A New Ship | I Spy

After an hour or so of enjoying the sun and sky, we decided to wander indoors and see what was going on around the ship.

Yep. It's beautiful.

As we neared the atrium, crowds gathered on each deck made it clear that something was about to happen, but the only vantage point as of yet untaken was directly at the top of the stairs. The line of site to the third deck blocked by a screen though it was, at least seemed uncrowded. I figured if we couldn't see a single thing, we could wander off to the Vista Café and get some drinks.



Right next to the suspiciously roped off portion of the atrium.

We stood right next to a roped off section of deck four where the kids met Stitch the other afternoon. At the least, we wouldn't be in the way of passersby, but I hoped, perhaps we might get a little bit better than that.
Clayton introduced a video clip on different holiday traditions of the crew members (we could see the video through the back of the screen, interestingly enough.) Then the lights dimmed, the screen retracted into the ceiling and suddenly we had front row seats!

Hey! It's Mickey!

Just so you know, this doesn't always work. For portions of the show that were down the stairs on the main floor, we couldn't see a thing. For the parts that it did work, it was magical!

After some carols and dancing, we headed off to the Tube, a cool London underground themed club for Disney Tunes Trivia. You might not remember, but Casey Kolb, who I've previously cruised with, is my usual partner in crime on Disney Trivia. I have a pretty decent track record.

Our entertainment staff introduced the musician who would be playing the tunes live for trivia. I thought it was a nice touch, thought it does make it harder not to have the original recorded orchestration. Ben and I teamed up with Jennifer, a self proclaimed Disney nut like me. She seemed pretty cool. Three songs in and Jennifer and I really had it rolling. Ben kicked in for one song and happily yelled out "I finally contributed!" to the general amusement of our host. We won, getting only two tunes incorrect (both of which Jennifer and I sat there kicking ourselves over.) Took our winner medals in stride and headed off to collect the children from the club.

The birds look oddly familiar.

After getting all gussied up for formal night, we trotted down ten flights of stairs, wound around past the forward staterooms and elevator bank on deck two and emerged at midship in front of Enchanted Garden.



Writing down the clues is essential.

Plenty of time to spare, so Chris started another game of the Midship Detective Agency. The rest of us took formal photos.

We make Goofy look good.
We're listening to Ben tell us not to freak out but that the gate behind us is swinging with the ship rolling.
Hence Kylee's "we're all going to die" face.

At least she comes by it honestly.
Believe it or not, I'm occasionally a photo spaz.
Ahem.

While waiting for dinner, the kids went on and on about "Get the Hook," an interactive multi-part mystery activity that they would be continuing later during the cruise in the Oceaneer's Lab.

After a super yummy dinner of Naan, rice and mild but yummy vegetable curry, which Kylee eagerly assisted in devouring, we were all excited to go see Aladdin. First things first, back into comfy clothes.

In our stateroom, our towelgami guy of the evening waited patiently with the next day's Navigator.

After a very little bit of window shopping, we joined the start of a queue by the starboard entrance to the Walt Disney Theatre. With quite a few minutes to go before the doors opened, I was playing eye-spy with Chris and Kylee. "I spy a black lanyard."
The lanyard in question lay around the neck of a Floridian who was currently on his sixty-first Disney cruise.
Wow.
I asked him which his favorite itinerary had been. He laughed and answered like I'd asked him to pick a favorite kid then went on about the joy of each cruise being different. He came back to my favorite part of cruising. It really comes back to the people and the service.
When the doors opened, we easily found four seats together in the second row. It could have been the first, but Kylee has a love hate relationship with the actors dancing down the aisles after a too close brush with one of Scar's hyenas a few years back. She loves being close enough to wave to the princesses (and get a wave back) so the aisle on the second row is her seat of choice.

Mom! We're SOOOOO close!

It was a good choice as several times the actors run, parade and dance through the aisles and she could see the action without being interrupted. Kylee pronounced it the "best show ever." Chris really liked the parts with the Genie. He rated it above the "Twice Charmed" musical on the Magic because of the Genie alone. I loved it unabashedly and looked forward to seeing Wishes and Believe later in the cruise.

After a lovely day, settling the kids down to sleep that night came *very* easily. The only thing left that evening was step onto the verandah with Mickey Bars to enjoy the warming, salty breezes and starlight.

This is Part 8 of an Ongoing Trip Report "A New Ship." Additional sections will be found on the Trip Reports page after they are posted!