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

We made it to the Doctor Strange: Defy the Dark Dimension show. And now that I think about it, we didn't manage to grab lunch. Because DS was absolutely distressed by how hungry he was. So while he and I stood in line at the really snazzy concessions stand for popcorn and beverages, DH went to grab him some pizza or a sandwich from the pool deck.

The performance was at the Walt Disney Theater on Deck 5. It was confusing because the maps and marketing mention Preludes Bar, but every time we were back there (which was frequently), it was just a photo opp area plus movie concessions. I'm not entirely sure how it would work as a bar. I liked its snazzy Deco look though.

I ordered DS a smoothie in a Marvel commemorative cup. It would help fill him up since he was hungry. While we were waiting, a CM appeared and asked DS if he would be willing to help her with something. He just looks at me so I say yes. So then she says "I'm stealing your child" and takes him away. We've done Trials of the Temple and I knew that this Dr. Strange thing was interactive, so I was expecting something like this. The drinks took a really long time (they had just opened for the day and were having trouble finding ingredients where they were supposed to be), giving me the opportunity to observe the same thing happening with additional families as they lined up for their own refreshments.

Smoothie finally in hand, I brought it to DS in the back row of the theater, along with a bunch of other kids, then went down to find a good seat. DH came in about the same time, clear on the other side of course, so I signaled to him where to bring DS his pizza. The theater never got close to full so we got some really good seats despite the delay. Once the show started, they brought all the kids down to sit in the front row. The actor playing Dr. Strange did a pretty good job. He acted more like the comic/television version than the movie version, but that was fine with us. The special effects were a lot of fun. I didn't realize they could do some of that on stage. The kids were brought on stage, learned some ways of defending against the dark arts, Dr Strange leaves, the assistants decide to mess with spell books too advanced for them and accidentally open a portal to the Dark Dimension, the big villain attacks, the kids have to help defeat him. They had a really good time.

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We actually then ran into Dr Strange soon after, wandering the halls. That was the only time we managed to run into a character walking around. I was hoping for Hawkeye or Black Widow but oh well. We also didn't manage to devote as much time as walking around hunting for them as I'd originally thought we would be able to do. So much to do!

Dr Strange didn't recognize DS as being at the show and DS was too shy to tell him, but he got an extra lesson in portal casting.

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Dinner was in Lumiere's for the second night in a row. No photos from that. Looking at the menu online, I had the Crispy Fried Maryland Crab Cake with Remoulade Sauce and Slaw (which mostly tasted fried) followed by the Roasted Scandinavian Cod Filet with Pancetta, Pea Puree, White Asparagus and a Riesling Wine, Chervil and Chive Sauce, which was delicious. It had that great searing on the outside but was still super moist. That was my best entree of the trip.

Dessert was the Bounty Hunter: Pastry treasure chest filled with Raspberry and Custard, hidden under fresh Raspberries and topped with a Key Lime dome. Also very nice. More tart than sweet, in a good way.

This was also the evening that both boys (ours and the other group at the table's) ended up (quietly) melting down over crayons and we ended up taking half of DS's dinner back to the cabin. It was a very stimulating day.

We did nevertheless stay up for the deck show. We took the advice of past posts here and found a decent spot up on Deck 10. It was pretty fun. The appearance of the assorted villains was well done. And the use of the smoke stacks. And DS totally bought that the fireworks were Iron Man flying up there and then blowing up missiles. They timed things well. And we could hear all the dialog just fine.
 
Somewhere in there we watched Black Panther. For the first time. That one had just kept slipping away from us with all the trip prep we were doing. And DH is frequently gone in the evening or for part of a weekend because he's in a local band. Infinity War had opened the night before we left, but we'd already decided to wait and watch Black Panther first.

Infinity War was originally going to be a Premear at Sea on our cruise but then they pushed it the opening day back a week. That worked out fine. We would have struggled with a late night showing.

So anyway, I'm thinking that was why DS was so hungry. We saw Black Panther right before the Dr Strange thing. We did buy a Marvel popcorn bucket to share but apparently that wasn't enough.

There was an uncomfortable and drawn out confrontation before the film (and during the first little bit) between people quite near us over a large group attempting to save seats. Well, three people claiming to be part of a large group. Most of the seat stayed empty. There were small children mixed in and I hated adults throwing insults and threats at each other over top of them.

The movie was great of course. The Buena Vista Theatre is a little cramped. Especially the lack of space between your knees and the seat in front of you, and I'm not tall. But it's a very attractive theater.
 


Day 3 was a port day. Grand Cayman. None of us had been there before. (Or anywhere in the Caribbean.) I'd looked into the stingrays but DH kept fixating on Steve Irwin. And then I figured we'd do the Turtle Farm, especially since DS loves anything aquarium, but then DH found out about the 'farm' part and couldn't deal. So we ended up deciding to just do the Amphibus followed by a beach day. I always want to do something educational, especially since we did pull DS out of first grade for a week, but I also know how much he loves the beach, and only makes it to one about twice a year.

We had room service breakfast. It came promptly and everything was tasty. Good variety in the fruit salad. And DH's toasted bagel was wrapped in a napkin (to the left of the jam there) to stay warm! I love little details like that.

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Things almost started out very poorly because I was somehow thinking our tender time was 11:30 instead of 8:30. Until I checked my tickets while packing up everything for the day. But we made it. Barely.


On the tender. Little did we know what was in store later that day. And week.

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DH and I have our matching foam floaty things for our glasses.

The lines for the excursions at the dock could have been clearer, but that wasn't a big problem. There are some signs that are visible, but some that are only hanging from the table you're supposed to check in at. And of course you can't see those when there's a line. But we found the right one without being late. It all moved quickly.

The Amphibus was super fun. The guide was easy to understand and there wasn't too much glare on the screens. DS was totally thrilled when we went into the water of course. And really enjoyed feeding the fish. The standard final part of the tour is stopping at Royal Palms for about 45 minutes of beach time. So we had reserved a cabana and told them when we were getting off the bus that we wouldn't be getting back on. That's not an unusual thing for customers to do. (Thanks internet!)


On the Amphibus. (It was a brand new camera and we hadn't noticed the date thing. Waterproof! Worked great.)

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From what I'd read, Royal Palms was one of the best places to do the beach anyway, so it was great luck that that's where the tour left us. (And we knew ahead of time that would be where. That's why it was safe to prebook a cabana.) There were people in our FB group who had done the cabanas before and highly recommended them. And it's something we've splurged on at water parks and been happy we'd done. This was a really nice set-up. We had lounge chairs as well as regular dining chairs around a table under the canopy. The food was tasty, the drinks were creative, and it was easy to flag down a server.
 
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The photos I took of the Royal Palms menus are impossible to read, but I know they're online.

Mango daiquiri with ginger beer. I love ginger beer. Note the paper straws.

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Conch fritters! Because we'd never had conch before and always like to try new things. They were fine. Like really starchy scallops. Of course deep-fried is never the best way to learn a new food but it was the only format they had.

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The ceviche was amazing. Very light and refreshing with the lime juice and chilis. We ended up ordering a second.

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There were fish and chips for DS. One of his favorite things to eat.

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Most of the fries were lost to a roving gang, however.

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They weren't ridiculously bold. We tended to toss the fries to them because they were entertaining.


The famous Grand Cayman chickens wandered by a few times too.

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The view from the cabana. Those posts and ropes mark our area.

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We got really lucky with the timing. Our ship and the Disney Fantasy were the only two in port that day. And the Fantasy arrived a few hours after us. So nothing was crowded.

I did miss the horn battle if they had one.

I grew up in Juneau so I know exactly what five ships at once in a small town feels like. Happy to miss it.
 
Frolicking in the water. It was beautifully clear. They did explain during the tour about how the lack of hills or mountains meant no rivers which meant no runoff to cloud things up. We don't snorkel or scuba but it must be great for that.

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DS spent an extended period of time deliberately getting knocked over by the waves. They were surprising strong when you're sitting down.

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So yeah, one thing we couldn't find when packing for this trip was DS's rash guard. So we figured they'd be easy enough to find and buy in Miami or on the ship. But that didn't happen. So we just used sunscreen. But forgot to reapply. And I have zilch experience with the effect of sun while in the ocean. Our last cruise, we didn't actually go in the water.

So we couldn't see it at the time but we were starting to all look like this.

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Second round of drinks before heading back to the ship. We'd decided to return a couple hours early so we could catch the 5:00 showing of Infinity War.

Rum punch. I like how they hold up the straw.

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We decided to take a group cab back instead of paying extra for a private one that left immediately. It only took about ten minutes to fill and cost us a total of $12, so that was worth it.

In the cab: The sign of a successful day's activities.

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I did stop for rum cake (for us) and rum fudge (for my coworkers) at the port. DH and DS used the bathroom and bought snow cones.
 
Joining in. I just caught up on everything. So far your cruise looks really fun. I've never done the marvel at sea cruise, but have a star wars one coming up so I'm thinking they're similar. It's fun to dress up and meet all the unique characters. The sun is really strong in the Caribbean and the water actually makes it worse because it reflects off the surface so you burn more. I'm pretty pale so I have to constantly reapply sunscreen or I turn into a lobster.
 
Being Alaskan, I know all about the sunburns you can get from skiing, because of the sun reflecting off the white snow, but the water part didn't occur to me. My husband is from Southern California, so he totally knows better, and now feels guilty for not warning us. Especially since he just turned red for the day and then went right back to normal. Our son and I were in pain for about five days and peeled for a couple weeks.

We really like the idea of the Star Wars cruise too! It's longer and thus more expensive than Marvel, which is one reason we picked Marvel for our first one. The next time we'd be able to do the Star Wars cruise will be a year after the Galaxy's Edge area opens at both parks, so I'm thinking that will be an even better use of our time and money. Unless the crowds at the parks are too insane even a year later, and then we'll do the cruise!
 
Back on the ship, we got changed (we'd just worn swimwear to the island) and went to the 5:00 showing of Infinity War. It was of course intense. Although less stressful for comic readers than those who only know the films. I don't know if I could have emotionally handled only knowing the films. I'm still recovering from Rogue One! (That is not a spoiler. They do not kill everyone in Infinity War.)

One upbeat thing: At the first appearance of Wakanda, many people in the audience cheered affectionately. That really was a great movie.

Adding to the intensity, however, was the deep pain from the sunburn suddenly kicking in during the last 45 minutes or so. It was distracting. It was one of those cases where I was 'glad' I had it in addition to DS so I understood what he was experiencing. Kind of like when we both got HFM and he was too young to describe symptoms. He started to whimper from the combination of the storyline and the sunburn, but no one was near us to overhear. The two of us left as soon as the credits rolled, with DH staying to report back on the post-credit sequence. (At my insistence. He wasn't being selfish.)

And so we spent the rest of the evening in the cabin. Miserable. It was formal night, which I'd bought a great dress for. It was also Officer Pin Trading Night, and I was so excited for that. Finally, it was our only night scheduled in Animator's Palette. Just bad luck all round. DH did run around to find some sort of soothing lotion (the stuff we'd brought was not cutting it). Staff kept sending him elsewhere but he got some gel eventually. The spa didn't occur to me as a source but should have.

Thank goodness they'd added movies on demand at dry dock! We tried watching A Goofy Movie at DH's request because he remembered that fondly from childhood but DS didn't like it. He's gotten very sensitive already to characters getting embarrassed and/or picked on. So we switched to Aristocats and he loved that. And we were really happy with the steak sandwiches from room service. (It didn't arrive with the slaw mentioned on the menu, so you might want to ask or plan on ordering something else as a side.) Sleeping was rough for the next several nights. Every time I rolled over, it felt like my skin had stuck to the sheets and was ripping off. The sensation woke me frequently.
 
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Day 4 was a sea day, so we were able to take it easy. I know there was only one morning we had breakfast at Lumiere's. Maybe that was it? That or the next day, which was Castaway Cay. That's clearly another reason for me to take more food photos next time! I can't remember any other breakfasts besides the last day, so something is simply missing.

We did enjoy our Lumiere's breakfast, whenever it was. It was one of the meals that told me I need to spend in-depth time reading the DCL food threads here though. Overall on the cruise, sometimes we'd order something that sounded small and it was huge, and other times it was the reverse. I skipped the tasty sounding yogurt/fruit/granola appetizers because I decided to get the pineapple French toast and that would be too much food, but then the French toast was a maybe 5" across 2-layer cylinder instead of entire slices, so I would have been fine.

DS had the waffle and pancake kids combo and that was the one time a waiter cut up his food for him. Without asking first, but DS didn't mind at all. I think that was also the only time we asked for a substitute - link sausage instead of eggs. But the place was mostly empty and it wasn't dinner, so it seemed like it would be much less of a bother for them.

DS spent most of the day at the kids club, as he prefers. One thing that we hadn't realized, despite all the reading I did, was that some activities are restricted during Open House periods. And they had a lot of those, not just day one. So sometimes DS couldn't participate in something because it was Open House and we weren't there with him. Usually something Marvel-related, unfortunately. But now we know.

One thing that gets mentioned a lot on Cruise Critic about the Disney kid clubs is how there are so many screens and kids can just zone out there entire trip. DS is definitely a big fan of doing that, and there were iPads everywhere, but he was literally running around every time we went in there to get him. Usually in Andy's Room. He's never had much interest in Toy Story. We own them all and have watched them once, but he never chooses them to rewatch. But he loved that space. I did like how Norwegian had some basically mandatory craft times. He brought back some fun projects on that cruise. But on Disney with it being optional and the two areas being so far apart, he was never in the lab unless forced into it by an open house.
 
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The big splurge we decided to do on this cruise was the couple's spa villa experience. Here's a good overview article that persuaded us. It all really looked just like those photos. It's also why we ended up skipping the Royal Tea even though DS loves tea parties and getting dressed up. No way could we rationalize the cost of both. And they really don't give nearly the same value of swag to the boys.

But now of course I couldn't imagine anyone touching me, with the sunburn. So right after breakfast, while DH took DS to the club, I went to the spa to find out our options. And it was fine. It's a cruise. This happens to their clients all the time. They had a standard sunburn protocol. Although we could also just cancel with no penalty if we preferred, but we stuck with it.

Checking in was quick. The questionnaire isn't huge and we didn't have to pre-consult with anyone. It did make me a little self-conscious to get into the robe in the dressing room and then need to walk back through the lobby to get to the treatment area, but oh well. We met our two attendants. They gave us the foot bath and then left us to get into the hot tub. Unlike the people in the photo, we chose to face the water. They poured a milk bath into the hot tub to help with my skin. And showed me where to turn down the intensity of the jets as needed. Getting all the way in still took me a while. But eventually I adjusted. Hot tubs are one of DH's favorite things in the world and I'm usually reluctant to use the really public ones, so this was a real treat for him. They left us a large metal pitcher of ice water and we were diligent about drinking it all.

They did not ever mention the optional sparkling wine upgrade that I've seen in some of the promotional material. We would have gone for it, but I wasn't comfortable bringing it up myself. Maybe it's no longer offered, because it's pretty unusual for a cruise line to pass on a sales opportunity.

All too soon, it was time to get out, shower, and go lie down on the massage beds. It was maybe my third ever massage and possibly DH's first. I don't know. Just not really my thing. I don't do mani/pedicures either. I relax/indulge at home on my couch with glossy travel magazines instead! They played your typical bamboo music. My attendant used more of that milk bath, and it was very soothing. It was a really long massage. There is a downside to drinking all the ice water though. I was distracted from all the relaxation during the last 15 minutes or so and asked for directions to the bathroom as soon as they finished.

Then it's back out onto the futon on the veranda to drink hot tea (there were several flavors to choose from) and eat fruit skewers. Pineapple chunks and huge chocolate covered strawberries. The tea cart came with this really neat timer. It was three different egg timers in a single stand, with each one for a different style of tea -- green, black, herbal. From Twinings. I need to get my mother one.

We did not get any sort of product pitch when we were done. Of course, I'd already said I'd take a bottle of the milk bath for DS and I to use as a lotion and that turned out to be $75 (!!!) so maybe that met their quota.

I don't know if we'd do it again. I mean, it was very pleasant. But it was also expensive and we'd need to balance it with our other opportunities for any given trip. As opposed to Palo brunch, which is a no-brainer to repeat but also about 10% of the cost.
 
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Well I had some of that day backwards. Just found our complete printed itinerary. The spa thing wasn't until 3:00. After breakfast, which was in Lumiere's, we had tickets for the princess gathering. DS actually enjoys that sort of thing. He's hit or miss with mascot characters though. Sometimes they scare him. A friend was originally making him a Prince Phillip costume, because that's his favorite, but that's the friend who got ill and couldn't do any of those projects after all. So I had a last minute Amazon scramble and bought him an inexpensive Beast costume. He was happy with that alternative because it's very fancy. Although less fancy in the end because the gold brocade vest got unpacked in a totally different part of the cabin than the jacket (all those tiny spread-around drawers) and thus I forgot all about it. I questioned pairing the ascot with a t-shirt but he liked it.

His favorite princess is Rapunzel because she wacks people with a frying pan. But he also likes Tiana because he's into cooking.

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We had a bit of an impromptu pub crawl between the princess gathering and the spa appointment. Mainly because I'd remembered a really good sounding drink from an online menu but not which bar it was in.

Relaxing at the Quiet Cove Pool.

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This was our first drink! Despite him already looking passed out. It would just a really nice, relaxing area. Definitely look forward to using it again.

We also went to Fathoms and happened to catch most of So You Think You Know Your Family or whatever that is. It was fun! And they make a great caipirinha. Just had one before moving on but it was better than average, and I even like average.

I knew the drink wasn't there, but next we went to O'Gills for those sliders. Yum!

And that was it. I think we checked the menu at Promenade and it wasn't there. And didn't make it to Keys at all. It was time to pick up DS and bring him to the Pirate League for his makeover.

Looking now at my Pinterest board (just the best thing for trip planning; I'm a believer now), it was Fathoms so it was an outdated menu. But we really enjoyed our stop there anyway.
 
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