Fourth Day - At Sea, our 24th Anniversary - September 23, 2013

Days at sea are the BEST! The sight is unbelievable from your verandah. Nothing but blue water and blue sky as far as the eye can see. It's so peaceful out there.

And today is our 24th wedding anniversary!

So, we got up: pretty early again. I had sent Steve up to Cabanas with our handy dandy drink carrier (a fast food restaurant drink carrier that Steve covered in Mickey duct tape!) to get coffee, juice for me and some fruit to snack on. We have brunch reservations with some of our FB group today at 10:30am. And Lord knows I was saving room for all of the wonderful food I had heard about on the cruise boards! The night before we had gotten a reminder card on our door about our reservation for 14. We got dressed and headed up to find Palo on deck 12 aft. I wish I had taken pics of the restaurant. It was so beautiful! And the view...ahhhh... This is where my love of Strawberry Soup began. Just one of the few food items I literally dream about! I also had the Chicken Parmesan and some wonderful things from the buffet. I was most looking forward to the tomato, mozzarella and basil. Our table had ordered a few of the pizzas to share, also. I loved the margherita pizza! Then it was back to the buffet for desserts galore. I remember contemplating ordering another strawberry soup for dessert... I had it noted on our original cruise reservation that we were celebrating our anniversary. Palo remembered!

Everything was perfect! We even met Kevin and Kirk from Memphis for the first time on the cruise. Wonderful guys! It's great to know someone local now that shares the same love for Disney :)

After brunch, we rolled back down to our room. Having a room in the aft section of the ship was fantastic! It was close to everything we were interested in. Except Satellite Falls, the Rainforest and the WD Theater for the shows. But it's really not such a bad walk at all. Walking the room halls were the pits. So, we learned pretty early on to go to the deck you were heading to and then walk for a more interesting view of everything.

We changed clothes and tried to decide what to do today.

We eventually got into our swimsuits and tried out Satellite Falls. This is a wonderful, quiet area away from the busy mid part of the ship. Picked out a couple of loungers and ordered my drink of the day and a beer for Steve. Just perfect!

I had seen in the Navigator that today was the last day to book a future cruise if you wanted to be included in the drawing for some free on-board credit (this sailing!). That blue water, blue sky, quiet adult area and all you can eat food made Steve a believer :) With our swimsuits still on, we went straight to the booking desk. No line. Didn't even sit down. Signed right up for the same sailing next year. Same room. Saved 10% and the deposit was half of what it would have been if we booked from home. Now we're all set for next September!!!

As we were making our way to the booking desk, we walked along the deck where we saw the life boats up close yesterday. Steve said it would be funny if he stood under one with his hands under it and yelled at me to "Go get someone, QUICK!" I couldn't stop laughing at the idea. Maybe next time...

The show for tonight was Wishes. Not to be missed! We were dressed on time and headed to the theater. Great show! Disney Cruise Line really knows how to tug at the heart strings and make you book another cruise, let me tell you. They got me.

La Piazza for another drink before dinner, I believe. And then dinner at the Royal Court tonight.

This is the nicest, fanciest restaurant on the rotation. It was a little weird being in there for a casual night, but we would be back for a semi-formal night as well. Murals of the princesses with their princes rounded the entire room.

Cinderella coaches for bread baskets and lighting fixtures.

Completely surprised me when they remembered our anniversary, as well! We got a special dessert and 2 anniversary buttons :)

It was Doug and Michelle's anniversary too, just before we sailed earlier in the week. And it was about this time that we all knew Steve would be ordering the Sweet Temptations (a sampling of 3) for dessert. Again... Every night... 

Tonight at the Tube, we played 'The Quest' with Sandy and Judy. It was like a scavenger hunt, more or less. Sandy already knew a lot of what they were going to ask for. And he was quick on his feet! I didn't have most of the things they were asking for, but we had a few. The funniest part for me was Frankie asking, "Show me a tattoo". They all stayed at the table and I flew up there. I thought I needed Sandy with me (as team captain, I supposed) but he just looked at me and said 'what do you need ME for?!'  So, I ran up to show my tattoo, I though Frankie could see it if I dipped my jacket down just a bit. He said 'I don't see anything'. So, I took it down off my shoulder and he says 'now we have people taking off their clothes up here!' Uh, no Frankie. Geez, it's just a sweater. But thanks for making me blush in front of the crowd... LOL! But, we had a good time with Sandy and Judy again :) After the game, they had a female ventriloquist. I wasn't too sure about this, they kinda freak me out. But she was very funny! Lynn Trefzger was her name.

Then, it's nighty night time yet again...

Third Day - At Sea - September 22, 2013

The day before, and after we arrived on the ship, I forgot to mention that we went to Guest Services to: 1) add my Disney Gift Cards to our on board account  2) give them a plain white photo mat with Sharpie markers for the characters to sign  3) sign up for the Art of the Theme Show Tour.

So, we woke up early and headed to breakfast at Enchanted Garden on deck 2 mid. We had a nice table by the window. Which later, we would learn that eating at 8pm at night was a little DARK. LOL! So, it was nice to be able to see out to the ocean while eating breakfast. Enchanted Garden has a buffet in the mornings, but your server still brings you your beverages. Next time, note to self: get pineapple juice AND orange juice :)

After breakfast we headed to the Meridian lounge (deck 12 aft) where we were to take our Art of the Theme Show Tour.

Our tour guide, Caitlyn, was there to take a roll call. Unfortunately, there was a private party in Palo that morning - so we couldn't go in there. So, our tour started with Meridian lounge and Remy. Wow!!! Someday I would love to eat there for dinner! It's gorgeous and packed with little touches everywhere. They even have little stools for ladies to rest their purses on :)

They have an incredible wine cellar, complete with John Lasseter's private collection. Cute bottles with pictures of the Pixar movies on each. Sadly, they are not for sale.

We headed down 7 flights of stairs (thanks, Caitlyn!) and down the long hall on deck 5, where the kids clubs were. We walked by the nursery and learned a pretty interesting fact. The Disney Dream wasn't originally built with a nursery. But after seeing how many infants were on each cruise, they took out a food cooler and replaced it with a nursery! Ha! We walked a little further and stood by the railings surrounding the atrium. The atrium in only 3 decks high, but it looks massive! We were eye level with the huge chandelier...

Which is modeled after a dragonfly, NOT a peacock like I've heard it compared to. The Princess Gathering was going on below. Glad I'm up here!

Down one more flight of stairs and we were on deck 4 mid and headed outside to the walking/jogging track. 2.5 laps = one mile. While Caitlyn explained about the lifeboats and rafts, I took this time to take some photos. But, Steve was pretty into it...

And then it was time for a walk through the adult, nighttime lounges. Wow! The details are just incredible! She explained how each of the restrooms all around the ship are themed. We were able to see the men/womens restrooms in the cave-like hallway near the Tube. They are themed like the bullfighter and the flamenco dancer. I only took photos of the womens room :)

Next time: I am taking pics of ALL the restrooms!!! But, as you can see... no people in them :)

We walked through a few of the lounges and it was over. Very cool tour, and free too. I highly recommend it. These were the bar stools at La Piazza. Cute!

Before leaving home, our Facebook group got a bunch of people together for a Mixology session. Ours was today at 2pm in Skyline. So, we had lunch and then headed to our Mixology class. It was only $15 per person and we learned how to make 5 different drinks. $15 divided by 5 = $3 a drink!!! Heck yeah! We had 22 people in the group, so every 4 people got to make a drink for the rest of the group. Our instructor/bartender asked for volunteers that had never opened a bottle of champagne before. Ooo, that's ME! I got to make a champagne cocktail and Steve went up and made a layered shot, called a Brain Hemmotage. Nice, huh?

It was pretty fun, actually. And we got to meet a lot of our Facebook faces, finally. Great group of people, very fun :)

So, after drinking 4 drinks (I did not partake in the Brain Hemmorage, this ship did not need to witness that!) I thought it would be a great time to deliver my Fish Extender gifts! Yeah, right... So, we went back to our room and picked up a few decks worth of gift bags. I had them all separated into decks, thank goodness. So, Steve decided to come along and we ran into a couple from our Mixology group doing the same! I was doing ok, but this particular couple was having a heck of a time trying to find the right staterooms! At one point, she said "I know I messed up, but at least everyone will get something!" LOL! They were hilarious!

Dinner tonight was in Enchanted Garden, deck 2 mid. Plus, it was formal night. So, we got all dressed up in suits and ties (couldn't resist singing the JT song...), black dress and headed to our show for the evening, Aladdin. The Walt Disney Theater was on deck 3 forward, but we found it nice to sit in the balcony on deck 4. It was fun to get all dressed up and go to the theater, just as we would for a show back home at the Orpheum. The highlight of the show was the Genie, of course. After the show, we had about an hour before dinner. Tonight was the Captains Reception. Free drinks! Lol! I couldn't believe all of the kids running around though. Then it was off to dinner in Enchanted Garden. I didn't take any photos here this time around. But, I did on the other night we ate here.

I can't remember if we went to the Tube this night or not. The show was Majority Rules... I honestly can't remember. Then it was bedtime, once again.