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

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So one thing about cruising (or just traveling) with a sunburn. It can totally change whether your clothes work. I had super breathable linen blend tops that of course were suddenly excruciatingly scratchy. So I ended up repeating the same couple of cotton tees instead. I guess it is possible to not pack enough clothes!

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.

 

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The women in the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique really earn their money on Pirate Night. There were so many kids who changed their mind upon arriving about participating. Both genders. And even more who didn't like doing the pirate oath part at the end. Including DS. He didn't want to promise to be a bad guy! But she wouldn't give him the accessories until he finished the oath (but I mean in a good-natured way), which he finally did.

I particularly liked the hoop earring that clips to the bandanna. We brought the costume. I let him choose from the dozens of Amazon options. They did have a really spiffy deluxe outfit in the gift shops but he didn't ask for it. We bought their sword in order to not worry about their rather vague costume rules.

I just noticed we forgot the lace-up black leather wrist things.

 

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And all of us dressed up at the deck party.

The only time we ran into a roving ship photographer and she found us twice! There and at dinner below. You can tell how windy it was out on deck by comparing my hair.

DH ended up feeling bad about not getting something fancier, because SO MANY adults were dressed up. Especially at the deck party of course, because you're more likely to be in costume if you're bothering to be there. But also in the dining room after.

We were lucky to snag a table on deck. We could still see well enough, especially on the screen. And it was super windy and drizzly. Plus not really interesting enough to stand around for. Captain Hook was great but it took forever to get to him.

We ate some mushroom gorgonzola pizza from the deck place while hanging out. Very impressed to see that flavor. And the drink of the day was delicious but we never managed to flag down a server after the first round.


This guy in the khaki pants won. DH is totally stealing that idea next time.

 

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I knew the Pirate Night dinner menu was unpopular but it sounded good. And, well, next time we'll try Palo dinner that night. (The Palo dinner menu hadn't really grabbed me for this cruise but it sounds better now. Nothing very adventurous or hard to find locally, but I'm sure it will be well executed.)

Chunkymonkey covers the weird sausage appetizer in her current trip report. I'd actually ordered that one for DS because he loves sausage and cheese, expecting like some slices on a plate. That was how the ham and cheese appetizer on Marvel night worked and he liked that.

I think I skipped both the appetizer and soup/salad courses that night. Which was not unusual. Something has to grab me. I find plenty to eat regardless, overall. And there's that whole room for dessert thing. I did appreciate that these waiters did not fuss over me not ordering every course or bring things anyway just to try. I definitely had the grouper with the crab-filled arepa and the mango-avocado salsa. It was not cooked as well as the earlier fish dish. Or more accurately, it was much more well done. Dry. Can't remember which dessert I had. Either the chocolate rum cake or the coconut flan. I know we had dessert because DH really enjoyed his caramel macadamia nut cheesecake.

The waiters had noticed by now just how focused DS gets on his coloring and brought him an extra wide range of crayons. Another nice service detail. Except for the background, everything on the menu started out white. Note Mickey's glove.

 

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After dinner, we lined up for photos with Captain Jack Sparrow. Of course. DS had only seen the first movie, and only once about two years ago, so we rewatched it just a couple days before the cruise. He loved it. And that was Zoe Saldana! That's at least three characters she could be at the parks.

Once again, DH went off to take care of something and didn't make it back in time. There was a kid in line a bit ahead of us who was probably about 9 and also had a sword that he really wanted to fight other kids with but most were much younger and intimidated. And unarmed. DS still had his own sword and was completely game. The other boy's mother shooed them way down past the end of the line so they wouldn't bother anyone. It wasn't one of those super long lines this time. That kept them happy the entire 30 minutes or so and no one got hurt. They ended up finding each other in the pool the next afternoon too.

Captain Jack was very in character. Both he and the handler commented on my necklace. And the handler told him to keep his hands off of it. It was fun to (accurately) tell them it was from the Amazon.

And then we all turned in for the evening. As usual.

 

[chunkymonkey]

I just caught up! So many things I want to say, but so far your trip looks fantastic. Love your Marvel costumes. Your son's Rocket was awesome! He was so into it too!
I was going to do some of the more obscure characters - Jubilee and Silk came to mind because they are some of the few Asian female superheroes but then Loki won because it was just easier to find the outfits and accessories for that plus Loki is awesome. Love that your son got picked for the Dr. Strange show too. It looked fun, but I missed it because I was too busy relaxing, haha.
I thought the Marvel Deck show was awesome. It had action and a storyline. The Star Wars deck show was just characters being introduced and standing on deck. The fireworks were cool though but anything is set to John Williams' soundtrack.
Love all the character pictures, especially the one with Rocket and Black Panther!

Palo Bruch is always awesome. Now you know not to eat too much before, LOL. My DH Steve refuses to eat a full breakfast on days we have Palo brunch. He is also the same way about Ohana in Disney World.

Sorry about the sunburn! But so nice the spa was able to accommodate you, I'm sure it happens very often especially on the tropical cruises. Someone said a tea bath also helps, so if worse comes to worse you can grab some teabags on deck 9, wet them and rub them on your suburn. Not sure if it works but it's free. hehe. But your spa villa treatment looks amazing. I was looking into that but we decided on 3 separate treatments instead just to spread it out throughout the cruise.

That's awesome you get to see Infinity War on the ship. My friend had the PremEar of Infinity war when they changed the date, she said it was so cool that she didn't have to purchase a ticket, LOL. I thought it was great, but yeah it was a little sad but if you didn't know the comics then you'd probably still have issues. I don't really read comics, I have a few, but a close friend does and he tells me everything about every superhero and story line that I need to know, which is great for me. I also go to NY Comic Con every year and get sufficient knowledge from there,

My first Pirate night, my dress kept blowing up, it wasn't even a flare dress, but it was lightweight. I knew better for all nighttime shows after that. The wind really gets you! your outfits were so cute and I like how your son was so into dressing up. He made a cute Beast as well!

Looking forward to more!

 

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I was going to do some of the more obscure characters - Jubilee and Silk came to mind because they are some of the few Asian female superheroes but then Loki won because it was just easier to find the outfits and accessories for that plus Loki is awesome.

Oh speaking of which, have you done Dr Aphra? We just booked tickets for the 2018 Star Wars Celebration, which will be our first, so now I'm obsessing over Star Wars cosplay and she's one of my favorite new characters.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Oh speaking of which, have you done Dr Aphra? We just booked tickets for the 2018 Star Wars Celebration, which will be our first, so now I'm obsessing over Star Wars cosplay and she's one of my favorite new characters.

I haven't read the comics but I think the Dr. Aphra character is very cool! Her outfit is almost indiana jones-eque and will be pretty easy to pull together I think. The celebration looks awesome. I was contemplating it, but I don't really want to go to the panels, I just want to buy merchandise, LOL.

 

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Day 4 - Castaway Cay

So this was an amazing day, even with the sunburns. It's what pushed us over into (spoiler) cancelling our 2019 NCL cruise in favor of another Disney instead of waiting for 2020 to return. It also went a long way towards turning me into a beach vacation person like the rest of my family.

We had prebooked the floats package for today, and then also ended up going to the excursions desk the day before to add on the stingray feeding excursion. DH had finally relaxed his fear of one of us getting injured. (He knew it was illogical all along but sometimes it's overpowering anyway. I can relate.) I was up early and bought lattes at the coffee shop, along with getting some chocolate chip pastries. We supplemented that by DH getting yogurt and link sausages from Cabanas. That way we could take our time getting ready.

We chose to walk all the way to the stingray excursion rather than waiting for the tram. It was a lovely walk and not long enough to be tiring. We were a little late for the excursion though. We missed the introductory talk. But they just gave us our gear and sent us to our station.

I don't remember the name of the CM and I avoid taking photos of people outside our family, but he was really good at keeping conversation going both when the rays were there and when we were waiting for me. And one of the other families had lots of good questions, which always helps. About life in the Bahamas as well as about the rays. So that was a nice way to pass the time. And the water was so comfortable.

There were so many stingrays!

 

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Once we were done with the feeding part, DH snorkeled around and tried out the underwater camera. Neither DS nor I could get comfortable with the mask and mouthpiece, so we stayed above water.

All the rental things on the other side of the fence looked fun (jet skis, paddle boards, giant-wheeled bikes) but we filled the day without them.

 

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The next order of business was buying DS a rash guard. Since we didn't have time before the excursion, he just wore a t-shirt in the water.

The full sign didn't fit in the photo (Castaway Ray's) but we got the important part. Guess what DS's name is.

There was a good selection of designs in trunks and rashguards but somehow sizes didn't match up. We'd have happily bought him the matching trunks if they'd had them in the same size. I even checked the other shop later in the day. It seemed strange they wouldn't be more fully stocked. I'm sure there's room for a storage trailer somewhere on the island.

 

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Close up on his shirt (Disney Store's photo) since it's Disney related. We are really loving the reboot. Although not sure what it says that his favorite nephew is the unethical one.

 

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We picked up two tubes and one floating mat and headed for the water. DH and DS went straight for the water while I lugged my tube around looking for a chair to leave our stuff on. It was close to noon by now so things were very full. Since I was holding out for an umbrella, I ended up at the very top row. Like at the sidewalk.

We had considered the 5K because we do those locally sometimes. Which is weird because we otherwise do no running or even jogging at all. But we haven't hurt ourselves. But since DS couldn't participate and I can not handle humidity, we decided against it. Maybe in February. Because that's a way to get a good chair or even a hammock. DS really wants to try a hammock.

I joined them in the water for about an hour. That's all the time we had until we needed to worry about lunch ending. It was fun enough to paddle and float around that we never even considered wandering over to Pelican Plunge. DS may still be a little weak with the swimming to do that anyway.

The tubes could be bigger. I could never quite get up onto one because the hole in the middle was too small.

I love how DH color coordinates with the beach umbrellas in the background. He was leery of the shirt I bought him specifically for Castaway Cay day but he received many compliments. It's a performance fabric tee rather than a rash guard but that meant it worked really well both in the water and out. Very quick drying. And more breathable than a rash guard.

That's actually DS's sun hat but it wouldn't stay on his head.

 

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It was still 36 degrees at home while we were at Castaway Cay. That really added to the enjoyment.

 

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So time for lunch at Cookies. Or Cookies Two. I really don't know which we ended up at. But it was really good. DH and DS grabbed a table under the shelter while I got food for DS and I. He's still too young to go through buffets himself. There turned out to be plenty of seating.

The ribs were delicious. Also the little pineapple breads. DS had unlimited amounts of canteloupe and corn on the cob along with his hot dog, so he was in heaven. We did lose track of time and suddenly the soft serve machine was closed up, but he got an extra chocolate chip cookie to make up for it.

I went across the way to the Conched Out Bar to get us Konk Koolers since I'd heard so many good things about them. But when I saw the new Pelican Mule, I had to try that instead. I'm a sucker for anything with ginger beer. And pineapple vodka! I got that in a regular plastic cup but ordered DH's Kooler in one of the plastic coconuts because how could I not.

My waterproof phone lanyard there really works. Highly recommended. You can even take pictures while it's in there.

 

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Then we walked up to the second set of shops. I'd offered to pick up some Castaway Cay exclusive pins at cost for fellow pin collectors. And wanted some for myself of course. This was also where I knew I'd find the scrapbook kit, just in case. I've never scrapbooked but MIL does it so it seemed worth picking up the kit. We got the onboard one too. Checked for the right size of trunks to match the rash guard but no. Right pattern in every other size...

I love the name of the store, even if you can't easily read it here. Buy The Seashore.

DH and DS bought snowcones while I shopped.

There was a tram waiting and we decided to take the opportunity to hop on and head back to the ship. It was getting close to time for the gangplank character meets and that would be our last opportunity for those characters since we'd missed them both on the ship with everything else going on. I realized later that we forgot to get photos at Mount Rustmore. And never did get any photos of the main characters in their tropical gear. Another reason to return! Also forgot to bring cash to send postcards, so we didn't buy any.

 

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We took this photo mainly because we could never remember whether Castaway Cay is part of Bermuda or the Bahamas. We're west coast people. Atlantic geography is fuzzy.

 

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I'm really glad DH stayed with us because I don't think there was anything in the schedule to alert you that you have to take your own photos this time.

The surfing was Stitch's idea because that is what's on DS's rashguard.

One of the last things we did before leaving on this trip was watch Lilo & Stitch for the first time. None of us had seen it. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

 

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Captain Hook's hat was amazingly fabulous. Three feathers! In pink!

Peter Pan is a family favorite. We even watched Jake for about six months when DS was younger. DH and I got a kick out of their attempted moral lessons at the end of each episode like "Remember, kids. Pirates don't take things that don't belong to them." Um, yes they do.

 

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Speaking of pirates, I forgot a photo from Pirate Night because my photos didn't sort properly. Or I didn't take the photo that night as intended.

Regular bedtime chocolates:

Pirate Night: