End of Summer. Day 2. Welcome Aboard Kaplan Family!
Time to check-in!
We had already completed nearly the entire check-in process online, but Shir being in her second au-pair year and technically having an expired visa made the process take longer than usual. We started at one counter, were sent to another counter, waited some more, and watched as several supervisors were consulted. Ultimately, everything was fine.
By around 12:45, we were boarding the Disney Destiny for our four night sailing to the Bahamas!
As we boarded, the crew announced, “Welcome, Kaplan family!” They do this for every family, but it is always very exciting.
Then we began exploring the ship and eventually had lunch at Marceline Market, the buffet. On this class of Disney ships, all of the food is kept behind glass and served to you by crew members. It feels much cleaner than having everyone reach for the same serving utensils, which is nice.
After lunch we continued exploring. The artwork throughout the ship is fantastic. The Destiny’s theme is heroes and villains, and it definitely feels more adult than Disney’s other ships. The front of the ship is themed to villains, while the back is themed to heroes. The theme carries through everything—the staircases, the carpets, and all the artwork. It is extremely well done. The staterooms also have different themes. When our rooms were ready at around 1:30, we discovered that one was themed to Mulan and the other to Hercules. Obviously, I took the Hercules room.
We stopped by the kids club, which I’m sure our children will never actually use. It is very cool, though. There is an entire Marvel section, an entire Star Wars section, and a princess section. We had our muster drill at 3:30 and then headed upstairs for the Sail Away party. We missed the party on our last Disney cruise, so I really wanted to see it this time. It’s a great show with the core Disney characters and a countdown to the official start of the vacation. At one point Spider-Man came down from the top of the smokestack by his web. By the end, it was extremely hot and we were all sweating, but I’m glad we saw it.
[Tzvi: I’m glad Steph got to see it. I did not see much of anything. First off, while Steph was securing his spot right at the front of the railing so she could see, I was taking the kids for ice cream. We took the ice cream to where Steph had set up, but steps before we reached her Madeleine dropped her ice cream, so I took her back for another one. Then the party started, but Madeleine was very unhappy at how sticky she was, so I had to take her to find somewhere to get napkins and wash her hands. I did see Spiderman come down. That was cool. But that was about all I saw.]
Afterward, we returned to our rooms. All of our luggage had made it, so we unpacked and changed for dinner.
Our first dinner was at 1923. I’m not entirely sure how to describe the restaurant’s theme. I suppose the theme is…1923 (the year Disney founded Disney). I guess it’s more of a classy, formal dining room. In any event, the restaurant itself was fairly understated. The food was decent, although not amazing. I ordered an Indian dish. Madeleine ordered plain pasta as usual, but was very adventurous and tried seared tuna and tortellini stuffed with artichoke and cheese. She loved the tortellini and ate most of Tzvi’s meal. Hallie had her first of many Caesar salads and salmon.
We also met our dining team. Anthony was our server, Jonathan was our assistant server, and Raphael was our head server. They seemed very overwhelmed that first night by all of our allergies and requests. Our food took a very long time to arrive, and it ended up being an extremely lengthy dinner.
After dinner, we went to the Grand Hall, where a bunch of the ship’s officers were meeting guests. I spoke to the food and beverage officer and told him that dinner had taken a very long time. He explained that the first night of every sailing is chaotic but assured me that things should improve.
The night’s show was Disney Seas the Adventure, a cute welcome-aboard with songs from different Disney movies. Tzvi had a work call so he skipped it, but the girls and I enjoyed it.
When we returned to our rooms, we saw that our stateroom host had surprised the girls with Frozen sheets on their beds! Such a cute surprise. We got the girls settled into bed, or, more accurately, put them in their beds, said goodbye, and headed out to explore one of the bars.
The Disney Destiny has become known for its immersive lounges, and that night we chose De Vil’s, the ship’s Cruella de Vil-themed bar. The space is filled with plush couches and red velvet, and Cruella herself occasionally makes appearances. We ordered a drink called Perfectly Wretched that came with a side of lipstick, face powder and perfume, all of which were edible. I believe the lipstick was an ice pop, but I’m not sure. Whatever everything was, it was super cute and delicious.
At some point, they also brought out “dog biscuits” for everyone. They were actually sugar cookies shaped like dog biscuits—and I think they may have been some of the greatest cookies I have ever tasted. They were so good that when we left, we asked for additional biscuits in a doggy bag to go.
We walked around the ship for a little while, stopped for a midnight slice of pizza, and then went to our room.
When we got back, we discovered that someone had left pixie-dust gifts in our fish extender. For anyone unfamiliar with Disney cruises, a fish extender is a hanging organizer that guests place outside their stateroom doors. Other passengers leave little surprise gifts inside, a tradition known as “pixie dusting.” There is generally no expectation that you give anything in return, although some people get very into it and organize formal gift exchanges.
We received so many cute things throughout the cruise. I was really impressed by how much effort people put into these little gifts. I brought some stickers for the girls to give out, but that paled in comparison. Next time we will level up.
Overall, it was a very good first day on the Disney Destiny.