Our family went on a 7 Day Disney Cruise on the Mediterranean which left Barcelona and where we were able to visit Pompeii, Rome, Florence, and Nice. But before we could knock a few countries off of our bucket list, we had a coveted Sea Day which was much needed due to our full Three Day Sightseeing trip in Barcelona. Sea Days are my favorite because it is the only time my family is able to relax and fully enjoy the actual Cruise Ship.
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First Day of Room Service on Sea Day
We start off every morning getting room service delivered to us first thing in the morning. Typically, we order two carafes of coffee, a couple of bakery treats, and some fresh fruit to tide us over until we can make it to breakfast. On a typical sea day, we order the room service to come to our room around 6:30 am so we have enough time to leisurely drink our coffee on our Verandah before having to rush around and get ready.
Pro Tip: Even though room service is mostly complimentary, tipping is a must. I’ve noticed that sometimes I had a receipt to sign when other times I didn’t. Make sure you take your cash tip out the evening before and place it on the magnetized door. It makes it easier to tip first thing in the morning when you are half asleep!
Breakfast at Cabanas
Cabanas was only open 7:30 am – 11:30 pm for breakfast, so we made sure to get there early so we could eat before our day full of tastings. The day was pretty overcast, but we were stubborn and outside on the deck anyways.
Man! Was it windy and chilly. The high was only 72 F, and I don’t think that it ever got that warm for the whole day.
Anyone Can Cook
One of my favorite activities on Sea Day is the Anyone Can Cook series. After looking at my Disney Cruise App, I saw that this one was the only age appropriate (aka 31+) Anyone Can Cook class.
We sat down at the back of the D Lounge while Chef prepared Pan Seared Sea Bass with Fava Bean and Pea Risotto and Sweet Chili Glaze. Even though I am not a fan of Fish, I was excited to try this dish.
The sommelier paired the wine with Santa Carolina Chardonnay from Chile. I am not a big Chardonnay fan, but I was impressed that I could identify this wine because it tasted like “A wine you would have at a wedding.”
This was Mom and Ally’s first time enjoying the Anyone Can Cook Series, and they seemed to enjoy it, even though we didn’t like the Sea Bass or take the recipe card home. This is a beautiful way for those who are in the adult age range to knock out 45 minutes of their Sea Day.
Wine Tasting
Promptly at 12:15 pm we reported to Keys for our wine tasting! I was super excited about this class because I’ve been taking a few wine tasting classes back home in New Orleans and wanted to see what we would learn.
When we arrived, there were six glasses out, and one had wine in it. Our instructor informed us that this was a blind taste test between the new world and old world wines. We would take each individual glass, swirl it around to see how fast the legs of the wine came down, take in all of the aromas and taste and guess where the wines came from.
During this wine tasting, I remembered how much I enjoyed a delicious Chianti and rediscovered my love of Riesling! I also realized that I didn’t care for some of the wines produced in the United States. You will hear more about our wine adventure in future trip reports, but for now, know that we had an excellent wine tasting and learned a lot!
The wines that we tasted:
Sauvignon Blanc 2016 – Cloudy Bay – New Zealand
Chardonnay 2015 – ZD – United States
Riesling 2014 – Selbach Oster – Germany
Pinot Noir 2016 – Meiomi – United States
Chianti Classico Riserva 2014 – Banfi -Italy
Cabernet Sauvignon – Marques de Casa Concha – Chile
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Lunch at Cabanas
The Wine tasting we a little over the 1 hour it was supposed to, everyone was having so much fun! But we had to race to Cabanas so they wouldn’t close on us. Cabanas was open from 11:45-2:00 pm for lunch and we barely made it there by 1:45 pm.
We didn’t realize that as long as you are actually in Cabanas by 2 pm, they will still let you in. The start closing down one side of Cabanas so they can clean up and prep for the 6 pm table service.
A full review of all the restaurants and food we tried is coming soon, but my favorite things to eat at Cabanas on this trip was the corndogs and macaroni and cheese! I am primarily a grown version of a 4-year-old!
Mixology on Sea Day with the Facebook Group
A few months before our trip a lady named Laura reached out to me to join a facebook group to help each other plan for our upcoming trip! During this time another member Jennifer organized a mixology class (through Disney) for members of the group to attend.
I loved attending a private mixology tasting with a few people who I had been communicating with over the past few months. I know Jennifer put in a lot of work and effort to get our group together – but for me, it was completely seamless and enjoyable!
The mixology course was so much fun! It was probably it is in my top three (out of five!) courses I’ve taken while on a Disney Cruise. When we arrived, many of the pre-made cocktails were out, with a couple of extras for us to learn the art of mixology.
Cocktails we made:
Melon Ball – Vodka, Midori, Orange Juice
King Royal – Prosecco and cream de cassis
Mojito – Bacardi Lemon, Simple Syrup, Lime, Soda water, Mint
Pomo Passion Martini – Prosecco, Pama pomegranate liqueur, passion fruit juice
Keys with Love – Kaluha, Disarono, Baileys, Whipped cream.
All of the cocktails were tasty, but the Keys with Love was the most fun! We were given an empty shot glass where we had to layer the Kaluha, Disarono, and Baileys one on top of each other to provide a layered look. Then, we were given the option to add whipped cream to the top (of course I did!), and we were given the challenge to take the entire beverage without touching it with our hands!
A couple of the people in the group were successful, I, however, was not! But my sister managed to get a funny, cute video of Mom and I tasting our drinks here!
I would definitely retake the mixology course the next time I go on a Disney cruise.
Dinner and Formal Night
As someone who is still relatively new to cruising, I am not a huge fan of formal night, but I love seeing all of the little kiddos and Disney characters dressed up to the nines. What we do for formal night is something straightforward – wear black dresses and jazz it up with jewelry and cute shoes.
Just remember, you want to make sure to iron your clothes before the last minute rush to get ready for the shows and dinner because there is generally a line at the ironing board.
We dined at Lumiere’s and had a wonderful time eating our four-course meal! For appetizers, I got the Breaded and Deep Fried Brie with an Orange and Cranberry Chutney, and Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp with Green Asparagus, Horseradish cream and a Dill dressing. My Second course was the Farmhouse salad with baby spinach, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and fingerling potatoes served with a goat cheese crostini and olive vinaigrette.
For my entree I had the Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak with crushed new potatoes with shallots, Buttered Green Beans, Red Wine Jus and a Bernaise Sauce on the side. I ended dinner with dessert which was the Classic Opera Gateau that has layers of Joconde Sponge, Soaked in Coffee Syrup Chocolate ganache and rich buttercream.
Captain’s Reception
Another one of my favorites is the Captain’s Reception. This is one of the only times Disney passes out complimentary cocktails! There are two Captain’s receptions so that no one ends up missing out because they are at the dinner or the show. The reception is at 530 and 730, and we went to 730.
Beverages that were available included white wine, beer, and fruity cocktails. They also had a non-alcoholic drink that was great. Here is my quick hint for you: The reception is in the Atrium’s Lobby. This is where everyone lines up to grab a photo with the Captain and their family in their formal dress.
If you do not want a photo, and just want to enjoy the reception, hang out close to the D Lounge on Deck 4 so you can quickly grab a beverage. This is where all of the cast members come out with trays full of drinks, and most people snatch it up before they can make their way down to the third deck.
Family Superstar Karaoke was going on the same time as the captain’s reception, so we popped into the D Lounge for some entertainment. I loved seeing the kids and tweens get up there and sing their hearts out.
There was even one little girl who got up to sing Walk The Moon’s Shut up and Dance song. She sang so softly that her father had to hop on stage with her to help her with all of the lyrics! It was truly adorable.
Twice Charmed on the Disney Magic
Earlier in the evening, we ran into Cinderella, and she was rushing to the show. She said something to us that she had glass shattered in her foot and needed to get it out! We were confused because the classic story of Cinderella has nothing to do with a glass shoe breaking.
We sat in our ideal seats in the show (aisle seat close to the top) we enjoy these seats because every seat is basically is right in the theater.
Twice Charmed is an original twist on the Cinderella Story wondering what would happen if Cinderella did not get her happy ending. Currently, it is only available on the Disney Magic.
Not wanting to give too much away, the story has evil Godfather, giant mice, and the hope that true love will find each other – even when an evil God Father is in the picture. The most shocking thing I discovered from this play? A lot of people can share the same Fairy Godmother! I had no idea.
If you are into maximizing your time on the ship, make sure you watch this play.
The End of The First Sea Day on the Disney Magic
We didn’t do as many activities on this first sea day as we did on our Alaskan Trip, but we were fully satisfied with what we accomplished! We had a lot of downtimes where we met a couple of friendly people on the ship and learned a lot from our two tasting classes. My Advice? Don’t take two courses in one day! It messes with other activities you can do on the boat, and a noon tasting is hard to try to squeeze in lunchtime while enjoying everything.
Of course, on a Disney Cruise Line, you will never go hungry.
If you didn’t read my Embarkation Report on Disney Magic make sure you do that, in a few weeks I will have a new post on our first day in port Naples – When we finally saw Pompeii.
If you would like to read the Navigator you can see it here. To learn how I saved 13% on my Disney Cruise so I could enjoy all of the additional mixology courses please read.
Stay tuned this summer to read about all of my trip reports for our May 25, 2018, Mediterranean Cruise out of Barcelona.
Day 1 Boarding the Disney Magic
Day 4 Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Day 5 Livorno (Florence, Pisa), Italy
Day 6 Villefranche (Monte Carlo/Nice), France
Day 7 Sea Day
Day 8 Disembarkation – Barcelona, Spain
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Disney Magic - Exploring the Port of Naples-Pompeii - Plaid Shirt Yoga Pants
Tuesday 17th of July 2018
[…] spending all day exploring the Disney Magic on a Sea Day, our first day at a port was the port of Naples-Pompeii. We were so excited to book the entire […]