Cass, Rob & Kira - Our MAGICal Christmas Cruise 2023

[Timon]

Part 2

I met up with Jen and Claire at Soul Cat Lounge for some Disney+ trivia. Rob said he was going to go get some ice cream and meet us down there. He (re)discovered that they had "Dole Whip" so he spent way too much money on something that is not Dole Whip.

He's done this before, saw the sign for the so-called Dole Whip and bought it and then realized that it was not really Dole Whip, more like pineapple slushie but he's like Dory and keeps forgetting.

Oh look, Dole Whip!

His face when I told him that he's done this before and that it's not real DW. Poor guy!

This was the first time we had played this particular trivia. We weren't sure what to expect. We knew most of the answers but there were many where we had NO CLUE about! Kira did join us eventually too and helped with some questions that we didn't know. I think we came in fourth on this one.

Next up was Movie Tunes Trivia in Fathoms, which was a lot of fun because it was hosted my Hanah and we just love her!

We did really well at this one and ended up winning! I was hoping for a character medal but it just so happens that the one trivia that we won, it was a non-character medal.

Sorry, that was a bit of a spoiler alert.

Tonight was Twice Charmed and since we hadn't seen it in so long and well, we had to wait until dinner anyway, we all went to see this together.

Please don't be like Oswald over there in the front row and wear your ears during the show. We all know you look super cute in those Mickey Ears but really, take them off for an hour so other people can also enjoy the show.

They've definitely updated the show since the last time since technology has changed drastically since we had last watched it but I do kind of miss the old ways. Still, it was good, probably better than I remembered it but I'm good for another decade or so now.

Next up was dinner at Animator's Palate, where we arrived to an entire basket of the delicious pretzel bread from Rapuzels.

Cris rocks!

Kira was feeling a little under the weather but managed to join us for dinner anyway. She was quiet and didn't eat much. She ended up with a fever that night and feeling a little nauseous. She had a rough night but she was back to normal the next day. Kids are weird!

I have to laugh at Jen's weird looking arm in this photo. It looks detached, like it's someone else's arm.

I had changed into my Mickey Santa shirt for dinner. You'll see me wear it again the next day but I just wore it to dinner and then changed out of it and it was still clean, so no judgey-judgey!

Purseittes, yum!

Baked potato soup, double yum!

Rob's butternut squash soup.

My entrée.

Kira's...

Cris also knows that Jen and I love risotto so he arranged for a big bowl of it for us this evening.

I had asked for a potato from another dish and Cris brought out a few of them, since he knows we all like them.

Tonight was the little show and Rob was excited about his MB lighting up.

Sorcerer Mickey made an appearance.

And then all of the servers come out to wave.

On the left is our assistant server, Stevan. He was good but very quiet, it was often difficult to hear what he was saying.

Here is Rob ordering all of the desserts.

Kira's fave again! She had ordered it but had left to go lay down before it arrived so I ended up taking it back to the room with me for her.

This brownie cheesecake is always a hit or miss for me. Sometimes it's amazing and sometimes it's nasty. Tonight it was the latter.


But that was okay, I wanted pool time and I needed to get Kira's ice cream to her before she left so I had one bite and then left.

Rob and all of his desserts.

Just as I was leaving, Cris brought this out. I have no idea why but it was a lovely touch and it was devoured before I could even leave the table!

On my way out, I spotted this. How awesome that they did this for the kids!!

Nice touch, Disney!

Back to the room, here's our gift they always leave for us on Christmas Eve.

I headed to the pool! Since Rob had enjoyed sitting over by Signals so much, that was where I put my stuff. There was a couple enjoying the pool when I got there but they almost immediately left once I got in.

Rob joined me shortly thereafter and I enjoyed my one-hour swim and even got some hot tub time in.

Stay tuned for Christmas Day on this glorious ship.

 

[bcwife76]

I'm sorry to hear Kira was under the weather that night but glad she was ok for Christmas Day Look at all that glorious food! Animators I find, just my 2 cents, usually has the most consistent food service. It's the closest to the kitchens right? Or did I make that up? lol

Look at all those desserts....calories on a cruise don't count and calories on Christmas Eve????? Definitely don't count. YUM! Yay for a Christmas eve swim.

Nice little gifts they leave, you even got a spongelle! Jelly

 

[Kanga2Roo]

I had changed into my Mickey Santa shirt for dinner. You'll see me wear it again the next day but I just wore it to dinner and then changed out of it and it was still clean, so no judgey-judgey!

I think I did the same thing with the shirt I was wearing too.

I have to laugh at Jen's weird looking arm in this photo. It looks detached, like it's someone else's arm.

That does look weird. LOL

We got up not long after you did and realized then as we were walking out that Rob was still eating. We didn't mean to leave him alone, but when we saw him still sitting there, we just started laughing.

 

[tgropp]

Great trip report. I always hesitate buying jewellery in Mexico. On a previous Disney cruise while at the port of Costa Maya in the controlled area, my wife fell in love with a pink diamond and silver band. The shop wanted $850.00 but settled for $525.00. Once we got home and had it appraised, we found that the diamond was fake. I sent a complaint to the port retail authority naming the store etc., but never got a reply. Moral of the story is shop at Disney recommended stores

 

[Timon]

Part 1

Today is Christmas day at sea!

I woke up around 8am, I tried to snuggle Rob and sleep a bit more but I was too excited to go back to sleep.

I got ready very quietly so as to not wake Kira. Rob was awake by the time I left. I told him I wanted to head to the Atrium and watch all of the Christmas morning festivities and get some pics and videos.

I quickly ran up to Cabanas to find a surprisingly quiet buffet so I got Rob a small breakfast and some coffee so he could last until our breakfast with friends later. He doesn't do well if not fed every few hours, especially on a cruise.

We had noticed that the chocolate croissants disappear rather quickly in the morning and those are his favourites so I wanted to make sure he got some that morning.

Sustenance procured, back to the room to deliver it. He was quite delighted.

I then headed down to the Atrium to see that they had set up their normal Christmas morning treat buffet over where you board the ship.

There were plenty of families in line, ready to meet Santa.

The good thing was that Santa was meeting guests most of the day. When we first started cruising at Christmas, he would only be available for about 90 minutes and he started early!

Some Cast Members were going through the line with a tray of sweets, which I thought was a very nice touch!

Then the star of the day arrived.

There were tons of characters around to meet as well and at this time, the lines weren't too bad.

Pluto, with his Christmas collar, was down near the WDT.

Mickey, in his Christmas finest, was on deck 5.

Daisy was strolling about.

Still very quiet at the little buffet.

The lines were set up so that you would visit Santa first and then head to the little treat buffet but I went down to the exit and asked to take some pics with no problems.

They were also serving hot chocolate and although I didn't have any of it, Jen later said the gingerbread cookies and the hot chocolate were excellent.

Belle, in her Christmas dress, also made an appearance.

As I was passing by Mickey, his line was now non-existent so I decided to pop over and wish him a Merry Christmas.

He was stoked to see my Mickey shirt.

The CM kindly took some pics while I hugged my main mouse. I can't remember the last time I took the time to go visit a character on a ship but he was all alone so why not?

As I headed down deck 5, I spotted some very sweet moments between all of the characters coming and going. Minnie hugged and then petted Pluto.

Goofy was especially festive and very friendly with me.

If you don't know this already, the characters and all of their handlers are the same CM's that are on stage for all of the shows. I'm fairly certain that Goofy's handler was Rapunzel in Tangled. ::yes:

Santa's handler was easy to pick out from the shows because he was always the tallest one in every show.

Santa stopped to say hi to Mickey and told him that he can take over the reigns for a while as he rested up.

Remember how I told you about the weird schedule for trivia this cruise? Well, they had a good one scheduled for 9:30am!

Here's a funny story that goes with that.

So the night before at dinner, we talked about having a nice sit down Christmas breakfast all together. We had done this in 2021 at Triton's and we wanted to do it again since Skip was with us this time. The problem was that we also wanted to do this particular trivia but it was at 9:30am and Lumiere's closes at 9:30am for sit down breakfast. So that would mean we would have to be at breakfast by 8:15 ish in order to eat and make it to the trivia! Now, to be honest, none of us wanted to be up that early to go for breakfast but we all just said let's just see how the morning goes.

Well, fast-forward to around 11:30pm, just as we were about to go to sleep. Since we had connecting doors, sometimes you could hear voices through that door. During the day, when there's all of the ambient noises (people walking by, the tv, family talking to you, etc.) you couldn't tell what they were actually saying but if the talkers were close to the connecting door and it was dead quiet in the room, like it was at 11:30pm, and they were speaking loud enough, you could hear part of the conversation.

So, as I laid in bed in my jammies, checking my email before turning out the light, I heard Claire say something like "So, Cass really wants us to go for breakfast at 8am? That's soooooo earrrrrrrrly!"

Kira was sleeping at this point and so to not disturb her, I texted Jen "We don't have to go to Lumiere's for breakfast, we can just do Cabanas after trivia."

I then heard her read that message out loud to Claire and then they all burst into laughter and Claire said "Oh my god! Can she hear us!!!?? Are we that loud?"

I then texted her back and said "Yup, I can hear you" and they laughed even harder. It was the funniest thing!

So, since we were now having breakfast together at Covid Cabanas, there was no rush so when I was done my with exploring, I headed to O'Gills to grab us a table for trivia as every trivia was crazy bonkers busy! There was no need, however, , I think it ended up being just five teams playing that morning.

When I arrived at 9:15am, there was no one else even around. So enjoy some empty O'Gills pics.

Stay tuned for Christmas morning trivia, (which you already know that we didn't win because I have already spoiled that part) and then our Christmas breakfast together and then even more trivia.

 

[Kanga2Roo]

I then heard her read that message out loud to Claire and then they all burst into laughter and Claire said "Oh my god! Can she hear us!!!?? Are we that loud?"

That was so hilarious!

Those cookies were super yummy! I made a couple of stops at that table

 

[Timon]

Part 2

Jen, Skip and Claire showed up to O'Gill's and eventually Rob showed up....in his jammy pants!

Jen was almost as shocked as I was but knowing my husband I said "A hundred bucks says he's wearing his pants under those!" and well, sure enough, he was.

Rob won't even walk around the house in his jammy pants with Kira around so there's no way in hades that he's walking around a ship full of strangers with just them suckers on.

We had really wanted to make it to this trivia because it was new to all of us! It was Disney Food trivia! It was cute and mostly easier questions with a few really hard ones thrown in for good measure.

This was Rob laughing when I had guessed he was wearing pants under his jammies.

Despite only competing against four other teams, we came in second...again.

If you've ever played trivia on a ship, you will know that you tend to see the same people over and over and this was definitely the case for this cruise. There was a particular group of people we saw all the time and they won pretty much every trivia we went to.

It was time for breakfast now, so we headed up to deck 9 and saw these little cuties on the way.

It was really busy but we found a table inside. There were tables outside available and that's where Jen first headed but unless it's really cloudy out, I just can't hack the heat out there.

Rob's second breakfast.

And my breakfast.

Kira said she was coming but not for a bit as she was getting ready so the five of us started without her.

We were done breakfast but we stuck around chatting for awhile. Skip left to explore and then Kira joined us. She had wanted just a chocolate croissant for breakfast but they were all out of them so she ate a donut instead. Ahhh breakfast of champions. Gotta love cruising!

As we were sitting there chatting, I had noticed that there were birds on the ceiling! In all the times I have been to Cabanas, I had never noticed this! I told everyone not to look up and then I asked them if they knew what was on the ceiling. They didn't know either! Jen said she had seen them before but had forgot about them when I asked the question. It's funny how after all these cruises, I am still noticing new things.

I headed back to the room and Rob and Kira went to grab some ice cream.

We had been pixie dusted a few little trinkets over the course of this cruise, this was my favourite one.

Before long, it was time for Muppet trivia! I met Jen and Claire down at Soul Cat lounge, Rob would be joining us in a bit. Jen had mentioned that she missed the beignets that you could order at French Quarter Lounge on the Wonder so I peeked in the menu and saw these! They were the exact same thing as what the FQ Lounge so she ordered some to try.

These ones seemed to be lacking the powdered sugar but they said they were still awesome. Rob joined us just in time and J&C offered him the last one, which he was very delighted about!

Look at those fancy napkins!

We got more answers than we thought we would but we weren't even close to winning. The whole place was packed! People were standing in the hallway, near the windows, playing along.

Up next was 2000's Music Trivia. This was a blast watching Claire and Kira sing and get all of the answers. The rest of us contributed to a few of them but this was all Claire and Kira!

In between trivias, we went back to the room and Rob grabbed some lunch from Cabanas.

Next up was the one and only Disney Tunes trivia but with live music. I don't remember his name but he was very talented!

Some friends that we had just cruised with on the NCL Viva messaged us a Merry Christmas with pics of themselves so Jen told me to pose with her and then she sent it to our friends.

Time for more trivia!

I feel like they were making up for such little trivia during the first three days.

I don't recall which trivia this was nor how well we did or didn't do. I just know that we didn't win.

I was getting hungry so I headed up to deck 9 and grabbed some lunch.

The chicken strips are always good so I can never say no to those but sometimes the burgers are really good so I thought I would get both. The burger was not good at all so after one bite, I stuck to my chicken strips while I watched the movie "Up."

Rob enjoyed some time on the balcony with his book.

Kira had gone to the Vibe. Jen, Skip and Claire had ordered room service and Jen texted me to tell me the cake of the day was cheesecake. I had completely spaced and forgot to order us daily key lime pies!!! Rob and I love the room service key lime pies but we hadn't gotten room service yet and we both had totally forgotten about it! I quickly ordered us some pies and a cheesecake to try.

I also got a couple of cookies for Kira, for later.

After we all ate, Jen, Skip and Claire came over to our room and we exchanged our gifts.

Rob and I had recently done a Hawaii Princess cruise for our 25th Anniversary and we had visited Aulani so we ended up getting all of their their gifts there.

We all spoiled each other and enjoyed our gifts.

Stay tuned for our Christmas dinner (always my fave!) and some fireworks.

 

[bcwife76]

Haha definitely made up for the lack of trivia that day! We always say the same thing "we see the same people at every trivia" which is hilarious because it's always us too I've never done a Disney Foods trivia though Can you remember an example of one of the questions?

Awww love that you all exchanged gifts

 

[NAB]

We were on the Wonder Hawaiian trip from Vancouver in October and stayed the rest of the month. Happy 25 th Anniversary ! We we suppose to go in 2020 for our 25 th but you know ….so we celebrated 29 Instead.

Love the t shirt. I had to go back and look at our pictures to see it was the same mine. This is my daughter she has one too. Well actually got it for my husband and it was to tight for his liking….lol

 

[Kanga2Roo]

WE loved our gifts!!! I wear the sweatshirt all the time. And you went way overboard!

 

[Timon]

Part 3

We watched a beautiful sunset from our verandah.

Then everyone except for Kira went to the Jon Armstrong show. Kira doesn't love magicians so she went to Vibe but I really wish she had come with us to see this show as it was a lot more than just some guy doing magic tricks and it was really good!

The arm in between Claire and I was broken and when she got up to leave, it just fell off.

This is the first but not the last time something like this happened on this cruise.

It was now time for the Christmas deck party, followed by the fireworks. Jen and family went to watch the deck party but I just can't handle those crazy crowds for the deck shows anymore. I prefer to watch the fireworks from deck 4, where it's peaceful and quiet.

I had changed into my other Disney Christmas shirt after sunset. I didn't get a photo of me in it but I bought both this shirt and the Mickey one I was wearing earlier that day from Kohl's in Texas right after our last Christmas cruise in 2021 for $5 each.

Here it is on Ebay for $35

The moon was pretty tonight.

Jen and family had now joined us on deck 4, a few other people as well but not many.

Last time they had piped the music down to deck 4 and we could hear someone tracking Santa and then he arrived in his sleigh and then the fireworks were set off to Christmas music. This time there was no music on deck 4.

Fireworks were still cool though.

Next up was Christmas dinner at Rapunzel's. This is a special menu and it hasn't change since our first xmas cruise in 2016, which is great because it is my favourite menu ever!

When I first saw our table numbers, I thought it looked like Pocahontas.

Look at just the top half of her....Pocahontas!

Rob got a kick out of the colourful bread.

Our fabulous server, Cristiano.

We had ordered a bottle of Cloudem to celebrate Christmas together. None of us really drink alcohol anyway and this way Kira and Claire could partake and it's now a tradition because we did this on our first Christmas cruise together in 2021.

It was weird because it's normally all pearly and sparkly but all of our glasses were just clear blue liquid.

We did our Christmas toast.

Jen's view.



And then the captain made his traditional Christmas toast/announcement and there were officers all around the dining room and then we all toasted again.

Time to eat!

I also ordered just some ham for Kira and I but he ended up bringing us one whole ham dinner with some extra ham on the side. And apparently I was too hungry to stop and take a photo of it.

I think Claire got a top up of the Cloudem and hers was all sparkly! Guess it was all sitting in the bottom of the bottle.

Kira got a Mickey ice cream bar for her dessert.

I was too full to order my own dessert but Rob ordered a few and I tasted them all, not my thing. But that's okay because I was SO full from my main course...s.

I was laughing at this one because it reminded me of baby aspirin.

We wished our servers a Merry Christmas and then headed back to the room.

I was really wanting to go swim tonight but for the first and only time this cruise, I ate way too much and I sadly didn't make it to the pool.

I was kind of mad at myself but the food was so good and it was kind of worth it.

And that's a wrap on Christmas 2023.

I am so glad we got to spend Christmas on a ship again, after missing it the year before.

It started in 2016 as a way to change up our holidays to distract me from the loss of my mum. We lost her just after Christmas in 1997. I thought it would eventually get easier but with the birth of my own daughter, it actually got a lot harder for me and I was really struggling.

Now, I look forward to our Christmases on the ship because it's now my family's tradition and very separate and different from what I did with my family growing up and we all love it and now we get to share it with good friends so it's even more special.

Stay tuned for our last day at sea, filled with food, fun and trivia.

 

[Timon]

I'm sorry to hear Kira was under the weather that night but glad she was ok for Christmas Day Look at all that glorious food! Animators I find, just my 2 cents, usually has the most consistent food service. It's the closest to the kitchens right? Or did I make that up? lol

Look at all those desserts....calories on a cruise don't count and calories on Christmas Eve????? Definitely don't count. YUM! Yay for a Christmas eve swim.

Nice little gifts they leave, you even got a spongelle! Jelly

Hmm, I remember touring the kitchens back in the day and I don't remember one being closer than the others but as Lumiere's and Rapunzel's (and Triton's and Tiana's) share a kitchen, it could be that AP has it's own dedicated kitchen and that could be why?

Exactly, no calorie counting on a cruise.

Yes, always love the little gifties! I think every year the spongelle is a different shape.

I think I did the same thing with the shirt I was wearing too.



That does look weird. LOL

We got up not long after you did and realized then as we were walking out that Rob was still eating. We didn't mean to leave him alone, but when we saw him still sitting there, we just started laughing.

Hahahaah, it's no surprise, especially when it's fresh berries!

Great trip report. I always hesitate buying jewellery in Mexico. On a previous Disney cruise while at the port of Costa Maya in the controlled area, my wife fell in love with a pink diamond and silver band. The shop wanted $850.00 but settled for $525.00. Once we got home and had it appraised, we found that the diamond was fake. I sent a complaint to the port retail authority naming the store etc., but never got a reply. Moral of the story is shop at Disney recommended stores

Yes, I agree! I don't think I would spend my money on jewelry there and especially if it was that much money but my kiddo really wanted it and it was her money to spend. She didn't ask for (or buy) another single thing the whole trip and she was very happy with her ring. Is it real tanzanite? Possibly but I know those white gems around it were not what he claimed them to be, that's for sure!

Sorry about your diamond.

That was so hilarious!

Those cookies were super yummy! I made a couple of stops at that table

I will remember that for the rest of my life, it was so funny! I bet Rob now wishes he had visited that table.

Haha definitely made up for the lack of trivia that day! We always say the same thing "we see the same people at every trivia" which is hilarious because it's always us too I've never done a Disney Foods trivia though Can you remember an example of one of the questions?

Awww love that you all exchanged gifts

Yes, exactly, we are at almost every trivia too.

Let me check my video because I took a small clip of two questions....one question was something like "Name the layers from the outer layer to the middle of the Disney fried pickle corn dog."

Another was Who said "Mustard! Don't let's be silly!"?

Most were easy but then they threw in a couple of doozies!

We were on the Wonder Hawaiian trip from Vancouver in October and stayed the rest of the month. Happy 25 th Anniversary ! We we suppose to go in 2020 for our 25 th but you know ….so we celebrated 29 Instead.

Love the t shirt. I had to go back and look at our pictures to see it was the same mine. This is my daughter she has one too. Well actually got it for my husband and it was to tight for his liking….lol


View attachment 827903

Oh, I would love to do that cruise! Maybe one day!

Great way to celebrate your 25th!

Oh super cute! I spy with my little eye, a few differences though!

I bought it for $5 on the clearance rack in Webster right after our 2021 Christmas cruise.

WE loved our gifts!!! I wear the sweatshirt all the time. And you went way overboard!

View attachment 827916

Glad you enjoyed your gifties!

 

[Kanga2Roo]

The arm in between Claire and I was broken and when she got up to leave, it just fell off.

I can see myself looking at it in the picture....but I have no memory....of this one. LOL!

We are really loving the Christmas cruise tradition too and I think Skip might be hooked as well. He has mentioned cruising several times over the last few weeks. I think he just loved how relaxing it was....and you know how he likes to just go off on his own and do whatever he feels like. It was just so nice not to have stress and I think he realized that too.

 

[Timon]

Part 1

So going through my pics, I realized that I forgot to post a couple pics in my last chapter so let's start with those.

We celebrated Claire's birthday while we were at dinner.

And then I meant to post Kira's KTTW card inside of her lanyard. You can see that she has her Vibe sticker, which Edge and Vibe kiddos need to get when you are sailing on the Magic or Wonder. If you're on the Fantasy or Dream, you get a special card. Not sure about the Wish because we've haven't sailed on her yet.

So, let's begin with the beautiful view outside of our verandah that last morning. It was about 20 degrees Celsius but it was cloudy and the breeze made it feel much colder. Rob and Kira had kept putting off the AquaDunk, they said they were going to do it on the last day but it was too cold for them and they never ended up doing it sadly.

Once we were up and ready, Rob and I headed up to Cabanas for breakfast. There were no tables inside, it was a zoo!

We ended up eating outside, at least it wasn't too hot or too sunny but I did wish I had brought my sunglasses.

I ate fast and then left Rob to finish his breakfast on his own while I ran down to meet Jen & Claire at trivia.

Rob was kind enough to bring Kira some breakfast again today. Like me, she doesn't do well in the crowded Cabanas. That place is not good for people with any kind of anxiety!

She enjoyed her breakfast while watching some Disney cartoons.

When I joined J & C, they had ordered some beignets and when Rob joined us and saw them, well, he wanted his own.

I did try one and it was very good, just like the one's on the Wonder.

We had asked Kira to leave the room while our room host cleaned it. We thought she had gone to Vibe but we found her hiding out close by.

Once our room was done, we headed back and found another pixie dust gift in our FE. Kira had fun putting this together and I think she attached it to her Eeyore bag.

We received several other little gifties but they were all geared towards smaller kids so we ended up regifting them to doors that looked like they had younger kiddos. I think Rob also ended up pixie dusting some Star Wars doors with his SW tattoos and stickers.

We were getting to the point where we could spot all of the oil rigs so we spent some time on our balcony.

Somewhere in there we had lunch. No photographic evidence though.

Sometime that day, we had arrived back to our stateroom door to find this on it. How cute!

I might have to make a whole bunch of these for our next cruise, what a great idea!

Remember when I mentioned that the chair in the theatre had broken and it wouldn't be the last time? Well, I can't recall if it was today or the day before but during one of our trivias in O'Gill's, the entire corner end of this bench had come off completely.

I think maybe some refurbishments might be required on this ship.

Time for trivia again! This time is was Rob's time to shine! We did really well but the place was PACKED with Star Wars fans and we didn't do as well as they did.

Claire and Kira had wanted to play bingo, so we headed down to Fathom's and although we were 30 minutes early, the line to get the cards was INSANE and the place was packed and they had sold out of the machines while we were half-way to the front. We ended up with some paper ones for $20 for them to play.

It was so crowded but Kira would need an adult with her if she had won so Rob and Jen took off and I stayed with them to document the fun.

If you've never played Bingo on a Disney cruise before, it can be quite a shock, as it was to Kira.

Winner, winner, seven grand richer!

The final jackpot was over $7000 and the girl in green won it by a landslide! Normally there's a few people standing with one number left to be called but she won it super early, out of nowhere. All of the winners were playing on machines. Take what you will from that.

They had fun though and the paper games were much cheaper than the machines so it was all good!

Here's the losers.

Next up was packing up! This is always the worst part! I had started the day before though so it was easy to finish up today. We always keep one large suitcase so that we don't have to worry about cramming all of our stuff in a tiny bag on disembarkation day. It's just so much easier for us dealing with all of the toiletries and such that morning.

By then, it was time for our last dinner in Lumiere's.

Our last night with Cris.

Kira was really spoiled, Cris was so sweet and ran up to Animator's to get her favourite dessert. She also wanted a Mickey Ice Cream bar! She was finishing this cruise off with a bang.

We took some group pics with Cris and then said goodbye to our servers. We weren't sure if we would be there for breakfast or not so just in case, we thanked them profusely for taking such good care of us.

Back to the room for a quick change of clothes!

And then we headed to the pool for my last glorious night of pool and hot tub time. Skip came to assess the situation but he decided against swimming.

Jen eventually made it and we enjoyed some hot tub time together.

This was Rob's view most nights.

He likes this spot because he can see me in the pool and both hot tubs. He's always worried about me and likes to check in on me lots while I am in my happy place.

I realized that I had only had one ice cream so far and I was hoping for one more. Since I skipped dessert, I asked Rob to go grab me some before it closed at 11pm. He mentioned that the special flavours often close by 10:30pm and sometimes they shut down all of them by 10:50. He had to eat some of it himself since he went a little overboard.

I enjoyed my final ice cream as we walked along deck 9. We always spotted the cast from the shows hanging around on the port side, near the pizza place every night but as tonight was the final farewell at 10:30pm, not many were around.

Kira spent her last night at Vibe and was back by the time we were ready to turn in.

Stay tuned to find out if we made it for breakfast the next day.

This will be my last update for a week as I am headed back to WDW tomorrow. Sorry, no trip report for this one, just a quick trip to use up some tickets that are expiring soon.

I will catch you all next week.

 

[Kanga2Roo]

Have fun!!!!

 

[bcwife76]

Aww what a great last sea day! Our last couple of cruises we have found bingo has really been insanely busy We did the final jackpot bingo on our Dream cruise last summer, hubby saved seats while eldest DD and I got machines and paper. We were in line 30 minutes before presales we were even supposed to start and the line was already long. The final jackpot was $11,000 and a family directly behind us won it, they were the ONLY standers for that final round, we found it rather odd Have a blast in WDW

 

[Timon]

I can see myself looking at it in the picture....but I have no memory....of this one. LOL!

I hear you there! Sometimes someone will remind me of something that I have very little memory of and then it will eventually come back and I'm like OH YEAHHHHHH! Gotta love getting old!

We are really loving the Christmas cruise tradition too and I think Skip might be hooked as well. He has mentioned cruising several times over the last few weeks. I think he just loved how relaxing it was....and you know how he likes to just go off on his own and do whatever he feels like. It was just so nice not to have stress and I think he realized that too.

Hahaha I was wondering about that because he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Well, let's cross our fingers and toes for a redo in December.

Have fun!!!!

Thanks! We will try!

Aww what a great last sea day! Our last couple of cruises we have found bingo has really been insanely busy We did the final jackpot bingo on our Dream cruise last summer, hubby saved seats while eldest DD and I got machines and paper. We were in line 30 minutes before presales we were even supposed to start and the line was already long. The final jackpot was $11,000 and a family directly behind us won it, they were the ONLY standers for that final round, we found it rather odd Have a blast in WDW

It had been soooo long since we have played bingo on a ship! Probably before Kira was born!

We got in line as soon as the presales were open but yeah, same as on your cruise, people must have been in line well before the posted time!

They really need to move it to another bigger space. We played in the WDT in 2005, that was much better!

Thanks, just a quick trip but I am soooo looking forward to it.

 

[sadiecatie]

Rob was kind enough to bring Kira some breakfast again today. Like me, she doesn't do well in the crowded Cabanas. That place is not good for people with any kind of anxiety!

I really identify with the Cabanas anxiety! We are early risers (we get up at 6am every day at home and my daughter is a major early bird), so we like to go to Cabanas right when it opens - it’s a wonderful experience then! Once it gets busy, I can’t really handle it.

If you've never played Bingo on a Disney cruise before, it can be quite a shock, as it was to Kira.

Disney bingo really is an experience! It’s one of our favorite things to do, along with trivia, but we always bring earplugs and/or noise cancelling headphones (I’m OK with the crowd, but it can get SO LOUD and we’re rather noise sensitive).

 

[missjackiemcg]

Hi, Cass!!! I am super late to the party, but just stumbled across this trippie I had no idea you were writing! I'm all binged through and caught up now My Mom and I are heading out on the Magic in March, sailing out of NOLA. She's my last of the original 4 ships to sail, so I'm pretty excited. Loving the report so far and taking note of lots of things I want to see on our cruise! It's also bringing back fond memories of our Very Merry Cruise in 2019 over Christmas--it was so magical, I can't wait to sail at Christmas again someday.

Hope you're enjoying a magical week at WDW!!! Looking forward to your return

-Jackie

 

[KEK1]

Loving the TR, as usual, Cass! It's nice to read now we have finally done a cruise.
The audience behaviour during the shows was very disappointing to us, as we really loved them. The flamingo is so cool and now I am pondering using Flamboyance as part of my news puppy's show name
Where is your anniversary TR?
Thanks for writing, you have the best style.