Bring Your Swim Trunks and Your Flippie-Floppies. It’s a Fantasy Cruise Report!

Well, I’ve been home now from my cruise for about two weeks so I suppose it’s time to get started on my trip report!

The Details:

Who: Me (Ashley) and my husband (Wes)

When: May 11-18, 2013

Where: 7 Night Western Caribbean Cruise

Side Note: I got a new camera for Christmas that I was super excited to use on this trip. It’s a Canon Rebel T4i. On Day 6 of our trip, while eating a fabulous dinner at Palo, I turned on my camera and saw the worst message… “Cannot read memory card”. At this point in the trip, I had already taken over 900 pictures and my immediate reaction was “Oh my God…did I just lose all of my pictures?!” I brought another memory card with me on the trip so I knew that I could take more pictures but I was so sad thinking that I had lost all of the pictures from our trip so far.

I am happy to report that I was able to save almost all of my pictures once I got home. Luckily, only some of the first and second day pictures were affected and the rest of the pictures were still intact! Thanks again to the wonderful people who replied to my post about different programs that I could use to try to save my pictures! You may notice that some of my pictures from Day 1 and 2 are cropped a little weird and the reason is that the picture was corrupted so I cut off the bad portion to salvage the picture.

Now, enough of that drama…on with the trip report!

Saturday May 11th – “Come Sail Away! Come Sail Away!”

We were up early after a horrible night’s sleep. Our neighbors decided to blast their car radio at 3am so that was fun. I was up at 4:55 and my Dad came to pick us up around 5:20. My parents were watching the dog, so she came with us for a ride in the car to the airport. We got to the airport, said goodbye to the dog and my Dad, checked our bags, went through security and were sitting at our gate by 5:57am. Not too shabby. I love RDU!

Our flight took off at 6:45am and it was uneventful. Wes and I both took a much-needed nap for a good portion of the flight. We landed at MCO early and made our way to the DME counter. We got there at 8:26 but the cruise podiums didn’t open until 9am so we had some time to kill.

Instagram LOVE

After killing some time on social media, the check in podium opened up and we were the third people to check in. I had our camera bag and a small carryon bag and Wes had his backpack. We decided to drop off my carry on bag to be delivered to our room so I wouldn’t have to carry it until our room was ready. So we transferred a few items to Wes’ backpack and then dropped it off to be delivered to our room.

There she is!

So close!

The bus ride to Port Canaveral seemed very short. We arrived at the Port a few minutes after 10am and made our way inside the Port terminal. We walked inside and were the second couple in the terminal that morning! Woo hoo! Last time we cruised, we didn’t arrive to the terminal until around 1:30 so boarding had already started by the time we got there. I was excited to get to explore the terminal while it was so empty.

Empty terminal

After this, a lovely Cast Member offered to take our picture in the empty terminal. Unfortunately, this was one of the pictures that was lost. Oh well. We were now Castaway Club members so we got to check-in in the special line. We felt so special. Check in was a breeze and we then went to explore the terminal. Again, most of my pictures from the empty terminal were destroyed but here are a few that were saved.

Boarding Group 3! Whoop whoop!

They started boarding the ship around 11:30. We were on the ship a little before noon and went straight to Cabanas to grab some lunch. Of course, I first had to take a couple pictures of that beautiful chandelier!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

We walked through the pool deck area to get to Cabanas and we were greeted by our old nemesis…the love bug! Ugh. I hate those things! Once I saw those I decided that we would skip laying by the pool today and wait until tomorrow when we were far away from the bugs out in the open sea.

I hadn’t eaten anything all day so I was pretty hungry by the time we got on the ship. I’m not a huge fan of Cabanas but I do love their BBQ sauce. So naturally I had to get some chicken tenders and fries. I also got Mac and cheese, and a piece of pizza but that wasn’t very good. Wes was much more adventurous than I was.

My plate complete with Heinz BBQ sauce. AMAZING.

Wes’ plate

We looked over the Navigator at lunch to try to decide what we would do until our room was ready. There was a Walking Ship Tour at 1 that I thought might be cool but we still had some time to kill so we decided to stop by Guest Services to sign up for some different classes. Before we left Cabanas, I decided to buy one of those drinks in the souvenir glasses. It just looked so pretty! I took a picture with it but sadly it was one that was lost.

We wanted to sign up for a mixology class since I had heard good things about them from @sweetpee_1993. We signed up for Sunday’s class since it was our first day at sea. I also wanted to do the Art of the Theme Show Tour so we signed up for the tour on Thursday, our second day at sea. We still had a little time left before the Walking Ship Tour so we went to get assigned our case at the Midship Detective Agency.

We love the Muppets so it had to be our first case.

We had time to find a couple clues so we went over to the pictures outside the Walt Disney Theater.

Fun with the iPhone panoramic feature

I stopped to use the restroom outside the Walt Disney Theater and couldn’t resist taking a picture of those cute mirrors.

Oh Hey!

It was now time for us to report to Preludes for our Walking Ship Tour. The tour was just okay. It was pretty basic in just showing us around to the main areas like the Walt Disney and Buena Vista Theaters, Europa, D-Lounge and Shops. I was hoping it would help me better navigate my way around the ship but no such luck. For some reason, I can never remember where I am or which way I need to go when coming up or down the stairs. I always seem to turn the wrong way. It never fails. I even know the trick about looking at the carpets to figure out if I am going towards Forward or Aft and still, I get confused! I’m usually great with directions but the ships continue to get me all turned around.

One great thing about the Walking Ship Tour was that it gave me a chance to take a lot of pictures. Of course, most of those pictures never made it home. Here are the few that survived.

I love this carpet!

La Piazza

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Our tour was now over and that meant our room would be ready. Sweet! We made our way up to Deck 8 midship to find our room. I knew our room was going to be close to the stairs but I was a little surprised to see that our room was directly off the stairs on the port side. We were concerned that it may be really noisy there with the noise from the stairs. I am happy to report that noise wasn’t a factor for us. It was a little noisy at times during the day when kids were running or jumping up and down the stairs but we never had a problem at night with noise.

Most of my pictures of the room were destroyed but I took some other pictures on our final day just incase I didn’t get those pictures back. I’m glad I took those pictures now.

Our Castaway Club gift! Woo hoo!

After checking out our room, we both decided to take a nap. I hated taking a nap when there was so much to see and do but I knew that I wouldn’t make it much longer if I didn’t nap now. At 3:30 our bags arrived except for my small carry on bag that we dropped off at the airport. I was a little concerned, since this was the bag that had my hair straightener, make up and glasses. Of course the bag that had my most important items wasn’t there yet. Isn’t that always how it is? I wasn’t too concerned since we had dropped it off separately from our checked bags but I was still a little anxious waiting for it to arrive.

It was time for our safety drill and I was excited that our area was in the Buena Vista Theater because that meant no love bugs! After the safety drill, we went up to Deck 12 to get a good spot for the Sailing Away party. I couldn’t help but continue to sing, “Come sail away. Come sail away. Come sail away with me!” This song would continue to be stuck in my head for the rest of the week.

I was bummed that I didn’t switch out my lens to my bigger one so I could get some closer shots of the stage. I’m still new to this whole DSLR stuff so I kept forgetting that I could switch lenses. Oh well. Next time I’ll figure it out.

During the Sail Away Party, Wes noticed that we had already started moving. After the singing and dancing was over, we walked up to the front of the ship to watch us sail away. I thought I heard thunder but Wes thought it was just the ship. Sure enough, off in the distance we could see a ton of lighting strikes. It looked like we were outrunning a pretty bad storm. We found out later that the Captain decided to leave the Port a little earlier than planned to try to beat the storm. He did a great job ensuring that we could see the Sail Away Party before the storm hit.

Those are some ominous looking clouds

We decided to head back to our room just in case it started to rain and it was a good thing that we did. We started unpacking our bags and looking outside to see that it had started to pour.

Stormy view from our verandah

No sign of my small carryon bag yet but no time to worry. It was time for the 6:15 stage show! We stopped by the drink stations and made our way to the show.

Tonight’s show was A Fantasy Come True. It was a pretty cheesy show, and I normally like cheesy, but this was a little too much. I would classify the show more of an informational session than a real show but it wasn’t terrible.

After dinner, we stopped by the shops so I could pick up some merchandise. I was on the hunt for some Vinylmations. I started collecting on our November trip and I was really excited to add to my little collection. Before our cruise, I had decided that I would start going to the gym again and try to get in shape. I am terrible at staying motivated for the gym so as motivation, Wes said that for every two weeks that I went to the gym on my designated days, I could get a Vinylmation. Sadly, I only managed to earn 2. But hey…at least I tried and I still got some Vinylmations!

I wanted to get a DCL one and then decided to get another one in my Animation Series. I already had Dopey so I was hoping for anything else. Wes guessed that I would get Flower and when I opened it up back in our room guess who was there…

Lost the picture I took on the cruise so this one will have to do.

Wes also started collecting last November so he picked up another Star Wars one and got Princess Leia.

We dropped off our Vinylmations in the room and my carryon bag had finally arrived. Whew! We then went to the future cruise desk to take advantage of the discount you get when you book onboard. The desk was crazy packed so we decided that we would try again later in the week. With more time to kill before dinner, we were off to gather more clues on who stole the props from the Muppet Show.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

At about 8:20 we decided to head down to the Enchanted Garden for dinner. We were hoping to avoid the line but there was still a long line to get into the restaurant when we got there.

We were at Table 98 and we were very interested to see who we were seated with. When we arrived at our table, we saw two other couples with each person on either side of the table leaving the two middle seats open. Uh oh. So instead of sitting next to each other, each couple would be sitting across from each other. We exchanged quick glances to each other that said we were not digging this setup. We aren’t anti-social or anything but I always find it a little awkward when first meeting people. With this seating arrangement, there was no way out of any potentially awkward conversations.

I immediately gave a disclaimer that I would be taking lots of pictures of the restaurant and more specifically the food. This lightened the awkwardness a little bit and got all of us talking. Our waitress for the week, LaToya from Jamaica, came over and said how much she loved when couples sat the way we did because it made it so much easier for everyone to get to know each other. I hated to admit it but she was right. On our last cruise, we all sat side by side as couples at the table, so we never really had to talk to each other. This time we really got to know our tablemates and it was actually really fun! The one couple was from New Jersey and was celebrating their honeymoon and the other couple was from South Carolina and celebrating their 8th wedding anniversary.

Wes and I both decided to order some drinks at dinner. We were on vacation, after all, so why not. Wes ordered a Mojito and I got the Golden Leafs specialty drink off the menu. It was really good! I wish I still had the picture I took of it. I don’t remember everything that was in it but I know it had Peach Schnapps. Whenever I see Peach Schnapps I always think of Elaine from Seinfeld.

For dinner, I ordered the cucumber roll for an appetizer and Wes ordered the lobster ravioli. The cucumber roll was just okay. It was basically just raw vegetables so it wasn’t anything spectacular. It was nice though because it was light and refreshing. I had ordered the lobster ravioli on our last cruise so I knew it was good and Wes really enjoyed it.

We both also ordered the raspberry and spinach salad that was good. The picture of the salad was lost and so was the picture of my entrée. For dinner, I ordered the sea scallops, which were absolutely delicious! Once I got my entrée, I realized that I actually ordered the same entrée on our last cruise. Wes went with the pork tenderloin and said it was really good.

Pork tenderloin

For dessert, I ordered the Sweet Temptations and Wes got the Chocolate Torte. The picture of Wes’ dessert was lost but I was able to salvage a portion of mine. My desserts were just okay but Wes really liked his.

Since it was the NJ couple’s honeymoon, they were brought out a special dessert! They didn’t have their camera with them so we offered to take a picture and email it to them when we got home.

When they brought out the dessert, they also sang a honeymoon song, which was essentially Happy Birthday but with honeymoon replacing the word birthday. It was really funny though because one waiter would say, “Kiss!” between each pause in the song. The couple did kiss at the end to appease the wait staff.

We said goodbye to our tablemates and decided to head up to Deck 11 for some ice cream. Wes loves that soft serve ice cream and is probably his favorite part of the cruise! I know, we just ate dinner, but hey, we’re on vacation! Let us have ice cream too.

It was still rainy out so the decks were pretty empty. There wasn’t anything on the Navigator that we were interested in doing tonight so we just decided to wander around a little bit and then call it an early night.

I love an empty Cabanas at night.

After touring Cabanas, we made our way back to our room

Such cool artwork on the ships!

When we got back to our room, we saw this cool hipster dude on our bed.

Sup dude. Nice shades.

I love the towel animals on the cruise ship! They are always so detailed! I was looking forward to taking the towel animal class later in the cruise.

We were really tired after such a long day so we fell asleep pretty quickly while A Goofy Movie played on the TV. I love the onDemand movies in the stateroom!

Up next: First day at sea with lots to do!

 

[Raven66]

I'm enjoying your report. So sorry about losing your pictures. I bet that was an awful feeling. I know I would have cried. But I love the ones you do have.

 

[Sandurz]

THEY'RE ALL FLOOOAAAAAAATING!!!


Sorry had to get that one out lol.

I can only imagine the feeling of dread you must have felt seeing that memory card error...but it's good it didn't do too much damage. Especially for the pictures of food...man all that looks tasty! I'd hate to be wedged between two other couples but I'd do it for the food. It's all for the food.

 

[rani8600]

Loving all of your pictures of the ship. Disney really does right with their ships and decor.

The towel animal with your throw blacket is so cute...i didnt know that they used the blackets as well....so creative

Cant wait to hear about the rest of your cruise

 

[Tinkerbell 8]

So sorry to hear about your pictures, I couldn't imagine how horrible that had to feel, but atleast you were able to save some of them!! Can't wait for the rest of your TR!!!

 

[foreverbelle]

Looks fabulous. Sorry to hear about the memory card, but I am loving the pictures you did save.

That storm looks nasty!!! I am so glad to hear he got you out ahead of it though, smart captain indeed!!!!

You and your hubby=adorable!!

 

[tnemgif]

Thanks for the wonderful trip report! Love the pictures - very excited to see more

 

[sweetpee_1993]

**sniffle sniffle** **coughcough**

Your pics are making me feel so homesick! Just got off the Fantasy on Saturday. Looking at things like the artwork, etc. it's like deja vu! I was juuuuust looking at those same things with my own eyeballs and now they're gone...sailing away with some other eyeballs passing by on the way up and down the stairs....

Glad you were able to recover most of your pics. I couldn't even imagine. Ugh!

Here's a tip for ya since we had our fair share of rainy days on our voyage: rainy outside is the BEST time for the Aqua Duck! We rode it 3 times with little to no wait!

 

[Zman-ks]

Great pics!

 

[disneyfan1995]

Can't wait to read more of your report!! It brings back memories from when I was on the Fantasy!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love the report so far Ashley!

I know the feeling of losing vacation pics since I was so awesome completely lost my memory card last spring. Ugh!! All your pics are getting me excited for the girls cruise in Sept though!!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

I'm enjoying your report. So sorry about losing your pictures. I bet that was an awful feeling. I know I would have cried. But I love the ones you do have.

Thanks Raven! It was such an awful feeling thinking that I lost all of my pictures. I cried for a good while after Best Buy told me the card was blank...I figured that Geek Squad knew more than an average person, but I guess not. I kept reminding myself that I still had the memories and that if losing my pictures from a Disney vacation was the worst of my problems, that I would be okay but it still royally stunk.

THEY'RE ALL FLOOOAAAAAAATING!!!
Sorry had to get that one out lol.

I can only imagine the feeling of dread you must have felt seeing that memory card error...but it's good it didn't do too much damage. Especially for the pictures of food...man all that looks tasty! I'd hate to be wedged between two other couples but I'd do it for the food. It's all for the food.

I read your comment and totally didn't understand what you were talking about. I went back and looked at the picture again, and was like "Ohhhh! They are floating!" Hahaha Funny, how I didn't realize I caught them mid jump.

It was pretty dreadful! I am so glad I was able to salvage any of my pictures and I am very lucky that I only lost ones from day 1 and 2! The middle seats at dinner wasn't too bad. I would have preferred to be on the end but hey, the food was good no matter where we sat!

Loving all of your pictures of the ship. Disney really does right with their ships and decor.

The towel animal with your throw blacket is so cute...i didnt know that they used the blackets as well....so creative

Cant wait to hear about the rest of your cruise

Thanks rani! The ships are absolutely gorgeous! The DCL room hosts/hostesses are pros at towel animals! They use a lot of different elements besides just your regular towels. Just wait and see!

So sorry to hear about your pictures, I couldn't imagine how horrible that had to feel, but atleast you were able to save some of them!! Can't wait for the rest of your TR!!!

Yea, it was pretty horrible. I have learned my lesson though and will make sure to bring my laptop so I can save my pictures each day of the trip. I will probably bring a flash drive too, so I have a backup or my backup. Hahaha Thanks for reading!

Looks fabulous. Sorry to hear about the memory card, but I am loving the pictures you did save.

That storm looks nasty!!! I am so glad to hear he got you out ahead of it though, smart captain indeed!!!!

You and your hubby=adorable!!

Thanks, Aleisha! The captain did an amazing job! He had us running from the storm and we were able to see the entire Sail Away Party without any rain. It was pretty magical!

Thanks for the wonderful trip report! Love the pictures - very excited to see more

Thank you for reading!

**sniffle sniffle** **coughcough**

Your pics are making me feel so homesick! Just got off the Fantasy on Saturday. Looking at things like the artwork, etc. it's like deja vu! I was juuuuust looking at those same things with my own eyeballs and now they're gone...sailing away with some other eyeballs passing by on the way up and down the stairs....

Glad you were able to recover most of your pics. I couldn't even imagine. Ugh!

Here's a tip for ya since we had our fair share of rainy days on our voyage: rainy outside is the BEST time for the Aqua Duck! We rode it 3 times with little to no wait!

I hope you had a good trip, Kelly! I read your post about how you were sick on your cruise and my heart sank for you! I know how excited you were for your trip so to be sick must have been awful. You and your family are troopers though so I bet you still managed to have some good times together despite being sick.

It was quite frightening! I am so happy that I have most of my pictures back!

Great pics!

Thanks!

Can't wait to read more of your report!! It brings back memories from when I was on the Fantasy!

More coming now. I loved your trip report! It got me so excited for my trip so I am glad that I can bring back memories from yours.

Love the report so far Ashley!

I know the feeling of losing vacation pics since I was so awesome completely lost my memory card last spring. Ugh!! All your pics are getting me excited for the girls cruise in Sept though!!

Thanks Darolyn! I remember reading about you losing your pictures and I couldn't even imagine what you were going through...sadly, now I know exactly how you felt! I am just so thankful I was able to get any pictures back.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Sunday May 12th – An Eventful Day At Sea Filled with Trivia, Mixology, and More!

Today was our first day at sea and we were up bright and early at 7:45am to take full advantage of the day! We had ordered room service for breakfast and it was scheduled to arrive between 8 and 8:15. We watched some of the Emperor’s New Groove while we waited for breakfast to arrive. It arrived a little after 8. We decided to enjoy breakfast out on our verandah.

Mmm…so many delicious carbs!

Gorgeous day!

After breakfast, Wes decided that he wanted to go to the gym. I thought that Satellite Falls sounded a lot better. So Wes went off to the gym and I went to Satellite Falls around 9am.

It was extremely windy up at Satellite Falls but I decided to stick it out since that was where Wes was meeting me after the gym. I had to maneuver my way around putting my towel down, getting my book out of my bag, and putting my beach cover-up and sandals away so they wouldn’t go flying. It was a constant struggle to keep my book from flying away but at least it was a beautiful day!

Wes found me fighting off the wind around 9:30. I asked Wes to take a picture of his view from the treadmill since I knew I probably wouldn’t make it there myself.

If I had to workout…the only way I could do it would be with a view like this.

When Wes had arrived I asked if the bar was open yet. He said “It’s 9:30…on a Sunday.” Well, I was on vacation where time doesn’t exist and I wanted a drink. At around 10am, the bar staff started making the rounds and I was excited that a Bahama Mama was the drink of the day. I gave the bar man my souvenir cup and he filled it up! It was too windy for a picture but trust me…it was a tasty drink.

The wind finally got to us and we had to pack it up at 11. As soon as we walked down to Deck 11, the wind was gone. Oops. I guess we should have found a spot on a lower deck. I stopped to take some pictures on our way inside.

You can never have too many pictures of the funnel.

We decided to try hitting up the Future Cruise Desk again and luckily they weren’t too crowded. There was one young girl in line and when the desk became available, I asked her if she was next. She said “Oh no, you go ahead.” I said, “No, you’re next. Go ahead.” She kept saying that we should go and I kept asking, “Are you sure?” That’s when the cast member behind the cruise desk said “She was next. You all need to wait.” Uh…I know she was next. Did you not just see the exchange where I kept trying to get her to go and she kept telling us to go?! Hahaha Needless to say, it was a little annoying that the cast member thought we were trying to cut in front of this girl when we were doing nothing of the sort. After that little exchange, the girl was only at the desk for a minute and we were up.

We booked a 4 night Bahamian cruise for next October on the Dream. We’re hoping to do a land and sea trip since I am not going to WDW this year and it’s making me slightly sad. We decided to go with an oceanview stateroom with a porthole next time since we never really used our verandah on the last cruise and I am just not sure it’s worth it. I also thought it would be good to try out some different staterooms to see which one I like the best.

After our cruise was booked, we headed to Flo’s for some lunch around 11:45. I love Flo’s! Hot dogs are my favorite Disney vacation food. It’s sad, but true. What’s even sadder is that the picture of my beautiful hot dog was lost.

Wes got a spicy chicken sandwich, which he really enjoyed.

I still wasn’t full after my delicious hot dog, and I was really craving a salad. I tried to get a salad from Flo’s but the cast member pointed me to their “salad bar” which was essentially the toppings for burgers. That wasn’t going to cut it. So we decided to go to Cabanas so I could get a salad. First, we had to stop at Eye Scream so Wes could get his second ice cream of the trip.

More pictures on our way to Cabanas.

We found a nice seat outside. There weren’t many people out there since it was so windy but it was just too nice of a day to sit inside.

The view from our table.

The salad was good but I figured I needed a real dessert.

The tastiest carrot cake! Soooo good!

There was TV Tunes Trivia in O’Gills Pub today at 1 that I needed to do. I LOVE TV and have been an avid watcher since I was a kid so I knew that this was my trivia challenge. We still had a little time before we needed to go to O’Gills so we decided to solve the case of the stolen props for the Muppets. With the case solved, it was time for some trivia!

Trivia started and we were doing really well. We were Team Vandelay Industries. Wes and I each did a good job of identifying the theme song. It was time to exchange papers with another team and we ended up getting 18 out of 25 right. When it came time to reveal how many we got right, there were two other teams that had 18 right. So, it all came down to the tiebreaker round. Each team had to send up a representative and I was the obvious choice. The cast member played the final theme song and I knew it right off the bat! I was beyond excited. It was the Facts of Life! I love that theme song. The other two team members just looked around and said they had no idea what it was. I wrote down my answer and we won! Woo hoo! We won DCL ear buds. Sweet!

After our TV Tunes Trivia, we decided to try our luck at some Disney Trivia in La Piazza. We went to grab a seat in La Piazza and I went to go see if I could see Cuba since we should be passing it.

There’s Cuba! So cool.

Disney Trivia was fun and we did really well but sadly we didn't win. Some kid and his Dad got 27 out of 25. I still don't believe they got all those questions right! Some of the questions were about DCL, like how many houses would you be able to paint with the paint it takes to cover the Disney Fantasy. I had no idea! I still have no idea. Hahaha

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

It was almost time for our mixology class so we hurried back to our room to change out of our bathing suits.

Mixology was in Skyline and this was the first time I had been in there. It was super cool. In case you haven’t been on a Disney cruise or in Skyline, there are these “windows” that display different country scenes every 10 to 12 minutes. The scenes actually move, so there are moving cars and people in the windows of the buildings. It’s pretty cool. You really feel like you are in a different country. They also change the music to fit the country theme.

Our bartender was Julian from Jamaica. To start the class, he gave us a brief history on spirits and what each was made from. I don’t remember much of it now, since we did a lot of drinking after that. After some talking, it was time to start making some drinks!

There were 15 of us in our class so Julian started bringing us behind the bar in groups of 4 to get started. I can’t remember what the first drink was, since I didn’t write them down until after the class, and again, we had had 5 drinks by that time. Whatever the first drink was, it was delicious!

There’s Julian, on the far left.

It was now our turn to make a drink. We made a pomegranate Cosmo. We did a pretty good job. They were really strong. The next group went up and made a drink that Julian kind of invented. It was some Russian cocktail that he added berries to so he called it Julian’s Berriruska. I have no idea how to spell it so don’t try to Google it with my spelling.

There was a mother and daughter in our group that was standing right next to me. After drinking our third drink, the mother turned to me and said, “This is going to be the best Mother’s Day ever.” To which I replied, “Yea, if you can remember any of it!” We had already had 3 drinks and there were still 2 more to go! The last drink that the group made was a shot. It was called a Brain Hemorrhage. I didn’t care for it but I drank it. It kind of freaked me out because it really did look like a brain.

The last drink we had was some kind of champagne and juice cocktail. It wasn’t a Mimosa but it was something similar. Our glass was over and we were told that we could take our last drinks with us. The class was a lot of fun! And I was pretty tipsy. We had 5 drinks in an hour! One drink in an hour is usually enough to get me tipsy so I was really feeling it. We took our drinks and made our way back to the midship elevators to go up to our room. There was no way I could take the stairs.

We got on the elevator and when we stopped on the 5th floor, who got in our elevator?! Pluto! It was really funny. I was so tipsy from our mixology session and then here comes Pluto. I took a picture of him but of course, that got deleted. By the time we got to our room, I was pretty drunk. Like I need to order some chicken wings kind of drunk. This sounds like a great time to order some room service! We ordered a cheese plate and some chicken wings and it was delicious! We finished watching the Emperor’s New Groove while we ate and then I took a nap.

After my nap, it was time to get up and go see the show! Tonight was Aladdin and I was really excited to see it since I have heard such good things about it. The show did not disappoint! I loved the flying magic carpet part. It was such a neat affect!

After the show, we stopped by Guest Services to pay some of our room bill using various gift cards and Disney Rewards Cards. I had gotten a $200 Visa gift card from my work that I wanted to use on our trip. I told the cast member that it had $200 on it but when she entered in that amount, it didn’t work. She tried some other amounts as well and she just couldn’t get it to go through. I was a little bummed because that was $200 we had planned on using. Luckily, I brought the instructions for the gift card (yes, it came with instructions) so I figured I could look at those later and we could try it again.

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

We still had time to kill before dinner so we went back to the room to hang for a little bit and then made our way to dinner a few minutes before 8:15. Tonight was formal night and we were dining in Royal Court. I thought this was very fitting since Royal Court seems super fancy. Again, we were the last people to the restaurant. Dang it! It looked like we would be stuck in the middle seats once more. It was hard to be too upset when this was the view from our table…

Gorgeous!

For appetizers, I got the lobster and shrimp and Wes got the duck. My lobster and shrimp was just okay. It didn’t have a ton of flavor. Wes liked his duck. In fact, he actually got the same appetizer on our last cruise.

Duck appetizer

I also got the French onion soup which was absolutely delicious!

For dinner, I got the salmon and Wes went with the beef tenderloin. Both entrees were very tasty.

Salmon

I didn’t really want any of the items from the dessert menu so I decided that I would get a Mickey ice cream bar. When I ordered it I asked for a Mickey premium bar. LaToya looked at me like I was crazy. I said, “you know…a Mickey ice cream bar.” She, along with everyone else at my table, started to give me a hard time for calling it a “premium bar”. I said, “But that’s what it says on the package label!” Hahaha Throughout the rest of the cruise, everyone kept asking me if I was going to get a premium bar. I didn’t realize that I was so weird to ask for it that way.

So simple and yet so delicious!

While finishing up our desserts, it was someone’s birthday at the table next to us so the staff came out to sing. In between the first pause of the song, both guys from the other couples at our table yelled, “Kiss!” We all started laughing because it was just too funny. For the rest of the cruise, whenever anyone sang “Happy Birthday”, one of us would say “kiss” and get a real kick out of it. Maybe you had to be there but trust me, it was funny.

We were done with dinner, so we left Royal Court to go back to the room to change out of our formal wear clothes to go see Wreck It Ralph in the Buena Vista Theater. But first, I had to take some pictures of the restaurant!

The chairs had icons from different Princess movies, like the apple from Snow White.

We arrived back in our room to this little beauty…

We went up to Deck 11 to get some soda and then went to the theater to get some seats.

I love these chairs.

The movie was over at 12:38 and we made our way back to the room to go to bed. It had been a fun filled day and we had our first port excursion tomorrow in Grand Cayman! We were moving the clocks back one hour tonight so that meant we got to sleep in a little bit! Woo hoo!

Up next: Grand Cayman island, some turtles, and my first scare with my new camera

 

[joanna71985]

Loving the TR so far!

But one quick question- could you tell me which photo recovery programs you were recommended? I lost 2 albums from my computer (which just happened to be of my Fantasy cruise ), and I was wondering if they would work for me

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

Loving the TR so far!

But one quick question- could you tell me which photo recovery programs you were recommended? I lost 2 albums from my computer (which just happened to be of my Fantasy cruise ), and I was wondering if they would work for me

Thanks Joanna! Oh no! That stinks. The program I used was for recovery off of a memory card. I am not sure about how to recover files from your computer. The program I used was called CardRescue. I would post something in the Photography section, if you haven't already, because there are so many people on here that have had similar problems. Hopefully, someone can recommend a program for you.