Thanks to the time change the night before I was awake bright and early again. I tried to go out on the balcony but the sunrise was almost blinding at first.
We were up early at Beach Blanket Buffet when it opened at 7am again. Alice's standard breakfast for the week was a ham and cheese omelet, grapes and a banana (until they ran out of bananas) with a glass of orange juice and a milk. Megan's breakfast varied slightly but normally included at least some of the following, banana, hash, milk, sausage, cereal, bacon, donut and hot chocolate.
We had time before things got kicked off this morning so we went down to take some pictures.
I love port hole pictures
Then we stopped on deck 4 where the girls took some time to highlight what they wanted to do on the navigators during the day.
First up a quick meet and greet with Rapunzel.
After meeting Rapunzel, I took the girls up to the Club for Toy Story Boot Camp. Megan was very excited for Boot Camp. It was one activity she did on the Fantasy that she was really looking forward to repeating.
While the kids were in the club, mom, dad and I went to the Walt Disney Theater for the Naturalist discussion on the Icefields and Glaciers in Southeast Alaska. I learned a lot about the geography, the glaciers, how they move etc. It was a good and informative presentation.
After the presentation my parents James and I went up to deck 10 where we looked for and saw a few whales. It's hard to capture a whale from the ship, but I did get the splash and a few blow spouts. We saw a couple of tails but I wasn't prepared enough to capture those pictures.
Sometime between 11 and 11:15 I went up to the lab and picked up the girls because Megan wanted to do 3D crafts and Animation Donald. I left Alice with James and they went to the room for a bit to watch a movie and Megan and I created 3D Mickey and Minnie's and then went off to learn to draw Donald. Here is my Donald. I had the #1 Duck himself sign it for me later that evening.
After Animation with Donald was over, I had to go on a mad search for my wave phone. I accidently left it at 3D crafts and had a brief panic moment when I couldn't find it. Fortunately it was right where I'd left it in the Promenade Lounge. With one wave phone found, Megan and I went up to the room to drop off our Donald drawings and meet James and Megan. We headed up to deck 9 to get some lunch as we started approaching Tracy Arm.
Is there a better way to start off the first sea day than with a nice run around deck 4 to a beautiful sunrise? I woke up very early (still on central time) and got dressed and went out for my run. What a gorgeous morning it was. I was still recovering a bit from my 9 mile run around Stanley park so I took it nice and easy this morning. I ran a nice 4-1/4 mile run or 12-13 laps (thank goodness for the cadence count on my Garmin 220 to help me keep track) on deck 4. The sunrise was stunning. I wasn't the only runner out, but it was very calm and peaceful.
After my run I went up to deck 9 and grabbed a banana from Goofy's Galley and a drink from the drink station. It was still very early and nothing was open yet. (Goofy's didn't open until 6:30 and Beach Blanket Didn't open until 7:15 - I think it was around 6:00 or 6:15 when I finished my run - I know I was out running most of my run before 6:00 am because some guy was out there smoking and I was going to say something when I saw the sign that said no smoking from 6am - 6pm and it was only 5:30).
I took the banana and my drinks (yes I had more than one) and went back to the room and snuck out onto the Veranda (the girls and my husband were still sleeping). My dad was out on his so we chatted for a bit before the girls got up and we all showered and got dressed for breakfast. Most mornings (including this one) we were upstairs waiting for BBB to open. I've said this since our first cruise, but I do wish that they would start breakfast earlier.
I honestly do not know where Megan and James went after breakfast. Alice and I went down to Wake Up with Disney Junior in Studio Sea. It started at 8:30am. We got there a bit early, but they had the lights up and music playing. Me thinks someone likes to be on the stage just a little bit.
Eventually a few other little kids joined her playing and dancing and then the CM got there and started the official dance party.
Time for a little Hokey Pokey
After Wake up with Disney Junior we headed over to meet Sophia. Our goal was to be first in line so Megan could make it to the Lab for Animation Antics. We were successful. We were first in line and got to see them set up the back drop for Jake and Sophia. Megan was a little confused by how big Sophia was. She said her parents must be huge.
I checked Megan into the Lab for Animation Antics (they practiced drawing Mickey Mouse) and took Alice over to the Club for Open House and they were just getting ready to start Nemo's Coral Reef Adventure. She and I had fun together "Just Keep Swimming, Just keep Swimming".
After Nemo's Coral Reef Adventure was complete Alice took her turn steering the ship for a little bit. Fortunately she kept us on course to Alaska and didn't sent us to Hawaii.
When Open House was over I checked Alice into the Club for a Magic Show and Megan stayed in the Lab for Flubber.
I went back to the room to finish unpacking.I went back to pick up the girls at 11:30 to go grab some lunch on Deck 9 with James. Megan originally wanted to do Animation Mickey Mouse and Mickey 200 but she had already drawn Mickey in the Animation Antics earlier and just wanted to go back to the room and watch a movie with daddy for a bit after lunch and then do Family Crafts together. Both girls got a little bit of a rest before we went down to Animator's Palate for Family Crafts. This time it was decorating Visors.
Earlier in the day the girls had received a personalized invitation to help explore the Beasts Castle in Story Time with Belle in the Club. So I checked the girls into the club. I checked them in a few minutes early because I wanted to go to the Humpbacks, Gray & Killer Whales discussion with the Naturalist in Wavebands. I learned a lot about the whales in the Alaska area. Mom and Dad joined me for the Whale Discussion.
Unfortunately I don't know what the invitation was all about because they ended up moving to the Lab before Story Time with Belle started for Stitch's Great Adventure. I went to check on them after the whale talk because Megan wanted to make sure she didn't miss Ratatouille's Cooking School but they were both in the lab already. Alice didn't want to stay for Ratatouille's Cooking School so I checked her out. Megan loved baking chocolate chip cookies. Apparently they have a special oven in the lab that instead of cooking cookies in 12 minutes cooks them in 3 minutes. Guess who is working the oven when to send the cookies? Goofy. The oven is powered by Tinker Belle. :)
While they were in the club, James and I went to do some shopping. I was hoping to get the stuffed Alaska Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald set, but they didn't have Mickey. So I asked about it and was told they didn't have any more, but I might be able to find one up by the pool in the morning. He took my room # and name to give me a call if he came across one. This is the morning of the first full day of the 3rd Alaska cruise and you are going to tell me you don't have any stuffed Alaska Mickey's? I was not amused.
Meanwhile I caught a great exchange between Daisy and Donald. Donald had been taking pictures and Daisy came down and kicked him out for her turn. Love the kiss.
When I checked Alice out of the club, Pluto was wandering the halls and stopped to play with Alice for a bit. Pluto got down on the floor with her and did a few tricks including rolling over. It was adorable.
Alice and I ran into James and Alice got in line to see Daisy.
Or should I say I got in line for Daisy while she and Daddy played by the window.
And then Alice had to use the Wave Phone to call Grandma.
Finally it was time for Daisy.
Alice and James went up to the room for a bit to rest and watch a movie and I went down to the shops. Meanwhile Megan was in the lab at the Dance Party.
We were all dressed except Megan who I picked up from the Dance Party just before 5:00pm to get ready for Formal Night.
We went down to the reception, got a couple formal pictures taken, had a free drink from the reception and saw Chip and Dale. We tried to get to see Mickey and Minnie but the line was too long to make it happen before dinner.
I love running into the characters that are just roaming the ship. In this case it was Tiana. She was very sweet with the girls. I love the random appearances with no lines. :)
Tonight's Dinner was in Triton's for the Golden Mickey's Dinner. Our table location in Triton's was even worse than in Parrot Cay. We were pushed up against a wall by the entrance. You could just barely squeeze into our table I felt very squished. Dinner service was a little faster tonight. I don't remember what we had to eat. It wasn't not very memorable.
I had to take Alice down to change clothes again during dinner. Loved our puppy towel tonight.
I was hoping to see Muppets Most Wanted on the ship, but the only times it was shown were during dinner or the Golden Mickey's tonight (and one morning when we were in Skagway I think) so I had to pass. After the girls ate their dinner I took them up to the club. Megan wanted to do the 4th Pigs Pasta Palace in the Lab and Alice wanted to do Little Einstein's Adventures in the Club. As for me, I wanted to sneak down to Diversions to watch a little of the NBA finals. The Heat were losing miserably so I didn't miss much when I had to leave to get to Golden Mickey's.
The 4th Pigs Pasta Palace was a lot of fun for Megan. They broke into teams and tried to build a house for the 4th pig out of Pasta and see if it would survive different things. I saw the last few minutes when I went to pick her up for the Golden Mickey's.
All 6 of us "watched" the Golden Mickey's tonight. I use the term "watched" loosely as the girls both fell asleep within the first 5 minutes of the show. Before Alice fell asleep, Cruise Director Jimmy was talking about going wild and crazy because you wouldn't see anyone else on board in 6 days when you got off. Alice looked at me and said "I won't see you in 6 days when we get off the ship?" I assured her that she was stuck with me.
One of the Lion King Dancers shot a handful of streamers all over Alice and I (she slept through it completely).
After the show we got the kids back up to the room and to bed and went out to watch the sunset. They had wanted to go to Pluto's Pajama Party but I assured them that it would happen again on the last night earlier in the evening.
It was so weird, we got to watch the sun rise and set on the Starboard side in the same day. (and rise again in the morning).
