Boundless Horizons

Day 6 – May 25 – Day at Sea

Our only day at sea on this cruise. We had beautiful weather, and in the morning we could just make out the outline of Corsica off the Starboard side as we sailed by.

We headed to Royal Palace for breakfast, because it was open until 10:30am, an hour later than the port days. I was excited to have those Eggs Benedict at a more reasonable time! We got there around 9:40am and we were seated right away, we were expecting a line so that was a pleasant surprise. There were a few people eating when we arrived, and a few more arrived after us, but it was overall quiet. We were quite hungry so I ordered an egg white omelette, Eggs Benedict, and hash browns. Rhys ordered chocolate chip pancakes and toast.

Service was really poor, which was surprising because we’d had great service at our previous MDR breakfast. In fact this is the only poor service we’ve ever had on DCL. Despite being seated quickly, we waited about 10 minutes for a server to take our order. The table next to us arrived after we did, and had their order taken quickly, at which point they seemed to remember that we hadn’t ordered. It then took almost 30 minutes after ordering for most of our food to arrive – I didn’t get my hash browns, and Rhys didn’t get his toast. Meanwhile the table next to us had been served and were almost done eating by the time our food arrived! Servers were nowhere to be seen so flagging someone down to let them know about our missing items wasn’t an option, and no one stopped by to check everything was okay. Frustratingly, we hadn’t taken note of the server’s name because he didn’t stick around, and the guest survey at the end of the cruise has no option to provide a score for dining other than your serving team at dinner. Our regular servers were wonderful so we didn’t want this to reflect on them in any way, so we didn’t comment on it in the survey.

This was the only morning that we saw magic shots on deck offered, so we headed up to deck 12 after breakfast expecting to see a long line – this was a really popular activity on our previous cruise. There was no one waiting! We grabbed our photos and then did a lap of deck 12 to get some steps in. I had expected the ship to feel busy today since everyone was on board, but other than the family pool area, it wasn’t too crowded.

Our next item on the schedule was the Royal Gathering which we’d booked for 11:45am. We arrived about five minutes early to find there was only a couple of people waiting so they were happy to let us join the line. We got to meet Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine and Tiana. The princesses were so lovely. I always say I’m not bothered about meeting characters, and then find myself having the best time with them!

The Disney Vacation Club presentation was up next, at 12:15pm. They were offering $50 onboard credit for attending, so it was pretty popular. We were strongly considering buying DVC on our February 2020 WDW trip so we’d attended a presentation at the Riviera back then. I really appreciate that they don’t do a hard sell. The exchange rate has dropped significantly since then, so we’re not likely to make major USD investments any time soon, but I was keen to hear the latest info so it was worth attending.

We grabbed some lunch at Flo’s Cafe after the DVC presentation, then I headed to Meridian for the Art of the Theme Show tour which began at 2pm. Rhys opted to go back to our stateroom to play the new Legend of Zelda game on the Switch, which they’d been playing during our down time. I arrived about 15 minutes before the tour and found Meridian was almost empty so I ordered a drink of the day (a Captain’s Mai Tai) while I was waiting. It was delicious!

Meridian started to fill up as a steady stream of people arrived for the tour. By the time Matt from the entertainment team arrived, it was pretty busy – he said it was the largest tour he’d ever led! Remy and Palo were both busy so he wasn’t able to take us in there, instead he gave us an overview of those restaurants in Meridian, then arranged for us to visit the Oceaneer’s Club.

It was quite a sight as we all walked down to deck 5! Someone estimated there were close to 100 people in the group. Visiting the club was fun, they let us have a go on the interactive floor – I had a chance to play a Tron-themed game. From there we went down to the atrium, around deck 3 to the Walt Disney Theatre, and back to the atrium for some final facts.

Did you know that the cast members working at Guest Services move the ships on the wall to their actual locations for that day? Amazing, I wish I’d learned that earlier in the cruise! I’ll definitely be paying attention to it on our future cruises.

After the tour, I headed into the shops to grab some photos/videos of merch for Instagram because a few people had asked me what was available. The long port days meant the shops were quite busy in the evenings but they were much quieter during the sea day where they were open all day. I was impressed at how well stocked the shelves were this late in the cruise. Our first sailing was a 3 night cruise with no port calls, and the shelves were noticeably bare by the third day.

I went back to the stateroom to meet Rhys, and we relaxed on the verandah for a little while. It was semi-formal night (or “optional dress up” as the app described it), so I put on a dress and Rhys wore a slightly smarter shirt. We didn’t really have space in our luggage for another round of dress-up clothes so we were definitely more on the smart-casual side tonight.

We headed down to Bon Voyage just before 5pm to grab a drink while we waited for the photographers to set up. This was a great spot to see the characters walk by as they headed to their meet and greet locations! Another thing I wish I’d learned sooner, Bon Voyage also has a sommelier bin! I’d heard about it in Meridian but didn’t know there was one so handy. For $13, you get a mystery glass of wine, essentially whatever they have open. After ordering, our bartender revealed the sparkling wine in the bin was Taittinger, which I love and which normally sells for $19/glass.

We were back in Enchanted Garden for dinner, and we both went for the New York Strip Steak. Then we were really naughty and couldn’t decide what to have for dessert, so we had two each. We both went for the White Chocolate Bread Pudding, Rhys had the Creme Brulee Cheesecake and I had the Tiramisu. All great, though the Tiramisu had an unusual presentation which threw off the balance between marscapone cheese (too much) and the coffee-soaked ladyfingers (not enough).

After dinner it was off to the Walt Disney Theatre for Beauty and the Beast. The show was brilliant, I loved the puppetry. We also had sign language interpreters! The theatre was much busier than it had been for The Golden Mickeys – we were still able to get a pretty decent seat in the balcony but not our usual front row! Clearly this is a popular show.

Jamie Raven was doing another magic show in Evolution at 10:30pm so after Beauty and the Beast we strolled along deck 4 to the adults-only area. We wanted to get to Evolution early so we could grab a drink and seats, which meant we arrived just in time for 2000s Music Trivia. It’s not really my strongest era for music, particularly since they mixed in post-2010 and it’s really set up for American audiences, but we still managed to score 18. Jamie Raven was excellent again – I’d seen a couple of the tricks before but they were very well executed.

This was definitely our longest night out, we didn’t get back to the room until after 11:15pm!