Our First Ever Real Vacation, Mexican Riviera Cruise June 1-8, 2008 - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Day 5, Part 3 – Pirates IN the Caribbean In the Pacific
I bet you thought I flaked out on you! No such luck.
Day 5, Part 3 – Pirates IN the Caribbean In the Pacific
After changing out of our wet things Theo and I went to pick up the kids. We found the older three in Studio Sea playing the “Walk the Plank” game show. They were having a blast, especially Lucy who was the Captain for the winning team. How I wish I had my camera with me! She won a badge which she wore proudly. We had just enough time to go back to the room, update our door decorations,
change into our pirate costumes, and skedaddle on up to Animator's Palate.
I had a hard time choosing what to eat. I was so darn hungry that I could have eaten everything on the menu! For Appetizers I had a delicious seafood couscous salad and Lucy, Cecilia and I all had Caesar salads. Cecilia also tried the Mushroom soup, which she did not like. Theo and Chloe had crab cakes which they said were average. For the main course I had a shrimp and scallop pasta which I thought was so-so. Chloe and Cecilia enjoyed the “surf and turf” from the kids menu and Theo loved the Macadamia Dusted Mahi Mahi. Lucy and Daphne, of course, had their requisite mac & cheese. For dessert I had the Lost Banana Treasure which was excellent. Theo, the bread pudding aficionado, had the chocolate bread pudding from the kids menu. Lucy and Cecilia again had the regular chocolate pudding and Daphne had a Mickey Bar.
We had our portrait taken by a ship's photographer who came to our table.
Daphne and Chloe:
Cecilia and Marina:
Breandan and Caio Romano:
I took more pictures of the parade but they didn't turn out well.
After dinner we headed up to the deck party. On the way, Daphne had her picture taken with pirate Mickey.
The party was very crowded, but I think that just added to the atmosphere. The kids had so much fun dancing around, seeing pirate Mickey “save the day,” and watching the fireworks. By this time I really wasn't hungry anymore, but I gnawed on a giant turkey leg anyway just to get into get into the spirit of things. By the time they started the dessert buffet, I was finished! We dragged ourselves back to the rooms and collapsed, grateful that tonight we would be gaining an hour in tonight's time zone change.
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After our late night the previous evening, we gladly slept in until 9:00am. I had plans this morning to meet up with fellow passporter Tracey in the Walt Disney Theatre at 10:00am for a presentation called “Stageworks.” We didn't want to rush through a sit-down breakfast, so again I went up to Topsiders and brought back a tray full of breakfast for everyone. The “Tray-of-breakfast-from-Topsiders” technique really worked well for us on this cruise. Not only was the food was good, but having breakfast in the room allowed us to eat while we got ready, leaving more time for other ship-board fun.
With just enough time to spare I ran out to join Tracey and Theo brought the kids to their clubs. Described as “Come and learn the inner workings of the Walt Disney Theatre with a presentation by the technicians,” the Stageworks presentation was very interesting. For about 30 minutes, the stage technicians took turns demonstrating how they did their jobs, including lights, sound, set pieces, microphones, and costumes, after which we were allowed up on stage to look around and talk to the technicians individually. Tracey and I happened upon the ship's pyrotechnic engineer and from him learned some fascinating things. I grilled him about the fireworks show at the Pirates party the night before. W learned that for the show, the Captain turns the ship so that it will be facing the optimal direction for blowing the smoke away, and that DCL always alerts any other ships in the vicinity, both so that the other ships wont be surprised and so that their passengers can also watch the show. I talked with him for a good five minutes, but unfortunately do not remember anything else we talked about. About that time Theo joined us. He had spent the whole time dealing with Daphne who was being a pill.
After that presentation, Theo went back to the cabin while Tracey and I headed to the Buena Vista Theatre for another presentation called Behind the Scenes: An Inside Look, described as “Featuring Michael Williams, Director, Entertainment Services, Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Entertainment: Learn how Disneyland Entertainment works closely with the Disneyland Resort, and The Walt Disney Company, to provide the world-class entertainment you experience everyday.” Michael Williams gave a short power point presentation followed by Q & A. He was giving a cast-member exclusive pin to those who asked a question, so as you can imagine, the question-asking was very competitive! The only question I remember was from someone who asked whether there were any plans to station a ship in Los Angeles once the new ships were in service. His surprising answer was “No.” I hope he was just being coy and/or truth hedging because I would really like to see the Magic or Wonder out here permanently!
After that presentation I met up with Theo and we decided to walk around the ship for a bit. While we walked we talked about how much we were enjoying the cruise and how much we'd like to come again soon, and how we'd like to take advantage on the onboard booking incentives, but that we didn't think we could afford it again for a few years at least. Then I had an inspiration. What if it was just the two of us and just a little old three or four day cruise. It is our fifteenth wedding anniversary next year, after all. That sounded do-able, so I promptly phoned the Future Cruise desk. Word to the wise, the future cruise desk is very busy near the end of the cruise! Try to visit early if you can. Anyway, I left a message and hoped she'd get back to us soon!
Ready for lunch, we went to an Italian-themed buffet at Topsiders. When I think of Italian buffets I think of the “pizza and overcooked pasta with your choice of sauce”-type of buffets that I've seen at those soup and salad buffet restaurants. So I was very pleasantly surprised by the food in the Topsider's buffet. In addition to the pizza and pasta dishes you'd expect to see were a variety gourmet Italian meat dishes, pastas, and salads. It was a good lunch. And the desserts were superb and decadent. I had several. While we were eating, Theo and I perused the Navigator. We decided to attend the Disney Vacation Club Presentation at 12:30pm in Diversions. We'd heard of DVC before and even did a little research, but wanted to talk to someone in person to see if it made sense for us.
In Diversions, the seats filled quickly and the DVC reps were speaking to a packed house. At the beginning of the presentation they pointed some tags with different times hanging on a board over at the side of the room. The times represented all the appointments with a DVC representative that they had available that day. They said that audience members were welcome to go over to the board at any time during the presentation to get an appointment, and that once they were gone. Halfway through the presentation, Theo got up and picked a time – 7:30pm. While keeping what I hoped was a neutral, yet encouraging, expression on the outside, in my head I cheered and did back flips. Of course I can't do back flips in real life, but the ones in my head were quite dazzling. At the end of the presentation some lucky guy sitting way in the back won a $500 on board credit.
Unfortunately, as usual, I did not have my camera for any of this, so I have no pictures for this installment.
Great update!! Sounds like you had a fun time at the presentations with Tracey. Can't wait to hear about what happens with the future cruise and the DVC appointment. Looking forward to more
When the presentation ended we high-tailed it up to clubs to get the kids for the matinée performance of Disney Dreams.
Our Door dressed up for Disney Dreams and Semi-Formal night:
We settled into our seats in the Walt Disney Theatre and, if I remember correctly, ran into Tracey and her family again. I enjoyed what I saw of the show. I know that to many of you this is unimaginable, but...I fell asleep for a while in the middle. All of the activities of the past few days caught up with me.
After the show we got some pictures from Shutters and went back to the room to rest before our next scheduled entertainment. I took a few minutes to pack up all of the laundry we'd accumulated to date. That was one bag down at least. At 4:00 pm Theo took the kids up to Studio Sea for “Tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter,” and I went to Diversions for the “Margarita/Tequila Tasting.”
The presenter for the Margarita/Tequila Tasting was lady named Yelena who was quite knowledgeable about tequila. I learned that by Mexican law tequila can only be made in Mexico, and there are three grades: blanco (aged the least), anejo (aged the most) and reposado (in between). During the tasting we sampled blanco, anejo, a tequila coffee liqueur , an apple margarita, and a strawberry margarita.
After the tasting I went back to the stateroom where Theo and the kids told me all about the Tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter. When they arrived the tables at Studio Sea were set for tea (apple juice) and cookies. Alice and the Mad Hatter came in gave a lesson on the proper etiquette for a tea party. Theo was quite impressed with the cast members playing the Mad Hatter and Alice. They were really excellent at their characters. At the end of the party each group got a chance to talk with Alice and the Mad Hatter and take a picture. When it was their turn Lucy said to Alice, “When I was six years old I was you for Halloween!” Without missing a beat the Mad Hatter quipped to Lucy, “When I was six years old I was YOU for Halloween! What a 'cointhidence'!” They all got a kick out of that.
Next we dressed in our semi-formal duds for dinner. I had the Oysters Rockefeller, Wild Forest Mushroom Soup drizzeled with White Truffle Oil, Baked Lobster Tail. Theo had the Grilled Shrimp, Garden Fresh Salad, and Parmesan Crusted Chicken. Chloe had the Shrimp and Lobster. Lucy and Cecilia both had Chicken Noodle Soup and mac & cheese. Daphne branched out from her usual mac & cheese with Penne pasta and Chicken fingers. I forgot to write down what we had for dessert but I'm pretty sure I had the Chocolate Lava cake. Anyway, dinner was very, very good and we left well stuffed.
After dinner we brought the kids to the clubs and headed up to the DVC office for our appointment. We reasoned that if we used what we were going to spend on our Anniversary trip as a down payment on DVC, that we could still go on that trip plus many more in the future. So for us Disney Dreams, part two, today was 200 pts Saratoga Springs.
We went back to the stateroom with DVC door magnets and hats and pins that Dave, our DVC guide, gave to us for the girls. We set the hats and pins out on their beds to surprise them and went to fetch them at the clubs. Daphne was ready to come out right away, but when I went to the Oceanears Lab for the older girls I was met with a flurry of activity. They were tossing balloons and streamers all over the Lab! It turns out that they were throwing a surprise birthday party for Donald Duck and he was going to be there any minute. There was no way that they were going to come quietly before Donald got there, so I ran back to the room for my camera and got back just as Donald was leaving. I had just enough time to snap a few pictures. They didn't turn out very well because the Lab was still dark from the “Surprise!” part of the party.
They stacked up these bean bag chairs to hide behind:
Donald held his birthday cards close and was very touched by the party:
The kids were so happy that they skipped all the way back to the room.
This was exactly the kind of Disney magic that I'd dreamed of for the cruise and Disney did not disappoint me! For me, this picture embodies all of that magic.
Back at the cabin we told the kids that we had a super big surprise for them, opened the door and showed them the hats. Of course they had absolutely no idea what DVC was so they were very confused!
But they caught on quickly. This day was so magical. Looking back I can't believe how much we did that day. This day goes down as one of my all time best.
Coming soon: Our last full day on the magic.
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We had just enough time to go back to the room, update our door decorations,
I'll say hi for you and me, too! 
the family shot! Looking forward to more
I talked with him for a good five minutes, but unfortunately do not remember anything else we talked about. About that time Theo joined us. He had spent the whole time dealing with Daphne who was being a pill.
I hope he was just being coy and/or truth hedging because I would really like to see the Magic or Wonder out here permanently! 
And the desserts were superb and decadent. I had several. While we were eating, Theo and I perused the Navigator. We decided to attend the Disney Vacation Club Presentation at 12:30pm in Diversions. We'd heard of DVC before and even did a little research, but wanted to talk to someone in person to see if it made sense for us.
All of the activities of the past few days caught up with me.
, an apple margarita, and a strawberry margarita.
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