The Royal Treatment ~ R is for Room Service

Diana headed back to our stateroom for a post-brunch nap. We planned to join her after checking on the children in the Oceaneer Club and Lab. Chris loved hanging in the Lab and enjoyed his lunch (they delivered the kids' allergy safe meals).
Kylee, not so much.
She wanted to head back to the stateroom and get room service.
Ten minutes later and a Uncrustable (packaged PB&J sandwich) and French fries showed up at the door.

Yum.

With ketchup and chips.

Hanging out on the verandah. May have just eaten a bunch of French fries. Possibly.

I sat with Kylee and Ben for a bit until Glenn stopped by to see how Kylee had enjoyed her birthday so far, drop off a birthday button and to point out that our doorbell played "Happy Birthday to You."
How neat is that?
Kylee seemed sleepy (perhaps from falling out of bed at 4:30) and a little grumpy so Ben and I took turns snuggling and watching the waves roll by on the verandah.

"I fell down! I was trying to climb down and missed the ladder!"

Kylee seemed frustrated to be so tired and angry at herself for missing a step on the ladder. Ben related the tale of long ago when he fell out of the top of a bunk. Interestingly enough, also when he was five or also on a Disney vacation (he was sleeping in the top bunk at Disney's Fort Wilderness cabins).

Paying attention while climbing ladders is cool!
Falling, not so much.

Kylee tired of the whole "rest" thing and wanted to go back to the Club, so off she went. After checking on Chris (still good!) the adults all headed off for (one of my favorite adult only activities) "The Art of the Theme Show Tour." Chris and Casey (hey! they're still on this cruise!) showed up for the same tour and we all enjoyed visiting a little in Palo before Cally started off our tour.
Much of the same information from the previous tours we took on the Disney Magic repeated, albeit in an abbreviated form. Of note, Cally came from a previous contract on the Disney Dream and before that a cast member in Walt Disney World so she spoke from the perspective of a love of innovations not only in DCL but Disney at large.
On climbing to deck five, I asked her why the Dream class ships featured a French restaurant rather than honoring their birthplace of Germany (The reason Palo is an Italian restaurant is to honor their construction in the Fincantieri shipyards.) She said that imagineers originally planned to replace Palo with a German themed restaurant to honor the Dream class birthplace. Apparently there was a whole slew of criticism and a "Save Palo" campaign on the DISboards and Disney decided to keep Palo instead of going German. I can't find any threads about it, but I suppose it is possible.
Other interesting tidbits?
The Buena Vista Theatre on board does more than just 3D, but what Disney in the parks refers to as 4D movies. It is wired for smells and snow and bubbles and all sorts of other effects (they got to use the "snow" during the premieres of Frozen). As Cally put it, it isn't that any current movies use this technology, but if and when they do, Disney wanted to be ready for the cutting edge of entertainment.
Another tidbit came out about hidden Mickeys, because I had to ask about the differences between the Wonder and the Magic. The different hidden Mickeys are sometimes put in by the imagineers who physically build each ship, so they leave different hidden Mickeys. Her favorite hidden Mickey is actually on the Dream. The ship has a standing order for hidden Mickey flowers to be delivered to one of the ladies restrooms each sailing.
I really missed all the information on Art Deco and Art Nouveau and the details around the construction of the ship as well as the quirky humor our previous tour guides demonstrated. Maybe it's a little like getting a Jungle Cruise guide who just doesn't quite deliver. Or maybe the Wonder cast just use a different script. The sun was starting to get pretty low on the horizon, so we went to collect Chris and Kylee.

Sunset at Sea

Kylee told of her adventures with Peter Pan and Flubber and Mad Scientists, while Chris seemed to have enjoyed a mellower time of it in the lab. We scrubbed off her army guy face paint from Toy Story Boot Camp and everyone smartened up for the evening that is usually designated as "Dress Up" but on our cruise, every evening listed as "Cruise Casual" or "Pirate."
We dressed up anyway.



Diana, Chris and Kylee

I think it's kind of nice to have an excuse to dress up every once in a while.
I think a tenth anniversary and a fifth birthday are perfectly good excuses.

Chilling on deck waiting for our dinner.

Kylee decided to dance a little bit.

Dancing with Mimi.

One last look at the sun sinking below the horizon.

So pretty.

Then we headed in to Animator's Palate for "Show Dinner."

Coloring Fun!

Chris, Kylee and I had pre-ordered our allergy free meals the night before so the kids enjoyed coloring and playing while Ben and Diana picked out their meal.

My sweet girl.

Kylee and I started playing with the phone.
Hence selfies!
I enjoyed a lovely vegetable curry. Very spicy, very good. The head waiter promised me more of it tomorrow if I liked.
After dinner, when the kids would routinely end up going to the club, they stayed for this evening, to catch the show.

Entertaining, Time Consuming and Beautiful.

Jane proved resourceful and made our birthday girl a origami flower.

The wait staff gathered around for a verse of "Happy Birthday" to Kylee and she received the third serving of allergy free chocolate sponge cake with chocolate syrup.

Third Time's the Charm?

Thankfully, Kylee likes it.
I suppose we could have asked for a serving of Rice Dream, but around now, I was starting to get curious how many times in a row the kitchen would send the same "allergy free dessert of the day."

Happy Anniversary Dessert!

An unusual surprise, the wait staff followed the "Happy Birthday" song with a "Happy Anniversary" song. Ben enjoyed the anniversary dessert, but I didn't try it (it wasn't vegan.)
The evening show, Toy Story, although cute, wasn't going to happen (4:30 wake up calls are bound to catch up to you sooner or later.)



Our anniversary turn down service.

Awww!

After checking out the beautiful turn down service in the master, we all curled up on the couch and armchairs in the living room and watched Toy Story in our PJs.

Birthday turndown too!

On closer examination, even Kylee's towelgami for the evening was adorable.
A towel birthday cake?
We kept it together on a shelf in the room for the rest of the cruise.

This picture makes me smile.

Mimi agreed that if you needed to stay in and watch a show, this was the way to do it.
After the long day, the children easily fell asleep.
 
This is Part 10 of an Ongoing Trip Report "The Royal Treatment" additional sections of this report can be found on the Adventures page.