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Very Merrytime Cruise Part 2!

Day 2 of our cruising adventures was just as exciting as the first! It was our first of two days at sea, and there were a lot of fun activities and things going on. We were up bright and early for all the fun!

DAY 2 – NOVEMBER 13, 2018

For our first sea day, I had thoroughly inspected the personal navigator as well as the DCL app to pick which things we would want to do! I was almost too sleepy to get up….

The first pick of the itinerary was a seminar called Anyone Can Cook. It’s where one of the DCL chefs teaches you how to prepare a dish served in one of the restaurants on board! On the menu this morning was wild mushroom risotto. The setup was basically the chef at the front of the room and then tv screens showing close ups of what he was doing. It was super cool!

They also gave us the recipe to make at home:

The chef instructing us today was Chef Anthony, who normally works at Tiana’s Place. We learned a lot about what it’s like to cook in a DCL kitchen from him! He said it’s harder to go from the new ships to the classic ships because Magic and Wonder change menus and itineraries more often, which I thought was interesting. Anthony has worked at DCL for 18 years, almost all of it on the Wonder! He also made me laugh when he said at the end of his preparation: “I only sued my eyes and my nose but I can guarantee you that this is a perfect risotto without even tasting it and I invite all of you to try it” – such CONFIDENCE haha (but he was right!!)

We got to try a sample of the risotto, and because this was an adults-only seminar – we also got some wine to sample! It was so good and made a great pairing with the delicious risotto.

Once we finished our cooking session it was time to…eat some more!! We went up to Cabanas for a second breakfast (if you can count risotto and wine as breakfast).

After breakfast we actually popped back to the room quickly where I took a brief nap as I wasn’t feeling great, but as soon as I rested a bit more I felt a lot better. Our next planned item was still some time away, so we headed down a bit early to check out the area. We ended up in Crown & Fin, the pub-themed space on board where they were holding activities during the day.

They had a lot to do in there, with a bunch of board games and TVs everywhere, plus plenty of spots to sit and hang out. Chris and I played a laughable game of chess (it was so ridiculous…check out the vlog lol) and then waited for our next thing to begin, which was an animation class!! This one was also adults-only (can you sense a theme, lol) and we had the choice of drawing Oswald or Elsa, and collectively the class chose Oswald. Since he was pretty quick we also drew Mickey! Here’s how mine turned out:

And Chris’s:

Not bad! I like Chris’s Oswald and my Mickey – the skinny little arms on Chris’s Mickey really do it for me though hahaha

The animation class was so fun! I used to love the Animation Academy they had at Hollywood Studios here in WDW, so it was really fun to get to kinda do that again. After we finished drawing we took a quick photo and snack break:

We also walked around the upstairs area outside Palo before our next event, which was set to meet inside the restaurant:

Our next activity was taking the Art of the Theme Show tour! We took this tour on the Disney Dream back in April and we were interested to see what was different on the Wonder. It ended up being SUPER different!! The tour is for adults only, and talks all about the design elements and history of the cruise ships. We found that the one on the Dream had focused a lot about the design aspects of the ship, and since there were more adult only areas on that ship, we walked around a lot more. This one on the Wonder had a focus more shifted toward the history of DCL and cruising in general, which was really cool to learn about. There was actually not as much overlap between the two tours as I’d have expected – they both touched on some of the same or similar artistic themes on the ships, but they were much more different than I’d have imagined. We really enjoyed this one! Our tour guide was super animated and fun to listen to. You can see some of the tour that I filmed in the vlog too!

After our tour we went back to the room to change for dinner and the show. We explored the ship some more, including the outside deck where the weather was absolutely beautiful!

Soon it was time to settle into the theatre for another stage show!

Tonight’s show was Frozen:

I gave a full review in the video but overall we really liked it! There were some really cool things that I couldn’t believe they were able to pull off on a cruise ship, and the cast was really talented too. Another winner!

After that it was my favorite time of day – time for dinner! Tonight we were dining at Triton’s, the Little Mermaid themed restaurant where we had lunch the previous day.

The main feature is of course the beautiful Ariel mosaic at the back of the restaurant! We learned on our tour that this was crafted by a few old Italian ladies who came out of retirement to design and create the piece. It is SO beautiful and amazing in person!!

For dinner, the menu was actually the same as a menu from our previous cruise, so we were familiar and knew what to expect. We tried a few new things this time:

For our starters:

  • Duck confit: slow-cooked duck leg pulled and garnished with craisins and walnuts
  • Gaston’s escargot gratinée: herb-marinated snails with finely chopped mushrooms, topped with garlic butter
  • And I went off-menu and ordered my favorite baked potato cheese soup from Animator’s Palate too!!

My favorite was obviously the soup but I actually LOVED the escargot too!! Chris really enjoyed his duck as well. We didn’t get a photo of it, but we also ended up trying the iced lobster and jumbo shrimp appetizer as well, because one of our table mates shared with us!

For our mains:

Three choices again!

  • Conchiglie pasta: with buttered lobster, tossed in a tomato shrimp tarragon brandy sauce with lemon basil
  • Oven-baked salmon royale: crowned with king smoked salmon and horseradish crust accompanied by sautéed swiss chard, truffled cauliflower purée, and white wine buerre blanc
  • Roasted rack of lamb medium: with dauphinoise potatoes, buttered brussels sprouts and a burgundy rosemary sauce

In this case, our server actually suggested that we get three: Chris ordered the pasta and he warned that a lot of people aren’t expecting the tarragon sauce and don’t like it, so he asked if Chris wanted to order anything else in addition. Of course we said sure! Give us the lamb! We ended up loving the pasta so it wasn’t an issue, but we got to try three things this way which were all delicious.

My favorite was definitely the salmon though! It tasted so fresh and perfectly cooked, It ended up being one of my favorite things we had on the trip.

Soon it was time for dessert!

I forgot to take photos of our desserts, so here’s screenshots from the vlog…haha:

  • Grand Marnier soufflé: served with Grand Marnier crème anglaise
  • Classic opera gâteau: layers of joconde sponge, soaked in coffee syrup, chocolate ganache and rich buttercream

Both of them were AMAZING!! I was very partial to the soufflé though. It’s just so fun.

After dinner we went and watched some of the games going on in the adult areas, including one we had really enjoyed on the Dream called Match Your Mate. It’s basically the Newlywed Game where they have to match answers to each other. It was really funny and we had a lot of fun watching it! After that was over, we finished the night in our favorite way: empty ship photos!

   

When we got back to the room we pretty much collapsed right away! It was another really fully (but really fun!) day and we needed to rest for our day in Cozumel tomorrow 🙂 We had such a great second day and couldn’t wait for more! I hope you enjoyed this recap/video – see ya in the next one! <3

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