Our Cruise Aboard the Disney Magic, Part 3

Last week: fun in the sun. Today: freezing rain, a quarter inch of ice on all the trees (beautiful), and no school.

As promised, this edition will be all about our entertainment and dining experiences. Every evening we received a Personal Navigator — four page, full color newsletter detailing the schedule of activities available the next day as well as other important information. I'm just going to focus on the stage shows and meals here, though I should mention a couple of other things we did. We all went to see hypnotist Ricky Kalmon. I saw the Disney Innovations presentation (on ideas Disney developed which changed the theme park industry). We also took in magician Freddy Fusion.

NOW SHOWING IN THE WALT DISNEY THEATRE. The Disney Magic Performers put on two shows each evening and they were phenomenal. We always went to the early show because we were assigned the late seating for dinner.

We missed the first night's show due to the delay in boarding. We could have made it, but had no idea the show was starting when we were arriving in the ship’s lobby.

The Sunday night's show was Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story. In this story Lady Tremaine and her two daughters are given the chance to go back in time and attempt to foil Cinderella's good fortune.

Monday's feature was Villains Tonight! which presented many of the Disney villains in an attempt to determine who is the most evil. I think the duel between Queen Grimhilde (from Snow White) and Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) is still going on.

The stage show moved topside Tuesday night with the Pirates IN the Caribbean Deck Party. Guests were invited to come to dinner as pirates if they wished and then gather on decks 9 and 10 for the party at 9:45. Captain Hook (from Peter Pan) repelled in from the forward funnel and tried to take over but his attempts were foiled by Mickey Mouse who flew in by zip line from the aft funnel and upstaged Hook with a fireworks display. (Disney ships are the only ones that feature a fireworks show at sea.)

Wednesday night's show, Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic, was the best show in our opinion, and we understand that it has won awards for being the best show on any cruise ship in the world. It is also exclusive to the Disney Magic. It tells the story of a little girl who is growing up and in danger of losing the power of her dreams until she is visited by Peter Pan and characters from several other classic Disney tales.

The last night's show, Remember the Magic! A Final Farewell, recapped some elements from the previous shows and featured bits from two guest acts. The first was ventriloquist Kevin Johnson. He was followed by magician Freddy Fusion (whom we had seen in an earlier show). Freddy happened to pick a cute little girl (I'm guessing she was four) to come up on stage. Well, she sort of picked him. She almost stole the show but he was able to choose a second helper from the audience while still letting the girl be on stage. To his credit it really turned out well and everyone was in stitches.

At the risk of being redundant, the entertainment was top quality.

FOOD, FOOD, AND MORE FOOD. If you go hungry on a cruise ship you have no one to blame but yourself. There is food in abundance. We were told the galley staff prepares 10,000 meals a day. For the most part all food and drink was included in your fare, so it was really odd getting your food and not paying for it (and a reality check to have to pay for it when we got back on land). The exceptions to this that I know of were specialty drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and the adults only Palo restaurant.

We ate several of our breakfasts at the Topsider Buffet on deck 9 overlooking the stern, though breakfast was also offered at the restaurants on decks 3 and 4.

You could also go up to deck 9 most any time of the day and visit Pinocchio's Pizzeria, Pluto's Dog House (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.), and Goofy's Galley (sandwiches and such). We did this for lunch most days, though the restaurants also had buffets if you wanted to do that.

THE EVENING MEAL. Dinner is the big meal. Each night offered a completely different menu with several choices for a four course meal. I started out trying to record what we ate, but simply lost track. Suffice it to say our picky eaters ate chicken every night while the rest of us tried things we don't normally get, like lamb, veal, etc. I never had stomach issues due to seasickness, but I did due to eating way, way too much.

As I mentioned above, Palo is an optional restaurant. We never made reservations for this. Instead, we participated in the normal, family dining rotation. Disney does something unique here in that you get to experience each of the three main restaurants at least once on your cruise. Your servers and dining companions rotate along with you.

We ate in Lumiere's the first and fourth nights. This restaurant has a French theme with inspiration from Beauty and the Beast.

This was followed by a meal in Animator's Palate the following evening. The theme here is based on the Disney cartoon artwork. The whole place is in black and white when you begin your meal and color is gradually added while you eat. Toward the end of your meal Mickey comes in to complete the color transformation. This show is only done once for your rotation. Should you be on a longer cruise like we were do not skip out on your first night in Animator's Palate. The whole place stays black and white the next time you dine there.

The last restaurant in our rotation was Parrot Cay (“cay” is pronounced "key"). This is simply a tropically themed restaurant. We ate here the most because our rotation sent us there for the character breakfast with Mickey and company and for breakfast on our last morning aboard. This was the morning our servers folded really cool origami hats for us out of the cloth napkins.

CRUISE CASUAL. There is a dress code of "cruise casual" for the evening meals. Disney tells you what not to wear here, but not much about what to wear. We took jeans and collared shirts and were fine every evening, however, one night was officially formal night and another semi-formal night which I would have appreciated knowing, though this was optional. Of course, you were welcome to wear you finest swashbuckling attire for the Pirates IN the Caribbean night.

THE PEOPLE. As I mentioned above, our servers and dining companions followed us through the dining rotation so we shared six dinners and two breakfasts together. These seven people helped make the cruise extra special for us.

I'll start with our dining companions. We lucked out here! Scott and Sarah live in the greater Houston area and have three beautiful daughters: Kaylee (14), Morgan (9), and Addison (6). We had more fun eating with them and looked forward to hearing about their adventures each day. We could relate to them very well as they seem to hold values and beliefs close to ours. We learned in conversation that they are Christians who are very involved in their church like we are.

The other two people who were part of our dining experience were our sever, Pairoj (pronounced "Pyro"), who is from Thailand, and our assistant server, Maria, who is from Serbia. We found out that Pairoj and Maria had only worked together as a team for two weeks, but they sure work well together. They also balance each other out nicely.

Pairoj is a cutup. He likes to come up behind you, tap on one shoulder, and speak in the opposite ear. Pairoj started messing with Ben from the very first night. After he brought Ben’s main course he came back, grabbed Ben’s knife and fork, and proceeded to cut up the chicken, even popping a piece into Ben’s mouth. Ben was a little shocked and embarrassed at first, but we could tell the attention pleased him. The next night Ben sort of waited for Pairoj to cut up his chicken again.

Ben is a lot like me in that he doesn’t like to reveal his thoughts and feelings too much. This goes no matter what’s going on inside, but sometimes he gets to a point where he can’t contain it any longer and his inner feelings spill out all across his face. We enjoyed watching Pairoj’s antics breech that barrier with Ben and make a smile break out almost every night.

Toward the end of the cruise Pairoj would do a few magic tricks which totally impressed Nate. For one trick Pairoj made a crayon disappear. When Nate tried to repeat the trick he wound up chunking the crayon over his shoulder and beyond the table behind him. Then Nate showed Pairoj how to fold a paper biplane out of his menu (which looks better than it flies) and had Pairoj trying to fly it across Animator's Palate. As you can tell, Pairoj was a lot of fun.

Maria was a good balance to Pairoj, though that's probably her role as assistant server. Her sweet, gentle spirit made the table a warm and inviting place to be for us each time we dined and that was as priceless as Pairoj's antics.

Pairoj and Maria spoiled us. On Sunday someone asked, "Hey, what's for lunch?" Vicki's answer, "Whatever you fix for yourself," was yet another reality check.

Joe