Disney Mediterranean Cruise, 1st full day

We were so exhausted on our first full day at sea that we stayed in bed until nearly noon.  We went for a late brunch at Parrot Cay, although we weren't too impressed with the breakfast offerings at the buffet.  Derek pointed out repeatedly throughout our trip that although the other meals were very good, the ship didn't have the best selection for breakfast.

Our first activity for the day was Disney's Art of Entertaining. I really like that they do this.  It takes place in Studio Sea where they set up a full stove.  They then demonstrate not only how they cook a dish but how to display it in an appealing configuration.  The best part is that they bring a little plate of it to everyone for tasting for no extra charge. They bring out wine too, but I rarely finish a glass of wine.  I never developed a taste for alcohol.  Today's course was lamb- something I'm normally not too fond off, but it wasn't too bad at all due to the seasonings they used.

Next, we decided to catch a showing in the Buena Vista Theater of the new Disney movie, Planes.  I was surprised to learn that this Cars spin off was not done by Pixar!  The theater is very nice, and they handed us 3-D glasses.  The film itself was entertaining but nothing to write home about.  It was very predictable in it's use of the classic underdog story.

The day's Navigator mentioned Disney tunes trivia which I knew I had to give a whirl as I am quite well versed in Disney songs- pun not intended!  I won it easily- although another family gave us a run for our money.  I had an almost perfect score...the only question I didn't know was what state Song of the South takes place in.  I also wrote down Phil Harris instead of Phil Collins as the composer for Tarzan- oops! (In case you don't know, Phil Harris was the voice of Baloo!)  I won us each a set of nice Disney Cruise earbuds.

Next on our agenda was the Art of the Theme Show Tour.  This was a lot of fun!  We got to the meeting spot a bit late and were about to give up when we discovered they had stepped into Palo.  Our guide was a perky blonde young woman from England whom we'd run into quite a lot throughout the rest of our trip- I'm sorry, I forgot to write down her name!  We enjoyed her very much though.  She led us throughout the ship and told us fun stories like how short sited the designers had been when they first opened the ship without an infant nursery.  Or how the Magic has a seam where the two halves of the ship were sealed together, but the seam on the Wonder is fake because it was made in one piece.

Afterwards, it was time for an ice cream break.  I love that you can get a softserve cone whenever the mood strikes you.  We caught a little of Toy Story playing on the screen over the pool.

In the evening, it was formal night.  I was excited for my choice of dress.  I'm a huge fan of the tv show Once Upon a Time which is about a bunch of fairytales living in the real world in a town called Storybrooke, and I had chosen a dress very reminiscent of a dress Belle wears in town along with homemade "chipped cup" earrings.

I was very excited for this night's performance, Twice Charmed.  I saw it on my previous Disney cruise several years before, but it is one of my very favorites.  I have the cd of the music and listen to it all the time.  I only wish I could say the behavior of the audience improved, but it did not.  People jabbered throughout the whole performance. Oh well- at least it was as fantastic a show as before.

We went down to the Captain's cocktail hour after the show, had our picture taken in front of one of the fancy backdrops, and sampled some drinks.  As usual, I preferred the non alcoholic one.  I think Derek had one of each.

I loved that dinner was princess themed, and we were lucky enough to be in Lumiere's again that night. My meal choices consisted of Belle's palenta cakes, Beast's potato and sausage soup, and ravioli with sweet sensations for dessert again...tirimisu, cheesecake, and chocolate souffle.. mmmm.

I really wanted to get a picture with Belle since I was wearing a dress that represented her and because she is my all time favorite.  My husband humored me, and we got in line with all the little girls in their princess dresses.

We finished the night with family karaoke in Studio Sea.  I love to sing, but sometimes I have trouble getting myself to spontaneously go up on the stage.  There is an advantage to being on a Disney cruise though...the songbook is guaranteed to have Disney songs to choose from!  I hemmed and hawed for a while to the point that Derek didn't think I was going to do it, but I finally picked "A Spoonful of Sugar." A teenager did a beautiful Spanish rendition of "I Won't Say" from Hercules and some young kids got up and sang several times too.

Our next stop? Ville-Franceche!