Day 2 – At Sea

Our first day at sea promised to be a busy one.  We had several activities planned for the day.  The first activity was the Gold and Platinum Castaway Reception!  We skipped our first chance at the reception on our Spring Break Cruise last year, which was our first cruise as Gold Castaway Club Members.  We had talked with some friends who said it was nice, so we decided to go.  The reception was held in The Tube, so we headed down there.

As soon as we walked into the reception, we were offered drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) along with fruit and cookies.  Pluto was walking around taking pictures with everyone as well.  After Pluto worked the crowd, it was time for the officers to take their turn.

We spoke with the officer in charge of guest relations.  She was super nice and answered any questions we had.  The officers in charge of the ship systems, the cruise director (JIMMY!!!) , and other officers as well worked the crowd as well.

Once the officers were done talking to the guests, Commodore Tom Forberg got up to talk.  He talked a little about the two new ships that Disney was building and the shipyard where they were being built.  He didn’t provide any information that wasn’t already public knowledge, so we didn’t learn anything new from his talk.  He asked people about their favorite cruise destinations and talked in general about Disney Cruise Line.  Overall, the reception was nice, but I don’t know if I would do it again.  If you want to meet some of the officers or get a free drink or two, it is a fun thing to do though!  (Note: as of May 2017, Disney Cruise Line has announced that the Gold and Platinum Castaway Reception will only be held on 8 night or longer cruises).

Our next stop was Palo brunch!  Nancy and I love Palo brunch and we always try to book it at least once each cruise, since our first Disney cruise to Alaska.  The brunch has a combination of entrees you can order as well as a buffet.  This works well for us because I’m not a breakfast person, but Nancy is.  We both can find something to enjoy at the brunch. 

The brunch is $30 per person, plus whatever gratuity you choose to give to your server.  We were seated at a nice table right by the window so we could enjoy a view of the ocean.  We both looked over the entree menu before approaching the buffet.  I ordered the Lasagna Bolognaise and Nancy ordered the Rollatini Melanzane.  We then went off to the buffet to begin our meals.

After eating way too much food, including our delicious entrees as well as dessert, Nancy and I ordered some coffee.  Our server then brought us a decorated plate (and a rose for Nancy) in celebration our 20th wedding anniversary.  Our travel agent, we found out later, had notified Disney Cruise Line after our other cruise we had booked for our 20th anniversary had been canceled by Hurricane Mathews.  

After our fantastic brunch at Palo, we had our second activity of the day, the Mixology class.  I’ve already described it in another post, so I won’t go over it again.  Needless to say, I was in a great mood for the rest of the day, until I wasn’t.  Nancy and I went off to find some special “rare” characters that were listed on the navigator for the day.  Nancy managed to find the White Rabbit and Jiminy Cricket.

After meeting the various characters, we got together to go see the show for the night, which was Aladdin.  The show was good, but I think we had previously watched it on our other Fantasy cruise.  It’s basically an abbreviated version of the Aladdin movie.  We got ready for dinner at Enchanted Garden. 

Here are the pictures of Nancy’s dinner.  I was not very interested in dinner as the Mixology class was finally catching up to me.  Nancy ordered the Ahi Tuna and Avocado Tower, the Spinach and Raspberry Salad, and the Pan Seared Sea Bass.  She had the Esterházy Cake for dessert.  I ordered the Slow Roasted Breast of Chicken, which was the plain chicken with very little spice. 

The girls went off to their clubs and Nancy and I went back to the room to get ready for bed.  We had this waiting for us when we got there.  The note indicates that we should adjust our clocks to one hour ahead.  We set the clocks and went to bed.  The girls came in from their clubs much later in the night, which let us know they were continuing to have fun with the friends they had met the night before.

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