The trolley let us off right by the gate entrance, and we joined the line waiting to be let back on board. The line moved fairly quickly, and pretty soon, we were working our way through security and up to deck 9 for food. We had decided to grab food from the pool deck places for this lunch, so we parted ways and agreed to meet back at the stateroom, since we both wanted different options.
I went over to Daisy DeLights to get a turkey and cranberry sandwich that I’d noticed when touring the ship with Kim the previous day. I think Nick got chicken tenders and a burger, but maybe he just got a couple of burgers. My sandwich was good, and gave me an excuse to eat the bag of chips I hadn’t managed to eat when we were at Earl of Sandwich on our driving day. Have to make room in the carry on!
Lunch consumed, I did a little texting, hung out on the balcony for a bit, and then laid down on the bed to rest.
Resting turned into a legitimate nap, and by some miracle (I think because the engine changed speed from stationary to leaving port) I woke up...15 minutes before our Mixology class. EEK. Nick and I quickly got ready and headed for Keys, reaching the entrance right at 4, me with pillow imprints still on my face. Oops!
Nick hadn’t been super excited about the idea of Mixology when I first suggested it, but agreed to try it, because, hey, alcohol.
Well, as soon as he walked in and he saw a bar laid out with 200 glasses (5 drinks, times 40 people) he asked why we didn’t do this last time haha.
Our bartenders for the class were Damien, Mary Ann, Danielle, and someone else. Damien really was the leader. Damien was super personable and we liked him immediately. He explained that there would be 5 drinks made today, and we could volunteer to help with whatever drinks we wanted to, or not. One of the ladies sitting in our section expressed her excitement over the fact that they were full sized drink glasses waiting for us; apparently one of the mixology classes she had done in the past gave sample sized.
The first drink was one Nick and I passed on volunteering to help with. It required muddling. It was one Damien had dreamed up, a spin off from a mojito. This one was muddled strawberry, agave, lime, and basil (instead of mint), with lemon rum and club soda. He called it the creeper, because it’s really drinkable and sneaks up on you. It was a very refreshing drink.
The next one was easy to make, so Nick and I helped with that. It was a Malibu Bay Breeze. Malibu coconut rum, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice. I’ve had those locally, and they’re always tasty, so it was nice to see it turn up here.
Next up was what Damien called the Blue Kamikaze. If I’m remembering correctly, he and the bartenders made these for everyone, because they contained so much alcohol. I know there was blue curacao, grand marnier, vodka and lemon lime something in it, but I lost track after there. I’m pretty sure there were 5 different liquors in it. I was not a fan of the flavor of this. I think Nick drank both of them.
Next up was one I didn’t get a picture of (ok, I didn’t get a picture of the last two), but it was much more enjoyable. This one was passion fruit juice, pomegranate juice, and prosecco. Yes please!
And last was a shot. They called it the cinnamon toast crunch shot, and it pretty much tasted like that, except it burned, because the alcohol in it was Fireball whiskey. Unlike my husband, I’m not much for whiskey. I prefer rum, tequila and vodka drinks. The flavor was great, though, and I’m pretty sure Nick plans to make this one at home frequently. It’s equal parts RumChata and Fireball.
And that concluded our mixology class. It was a great time, and an amazing value. 5 full sized drinks for $20. Nick now wants to sign up for any tasting that sounds interesting next year.
Mixology complete, we booked it back to our room to order room service to absorb some of that alcohol. Chicken tenders for Nick, All Hands on Deck (cheese platter) for me. It showed up quickly, with the cutest ketchup topper ever, so we had plenty of time to eat before meeting Kim and John for tonight’s show.
Tonight was the big event: Tangled night!! I think we met Kim and John at the theater again. I’m not entirely sure what they were up to between the time we left them in Key West and the time we met up in the theater. That might have been the day John watched a movie on funnelvision?
The Tangled show was fantastic! That’s really all there is to say about that. We all really enjoyed it.
After the show, it was off to the atrium. Nick and I had some more pictures taken.
We weren’t really sure where Kim and John had gone, so we headed back to the room for a few minutes. We were surprised to find that it had already been turned down.
We also were surprised that it was now night 2 and there had been no sign of our stateroom host at all, with the exception of the regularly made up room and bed runner creations. This was the polar opposite of our previous cruise, where we were pretty sure Sentana lived in the hallway. All was good with the room, though, and we knew Kim and John had met and liked their stateroom host so all was good.
Pretty soon it was time for dinner, so we headed for Animator’s Palate. We were quite excited for this night. We only had to keep what happens in this dining room a secret from Kim for a short time longer.
Nikola was a bit confused when Nick and I showed up without Kim and John in tow. I think he might have jokingly asked us if we left them in some bar in Key West. See why we liked him?
Kim and John appeared a minute or two later and we got down to business, studying the menu, and hearing about the Snuggly Duckling sing-along in O’Gills that they’d just been to. Surprising all of us, Miguel appeared, greeting us by name as he took drink orders, and presenting Kim with a glass of ginger ale, the same soda she had ordered the night before in Lumiere’s. And, as an added bonus, tonight he acted like he had heard of a drink of the day before. Progress!
Dinner was good and a ton of fun. And the photographers were out in force tonight. I think most of us had the pasta purseittes for appetizers. I also had the squash soup, and the chicken entree. Miguel did not redeem himself in the water department, but Nikola was a little less crazy busy tonight, and he was very aware of Miguel’s shortcomings in this department. We all enjoyed the show, and we all got a good chuckle out of my plate when I ordered “nothing” for dessert.
A word about the show. On the classic Disney ships, Animator’s Palate starts black and white. Color is added as the meal progresses. Around dessert, there’s a show. If the video doesn’t load right, it’s also on my facebook page.
As dinner ended, Nick and his dad made plans to meet for the premEAR of Avengers Infinity War at the Buena Vista Theater. The highly advertised showing was taking place in the Walt Disney Theater, but the Navigator we had found when we went back to our room after the show, listed the showing in both theaters.
Nick and I headed over to Shutters to check out our pictures. As we were leaving, the Tangled Thugs were walking through. There seemed to be a character doorway in Shutters. All of a sudden we heard “hey! Magnificent Beard Man!”, and one of the thugs gave Nick a little salute. Nick loved it.
We headed back to the room very briefly. From there, I headed for O’Gills to see what was happening with the Snuggly Duckling takeover now that it was adults only. And Nick headed off to Buena Vista Theater to get in line.
I was greeted by the Thugs at the entrance, teaching those of us entering the password. I think it was clap clap stomp stomp quack quack HUH, but I could have that order wrong. As I was proving I had paid attention, I saw that John had found his way here too.
We parked it at a high top, taking some pictures while we waited for things to start.
Tonight’s event was a game of THUGO...Thug Bingo. It was fun, the Thugs were entertaining, and they played some good music. John was surprisingly into this. We were only there for about 25 minutes, but it was enjoyable.
Right as THUGO was wrapping up, Nick messaged me that his dad needed to get to the theater because a line was really forming and there was no holding seats. So John headed for the theater, and, when everything wrapped up, I headed back to the room, where I parked myself in bed, half dozing and half watching TV.
Nick got back from the movie about 1:30, kind of blown away. He said it was really really sad. I think he was kind of disappointed by the turn the movie had taken. We both were really asleep shortly after he returned.
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