Fjords and Kilts and Hot Springs, Day 6 -- Relaxing at Sea

Day 6 -- At Sea, Low 50s, mostly sunny

Up early to hit the gym. Seemed like people might be sleeping in, as it wasn't as crowded as usual. I really enjoyed having the showers there at the gym. It was much better than getting back to the room sweaty, and also made for fewer dirty towels lying around the stateroom shower room.

I went to Cabanas for a typical breakfast, but because the temperature fell so dramatically overnight, it was packed. I was lucky to find a table right next to the window. Breakfast was blueberry pancakes with a strawberry compote, with a side of bacon.

After breakfast, I attended the Art of the Theme Show tour. This is a walking tour of the ship, which is offered several times over the course of a 7+ night cruise. The tour focuses on theming throughout the ship, pointing out elements of the decor and design of various public spaces. This is NOT a "behind-the-scenes" type of tour. The guide talks about carpet designs, Disney elements in the "background" of the Atrium, etc. I've done this tour on all four ships (and multiple times on the Magic). On all four ships, the tour starts at Palo, and ends in the Atrium. This was a pretty typical tour, but I did learn a few interesting things on this tour:

1) The new centerpiece of the Atrium (which pretty much nobody likes) represents the Sun and carpets on Deck 5, 4, and 3 around the Atrium represent different layers of the ocean. So the carpet on Deck 5 is sea green, with "wave" patterns to reflect the ocean's surface; Deck 4 is a light blue, with seashells, to represent the water just below the surface; and Deck 3 is a darker blue, with patterns that look like seaweed and the brownish marble surrounding the carpet to represent the sandy ocean floor.

2) The artwork in the Aft stairwells from Decks 5-8 show animation cels in various stages of completion. Deck 5 exhibits sketches, and as you walk up the stairs, the artwork becomes more polished until you get to Deck 8 where you'll see finished versions of animation frames. While I've seen these displays many times, I had never realized that there was a deliberate pattern to the artwork that was chosen.

3) One of the things that I disliked most about O'Gills on the Dream is that it was too dark and I couldn't really see the decorations and pictures around the lounge, so I couldn't figure out what story the space was supposed to be telling. And even more frustrating, nobody who worked in O'Gills could tell me the story, either. But our tour guide was able to tell us the Legend of O'Gills. The short version is that a leprechaun was walking by a river, when he was pulled into the water by a rogue crab. Just as the leprechaun feared he was going to drown, he was saved by O'Gill the fish. In his gratitude, the leprechaun offered to grant one wish to O'Gill, whose only wish was to have a hometown pub where he could share a pint with his friends. And that's how O'Gills came to be. Since its founding, it has sponsored a football team that had a modicum of success and also inspired a song. (If you don't want to take the tour, there is a display near the entrance to the pub that tells the basic story.)

The Atrium's chandelier and the themed carpets of the decks below it:

Kathryn went to the Anyone Can Cook demonstration in D-Lounge. She said that although the chef who did the demonstration was from Greece, he looked just like Gousteau from Ratatouille. The demonstration was how to make lobster ravioli. Over the last couple of cruises, these demonstrations have moved from interesting "tutorials" about how the chef cooks a dish to more of an entertainment venue with the chef cooking and just sort of chatting with the audience. It was not easy to get a good view of what was doing, as the camera didn't do a good job of showing the whole cooking surface. But it's still kind of fun and at then end, everybody gets a sample of the dish that was prepared.

As soon as I was done with the Art of the Theme Show tour, I ran (yes, ran) to the Buena Vista Theater for the guest lecturer/historian who was speaking about Reykjavik. I got there just as the lecture was about to start and the theater was packed. All the seats were filled, and people were even sitting on the stairs along the walls. It was literally standing room only, and I found a small space at the back of the theater. The speaker was Dr. Jeffrey Morton and he was very good. The lecture was about 50 minutes and covered the historical and political significance of Iceland, rather than places to visit. On our 2010 Baltic cruise, I attended every lecture that was offered. Unfortunately, this was the only lecture I was able to attend with Dr. Morton, simply due to when he was scheduled to speak. I wish I could've seen more of him, but it just didn't work out that way.

After the lecture, I ran up to Deck 9 to grab some pizza and chicken fingers and then met the rest of my group in the Promenade Lounge on Deck 3 for Family Feud. (For anybody unfamiliar with the layout of the Magic, this was very easy to do as the Buena Vista Theater, the quick service food and the Promenade Lounge are all at the ship's aft. So it was just a quick run up the stairs and then down the same stairs.) Family Feud was just plain silly, but it was fun. They divide the room into two groups and then the game is played on a Wii system and projected on the big screen in the lounge. It was a goofy way to pass a half hour, but we laughed a lot.

After Family Feud, our whole group moved to O'Gills for Movie Quote Trivia. You had to identify the movie that the quote was from and the actor (not the character) who said it. We did better than our first attempt at trivia, but we still didn't win. But it was definitely fun and they picked a good selection of movie quotes.

As you can tell, there's no shortage of things to do during a Sea Day. At this point, it's only mid-afternoon, and at 3:00 there was a one-time-only Matinee performance by Donovan and Rebecca (http://www.donovanandrebecca.com/) in the Walt Disney Theater. Donovan and Rebecca are a married couple who developed their act just so they could perform together professionally. They currently hold 4 Guinness World Records. Their act is a mixture of acrobatics and balance/strength demonstrations and Donovan's singing. It's a really cool act, although I personally thought it would've been better without the live vocals. He's ok, and it's amazing that he can sing at all while doing some of the strenuous parts of the act. But nobody goes to this show to hear him sing, to be honest. It's the acrobatics that really carry the show. It was very good and I enjoyed it a lot.

We had about an hour until it was time to get ready for dinner, so I took some time to relax in the stateroom and read a bit. After finishing Harry Potter, I went with a Disney-related title: Mary Poppins.

Once dinnertime rolled around, we were back in Animator's Palate for the Prince and Princess menu. For appetizers, Molly and I both had the shrimp with jambalaya rice. The shrimp were good, but the rice was kind of a throw-away. Kathryn had the duck tureen, which is like a pate. She liked it a lot, but I don't think I would have liked it, so I didn't try it. Kath had the mixed leaf salad, which was good but really big; and Molly had the potato soup with knockwurst (which was half a slice of hot dog), which was ok, but not good enough to finish.

For entrees, Molly and I ordered the Baked Turbot. It was ok, but not great. I've definitely had better fish on DCL. I actually liked the mashed potatoes better than the fish. Kathryn ordered the Rosemary Crusted Pork Chop, which was delicious, but overdone.

For dessert, Kath and Molly had the flourless chocolate cake, which they both liked. I've had it before on DCL, and been disappointed because it was dry; but they both said it was very good. I had the rocky road ice cream sundae (because I wasn't eating enough soft serve. . .).

For some reason, I only have pictures of the entrees. The Turbot:

And Pork Chop:

The evening's show in the Walt Disney Theater was Twice Charmed. Molly loves this show, but it's not my favorite. So the girls went to the show, which they said was excellent (despite a couple technical difficulties) and I went to the Buena Vista Theater to watch Tomorrowland. I know it didn't get great reviews, but I really liked it. It wasn't at all what I expected, and the girl resolved the crisis much too easily. But up to the last 15 minutes or so, I thought it was very good.

After the show, we hung out in the Promenade lounge with The Dreamers. They had yummy fried dumplings for snacks, and we stayed until midnight. Just a really nice, relaxing evening.

Before we went to bed, though, we had to do a couple of things. We had to turn the clocks back another hour, as we continued to sail west. No big deal. But we also had to turn in our passports to Guest Services for Iceland's Customs service. Everybody had to surrender his/her passport, which were then held by the Iceland authorities for the duration of our stay in the country. I've never had to do this before and it was kind of unsettling. Nobody in our party felt good about surrendering our passport for a prolonged period of time. As far as I can recall, nobody ever explained to us exactly why Iceland was using this procedure.

But we did it. Then we went to bed.

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