Ahoy Captain Minnie! Happy New Year!

[Katie]

Thursday 1 January

On sea days, the fancy restaurant that you pay for, Palo, is open for Brunch. This is quite popular with Disney Cruise fans, as the Brunch is table service "all you care to eat". On our first Disney cruise, we had Palo Brunch with a group of other cruisers in the private dining room; a lottery organised by the admins of the Facebook group for the cruise. This time, it was just the three of us. We had a relatively late booking, something like 12 or 12:30. We didn't adjust to add the Grandma squad; at USD 70-85 per person it seemed just too much for what they'd eat and enjoy. In hindsight, just Mr Katie and I should have gone, though it was nice having a bit of a fancy time with the Teen.

Due to the brunch, we didn't eat breakfast. What could be better than a sleep-in on a sea day after staying up late to welcome in the new year?


I popped in to Cove Cafe for a coffee mid-morning though ... kissing baby Minnie!

Palo requires fancy dress, though some standards were relaxed for the AU/NZ season ... Birkenstock sandals were allowed - normally footwear needs to be more formal than that!

Palo is Venetian themed (Palo is the word for the gondola poles), and Italian food. It's the only part of the ship where you'll find no Disney theming at all. We did a tour one day and learned about the buyers/decorators for the first two ships finding some gorgeous Venetian masks in a store and buying them out of masks entirely.

Bunch menu


We were greeted with a complimentary/included Mimosa or Bubbles, non-alcoholic also available.

A surprise, warm, sweet scroll muffin to start with, which we kept for later as we didn't want to go from sweet to savoury to sweet. Don't know why??!!



Antipasti selection. The crab claw reminded me why I don't like a lot of shellfish - I'm bloody lazy and don't like fighting that much for my food.


Bread service, really don't need to waste the calories or carbs on filling bread at an "all you care to eat" meal!


The Mickey waffles, even the GF ones, at Palo are much larger than in the Cabanas brekky buffet!



Zucchini Frittata. I had to force myself to not finish it. But I was a good girl and ate most of it.


Lasagne. To die for. Yummalicious.


Lunch dessert? Oh fine, twist my arm



Limoncello Torte. It was OK. Just OK. :/


Palo wasn't for the Teen. We should have just had a date brunch. Oh well.
On reflection, our first experience at Palo was probably better, because we all ate family style (about 12 people). It was nice to be able to try so many items from the menu without wasting a lot of food. As two people, we couldn't order as much without being wasteful.

 

[Katie]

Thursday 1 Jan, cont.

Thursday night's show was the ~1hr version of Frozen. There's some really clever staging in this show - Olaf and Sven are puppets. Elsa's voice wasn't quite up to Idina for Let it Go - which I acknowledge is a very high bar! I enjoyed watching the show again.


I think the 7:30pm music trivia was 00s based on the blank spaces on our answer sheet. And the Teen had definitely abandoned us for her trivia posse by now. The night-time trivia crew member hailed from South Africa; I think every night he told us how much he hates THAT Toto song. He also had a funny Celine Dion impression!


Our dinner this evening was in Triton's, with the normal menu.

Duck Confit appetiser


Salmon Royale entree/main


Not quite the Fab Five - some basic entertainment, dancing around for 5 or 10 mins


Creme Brulee

Maybe I ordered second dessert because I'm a hobbitses.


Towel animal and choccies

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thursday 1 January

On sea days, the fancy restaurant that you pay for, Palo, is open for Brunch. This is quite popular with Disney Cruise fans, as the Brunch is table service "all you care to eat". On our first Disney cruise, we had Palo Brunch with a group of other cruisers in the private dining room; a lottery organised by the admins of the Facebook group for the cruise. This time, it was just the three of us. We had a relatively late booking, something like 12 or 12:30. We didn't adjust to add the Grandma squad; at USD 70-85 per person it seemed just too much for what they'd eat and enjoy. In hindsight, just Mr Katie and I should have gone, though it was nice having a bit of a fancy time with the Teen.

Due to the brunch, we didn't eat breakfast. What could be better than a sleep-in on a sea day after staying up late to welcome in the new year?
View attachment 504277

I popped in to Cove Cafe for a coffee mid-morning though ... kissing baby Minnie!

Palo requires fancy dress, though some standards were relaxed for the AU/NZ season ... Birkenstock sandals were allowed - normally footwear needs to be more formal than that!

Palo is Venetian themed (Palo is the word for the gondola poles), and Italian food. It's the only part of the ship where you'll find no Disney theming at all. We did a tour one day and learned about the buyers/decorators for the first two ships finding some gorgeous Venetian masks in a store and buying them out of masks entirely.

Bunch menu
View attachment 504278

We were greeted with a complimentary/included Mimosa or Bubbles, non-alcoholic also available.

A surprise, warm, sweet scroll muffin to start with, which we kept for later as we didn't want to go from sweet to savoury to sweet. Don't know why??!!

View attachment 504279

Antipasti selection. The crab claw reminded me why I don't like a lot of shellfish - I'm bloody lazy and don't like fighting that much for my food.
View attachment 504280

Bread service, really don't need to waste the calories or carbs on filling bread at an "all you care to eat" meal!
View attachment 504281

The Mickey waffles, even the GF ones, at Palo are much larger than in the Cabanas brekky buffet!
View attachment 504282
View attachment 504283

Zucchini Frittata. I had to force myself to not finish it. But I was a good girl and ate most of it.
View attachment 504284

Lasagne. To die for. Yummalicious.
View attachment 504285

Lunch dessert? Oh fine, twist my arm

View attachment 504286

Limoncello Torte. It was OK. Just OK. :/
View attachment 504287

Palo wasn't for the Teen. We should have just had a date brunch. Oh well.
On reflection, our first experience at Palo was probably better, because we all ate family style (about 12 people). It was nice to be able to try so many items from the menu without wasting a lot of food. As two people, we couldn't order as much without being wasteful.

That meal… three small courses was USD70 per person?? Or did i read that wrong?

 

[Katie]

That meal… three small courses was USD70 per person?? Or did i read that wrong?

No, it was that much, but it's labelled as "all you care to eat" - you can order one of everything for that price. There was bread, the sweet roll, we shared the seafood antipasti plate, then I had the frittata, lasagne and cake.

I found it a much better option as a group, as you could try more things by going family style, than just the two of us.

 

[Katie]

Friday 2 Jan - port day, Eden NSW

We decided to have a sit down breakfast at Triton's.
Some fruit, some yoghurt, and some French Toast.







The Teen wanted to stay onboard to compete in Trivia, so we went for a wander with the Grandma Squad. There's a free bus from the port into town, and our first stop was at the Killer Whale museum. There was a minor kerfuffle as we waited to get our tickets; there was a tourist/non first language English speaker in front of us trying to enter without a ticket (or maybe they thought it was free or their guide had bought tickets or something). Once that was sorted, we were inside and reading and exploring.

Handy cup for the mustachioed people


View from the former lighthouse at the museum

Around the back, towards the port and our ship


The museum was quite interesting, I had no idea about the whales helping humans hunt other species of whale.
There was also some other history of the area, including the John West canning factory that was in Eden for years.

Trivia from this trip - Eden, Hobart and Sydney have the deepest harbours in Australia.

We wandered into town, hit the chemist for the Grandmas to get various cold and flu remedies, and wandered through the shops with a heap of other visitors.

The antique store had some FF related objects:





1981 TAA Interline Managers Conference mug anyone??


We grabbed a coffee and then headed back to the ship on the free bus. The Teen met us in town; I think she bought some lollies.

 

[Katie]

Friday 2 Jan, cont

I spent the afternoon lazing and reading; it was a bit windy on deck and finding shelter was a little tricky.


Buffet lunch choices

Reading and a mimosa with a view


Mr Katie's Stitch coffee

A swan on our bed and pack up time


Disney's process for disembarking is to give all passengers luggage tags with a particular Disney character; you put the tag on the luggage and leave it outside your room by 10pm or so. Then all the crew work hard to move the luggage and get it ready for the next morning. You can choose to self-disembark and take your luggage off with you when the Sydney port says the ship is clear for disembarking.

The later dining time, which we had, gets a later assigned breakfast time on disembarkation day. Passengers are allocated a breakfast time in the restaurant where they had dinner the evening before. Disney doesn't tell you, but apparently the Cabanas buffet is also open.

Back to Friday evening.
We were in Animator's Palate and had the typical Animator's entertainment for the night. When you arrive, you're given textas and a blank placemat for you to create a character, which will later be animated and presented on the screens to music.



My creation ...
This is really fun and it's great seeing what other passengers are able to create.

Dinner menu

Salmon tartare

Herb crusted pork chop

Lemon Icebox pie


I had wanted to have two desserts, but that message got a little lost along the way. If I'd insisted, our servers would have sorted it out, but it's probably better for my waistline that I didn't!

Heading to Sydney


Toasting the cruise on our deck

 

[Katie]

Saturday 3 Jan Disembarkation day

I woke briefly as we came through Sydney harbour, but as we were on the Luna Park side of the ship, it wasn't as spectacular as coming past Circular Quay in the pre-dawn 2 years earlier.

Lots of loading and unloading at the terminal


Breakfast at Animator's Palate
Bircher muesli


Eggs and some veggies


I actually found a long dark hair under the eggs and after that didn't touch them. I didn't make a fuss, just pointed out the hair to our server as she collected the plate. I think she got another plate made, but at that point, I didn't want any more.
We left to get ready to get off the ship, and our server and the dining section manager chased me down to offer their sincere apologies, etc, and that they'd investigate what happened.
I'm sure it was a simple accident as overall food hygiene seemed to be good (hair nets/covers, gloves, etc).

We got off, collected our luggage and joined the taxi queue. The Grandmas and Mr Katie went to the airport, even though we had a ~2pm flight home. The Teen and I went to the city to go to a comic store she'd learned about from our table mates, and then of course another look through Kinokuniya in case they got any new books while we were on the ship.

Marvel and Disney Fantastic 4 Mashup spotted at the comic store


Snack in the QF JLounge



Sandwich snack on the flight home in Y


Sandwich close up


On Sunday, someone posted in the cruise's FB group that their son had found "a plush" on board and they wanted to return it to its rightful owner. They didn't post a photo, saying that the owner would know what it was.
Well, they'd found Mr Katie's lost Tinkerbell Shoulder plush! They hadn't looked at FB on board and didn't know we'd been looking for it since Pirate night. We were so relieved that Tink didn't walk the plank!

The young son had lost a beloved plush while travelling and it was never found, so he was insistent on helping Tink find her way home. I need to remember to send some pixie dust to them in thanks!

Tink at home:


And that's the end of our trip!

We have bought a placeholder, although Disney seems unlikely to return to cruising in Aus/NZ. The Adventure is now sailing out Singapore, but only for 3 or 4 days and only out to sea. I'm interested in possible an Alaskan cruise, but would like to try a different ship. The placeholder is valid for use until Jan 2028, so we'll see what happens with the Teen next year; maybe we'll do a cruise after she finishes her top secret time in the US.

 

[VPS]

Thanks for the TR - not sure the cruise would be my cup of tea but fascinating none the less

 

[Flyfrequently]

@Katie , sounds like it was a great family bonding experience- thanks for sharing ️