Winter Break 2025. Part 6. A Pirate's Life for Me.
We were the last ones off the ship yesterday, so maybe we’d move a little quicker today, right? Wrong.
Tzvi was antsy to get off the ship earlier today, but he had a 9am call so it’s not like we could rush. We got up this morning, slowly got dressed, and made our way to the buffet. Ever since the FDA banned red dye this week, the kids have been having their froot loops and saying “don’t eat the reds!” It’s funny.
Today is Lookout Cay, which I think is a section of an island that Disney owns. It opened recently. Well, there is about a half a mile walk from the ship to the dock. There is a tram, but they will only take you if you are disabled and pre-reserve them. We didn’t know that. I tried to say that my mother had mobility issues (her issue is that she doesn’t want to walk), but that didn’t fly. Anyway, we made the shlep, and THEN got on a tram and that took us about another mile to the Disney beach area.
Once again we were probably the last ones but we did find a quiet area with more than enough chairs. The water was cold, but I actually went in with the girls. Madeleine peed in the ocean for the first time, which she was excited about. I will note that Tzvi can’t pee in the ocean but goes to the bathroom at the beach without shoes on. [Tzvi: To be clear, she’s referring to the public restrooms at the beach. I don’t just like, pee on the beach. Also, I only do this at fairly high end places.] Similar lunch today, but they had a tofu curry as well. It’s just so well run. There were nice shaded seating areas with big fans so we weren’t super hot while eating. Genius! It’s so pleasant.
We got back on the ship around 4. We gave the girls to Hadar, who had opted not to get off today, and then hot tubbed again, where we saw the same people as yesterday. There was one guy who was talking about how cruises used to be much more formal, the good old days. Another guy was talking about a 62 day cruise he took. It’s fun listening to stories.
Tonight is Pirate night! On every Disney Cruise there is a pirate night. They give you bandanas in your stateroom, but some people really go all out and get dressed up. Tonight the kids went to the dining room for dinner, and me, Tzvi and my parents went to Remy, one of the two specialty restaurants on the ship. We sent the kids of with Hadar, watched an incredible sunset from the balcony, visited the kids at dinner, and then went to dinner.
Remy is based off of Ratatouille, and is a 5 course tasting menu, but inexplicably they don’t actually serve ratatouille. [Tzvi: That has to be my biggest complaint of this cruise.] Even without that, it was all excellent and perfectly executed. Amouse bouche. Bread, multiple butters, tomato course, gnocchi course, fish course, vegetable tart, chocolate dessert, cheese course, bon bons and a peanut butter and jelly tart, with lollipops and a rose to go. Everything was delicious, and even the dishes I didn’t really like I could appreciate were well done. Also, the service was impeccable. Every time someone went to the bathroom a waiter escorted them out of the restaurant, and then whenever you came back the host led you back to your table. I think Tzvi was most excited about the cheese course – they brought over a cart with a dozen different cheeses and told the story of each one. The experience was out of this world and the meal was over 3 hours.
We met up with the kids for the 10:15 Pirate Party outside. There was a cute show where Captain Jack swings from the top of the smokestack down to the stage, and then they had fireworks. Disney is the only cruise line that is authorized to have fireworks at sea and they were so fun. Really well done.
We did some more shopping but Hallie was so tired she was almost crying.
Good Day.
Thursday morning, our last full day on the ship, a sea day.
We got up and decided that because it was the last day, we would try to do the dining room because it closed at 10 instead of 9:30. I think we got there 9:45. We saw our servers Christopher and Raphael, and I’ll say it again, it’s so nice having servers that know you. Now, although we were at the dining room with a very nice menu, Christopher had told us that there were Mickey Churro Waffles at the buffet today. The buffet was closing at 10:45, so I ran up and grabbed a few waffles to bring back to the dining room. They taste exactly how you’d expect. Delicious, but gross. I wish they had them earlier in the cruise because by the last day you’re so full.
After breakfast I wanted to go to the gym and the kids and tzvi wanted to go to the pool. Tzvi said that he works so hard, and I no longer am employed, so really I should take this time to be with the family so we all could have a good time together. He won that one. So, we all went to the pool. It was cool, but when the sun came out it was nice. They were playing Disney movies at the pool. Also, I don’t think I mentioned that every hour they close the pool for 10 minutes just to “see if anything’s in there.” I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.
I think on this ship the kids are a lot younger than I’ve seen on other cruises, which I guess makes sense, but all week I’ve been wondering who all of these kids are who can leave two weeks after they’ve just been off for Christmas. There was some 10-11-12 year olds, but it mostly skewed Madeleine’s age. And trust me, these kids weren’t on yeshiva break.
We just chilled the rest of the day. The girls got their hair braided. It was really nice, they have people who do the braiding on the ship so you don’t have to deal with random people and overcharging. Lunch was good. They had sushi. There wasn’t much variety, but Madeleine was happy about the vegetable rolls. I did get in a quick workout, we packed, and got ready for our last dinner.
Tonight was once again at the Enchanted Garden. We said goodbye to our servers and took some pictures. It was a nice last dinner, but they didn’t do a big goodbye walking around waving napkins.
All of the Disney characters were out tonight. There was a final show called Believe about a father who doesn’t believe in magic, so the genie from Aladdin takes him through different Disney movies to show him magic exists. It was really cute and probably the first and last time I’ll see The Bare Necessities performed on stage (an underrated classic). [Tzvi: I think the message of the show was basically keep your kids believing in fairy tales for as long as possible, because the real world isn’t so great. In other words, keep paying to take your family to Disney. I can actually get on board with that. Say what you want about Disney and how expensive it is, but watching the kids (especially Hallie) this week just loving meeting characters and princesses has been such a joy. They haven’t picked up an iPad all week and have barely asked for our phones. It may be expensive, but it’s been pretty wholesome and that’s been really nice.]
When we came out of the show the ship was really rocking, we were literally bouncing from side to side in the halls.
At 10:15 there was a “See you soon” show in the main atrium. It was kind of like a last hurrah. All the characters were out and you had 15 minutes to meet them and then reconvene for a final goodbye. The kids ran around in their pajamas getting one last photo.I finally met Mulan, so that was a plus. The farewell was cute.
We got the kids to bed. Madeleine was very sad and almost crying about having to get off the ship tomorrow.
I went out to get a Mocha that wasn’t hot enough, but had a cool Mickey face on it. I also got a Kahlua and Cream. The ship was really moving and we had to take all of the hangers out of the closet and put them on the floor (this is a classic last night of the cruise thing – your clothes are no longer on them to dampen the sounds of them banging against each other).
Anyway, good Day.