After leaving our friends at the adult pool, and meeting Mickey in the elevator, we got back to the room to shower and change for Palo. Apparently, Nip was either having a party while we were out, or he’s telling me he wants to go another cruise.
We got ready as quickly as we could, but my hair did NOT want to untangle. My hair’s always kind of been a pain when it’s wet to style, but between the hair spray, chlorine, and low water pressure in the shower, it was a mess. However, we had to be in the Atrium around 5:15 pm for Mickey’s last appearance, and I was not going to miss it. So, we put our luggage out since we wouldn’t be back before 10:00 pm, and off we went, hair brush in hand.
Chelsea, you’ve already met Mickey four times on this cruise, why do you want to see him again?
1) I always want to see Mickey Mouse.
2) My favorite character greetings are seeing Mickey and Minnie in new outfits.
3) I thought because it was dress up night, it would be tuxedo Mickey.
I actually had really wanted tuxedo Mickey for our wedding instead of his Cruise Line Outfit, but I didn’t want to end up with no Mickey at all because I requested a specific outfit that wasn’t available.
It was not tuxedo Mickey, it was Cruise Line Mickey, so Jay and I went to sit in a port hole and watch the sea. We tried to take a selfie but he couldn’t get a good angle, and a nice lady passing by offered to take one for us.
“Wow, you guys look like you just got married!”
“We did actually!”
“Congratulations!”
“Thank you!”
We hung out a few more minutes as I tried to sort out the knot in my hair. It quickly became clear I was not going to be able to fix this myself, and we headed for Lacey’s room. Thankfully there has never been a problem with my hair Lacey has not been able to fix, even if it meant we had to make a mad dash to Palo. Luckily, Zym knew exactly where we were going, and not everyone was there yet, so they sent us to the bar. That only lasted for a second, before Zym sent the two of us outside, so he could take this picture. It was a recreation of a picture he took on the last Disney Cruise he was on for a wedding.
They took us back to the semi-private room once we were all there. They had my place cards set out exactly based on my chart, but once we sat down, I was disappointed. Jay and I were at the back, so we couldn’t see the water. I had been really excited to watch the sunset at Palo. Lacey and Abby offered to switch seats with us, but then that would mess up the seating chart I had worked so hard on. So, Michael made the whole table move down two seats, and then I had a perfect view!
“Chelsea, this is still your day. If you’ve ever wanted to be demanding, now is the time. This is easy. It’s Alice in Wonderland, in half an hour, you yell switch and we do it again.”
We didn’t yell switch half an hour later, but I was extremely happy with the seating now.
The place cards were custom Jungle Cruise boat signs for everyone, made on card stock. I found everyone a river that matched their name.
We hadn’t planned on it, but we wound up being at Palo for over three hours. We ordered antipasti for the table, and individual appetizers, then pasta for the table, and individual entrees. Then almost the whole table ordered souffle for dessert, except for Gary and Patrick who had to be different.
I had fully planned on making the 8:15 pm Believe show, and that did not remotely happen. It was over before we were done. I’m not sure I would necessarily go back to Palo for this kind of time investment on such a short cruise, but I would not have traded this experience for anything in the world.
Dinner didn’t take so long because of what we ordered or that the service was slow. Actually, our server Igor usually had to wait on us because we were talking, and he didn’t want to interrupt. I think the most difficult thing we did was ordering drinks from the bar’s menu, instead of the restaurant menu. Actually, I don’t think what I ordered was on any menu. I tried Michael’s drink from the bar, and then asked for one of those. He had to describe it, instead of giving it a name. Now, they let us take as much time as we wanted to eat and enjoy. We talked about all the things we wanted to do, and how we were now hooked on cruising. I talked about how I was sad I hadn’t gotten to play the Midship Detective Agency Game, and how I wished it didn’t close at 11:00 pm. We talked about how we wished Castaway Cay had been warmer, and Michael told us how he skips Castaway Cay for the Rainforest Room, something else we hadn’t had time for.
I had picked up a Disney Cruise Line autograph book months before the cruise, and hadn’t used it so far, so Jay and I brought it to dinner. I handed it out and let people write in it as they were eating. I LOVE our life ring guest book, but it didn’t really have much room for messages, so this seemed like a great use of the autograph book.
Gary made the suggestion that everyone go around and say their favorite thing about the trip. This is a tradition he has from all his crazy roller coaster chasing trips he does. This was a wonderful idea, and I desperately wish we had recorded this.
So, he started, and he talked about how I was one of the first friends he made at the Jungle Cruise, at a Skipper Outing at Ale House, back in 2013. Then he talked about how his favorite part of the cruise had been the Beauty and the Beast stage show. Then we just went in a circle.
Patrick talked about how he’d been on so many Disney Cruises before, and how much fun it was to get to share his love of cruising with his friends, who had never been on one.
Scott talked about the music everywhere, how immersive it was, and how you get to hear so many great songs, that don’t get used enough.
Tess made a joke about the favorite part of the cruise was the handy bandaids she found in the Welcome Bag, since she had an issue with a nail, that begged for a bandaid.
Morgan loved getting to meet so many new amazing people in this wonderful place she never thought she’d get to go to.
Melanie’s favorite part was getting pulled on stage during Pirate Night.
Lacey also said how much she loved Pirate Night, and how much she appreciated that Morgan and Zym missed part of Beauty and the Beast, to make sure she was costumed and ready to go.
Abby mentioned the food, and then Michael talked about how this was going to be the most well documented wedding in history, with seventeen photos of everything everyone ate.
Jay talked about how nice it was to be with his favorite people, so far removed from work that it didn’t dominate the conversation.
I immediately started crying as my turn came. “When you’re planning a wedding, you spend all this time and energy pouring your heart into this, and you just hope it turns out right. I don’t have a favorite part because it had all turned out so wonderful, and better than I ever could have dreamed. Nothing ever looks the way it looks in your head, but this was so much better. I’m thirteen grand in, and it could have been thirty grand and still been worth it, but I don’t have thirty grand, so it’s a good thing it was only thirteen.” Everyone laughed.
My Mom’s favorite thing, other than “her favorite wedding ever with my favorite people ever”, was her abbreviated 5K that morning on Castaway Cay.
Robby said his favorite thing was that he had been shoeless the whole time we were at Palo, and proceed to pull his foot up over the table to show us. If you know my brother, this is not at all surprising.
Zym loved sharing the cruise with all the first-time cruisers, and just the magic that is a Disney Cruise. “But also Palo.” He really likes Palo. He was actually the reason it expanded to all fourteen people and gave us this magical night.
One of the ship’s photographers came over in the middle, and she said she hated to stop us, but she wanted to ask if we wanted a photo. We said yes, and I asked her if she could take one with my phone too. She said she’s not allowed to, but she did one quickly for us anyway, because it was a special occasion.
Michael and Abby gave us an extra wedding present: the print you get for staying in a concierge room. I was so excited and fully planned on hanging it on our wedding wall. Unfortunately, it somehow disappeared over the course of the rest of the night. I think it got set down, and someone took it rather than turning it into Lost and Found.
As we were finishing up, we realized how late it was and realized we’d have to hurry if we wanted to get everything we wanted to done, before everything closed down for the night. Scott and I were both trying to get to Vanellope’s Sweets and Treats, even though we were stuffed from dinner, before heading for the See Ya Real Soon show at 10:15 pm. We both wanted the race car that came with the sundae. Our bill came and Jay’s meal and my meal were comped as part of the wedding package, so all we had to pay for was the drinks.
“Dispatch!”
Jay and I hurried to Vanellope’s first. The others were all going to change first. We ran into Jay’s parents right outside, and Jay talked to them while I picked out my ice cream. I had the hardest time coming up with five toppings I wanted. The Cast Member told me to bring it back to her when I was done for a car wash, which I thought was adorable.
I took it to Jay, showed it to him, and took pictures. Then, if you know me, I’m not actually supposed to eat ice cream. I took one bite of each flavor and asked Jay to get rid of the rest, and get it washed while I went to change. He laughed, his parents were confused, and off I went to the room to grab his spirit jersey, and to change.
One slight problem that I hadn’t accounted for: I can’t unhook that dress by myself. So, no jeans for me. I threw my Spirit Jersey on over it, and went to meet Jay in the atrium. He pulled his Spirit Jersey on over his clothes, and we plotted out the rest of our evening. We thought it was a twenty-minute show, and then we were going to turn around and hit the gift shops hard, before they closed at 11:00 pm. Except Tess and Morgan wanted a Spirit Jersey from the pirate store on Deck 11, and then, of course, Jay wanted the pirate Spirit Jersey too. Thankfully, someone figured out it was also in the main gift shops before we ran up there.
Turns out See Ya Real Soon is not a twenty-minute show. It’s a five-minute show, followed by fifteen-twenty minutes of character greetings, then another five-minute show. I was honestly disappointed in the show part of it, I thought it would be cuter, and Stitch was nowhere to be found. We did seize the opportunity to get our photo with some more characters though.
Lacey, Morgan, Jay, and I got in line for Minnie. We said we wanted to take a photo with the two of us, and then all four of us, but they would only allow us to take one photo per group.
Morgan and Lacey said, almost in perfect unison, “Then we’re two groups.”
After Minnie, we got in line for Chip and Dale, and then we actually had time for Goofy too, before they cut the character lines.
They had the final part of the show, and to my shock and surprise, I did not cry. Which clearly means the show is not cute enough, because I always cry when things are over, and Mickey says good-bye. Golden Mickey confetti rained down from above.
We didn’t have time to worry about that: we had shopping to do! I had done the math, and Jay and I still had close to $250 of our onboard credit to spend, or we would lose it.
Even when it’s not my money, I am shockingly frugal. We did walk out with two more Spirit Jerseys each, some pins, a model of the ship, and a few more random odds and ends. The only real impulse buy, well why not, was a shadowbox of the artwork on the Dream’s stern.
“Wait, where’s Robby?” I asked, realizing I hadn’t seen him since the show.
“Oh, he went to start a Midship game for you, because we figured out it works, as long as you start it before eleven!”
I promptly burst into tears.
We were still in the shop when it closed, but we were at least in line to check out. We headed back to our room with several of our friends to drop our stuff off, before going to play the game, with a quick pit stop over to Emma’s room, to look at the sea off her balcony. The ship was really starting to move. Zym had warned us waters would be rough starting around 10:00 pm, but we had no idea what we were in for.
Jay went back to the room to lay down. I went in there to change, and then once I was safely in comfy clothes and jeans, we made the mistake of letting Robby in our room.
He must have spent ten minutes picking up Mickey confetti, and he threw it all over our room. It was hilarious, wonderful, and a perfect ending to our trip, but I feel so bad for the person who had to clean our room. And the hallway.
So Lacey, Zym, and I headed off to play Midship Detective Agency. I was stumbling as we walked, because the ship was rolling so much. We were three clues in and I realized trying to continue to play was a bad idea, as I felt my stomach churn. We didn’t dare get in the elevator, so we took the stairs. We were almost back to my room, when we heard someone calling Lacey’s name. Mom was right behind us, and had forgotten something in my room.
Well, we opened the door, and Jay was nowhere to be found. Even though I had the AC on its maximum setting, the room was boiling.
“Nope, this was a bad idea. This is worse. What do we do?”
“Top deck!” Zym led the way, and the four of us made our way up to Deck 12 where we’d been hanging out the night before. Sure enough we found Jay, Scott, and Tess up there. Jay was trying not to be sick, and Tess and Scott were looking at the stars.
We wound up staying up there until 1:00 am, although Mom headed back sooner than the rest of us. We went from being too hot to too cold, and Zym found us towels to use as blankets. I don’t remember much of what we talked about, but it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Jay actually fell asleep, and I was able to show everyone how he leaves room for Fiona, even when she isn’t there.
When we finally went back to the room because we couldn’t really sleep on the top deck, as much as we wanted to, Jay and I actually slept sideways on the bed so rocking with the boat would be more natural.
Next week Twenty Something in Orlando is taking the week off, so Debarkation will be up on November 10th!
