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<\/a><\/p>\nWe started Christmas day by ordering room service. We knew the girls wouldn’t be interested in getting up early since they had both stayed out late at the clubs the night before. While they were sleeping, I took their gift coupons to the lobby to try to retrieve their gifts. The cruise staff needed their Key to the World cards, so I had to head back to the room to get them.<\/p>\n
Here is what they each received:<\/p>\n
By the time I got back the second time, the girls had gotten up and had some breakfast. We exchanged presents and the girls got dressed. We wanted to head to the lobby to see Santa’s arrival. After a long night of work, he was going to come relax on the ship!<\/p>\n They were also having a Gingerbread House display in the atrium along with lots of cookies. Each display had a house plus cookies that represented a country from some of the crew members. We ran into our fantastic assistant server, Debbie, and chatted with her a bit.<\/p>\n Once we ate our fill of cookies, Nancy and I decided to go to a cooking demonstration in the D Lounge. They were making the traditional Yule Log dessert! Neither Nancy or I can make any of the things they demonstrate, but we love going to watch. The head pastry chef was going to be running the demonstration, with help from the cruise directory and her assistant. <\/p>\n Here was the setup:<\/p>\n The cruise directory came out to start off the demonstration and introduce the pastry chef.<\/p>\n The first part of making the yule log was to make the sponge cake portion. Once he poured it in the pan, he went on to get an already cooked sponge cake to continue the demonstration (since cooking it would have taken too long for the demonstration). While he was doing this, the cruise director and the assistant cruise director provided comic relief, to the point of eating cocoa powder and smearing whipped cream on each other. The chef played the straight man throughout the demonstration.<\/p>\n After making the sponge cake, he then went on to make the filling. This was pretty much chocolate and cream that he whipped. <\/p>\n The next step was to make the chocolate ganache. I think he let the cruise director make it.<\/p>\n They spread the filling onto the cake and carefully rolled it. Once it was rolled together, they covered it with the ganache. It needed to be chilled, so they came out with a completed dessert. A small portion was then served to each person. One of the sommelier from Palo then appeared to explain what types of beverage would go best with a sweet dessert. <\/p>\n I believe his recommendation ended up being a port, but I don’t remember.<\/p>\n Here was the finished product. And yes, it was delicious.<\/p>\n The cooking demonstration was a great way to spend some time. Nancy and I got to watch a highly trained pastry chef make dessert and we had a front row seat to it. The demonstration was about 30 minutes long if you are thinking about watching one.<\/p>\n We went to get some lunch from Lumiere’s, then went to watch Coco in the main theater. I hadn’t seen it before but Nancy and my younger daughter had. We all met up, grabbed some popcorn, and watched the movie. I really enjoyed it. After the movie, the younger one went back off to the Edge and Nancy and I headed to the adult pool area. We relaxed and enjoyed some adult beverages when the Captain came on the intercom. Apparently, we were going to be having a visitor.<\/p>\n We were right about here:<\/p>\n The visitor was the Fantasy on her way to Grand Cayman:<\/p>\n We thought there was going to be a horn battle, and apparently, there was. The acoustics were so bad that we never could hear the Fantasy’s horn. I understand the Captains not wanting to get the ships too close together. It was a nice encounter in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico though.<\/p>\n We stayed in the adult area for quite a while. On our way back to the room, Nancy captured this great picture at dusk.<\/p>\n We went back to the room and cleaned up, because it was time for our favorite activity, the character dance party. These are held in the atrium and a host of characters show up to dance with the passengers. Mickey and Minnie kicked off the party!<\/p>\n There were a large number of people attending the dance party. Not only did Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy show up, but the princesses did as well. <\/p>\n Each of the characters would take a turn on the stage, then return to the crowd to dance.<\/p>\n After enjoying the character dance party, it was time for dinner in Lumiere’s! The menu was a special Christmas menu.<\/p>\n The bread service was “Holiday Loaf”. It sounds like mystery meat, but if I remember it was corn bread. <\/p>\n One of the girls ordered the Scrooge. They said it was good.<\/p>\n I ordered the X-mas Cookie cocktail, mainly because it sounded interesting. It was fine, but perhaps a bit too sweet for my taste.<\/p>\n Nancy ordered the Poinse-Tini.<\/p>\n For appetizers, we ordered the Seafood Sampler, the Spinach and Artichoke dip, Winter Squash Soup, and Carrot, Yellow and Red Beet Salad.<\/p>\n For entrees, we ordered the Roasted Chilean Sea Bass, Marmalade Glazed Baked Virginia Ham, Pumpkin and Mascarpone Ravoli, and the Roasted Turkey. Everything was great, except the Turkey. I didn’t end up finishing it, but by that time, I had bread and an appetizer. I was already pretty full, so I didn’t bother to order a replacement for it.<\/p>\n For dessert, Nancy and I ordered the Apple Pie a la Mode and the Double Chocolate Yule Log. The kids went off to meet up with their new cruise friends. This was the same Yule Log we saw during the cooking demonstration. It was really good.<\/p>\n After dinner, Nancy and I headed to Fathoms to take in some of the adult entertainment. We ended up watching a little bit of the Feud (an adult version of family feud) followed by Match Your Mate. Match Your Mate is like the old Newlywed game, but with couples selected from the audience. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. The show was definitely adult rated, but nothing too bad. After hanging out for an hour or so, we headed back to the room. <\/p>\n We had this guy on the bed, along with the next day navigators. Tomorrow we would be headed back to Cozumel.<\/p>\n Full Trip Report: Planning<\/a> | Travel<\/a> | Boarding<\/a> | Day At Sea<\/a> | Cozumel<\/a> | Day At Sea<\/a> | Castaway Cay<\/a> | Disembarkation<\/a><\/p>\n If you have enjoyed this article, please be sure to check out our Disney Cruise Line information page<\/a>, which has useful hints in addition to our cruise trip reports!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>