Ravagers don’t dance- but we do! A Marvel Day at Sea DCL TR Updated 11/21

dolewhipdreams

Counting days until my next Dole Whip
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Greetings Terrans, and welcome to this – the latest in my series of incoherent ramblings. If this is your first time joining me, let me say that I’m so honored that you are choosing to spend your precious, limited free time by reading the tale of two adults who spend their precious, limited free time in places meant for children.

And if this isn’t your first time then let me say I am honestly stunned that you had the gumption to return and put up with my bad jokes, endless pictures, and incessant side notes. If you thought, “oh surely she’s done with all that nonsense by now,” then you thought wrong. I can do this all day.

But goodness me if this is your first time then you don’t even know who we are yet! I’m your captain, Ann, and I am inevitable. When I thought about dropping out of engineering school I told myself that if I stayed, I could eventually afford to go to Disney whenever I wanted. I keep my promises so here we are one degree and several trips later, living la vida Disney. My favorite Marvel characters are the captains – America & Marvel.


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On this trip I was joined by my best friend and travel partner for life – my husband Jon. Jon’s an enneagram type 7 and is always down for a good time. He can make a game out of anything and is excellent at asking round table questions. I love him 3000 and his favorite Marvel hero is Iron Man.
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This trip was a lil different from our last few, as we did not once step foot in a Disney park. Instead, we took our Disney vibes out on the open ocean as we set sail on a 5 night Marvel Day at Sea Disney Cruise! We love Marvel, we love Disney, and we love cruising. Plus this itinerary just happened to be over a holiday so it meant one less vacation day (SCORE!). Like Thor and Mjolnir, it was meant to be.

So what can you expect from this report? The most perfect weather you could ask for, character meetings galore, Disney trivia domination, and one full day of epic Marvel-ness (plus bad jokes, endless pictures, and incessant side notes).


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If you’re with me let me hear you say WE ARE GROOT.
 
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in places meant for children.
I presume you are talking about something other than Disney...
And if this isn’t your first time then let me say I am honestly stunned that you had the gumption to return and put up with my bad jokes, endless pictures, and incessant side notes.
Meh. What can I say? I'm a sucker for punishment.
If you thought, “oh surely she’s done with all that nonsense by now,” then you thought wrong. I can do this all day.
:lmao:
we took our Disney vibes out on the open ocean as we set sail on a 5 night Marvel Day at Sea Disney Cruise!
Nice!!
The most perfect weather you could ask for
Good! :)
If you’re with me let me hear you say WE ARE GROOT.
baby groot.gif
I am groot!
 


I’m first! Can’t wait to hear more!
Congratulations you win my respect and undying loyalty! I am now yours forever.

Joining in!
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As requested: WE ARE GROOT.

Looking forward to following along.
I always appreciate someone who follows directions. Welcome, my new friend.

We are Groot indeed.

Here and can't wait for this! Did MDAS in 2018 and it was great. So excited!
Hopefully it's fun to see how it compares!
 
I presume you are talking about something other than Disney...
We have been known to visit the occasional building-brick-themed amusement park.

Meh. What can I say? I'm a sucker for punishment.
Just remember when it gets bad - and it will, oh it will - that you did this to yourself knowing full well what you were doing.
 
Maybe the least romantic Valentine’s Day ever

Let’s just get this whole travel-day nonsense out of the way. I’ll start off by saying that it was pretty painless. Everything was on time and generally the travel was pretty smooth.

We did our typical travel day song and dance – we worked all day and took an evening flight out so we could 1) minimize PTO and 2) maximize time at the destination.

However we strayed a little from the norm as we flew American on this trip instead of Southwest. Southwest doesn’t fly to Miami and American had some amazing deals on nonstop flights. We went the extra penny-pinching mile and did the super economy for American, which is where you board last and don’t get to choose your own seats.

We’ve done that before and been able to still get seats together but this time it didn’t work out, which meant that we were looking at spending most of Valentine’s Day evening on a plane several rows apart from each other.

Oh, did I mention it was Valentine’s Day? Yeah, not how I would have spent it, either, but at least we were on our way to something magical!

And we somehow experienced a Valentine’s Day Miracle, because the man who had been in the seat next to me kindly agreed to switch with Jon. So we were able to sit next to each other after all.



We settled in and watched Muppet Treasure Island while we went Soarin Over the South.




At the airport we grabbed the free shuttle to our hotel for the night, checked in, and went in search of dinner.


We left the bitter midwest cold and landed in beautiful, balmy weather.

We didn’t have to search for long as there was an IHOP right next door.


Ah IHOP, the most romantic of 24-hour breakfast chains.

I think I got an omelet and some funfetti pancakes and Jon got some kind of sandwich. Do you know why I can’t remember what we got? Not only did I neglect to take any notes, but I ALSO didn’t take any food pics. Way to start the trip off right, Ann.

Anyway, it was pretty late so after dinner it was time to rest up for our embarkation day!
 
Muster? I just met her!

Our check in time wasn’t until 12:30 so we weren’t in any rush to get up early, although my brain and my body didn’t connect on that point and one of the two decided it was fine to just go ahead and get up early anyway.

Rude.

I forget what I did to pass the time, I think I read a bit and just took my time getting ready. Eventually we wandered downstairs to get some breakfast, which was perfectly fine. Cinnamon rolls were involved, so I know it couldn’t have been too bad.



Soon it was time to meet up for the shuttle to the cruise terminal, which we scheduled when we checked in. Even though our scheduled arrival time was 12:30, we had to get out of the hotel by 11am and had nowhere else to go. So we decided we’d just chill at the terminal.


It was about a 20 minute drive to the terminal and once we got there security was super quick. I think it only took 10 minutes in all.


I remember taking this picture so I could report back on what DCL was doing to keep their ships clear of Covid-19. HA.



A HUGE difference in crowds from the Dream terminal.


We were assigned boarding group 13 and headed into the waiting area, where we immediately got in line to meet First Mate Minnie! I was excited to meet Captain Minnie but definitely didn’t realize she hadn’t been promoted to captain on all of the ships yet. Oh well, first mate is still pretty rad.


We settled in to wait, reading through the Navigator and sending some final texts before losing signal (although cell service in the terminal was atrocious so it took like 30 minutes to send one snap). I think we also played some phone games and listened to music.

At around 11:45am they announced they were beginning to board, which seemed a little late to me. A few minutes before noon they started the first few groups and right at 12:30 they called our group! All in all I think we were in the terminal for a little under 2 hours from the time the shuttle dropped us off to when they called our group.



My excitement rose to nearly astronomical levels as we walked up the gangway. I had intentionally avoided looking at too many photos of the inside of the ship so that it would all be a new experience and I was SO excited to finally see it all. Plus there’s something so special about hearing your family’s name announced as you walk in. I’m so glad Disney does that.

Naturally we needed to pause for some photos to mark the occasion. After my photoshoot itch was scratched, we headed to lunch at Lumiere’s.



Our starter was some yummy cheese bread. I also ordered a glass of Moscato because it’s VACATION and I can do what I WANT. Plus we had some shipboard credit to spend so really what else was I supposed to do?







For appetizers Jon got the empanada, which he said was good and I had the potato and leek soup that was deliciously warm and mildly flavored.




Jon got a Caesar salad as a main, which honestly shocked me since he’s not much of a salad guy. But he said it hit the spot. I got the pennette pasta that was topped with some goat cheese, which is one of those foods that Jon and I don’t agree on.




I finished with a carrot cake and Jon did the cookies and cream cheesecake. I love getting carrot cake on vacation because normally at home if we get dessert like that at a restaurant we share so we never get the carrot cake since he doesn’t like it. But on vacation we don’t follow the same rules so I get all the carrot cake I want.


And this carrot cake was perfectly yummy, as was the cheesecake.

After lunch we wandered to kill time until our stateroom was ready, which I think was only about 15-20 minutes. We got in to start getting settled and our bags came right away. But we didn’t have much time to unpack because we wanted to get to the ship tour.





[Our Silver Club gift]











There weren’t many people in our group and our tour guide was Axel from Mexico, who was awesome. One thing I love about doing the ship tours is you get to meet someone from the entertainment staff and it’s always good to have a friend from the staff right away.




The tour was pretty typical, we hit the hot spots like restaurants, shops, bars, etc and just generally got our bearings. When the tour was over we went back to our room to finish unpacking. But on our way I had us stop at the DVC area to pick up our goodies, which were some hats and lanyards. We also got a cool magnet set that was already on our door when we got to our room the first time.


At some point we also got a little snack and wandered around the pool deck in the rain.












Ah sweet and blessed Coke Zero, how I love thee


A quiet and damp Quiet Cove


It was sunny just an hour before this



After unpacking (anyone else in love with how much storage space there is in the Disney cruise cabins??) it was time for the muster drill.

The Navigator said the muster drill was at 3:30pm and I absolutely hate being late to things (especially ~official~ things) so I made sure we were there right at 3:30pm. Well right at 3:30 they made an announcement that the drill would start in 30 minutes.

Jon gave me his I-can’t-believe-you-made-me-leave-early-just-to-sit-here-and-be-bored look and I replied with my I’d-rather-be-bored-for-a-few-minutes-than-late face.

Womp womp.

Anyway, we settled in to wait. Thankfully we were in Animator’s Palate so there was plenty of room to sit. And it was cool to look around and check out the restaurant, which looks different than the one on the Dream.



While we waited we chatted with a couple and soon learned that they were from a town near where we both grew up! So we talked about Kansas things to pass the time until the drill. The drill itself was nice a brief and when it was over our cruise could officially kick off.
 
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And we somehow experienced a Valentine’s Day Miracle, because the man who had been in the seat next to me kindly agreed to switch with Jon. So we were able to sit next to each other after all.

Nice!

And funfetti pancakes don't sound too bad for Valentines day! Especially an old married couple like you guys! :tongue:
 
I’ll start off by saying that it was pretty painless. Everything was on time and generally the travel was pretty smooth.
That's good.
We’ve done that before and been able to still get seats together but this time it didn’t work out, which meant that we were looking at spending most of Valentine’s Day evening on a plane several rows apart from each other.

Oh, did I mention it was Valentine’s Day? Yeah, not how I would have spent it, either, but at least we were on our way to something magical!
That is very unfortunate.
And we somehow experienced a Valentine’s Day Miracle, because the man who had been in the seat next to me kindly agreed to switch with Jon. So we were able to sit next to each other after all.
And a fortunate turn of events!
Ah IHOP, the most romantic of 24-hour breakfast chains.
IHOP is very good indeed.
Cinnamon rolls were involved, so I know it couldn’t have been too bad.
Of course! If cinnamon rolls are involved, then it cannot be bad.
Plus there’s something so special about hearing your family’s name announced as you walk in. I’m so glad Disney does that.
Such a magical moment. Never gets old!
I also ordered a glass of Moscato because it’s VACATION and I can do what I WANT. Plus we had some shipboard credit to spend so really what else was I supposed to do?
It is vacation, and gotta use that credit!
We also got a cool magnet set that was already on our door when we got to our room the first time.
I have never seen this before, so it must be fairly new.
Jon gave me his I-can’t-believe-you-made-me-leave-early-just-to-sit-here-and-be-bored look and I replied with my I’d-rather-be-bored-for-a-few-minutes-than-late face.

Womp womp.

Anyway, we settled in to wait. Thankfully we were in Animator’s Palate so there was plenty of room to sit. And it was cool to look around and check out the restaurant, which looks different than the one on the Dream.
3:30 is when the food closes and they want you to start preparing. Of course, probably not that well known. Not my favorite part of the cruise, but you gotta do it.
 
And a fortunate turn of events!
Yes - we were so thankful that my seat buddy was willing to switch!

It is vacation, and gotta use that credit!
Exactly

I have never seen this before, so it must be fairly new.
It was a cool idea. There were different magnets you could tear off that had locations around the ship, presumably so your party would know where you were.

3:30 is when the food closes and they want you to start preparing. Of course, probably not that well known. Not my favorite part of the cruise, but you gotta do it.
I somehow didn't remember that from our first cruise. But I doubt I'll forget it again!
 
Joining in!!

May not have been the most romantic Valentines Day, but thats totally ok when you're heading to vacation! And so nice that that man switched so you could sit together on the plane!

Sounds like a great start on the ship and a nice lunch!
 
Joining in!!

May not have been the most romantic Valentines Day, but thats totally ok when you're heading to vacation! And so nice that that man switched so you could sit together on the plane!

Sounds like a great start on the ship and a nice lunch!
Yeah Valentine's could definitely be spent in worse ways than on the way to vacation!
 
Enjoying your trip report! Where did you stay in Miami that has a shuttle to the port? That sounds really convenient!
 

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