This was the second sea day for us on our Very Merrytime Christmas cruise!  Everyone was really tired, so we slept in late.  The girls eventually got dressed and went off to the Edge and the Vibe.  Nancy and I had plans for Palo brunch at 11 am, so we decided to skip breakfast so we wouldn’t be full.  We headed up to Cove Cafe for some morning coffee. 

The Cove Cafe is located on Deck 9 in the adult only area of the Magic.   The Cove Cafe offers different types of coffee related drinks for an additional charge.  They are also more than willing to add alcohol to your drinks (with corresponding up charge).  Note: These pictures of the Cove Cafe are before it was updated in a recent dry dock.  You can order other alcohol related drinks as well.

Cove Cafe also offers complementary pastries and snacks as well. 

 Here are a few pictures of the menu.  We have ordered several different coffee drinks, but never the mixed drinks.

They had several seasonal drinks they were offering as well.  Nancy got the Gingerbread Latte while I selected the regular Cafe Mocha.  The drinks weren’t quite Starbucks quality, but they were still pretty good.

One nice aspect of Cove Cafe is that they have a free drink card that will give you a free drink after you purchase five drinks.   We bring our cards back from previous cruises as well so they don’t go to waste. 

 

After finishing our drinks, Nancy and I returned to the room to get ready for Palo Brunch!  Palo is the adults-only restaurant on Deck 10 aft on the Disney Magic.  Disney describes the menu as classic Northern Italian cooking “with a modern twist.”  Palo serves brunch and dinner for an additional charge of $30 per person.  The brunch consists of a combination of a buffet and a limited number of a la carte items.

Nancy and I arrived a few minutes early for our reservation.  We were seated at a nice table by the window after checking in.  

Our waiter arrived and brought us each a drink as well as the entree menu. 

He walked us to the buffet and explained all the food choices, including the a la carte items.  Due to Nancy’s shellfish allergy, the food service staff is always careful to explain what is safe to eat and what should be avoided, which is very helpful. 

Nancy and I each selected a number of items from the buffet and returned to the table to enjoy them.

Here is one of the famous warm sticky buns!  We each got only one but would have returned for a few more if it weren’t for the wonderful entrees that we knew would follow.

While we were enjoying the buffet, the waiter returned to take our entree order.

I selected the Lasagna Bolognaise and Nancy got the Artichoke Ravioli.  I had debated on the Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breast, which is my favorite.  The waiter brought one out for us to share.

Despite the fact that we were really full, we knew we had to get some dessert!  Here are the items we selected from the buffet.  It is funny that we selected almost the same things.

Palo does have a full service bar should you wish to order a drink. 

The other nice aspect of Palo is the open kitchen.  It is a bit difficult to look into when you are seated (since it is behind the buffet), but you can definitely see it when you are up at the buffet.

There is a private dining room in Palo that they will seat larger groups in.  It is decorated with this mural.

We paid the bill ($30 per adult plus tip) and managed to walk out of Palo.  Nancy needed to sign up for the Castaway Cay 5K, so we headed towards the atrium.  The Port Adventures desk is opposite Guest Services on Deck 3.  Signing up for the Castaway Cay 5K was really easy, just a quick stop for Nancy to register and receive her event ticket for the race (it’s like the tickets you receive when you register for a Port Excursion).  We also decided to take some more pictures of the gingerbread house in the lobby.

We returned to the room to change.  Unfortunately, the tip envelopes were waiting for us.  That means the cruise would eventually end.  (Cue the sad music).

Since this was Tangled night on the Magic, we decided to go checkout the Snuggly Duckling takeover of O’Gills Pub. 

Here are some of the decorations!

There was also a special drink menu.

We didn’t hang out for the Snuggly Duckling activities because we had somewhere special to be.  That’s right, it was Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash.  The Diaper Dash is held in the main atrium and is a crawling baby race!  The babies get to race for glory against each other.  We picked an overhead perch to watch all the activity.

The number of competitors was low for this race.  Fortunately for the large crowd, there was a ringer that entered.  She spent the entire warm up time crawling everywhere.  She swept this race in less than 15 seconds.  The crowd loved it.

Following the diaper dash, Nancy and I headed back to the adult area to hang out again.  We had about an hour or so to kill before the Tangled show.  It was a must do for us as we hadn’t seen it before.  We grabbed some drinks and headed to the Walt Disney World Theater. We only took a picture of the opening screen because pictures aren’t allowed during the show.  The show was really good though, especially the effects with the floating lanterns.  We won’t spoil it further, but we really loved it. 

Dinner tonight was in Animator’s Palate with the standard menu.

Here are a few shots of the dining room before the lighting starts to change.

Here is the standard Animator’s Palate Menu. 

My younger daughter ordered the Tiramisu Mocha again.

I ordered a double order of the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes, which is one of my favorite appetizers on Disney Cruise Line.

Nancy and the girls ordered the Butternut Squash Soup.

Nancy ordered the Grilled Tuna Steak.

My older daughter ordered the Black Bean Chipotle Cakes, but I don’t think she liked them very much.

The rest of us ordered the standard Ginger Teriyaki Dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin, which I really enjoy.

The show in the dining room continued as the room slowly filled with color.

We did eventually get around to ordering dessert.  Nancy enjoyed the Lemon Icebox Pie.  I ordered a Mickey Bar, because I always order one if the other desserts don’t interest me.  I’m not a fan of the chocolate and sprinkles on the Mickey Bar, but forgot to ask them to leave it off this time.

The girls headed off to their clubs which we waited around for the rest of the dinner show. 

We stayed a bit longer to talk to Viand and Debbie, our wait staff.  We really enjoyed getting to know both of them.  We ended up requesting Viand for another sailing, but sadly Debbie wouldn’t be on board for our next sailing.  We spent some time talking to Debbie about her work at Epcot at Rose and Crown, which we really enjoy as well.

Nancy and I headed back to the room.  Our room attendant had the room ready for us to go to bed, but left us this guy along with the navigator for tomorrow and instructions for Castaway Cay!

We had a great day at sea, enjoying the fresh air and a wonderful meal at Palo.  Tomorrow we would be headed off to enjoy Castaway Cay, Disney Cruise Line’s private island in the Bahamas.

Full Trip Report:  Planning | Travel  | Boarding | Day At Sea | Cozumel | Day At Sea | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation

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