There are two theatres on board the ship. The smaller of the two is similar to a smaller multi-plex type screen, the larger is like a full-sized, old-fashioned, glorious movie house named after the man himself, the Walt Disney Theatre. Here is a picture of the deco design on one of the “boxes” at the Disney theatre:

It can host either movies (we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest!), presentations (more on that in a sec) and stage shows (a la Disney…we didn’t go to any, since we’re not Disney buffs, but a whole host of passengers obviously love them).

Here is a shot of the ceiling with flash (you couldn’t really see the blue because of the way the room was lit, so it was a surprise to see it in the photo) which gives a sense of the large scale of the theatre:

and without flash

and a detail of that magnificent light fixture:

While there, Oren Aviv, formerly head of marketing and the new president of Disney Pictures (and on the cruise with his wife and young daughter), gave two talks that we attended. One was about the making of the Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 movies, with the first ever anywhere sneak peeks at Pirates 3! Plus, we got to see the Flying Dutchman, the evil ship in Pirates 2, at Disney’s Island Castaway Cay (pics on that later on..probably in about 10 days after my workshop…). The second talk was about upcoming movies over the next 2 years or so, and was fascinating because we got to see how the animators do their thing, and some rough “early” graphics of what a movie might begin to look like…fascinating to see how it’s done.

Oh…by the way: population of the Magic while on a cruise: about 2000 passengers and 900+ staff! That includes kitchen, waiters, hosts, housekeeping, maintenance (and they were always working on the ship…at every port painting the exterior of the hull or washing the windows, in the later evenings, sprucing up the deck areas, you name it–meticulously maintained), guest services, entertainers, store staff, spa staff…..

Even the public restrooms were class…reminded me of an upscale, old-fashioned department store…all marble and deco style mirrors and lights:

At the forward end, near the spa and fitness area (an adults’ only part of the ship), I took a picture of the stair railings–aren’t they wonderful in their line and rhythm?

And here’s another stair well….

The spa treatments were extra, but the fitness area (use included in your cruise price) looked out from the 10th level over the bow of the ship as you sailed over the most incredibly ultramarine blue sea I’ve ever seen…many treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bikes and weight machines. I vowed before I left to try not to gain wait, so decided if I wanted dessert, I had to work out or exercise every time I wanted to splurge. I’m thrilled to report I actually succeeded! And loved sitting on the bike after a weight workout and watching the sea…..

Can you tell I loved the design of the ship???

One of the cool things about a Disney cruise is that you are assigned a dinner seating–ours was table 62 at the 5:30 seating (there was early, at either 5:30, 5:45 or 6—we had hoped for 6 but obviously didn’t get it, or late seating at 8, 8:15 or 8:30…too late for us). Dinners are served in one of three dining rooms, and you rotate from one to the next to the next, then begin the rounds again. You are assigned a head waiter and assistant waiter/server and they go with you from dining room to dining room, so you get to know them.

Our servers were Ancell, from Jamaica (far left, carrying the Brazilian flag):

and Matthew, from Sweden (the smiling one in the center, Ancell on the far right):

Ancell sailed with the Disney Magic on her maiden voyage 8 years ago, and is one of the most senior servers there. Matthew just began with Disney 3 weeks before our trip, and was on his first “solo” serving, and was wonderful! He’s a friendly, thoughtful young man with a great future ahead of him. Matthew…if you manage to surf in and read this, Hi! We hope you’re settling in and having fun (and not dying of the heat…it *will* get better!)

On our first night, they addressed us ALL (even the kids) by name (very clearly they are well briefed and prepped, learn who is whom at the tables, remember what you like to drink with dinner, the whole nine yards—fantastic service!). We just loved having them be a part of our trip. On the last night, they played “It’s small world” which actually didn’t even sound insipid (for once), the staff (which for the entire crew comes from sixty different nations…from US to Botswana and everywhere in between) did a national parade…Ancell caried the flag of Brazil.

Food was fantastic, generous, and everything was included in the trip price except for alcoholic beverages. I ate shrimp, more shrimp, salmon, scallops, more fish, lobster tails, more shrimp (sensing a theme here? Paul is allergic, and I love shrimp, so I ATE! though I did make one exception to the seafood: filet mignon with bernaise sauce! YUMMM), Joshua ate salmon at every chance. There were two appetizers, break, a main dish, and dessert for every meal. And if you (???!!!) got hungry during the day, up on deck 9 was a free beverage station (sodas and coffee and tea) plus all-day pizza, sandwiches and burgers, fruit and ice cream…all no extra charge. Disney definitely did not skimp on its food budget!

Our first dinner was in Parrot Cay, which is decorated Caribbean style (look behind Eli and friend…):

even down to the carpet, which I loved!

Our second dinner was in Animator’ Palate, which starts out as a black and white world, with 50’s diner-style chairs, black or white tablecloths, and walls that appear black and white with sketches from an animator’s sketch pad.

As dinner progresses, the colors are added so you go from this:

to this:

By the end, you have full color on all the walls, the characters change from line drawings to what you see in the movies, and even the “paintbrush” pillars that support the paint pallettes on the ceiling are lit with colored lights on the “brush” area of the pillar!

The third restaurant was the classy “Lumiere”, next to the Lobby Atrium on level three. It used highly stylized designs, with a papyrus or torchiere design in the windows

and on the backs of the chairs–although it appears I only sketched the chair, but didn’t take a photo..phooey!

(Stay tuned…that chair back inspired a new teaching-quilt and will be one of my journal quilts for this year! The inspiration was just EVERYwhere on this ship!).

Next: The Walt Disney Theatre and the public bathrooms (yep…I’m crazy…)

Even though it looks (almost) like high summer here in Maine, today I saw the first signs of change…confirming that dry rustling sound I’ve heard in the treetops: the very first leaves are beginning to turn! It won’t be peak “leaf season” here until about October 10, but the lows temps have dropped , and there is just a feel to the air…yipppeee! My favorite season is almost here…
and now, scroll down to “what we did for summer….”

After Paul’s sudden and surprising heart attack and open heart surgery in February 2005, he said (during his recovery) “gee, we never do anything fun with the boys” (this came as a surprise?). So he decided to use some of the small inheritance he received from his dad (who died in 2001) to take us all on a Disney Cruise of the Eastern Caribbean. I am thrilled to say that it was FANTABULOUS! I can heartily recommend it to anyone with kids of any age (from infant to teen or older). Disney really did it right, taking inspiration from the heyday of international cruising, the 1930s, for the design and service ethic on the ship.

We sailed on the Disney Magic (if you click on this link, click on the “tour the ship” for more pics, which is designed with an Art Deco theme. I took so many pictures of the decor…a tasteful and classy blending of Disney with art deco. I kept thinking how much FUN it must have been to design this ship! If you look carefully at the golden design on the hull in the photo above, you’ll see Disney characters dancing in the waves; the colors of the ship itself are Mickey: Black, white and red!

The good design began with the Disney building where you embark at Port Canaveral, Florida…a map of the Caribbean with water life in it on the floor, and among other things, a scale model of the ship, with one side “cutaway” (that’s the boys on the left):

You then enter on the third deck (of 11!) into the grand foyer, which is three stories tall, with a chandelier that looks like a Dale Chihuly:

The grillwork on the elevators (to the left of the chandelier) looks very “Deco,” but if you look closely you’ll see the Mickey mouse round head and ears in the design:

Here’s another shot of the elevator going past…the boys loved these glass-backed elevators!

Another elevator on the Forward end of the ship had these glorious wood inlay panels:

In other posts, I’ll share the decor in the dining rooms and the Walt Disney theatre (full-size movie theatre size, and also can have stage presentations!), the wonderful “bed critters” in our stateroom each evening, our stateroom and bathroom (yes….there were design lessons to be learned even in the bathrooms!!!!), our outings (think Dolphins, Stingrays and more!), how they keep the kids busy and entertained (so mom and pop can have some down time!) and more. Since I’m leaving in a couple days for a week-long workshop, I won’t have time to do all this before I leave, so will continue when I get home….

And just because, here’s a photo from our first dinner, which was our “character” dinner where performers decked out as Disney Characters from Mickey to Goofy to Chip and Dale to Lilo and Stitch visit the guests…we skillfully avoided them most of the time, but did get this photo (you notice that by being the photographer, I managed to escape being in the photo…teehee!):

that is quilty , it seems, is take a class with Esterita Austin at Maine Quilts at the end of July (how can it be mid to late August so fast???). I used my own photo instead of Teri’s still life, and did a slightly different thing with the fabric, but am pleased with how this is working so far. Obviously it has a long way to go…..

and I managed to pick some fabrics for a journal quilt, and that’s about it. I MISS making art! I MISS sewing! After two weeks of vacation (eeek! at least I have yarn, pencils and paper….), then a few days home, then a dyeing workshop, then a week until (yahoo) school begins and life resumes some normalcy…..

That’s it for now!