Today was the day the girls were most excited for. They’ve never really been interested in Marvel until recently but are now somewhat obsessed with it (they literally mark on their calendars when the next ‘What If?’ episode is out!) and have watched all of the films/ series on Disney+. So, the idea of meeting some of the characters meant a very early, excited wake up which wasn’t ideal after a late night (for them…they rarely make it past 8pm at home) but it meant we had time for breakfast before starting out character meet marathon.
We decided to try Cabanas as we hadn’t been there yet. Cabanas is a buffet, but you are served the food you want. The staff we encountered were absolutely lovely and really patient whilst the girls were deciding what to have. They went for a full English followed by Mickey waffles and muffins, but didn’t eat a great deal, probably because of a mixture of it being so early and the excitement of the day ahead. In fairness, none of us overate at all on the ship. I think we’ve had the Disney Dining plan enough times to know that eating for the sake of it never ends well, so we just tended to eat if and when we were hungry, as we would at home. Although, if the cinnamon Mickey pastries or mini chocolate filled doughnuts were available, the girls always managed to squeeze a couple in!!
Once we’d finished breakfast, we had a quick walk around the ship to get our bearings. It’s actually pretty easy to find your way around once you work out whether the place you’re heading is for, midship or aft. We tended to use the staircase near our room to go straight up to the pool deck as it was just one floor up. To go to lower levels, we tended to walk down to the atrium, and then walk across to the area of the ship we wanted to be in (because there were often characters milling around) then take any more stairs to the deck we needed to be on. There are 3 sets of lifts (again, for, midship and aft) but as there is a ‘one family per lift rule’ you were often waiting a long time for one, especially during busy times so the stairs were quicker.
On the way to the first character meet the girls decided they wanted to stop by kids’ club to find out what was happening that day. They hadn’t loved the first session as they said a lot of the children in their activity bubble were younger and that they missed us, so were debating cancelling their other sessions. The lady at the entrance told us it was a craft and story time with princess session, so they decided they’d rather cancel and stay with us instead. We looked at the app and found a Disney quiz session and animation class they liked the look of, selected them for our plans so we would get reminders, and headed off to Fathoms to meet our first Marvel superhero. On Marvel morning the characters are split. You have the traditional Marvel characters themselves as well as the Disney pals in their superhero costumes. The girls had prioritised the ones they wanted to meet (Spiderman and Thor and Mickey & Minnie) so we planned to find where they were first and fit any others in around them until we felt like we’d done enough. As we entered Fathoms, we were told Spiderman would be meeting us, but also told the times that Black Widow and Black Panther would be meeting later, which helped us to make plans.
Spiderman was brilliant. He spent ages chatting to each person, even the little ones who were clearly terrified to start with. The girls loved this meet.
We then went to the first Disney pals meet and met Chip n Dale in their Thor and Loki outfits. They again spent a long time communicating with the girls and making them laugh. As we left, we found out where and when the other pals would be meeting so we could fit as many in as possible. As we were almost at the end of their session, the changeover to Donald and Daisy was only a few minutes away so we waited and saw them pretty much straight away.
Walking through the atrium we spotted Black Panther and Captain Marvel one deck up so went to meet them. These character meets weren’t as good as the ones in the theatre as the characters were also communicating with people down in the atrium, but the queues were tiny, and the girls were happy.
We then moved between Fathoms, the theatre, and the atrium to get the rest of our meets in. We met Thor twice (once in the atrium and once in the theatre…he was my favourite meet and very funny), Black Widow, Mickey & Minnie and Pluto & Goofy.
By now, it was now later morning, so we decided to head to the pool deck for a quick swim and a chill in the sunshine. We encountered our one and only pool deck photographer who took a few pictures of the girls including this one, which they asked us to buy.
It was then time for the quiz. The quiz was a lot of fun. The host, Jack, was funny in a dad-joke type way, but he made the girls giggle. We thought we’d done terribly but came in third. We grabbed a bit of lunch on the pool deck before heading to the animation class. Now, this was a bit of an issue for me and Polly as neither of us had taken our glasses, and as the screens showing what the artist was doing were very faint, we hadn’t got a clue. We actually ended up copying Winnie!! Still, we enjoyed it a lot.
The girls asked about character meets and were told that Donald and Mickey, and Daisy and Minnie would be meeting in pairs in their sailor outfits. The girls really wanted to do these meets so headed back to the room to get changed back into their Donald and Daisy outfits. I’m so glad they did as these are two of the best meets they had. Honestly, don’t worry about not being able to get up close to the characters, the meets really are still just as magical.
You can view our meet here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31RafA4R0M&feature=youtu.be
By now it was time to get ready for tea. We’d fallen lucky and had the Rapunzel meal and the Rapunzel show on the same night so opted for the girls’ new, made-with plenty of growing room, Flynn and Punzie dresses!
The Rapunzel meal was lovely. The restaurant is beautifully themed and during the meal there is a mini show which has intermittent scenes throughout, all about Rapunzel’s birthday. At the end there is a lantern parade which is lovely. You can also take photos on the stage in front of the backdrop.
After the meal we met Captain Fabian. Winnie was a bit star struck but Polly thanked him for a lovely cruise. He was lovely and chatted to them for a few minutes.
We then headed to the atrium where the princesses were meeting and had a quick photo before heading to the theatre for the Tangled show.
We knew this show was going to be a big ask after the girls’ silly-o-clock wake up so asked to be sat on the edge of a row. There was limited social distancing inside the theatre with every row being filled and only one seat between each party. Masks were required for anyone aged 11 and over, but a lot of people took them off as soon as the lights went down. There were also lots of small children standing on seats and generally being uncooperative, which wasn’t really surprising given how late it was, so although the show itself was brilliant I wasn’t at all upset when the girls asked if they could leave around halfway through. We went straight back to the room and watched the end on the stateroom TV whilst the girls got into bed. A pre-recorded version of each of the shows is all shown on here the same time as they are taking place, so if for any reason you can’t make it to the theatre you can still watch them.
The girls were asleep within seconds, after another busy but fantastic day, leaving us and the towel creation made by our state room host to follow closely behind!
Doodle & Peg Do Disney 