This day at sea onboard our Transatlantic cruise on the beautiful Disney Dream started like so many others do with me waking up far too early just after 5:00am. I laid in bed for about an hour trying to fall back asleep before finally getting up and walking out onto the verandah where it was very rainy, grey and overcast outside but thankfully despite this, there was no movement on the ship at all. I walked upstairs to get us both a cup of tea and it must have rained heavily overnight as all of Deck 11 was flooded and the crew were working as quickly as they could to clear all of the water.

We decided to change things up on this morning by having our first sit down breakfast of the cruise in Royal Palace just after 8:00am. The amazing Prian and Alvin looked after us and we even had a table by the window for the first time ever in thirteen cruises even though you could not see anything outside as the weather was bad. For my breakfast I ordered the Strawberry, Honey and Granola Yogurt Parfait followed by the Plant Based Omelette filled with vegetables with Plant Based Sausage Patties and Hashbrowns on the side. Whilst the plant based options do take a little longer to prepare they are definitely worth the wait as it was one of the best and most tastiest breakfasts I have ever had onboard!

Once we had finished breakfast we decided to meet some characters to begin our day onboard so walked to Preludes where Princesses Minnie and Daisy were out at 9:15am. The line was quite long (as everyone was staying inside the ship at this time due to the rain outside) and stretched all the way back past the forward elevators and some people were getting quite agitated as a result – one man even shouted “Lord Have Mercy!” loudly when he walked around the corner and saw the line.

After meeting the beautiful Minnie and Daisy I walked to the Lobby Atrium to join the line to meet Max and Goofy who were out on the Deck 4 balcony at 10:15am. It was a long and slow moving line again but they were out four times in the same location on this day and the line was shorter and much quicker each time. When I asked them for a photo I loved that Goofy took so much pride in making sure that Max’s hair looked absolutely picture perfect!

Whilst I was waiting in this line it was so interesting to listen to the people near me who were making their feelings known quite loudly about the bad weather outside and some families were even starting to get very snappy and extremely short with each other and this was not just a one off thing as we saw it a few times whilst onboard this cruise. Someone was crying and shouting to someone else that they did not want to spend another day at sea (and this was only the second of our five sea days in a row!) and another family right behind me in line was screaming and berating their children for daring to want to meet another Disney character.

I honestly think that some families with children were completely unprepared for sailing on such a long cruise as maybe they had only done the very short cruises out of the UK before but just because there’s a two week Disney cruise out of Southampton over the October school holidays does not mean that it is the right trip to book. If you have never done a longer cruise before, you have to be prepared for all weathers, possible rough seas and also spending probably a lot more time than you might usually do with the people you are travelling with in a confined space and we were definitely seeing the full effects of that on this morning. You also have to know that there are a lot of sea days on a Transatlantic crossing and if we had missed Ponta Delgada for example due to weather then we would have spent eight whole days in a row at sea which is something you always have to consider as a possibility when booking a long cruise like this one.

After meeting the characters we walked to the Walt Disney Theatre ready for the Don “Ducky” Williams Presentation which was due to start at 11:00am. Don “Ducky” Williams is a famous Disney illustrator and character artist who has worked for the Walt Disney Company for over thirty years and his art is featured across all of the Disney Parks and Resorts as well as onboard Disney Cruise Line.

We got there about twenty minutes early to make sure we got some seats towards the front of the theatre and Ducky was already on stage drawing various characters whilst everyone arrived.

Ducky began by telling us all about his life and where his career started (as a Bank Manager in Massachusetts) including when he wrote to Walt Disney when he was ten years old to ask for a job and received a reply from the man himself saying that they did not have any jobs at that time but to make sure to keep practicing his drawing. However my favourite story that he told was after he sent hundreds of drawings every week to Disney for over two years, he finally got a job in the art department but it was only for thirty days on a trial period. After those thirty days was up, no one said anything to him and he never asked about it so he just kept showing up and has worked there ever since and the rest is history!

Despite an annoying and possibly slightly drunk woman sat behind me trying to have a conversation out loud with herself and Ducky Williams, he was so interesting to listen to and I would have loved to have heard even more of his stories from his time at Disney. At the end of the presentation they held a raffle (everyone was given a ticket when they entered the theatre) to give away all of the drawings that Ducky had drawn whilst we were there.

We left the theatre just after Midday when Captain Zvonimir was making his daily announcement and he told us that we had sailed 909 nautical miles since leaving Ponta Delgada two days previously and we still had 1708 nautical miles to go before reaching Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point in the Bahamas later that week.

We decided to go up to Cabanas for a little bit of lunch (the Mango Panna Cotta was to die for) and we could also sit outside to eat as the rain had finally stopped. There were blue skies all around us and the sun was shining once again and even Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett started playing and just like that, it was just another normal day onboard.

After lunch I stopped by Cove Cafe to get myself a coffee which might give a possible clue to the next cruise that we have booked and as it had turned into such a warm and sunny day after the grey skies and rain earlier that morning, we decided to sit outside on Deck 4 once again for the afternoon.

However just before 1:30pm I left my boyfriend sitting outside on Deck 4 when I walked back inside to the Lobby Atrium as I wanted to watch “Hide and Seek With the Officers” which was about to start which is an activity which is only offered on longer itineraries such as the Panama Canal, Hawaii and Transatlantic sailings amongst others.

All of the officers that were taking part appeared on the staircase in their normal uniforms and introduced themselves to everyone before they went off and changed into a uniform from another department onboard or any other clothes to hide in plain sight around the ship – and they are only allowed to hide in public areas which are accessible to all ages. They each had cards to give out which award points (the Captain is worth the most points) and the team with the most points at the end wins.

Teams are signed up during the fifteen minutes that the officers are off changing and hiding and you cannot leave the Lobby Atrium to start looking for them until the okay has been given to move around the ship.

Once everyone ran off to look for the officers, I walked back out to my sun lounger on Deck 4 to sit in the sun for the next twenty minutes and immediately saw Captain Zvonimir just to the side of me wearing overalls and painting the railings.

Once back in the Lobby Atrium there was so much laughing from everyone as the officers all revealed their temporary looks and where on the ship they had been hiding. As previously mentioned Captain Zvonimir was painting outside on Deck 4, Anthony our Cruise Director was at Guest Services, Santi our Chief Engineer and Sophie-Anne our Assistant Cruise Director were “passengers” outside on Deck 4, our Hotel Director Joshua was serving pizza at Luigi’s Pizza and John the Human Resources Director was outside on Deck 12. The remaining officers were working at one of the shops, lifeguarding at the Mickey pool, serving drinks at Currents, bartending in the District, helping out at Goofy’s Sports Deck, working at the Port Adventures desk as well as another who was also at Guest Services standing right next to Anthony and not a single person had noticed them.

Today had proved that you never know how a rainy day will turn out as it was so beautiful outside. I sat on Deck 4 for a little longer but it was really noisy (and the other quiet side of Deck 4 was very wet and slippery due to a lot of sea spray) so I went back up to our stateroom and just sat on the verandah and enjoyed the peace and quiet from there.

The one thing that I had not done yet on this cruise was play the Muppet version of the Midship Detective Agency called “The Case of the Stolen Show” which I think is one of the best and funniest things to do onboard the Disney Dream as well as the Disney Fantasy. It’s a great way to explore the ship and you will always get different clues each time that you play and each game will have a different culprit and outcome.

After walking from deck to deck and searching for clues and ruling out suspects using the Enchanted Artwork around the ship, I discovered that Camilla the Chicken had committed the crime this time as she was jealous as she thought the Aquaduck was a real duck that Gonzo was having an affair with – I could not love this game any more if I tried!

We knew that it was definitely starting to get warmer as we sailed across the Atlantic towards the Bahamas when both of our cameras immediately steamed up as soon as we walked outside to take a photo of the beautiful sunset at sea that evening.

We began our evening onboard the Disney Dream by doing something which we had never done before in thirteen cruises which was to head to Evolution and try our hand at trivia for the first time ever. We arrived in time to do Disney Parks Trivia: Level 2 at 7:15pm where we scored 10/20 as whilst we knew all the answers to the questions about Shanghai Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, our knowledge of the US parks was (and still is) severely lacking.

We stayed for Broadway Music Trivia which began at 7:45pm where we did slightly better scoring 14/20 but I could not stop laughing at a lot of the people around us all cheating and sneakily Googling each of the answers. Ordering an Aperol Spritz and doing trivia was such good fun and we knew that it would not be our one and only time taking part as we already had plans to attend a few more during this cruise.

We had been looking forward to the dinner on this night since we boarded so we made our way to Enchanted Garden at 8:15pm ready to try everything that the European menu had to offer as there was so many items that we both wanted to get. The only way we could accomplish this was to order every dish that we wanted to try and split them between us and to make sure that we had room for all of the food that we were about to eat, we had made sure that we did not snack at all that afternoon.

We started our meal by ordering the Gambas Al Ajillo, the Spanakopita as well as the Fattoush salad which were all incredible.

For our main courses we had the Ratatouille Feuillete, the Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto and the Agginares Salad (albeit with the beef on the side as I do not eat meat) as it also had halloumi on it (neither of us can ever resist halloumi) and we finished our meal with the perfect Strawberry Creme Puff.

After dinner whilst we were trying to solve one of Jaqueline’s table puzzles, the fire signal was sounded throughout the ship as there was smoke coming from one of the dishwashers onboard. There was no panic as several crew quickly made their way to where they needed to be and our Cruise Director Anthony made an announcement only a few minutes later to let everyone know that everything was under control.

It had been such a great dinner that we needed to walk a few laps of Deck 4 afterwards to help to digest all of the food that we had just eaten. We also saw Donald walking around the Lobby Atrium by himself so we naturally had to run inside and quickly see him.

Dancing Under the Stars was due to take place on the Deck 11 stage at 10:15pm which is a dance class underneath the night sky in the middle of the ocean which some Disney friends have been known to attend so of course we had to watch. However Mother Nature had other plans as the professional dancers were on stage for about twenty seconds before the rain started coming down and one of them slipped over soon afterwards.

It was raining so heavily that they were asking everyone to move undercover so we sat on one of the tables on Deck 11 along with everyone else in case the rain quickly cleared which it did not. Even though the activity had to be cancelled due to the weather, it was a lovely way to end the day as everyone was just chilling, talking and laughing with each other with a hot chocolate in hand up on deck.

Our latest towel animal was waiting for us on the bed back in our stateroom along with a beautiful limited edition lithograph called “Mickey Mouse and Pluto Sailing Across the Atlantic Ocean” by Don “Ducky” Williams along with a certificate of authenticity as well as instructions of where and when we could get it signed by Ducky if we wanted. This is the fourth one of these prints that we have received over the years and it is one of the many reasons why we love and look forward to the longer and more unique sailings.

It had been yet another fun-filled yet incredibly chilled day crossing the Atlantic Ocean which is exactly what we had been looking forward to so much when we booked this cruise. After changing our clocks back an hour yet again, it did not take either of us long to fall asleep with the knowledge that we had a very similar day to look forward to just like the one we had just experienced.

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