Disney Wish Day Two

Morning two started out with us at sea, slowly pulling in towards New Providence Island.  You can see a certain towering casino's silhouette from a great distance, and the line of the island too.  Our view from the veranda gave us a view of the captain's area, where we could see one of the crew looking out.

That's a Carnival ship behind us, way in the distance.  One at a time, the four cruise ships were lining up in the harbor, reading to unload their passengers.

It would be a while before we got there though, and that was okay because we were enjoying the moment, sailing through the waters and looking for shapes in the clouds. 

Ahead of us you could see another cruise ship, smoke flowing out of the top like some sort of industrial steampunk boat. 

Mom and I sat there, resting, just watching the water as our ship glided through it all, low hanging clouds passing briskly by.  

Ah, this one had a Mickey hat on!  That's the one we were looking for.  I remember one time seeing a perfect Goofy cloud in this very area.  It's the perfect spot to find Disney clouds!

The Paradise Island Lighthouse is somewhat of an iconic structure, beautiful against the blue of the harbor.  We were pulling in slowly, and enjoying the views around us as we got ready to make port.

This old structure I think was some observation area for underwater life.  It's rusted and has an abandoned look about it, like some sort of structure on Isla Sorna that trapped adventurers flee to for safety from the various dinosaurs out there.

Anyway, we made port again in Nassau.  And... we didn't get off the boat.  At all.  One reason is that we were on the Disney Wish, and there was so much to see on this boat that we've never seen before.  Another reason is that the store Maddie usually likes to visit here has moved a mile down the road - too far to walk.  There was one place I was wanting to return to - Ardastra Gardens - but we can do that next time.  For now, we were content to explore the Disney Wish and enjoy some of the activities onboard.

But first, some breakfast!  We went down to the 1923 restaurant, going to the Walt Disney side to enjoy some pastries which you can see above, but also some other nice morning choices.  It was a very nice meal together!

Afterwards, we went to the Hero Zone!  This was an appointment with destiny!  This was the Incredi-Games!  I had been challenging Maddie for this quite some time, a gaming section on the twelfth floor.

There was a pretty good line for this activity, a one on one race through an inflatable obstacle course.  And you needed socks... uh-oh.  Maddie stayed in line while I got in the elevator and went down there to the room to get socks and return.  Yes, the line was that long.  And yes, while in the elevator, I met at least two other different parents who were also going back to get socks!

But I got back with plenty of time to spare, and soon enough, we were at the starting gate.  Mom was up above in an observation area, watching all the competitors race through the course to victory.

Here we go... one... two... three!

The race was close to begin with.... until this moment here....

This was hilarious.  These inflated coils were small enough for Maddie to squeeze through and move on.  I raced in through them hoping weight and momentum would push me through, but just like any spring shaped object, this large coil took all that momentum and threw me backwards!  

Maddie was sitting there at the climbing portion, wondering where her dad went.  She was kind enough to wait for me there, but clearly she was the champion here.  We climbed to the top, and slid down the slide together, both conquering heroes!

That was fun - we'll have a rematch on the next cruise!  We decided to move on from there though.  One thing we did afterwards was go to the theater to watch a movie.  There are two theaters on the Wish, one is the Wonderland theater...

And the other is the Neverland theater...

We chose to go to the Wonderland theater, which had a lot of people in it - a full theater.  We all sat together to watch one of Disney's latest movies, one called "Wish."

Yes, we saw "Wish" on the Wish.  I think a lot of others were wanting to take advantage of that opportunity.  But it was nice getting to see a movie on a cruise ship.  I always like seeing a movie on a cruise.  I remember watching "Treasure Planet" the first time we were on a Disney cruise, and then of course "Brave" later on, and after that we saw "Cars 3" as well.  This movie was okay, the artistic style being a highlight of the movie, but the story somewhat on the bland side.  We enjoyed it, and went on to the next thing, visiting the Hyperspace Lounge again.

It wasn't open yet, but we wanted to snap a few pictures while were there, as it was so awesome last time we were there.  Mom, Maddie and I went in and looked around again, enjoying the scenery and posing for a few photos.

Another place we visited after the Hero Zone was the Vibe.  This was the place set up for teens that are Maddie's age.  There were video games, card games, crafts and a great view from up top.  Maddie took this awesome picture from there with her phone.

Here she is holding up a game she'd like to try again in the future, as it is pretty fun.  I just noticed a hidden Mickey on the table there.  This was an "open house" moment for parents here, so Mom and I could wander around in here and see things a bit.

While there, Maddie noticed a place where she could do one of her favorite little hobbies, and that was too much to pass up on.

She sat there making a bracelet!  She gathered the letters together and got to work straight away without even stopping to think about it.  

Here's the bracelet she made - it says "DISNEY CRUISE" on it.  She gave it to Mom, who wore it pretty much the rest of the cruise!

This Mickey Mouse statue was in the Vibe too, and looked pretty cool.  It's a neat area, and I'm glad we all got to see it.  Ultimately, Maddie thought it was alright, but would rather stay with us.  Especially because we were all going back down the stairs one floor to get some ice cream from this wonderful place!

We stopped back and Joyful Sweets, and this time it was to get some ice cream.  And an extra macaroon!  You can see Joey above, and a gelato that Maddie had, which must have matched the character Anger a little.  Just kidding - I only said that because it's red.  Here's the rest of the characters within the area:

Pretty cool, huh?  We just watched this movie as research, not that we needed to.  But having just seen it, we were in love with the design of the place.  Maddie even posed for a few pictures themed to each character:

So yes, we got to sit down and have some ice cream.  Mom got something with caramel, and I tried the "unicorn," which was super colorful with swirls, but ultimately just vanilla.  And yes, Mom got a macaroon as well, one that was blue like Sadness.

We kept moving after that - our next destination was the Bayou, a lounge down below near the Hyperspace Lounge.  We'll come back for some of the beignets there later, but for now we were there for some drawing first...

They have these classes where you can sit and learn to draw, step-by-step, a different Disney character.  Given that it's a pirate-themed night tonight, the character of choice was Captain Hook.  Not bad!  But the real reason we were there was for our first trivia game.  Joey, Mom, Maddie and I named our team the Mah-nah-mah-nahs, and this is because this trivia game was based on the Muppets!  We competed with quite a few other people in that area to see if we could win one of the famous Disney medals.

We had fun, but sadly, we missed about five questions.  I forgot the name Lew Zealand, and we weren't quite sure of the name of the production the Muppets put together in "The Muppets Take Manhattan."  But again, it was fun, and there were other chances at trivia... tonight was pirate night, and there was actually a pirate-themed trivia going on again today.

That's why we went back to the room to get into our pirate costumes.  Many other Disney cruisers do the same, getting ready for the pirate themed night.  There are lots of pirate activities that night, including the big pirate party on the top deck.  So we got dressed up in our pirate gear, and we went down to the Triton Lounge for the first time, and saw a lot of other people also there, all ready for trivia.  Many were dressed as pirates, and we knew the competition would be fierce.  But it would be fun!

The last time we did this pirate trivia, we came out winners!  But last time was against a much smaller field of competitors.  This time, the Triton Lounge was full of competition, and honestly the questions were a little more trickier.  Still, the three of us did our best, and when tallying up the totals I didn't think we'd come out on top at all - there were some really dedicated groups there.  But guess what?     

Arrr!  We won!  We seem to look a little too happy in this picture above, as we hoist our medals.  Below we look a little more like pirates!

Arrrr!  That was a pleasant surprise.  But there were other moments that were really nice too.  For example, Maddie had been wanting to try a beignet from the Bayou down below, so we went to that lounge, and it's usually pretty full.  And sure enough, there were plenty of people down there.  But guess what?  One of those two large booths was actually open, and the three of us got to sit down and take a breather.  

Joey is happy down at the Bayou.

Here we are in the booth - our waiter took a nice photo of us.

So we ordered two beignets, a root beer and an orange soda.

Joey is eyeing those beignets...

Maddie liked them - they're basically doughnuts, of course.  But perhaps harder to spell.

One of the decorations at the Bayou.  We want to see this movie again now.

Maddie's cravings are about to be fulfilled!

This is another bar, but there were non-alcoholic drinks here.

The ceiling was decorated in a very unique way.  Nice area!

Okay, so this was the next thing we did.  Right afterwards, we went up to make a pirate craft.  Now last time, we made something interesting, some colorful parrots.  This time, however, we made treasure maps like the one you see above, the one that Maddie made.  They gave us the map, and then a sheet of paper with icons and other items too.  Plus glue.  You just basically made a treasure map, and it was a little fun.

Uncle George and Thip came by to visit, having roamed about Nassau for a bit.

Here's the one made by Mom and I.  I think it needs a dotted line.

Okay, so here's a big thing for the night, the huge production of "The Little Mermaid."  We got into the Walt Disney Theater, once again getting those fantastic seats.  They don't let you take pictures or record in there, and that's probably a good thing for the enjoyment of everyone in the audience.  These photos are actually taken from online elsewhere, just a few glimpses of what we got to see on stage.  It was really, really good!

We enjoyed that quite a bit!  The music, the costuming and puppetry, the special effects, the performances - all of it was spectacular and fun.  We've all got these internal lists of movies we want to watch again now, some based on these big plays, and others based on hearing the theme songs playing in the hallways or on the television.  We had that television on throughout the cruise, always on in the stateroom just to hear the music, themes from the classic to the obscure Disney movies.  It was a "name that tune" game going on all weekend.  I think the one that nearly stumped us was the theme to "The Princess Diaries," which Maddie finally got.  I just couldn't place that one!

Anyway, the next stop was our eating for the night, back to 1923.

This time we were in the Roy Disney side, and it was a very nice dining experience.  Just ask the porgs!

There weren't any of the theatrics from the night before, but there was amazing food.  They took really good care of Mom, and Maddie and I were pretty happy with everything we had to eat there too.  For dessert, we both were stuffed but we couldn't resist ordering some churros!

Different walls and displays showed conceptual art and ideas behind some of the classic Disney movies, from "Peter Pan" to "The Princess and the Frog" and of course "Cinderella."  It was a nice evening!

But we weren't done yet!  The ship was leaving Nassau's harbor and we were heading northward and into the deeper waters of the Caribbean, appropriately enough because we were about to enjoy the pirate party!

Once again, we got our ideal spot, getting there a little early so we can enjoy the whole show, and what a show it was!

The moon hung high directly overhead, and the pirates were out, loud music, dancing, and lots of swashbuckling!  The premise of the actual performance is not terribly deep.  Basically a bunch of pirates are getting together and there's music, pyrotechnics and lots of choreography.

But where was Jack Sparrow? 

Oh yes, there he is.  The theme song played and the crowd roared for the most famous Disney pirate of them all.  Fun!

And once the pirates all got together on stage, all the pieces were in place, and that meant it was time for the big fireworks show in the sky.  

It's just a classic moment on the cruise, sitting there in the middle of the ocean with nothing around you for many, many miles, launching off a huge display of fireworks with all the pirates looking onward, cheering and screaming.  It was fantastic!

And with that, it was time to wind down.  It took us a bit to get off the deck, but we did make it back to our rooms where we were greeted by a new towel creation.

We sat out on the veranda for a bit watching the waves roll by in the darkness, looking off to the horizon at another distant cruise ship.  We're all heading northward to small private islands in the Bahamas where we'll most certainly be disembarking for another fun-filled day.