Dina's and Peter's MAGIC(al) second - January 2022 5 night MDAS

[iloveeeyore]

Wednesday, January 19 - Palo continued

We were offered one complementary beverage each, either prosecco or mimosa. We both chose the prosecco. Cheers!


A bread basket came first, and I was thrilled that my favorite bread item from the bread table on the buffet was included, the bleu cheese focaccia (9 o'clock in the photo below)


Breads so scrumptious they deserve two photos:


The bread was served with olive oil.


We ordered one of each Antipasti Selections.

The seafood was underwhelming.


I think these were sauces for the seafood? Maybe cocktail sauce and some kind of aioli? I don't think we used these...but maybe we should have, lol


The Italian meats and cheeses antipasti was also underwhelming, but much less so than the seafood.

I said underwhelming, but I was being kind. If I'm being honest, I have to admit these platters were pretty pathetic compared to the buffet. Everything tasted fine and I think we could have ordered more if we had wanted, but we already had so much more coming we weren't at all tempted to ask for more. When I'm not even tempted to ask for more cheese, there's a problem.

On the other hand...

One of the culinary highlights of the cruise was the Spicy Italian Sausage Flatbread.


OMG! This was our first Palo flatbread and I am now committed to trying them ALL over time!

I had a stunning view !


Still more of Palo coming up.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Wednesday, January 19 - Palo continued

For our entrees, we ordered the Rollatini Melanzane




and the Parmesan-Crusted Chicken Breast


Both of these were quite delicious.

We were treated to watching several group photo sessions of passengers fully decked-out in Marvel costumes.

We also had one of the best servers ever, Igor from Croatia. (He knows Boris from Croatia, our Palo server from the Fantasy.)


Dessert was STUPENDOUS! Especially the Vanilla Berry Panna Cotta with Strawberry Basil Sorbet



Oh, my gracious, this was truly magnificent, one of the best things I have ever tasted!

And the Warm Amaretto Chocolate Fondant with Espresso Gelato was also quite delicious!


Will we do brunch at Palo again? You bet! We look forward to the buffet format coming back, but it's not a deal breaker if it doesn't.

That wraps up our brunch at Palo. But our day was only just beginning!

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Wednesday, January 19 - Palo continued
I had a stunning view !
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Still more of Palo coming up.

My first attempt at sporting a day cravat, which is more a casual tie. A lot of people erroneously call this an ascot, which is actually a more formal closed-collar tie (think of the English horse race from which it gets its name). Maybe a bit too much? IDK. What do you think?

 

[iloveeeyore]

My first attempt at sporting a day cravat, which is more a casual tie. A lot of people erroneously call this an ascot, which is actually a more formal closed-collar tie (think of the English horse race from which it gets its name). Maybe a bit too much? IDK. What do you think?

It made me swoon. It worked for me!

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Wednesday, January 19 - Palo continued

We were treated to watching several group photo sessions of passengers fully decked-out in Marvel costumes.

Fair warning if you're taking pictures at the bow in front of mirrored windows -- you are definitely "on stage". That being said, there was one particularly well-costumed Doctor Strange out on deck who had all the right poses. Bravo!

 

[greensombrero]

Thank you for following and commenting! ITA with this about pizza. It's my comfort food, so it has to be very bad for me NOT to enjoy it at least a little bit.

You are sailing so SOON! Lucky duck! Bon voyage!!

Thanks, can’t believe it is almost here.

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Thanks, can’t believe it is almost here.

Bon voyage!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Wednesday, January 19 - Marvel Day at Sea festivities

I have been procrastinating writing this entry because, honestly, I just don't know how I can do justice to MDAS. It was amazing, and totally blew us away, exceeding our most optimistic expectations. For context, we enjoy Marvel, but wouldn't consider ourselves huge fans. We wouldn't come close to winning a round of Trivia. But we did choose this cruise over other similar ones based on the added bonus of the MDAS.

Our day was just packed with Marvel fun, from spontaneous character interactions to the meticulously planned evening festivities that included not one, but 2 adorable deck parties. Most of the events were scheduled for multiple times during the day, so we could easily manage potential conflicts. I will start with after brunch at Palo...

We went back to the stateroom to change, and then headed down to the Marvel 101 show. This was a quick run-down of the characters explained by experts who provided info about Marvel canon, the history about how some of the main characters became heroes and so on. It was a helpful refresher for us, but certainly unnecessary, especially for someone who could win a trivia contest.

Crossing the atrium, we ran into some friends.






Next we went to fathoms where we saw a trivia contest to find the Marvel Superfan (so impressive) and then the Captain America inspired USO show (AMAZING).



There was also a fabulous Dr. Strange live action show in one of the theaters that was really great, I don't have any pictures of that one.

Around 2:30 we had a very important encounter with some really dope dudes.



These guys have an amazing amount of charisma. And power. Of course they have so much charisma and power.

At 3 pm we had a mixology tasting. We did not have the opportunity to mix any drinks ourselves as guests used to do pre-covid. We watched our magical mixologist from the UK. His name escapes me now. Maybe Ryan?



Oh my goodness, these drinks were delicious, every one of them, we couldn't pick a favorite. Even though we couldn't participate, this event was well worth the $25 charge. Mixologist was supposed to give us the menus but alas, we never received them. From left, there's a take on a bellini (maybe mango instead of peach?), a gin mojito, Verrazzano (spin on a Manhattan), Coconut Kiss, something sweet and layered (Bailey's?).



There was a lot of alcohol.

So with a bit of the munchies we headed up to the pool deck. We grabbed some seating and a snack. It was a marvel themed burger with a black bun. We can't remember the name.



We waited for the deck show featuring Disney characters in Marvel costumes.



It was so stinking cute! The moral of the story is, we ALL have powers in ourselves, characteristics of super heroes! Sleep on that, DIS friends!

Coming up, a Marvelous dinner and a night-time spectacular!

 

[greensombrero]

Glad to see you enjoyed MDAS. Our first ever Disney cruise was a MDAS and we loved it! I think the entertainment from the USO show to Dr Strange to the deck parties are all just really well done and feel special and cool. You don't have to be a Marvel super fan either to enjoy.

I can't really tell from your pictures but I'm guessing they had the "blue dots" to stand on to distance on deck? I really missed those on the cruise we just got off. It was kind of nice to have a personal/family "bubble" for the fireworks on our earlier "Covid era" cruise.

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Glad to see you enjoyed MDAS. Our first ever Disney cruise was a MDAS and we loved it! I think the entertainment from the USO show to Dr Strange to the deck parties are all just really well done and feel special and cool. You don't have to be a Marvel super fan either to enjoy.

I can't really tell from your pictures but I'm guessing they had the "blue dots" to stand on to distance on deck? I really missed those on the cruise we just got off. It was kind of nice to have a personal/family "bubble" for the fireworks on our earlier "Covid era" cruise.

Please let me know if you are planning on posting a trip report from your recent cruise. Always like to support those who support us.

 

[greensombrero]

Please let me know if you are planning on posting a trip report from your recent cruise. Always like to support those who support us.

That is kind of you. I do have one in progress: https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...eturn-of-most-activities-updated-5-8.3881452/

 

[Sakura1017]

Tuesday, January 18 continued - Couple's Swedish Massage at Serenity Bay Cabana!

There was a good reason we headed over to Serenity Bay bright and early! We had a massage to get to! Our appointment was for 11 am, and we wanted to make sure we arrived with plenty of time to spare so we could choose some loungers and take a little walk on the beach.

I think I had read when cruises had started back up again that SB was a little unkempt and unpleasant, with seaweed and construction? Not so anymore; it is perfectly pristine.

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If not for the wind, the morning would have been absolutely perfect. Peter and I disagree about how warm it got before our massage and relatively when, but I would say that it was before 10am when I was able to take off my light jacket and feel comfortable in my sundress. Peter thinks it was later.

We made our way over to the massage check-in kiosk at around 10:40. The masseuses greeted us warmly and happily, eager to get started early.

We had Neri and Kathy, and they were wonderful!
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Because of the cold wind, the shutters were mostly closed, which was a bit disappointing because it obstructed our view a bit, but most of the time we were in there, our eyes were closed, anyway!
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The massage was amazing! I became aware over the course of the hour that I was clenching my teeth and forced myself to relax. This happened several times, most frequently at the beginning. The smell and sound of the ocean, and the feeling of the light breeze that still made it through the mostly closed shutters, combined with the expert massage, was absolutely heavenly. The cost to us for this experience was $190.82 including the automatically added 18% gratuity (we left a little extra cash, which we did pretty much every time we had an opportunity to say "thank you" to the wonderful staff for their diligent and caring service). Honestly, this didn't seem at all out of line for what it was worth, and in fact not much more than we would have paid near home. We would book this again in a heartbeat IF we had another double-dip cruise, but probably not if we only had 1 day at CC, as we would want to enjoy the beach longer. We would probably both prefer the more elaborate Couple's Choice Massage on the ship over this experience, but that one is also way more expensive.

I forgot to take a photo of the cabana when we first walked in, but this is what it looked like after, as we were getting dressed to leave
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Neri and Kathy did offer some aromatic and healing Elemis products to purchase before we signed the bill, but it wasn't a hard up-sell in any way. Overall this experience was great and we are so glad we did it!

As we said farewell, Neri and Kathy gave us each a "free" ice cold bottle of water, reminding us to stay hydrated the rest of the day.
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Yup, by the time we were done, it was right around noon, and time to head over to lunch.

Do you get a discount for a massage in a cabana with the Disney Visa card?

 

[iloveeeyore]

Do you get a discount for a massage in a cabana with the Disney Visa card?

Hmmmm...good question! We don't believe so. We charged it to the room and I no longer have the itemized bill and I don't remember asking for a discount. Anyone feel free to add your knowledge here if you get a discount for the Visa!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 - MDAS continued

Our MDAS dinner was at Lumiere's. There was a special Marvel Menu and lots of cute little touches to bring in the theme, starting with the napkin arrangement


and the printed kids menus









Oh, Melroy, how we miss you now!



Bread service, delicious as always.


My first appetizer, Wakandan Piri Piri chicken skewer, chili-marinated with papaya-coconut salsa


Peter's first appetizer, Black Widow's Cream of Porcini Mushroom soup, so rich and delicious!


My second appetizer, Black Window's Smoked Salmon on Pumpernickel with Cream Cheese and Caviar - yum!


Reached photo limit, continued next post.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Wednesday, January 19, 2022, MDAS dinner continued

Peter's second appetizer, Iron Man's California Cherry and Walnut Salad with Goat Cheese and Raspberry Dressing




For my main, I went for something light for a change, Dr. Banner's Greens and Lobster Salad, with Avocado and Cilantro dressing


and Peter opted for the Hulk's Grilled Delmonico Ribeye Steal with Black Truffle Butter


For dessert, we chose the Signature Dessert, "Southern Nights" - Vanilla Cheesecake with Pecan Crust and Salted Caramel


and the "Bounty Hunter" - pastry with custard, raspberries and key lime dome


We rolled back to the stateroom to grab our warmer gear so we could head up to the deck party. We found our "towel animal" of the night, Peter's favorite of the trip, I think, Thor's hammer whose name I can't pronounce but Peter can



On deck, you wouldn't know there was a pandemic, it felt just like the good old days! The continued MDAS festivities again blew us away!





And of course, the FIREWORKS!!



That wraps up Marvel Day at Sea on the Disney Magic. We highly recommend trying to adjust your schedule to incorporate one of these special cruises into your plans!

More to come with another day at Castaway Cay, another adult beverage tasting, more gorgeous weather, and a small mishap...

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Porcini Mushroom soup, so rich and delicious!
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This might be one of the best mushroom soups that I've ever had ANYWHERE. So. Good.

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Wednesday, January 19, 2022, MDAS dinner continued

We found our "towel animal" of the night, Peter's favorite of the trip, I think, Thor's hammer whose name I can't pronounce but Peter can

View attachment 687949

Mjolnir Pronounced M-Y'ALL-NEAR (run the M sound right into the Y'ALL. The word is 2 syllables long)

 

[greensombrero]

That show is so good! Disney really can do deck shows right if they want. I’m hearing the new pirate deck party on the Wish is another winner. Hopefully they will continue to improve all their deck shows. Excited you posted this update!

 

[ambula603]

Just read through your entire trip report and am sad to see it has ended! I love reading your recaps! We would LOVE to do a MDAS sometime in the future. I died at Mickey as Captain America (we are actually doing a Marvel family Halloween costume this year!)

Thanks for the wonderful descriptions of the food! We go on the Magic in April and I cannot wait!

 

[iloveeeyore]

That show is so good! Disney really can do deck shows right if they want. I’m hearing the new pirate deck party on the Wish is another winner. Hopefully they will continue to improve all their deck shows. Excited you posted this update!

Yes, I've seen reviews about Pirate Night on the Wish and hope to live it someday. Thanks for sticking around for my sporadic updates!

Just read through your entire trip report and am sad to see it has ended! I love reading your recaps! We would LOVE to do a MDAS sometime in the future. I died at Mickey as Captain America (we are actually doing a Marvel family Halloween costume this year!)

Thanks for the wonderful descriptions of the food! We go on the Magic in April and I cannot wait!

Thanks so much for reading and oh, NO!! It hasn't ended!! I'm still here. Please stick around!

And YES! Do the MDAS. We have experienced both SWDAS and MDAS and enjoyed the Marvel more, but would recommend both. I would say we are casual fans of both Marvel and Star Wars; enjoy but not particularly into either, if you know what I mean. But we came away feeling much more WOWed by the Marvel activities/events.