we went back to our room to get ready for our group brunch at Palo. Palo is the adults-only restaurant with a $25 up-charge. We had eaten dinner at Palo twice before, but never brunch. Someone in my DIS group arranged for 13 of us to eat in the private dining room.

It was so much food! In addition to the brunch stations, you could order entrees.

My first plate...

Strawberry soup:

Goat cheese pizza:

And I had a few bits of chocolate for dessert:

My favorite thing about Palo brunch was getting to eat and chat with other adults--we don't get the chance to do that very often. I think I prefer Palo for dinner, though...brunch was just too much food!

After brunch, I picked Alyssa up from the lab and took her to lunch at the Cabanas buffet. Mac 'n cheese and chocolate chip cookies.

After lunch, Alyssa and I went to a character dance party in the atrium. We started out on the main floor, but Alyssa was overwhelmed with the crowds. So we watched the rest from the floor above. Each of the characters spent time dancing around different parts of the atrium, and then did a finale all together.

Meanwhile, Brian took the boys to lunch and then dropped Nathan back at the club again. We wanted to see if our younger two would nap in the room again. Joshua wasn't having it, so he and Brian went to the Arrcade for a while. Then Brian and the boys saw the movie Thor in the movie theatre.

I tried to encourage Alyssa to nap. I started to read on the verandah, but it was windy. I decided that Alyssa wasn't going to nap, so we went to get a photo with Pirate Mickey.

FYI--The ship pools are usually very crowded on sea days. I wouldn't attempt to swim on a sea day unless it was early in the morning or later in the day. Plus, on this day, it was windy and in the 60s, so none of us felt like swimming.

Rough seas!

Pretty soon it was time to put the kids back in the club so that Brian and I could go to Palo dinner! Yes, we went to Palo twice in one day. We didn't plan it that way, but because the ship changed its docking schedule, our brunch got moved to the same day as our dinner. I didn't take any pictures at Palo dinner, but it was as good as ever.

Joshua got some pirate face paint while in the club during our Palo dinner. We took the younger kids for a picture with Pirate Minnie and Hook and Smee.

We then took the younger kids for ice cream on deck and headed back to our stateroom. They were asleep by 9:00 p.m. They needed the sleep so bad! We knew this meant they would both miss the pirate party up on deck, which didn't start until 9:45 p.m. However, we also knew this would not be our last Disney cruise, so they could participate in the pirate party another time.

My oldest son stayed in the kids' clubs almost all day today. He only came out to watch Thor in the theatre and to watch the pirate party at night. But it was his choice, and he enjoyed himself.

Brian got to spend the evening with Nathan alone. They grabbed a hotdog on deck, saw the pirate party and fireworks, and dabbled in the pirate buffet after the fireworks.

Nathan said he enjoyed spending the time with dad by himself, since he doesn't get to do that very often.

Overall, it was a very relaxing, low-key sea day.

Up next: Castaway Cay

Disney Magic 2.0 Day 4: Nassau, The Bahamas

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Today the ship ported in Nassau, The Bahamas. We decided months ago that instead of getting off the ship like last time, we would stay on the ship and take advantage of a lower on-board population.

Here is the navigator for the day.

It was a little foggy when we pulled into port.

I woke up at 5 a.m. but managed to drift back to sleep until 6:30 a.m. I showered and we all went to breakfast at 7:30 a.m. This was the Princess Gathering morning!

The Princess Gathering is a meet-n-greet of a group of princesses in the atrium. There is only one line, and you go from princess to princess. The Princess Gathering happens twice on a 4-night cruise, once on the Nassau day and again on the day at sea. I heard that it's a little less crowded on Nassau day because some families have port activities to get to, so we decided to plan to attend on Nassau day. However, I've also read that you can spend over 2 hours in line to see the princesses. So based on advice we read, we decided to have Brian go wait in line as our placeholder while I finished breakfast with the kids and got Alyssa in her princess dress and the boy ready to swim. Brian got in line about 8:05 a.m. (the gathering started at 9:00 a.m.) and he was second in line! I arrived with Alyssa about 8:55 a.m. and it was a smooth transition. The boys went with Brian to the pools while Alyssa and I waited just a few minutes for the princesses to arrive. I highly recommend this strategy, as Alyssa wouldn't have done very well waiting in line for 1-2 hours. And the line gets very, very long.

We did not attend the Princess Gathering on our two previous cruises, so this was a first for Alyssa. She was so excited to see the princesses that she couldn't stop staring at them. We didn't get any pictures of her looking at the camera. That's ok.

Cinderella, Belle, Tiana and Rapunzel were at this gathering. The number and identity of the princesses varies by ship.

We were done with the princesses by about 9:10, so we went back to our room to change for the pool. It was a great morning for the pools--sunny and 74 degrees. My younger two kids preferred to play at the Aqua Lab pool, which is new. It has a shallow pool in the center and some interactive spray spouts on the side. A little later, the new Twist 'n Spout water slide opened. Joshua went down it many times in a row. I even tried it once---it's a little slow for me, but it's made for kids and they all seemed to be having fun.

Nathan preferred to hang out at the family pool and hot tub while watching a movie on funnel vision.

Later in the morning, we got dressed and went into the Oceaneer Club as a family during open house. The boys watched the Iron Man activity while Alyssa tried on some costumes.

Then we went back to the pool deck and fed the kids lunch. Hot dogs and ice cream.

After lunch, we dropped them all at the kids' clubs so that Brian and I could enjoy a quiet lunch by ourselves. We ate at the sit-down restaurant, Lumiere's.

I was ecstatic to discover the restaurant was serving my absolute favorite dish, mango soup! I had this on the Dream in 2012 and I just can't describe how yummy it is.

I also ate a fabulous key lime pie.

Around 1:00, we picked up our younger two kids from the club to see if they could take a nap in our stateroom. They were a little short on sleep. Brian went to workout in the gym while I stayed back with the kids. Alyssa fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours.

Brian came back from the gym, picked up Nathan from the lab, and they rode on the Aqua Dunk a few times. They said it was thrilling, a little scary. See this video for a look at this steep-drop water slide.

We were still docked at Nassau. I ordered a batch of chocolate chip cookies from room service.

After Alyssa woke up, I decided to take her to another meet-n-greet with Minnie Mouse, who would be in her formal attire.

At the same time, the boys went to a Captain America meet-n-greet.

Then we dropped the kids back at the clubs, where they would eat dinner, so that Brian and I could enjoy dinner by ourselves at the new restaurant, Cariocas. This restaurant replaced the old Parrot Cay restaurant, and it has a South American theme and menu.

We both had empanadas for an appetizer. So yummy!

Brian had ceviche:

And I had black bean soup:

For my main course, I chose the lobster, shrimp and mahi mahi skewers on a bed of quinoa. The salsa mixed with the quinoa was my favorite part of the dish!

We were going to skip dessert, but Senol talked us into trying a coconut tres leches cake. We ate it before I could take a picture. I'm not a big coconut fan, but the coconut flavoring was subtle and the dessert was delicious.

After dinner, Brian and I decided to attend a comedy act, Mike Holly. It started at 7:30 and I figured I'd pick up Alyssa after it was over. We were maybe 5 minutes into the show when I got a page from the kids' club that Alyssa had a potty accident. I left Brian at the show so at least he could enjoy it while I picked up Alyssa.

So it turns out that Alyssa decided to follow her brothers to the lab side, and she didn't know where the bathroom was over there. She's too shy to ask. So the next time I took her to the clubs, I took her to the lab side and asked a youth counselor to show her the bathroom on that side. She never had another accident. The youth counselors were very helpful--they bagged up her wet clothes and gave her some gray shorts to wear until I picked her up.

After I changed Alyssa, we went to see Daisy Duck.

And came back to find this towel dog on our bed:

Brian picked up the boys from the clubs, and managed to get one asleep by 10:00. Nathan and Alyssa were still up giggling. I left for an hour to deliver our fish extender gifts.

Up next: Sea day