Festival of Arts

 

This week an author friend of Jennifer’s came to WDW with her family. The flew in Wednesday morning, and in the afternoon Susan and I got them into Epcot to check out the Festival of the Arts. 

On Thursday we went to Magic Kingdom. We did a few rides and hung out in the DVC lounge a bit. I also tried to take some photos of the work being done in the old Rivers of America area. 

On Friday we went to the Studios. Over at the old Muppet Courtyard, there were a couple of workmen in man lifts working on the facades to the old buildings. 

We walked through Galaxy’s Edge, where the Mandalorian and Grogu were out meeting guests. We went on Smuggler’s Run and had lunch at Docking Bay 7. 

Yesterday, while I worked, Jennifer and her friend did a book signing at Barnes and Noble, and Susan took the rest of the family into Animal Kingdom. Last night they all went to Boma for dinner. 

Pirate Hockey

After spending Friday at Epcot, Jennifer flew out to Texas, and on Saturday did a book signing with another author at an independent bookstore in Denton, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. 

She stayed with friends, and on Sunday afternoon they went to a hockey match at the American Airlines Center. The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Dallas Stars 4 to 1. She flew home Tuesday night. 

Susan and I were too busy doing chores and running errands last week to do anything fun, but Thursday morning I got to do a special behind the scenes tour of Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom. Along with about a dozen other cast members, I got to see the floats up close, then watch a show.

Thursday night all four of us drove to Tampa to watch The Lightning beat the Winnipeg Jets 4 to 1. Because the Gasparilla Festival is this weekend, the match was Pirate themed. We got there early to check out the vendor booths and get drinks and snacks at Cigar City Brewery.

Yesterday Jennifer went out to Tampa again, this time to watch the Lightning play the Boston Bruins in a special outdoor match held in the Raymond James stadium. The Lightning came back from behind to win 6 to 5. 

Castaway Cay

Yesterday was the final stop of the cruise, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cold, so we didn’t stay long.

Since we were last here, Disney had built more cabanas and a new BBQ area, called Hanger 98, in the adult only area, Serenity Bay. The food wasn’t as good as in the past though. We hung out at the beach a bit after lunch then looked through the couple of shops on way back to the boat. 

Once back on board, we cleaned up and went to a matinee showing of the last Broadway style show, Beauty and the Beast, then watched from our veranda as the ship left the island. We packed up, then had a drink at the Periscope Pub, a bar themed to Captain Nemo’s sub, the Nautilus. Finally we had dinner at 1923. This morning we disembarked and drove home. 

While we were at Castaway Cay Bryan and Jenn checked out the first day of the Festival of Arts at Epcot.

Jamaica

Yesterday we docked at Falmouth, Jamaica. We had done an excursion here in 2017, so this time we just went down into the port area to walk around and do a little shopping. After an hour or so we went back aboard the ship and sat up on the top deck for a bit. I also tried out the Aquamouse ride, which is like the one on the Wish. 

Each Disney ship has characters on the back, and the Treasure has Peter Pan and Captain Hook. I took some photos of the back of the ship while we were in port at Falmouth. Our room was just above Pan’s head, next to the flag. The Coco restaurant was directly below us. 

We watched the ship pull away from Jamaica from our veranda, then got ready for dinner. We ate at World of Marvel, but last night the show was a Celebration of Heroes featuring Rocket and Groot. There was no port today, as we cruised east towards the Bahamas. We spent most of the day relaxing in our stateroom, although I did go watch the new Avatar movie in one of the theaters while Susan read. 

This evening we watched the Moana show in the theater, then went to dinner at the Coco restaurant. The show had some pretty cool set and projections to simulate traveling above and below the ocean, and some great puppets to represent some of the more fantastic elements of the story. The food and the show at the Coco restaurant were much better than the first night. 

Cozumel

Monday we stopped at Cozumel, Mexico. We did a trolley tour where the drove us through some of the town, to a planetarium where we watched a movie about Mayan mythology and the calendar, and to a museum on Cozumel. 

Afterwards we walked through the shopping areas and bought a few things, then went back on board for a late lunch and lounged on our veranda while the boat pulled away from the island. 

Where the Wish had a restaurant based on Frozen, on the Treasure it is based on the movie Coco. The layout is the same, but the theming, food, and show are different. We were looking forward to this, but were a little disappointed. The food was just okay, and the show was mostly songs in Spanish we didn’t know. That night the winds were pretty high, and the ship swayed a lot. 

Yesterday we were supposed to dock at Grand Cayman, but just like on the cruise we took in 2017, when we arrived the sea was too rough to tender, so we spent a day at sea instead. We spent most of the day relaxing and reading in our room and on our veranda, just going up top to eat breakfast and lunch.

In the evening we stopped for a drink in the Haunted Parlor, which replaced the Star Wars bar on the Wish. It was pretty cool, with “paintings” that slowly changed and decor like that of parks' Haunted Mansions. Last night was pirate night, so lots of guests wore pirate attire. After we had dinner in 1923, we watched the fireworks of the pirate party from our veranda.

Disney Cruise

Saturday Susan and I drove to Port Canaveral to board the Disney Treasure for a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise. The Treasure is a sister ship to the Wish, which we cruised on in December of 2022. It shares a lot of similarities, but some spaces are themed differently. That night we ate at the 1923 restaurant.

Much of the ship is themed to the movie Aladdin, and he and Jasmine have a statue in the grand hall or atrium. The chandelier in the main hall was inspired by the movie as well. 

We booked the cruise last week with a cast rate, so were pleased to find we were upgraded to a stateroom with an extended verandah. It was on the very back of deck six though, next to the flag, which meant a fairly long walk to get to the elevators. Unlike the three banks of elevators that the first four Disney ships had, the Wish class ships only have two. 

We spent yesterday cruising west across the northern Caribbean. In the morning we went on a tour of the ship, and attended a seminar on shopping at our ports of call. After lunch at the Festival of Foods by the pools, we went to a DVC member celebration, then watched the Lilo & Stitch remake in one of the two cinemas on board. We missed the live show in the Walt Disney Theater, Seas the Adventure, but we had seen that on the Wish.

Last night we attended a reception in the Grand Hall, then ate dinner at the World of Marvel. The show during dinner was the same one we saw on the Wish, except Spider-Man came out at the end instead of Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Restaurants and parks

 

On New Year’s Eve I visited my 49th Hard Rock Cafe, the one in the Tampa airport. My mom and sister had gone on a southern Caribbean cruise, so I picked them up at the cruise terminal and drove them to the airport, where we had lunch.

On Saturday Jennifer met a friend at Universal Studios. While there they tried out the new Butterbeer Ice Lollies.

This week was Susan’s birthday, so we redeemed several birthday coupons as we ran errands. On Wednesday we had dinner with kids at the Benihana on International Drive. It wasn’t as good as it’s been in the past. 

This weekend is the WDW marathon weekend, and on Thursday friends of Jennifer’s came to town to run in some of the events. Yesterday she met them at Hollywood Studios.