During a recent Disney Cruise, we participated in the Mixology class. The class is a chance to try your hand at making (and tasting) five different mixed drinks. The class costs $20 per person and the amount is charged to your room. It is important to note that if you would like to do one of these classes, you should sign up when you board the ship on the first day. We looked in the Navigator we picked up in the port terminal to find the signup location. For our cruise on the Fantasy, that was in La Piazza. We waited around a few hours before going to sign up and we managed to grab the last two spots for the Mixology class on the first sea day.
The location for our class was the Skyline lounge, which is the martini bar on the Disney Fantasy (and the Dream as well). We arrived for our class at 2 PM and the lounge was already set up for the class. The bartender teaching the class, Damien, had already put together some of the base ingredients for the drinks as well as the glasses to help speed the class along. As the participants began to filter into the lounge, the bartender and his two assistants collected our tickets or checked our names off a list he had.
The class began with Damien explaining that it was going to be an interactive class, so we should all gather around the bar. We would all take turns making drinks and sharing them with our classmates. He spent some time explaining the various glasses and why they were used. One particular example he gave was the martini glasses being made with very thin glass so you could discard your drink quickly (by smashing it on the ground) during prohibition if the police were raiding an establishment.
Damien then asked for volunteers to mix the first drink. Three participants went behind the bar and two worked on the ends of the bar. They were going to be making a muddled drink, where you put fresh ingredients into a glass and then mash them to let out their flavor into the drink. He had prepared a drink based on strawberries, basil, and lime. The participants had to muddle each drink and then add some ice, rum, and club soda (if I remember correctly). Damien gave suggestions for the amount of alcohol to be added to each drink, but each participant making the drinks just eye balled it. Some put in more than others. Then, once they finished, everyone grabbed one to taste. When I say taste, I really mean everybody drank it right down. The drink was delicious! Very refreshing and light tasting.
The next drink we would be learning to make was a Malibu Sea Breeze. Damien explained how there are many varieties of these drinks made with different type of juices, but most usually include vodka as the alcohol. The Malibu Sea Breeze instead uses Malibu rum. Nancy decided to try her hand at making this drink.
The first item to put into the glass was the rum. Nancy used a steady hand to load the drinks up. She then added the cranberry juice followed by the orange juice. The final concoction was delicious and everybody downed them right away (this will eventually turn out to be a bad idea, especially if you do not usually drink a lot).
The next drink that the class got a chance to learn was a layered drink. This type of drink uses different densities of liquids to cause a drink that has a specific look to it. For some reason, I thought I remembered Damien telling us to put the least dense liquid in first and then add the next liquid with a higher density. However, none of the websites I looked at after the cruise advised doing it that way, so maybe I am not remembering it correctly. Either way, you continue to add liquids until you have the desired look. I believe this drink contained vodka. A different set of participants got to make this drink.
The next drink that was up was a martini. Damien explained that martinis are made to be strong drinks. If you ever think the martini is too strong, his opinion was that you ordered the wrong drink. That certainly enabled the participants that made these drinks. He also explained that a “dirty” martini was one that had olive juice in it. This drink also had a dried dark cherry in it to give it a slightly different flavor. I didn’t enjoy this drink as much, but at this point, I was definitely starting to feel the effects of the previous three I had slammed down in the short 30 minutes we had been in the class so far.
The last drink of the class would be a shot that was half Kahlua and half Fireball whiskey. I hadn’t made a drink yet, so I got to make this one. It was pretty straight forward as I only had to add the Fireball. Everyone collected their shots and downed them at once.
The class was a ton of fun, especially as it went on and people started to get lubricated by the alcohol. Everybody got to try their hand and making drinks and I think I learned a lot about the job of tending bar (not that I could do it, just some of the aspects they have to keep in mind when working). Damien did a great job of explaining how to make the drinks as well as why you would use the different ingredients and what would be acceptable substitutes. He was supposed to hand out recipes for each of the classes, but didn’t have them printed. He said we could come back and get them later in the cruise but we forgot to do it. Either way, we really enjoyed the class and will probably do it again in the future.
Now, my public service announcement. If you don’t drink normally, this class will get you drunk quickly. I was fairly intoxicated within an hour of leaving the class and I had eaten a large lunch in anticipation of the drinks I would be enjoying. It didn’t help. I was not really able to enjoy my dinner after this class. Now, we had another cruise after this one and we repeated the class, but I made a particular effort to pace myself. I tasted each of the drinks, but didn’t consume all of them. I would have a drink or two from each and only finished a one of them. Just something to keep in mind.
If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!