Transatlantic - Sea Days 7 & 8

Sea Day 7
 
   It was almost like "Well, one day of touring was fun but tiring. Glad we are back to sea days for a rest."  :)

   We slept in and then attended the Gold and Platinum Reception at the Walt Disney Theater.  This refers to the loyalty program on Disney Cruise Line.  Gold members have completed five or more cruises and Platinum members have completed 10 or more.  This was the first time Chris was also gold (yes, I sometimes cruise without him so I have more accumulated than him).  I haven't gone in the past but I know from other people that they are usually small with some drinks and appetizers and a visit from a character.  Because this cruise had a large number of Gold and Platinum cruisers, the reception was held in the Walt Disney Theater.  
     There were servers passing free drinks and then Leslie, the cruise director, came out and talked a little bit about Disney Cruise Line and their appreciation of their loyal cruisers.  Then they said they were doing something different and showing us a "behind the scenes" element of Tangled the Musical.  What they did was present one of the scenes from the show and then they did the scene change in slow motion with the microphones on for all of the backstage crew.  We were able to see and hear all that goes on when there is a scene change.  It was a lot and they slowed it all down for us to see.  It usually happens in less than a minute.  This was the first time they had done this and it did seem a little awkward but it was interesting enough.  As we were leaving, everyone received a Mickey rice krispie treat.

  We had received a notice in our stateroom that today we needed to pass through immigration on the ship.  Our assigned time was right after the reception so we made our way there only to find a huge line.  There was a Disney cast member who said they decided to re-open at 2 pm so we should come back at that time.  Fine with us  We headed to the buffet for some lunch.  

  It was nice outside so we sat outside for a bit and even saw Mickey doing the same!  Then we went down for the immigration again.  The line was already forming at it was only 1:50 pm.  It took us about 30 minutes to go through the line and get our passports checked and stamped.  It really wasn't a big deal but there was definitely a lot of complaining going on around us by other guests.  To me, there really are worse things in life and, while it was a minor inconvenience, it certainly didn't ruin our day.
  

 I did some reading out on our balcony until our evening activities began.  The show tonight was ABBAFAB, which was a tribute ABBA band,  We almost skipped it because I'm not a big ABBA fan.  And when the show was over.. yeah, I'm still not a fan of ABBA.

   Between the show and our dinner time, we went to Fathoms, one of the adult lounges, for a special performance.  Some of the performers in the Disney shows were ending their contracts at the end of our cruise so they had put together a little Cabaret style show.  They sang all Disney songs but some different ones that you don't hear often and they also told some stories about what brought them to perform at Disney Cruise Line.  

   Our dinner was at Lumiere's and we had the "Vista" menu.  Honestly, I am not sure that is the title of this menu.  It wasn't listed anywhere so I asked the servers.  One didn't know and the other one told me it was Vista.  All of the food seemed to have a California theme so I am thinking it came from the West Coast cruises.

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Sea Day 8

   I went to another Anyone Can Cook presentation this morning.  This one was a little different.  It was called Battle of the Chefs.  They had two chefs set up to cook a dish that they chose and then they chose three guests to be the judges.  Leslie, the cruise director, served as the emcee.  One of the chefs really liked to trash talk which make it entertaining.  In the end, the dishes were very different and all the guests said they enjoyed them both so it was basically a tie.  But it was fun to watch.

  The main show tonight was Tangle the Musical so there were a lot of little Tangled themed activities throughout the day.  If you went to the desk in the lobby, you could pick a "Spot a Thug" activity page.  Around the ship, there were "thug" decals and you had to find them and match them with the location.  I didn't do it, but I got the sheet and did see a few when I was around the ship that day.

  The rest of the afternoon, we did something I have always wanted to do.. we just sat on the top deck and watched movies on the Funnelvision.  The Funnelvision is the big screen by the family pool.  Typically, this area is full of families and can be pretty noisy so I retreat to the adult only area.  But this cruise had a smaller number of families with children so it was pretty quiet.  We found some chairs in the sun and enjoyed relaxing with some Disney movies.

The show, as I mentioned, was Tangled the Musical which was very good.  And our dinner was at Animator's Palate.  We had the "Land and Sea" menu.

Afterwards, we went to see the adult show by John Charles  We have seen him on other Disney cruises and always enjoy him.  They call him the "human jukebox" because he knows about any song you could name.  He plays guitar and will go around and talk to people and take requests.  He is also very funny.  He was supposed to play for 45 minutes but he said he was having fun so he did well over an hour.  I was glad we went because his main show the next night got a little messed up... stay tuned for that.