Trip Report So Long Winter, Hello Disney Magic – A January Cruise Trip Report

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 19, 2015

Wednesday, January 14th – A Relaxing Day in Grand Cayman and Dinner at Palo

This morning we were stopping in Grand Cayman but Wes and I weren’t getting off the ship. We stopped in Grand Cayman on our last cruise and took the bus tour excursion. We weren’t too impressed with the island so we decided to just enjoy some extra time on the ship.

We went to Cabanas again for breakfast and found a spot outside. For some reason I only took a picture of my plate. Silly me.

Sometime after breakfast we made our way to the adult pool. Wes decided he was going to go to the gym while I lounged.

I really didn’t take many pictures this morning. I just enjoyed the nice weather and my book. It was so crazy, that I just couldn’t put it down.

Wes joined me in my lounging after the gym. We eventually went to get lunch at Pete’s Boiler Bites and brought the food back to the tables over in the adult area. It’s just so much quieter over there.

We continued lounging and eventually I started taking pictures again.

Around 4:30pm we made our way back to our room after a gorgeous day spent relaxing at the Quiet Cove Pool. After the gym, Wes had gone back to our stateroom and ran into our stateroom hostess. He asked her if she could put down the upper berth pull down bed for us. I know it was only the two of us, but I really wanted to see what it looked like. That may sound weird but I wanted to see what the stateroom would feel like with an extra person.

I thought the bed was pretty cool and it didn’t take up a ton of space. I was sad that it didn’t have the stars above the bed like on the newer ships. Oh well.

It was now time for us to get ready for dinner at Palo.

Our reservations were for 6pm.

We got to the restaurant a few minutes before 6 and they hadn’t opened yet. We ran into Liam and Noreen, our table 6 mates, while waiting for the restaurant to open.

I went outside real quick to take some pictures.

I went back inside and they were opening the restaurant. We were the first table of the night to be seated. We had a great table up against the windows towards the center of the restaurant.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 19, 2015

Our waiter came over and was very friendly. I can’t remember his name now. Darn. He brought out the antipasti to get our wonderful dinner started.

View from our table

For appetizers, Wes got the mozzarella and tomatoes and I went with the calamari. It’s the same options we chose the last two times we’ve eaten at Palo.

For entrees, we each went with the filet. Last time I didn’t get the filet and I was really sad that I didn’t. So this time I made sure to order it. Our server actually brought out a little sample of the lobster ravioli, which was also delicious.

We had a really great meal but it was around the time our entrees came out that I realized that I forgot to take my Dramamine this morning. Well, at least, I couldn’t remember if I took my Dramamine. I was feeling a little iffy from the rocking of the ship and with the restaurant being Aft it was extra shaky. Wes kept telling me that I took it, partially to act as a placebo for myself so I would think I was okay.

I was fine throughout the meal but couldn’t enjoy everything as much as normal once I realized that I might have forgotten to take my medicine.

I told myself to calm down since I couldn’t do anything until after dinner and enjoyed our dessert! Our server came over to take our order for dessert and he said “you know what you have to order, right?” and I responded with “yes, the chocolate soufflé.” Well, with that he was off to put in our order. I actually wanted to see a dessert menu to order something else but he had already left and I felt bad saying something. Hahaha Oh well. The soufflé is really good but I was wanting to try something different. Next time…

We had a fabulous dinner at Palo. To us, it’s so worth the extra cost. After dinner we made our way back to our stateroom so I could take a Dramamine because I was pretty sure I forgot to earlier. We found a very cute towel animal waiting for us.

When we got to the room, Wes started taking off his tie. I tried to stop him so we could take a mirror picture but I was too late. We attempted to take a picture in our formal attire anyway but we struggled.

That’s the best we could do

It was then time to go see the second showing of Twice Charmed. I really don’t like seeing the later show because there are so many more kids there. Hahaha I know that sounds terrible. I don’t mind children but when you are surrounded by so many, it can be annoying.

Especially when you don't have any of your own.

I really wasn’t a fan of this show. The whole time I kept thinking, didn’t they make a straight to DVD Cinderella movie with a similar premise? Oh well. You can’t like all the stage shows.

After the show, we made our way up to Deck 9 to grab a late night snack.

Wes wanted to get some pizza so I took some pictures while he made his way to Pinocchio’s.

We took the pizza back to our stateroom and watched some movies before heading to bed.

Up next: A gorgeous day in Falmouth!

DisneyPrincess5 · Feb 20, 2015

Loving your report so far! It appears as though you and I make very similar food choices :joyfull:

DH and I always say we would love to try a cruise, but neither of us (especially me) are psyched about water or the ocean and we both have a fear of being trapped or not being able to be independent when we want to (coming, going, getting off as we please). Maybe one day...

mrdrift · Feb 20, 2015

I love having a relaxing day on the ship when most people go ashore. You can do anything you want and there are no crowds anywhere on the ship. Dinner look really fantastic and making me really hungry. Keep the food pictures coming. Following along.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 24, 2015

DisneyPrincess5 said:
Loving your report so far! It appears as though you and I make very similar food choices
DH and I always say we would love to try a cruise, but neither of us (especially me) are psyched about water or the ocean and we both have a fear of being trapped or not being able to be independent when we want to (coming, going, getting off as we please). Maybe one day...

Thanks for reading! I was so worried about doing a cruise. I was really worried about a Poseidon Adventure or Titanic situation. After the first cruise, it totally changed my perception and now I love them! You can really come and go as you please as long as it is within the hours that you are docked in a port. If you sign up for an excursion, then of course you have to go when they tell you but you don't have to do any of their excursions. You can go out on your own and explore the ports as you wish. If you aren't sure about the cruises, try a 3 or 4 night one first and see how it goes. You may just find that you love it.

mrdrift said:
I love having a relaxing day on the ship when most people go ashore. You can do anything you want and there are no crowds anywhere on the ship. Dinner look really fantastic and making me really hungry. Keep the food pictures coming. Following along.

The relaxing days on the ship are what Wes loves the most. It's such a different vacation than WDW. More food pictures coming!

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 24, 2015

Thursday, January 15th – A Quick Tour in Falmouth, Lots of Relaxation and Pirate Night

This morning we arrived in Falmouth, Jamaica. We had never been to Jamaica before so I wanted to do an excursion that would give us a good look of the island. I couldn’t find anything that I loved but I decided on the Chukka Horse and Buggy Through Historical Falmouth excursion. What I didn’t know when I picked the excursion was that the meet time was 7:45am. Yikes. That’s a little early for my liking but at least we would enjoy a full day in Jamaica.

We woke up a little later than we wanted and hurried down to Cabanas to grab a quick breakfast before we had to meet in D-Lounge.

Wes’ plate

My plate

We waited for a little while in D Lounge before we left the ship. Our group today was slightly bigger than our excursion the other day.

Today there were 8 of us on this excursion.

I thought the port was really pretty. It looked like what I imagine Jamaica looked like in colonial times. It looked like it could be in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

We walked through the main port area and met our horse and buggy. Oh, and our tour guide and driver too.

Our driver, Orlando

We began our tour and exited the port. The entire port area is enclosed so you don’t have to actually leave the port to do any shopping. I really liked that about the port. We left the port and began our tour.

Looking back at the port

Our one stop on the tour was at the Trelawny Parish Church. The outside of this church felt like it should be in Pirates of the Caribbean.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 24, 2015

Not sure if you can see it, but there’s a goat wandering around this cemetery.

The church was really pretty. And the sky was so blue! I just couldn’t stop taking pictures.

After our quick stop at the church, we continued our horse and buggy tour and made our way back to the port. Our tour lasted about an hour. I thought the tour was just okay. There wasn’t a lot to see in Falmouth. Our tour guide did do a good job telling us all kinds of facts about Jamaica though which was nice since we didn’t have many things to look at besides residential houses. Falmouth isn’t the prettiest town and there were a lot of stray dogs wandering around. Seeing stray dogs always makes me really sad.

I’m not sure I would do another excursion in Falmouth. I wouldn’t mind seeing another city in Jamaica but think I will just stay on the ship or walk around the port if we stop in Falmouth again.

We got back to the port and decided to check out Margaritaville.

We walked through the store and then stopped to get some free wifi.

I was really tempted to buy something in the store but Wes thought it was dumb to go to Jamaica and then the only souvenir I would buy would be from a Margaritaville. But I love Jimmy Buffett!

It was only 9:30am at this point so we didn’t quite feel like drinking yet. We walked around the port a little bit and then decided to get back on the ship.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 24, 2015

We went back to our stateroom to get our bathing suits on and head up to the pool.

View of the port from Deck 10

We went back to our usual spot at the Quiet Cove Pool and enjoyed the B-E-A-U-tiful weather.

Hahaha Natalie, our cruise director, kept saying the word beautiful like that. If I remember correctly from our last cruise, I think Brent also said it like that.

At some point we went back to Pete’s to get some lunch.

Looking back at all the pictures I’m realizing that I ate a lot of hot dogs this cruise. Hahaha

When we got back from lunch, we were feeling a little crispy so we decided to spend some time in the shade. We went up to Deck 10 and sat under a covered portion of the deck.

Wes took a nap and eventually I feel asleep too. We woke up around 4 and made our way back to the room. Of course, that meant we had to order the All Hands on Deck again.

Our FAVORITE!

If I remember correctly, I read my book for a little bit and then took a nap on the upper berth pull down bed. I wanted to see if it was comfy. The answer is yes.

It was kind of nice sleeping up there. I’m only about 5’2” so it might not be so comfy for a taller person but I wouldn’t mind having to sleep on that bed. It did make some creaking noises periodically due to the movement of the ship and myself but it wasn’t anything too loud.

After my catnap, we went up to see Pirates of the Caribbean on the Funnel Vision. I thought this was very fitting since it was Pirate night. I decided to walk around a little bit to get some pictures of the sunset.

Goodbye Falmouth!

I couldn’t decide which one I liked best so I had to post all 3

We didn’t stay for the whole movie because there was another Movie Quotes Trivia in O’Gills that we wanted to do. We also had to get changed into our Pirate attire.

Since it was Pirate Night, I switched out our magnet to fit the theme.

And again, since it was Pirate Night, I felt that a drink was necessary.

The drink was very good. It was the drink of the day, a Sunken Treasure.

Sadly, yet again, we didn’t win trivia.

We actually tied with 4 other teams and then missed the bonus question. After trivia it was time to head to dinner.

Lots of pirates out in the lobby

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 24, 2015

We were back in Carioca’s tonight, which I thought was very fitting for Pirate Night.

Such cute menus

I ordered another drink at dinner. Hey, it was Pirate Night!

Captain’s Treasure

For appetizers, I got the crab cake and Wes got the pot stickers. Both were very tasty! I loved the crab cake!

For the salad course, I had ordered Mr. Smee’s Bibb Lettuce Salad. I got my salad and thought it was weird that there was chicken on it since I didn’t remember seeing that on the menu. I figured, oh well and started cutting up my salad. Mike then said “isn’t my salad supposed to have chicken on it?” He told Luis and he took his salad back to get the right one. It was at that moment that I realized, “Wait a minute. I think I got your salad.” I offered to give it to Mike and told him I had only cut the salad and hadn’t taken a bite yet. Luis said “no, that’s okay. We’ll get you both new ones.” Everyone was laughing at me that I kept saying “all I did was cut it up”

Anyway, in the confusion of who’s salad was who’s, I forgot to take a picture of the actual salad I ordered. But here’s a picture of the Jerk Chicken Salad.

For entrees, I got the grilled shrimp and seared scallops over pasta and Wes got the beef short ribs. Again, two very good choices.

Such cute dessert menus!

I got the Sweet Temptations and Wes went with the rum cake. Man, was that cake strong! I had a tiny portion of it on my plate and you could really taste the rum.

At the end of dinner, there was limbo stick and the servers and guests formed a conga line around the restaurant. It was a fun end to our Pirate Night dinner.

After dinner we made our way up to Deck 10 to grab a spot for the Pirate party. By the time we got up there, there weren’t any spots up against the railing left on the port side of the ship. We settled on a spot behind some kids so we could see the stage a little bit. I pretty much held up my camera in the air and just clicked.

It was an interesting way to take pictures but I managed to snag some that weren’t too bad.

It’s Pierre Luc! He was a dancing machine!

There’s Natalie, our cruise director. She was also dancing with her fellow cast member. They knew all the dance moves. Wes said I was being a creeper taking these picture.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 24, 2015

While we were waiting for the party to begin, Wes and I noticed the wires hanging over the deck and we were pretty sure they weren’t there earlier in the week. I kept an eye out on the funnels to see who would be popping in.

Can you see him?

It’s Mickey!!

Mickey flew in and then it was time for the fireworks. Again, with these pictures, I just held my camera down and clicked. I didn’t want to watch the fireworks through my camera since I never seem to get any good photos anyway. I was really happy with the way these turned out.

The fireworks were a lot longer than on our previous cruise. Later we asked and it turns out that the fireworks are actually now twice as long as before. It was a major improvement to the whole Pirate party!

We decided to skip the buffet in Cabanas and head to the Buena Vista Theater to see Big Hero 6. We hadn’t seen this movie either so we were looking forward to seeing it (and hoping it was better than the two other movies we saw this cruise).

We got to the theater and we were the only people there.

Movie theater toes

Having the theater to ourselves didn’t last long. The theater ended up getting pretty full by the time the movie started.

We LOVED this movie! Baymax is too cute. I loved the fist bump scene. Ba-la-la-la-la.

Hahaha

We went back to our stateroom and found some things waiting for us.

CUTE!

I realized that we didn’t take a picture of our pirate outfits so I asked Wes to pose before he took off his outfit. This is what I got.

That’s a little better

I was seriously struggling with the mirror shots this trip

And with that, it was time for bed.

Up next: Our last sea day

mrdrift · Feb 25, 2015

What a wonderful day in Jamaica. The pirates party looked really awesome with everyone dressing as pirates. Dinner looked really delicious, I only wish I had the scratch n sniff screen so I could have a sample of the food. I think it's cool to take pictures of the staff so you can remember the people that help make the cruise special. Following along.

abzoo · Feb 25, 2015

WishIWasAtWDW said:
Vol-de-mort! Vol-de-mort!

Yep. Awesome choice. The Office references are always a good idea. I played Quidditch in college and there was another team that called themselves Team Voldemort. It's really just an all-around great name for trivia or anything else!

Great trip report-- your photos are amazing!

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 25, 2015

mrdrift said:
What a wonderful day in Jamaica. The pirates party looked really awesome with everyone dressing as pirates. Dinner looked really delicious, I only wish I had the scratch n sniff screen so I could have a sample of the food. I think it's cool to take pictures of the staff so you can remember the people that help make the cruise special. Following along.

We did have a nice day in Jamaica!

The pirate party was really fun. I was glad that we decided to dress up. I think it made us enjoy it more. It was fun seeing so many people dress up and get into the theme!

abzoo said:
Yep. Awesome choice. The Office references are always a good idea. I played Quidditch in college and there was another team that called themselves Team Voldemort. It's really just an all-around great name for trivia or anything else!

Great trip report-- your photos are amazing!

Hahaha Vol-de-mort! Never gets old.

Thanks for reading! More coming now.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 25, 2015

Friday, January 16th – A Glorious Final Day at Sea

We decided to start our last day at sea off with some room service for breakfast.

After breakfast, we went up to the adult only pool and enjoyed our last day at sea. I didn’t even take any pictures. I actually left my camera in the room and just took my phone. I was truly relaxing.

I didn’t take any pictures until lunch at Cabanas.

Wes’ plate

My plate

Wes’ dessert

At 1:45 we went to an animation class to learn how to draw Donald. We hadn’t been to an animation class on the cruises before but we love the Animation Academy at Hollywood Studios so we wanted to give it a try.

We got to Animator’s Palate and saw our Table 6 mates Kay Beth and Mike there.

Nice Wes

The animation class was really fun! I wish we had done more classes this cruise. Next time.

They were drawing Pluto next but we wanted to go to Disney Tunes Trivia. We ran back to the room so I could grab my camera and then stopped by the soda station to fill up our cups.

Cute carpet!

Disney Tunes Trivia was happening in Preludes and there was a pretty big group of people there for trivia.

It’s Rafael!

This cast member was dancing up a storm at the sail away party and we were excited to see him again.

He had a great accent!

Sadly, again, we didn’t win trivia. We only missed one question! That meant that we missed 3 points. There was a mom and daughter there who got every single answer right. It wasn’t surprising since I had seen them the night before dressed as Wendy and Tinkerbell and the dad was dressed as Peter Pan.

We just were striking out at trivia this cruise. You can’t win them all.

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 25, 2015

We decided to go up and get some snacks and bring them back to our room. I also had to take some more pictures of the funnel.

We enjoyed our snacks in the room and watched some movies. We then got ready for the show. Tonight’s show was Disney Dreams.

The show was really good! I can't say it's my favorite out of all the shows we've seen on Disney cruises but it's definitely up there. Wes thought it was good too but after it was over he said “man, I’m really over Cinderella” Hahaha

She had been in a lot of shows this cruise.

We were back in Lumiere’s for dinner tonight.

After eating a lot of not so healthy foods this week, I was really feeling like I needed some salad. So I ordered two salads.

I don’t remember the names of the items we ordered tonight so the pictures will have to do.

My first salad

Wes’ appetizer

My second salad

For entrees, I got the lobster and Wes got some chicken with pasta dish. I wish I hadn’t gotten the lobster because I Ketut brought us out some extra lobsters. I would have gotten something different on the menu to try if I had known he was going to bring out so many extras.

For dessert, I went with the Sweet Temptations again. If you haven’t noticed, this seems to be a pattern for me.

I can never decide so I figure that a small portion of a couple things is a good idea. Wes got the chocolate lava cake.

Dinner was wonderful. We were having a lot of fun with our tablemates. Mike suggested that we get a group photo tomorrow night with our servers.

prfctlyximprct · Feb 25, 2015

Loving your report!! And I'm starving now.. LOL.. time for a snack!

Thanks for sharing

WishIWasAtWDW · Feb 25, 2015

After dinner, we weren’t sure what activity we wanted to do. We heard about a “So You Think You Know Your Family” game show in the D Lounge and thought it sounded fun. We hadn’t been to an event in D Lounge yet. We typically went to the adult only activities but we figured we’d give this a try.

There was a Family Dance Party that was ending when we got there. We grabbed a table towards the back. The families were having a blast dancing. It was fun to watch so many families getting along and having a good time.

A server came over and asked if we wanted anything. At first we said no but then we decided to get something.

The game show was really cute. Each team consisted of one child and one parent and they had to answer questions about each other. It was a match game where they would ask the parents to answer a question about the kids and vice versa. There were some really funny answers given by the kids. The best answer was when the cast member asked the kids what item their parents couldn’t live without and the one kid playing with his mom said wine. Hahaha

The funniest part was that the kid got it right!!

I’m glad we stopped in D Lounge. It was a cute game show and it was nice to see some of the family friendly activities that are offered.

It was time to head back to our room and call it a night.

Another cute carpet

Oh no! Did you see those tip envelopes on the bed? That means the cruise is almost over!!

Beyond sad.

Up next: Our last day!

mrdrift · Feb 26, 2015

What a relaxing last day at sea. I was surprised by your lunch picture that had snow crab on the plate. They really offer seafood like crab and shrimp for lunch, is that everyday or just one day of the cruise? Those are some great drawings of Donald. Your dinner choices looked really delicious, and they brought you out some extra lobster tails. Man looking at all of the food pictures are making me gain 10 pounds. Keep them coming. Following along.

WishIWasAtWDW · Mar 1, 2015

mrdrift said:
What a relaxing last day at sea. I was surprised by your lunch picture that had snow crab on the plate. They really offer seafood like crab and shrimp for lunch, is that everyday or just one day of the cruise? Those are some great drawings of Donald. Your dinner choices looked really delicious, and they brought you out some extra lobster tails. Man looking at all of the food pictures are making me gain 10 pounds. Keep them coming. Following along.

It was a great day at sea! This was the first day we had seen the snow crab at the buffet. I believe there was shrimp there more than one day but I didn't get any so I can't be certain.

Thanks! We had a lot of fun drawing Donald. I'm hoping to make it to a few more animation classes on our next cruise.

Oh man, the food was good! It's been hard looking at all these pictures again when I'm eating my own cooking. Hahaha

WishIWasAtWDW · Mar 1, 2015

prfctlyximprct said:
Loving your report!! And I'm starving now.. LOL.. time for a snack!

Thanks for sharing

Me too! Hahaha Thanks for reading!

Trip Report So Long Winter, Hello Disney Magic – A January Cruise Trip Report

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