Disney Fantasy Day 4: Non-Adventures in Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was my least favorite stop.

Let me start out by saying the island is beautiful. It's very tiny, but beautiful.

The waters were too shallow to dock, so the ship stopped a good ways off the shore and passengers were chartered in on tinder boats. The line for tinder boats gave those with on-shore excursions first priority with free loading tinders starting at 11:30. We took that to our advantage since we didn't have any excursions planned and decided to sleep in and go to a non-crowded breakfast. It was definitely the easiest day to find a table!

While we were trying to kill time before getting off, we were looking over the balcony, and I took those pictures. We turned around and saw Donald and Daisy out on the deck! Their human friend brought them to come talk to us and Donald noticed my ring and pointed it out to Daisy. I told them that we were on our honeymoon and Daisy made a huge fuss over my ring. I told Donald he needed to hurry up and get Daisy a ring like mine. He didn't like that very much.

When they announced the open tinder boats we made our way down to the gangway and on to the island. I snapped a quick picture of the ship in the open water.

Immediately I noticed that it was different than Cozumel. We were obviously in the tourist part of town and everywhere there were people bombarding us with offers. "You need a taxi to Seven Mile Beach?" "You want (insert tourist thing here), come see me!" I wasn't a big fan, especially because we had just planned to get off the ship and enjoy the environment. There wasn't much environment to enjoy.

We spent less than an hour off the ship and the only souvenir I bought was a shot glass for my collection to say I had been there (they're the cheapest souvenir to collect!)

Back on the ship we again took advantage of everyone being off the ship and read by the pool for a while. It was nice to sit and relax in the quiet.

I added another character to my meet and greet list later that night: Rapunzel! (aka my favorite princess)

Dinner was back at Enchanted Garden, and the theme was "Prince and Princess Dinner". Our napkins were folded in the shape of Tinkerbell's shoes to add to the ambiance of the garden.

Our server Imade and his assistant Corrado were very entertaining while we were eating. Imade did magic tricks and Corrado gave us puzzles made from crayons to solve. This night he gave us one that took from soup to dessert to solve! He actually got on us for letting our soup get cold because he thought we were more worried about the puzzle than dinner. Truth was the soup was just gross.

Appetizer: Duck and Cheese Quesadilla. Not really what I would call a quesadilla, we actually kept referring to it as "the wonton" for the rest of the meal. Aside from looking funny, it taste delicious and was one of my favorite things I ate the whole week.

Soup/Salad: Baked Potato and Sausage Casserole soup. Honestly, probably my least favorite dish. It tasted like chili (which I hate), and didn't resemble potato soup in any way.

Main course: Mushroom pasta. I was stuck between this and the steak when I ordered, but after trying some of Zach's steak I was glad I chose the mushroom pasta. I'm just too picky when it comes to restaurant steak. The pasta was amazing though! The sauce was butternut squash and the two tastes went together perfectly.

Dessert: Banana Bread Pudding, by far my favorite dessert of the week. It was warm and sweet and wonderful.

 When it was time to go back to the room we had an adorable towel elephant waiting for us:

Next Installment: One Love, Jamaica

Disney Fantasy Day 3: Playa Mia Cozumel!

Day 3 was our first day in a port, and my first time ever out of the country! The last time I took a cruise we docked in Nassau, but my family and I didn't get off, so I guess technically I had been in international waters, but that's not the same.

We met our excursion group and disembarked the ship. Disney is very organized with how they group people and get them off for their excursions, the whole process went through without a hitch.

When we got off we walked to an area where tour busses were parked and got on one headed to Playa Mia Water Park. Here's some pictures of the journey from ship to park:

The fee we played for our excursion included access to the water park (which was more toward little kids, but had a big water slide that I went down!), an open bar, an international buffet, access to watercraft such as paddleboats and catamarans, pool access, use of the beach, and use of a giant inflatable obstacle course thing that was floating in the ocean. The resort itself is beautiful!

The water was really clear, calm, and warm! I have a lifeproof case on my phone so Zach and I took turns filming things underwater (which gave us better pictures).

The videos are long and awkward because we spent half the time at the end trying to get the camera to turn off because it wouldn't recognize that our fingers were touching it since they were wet! But here are some of the shots we got:

We actually found a stingray!

All too soon it was time to go back to the ship. Cozumel was beautiful and the people were very friendly and helpful. I would highly recommend Playa Mia to anyone visiting.

When we got back to the ship I had my daily shower and nap, and I went alone to the show. Zach wanted to stay in the room and watch a movie. The show was okay, but I don't even remember what it was called so it obviously wasn't that spectacular.

Dinner was at Animator's Palate, my favorite of the restaurants. 

It's themed around Disney animation, and actually features a dinner show. Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo comes around on the screens and talks to the humans in the "human tank". The show is completely interactive and adorable. There were a ton of kids celebrating birthdays so Crush had them all form a birthday club. Our table was in the middle and full of adults so we didn't get talked to, but it was fun to watch.

Now, for the food! 

Appetizer: Sliced Serrano Ham. I didn't really like this. It was super thin and dry and taste more like weird bacon than ham. Also I don't like olives so those stayed on the plate.

Soup/salad: Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup. Again, it was good but it didn't have any potato chunks in it. It was one of my favorite soups, though.

Main course: Pan Seared Red Snapper. It wasn't all that exciting, but it was a decently good piece of fish. The scallop on top was also really good.

Dessert: White Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake. Delicious! Also, beautiful. 

When we got back to the stateroom we had a wonderful surprise waiting for us! Props to our housekeeper, Gilbert for the surprise!

Next installment: Grand Cayman and Our Lack of Adventure

Disney Fantasy Day 2: A Day at Sea

I loved our itinerary for the cruise because we had the first full day at sea. This gave us a chance to relax and just enjoy the ship and everything it had to enjoy (such as unlimited soft serve ice cream!)

Breakfast had bananas bigger than my hand!

For the most part, though, the day was pretty uneventful (which means this will be a short post! :)

After breakfast, we took some time to lay in the sun until after lunch. While we were laying out we got an announcement from the cruise directors saying they were about to play the Mickey horns, and to please turn on any cell phones if we wanted to record. They sound like this: (Blogger won't let me embed my video for some reason).

 They play 8 different tunes, and I'm pretty sure Disney is the only line with musical horns.

After lunch I made Zach wait in line with me to meet Stitch. He wasn't super excited about that, but at least he waited.

After lunch I accidentally took a 2 hour nap (I guess all the wedding excitement had caught up with me!)

The show that night was Aladdin: The Musical. It was probably my favorite show from the whole week. The magic carpet was played by a gymnast/acrobat in a carpet costume and was absolutely amazing!

Dinner was at Royal Court, my least favorite of the 3 restaurants on the ship. It's my least favorite because the food is primarily French cuisine and the atmosphere isn't all that welcoming. Don't get me wrong, the decor is beautiful, it's it's just not my style.

Appetizer: Iced Lobster & Shrimp. This wasn't the best dish but it also wasn't the worst. It was plated beautifully, though!

Soup/Salad: Potato and lentil soup. This was delicious, but the soup was really thin. There wasn't a single potato chunk in the soup. 

Main Course: Lobster macaroni. I did not like this at all, and I think that it was the truffle oil that was in the sauce. The noodles were also barely covered in liquid and were weird to eat. Another girl at the table also ordered it, and 

Dessert: This was probably one of my top dessert nights. I got the Sweet Temptations, which was a sampler of the three most popular desserts from the menu. Left to right are mango cheesecake, creme brulee, and peanut butter mousse. The creme brulee was amazing, and those of us who got it wished we had just gotten the big one! The cheesecake was also amazing.

Since we were in fancy clothes for formal night we had friends snap this picture as we left: 

Zach doesn't really do formal. Oh well, we are still cute.

Next installment: Cozumel!