My First Disney Cruise and Eating Vegan Onboard: Day 4

Today we were having a Palo brunch at 12, so we pre-booked some very light room service breakfast for when we woke up. I just had Special K with almond milk. I wish I'd found out what supplier the milk is, as it tasted good.

Room service breakfast has some vegan options

After watching the world go by on the verandah, it was time to head to Palo. It was nice and quiet when we went in, and what a stunning setting with such a relaxing Italian vibe. The server knew right away that I was vegan so I didn't even need to tell him. He brought out a selection of breads, including crispy sesame bread which was divine, especially with the balsamic dip.

The sesame bread was crunchy and delicious

The server said our champagne was on the way, to which we politely said "no thank you" — we were still a little delicate from last night's whiskey tasting. Neither of us are big drinkers so we forfeited our champagne for some freshly squeezed orange juice.

They were able to make me some vegan pancakes with syrup and they tasted great. Although, I'm pretty sure they were meant to be berry pancakes and I couldn't taste that. But still yummy regardless! 

Palo made me some vegan pancakes

I ordered a pizza, and this time it really was a legit pizza — nothing like the Pinnochio's Pizza disaster I had a few days ago! The vegan cheese was nice and melty and it was just perfect. While chatting I happened to mention Pinnochio's faux pas to the server, and he was shocked. He said all they needed to do was get the ingredients from another kitchen. 

Finally, a proper vegan pizza!

For dessert, I had a selection of raspberry and lemon sorbets. They were even better than I expected, and I ended up preferring the lemon. The meal was a tranquil experience and I'd definitely do it again. My only regret was not having 2 stomachs...

The sorbets were better than I expected and full of flavour

Later that day we did a theme park trivia quiz. The questions were HARD, much more so than expected. We did OK but sadly not good enough to win. Maybe next time?

We soaked up a bit of sun on the verandah, before getting ready for dinner at Rapunzel's Royal Table. This was my favourite main dining meal by far. I'd preordered a pasta dish which I loved, and had some arugula (or rocket, as we call it) salad for my starter.

I had a light arugula salad to start

The pasta dish at Rapunzel's was one of the tastiest

I was surprised with a scrumptious vegan chocolate donut with raspberry ice cream for dessert l. Wow! If only I'd preordered 2 desserts, but I will absolutely ask for this on our next cruise.

I'll be asking for the vegan doughnut next time!

The mini-show was really charming and enriched the dining experience with the atmosphere. I genuinely felt like I'd been transported to Disney World again.

Meanwhile, another towel animal had magically appeared in the stateroom. This time there was a consensus that it was a bear! 

We were confident this towel animal was a bear!

Continuing the Tangled theme, we later went to watch the stage musical in the Walt Disney Theatre. The quality was absolutely up there with broadway musicals and I enjoyed every minute.

The Tangled musical was Broadway quality

We had done late dining on the 1st cruise and early dining on the 2nd to see what we preferred. Surprisingly we both preferred the later dining, despite my initial concerns of being 'hangry' by dinner. This is purely because there were more kids at the later theatre show (following early dining), and some of them were a little tired and restless... So for us as a couple, the earlier show was a bit quieter. But for a family with young children, I can understand the appeal of the earlier dinner and late show so it works both ways.

It was time to head back to our stateroom to pack ready for our early debarkation the following morning.

Debarkation day coming soon!

My First Disney Cruise and Eating Vegan Onboard: Day 3

Today was our changeover day between our back-to-back cruises. We went down to Rapunzel's Royal Table for a leisurely breakfast around 8:30. Still feeling full and not wanting any fuss this morning, I went low-key and just asked for Rice Crispies! I had it with almond milk — sometimes it's just nice to have something simple. 

Simple vegan-friendly cereals are available

We had to go to D Lounge at 10am for our Covid tests. It was very well organised — we weren't queuing that long and I was chatting to the guy at the door about my pin collecting. I don't like to trade them, I just buy them all to keep to myself. He said he was the same!

Prenetics staff scanned our vaccination QR codes for our 2nd reservation, and we were given the LFT tests to administer ourselves. There were refreshments provided, and while getting a tea I spotted a lovely lady called Dawn from the Disney Cruise UK Facebook group I'd been following. It was great to meet her and her daughter, and I could personally thank Dawn for all the work she's put into the page. I'd picked up lots of useful tips for a first-time cruiser, and it's a super-friendly group. 

Now, this was the truly magical part of the cruise, as most guests had disembarked and we were free to wonder around. It makes doing B2B cruises worth it, not to mention the extra "cruise credit" towards Castaway Club status! We saw the cast of the shows chilling on the deck, and a cast member jogging around the ship. It was so peaceful. 

We virtually had the ship to ourselves between cruises

Cove Cafe was open to "B2Bers", so we went in for a coffee. We spoke to an officer lady - I wanted to know what she did but felt rude to ask! I ordered a lovely chai latte made with almond milk. 

Cove Cafe offers vegan milk alternatives

Our stateroom was ready after being cleaned (we stayed in the same one), so we headed back for a while. The balcony walls were all open, so you could see all the way down to the end of the section which was quite interesting to see. Waiting in the room for us was our Castaway Club bag, and our silver Castaway Club lanyards — we'd made it to silver level!

You get some free gifts on your 2nd cruise

The sun just about made an appearance, so we went to sit by the pool for a bit. Our intention was to get a few waters from Signals, and the CM offered a deal where you get cans of water with a cool-bag included. I thought it was a really good deal and we'll definitely use it again.

The cool-bag with water was available at the adults-only Signals bar

I had preordered a vegan burger from Cabanas, so we headed there for lunch. This was one of my favourite meals. There wasn't any vegan cheese (fair enough this time as I hadn't asked for any when I preordered), but the burger tasted amazing. The fries were really good too.

The vegan burger at Cabanas was one of my favourites

After more chilling and enjoying the violinist at the Promenade, it was dinner time at Animator's again. This time I had a tortilla wrap with spicy black beans. It was good and I wished I could have fit in another one! Dessert was a chocolate cake with strawberry and it was moist and delicious.

My tortilla wrap came with black beans and vegetables

Anything chocolate and vegan is a winner!

The Mickey Mouse Trivia quiz was next up, and we primed ourselves with some non-alcoholic cocktails as we arrived early. We failed miserably. I thought I knew enough to stand a chance, but hey-ho it's a Disney ship so we were bound to have competition!

We prepared for the quiz with fruit-punch cocktails

Oh my; now it was time for whiskey tasting. What did I let myself in for? The lady next to me said she wasn't usually a whiskey drinker so I didn't feel too out of my league! Benita, our host for the tasting, was amazing. I could have listened to her stories all day. Then it came to the tasting and most of them blew my head off. I'm not a huge drinker, so although I enjoyed exploring the flavours I just couldn't finish them. The shots were rather generous. My husband helped out, but even between us, it was a lot. Some of them usually go for $50 a shot so we did our best!

It was interesting hearing about the whiskey-making techniques

We walked, *ahem*, stumbled, out of Cove Cafe and went to Keys to listen to the piano player. When we said we wanted non-alcoholic cocktails, the server jokingly asked if something was wrong. We explained we'd just done a whiskey tasting session and it was a LOT for us. I had a nice virgin mojito to wind down the evening. The atmosphere here is beautiful, as the bar pays homage to a classic and elegant Walt Disney meets art-deco design, with wonderful live piano music in the background.

Keys bar was absolutely stunning with impressive live piano music

Non-alcoholic cocktails are available on request

Then back to the room to drink a lot of water to wash the whiskey down. We thought this evening's towel animal was a Turkey, but as usual, that was up for debate!

Day 4 coming soon!