Thursday 11th July 2013
Today we are at sea, travelling from Villefranche in France towards Palma de Mallorca, and the temperature is steadily rising out on the decks. We went on a short tour of the ship with a ship’s guide, which was interesting for many reasons. I gather there are probably a million Mickeys around the ship, of all sizes.
I like the way the position of the lifts is shown with Mickey’s finger pointing towards the deck number.
I also did my own tour and was highly entertained in the Atrium because there were Crawling Races for small babies. I saw many reluctant babies placed on the Start end of the big mat, and being told to crawl to a parent at the other end of the mat. Some hated it, some grinned and crawled happily, one fell face down immediately and was so shocked he seemed beyond crying. His father put him down again and again, and I wanted to pick the child up and put him in his mother’s arms, but didn’t. I guess some parents have more of a competitive streak than others. There were 3 races, with those 3 winners in the final race. The winner of that was given a Disney bib, one child sat and bawled his eyes out, and another refused to move.
I visited the shops, which were full of Disney products of course, and full of children who wanted Disney products. I managed to find a few simple items to please my little grandchildren, so I was out of the shops very quickly. The Cove Café was a welcome haven for coffee and a chat.
Dinner that evening for us was in the Animator’s Palate restaurant, which was another fascinating venue.
The idea is that we dine in each of the three restaurants in turn, and our wait staff comes along with us each time.
The pictures around the walls all changed during the courses, from black and white pencil drawings to coloured pictures of Disney characters, and all at different times. They were very eye-catching, and it was worth being alert to the surroundings to enjoy the spectacle.
All the pillar lights were like giant artists’ brushes, with the top light being the bristles. The ceiling appeared to be covered with large artists’ palates with blobs of colours in them which kept changing.
The waiters all wore coloured waistcoats. At one point before dessert all the waiters disappeared and when they came back their waistcoats had all become white with black Mickey Mouse figures over them.
That was fun, as they all seemed to be enjoying it too. As a finale, the lighting changed yet again and the magic waistcoats all changed from black and white to various colours.
We saw no identifiable ships today.
To be continued...
