It was a day at sea today, and that actually works out somewhat with the cruise because it's a longer journey down there to our first stop, the furthest south of all the destinations. We woke up, and you can see the view there from our veranda - open sea. We actually had a reservation early on today, but before we did that, we went up to Cabana's to grab ourselves some breakfast.
This is Maddie's breakfast, or at least part of it. Or maybe it is Peanut Butter's. That's the bull with horns there. Or perhaps it is Joey's. Anyway, we enjoyed breakfast up there, and soon after it was time for the Royal Gathering. What is the Royal Gathering? It's basically a few princess characters all lined up in the atrium, sort of condensed there so you can have a larger meet-in-greet than the individual meet-and-greets in the hallways or random corners. There were only three there, and that probably has to do with the smaller size of the Magic's atrium. But then there was Belle up one level, and we were happy to meet with her as well right afterwards. Back in April, I stayed up until midnight to sign up for this Royal Gathering. It becomes available to sign up for at midnight, and it's free, but you just have to reserve a spot quickly. No exaggeration: all the spots were full in two minutes, but I got us a spot, and here we were now, lined up still to see Tiana, Cinderella, and Ariel. I took a few pictures myself with the cell phone, but many of these pictures here were taken by Disney photographers and put on our Disney photo pass account. They turned out wonderfully!
Tiana was first in line, and it was very cool seeing Maddie with the Princesses again - we all were like little kids again.
Even with the reservation, there's still the very big line. We were in another line to see Thor before this, but he was evidently too hammered last night. Or perhaps he injured himself and his back was Thor. We were with a few other people in line for the princesses, and were making these terrible jokes about Thor's no-show. It was okay, we'd wind up meeting Spider-man later on, and after this Royal Gathering, we were all smiles.
So first was Tiana, and of course she was completely in character. As we were in line and getting closer, she might have even told us we were "Almost There."
Next in line was Cinderella, who would be heavily featured on this cruise the next few nights in shows on stage. Maddie brought Joey along for all these meet-and-greets, and it was fun hearing the characters react to him.
Again, the photo pass was a great thing to do. There are so many pictures taken by photographers along the way, and they scan your card to attach all the photos to your account. And they upload them quickly so that you can have access very fast - we were looking at these pictures here on our phones, and also on our televisions in the stateroom. By the third or fourth day of the cruise, there was a lengthy slide show on our television, completely of our own pictures on the cruise, all set to Disney music. By the end, we had over two hundred pictures I think. I still took pictures on the cell phone, but it was great to have some nicer quality images too.
And next in the atrium - and the last part of the Royal Gathering - was Ariel. I immediately regretted not bringing forks. We could have called them thingamabobs. Earlier in the General Disney Trivia, that was one question - how many thingamabobs did Ariel have?
The answer is twenty! Maddie had such a great time with the Disney Princesses this morning, and even said as much a few times immediately afterwards.
I think this may be one of my favorite pictures here, one I snapped with the cell phone. The two were doing a twirl with the dresses, and they both had big smiles on as this was all a very nice morning.
Okay, I just took this picture for the joke: It's an aerial picture of Ariel.
So this was not part of the Royal Gathering, and I wasn't sure why not - I mean, she was just upstairs one floor, and we could see Belle there along with a small line of people. It was a small window of time that she'd be up there, and as we were with Ariel, we could see others taking pictures with her. So immediately after Ariel, we went upstairs and fortunately the line wasn't that long yet at all. We were able to meet with Belle too, and make her part of the Royal Gathering as well.
I love how it's not just about taking a photo and moving on. The characters all have conversations with everyone who visits, spending quality time with them and making nice memories.
So one character Maddie really wanted to meet was about to show up at a different place, and we thought it would be fun to join him - but we also knew the line was going to be long. Better get ready!
Maddie wore the appropriate shirt, which I think gives away who it was. She had gotten changed, and I went over to hold a place in line a little early. That line would grow and grow, but we had a spot earlier in place. Still, while I was holding that place, look who Maddie and Mom ran into!
The Royal Gathering wasn't over yet for Maddie! This was pretty cool, as this is the Rapunzel that Maddie would meet later on at the restaurant. Like Cinderella, Rapunzel is a big theme to this cruise, perhaps even bigger. So this was a pretty cool moment.
Once she was done with Rapunzel, she joined me in line and the wait wasn't that long at all from that point because I was so close. Here's where she got to see your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!
Maddie told him he was her favorite hero!
I love this picture. We look like a great Spider-family there. We were definitely having fun!
This was surprising to everyone that Maddie could do the pose too, but not to us - she does taekwondo, so yeah, this is no problem!
So speaking of Marvel, another thing we did today was go to the Buena Vista Theater onboard the Disney Magic, and there we sat to watch a movie.
In case you don't recognize the photo op here that we're posing for - or the shirt I'm wearing - the movie we saw was "Captain America: Brave New World."
It was a fun movie! There was a good bit of action and super hero posing and so on, and familiar characters too. It wasn't up there with my favorites, but I certainly didn't hate it. The fact that we saw it on the Disney Cruise first will always make it a sentimental movie, I'm sure. We enjoyed the characters, and some of the returning characters certainly. It seemed like more of a sequel to 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" than anything, which was pretty interesting. The destruction to the White House was surprising and a bit tough to swallow, but the overall battle with the Red Hulk was quite a sequence. It's wild when you're watching a movie on board a boat like this, everyone in a theater on the ocean and yet completely transported to another place in a story, completely forgetting the fact that you're on a cruise from time to time. We sat in the back row, and while that's usually a good spot... maybe next time we'll sit a row forward. Those were tight, tight spaces!
Anyway, before moving on, here's some other pictures we took with Captain America's shield, celebrating our Marvel part of the cruise:
Okay, so the rest of our afternoon was spent doing a few different things and activities, like trivia, crafts, ice cream... and shawarma!
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| Here's Joey with a plate of shawarma, in honor of our Marvel day! |
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| She's the Queen of the World! |
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| Ice cream! We got some of that soft serve ice cream just about every day! |
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| Things were all ready for the baby dash in the atrium! |
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| Here's the race course for the baby dash as they get ready. |
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| Mom, Maddie and I made some Mickey Bar crafts in the Soul Cat Lounge! |
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Maddie poses down near Fathoms, looking out to sea. We had a great afternoon doing some trivia, including some live musical trivia where a pianist would play parts of Disney tunes that we'd try to guess. It was pretty fun and we did pretty well getting something like 18 out of 20. We came up short in our trivia games today, but still had a good bit of fun!
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| We dropped by the Encanto game show - you can see Joey posing on stage. |
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| Ah, but you know where we had to return to: the Cove Cafe! |
And soon enough it was time to prepare for tonight's theater production. Last night we saw the magician at the theater, and tonight we were off to see "Twice Charmed," a version of the Cinderella story where things get reinvented somewhat. Basically, it's sort of like "Cinderella III," from what I remember. Mom and Maddie looked very nice today, all ready for the theater!
Joey seems ready too! We got some good seats and watched the show together tonight, enjoying the atmosphere and performances. It was a very good production, one I don't actually remember seeing before. But the three of us liked it very much!
Maddie's tradition after the show is to make a hard left out of the theater and go to the deck to look for the sunset. We went out there together, and enjoyed a few moments where we could get some fresh air!
We did some more trivia after this, this time based on Disney villains, and again we had a great time and did really well. But once again, someone did just a bit better than us. Still, it was fun - we were just talking about Horace and Jasper and sure enough that was an answer to one question. There was a question about the Horned King, and that was pretty obscure - plus two questions dedicated to Scar from the Lion King. That was fun, and it was nice to do something relaxing like that leading up to dinner tonight, where we would go to the Animator's Palette!
Back in Pigeon Forge, I got this black and white shirt showing drawings of Disney characters, and I knew it would be perfect for tonight. This was the first time I got to wear it, and we even got a few comments on it, as I fit right in.
And yes, here's where the color gets added, and here's where there's a wonderful show on the walls, music and classic animated scenes from many Disney movies, and there's Mickey at the end of it all, dancing and waving his hands as the Sorcerers' Apprentice throughout the restaurant.
It was a fun meal! And the food was outstanding! Look at these delicious desserts we ordered!
Phew! I'm full. What a day though. It was our first full day on the Disney Magic, and it was legendary. We really enjoyed it quite a bit, and this cruise is just getting started. We got to sleep not long after dinner because we were pretty worn out from the very full day. We've got an adventure on a new island tomorrow, so we'll be getting a good night's rest tonight. These beds are comfortable. The room shakes a bit, but we're so sleepy we don't hardly notice!
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| Our towel animal tonight - and chocolates! |
We read tonight from our Kingdom Keepers book, and then we said our prayers. Time to get some shut-eye! Good night!
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