Thursday 19th January
Today was our day at sea, which ironically means there will not be much for you to see and read about. We had a slower start to the day than yesterday with nowhere to be anytime soon and we did not surface until after 9am!
We went for breakfast up at Marceline. We had by now discovered that you could have a sit-down breakfast in some restaurants but our lie-in meant we had missed those by now.
By now we had also discovered tables out on the deck so we found one of those to eat at after sourcing some food from one of the food stations. A bit of queuing today but nothing too bad.
I forget how, but we learned that the boat had made an unscheduled stop during the night somewhere around Miami to let off a cast member with health issues that needed a hospital.
Breakfast was very tasty, and I shall not disclose how many plates were involved.
Trying to figure out what that coastline was defeated me. My sense of direction and geography are woeful.
We left this lovely location to go to another up on deck 14 to find some sunbeds. It didn’t take us long to work out that the first ones we chose were not right as the sun was shining on the opposite side of the ship so off we toddled to some beds around there.
Everything was idyllic for a good while until a multi-generational Brummie family arrived on deck and began shouting conversations from one end of the deck to the other. It’s not that I am anti-social, I just don’t like people much, especially those who think anyone else needs to hear their conversations.
Throughout the day we ordered drinks, including a bucket of water bottles as the temperature was a scorcher today. There were a few coolings off in the shower/pool when the sweat hit places long unseen.
Mid-afternoon I went down to the Inside Out themed ice cream parlour. I got three tubs, each with three scoops in for just $19. I asked the CM to repeat that at the till as I wasn’t sure if he’d said $90. I would have been shocked at the latter but not as much as I was at getting all that, on a Disney cruise for $19. The bargain of the cruise and the contents were awesome too. Clearly, I had now been conditioned to Disney cruise prices from all the rounds of drinks we had bought.
Emily had retreated to the shade, beaten by the temperatures today.
Me – Rocky Road
Emily – Chocolate
Louise – Cookies & Cream
We made it until 4.30pm before letting the sun win, as it was showing no signs of going anywhere. We made our way back to the cabin for showers and some packing.
The characters were out and about.
The way checkout works, and that was what we’d be doing in the morning, you have to leave your cases outside your cabin the night before. Not ideal, but understandable. It would be chaos if every guest were dragging their luggage around with them.
At least we got all that packing out of the way now and we left the cabin at 5.45 headed for the Aladdin show in the theatre. We ordered some drinks and took a seat right at the back of the circle upstairs.
The show itself was great and we really enjoyed it, or would have….
but we left the theatre with mild PTSD after the utter chaos and lack of manners displayed by almost every guest around us. Unsupervised kids next to Louise were throwing food and drinks on the floor and constantly standing up, shouting and walking around. A family a few rows in front of us always had at least one of their number standing up, leaving or coming back to their seats. It sounds very first-world problems and it’s difficult to write down just how rubbish the experience was, but they need more CMs in the theatre to watch out for this stuff. Clearly, some people just don’t know how to behave in a theatre.
With the show over, we retreated to The Bayou for a calming beverage. We took the only table available right in front of the currently empty stage but this was a huge stroke of luck. Not long after this, the band turned up.
They were called The Wishes and their first set was full of interesting versions of Disney tunes. As many of you know, I am a rock God who frequently performs on stage, so I am well qualified to pass comment on a bunch of musicians who have forgotten more than I will ever know.
We really enjoyed their first set and were sad to see it end and dinner time approach. We left at 8.15 and went to the Roy Disney restaurant for our dinner.
This place is lovely.
We had…
Me – Tomato Soup, Filet Mignon and Cheesecake
Emily – Pasta, Tacos and a Sundae
Louise – Pasta, Filet Mignon and Bavarian Cream thing (not the official title)
Our table sharers for the cruise had to leave early in the morning to catch their flight home so would not be joining us for breakfast so this was to be our last meal together. We said our goodbyes to Stephanie, Bill and William…
and this was our excellent server Edi….
With dinner over, we returned to The Bayou and really enjoyed two more sets from the band. Honestly this for us was a real highlight of the cruise and we just wish we’d discovered them earlier.
We were dirty stop outs until after midnight.
We were at the stage of looking forward to seeing what the towel creature was on the return to our cabin each evening and the final effort did not disappoint.
Till the next time…….
Mkingdon's Blog 