First Disney cruise - 5-Day Magic w/Marvel Day at Sea (Completed!)

Back on board, DS and I went to the pool while DH decided to get a future cruise credit. That took much longer than anticipated. The sign about how you could just fill out a form and put it in a box got accidentally covered up.

Because of how deep that main pool is, I'm really thankful for the lifeguards. I mean, not because it's dangerously deep. But because you can't see your kids unless you're sitting uncomfortably on the edge. Being able to sit in one of the deck chairs closest to the pool and just stand up every so often was much nicer. Appropriately, the movie was Finding Nemo. Once again, no one was walking around taking drink orders, which seems like leaving money on the table.

At the appropriate time, we went inside to finally get a photo with Mickey. Nothing like the last minute. But I particularly liked the appropriateness of the ship captain's outfit anyway. The handler was a little distressed by how wet DS was, but he didn't want to hug Mickey anyway. The handler did also comment on how the rashguard showed Mickey surfing and how they didn't do fun things like that together anymore, so that was entertaining.

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We had just about 15 minutes until it was time for photos with Donald elsewhere so we went out on the promenade deck to dry off a little.

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Donald was awesome. Although now I wish I'd put the Louie shirt back on DS. It was probably still soaked.

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He did the exploding fist bump! Extra fun when your kid loves Big Hero 6.

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They had satin jackets in the gift shop! I haven't seen satin jackets (outside of rewatching Grease) since Shawn Cassidy's face was on the back.

(How's that for old?)

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Tonight was the big new birthday party at Rapunzel's Table. It would actually be our second consecutive night in the restaurant, but last night was Pirate Night, so not really the same.

The line to get in was insanely long so we sat at a table in the Promenade Lounge to wait for it to die down. We would have ordered a drink if anyone had come by, but once again...

The photos I got of the decor and entertainment aren't very good but I'll include them anyway because it's such a new thing.

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DH is paranoid because he thinks I'm taking a photo of him doing something amusing but I'm actually just taking a photo of the fancy water goblets.
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I love the detail of the flower in the drink of the day.

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They had some trouble with the drink service that evening. DH tried ordering one of the beers specific to the Rapunzel menu and they were actually out of all of them. I ordered the special wine flight and they just forgot it. Everything was a little more chaotic than usual, although the staff's attitudes were still good. DH had visited Guest Services that day to add extra tips and go on record as being very happy with them. And our room attendant. Figured the feedback would go further than way than just putting extra money in the envelope.

Oh right. He also got a printout of the extra charges when he did that. Right before dinner. That's the other reason he looks so cheerful. They were as much as our fare! I won't admit how much of that was pins.

Somehow we skipped the charcuterie platter. I don't remember why. We love charcuterie. I had the Ravioli “Tiroler” filled with Puffed Beef and Portobello Mushrooms tossed in a Red Wine-Thyme Reduction served with Roasted Carrots and Pearl Onions (maybe that's why) and the Maximus Salad: Cucumber Salad, Potato Salad, and Carrot Salad topped with Baby Oakleaf and Lolla Rosa. The cucumber and potato salads were each just a few slices of the respective veggie in a vinaigrette. And the carrot was the same thing but shredded. No apparent mayo in any of them.

The Flynn Rider Platter (Grilled Smoked Pork Loin served with Roasted Smoked Pork Belly, Bockwurst, Braised Red Cabbage, Fried Potato Dumpling, and a Spätburgunder Wine Jus) was delicious but way too much food. I ended up giving DH my pork belly since he was just having the pesto angel hair with scallops.

The soft pretzels in the bread basket were a fun change and particularly popular with the kids at the table.

We'd originally talked to DS about letting him have both the frying pan dessert and the birthday cupcake one, since both sounded so good, and we'd just help him eat both. But he ended up with his actual birthday cake that night instead. He has super introverted parents so of course he's like the one person on the planet who loves waiters singing at him. (Dig those medieval uniforms. They are really cool in person too.)

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I'm not sure there was actually any cake involved. It was all mousse and ganache. In a good way. And maybe even gluten-free as a result.

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I had the Black Forest Tower, which was okay. And pretty small but that was good after all that dinner.

Flynn and Rapunzel came around. Without ship photographers. I wonder whether they have them the other nights.

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The dinner show isn't at all distracting or too loud if you're not trying to follow along.

You can see DS's light-up color-changing Pascal that was an upcharge option with his smoothie.
 
DS always selects a souvenir plush on vacation. This newest one from Castaway Cay is Ray Jr.

Bunny and Badger are the top-ranked friends that come on every trip.

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The sofa bed was really interesting. As you can see, it doesn't fold out. The back folds down and the mattress unzips out of it.

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We will not get away with this room configuration for many more years.

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Okay, let's wrap this up.

The nice thing about late dinner is you also get late breakfast. Not that we had anything to do in the morning, since we'd put out our luggage the night before. We were back at Rapunzel's Table. Our waitstaff was as personable as ever, despite hearing that isn't always the case with that final breakfast.

I loved the tuxedo napkins.

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DS was inspired by Pirate Night (still) to make a skull and crossbones with his pastry.

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This was the one time the food was unacceptable rather than just weird (ahem, Pirate Night). I ordered the Almost Home: Corned beef hash, fried eggs and bacon skillet topped with fried onions. Sounds great. I love hash. And there was no risk of Disney Cruise Line serving the canned dog food version.

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I know every line has people who will defend to the death every detail and any complaint just proves you're a relentlessly negative person actively looking for things to go wrong, but no. Just no.

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One of the more surreal pieces of art while slowly inching our way off the ship.

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Hailing a cab out front was pretty uneventful. We were staying two more days because it was Friday, but in a less expensive hotel this time. There's no point in going into the details because they were in the process of being converted from a boutique hotel (Hotel Urbano) to a Hilton Garden Inn and is thus probably already unrecognizable. Major construction. But that made it very affordable.

I'll confess the first thing we did in our room was fire up the free wireless and get back in touch with the world. But we made a pact to continue staying off Facebook until we were home. I actually made it until Tuesday. We took advantage of being in a city large for a GrubHub etc and ordered sushi burritos. Something we'd read about and were dying to try. They were delicious!

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And for dinner we walked just a couple blocks and had the combo platter you see here. Thank goodness we had a mini fridge in the room! This is a chain so there are several Florida locations and I recommend them. The drinks were amazing too. CHICHA DE COCO - Rice-based drink with Coconut and Milk, flavored with Condensed Milk, Cinnamon and Shredded Coconut.

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On Saturday we visited the Aquarium. It has very mixed reviews on Trip Advisor. It's basically a small town aquarium in a large city. If you're from somewhere with a fancy aquarium, it won't impress. But if you're like us and have no aquarium at all, it was totally worth the visit. DS went through an extended Octonauts phase as a toddler and still prefers aquariums to zoos. And this was his first orca and dolphin show. We also did the seal encounter, which was very adorable. Except they don't warn you on the website that you're just swimming around in their regular enclosure, in full view of the other visitors. The turtle talk was very educational and resulted in DH swearing off plastic straws.

The aquarium's original purpose:

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We'd just had a light lunch at the aquarium, knowing that after we would go to Little Havana for the famous Azucar Ice Cream Company. Although in the end we didn't eat as much ice cream as expected because they only had a fraction of the flavors on the website. I got to try the most interesting one, however, and it tasted exactly as I'd hoped. Really high quality clean-textured stuff that reminded me I should make homemade more frequently.

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That reminds me that we'd seriously considered going to the Museum of Ice Cream, because it's a pretty rare opportunity. But were just not that energetic in the end.
 
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Since we'd just had one (generous) scoop each and were touristed out, we ended up getting dinner at a pretty basic Cuban place right across the street. After double checking Yelp.

I loved that they had a Little Havana Visitor's Center.

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El Pub Restaurant.

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It was pretty good!

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We had all the classics from the appetizer menu -- cod fritters and beef empanadas and ham croquettes. Followed by assorted pork sandwiches. That was plenty.
 
So overall it was a very successful trip. We had both been pretty meh after our Norwegian cruise, despite sailing concierge, but the Disney experience was much more enjoyable. We definitely prefer the old-fashioned Hollywood style ocean liner vibe. Norwegian feels like Vegas, which is thoroughly not our thing. And somehow everything felt mellower and less crowded, despite all the hyped up children. Those didn't even bother us. I'm sure it also helped that it was just the three of us, rather than trying to mesh travel styles with extended family like last time. Also Norwegian's version of concierge is much more in everyone's face with the exclusive areas and services and that made DH very uncomfortable.

We actually had a second Norwegian cruise booked for July 2019 anyway. The Baltics. And we were pretty hyped about that. European castles and museums is our idea of traveling, rather than beaches. And DS is plenty old enough to enjoy it, with the focus on Vikings and those castles. And a cruise really is a good way to see a bunch of cities in a short period. You don't waste all that time checking in and out, unpacking and repacking, traveling during the day, etc. So for something port-intensive like this, it still sounded like a great choice. And then we could use our DCL placeholder for something relaxing on maybe the Fantasy in 2020.

Then a couple weeks later I saw an article from the New York Times Sunday travel section on how Puerto Rico is really hurting for tourist dollars. They can already accommodate visitors again, and they really need that money to rebuild the rest of the country. I've always really wanted to visit San Juan. For Old Town and the food and the bioluminescent bays. It is higher ranked for me than any of those Baltic cities except maybe St Petersburg. And, well, it's the least we could do for LMM.

DH agreed to the idea as soon as I brought it up. We agreed it was weird that it didn't sound like what we'd normally do yet seemed perfect anyway. So we're now booked on the Wonder in February, 4 days starting in San Juan, so we can fly in and visit a few extra days, and ending in Port Canaveral.

As an extra post-script, I soon realized that disembarking on a Thursday meant that it would be just silly to not spend the next 3 days at WDW. None of us have ever been, although we have visited Disneyland, with DH growing up just 45 minutes away and his parents still in the same house. As a loyal Californian, DH had no interest in WDW every time I brought it up. But even that fell into place. They recently announced Donald's Dino Bash at Animal Kingdom. Which for the first time has Launchpad McQuack and Uncle Scrooge as character meets. That made all the difference for him. (The reboot is fantastic, by the way.)

As I've mentioned in another thread, we're not going overboard and trying to experience everything in 3 days. We're staying on site, at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and only doing Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The Disneyland connection means we've already experienced a lot of what's at Magic Kingdom and even Hollywood Studios. And princesses don't matter. Or Toy Story, for that matter. DS never got into it. I still want to try the rest (and the Poly!) eventually, but there's no compulsion to jam it in this time around. Much more interested in the World Showcase. Now to just narrow down the dining...

Thanks for reading! I hope this helps someone.
 
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Thank you for taking to time to write such a detailed report with so many photos. You've encouraged me to continue thinking about a trip. After years of family vacations I've been going to WDW solo for the last dozen or so years. The older and creakier I get the more appealing a cruise is beginning to sound. My husband's okay with my WDW trips, I wonder what he'd think about a solo cruise . He and I have done two Disney cruises (among others), but there just something about my once a year "renewal leave" that I love.

Your son is precious, he brings to mind fond memories of vacations with our sons.
 
Our original plan was to do the latest possible port arrival time and do some sightseeing in the morning. But we ended up unexpectedly impatient to just get started. Plus I still hadn't managed to get Palo brunch reservations. So as soon as we'd finished eating, we packed up and caught a cab.

DH hadn't believed me about all the matching family shirts until we were in line at security. That was the slowest part of boarding and still went pretty quickly. Very little actual standing.

At one point after security but before the counter, they called DS out of line and handed him gloves for a photo opp.

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We pretty much walked right up to the counter (although it was a long, snaky walk) to get our cards and have our photos taken. Then a few more long hallways to get to the gangplank. The port in L.A. (San Pedro) is much more straightforward. But also gets more backed up.


Obligatory picture with the back of the ship.

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And an official boarding photo.

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Don't tell DH we sort of did matching shirts too. They're all Marvel.

A link to my awesome girl power version : https://www.heruniverse.com/product/marvel-ladies-of-marvel-retro-t-shirt/10883304.html

DH's shirt came from the Disney site but is no longer there.

One thing I'd regretted about our first cruise was that we hadn't gotten any of the embarkation or port photos, since we were with people who had already done them enough times and hurried on past. I think they're fun. I also like the custom borders on cruise photos. We bought the full photo package in advance and crossed our fingers that we'd have better luck finding photographers than we had on our spring 2017 trip to Disneyland. We really couldn't find them! We'd prepurchased the package then to and really ended up with nothing. This time went better but they were still less ubiquitous than expected.


I just started but I am looking forward to reading the whole report - and BTW, I have the same shirt your husband is wearing!!
 
I was also really tempted to invest in a strapless bra for my next trip, although the real solution is being more careful. The straps hurt too.

I know this is kinda old but we are looking into our first DCL and so I am reading whatever I can. Anyway, buying suits that are very close to your bra line is a good idea. I try to stick to that in case I do ghet a bit more sun than intended because going braless really isnt an option for me! LOL
 

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