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We had seen the Golden Mickeys show before, but it’s been a few years so we decided to see it again. It’s not the best show that the ships have, but it was still cute and entertaining. A lot of song and dance….right up my alley! Speaking of which, one of the things I love about the ships is that wherever you are walking they are always playing Disney music! Step out of your room at 2am into the hallway and you’ll hear A Whole New World. Run up and down 10 flights of stairs to Under the Sea. Take your dirty clothes to the laundry room humming A Pirate’s Life for Me. I wish my house was wired like this! Yes, it’s a dream world for a crazy person like me.

Here’s a picture of the lobby chandelier. Can you spot the hidden Mickeys?

There’s always something going on in the lobby atrium, especially between dinner and shows. There is usually character sightings, formal photos, etc. It’s also a fun time to just people watch from the upper balconies. We had what was called late seating which means we go to the show first at 6:15, then have dinner at 8:15. Less kids at dinner this way. I mean, kids are great and all, but at dinner time, not so much. What’s also great about the late seating is that if you do have little kids, the counselors will come to the dining rooms at 9pm to pick them up and take them to the various kids clubs so the adults can finish their meals in peace. Or they don’t have to come to dinner at all and eat at the clubs!

Anyway, our first dinner of the cruise is at the Royal Palace. It’s princess themed, but it’s not pink and frilly. It’s elegant with hidden touches of the various princesses like Cinderella’s shoe intertwined in the gorgeous chandelier. Or the rose from Beauty and the Beast on a wall sconce. Gorgeous! Here’s a picture of us in the Royal Palace with our servers Grace and Setia.

Here are some items that we ordered…

Wild mushroom soufflé:

Pan seared tofu and eggplant: this was really delicious!

Lamb chops with mint jelly. Todd lives on lamb chops on the cruise ships. They are so good though!

Grand Marinier soufflé:

Strawberry short cake sundae.

Our table consisted of 4 couples roughly the same age. Two of them had just done the Disney Marathon at WDW so that was a big topic of conversation. One couple had worked for Disney before, and another couple currently works for Disney. Why do they always seat us with people who work for Disney?! It happened on our last 2 cruises too! It was neat learning about the latest plans and happenings with the parks. I’m sure they probably didn’t want to talk about work, but they were at a table full of Disney freaks so….sorry!

After dinner we were beat. It had been a long day, but we were peer pressured into going to the adult version of a magic act with another couple. So we headed over to Evolutions, a club/lounge. The magicians were surprisingly good….left me scratchin’ my head! After the show they went right into an 80’s dance party and by this time I caught my second wind and begged Todd to stay and dance, but no go. Next time. We headed back to 8682 and crashed around midnight.

Tomorrow: Nassau, Bahamas!

Let me give you a little bit of a background about our stateroom. I usually am very picky about what room we have, whether it’s port side or starboard, forward or aft, which deck, etc. etc. etc. however, for this particular cruise, there was a special offer at a nicely discounted rate where you booked either an inside, ocean view, or verandah category, and Disney puts you in whatever room they choose for you, but within the category you paid for. So I booked the verandah category and hoped for the best. I normally like to be on the starboard side mainly because the ship usually backs in to Castaway Cay and the view from that side is spectacular! I had my fingers crossed! Imagine my pleasant surprise and shock at our room. It was HUGE, especially by cruise ship standards. I mean HUGE! In the picture of me sitting on the couch, there is actually a pull down bunk bed right above where I’m sitting that is for kids. Way cool!

And the verandah was ridiculous!!! I could have done cartwheels out there!

Any how, we were starboard aft on deck 8. I loved it! We quickly unpacked and hung up our “fish extender”. A fish extender is kind of like a secret Santa that we do on every cruise. It’s basically a stocking, we bring small gifts from home and fill up other cruisers’ fish extenders and they do the same. So every time we come back to our rooms there’s always a little surprise waiting for us. It makes the trip that much more fun. We got a ton of gifts from chocolates, to calendars, to picture frames, homemade magnets, Disney tattoos, all sorts of things! And why are they called fish extenders? Well, these things hang from a fish….usually. The new ships have fish on the port side, and seahorses on the starboard side. So ours is technically a seahorse extender! The fish are actually little hooks with a clip where cast members leave notes and mail for us (and the bill at the end of the cruise, doh!). Oh 8682, how I miss you!

The Disney Vacation Club welcome reception was at 2pm so we head down to the D Lounge. They always give out gifts of some sort to members so we always go. There was also a drawing for $200 in onboard credit, but we didn’t win. We sat down with a glass of sparkling cider, (skipped the champaign for now) and listened to our guide talk about Aulani, Disney’s latest vacation club in Hawaii. We weren’t adding more points this time so we just chilled, got our gifts, and left. We got DVC hats and a nice folio.

By this time it was almost time to do the muster drill. Every passenger must attend these, but we no longer have to wear our life vests to them. However, we need to bring our room keys so they can scan for our attendance. I put my hand in my shorts pocket and they were empty! What?! I’d only been on the ship for a couple of hours and I had already lost my room keys?! I was so embarrassed. I had to go to guest services and have another one made. We were almost late to the drill. The drill was uneventful and probably took about 20 minutes. Afterwards we back tracked to the D Lounge and low and behold, my card was wedged in between the couch cushion I was sitting on! I felt like a fool! Those cards are your everything on the ship…room key, ID to embark and disembark, and most importantly they are for ship charges! After that episode I put my card on a lanyard, which I normally do but just hadn’t gotten to it yet on this cruise.

After that fiasco we headed up to the top deck for the sail away party at 5. It’s great to watch the show, the music, characters, and the dancing as the ship starts sailing away from the port and the horn blasts “When you wish upon a star” and “A dream is a wish your heart makes”. Everyone is happy and excited. The energy is amazing.

We love sailing out of this port because there is always a ton of people on shore waving at the huge ships going by. I always feel a little guilty that they are stuck on land and I’m going out to sea, but hey, I’ve worked hard and saved up for this for a long time! I wave back, and I’m officially in vacation mode.

Next up: The Golden Mickeys awards show and….dinner!

We finally step foot on the ship and head towards Cabanas for the welcome buffet. It was only 11:30 and our room wouldn’t be ready for another two hours. We meandered through the buffet and loaded up on all sorts of goodies including prosciutto wrapped salmon with puréed peas and crab legs! They weren’t dungeness, but they were still decent. They were opilio I think. Todd also found a secret stash of snicker doodles. We grabbed a table in the glorious sunshine and feasted. And feasted. And feasted.

We then wandered around the ship. Next stop, the Eye Scream station. Soft serve!

We got ourselves a cone and watched a few minutes of Brother Bear on the huge funnel vision.

Now I’m starting to feel all vacation-y. The ship is starting to fill up at this point and we make our way to see our stateroom! But first, take notice of the hydro tube in the photo below. It’s called the AquaDuck and it’s an awesome ride where parts of the tube stick out over the open ocean! Weeeeeeeeeee!