Mayhem Marauders Meet-up Part Deux!

[Amy]

Yes, the tail holes in Chip n Dale's swimsuits are a nice touch!

[Mousekedude]

Mayhem on the High Seas!!! The Mousekecouple take a cruise, Part 3: At sea, and Ports of Call (continued).

We left off with having just set sail from Castaway Cay. We rested up a bit in our room, changed clothes, and set off to explore the ship a little bit before dinner. As darkness fell, pirates began to appear! That’s right… it was PIRATE NIGHT! Everybody was dressing up like pirates, getting ready for the big Pirate Party that was to occur later on that night. We didn’t dress up because we didn’t really have any pirate stuff other than the red pirate-Mickey bandanas that were part of our boarding gifts… but every Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy was already wearing those (they were all identical ), so we thought “why bother…”

We wandered around for a while, taking some pics:







Then it was time to go to dinner. Here is where the first serious onboard Mayhem kicked in! Remember this teaser from my post about the first day on board…?

When we met with the restaurant manager we explained that we wanted to do a couple of the special “upgrade” dinners at Remy and Palo, and would therefore miss a chance to see all of the other main restaurants unless we made a switch on one of the nights where we were scheduled to see one that we would already be seeing for lunch anyway on a different day (too complicated to explain here… just bear with me). He then told us that our entire meal rotation schedule was already set as printed on our “meal ticket” (a coded voucher that had all our meal assignments listed), and we couldn’t alter one dinner in the system without changing the whole rotation (had to do with the automated way they assigned tables, and servers who would be our “assigned servers” for the whole trip). But he put a hand-written note on the back of our vouchers and signed it, and told us that we could just do a “walk-up” to the restaurant of our choice on whichever night was the one we needed to change by just showing that to the host when we arrived. So we went away happy, thinking that everything was going to be just fine (teaser: notice another ominous wording hint here as well? Keep that in mind. It shows up with another bout of unpleasant mayhem later).

Well, this was the time when we tried to use our alternate “permission slip” from the manager. Our official vouchers showed that we were scheduled to be at Animator’s Palette tonight, but we wanted to eat at Royal Palace instead. So when we got there, we showed our vouchers to the host, showed him the manager’s note on the back, and explained what we wanted to do. We immediately did not get the warm fuzzies from him. He never smiled, never said anything polite or welcoming, just kept asking us questions like he didn’t understand what we were even doing there. He acted like we were the ones who were confused and didn’t know what we were doing, and kept trying to tell us that our vouchers said we were supposed to be going to the other place. Almost everything we said he either ignored, or twisted around (“…oh, so you’re saying that…”), or he would give some ridiculous comment that didn’t make any sense. After a while we were starting to get really annoyed, and I was on the verge of making a scene. I think he finally sensed that, and realized that we weren’t just going to give up and go away, so he said he would go ahead and seat us. It was obvious to everyone that he was definitely not happy about it, and people were looking at us funny, wondering what was going on. It was humiliating. Well, he had a server escort us to a small table where a woman and her daughter were already seated. Yes, it had 4 chairs, but it was definitely small and cramped, and we could tell this woman and her little girl were freaking out about us being all up in their grill like that. We weren’t exactly thrilled either, considering that we had requested “private dining” (a table all to ourselves), and had so far been accommodated in that way at every meal (footnote: on a cruise ship, everyone is normally seated with other people at larger tables, but there are a limited number of private tables available. If you request it ahead of time you can often get one of them). But we figured we might have to compromise on this one because we were switching our meal location and couldn’t expect everything to be the same. So we smiled at our table-mates and tried to make some polite small talk. Suddenly, after only about 2 minutes, the host came rushing back and started spouting off something about how we needed to leave!
“Hurry, they’re waiting for you! Come with me now…!”
We were all like “what…???!!” (everyone is looking at us by now….) And he was all like “yes, yes! You must come now! He is waiting for you! Right out here! Yes! Come! He is waiting…!”
And we were like “WHO?!” And he says “the manager! He’s waiting at the other restaurant! He has private table for you! Hurry! He’s right out here!”
And all the while, he and two of his servers are hustling us out the door and pointing down the corridor… and practically every guest in the place is staring at us. We were flustered, humiliated, confused, you name it. But wait… it gets worse. So having gotten rid of us, he and his little cronies vanish back into the restaurant, leaving us all alone in the corridor leading down to Animator’s Palette… precisely where we did NOT want to eat. So we get there, walk in the lobby and look around, and do not see the manager anywhere. So the hostess looks at us quizzically and asks if we need some help. We explained what were just told by the other guy, and she looks like she hasn’t a clue what we’re talking about. But she promises to go find the manager for us. So we wait, by now realizing that we’ve probably just been punked by the other host. Sure enough, when the manager arrives, he is surprised to see us and asks “but weren’t you wanting to eat at Royal Palace tonight?” Mouseoholic and I just looked at each other for a second… and then told him the whole story of what had just happened. We could see instantly by the look on his face that he was shocked, horrified, and furious all at the same time, but he did an admirable job of trying to hide it with a big smile, and he fumbled around with some words of explanation to try to smooth things over. He offered to take us back over to the Royal Palace and get us reseated, but we were like “are you kidding?! We’re not going back in there now! You think it was humiliating before…!” So he instantly agreed and told us he would go ahead and seat us here. He jumped to it, and got us a really nice private table, and made sure that we had at least two servers hovering around at all times to instantly care for our every need. He really gave us the royal treatment, and we could tell that he was very upset by what the other host (one of his underlings, at that…) had done to us. In fact, at one point we looked up and saw him across the restaurant in intense conversation with one of the ship’s officers, possibly even the captain, and we could tell by his looks and gestures (plus the fact that he pointed at us and the officer looked at us and nodded gravely…) that he was definitely not happy about the way we had been treated. Finally, toward the end of our dinner, he came back again, apologized again for what we had been through, and offered to “comp” us a bottle of wine. We appreciated that offer, but explained that we had already pre-purchased the wine pairing package for all of our scheduled meals, so he said okay and that he would definitely do something nice for us before the trip was over. We were pleased, and thanked him. So dinner turned out nice after all, despite the idiotic behavior of “mayhem-boy” in the Royal Palace (we never found out for sure, but by the looks of the manager and the ship’s officer, we would guess that he’s probably no longer working there…. or at the very least, is now swabbing decks in the engine room ).

By now, it was almost time for the Pirate Party to start, so we headed out. It was very cold and windy now, though, so we went back to our stateroom and changed into something warmer. Then we went up to stake out a good spot on the balcony overlooking the main deck where the party would take place. We found a good place right on the railing next to one of the lighting crews:


The party started, and Mickey and the Gang did not disappoint:




While the party was in full swing, the second batch of that night’s unpleasant Mayhem kicked in! Where we were standing, the rail kind of swooped inward at the top. So if you’re standing and leaning on the rail, there is an “alcove” of sorts between your body and the bottom of the rail where a small person could actually be seated in front of you. We had allowed a smallish Asian woman and her little daughter to squeeze into this space in front of Mouseoholic so the little girl could see better. Things were going just fine until this man walked up with his son (about 8 yrs. old or so), and instead of picking the kid up so he could see over our heads (the guy was very tall), he tells his son to squeeze into that little “alcove”… right in front of the poor mom and her little girl! So now this kid is standing there, completely blocking their view. We could see the distress on the mom’s face, and the little girl looked like she was going to cry, but they didn’t appear to speak English, and at any rate seemed to be naturally shy and timid, so Mom didn’t say anything. Well, after what we had just been through at dinner, Mouseoholic had had enough of rude idiots! So she leans over and tells the kid in a firm voice “young man, this lady and her little girl were sitting here first, and you are blocking their view!” So the kid just looks at her and says “well, why can’t she just stand up and look over me?” (Now Mouseoholic is REALLY upset ) “look, kid… they were here first, and she doesn’t HAVE to stand up! You need to move!!” Well, the kid just looks at his dad, who then looked at Mouseoholic for a moment (much the same way a dog might eye a cobra….), and realized by the fire in her eye that he had best go elsewhere. So he gathered up his kid and slunk off. Mouseoholic let out a little “harrumph” of triumph, and looked back at the woman and her daughter. The look of gratitude on the woman’s face was priceless. I was stunned by the whole thing… Mouseoholic is not the confrontational type. I was pretty proud of her.

After a while, we decided we were tired of fighting the crowd that kept pushing in on us, and we wanted to get some drinks and find a good spot on the top deck to watch the fireworks later. But before we left, there was one more thing I thought it was important for us to do: for about the last 20 minutes or so, a short Hispanic woman and her teenage daughter had been standing behind us trying desperately to see, and every once in a while the girl would kind of lean in past my shoulder to get a better look. But they were both scared, and kept looking at us all afraid that we’d get mad at them if they pushed in too close. We kind of felt sorry for them, and appreciated that they had not tried to force their way in the way others had, so as we backed out of our spot I blocked a couple other guys who tried to rush in, and I took the woman and her daughter’s arms and gently guided them up to the front of the rail. Their smiles could have lit up the whole ocean. We felt good about doing a good deed and walked away with a spring in our steps.

Now, if you’re thinking the Mayhem is finally over, you’re wrong! The worst is yet to come!
Remember this little teaser..?

… There were special areas for kids, families, teens, and then areas set aside for strictly adults. We appreciated that very much. It’s not that we don’t like kids… would we be Disney freaks and go on a Disney cruise if kids were a problem for us? Heck no! But there were definitely going to be times when we would want some peace and serenity (insert ominous tone here… mayhem later occurred involving that subject… to be explained later )

Well stand by…
We found a great spot in an alcove right by the rail on the top deck, on the Port side where the fireworks would be…. Best seats in the house (yeah, that’s me… all bundled up due to the cold ):


Keep in mind that this was one of the adults-only areas. So as we relaxed and sipped our drinks, listening to the sounds of the party’s finale, we sensed trouble: a man had come up and seated himself at the table next to us, and started waving to a woman with several kids on the deck below. His intention was clear: “come on up here, the view is better.” Sure enough, she starts up the stairs toward us, kids in tow, when she is confronted by a C.M. We could see that he was telling her that this was adults-only, but she just mouthed off to him and brushed him aside, then stomped right on by… bringing her gaggle of little goslings right up to where Dad waited. We could tell that the kids were uncomfortable, but Mom just had this haughty “don’t tell me what to do” look on her face, and they all settled in. I looked at Mouseoholic (she had that fiery-eyed look again… ), then I looked back at the C.M. (who was now in earnest conversation with several others… all looking in panic at this family…), and just knew I had to say something. So I leaned over to the guy and politely said, “excuse me, but you know this is an adults-only area, right?” Well, he just glared at me and snapped “yeah, we know!!” And then stared at me like he was just daring me to say something else (the nerve of this guy…!!! ). So I just stared right back at him for a few seconds, and then said “…okay…”, and turned away. Well, he started mouthing off about “oh what, are you gonna smoke or something?! You hate kids or something?!”… and crud like that, trying to pick a fight with me. I just ignored him and stared out to sea. Of all the things I could have done, that was the last thing he expected. Now he was mad because he thought he was going to be able to pick a fight with me, and I wouldn’t let him. The C.M.’s had been watching this whole thing go down, and finally one of them walked right up to the man and said something to him that I couldn’t hear. I don’t know what he said, but it only took about 3 seconds for him to say it, and it must have been pretty intense, because without a word the whole family got up and slunk away like whipped dogs. Mouseoholic let out her little “harrumph” of triumph again, and we settled in to relax. I’ll tell you what: they don’t mess around on cruise ships. You either obey orders or you get confined to house arrest in your cabin. If you try to leave your cabin they’ll lock you in the brig. Maritime law is God on the high seas, and the captain and his officers are Judge, Jury, and executioner. We liked that at this point.

Finally it was time for the fireworks. We were now in a great mood and thoroughly enjoyed the show. They were not Wishes or Illuminations, by any means… of course. But they were still nice. Can you tell it was windy, though?






A nice ending to an action-packed evening. With all the festivities over for the evening, we decided to explore some more. We had heard about a small lounge all the way up in the top of one of the stacks that we wanted to check out. It was basically a lounge above the kids’ special hangout, where parents could chillax. When we got up there, the place was completely deserted:


It was a pretty cool place with a grand piano and everything, and we wanted to stay there for a while just to enjoy having the whole place to ourselves. But we had agreed to meet for drinks at “Pink” (one of the lounges) with another couple we had befriended when we first boarded, so we headed down there. It was a really cool place, but very dim, so none of the pictures came out very good (you can check it out yourself on the web, though). We enjoyed some champagne, but after a while we realized that the other couple were not coming (we later found out that their dinner had run almost 45 minutes over time), and we were getting tired, so we went back to our stateroom to turn in for the night.

That’s it for this day! The next day would be spent at sea. Stay tuned for more!

[Amy]

Oh my...that sounds like you endured a whole bunch of bad mayhem on this day Glad you were able to relax and enjoy the fireworks though. The pictures do look a bit like it was windy that evening though. Is the ship still sailing at this point, or do they stop when they shoot off the fireworks?

[Mousekedude]

Oh my...that sounds like you endured a whole bunch of bad mayhem on this day Glad you were able to relax and enjoy the fireworks though. The pictures do look a bit like it was windy that evening though. Is the ship still sailing at this point, or do they stop when they shoot off the fireworks?

They stop for the fireworks, but it was so windy that it was hard to tell. I think it's funny the way the wind blows each "bloom" all to one side...

[Soarin08]

Oh yes I remember these stories. Mayhem was sky high that day! And not in a good way!!!

[theBIGyowski]

Fantastic trip report so far! Even when things look like they are going wrong...a CM flies in and does their best to make it right. I guess you have gotten to see the "Disney Difference" first hand outside of what we normally know in the parks.

[Mousekedude]

Oh yes I remember these stories. Mayhem was sky high that day! And not in a good way!!!

Yeah, that's right! When we got back to land and met up with you again we told you all about it. Still kinda fun to hear it again, though, eh...?

[Mousekedude]

Fantastic trip report so far! Even when things look like they are going wrong...a CM flies in and does their best to make it right. I guess you have gotten to see the "Disney Difference" first hand outside of what we normally know in the parks.

You know, there's a reason that Disney is one of the best-rated vacation companies in the world. In the parks and resorts, things are usually great, but at sea is even better! What I said about Maritime Law is true, and leave it to Disney to take full advantage of that fact so as to maintain order. Of course, if you're talking about the restaurant experience... well that, too, is evidence that even if one bad apple messes up, another C.M. will definitely make it right. Bad things have happened before on some of our trips, but Disney always comes through for the best, and most of the C.M.'s will always bend over backwards and twist themselves into pretzels to make it right in the end.

[Mousekedude]

Mayhem on the High Seas!!! The Mousekecouple take a cruise, Part 3: At sea, and Ports of Call (conclusion).

After a long day and night of Mayhem, it felt really good to sleep in on what was to be our last day at sea. We woke up refreshed and got out of bed at about 9:00, which is majorly late for us. We had a brunch ADR scheduled for Palo at 10:30, so we had some time to kill just relaxing in our room. Naturally, we had different ideas as to what was the best way to spend that time. Mouseoholic wanted to check out all our loot from the “fish extender”…


…while I thought that it would be a better use of my time to enjoy sipping coffee on the veranda :


The ocean was simply gorgeous. The captain had set the ship into a lateral drift with the waves and current, so that the ride was very calm although we could see lots of big waves. It was fascinating to watch one large wave after another coming straight at the side of the ship where I sat, only to die out right before they touched us. This was due to the fact that we were drifting sideways, so our side “wake” would simply absorb the wave right before it hit the ship. The play of the little whirlpools that were created in the inky-blue waters by this process could have held me captivated all day, but alas… Mouseoholic informed me that it was time to head up to Palo for brunch.

You may recall that we had eaten dinner here before, but I neglected to mention how beautiful the elevator lobby was in this location. Palo and Remy shared a common lobby and reception desk. Once you went in, Palo was to Port, and Remy was to Starboard.


When we got seated, we were amazed at the menu. We had been expecting a nice buffet, but were amazed to find that in addition to the buffet (which was totally fabulous, by the way…), we could also order off of an extensive brunch menu (sorry about the flash in the middle of each pic… Mouseoholic took these… I would have done it without flash…. ):



Now that it was daylight, we could get a nicer shot of the inside than what we had the other night:


When we were finished, Mouseoholic just couldn’t resist getting a couple more “artsy” shots of the table decorations and the hand-blown glass light fixture in the entryway:



As we left, we appreciated how appropriate the artwork in the lobby stairway was, since it was right next to Remy:


Now at this point we were so full, all we could think of to do was take a little walk around the promenade deck and digest for a while:



After a while, we decided to go up to the Rainforest Spa and indulge ourselves for a while with their awesome facilities. We were really glad we had opted for the unlimited access package. It had sure been worth the extra money to be able to come up here any time we wanted, and we definitely took full advantage of it on this cruise. So anyway, after that, we went back to our stateroom to take a nap and then do some organizing of our stuff to get ready for packing. We would have to be completely packed and have our luggage placed out in the corridor later that night, so we wanted to get started on it now while we had some time.
By the time we finished our preliminary packing and our nap, it was getting late in the afternoon, but we still had a couple of hours to kill before our next scheduled activities (the “Believe” stage show, to be followed by our formal dinner at Remy), so we decided to spend some time on the upper decks and just enjoy looking around and being at sea. The wind was cold, but the sun felt good. Mouseoholic found a nice spot to relax in the sun while I took a bunch of pictures:








As you can see by that last pic, the sun was now beginning to set, and it was starting to get a little too cold for Mouseoholic’s comfort. So we decided to head down one level to the adults-only area on Deck 11, which was more sheltered from the wind. This was okay, because it gave us a chance to listen to the live music and hang out in the pool area:




Finally it was time to head back and change into something more appropriate for the show. When we got to our stateroom, we were greeted by yet another stunningly beautiful Bahamian sunset:





We changed clothes and headed up to the Walt Disney Theater for the show. Mouseoholic went to find some seats while I detoured to the snack bar. Suddenly, Mayhem struck!
When I came into the auditorium, I saw Mouseoholic seated with two C.M.’s leaning over her, and I could immediately see that she was in pain! It turns out that she had fallen down the stairs in the auditorium! The C.M.’s were making sure she didn’t need to go to the infirmary, or otherwise need any other medical attention. I felt bad because I hadn’t been there, but she reassured me that other than a few scrapes and bruises, she was alright. It was a miracle that she wasn’t hurt more seriously, considering that she had hit her head on an armrest as she fell (she was in pain for several days afterwards, with a large bruise on the side of her head). I went up to the bar and got her a good stiff drink (…and one for myself while I was at it… ), and we settled in to watch the show. The drink helped, and we enjoyed the show. Afterwards, we had a good laugh as she told me the whole story, including the part where she had grabbed onto the back of some poor guy’s pants as she fell. Fortunately he was wearing a strong belt (he was a good sport about it and helped her up afterwards…).

After all that mayhem, it was now time to go back and get dressed up for our formal dinner at Remy. We had been told that it was on the same level as Victoria and Albert’s in the Grand Floridian (in fact, the menu was created by the same chef…), so our expectations were high. Here we are, all dressed up for the occasion:


When we arrived and got seated, we could tell immediately that we wouldn’t be disappointed. The place was very elegant, and the setting was just what we would have expected:


Despite Mouseoholic being in pain from her little adventure downstairs, we had an exquisite dinner… made all the more special by the surprise arrival of a complimentary bottle of champagne sent by the ship’s restaurant manager as a nice gesture to make up for the mayhem we had experienced the other night due to the weirdo host in the Royal Palace (see previous post on that subject… ). There was no way we were going to finish off that entire bottle, so when we finished dinner we took it back to our room with us for later. Mouseoholic changed into some comfy clothes and I got into my “jammies” (basketball shorts and a t-shirt) while we finished packing. Mouseoholic was thrilled by the towel monkey the steward had left us when he did our evening room service while we were at dinner:


After an hour or so, with our packing all finished and dinner settling nicely in our tummies, Mouseoholic decided she wanted to go back to the main deck to check out our “ship’s pictures” (the ones the crew takes of you at various times… kinda like the photopass… and you can buy them at the end of the cruise if you want). Well, I didn’t want to change clothes again, so I thought “what the heck… I can go like this”, and we headed down there. Much to our surprise, there was a big final shindig going on with a character meet-and-greet (including princesses ), to be followed by a final song-and-dance number by the characters and princesses. Well, it was too late to go back and change into something more appropriate, so we just went for it:













With the festivities over and the crowds disbursed, we decided to have a final glass of champagne at the Bon Voyage lounge before heading back to our stateroom. This place was really cool, and we were actually disappointed that we hadn’t noticed it earlier in the trip:




A final toast to Admiral Donald in the grand entrance foyer…..


… and it was now time to make our way back to our stateroom for the night. We were tired, but this was our last night at sea, so we were hesitant to see it end. So we took the long way back and snapped a few extra pics on the way. The ship looked really cool at night….



…and we also really enjoyed seeing for the last time some of the fabulous attention to detail in the artful décor. For example, there were these “paintings” all over the place that were really animation screens that started playing cartoons when you walked up to them:


Also, the carpets in the corridors were not just beautiful, but for those paying attention they offered nice details such as this depiction of all four of Disney’s cruise ships (can you see them?):


Almost back to our room, we could feel that the seas were beginning to get a little rough again. So Mouseoholic decided to get an “action” shot of me hamming it up with the ship’s motion:


And with that, it was now time to turn in and get some rest. Tomorrow we would be landlubbers again, and it would be time to get back to more mayhem at the parks.

Stay tuned for Part 4 of the series!

[cy1229]

Still loving it, M-dude! Is M-holic doing ok now? Falls down steps are scary, and when the adrenaline wears off, you find all sorts of bumps and bruises! Dinner at Remy looks divine.

[Soarin08]

Can't wait to dine at Remy someday... I have to see firsthand the comparisons to V&A's. With Chef Scott having a hand in it I am sure it is amazing but I have to see for myself!

[Amy]

Wow ~ what a day! I love all the photos The ship looks immaculate and really pretty. I'm thinking it is impossible to see everything in the span of just a few days.
Hopefully Mouseoholic didn't end up with too many bumps and bruises from her mayhem in the theater.
I like the details in the rug ~ I had to look them up, but the little nautical flags spell out Disney Dream
More trip report? In the parks?? Hooray!!

[Mousekedude]

Still loving it, M-dude! Is M-holic doing ok now? Falls down steps are scary, and when the adrenaline wears off, you find all sorts of bumps and bruises! Dinner at Remy looks divine.

Yeah, she's okay. We were a little worried for the first day or so afterwards, but fortunately there was no serious damage. She's pretty hard-headed (she would tell you that herself... ).
Remy was fabulous, yes.

[Mousekedude]

Can't wait to dine at Remy someday... I have to see firsthand the comparisons to V&A's. With Chef Scott having a hand in it I am sure it is amazing but I have to see for myself!

Yes, you must do that. The funniest part was that Chef Scott's menu items seemed to be more popular than the French menu items, much to the consternation of the French staff....
This is a point I forgot to mention to everyone: the menu at Remy had two sides to it. On one side were recipes from Chef Scott, and on the other side were offerings from the French chef (can't remember his name). It didn't actually say that anywhere on the menu, but we found out secretly (I think it was Soarin' who told us...?) that this was the case. The waitstaff (being from France, of course) always seemed to promote the French choices more than the "American" choices, and would be disappointed when we chose from the American side. There seemed to be a little friendly rivalry there...

[Mousekedude]

...I'm thinking it is impossible to see everything in the span of just a few days....

Absolutely. That's why our next cruise (which we've already booked, by the way... ) is going to be 7 days instead of 4.

I like the details in the rug ~ I had to look them up, but the little nautical flags spell out Disney Dream ...

Good eye! I didn't even think to do that!