Living the Verandah Life! A Feb/March 2022 DCL TR *COMPLETE* 10/7

[khertz]

What a fun day at sea so far!! My son bought himself a shoulder Figment at WDW over Christmas, and I had to laugh when I saw this picture because it's EXACTLY what my son figured out right after purchasing his!! He loved wearing Figment around on his head because he was sort of heavy for the shoulder and kept flopping over.

Haha it's funny how kids all basically think the same way!!

We deal with this on every trip. I hate it because we usually have had our kids do things to earn money so it’s theirs but you don’t want them to make a bad decision. The one thing I can say is my older kids are much much better now and they impressed me with their approach on our last vacation. So hang in there they do learn!

Enjoying your TR!

It ended up ok for this trip, as he was able to have enough souvenir money for everything he wanted and never regretted a purchase. But it is hard when they want something so early into the trip knowing that it could mean missing out on something they want later on! Both kids did pretty well with their souvenir budgeting and purchase this time around, which was nice!

Thanks!

 

[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Sunday February 27th

After lunch, we had a little time before bringing the kids to the club for their reserved time, so we took some more photos and did some more detective work.

IMG_4361 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4366 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Once we had dropped the kids off, DH and I decided to go up and check out the spa to see what kind of treatments they were offering and if there was anything we’d be interested in. We decided to book the couples hot stone massage for the next afternoon when the kids would be in the club again, then had some ice cream.

IMG_6093 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

With the reserved times, it gave us some alone time on the ship, but since we’d had to reserve it in advance, we didn’t always have the best Adults Only activities to choose from. Last trip, we had done a lot of music and movie trivia, but this time the times just never really seemed to line up right. They were offering a 3D DCL ship craft in the Tube (I think that one might have been labeled adults only too?), so we decided to go do that. We weren’t very excited about it, but it turned out to be a GREAT decision!!

IMG_4372 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We settled down at a table to start working on our craft, and the CM running the activity began introducing who else was available to help and mentioned that “Raf is in the back.” My eyes POPPED WIDE OPEN, and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!!! Let’s back up a moment. If you read my first DCL TR, you may remember that an incredible CM named Raf had really become special to our family. A little bond formed between him and DD from the first day, and throughout the week he spoiled the kids with popcorn at the shows, DCL swag, and he always made the kids feel special when he saw us. Here is a pic of him and DD on the last night of our 2019 cruise.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

A few months before this cruise, I posted in a DCL Facebook group asking if anyone had seen Raf on the Fantasy lately, and learned he had moved to the Dream. Someone in the group tagged him, so he and I chatted in the comments a bit and I told him we were bummed to miss him this time but that I knew he was out there making magic for other families.

So fast forward to this day, and when the CM said there was a “Raf” in the house, I quickly looked at DH and said, “No way, it can’t be him. He’s on the Dream.” But then we saw him and both tried to decide if it was the same Raf and it certainly looked like him, but masks make that a little more difficult. He had always introduced himself as “Raf, which stands for Rich And Famous,” so as he made his way around the room and got closer to us, I asked, “Does Raf stand for Rich And Famous?!” AND IT WAS!!!

We couldn’t believe it!! He stayed and chatted with us for awhile. We talked about that Facebook post and I asked him how he had ended up back on the Fantasy. He said another girl had been asked to move from the Dream to the Fantasy but it was her first contract and she was a little hesitant because she had already gotten used to the people and the flow of the Dream, so they asked him if he would switch since he had been on the Fantasy before and he agreed. We talked about the kids and how old they were now compared to our previous cruise, and asked where we could see him later so that we could surprise the kids, and he said he would be doing an animation class back in The Tube at 4:15, and it was an activity we had planned on doing anyway.

Then he moved on around the room and we finished our crafts.

IMG_4373 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4374 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

The kids pickup time from the club was 3:45 and we still had some time before then, so we were trying to figure out what to do. But just as we were looking through the app to see what else was going on, DS had texted to say DD was ready to be picked up early. I had given him my old iPhone and had figured out how to send iMessages between the two devices because I had read that it worked on the ship’s WiFi. It worked well for the first half of the cruise, but then I somehow got “signed out” of iMessage on my phone and couldn’t get signed back in. So for the second half of the cruise we had to message through the DCL app which works fine but it doesn’t send a “push” message to your phone, you can only see new messages if you have the app open.

After picking up the kids, we went back to the room and rested until it was time to go back to The Tube for the 4:15 animation class. We arrived a little early so there was still a rope up at the entrance. When Raf came down to remove the rope, DS spotted him first and his eyes popped open in surprise and he whispered, “That’s Raf!!” It was such a fun surprise for them too!! He came over to talk to us and say hi to the kids before the class started, and DD was being shy, but it was really great!

When the class started, we found out we were going to be drawing angry Donald Duck. DH and I always have fun with these classes, but of course DD got a bit frustrated because hers didn’t look perfect.

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DD ended up snatching up DH’s drawing and passing it as her own lol

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Since it had been so late the previous night before we had been able to get to bed since we had to shower and everything after dinner and the show, we tried doing it opposite this evening. We went back to the room to shower & change before dinner so that we could wander the ship in the evening until we were tired then go straight to bed. This worked out perfectly for the rest of the cruise, so DD, DS and I did this every night.

That night, we were in Enchanted Garden, which was our least favorite of the 3 main dining rooms and unfortunately, this cruise we were there for 3 nights throughout the week! It ended up being a little more enjoyable this time, and the kids liked watching for the flower light fixtures to open up and change throughout the meal.

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I have NO IDEA what DS is doing in the background of this photo!

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DD chose the corn dog with a side of fruit for her meal, and DS had the mini burgers.

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Again, DH decided against getting an appetizer but I went with the lobster ravioli.

IMG_4389 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
North Atlantic Lobster Ravioli
With Roasted Garlic and Sweet Basil in a Tomato Broth​

For entrees, I had the prime rib and DH had the sea bass.

IMG_4390 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Slow Roasted Prime Rib
Carved and served with Thyme-roasted vegetables, Double Baked Potato, Natural Jus, and Horseradish


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Pan-Seared Sea Bass
With Fava Bean and Pea Risotto, sliced Fennel and a Dill-Chive Riesling Wine Sauce​

During the meal, there was a really sweet and fun moment where the Fab 5 came dancing and waving through the restaurant!

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Here is a video of them coming in. DD was very concerned about Daisy’s whereabouts

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And a couple more videos of the performance. It brings tears to my eyes a little just watching them back! It was such a fun memory!

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Then it was time for dessert. Both of the kids went for Mickey bars again. Both DH and I had the ice cream sundae, and DH also got the Garden Torte.

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Chocolate Garden Torte
With Coffee Crème and Caramel Soil


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Chocolate Brownie Sundae
Peanut Butter Brownie Bites with Rich Chocolate Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, and Chocolate Fudge Sauce


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[khertz]

Day 3 Continued: Sunday February 27th

There was a family game show after dinner that was pretty funny. It was similar to a Newlywed Game style, but testing how well parents & their kids knew each other. Since the theater show that night was a second run of Aladdin, we were going to go to the 9 pm variety show that night. We still had plenty of time to get to that, so we hit up the atrium to see the characters in their formal attire.

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Pluto was hanging out by Guest Services, hopefully leaving some positive feedback about a CM and not making a complaint!

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He lost track of his tail for a second and had to chase it. This one is a video!

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We went to look through the shops again, and DD picked out both a sparkly pink DCL shirt, and two pairs of DCL princess socks. DS had been absolutely begging for this bucket hat, so he ended up getting it. I told him he looked like an old man!

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Then it was time to head to the variety show. This night they had on Charles Peachock, a juggler who had been on America’s Got Talent.

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The pretty cool thing he did towards the end of his show was using tennis balls to play songs on a piano.

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Here is a video of him doing Chim Chim Cher-ee.

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We passed back through the atrium area on the way back to the room for the evening after the show, and saw Tiana wandering around!

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Agnelo had left us a butterfly towel animal for the night.

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We thought we were doing pretty good that night getting to bed around 10 pm, but we lost an hour so Agnelo had already changed the time on our room clock to 11 pm!

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

Such a fun update!

Raf was on your cruise! That made me so happy! I remember him from animation classes on my 2019 cruise. He was so great!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[christannj]

Just happened to find your report. Kristy, you always write the best trip reports!!! We have never done any of the activities. I’m going to keep these in mind for future cruises. We were on the Fantasy last November and I agree completely with you that bonding with the restaurant serving team is just not there. I think that it may be the masks, since it’s difficult to understand their jokes at times and you have no facial cues. Also, I agree that they seemed very rushed at the early seating. Can’t wait to read more of your report.

 

[khertz]

Such a fun update!

Raf was on your cruise! That made me so happy! I remember him from animation classes on my 2019 cruise. He was so great!

Looking forward to reading more!

Raf has created SO many wonderful & magical moments for our family, we were incredibly lucky & excited that we were able to cruise with him again!

Just happened to find your report. Kristy, you always write the best trip reports!!! We have never done any of the activities. I’m going to keep these in mind for future cruises. We were on the Fantasy last November and I agree completely with you that bonding with the restaurant serving team is just not there. I think that it may be the masks, since it’s difficult to understand their jokes at times and you have no facial cues. Also, I agree that they seemed very rushed at the early seating. Can’t wait to read more of your report.

Hey, Chris!! Welcome aboard!

The masks absolutely DID NOT help. It was hard for us to understand them for sure, which made it a little more awkward to interact with them in the loud dining rooms. Maybe by the time we are back on a ship the kids will be old enough that we can give 2nd seating a try.

 

[khertz]

Day 4: Monday February 28th
DAY AT SEA

Despite losing an hour, we were up for the day around 7:30, and the kids enjoyed some of the sea breeze after getting dressed and before heading to Cabanas for breakfast.

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You can see the Mickey waffle on my plate looks a little different this morning, and that’s because it was a CHURRO Mickey waffle!! When I tell you that thing was absolutely delicious!! I wish I had gotten more because they didn’t end up having it any more for the rest of the week.

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At one point when DD and I were heading back up to the buffet to get more to eat, one of the CMs said, “If you go look over the back of the ship there’s a pretty rainbow outside.”

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What a gorgeous view for breakfast!

Of course, as we walked the halls, the kids couldn’t resist the pull of the portholes.

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Chip & Dale were out in the atrium.

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I don’t know why DD is not in this one.

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We got to the Frozen 3D crafts when it was about halfway over, so we had time to make a few and get some started but weren’t able to finish them all. The CMs were happy to give us some extra glue dots so we could work on them later. We took them with us to The Tube for a Disney Tunes trivia.

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We also stopped by the DVC desk and asked about the member gift of the day, which was a button.

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The kids really wanted to go to the pool, so after those activities we went back to the room to change into our swimsuits. DD was really the only one who actually got in the pool. Otherwise we were doing the Aquaduck and they checked out the Huey, Dewey & Louie splash area.

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This was the first year DD was tall enough to do the Aquaduck, and she LOVED it! It was fun to do with her for the first time! Also we noticed the huge difference from 2019 for how crowded the pool deck was on a sea day. Last cruise, we never would have even thought of attempting the pool on a sea day, but with the lowered capacity on the ship, it wasn’t hard to find a couple of chairs to make a home base and enjoy the activities.

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We had lunch and ice cream, then headed back to the room to change so the kids could head to the Club for their reserved time and so DH and I could go to our couples massage!

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Y’all, this massage felt AMAZING!! The hot stones felt so good, I can’t even describe it to you in a way that would give it justice. We had the 50 minute one, which was super relaxing and felt just long enough. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the pitch for us to buy their products after, but I guess that is pretty standard for spas. However, they weren’t pushy at all and once we declined they didn’t keep trying to sell us on it. I had told DS we would let him know once we were done because they had to stay in the club at least long enough for our massage to be over, and he said they were ready to be picked up.

Once we had the kids, we killed time until the 4 pm Marvel trivia.

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We didn’t do horrible, but not close to winning.

Once trivia was over, we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. We were eating in Royal Court that night. Mickey and Donald were hanging out up on the balcony when we made our way to the restaurant.

IMG_6162 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Belle and Cinderella were also out on the stairs. DD wanted to stop and see them, so her and I did that while the boys went to the table.

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This is Cinderella admiring DD’s Princess bow in her hair.


IMG_4478 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

 

[khertz]

Day 4 Continued: Tuesday February 28th

After a very nice meet with the princesses, we made our way into Royal Court.

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Tonight, DD had Mac & Cheese while DS had the mini burgers again.

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Tonight, DH and I were feeling a lot of the same things on the menu. We both chose the fried brie for appetizers and had the steak for our entrée.

IMG_4482 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Breaded and Deep Fried Brie
With and Orange and Cranberry Chutney


IMG_6175 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Chateaubriend-Roasted Filet Steak
Roasted Filet Steak, crushed New Potatoes with Shallots, Buttered Green Beans, Red Wine Jus, and a Bernaise Sauce on the Side​

DD was super excited about her TWO bowls of fruit.

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Steven came around and REALLY stumped us with a challenge. He made this giraffe with crayons and told us we had to move only one crayon and make the giraffe face in the opposite direction.

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We puzzled over it for an embarrassingly long time and never did figure it out. He kept passing our table and saying, “Oh man, didn’t get it yet?” lol Eventually when he brought our desserts and showed us the solution, and we were all smacking our heads that we didn’t figure it out!

Here is yet another photo of DD devouring a Mickey Bar.

IMG_4485 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Both DH and I got the sundae, and he also got the souffle.

IMG_6176 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Strawberry Shortcake Sundae
Strawberries, Vanilla Ice Cream, Whipped Cream and Shortcake


IMG_6178 by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Grand Marnier Souffle
Served with Grand Marnier Crème Anglaise​

DS also got a Mickey Bar and decided he wanted to challenge himself to hollow out the chocolate as best he could.

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There was another family game show this night between dinner and the show that we wanted to do. We stopped first to take some photos in the atrium.

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Tonight the game show was a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire style show. This is the only random photo I got.

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One of the entertainment crew during the day had mentioned that it was good to see tonight’s show, Frozen, from the upper balcony because it was better for seeing the magic happen. So when it was time to go get seats for the show, that’s what we did. It was a really good vantage point. DD was very excited for one of her favorites!

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This was a fantastic show! The singing was on point, as were the effects, and they did a great job condensing the story down to about an hour and 15 minutes without feeling like too much was removed. DD was singing along at the top of her voice as were a lot of little girls and young kids, and she was clapping like crazy at every scene change! We all really love it, and it was the first show none of us had ever seen so it was brand new to everyone.

After the show, we went to see what characters we could find. Captain Hook and Smee were up on the balcony.

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Daisy was roaming the atrium being her fabulous & sassy self.

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We stopped to see Goofy & Donald on the stairs.

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It was about 10 when we went back to the room and saw our Wall-E towel friend that Agnelo had left us!

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Not only was the next day Mardi Gras, it was also our first port day! We’d be visiting the island of St. Maarten.

 

[NAB]

Never saw Wall E before cute.

I did notice right away there was sugar on the Mickey waffle…yum.

So are all the pictures with the characters are with your camera ? I know you had to distance .

 

[disnygirl55]

Enjoying your adventures! Daisy looked super cute - I don't think I've seen that outfit before!

 

[missjackiemcg]

What a fun day at sea!! We are set to leave on Saturday for our long awaited western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy. I am SO looking forward to all the onboard fun of our first day at sea!

 

[khertz]

Never saw Wall E before cute.

I did notice right away there was sugar on the Mickey waffle…yum.

So are all the pictures with the characters are with your camera ? I know you had to distance .

We are big Wall-E fans in our house (he is just so cute!), so this was the perfect towel animal for us.

I really did not know they could improve on the Mickey waffle, but the churro ones on DCL and the red velvet ones we had at Aulani... I guess it IS possible to make a perfect breakfast food even better!!!

Yes, we took all of our own photos with the characters and did not purchase the photo package on board. We were able to remove our masks for all meets where there was a photographer present, but if the characters were just out with a handler wandering around or doing a "greet & wave" type setup, masks had to stay on. My husband took photos of the kids with the characters on our DSLR camera, and we did family selfies on our phones.

Enjoying your adventures! Daisy looked super cute - I don't think I've seen that outfit before!

One of the most fun aspects of meeting the characters on board for us is hunting them down in different outfits! Daisy always looks & acts SO fabulous! She is a fun one to meet.

What a fun day at sea!! We are set to leave on Saturday for our long awaited western Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy. I am SO looking forward to all the onboard fun of our first day at sea!

I'm sure you're back by now, I hope you had an amazing cruise!!!

 

[khertz]

Day 5: Tuesday March 1st
ST. MAARTEN

This morning, the kids were OUT! They stayed asleep until 8:30 or 8:45 am. At some point that morning, we joined the virtual queue to exit the ship once we were ashore, but I am not sure they are even doing that now. We had breakfast up at Cabanas, then had time to hit a 3D craft activity before we docked. It was pretty lightly attended, and Raf was there so he spent most of the time we were there making Buzz Lightyear and some Green Aliens talking with us. He told us how he had spent the DCL shutdown and what it was like getting back on board for the restart of the cruise line. He even showed the kids a video of him getting his Covid vaccine and how scared he was of the needle, which they thought was hilarious. How quickly they forgot how dramatically THEY had reacted to getting their vaccines!!! Lol

After crafting, we went back to the stateroom to add our new decorations to our door because they always gave us a little strip of magnet to add to the back! We saw Agnelo and told him how much we had enjoyed the Wall-E towel friend the night before, and he asked the kids if they had any requests. DD said a kitten, and DS said a sea lion. Agnelo told them they were certainly giving him a challenge, but he promised to try!

We changed into our swimsuits and packed up a beach bag, then headed down to the gangway. DH and I had decided before this cruise that none of the Port Adventures appealed to us, and we had also decided not to go with an outside company because there had been so much uncertainty leading up to our cruise with some ports not allowing cruise ships, etc, and we didn’t know what kind of refunds we would be able to get if we ended up changing itineraries or whatever. So today, we decided to just head off the ship and spend the day at the beach. Today, we were visiting St. Maarten!

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We were easily able to buy wristbands for the water taxi for $7 per person for a round trip to get to the beach which was just fine and didn’t cost us a ton of money with a port adventure just to get to a beach.

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Someone saw us taking the kids photo and offered to take a family photo for us.

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The kids spotted this one and didn’t want to wait until we were on our way back to stop there for a photo.

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The water taxi ride was very quick!

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Everyone disembarking the water taxi was bombarded at once with people trying to sell you stuff…excursions, beach chairs, etc. We ended up following a guy who said we could rent 2 chairs with umbrellas and bathroom access for $25. Once we got settled, DH and I laughed to each other that we had probably been scammed and could have just taken the chairs for free because we never saw that guy again selling chairs to anyone else, but it was only $25 and was still cheaper than booking a port adventure! And it was a close walk back to the pier for when we were ready to head back.

The weather was nice a warm, and the water was still a little cold, but the kids went right to work in the sand.

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Eventually the kids coaxed DH off the beach chairs and got him to bury them in the sand.

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DS just likes to get as much sand on himself as humanly possible.

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DD wanted to collect “treasures.”

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DH found a place to get a couple of pizzas to share for lunch, and it was not very good but it was cheap enough and it filled us up. The beach was really nice and the kids had a great time spending several hours playing in the sand and the water. My only real complaint was that we were CONSTANTLY being asked if we wanted to buy hats, scarves, dresses, hair braiding for DD, foot massages, etc. I told DH we should have just brought a sign to prop up that said NO, THANKS. I get that they need to do that to make their living. It was just annoying.

We left the beach around 2:15 and took the water taxi back to the port. There were some cool looking lizards lounging on the rocks as we walked off the water taxi.

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[khertz]

Day 5 Continued: Tuesday March 1st

We were back on the ship by 3 and went back to the stateroom to shower and change for dinner. DD was so worn out from the hours in the sun and sand that she actually ended up taking a nap and the rest of us were grateful for the time to rest.

Steven had told us to arrive for our dinner at Animator’s Palate a little early that night so that we could do our drawings for the animation show! This was one of the things the kids enjoyed so much from our 2019 cruise and kept talking about, so they were excited to do their drawings this evening.

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DH’s drawing​

The kids were not playing around, they took a good long time designing their people!

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My finished drawing


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DS’s Dragon


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DD got a beautiful array of fruit tonight! She didn’t like the mango, but I ended up eating that. The orange fruit was papaya, and none of us enjoyed that one. But the colors were all so pretty mixed together.

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Again, only I got an appetizer tonight, and I chose soup.

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White Cheddar and Broccolini Soup
With Toasted Baguette Croutons​

Then it was time for main entrees! DH had chicken schnitzel and I had a really delicious shrimp pasta.

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Chicken Schnitzel
Breaded Chicken Breast fried in Butter, served with Roasted Bacon Potatoes, and Buttered Green Beans


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Grilled Garlic-Marinated Shrimp
With Linguine Pasta, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Artichokes, Sauteed Baby Spinach and a Tomato-Basil Provencal Sauce ​

It was also Mardi Gras day, so although we had brought plenty of clothes to dress up for dinner, since we had spent all day on the beach we had only worn our Mardi Gras shirts for a couple of hours that morning so we decided to wear them to dinner that night.

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We didn’t take any photos of the kids food that night, but DS had gotten a double portion of the pizza, and DD had gotten macaroni & cheese. For dessert, DD had her Mickey bar but DS decided to get the kids cheesecake.

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Then it was time for the animation show! The kids absolutely loved seeing their characters dancing and skating across the screens.

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Once the show was over, Steven arrived with the desserts for me and for DH.

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DH ended up getting 3 desserts!

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Celebration Cake
Layers of Cheesecake covered with Strawberries, embedded in rich Vanilla Cream


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Amaretto Cheesecake
Creamy Vanilla Cheesecake layered with Baked Amaretto Sour Cream


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Chocolate Decadence​

I snuck a taste of his Chocolate Decadence dessert which was good, but I had also chosen the Celebration Cake for myself.

After another wonderful dinner, we went back to the stateroom to grab some glow sticks for the fireworks show we would be watching up on deck that night. Our room had already been turned down, and as promised, Agnelo had made a cute little kitten towel animal for DD!

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Not only that, he had surprised the kids with some fun character bed sheets on their bunk beds! There was a little bit of drama as the kids were supposed to swap beds that night with DD on the top bunk and DS on the bottom, but Agnelo had put the Moana sheets for DD on the bottom and some Good Dinosaur sheets on the top bunk for DS. We convinced DD to wait on switching until the next night and she grudgingly agreed.

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[khertz]

Day 5 Continued: Tuesday March 1st

We headed up to the pool deck to stake out a spot for the fireworks show that night, and decided to go up to Deck 12 where we were still able to find an unobstructed view. They were still having everyone social distance, so each family group had to pick a dot on the ground to step on and we picked one with no other dots in front of it. We still had a little time to wait, so the kids were having fun with their glow sticks.

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Fireworks at sea is just SO COOL! I very much enjoyed this cruise that they were not as late as they had been on our first cruise in 2019 when I think they were at 10:15 pm or something like that. This time, they happened between the two dinner services at 7:45 pm. And since we had seen Frozen the night before, we didn’t have to hurry off to the show that night after the fireworks were over. Instead, we decided to do what we did most nights and go to the atrium to see what characters we could find! It was the unofficial Pirate Night, so all of the characters were in their cute pirate outfits. We saw Mickey & Minnie up on the balcony first.

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Cinderella and Tiana were down on the stairs in front of Royal Court, and DD wanted to go see them, so I took her while the guys stayed up on the next deck and took some photos of us from above.

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Since there was no photographer (I think this was called a “Greet & Wave”), DD had to keep her mask on the whole time.

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Snow White was up closer to the restaurant entrance.

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Rapunzel was roaming around up on one of the higher decks, and DD really wanted to go see her again to tell her how many bows she had! They had a very cute discussion about how Rapunzel could use all of those bows in her hair instead of the flowers. DD said she had about 30 at home, and Rapunzel said she thought she could probably use 25 of them in her braid!

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We had a little time to shop before the next thing we wanted to do, and we bought 2 little outfits for my sister’s baby. The kids were excited to shop for their baby cousin! Then the family entertainment for that night was an a capella group from Orlando called Moonshot. They had all met working together at WDW, and performed some fun Disney songs from Frozen, Pirates of the Caribbean, Descendants, Encanto, Moana, and even from the parks with the 50th Anniversary song. They were very entertaining!

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After that, we went to the D Lounge for a pirates game show at 9:45. DD took a picture with the D Lounge sign since her name starts with a D.

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DD wanted to take pictures of everyone while waiting for it to start, and she wouldn’t let us just smile, she wanted us to pose.

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DS was getting tired, so he asked to leave before the show was over around 10 pm. I took him back to the room but DH and DD stayed until the end of the game show and said they saw Raf coming in at the end of it to set up for the karaoke at 10:30.

I did get a picture of Donald and Goofy in their pirate outfits as we passed through the atrium to get back to the room.

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And that was pretty much the end of our night. We were back and in bed before 11. The next morning, we’d be in St. Thomas!

 

[khertz]

Day 6: Wednesday March 2nd
ST. THOMAS

The next morning, we were docked early in St. Thomas, another port we had never been to before! Since the day before had been spent on the beach and we knew we’d be doing the same on Friday, I was really not in the mood for another day on the beach. We had decided we’d just get off the ship and see what was nearby.

Having a verandah was so nice to be able to step outside to this in the morning!

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We had breakfast at Cabanas and joined the virtual queue to exit the ship while eating. We were able to get off the ship around 10 am and walked to the shops in the port area to look around. The kids were being kind of grouchy about the walking.

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We spent some time walking in and out of the different souvenir shops. DD spotted some of the little bottles filled with sand and shells that she really wanted because they had it in lots of different bright colors. She picked this out at the first shop we visited but we convinced her to wait and we’d check it out on the way back to the ship if she didn’t see anything else she liked in the other shops. Skipping ahead a little, she did end up getting that as one of her souvenirs and we got it just before getting back on the ship.

I had read some about the SkyRide and DCL offered an excursion for it, but it wouldn’t let me purchase it for DD because it said it was only for ages 10+. That really makes no sense. We ended up going to the SkyRide ticket counter in person instead, and they were selling combo tickets for that and for the Pirate Treasure museum. The lady that sold us our wristbands actually saved us some money by letting us know that DD would actually be able to get into the museum free due to her age, so she only needed to purchase the SkyRide tickets. The rest of us got the combo, and we went up to the SkyRide platform first.

Soon we were heading up the side of the mountain in a gondola!

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At the top was Paradise Point, a very small area with a couple of shops and a restaurant and some beautiful views!

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There were hooks on the wall and little metal rings on string that you were supposed to swing and catch on the hook. The kids thought this was great, and they both managed to hook their ring. I could never get it to hook!

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I think at some point after me trying a bunch, DS went over and put my ring on the hook and said, “Good job, Mom!” lol

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We took the gondola back down so we could check out the pirate museum.

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The museum had 2 floors. The first floor featured items recovered from sunken ships. The second floor had history about real pirates, and some fun interactive elements for the kids.

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[khertz]

Day 6 Continued: Wednesday March 2nd

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There was a hurricane wind simulator the kids wanted to try out.

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Then we were ready to head upstairs to the pirate exhibits.

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DS bought a small ship in a bottle from the museum gift shop on the way out. We decided before heading back to the ship, we’d take the SkyRide up and down one more time since we could ride all day with our wristbands.

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Once we made it to the bottom, we started walking back to the ship.

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We went to Cabanas for some lunch as soon as we got on board. There wasn’t a whole lot on the buffet the kids wanted to eat, so DD and I got a couple of things and got a table while DH and DS got us some more food to share from the pool deck offerings.

We had also spotted the blue crayon again!

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They had some really delicious cupcakes available for dessert!

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[khertz]

Day 6 Continued: Wednesday March 2nd

After a fun morning in St. Thomas and a quick lunch back on the ship in Cabanas, we stopped back in the room for a bit and got some pictures on the verandah.

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There was a craft happening in the D Lounge making animal masks, so we went over to do that. There were lots of choices of animals. I picked the elephant, DH did the lion, DS did a giraffe, and DD did a cat.

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Then we took our masks and headed to The Tube to do some Disney Tunes Trivia hosted by Jess, who is SO funny!

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She came over to chat with us while waiting for it to start and we compared how the ABCs are sung in America vs. England, and she told us a very funny story of how she had gotten off the ship that morning and decided to CLIMB the same mountain we had taken the SkyRide up and how she had greatly regretted that decision!

We didn’t win trivia, but we had fun! We went back to the room to drop off our masks, and DH and DS decided to stay and watch us sail out of port from our verandah.

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But DD wasn’t interested in staying still, so her and I left to do the next case on the Midship Detective Agency. We had a very funny moment on the elevator with a group of people, who were very chatty with us and we stopped at a floor, the doors opened, and Captain Mickey was standing there interacting with a guest. All of us on the elevator yelled “MICKEY!!!” and he turned to wave at us before the doors closed and we headed on to the next floor. Where else can that happen but a Disney ship?!

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After walking all around the ship, we found all the missing puppies and put away the villain responsible for puppy-napping them.

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She and I went to La Piazza for Disney trivia, again with Jess who asked some of the questions from the motorbike in there.

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[khertz]

Day 6 Continued: Wednesday March 2nd

Then we headed back to the room to meet up with the guys and shower and change for dinner. That night, we were in Enchanted Garden. We had packed some of the outfits we had worn to the luau at Aulani over the summer and decided to wear those to dinner this night.

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DD’s fruit selection that night was a mix of strawberries and raspberries.

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Our servers were very happy that night to talk to us about their day. It had been the first time since the restart of DCL that they had been able to leave the ship during the day! It was so sweet to see how excited they were to share what they had done while in port during the day.

DD went with the macaroni and cheese for her meal, and DS got the pizza.

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I got the charcuterie appetizer, but we didn’t get a photo of it apparently. Both of us chose the NY Strip for our entree.

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New York Strip Steak
With Truffle Layered Potatoes, Honey Parsnips, and Buttered Spinach with a Pepper Sauce on the side​

DD kept her streak going with her 5th Mickey Bar for dessert.

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Steven stumped us with another crayon puzzle. This time we had to move 3 crayons to get the fish swimming in the opposite direction.

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DH and I both ordered the bread pudding, and DH also got the cheesecake. DS decided against dessert this time.

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Creme Brulee Cheesecake
Layer of Baked Cheesecake with Caramelized Creme Brulee, served with Fresh Whipped Cream


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White Chocolate Bread Pudding
With Praline Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream​

After dinner, we went to the D Lounge for the family game show. Tonight it was Generation Quest, where kids and adults competed to see who was “cooler.” It was very funny, and it ended with a surprise visit by Goofy & Max!

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Anyone who wanted to could go up at the end of the show for a selfie with them. DD didn’t want to join in.

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Then we went to get in line for the nighttime show, Believe. It seemed more crowded than other nights had been, but it also could have been that we were cutting it a little closer to show time since we had squeezed another activity in before going to the theater. We were down in the front and close to the stage.

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The kids really enjoyed this show a lot. It confused DD a little bit because our first two shows had just been a performance of one movie, and this one was an original story featuring lots of songs from different Disney movies. But she ended up saying this one was her favorite show of the three Broadway style shows onboard.

After the show, DD and I made a pit stop in the restroom while DH and DS went to scope out what characters were meeting in the atrium.

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DD and I spotted Chip and Dale with DD’s “friend” Nicole when we came out of the restroom, so she got a photo with them.

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DS gave up and decided to go back to the room but DD wanted to stay and meet the characters. They were all dressed up in their formal wear, so she had her eyes darting all around wanting to meet them all. We had her choose between Mickey & Minnie on the stairs or Donald & Daisy on the balcony, and she ended up choosing Mickey & Minnie. While we were waiting, Belle was wandering around in her ball gown, so I stayed in line while DH took her over to take a picture with Belle.

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DH went back up to the room at that point too to help DS get ready for bed, so it was just us girls! Stitch was walking around, and of course we had to stop since DD was in her Lilo dress and had a Lilo & Stitch bow in her hair that she wanted to show him.

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Stitch was kind of all over the place, so that was the best we got. Then we saw Pluto. He started doing a hula to show DD how much he liked her Lilo dress.

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When we saw Nicole again walking around with the Chips, I told her DD really wanted a photo with her and asked if she minded. She was happy to oblige!

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Finally, we decided to call it a night and went back up to the room to get into pajamas, and saw that Agnelo had done DS’s requested towel animal of a sea lion!

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We were ok staying out later that night because we were gaining an hour back overnight. DH decided to go out alone to see the Adults Only Moonshot performance, but came back before it was over because he said it was all songs he didn’t know! We don’t listen to most current music so that wasn’t surprising. Then we got to bed!

 

[khertz]

Day 7: Thursday March 3rd
STAR WARS DAY AT SEA

We got up this morning around 7:45. This was probably the day I had been looking forward to the least because it was our Star Wars Day at Sea. None of us are big Star Wars fans so we had not booked this sailing specifically for it, but rather because the dates worked best for us. Last cruise, I felt like we all struggled to find stuff to keep us occupied during the day since most events were, of course, Star Wars themed.

I really wanted to have breakfast in one of the main dining rooms at least once, so I requested it for this morning and we headed down to Royal Court despite the groans and complaints of pretty much everyone else in the family. Lol DS was really worried that he wouldn’t get to add to his croissant count since they didn’t have them listed on the menu.

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But not only did they bring us a plate of croissants on request, DD also got her mixed fruit. We saw Steven serving that morning, and he said he had seen the bowl of fruit going out and thought it might be DD requesting it!

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I guess we failed to take pictures of the rest of our food?! I had the Belgian waffles, which was very good! DH’s French toast was a little undercooked, so he wasn’t impressed. DD & DS both got the pancakes.

We went to the 9:30 am Mickey Mouse trivia in La Piazza.

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We saw Raf there, and he came over to talk with us before it started. He said he had looked for us at the 8:30 craft that morning thinking we’d be there (because we went to almost ALL of the crafts !) so the kids took the opportunity to complain again about having to go to the dining room for breakfast instead of Cabanas.

Since we weren’t doing so hot at Mickey Mouse trivia, I ducked out a little early to get to the animation class where they would be drawing BB-8 hoping to get a table for us, but it was PACKED! By the time DH and the kids got there, it was almost full. We had to sit in some chairs off to the side and use a couple of lap tables. DD got frustrated halfway through because it was a pretty complicated character to draw, and just did her own thing, which she dubbed “Baby BB-8”

After the drawing class, we went back to our stateroom to change for the pool, and were shocked to find it had been all decorated in Stitch decorations while we were gone!! Agnelo told us “a friend” had come by to decorate, and we guessed we knew who that “friend” was since Raf had been asking about where our room was and DH had even mentioned we should have gone with Stitch decorations ourselves since it was 8626.

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And when we got inside the room, the kids loved the Star Wars Day at Sea sticker on our verandah sliding door also.

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We went up to the pool deck and found some chairs up on deck 12. DD and I did the AquaDuck first, and the lifeguard Dwayne from Jamaica was working the top of the slide and was very entertaining! He showed all the girls how to get into the raft “like a princess” and would get everyone pumped while waiting to launch saying, “What time is it?! What time is it?!” And everyone came up with their own response. Sometimes it was “It’s AquaDuck time!” or “It’s time to fly!” We saw him a few times after that on the ship and Castaway Cay and he was always smiling and dancing and talking to everyone.

IMG_6313 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6316 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6319 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

After a couple of times on the AquaDuck and Mickey slide, some time playing in the Aqua Lab, and lunch, the kids wanted to play miniature golf. It was kind of busy over there, so instead of all 4 of us playing we just let the kids play.

IMG_6326 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6327 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6328 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6329 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6333 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_6334 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We went back to the room to change. The kids had the kids club booked at 2:30 so DD went to that, but DS wanted to go to Edge instead. DH and I hung out in the room for a little while and enjoyed the quiet, but he wanted to go see Star Wars at Lightspeed in the theater at 4, so he went to do that by himself. I picked up DD from the kids club so we could go to the 4:15 craft in La Piazza. She was really excited about all the crafting they had done in the club, and they even gave her a little cinch backpack to keep everything in.

IMG_4770 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4780 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4775 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4777 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4778 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_4779 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Raf found us again, and he brought us a bag of the crafts we had missed that morning with some supplies like scissors and glue dots! I got DD to tell him about the door decorations, and Raf was playing coy asking who she thought had put them there, was it the room attendant? And she said, “No, he said he didn’t do it and it was our friend.” Raf said, “Oh, who do you think the friend is?” And she got all shy, and did one of those moves where she nodded her head towards him while raising her eyebrows, which cracked both Raf & I up!! He said the reason he had actually gone looking for us at the early craft was to see if we were out of the room yet or not and thought that would be where he’d find us if we were. When we had seen him that morning at the trivia, he had just left from decorating our door!

Then she finally agreed to stop being so shy and take a photo with him!

IMG_4781 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​