(Day 3: At Sea) Our Trip Of A Lifetime: Cruising the Mediterranean

Day 3: A Day At Sea !

This first full day of our cruise was a "day at sea"... which in cruise-talk means you are just traveling all day to get to your next port of call.

This meant a long, non-stop haul all the way from Barcelona, Spain, across the western Mediterranean, past the south of Sicily, and south of Italy to our first stop which will be the large island country of Malta.

We dressed casual for the day and went to breakfast at Lumiere's. There were always fancy touches to decorate the food bars and dining rooms... like this horse head ice sculpture.

After breakfast, we hiked around the ship... watching the people, relaxing and taking in the "rough" life of this elegant cruise ship.

Even the elevators sported a touch of Disney... with Mickey's hand as the floor indicator!

Trying to get familiar with the various floors of the ship, (finding the different restaurants, theaters, and outdoor event areas, etc), we came to the main lobby area where, lo and behold, it was jam-packed with Disney Princesses !

There must have been 6 or 8 of them... a couple we didn't even recognize! (We are a little rusty on the newer Disney Princess heroines.) There was Cinderella, all smiles and sweetness...

And Tiana, one of the newer ones we didn't know, sharing her charms with a little passenger...

And of course, Belle (without the Beast) looking so radiant with 2 little mini-Belles matching and sitting on her flowing dress...

Of course we can't forget the enchanting Snow White, the gorgeous Princess who started it all...

And the adorable Cinderella again, with a mini-Snow White and her passenger family!

The whole main lobby buzzed with excitement as little girls and adults alike waited patiently to get to meet, talk to, get the autograph of, and finally get their picture with the Princess(es) of their dreams!

Above the Princesses were colorful banners of each Princess and hung in the center was a gigantic and colorful glass chandelier by the world-famous glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly!

Going out on the decks, we saw kid activities like dancing... here led by a staff member...

and outdoor exercising for the kids... led by none other than Goofy himself...

and little kids playing in the pool area... here chasing the "dancing" water spurts!

There were sunbathers of all shapes, sizes, and shades of "whiteness" trying to get a suntan while watching the kid events on stage and up on the huge "live-action" TV screen above!

Even out to sea, there are the occasional islands that we pass by... not knowing their names, we just wave and continue sailing on to Malta.

Kathy kicks back, looking out over the sun deck in her cool shades, sun hat and colorful, matching jewelry... trying to soak up a little sun herself.

Hey, look who we bumped into up on deck! It's Donald Duck the sailor!

Hey, What's Mickey doing smooching Kathy on the cheek?!?

Maybe I better watch that little mousy character... he looks like a smooth operator!

After hiking around the ship, we ate lunch outside at Goofy's Grill. We each had a small sandwich and a large fruit plate... the Disney folks are big on offering fresh fruits with meals... cantaloupes, honeydews, watermelon, bananas, papaya, grapes, pineapple and even kiwi fruit.

Checking our daily "Personal Navigator"... our cruise guide for scheduled events... we decided to go inside and...

learn how to make origami paper flowers! It was kinda fun, but complicated.

Ponz (our instructor from the Philippines) said you just have to remember:
1) hotdog fold; 2) tall-house fold; 3) arrow fold; 4) canoe fold; 5) in-half fold; then just wrap around the stem, poke up, fluff... and POOF... it looks like a flower!

(I told ya it was complicated.)

After that excitement, Kathy went to the room for a nap while I stayed and Ponz showed us how to make a hi-tech origami paper airplane that did end up flying pretty well. (But... it took about 25 steps to make it... so, me thinks I'll stick with my old 5-step plane that flies almost as well.)

I went to Guest Services and exchanged 300 American dollars for 215 Euro dollar bills in 20's, 10's, and 5's... (they use all coins below the 5-Euro bill).

It sure looks and feels like Monopoly money to me, don't you think?

Going back to our room, I woke Kathy and we partially packed a day-bag for the Malta excursion we were going on the next morning.

We then went to see the nightly stage show in the Walt Disney Theater on deck 3. It was "Cinderella, Another Story" which had great costumes, good music, and a light-show built into the hour-long, short musical.

After the show, we rushed back to the room and changed for our "dress up formal" dinner.

Dinner was rotated every night and tonight it was in the "Animator's Palate" room where everything is black and white... until, as the night progresses, the walls begin to light up and all the decor starts to change into colors! Pretty cool, eh?

I wore a sport coat, silvery tie, black shirt, and white pants... while Kathy wore her sexy new sparkly black dress! (Woo-Woo !)

The other couple who were MIA the night before (Laura and Bob from "somewhere" Connecticut) joined us for dinner... so we finally had a full table.

It was another very enjoyable dinner, but it took 2 hours to eat!!! A lot of chattering between meal courses I think.

It was nearly 11 p.m. when we got back to the room... and what did we find on our bed?

A cute little "towel-penguin" and 2 bedtime chocolates! How sweet it is.

We went to bed kinda early to get rested for our big day in our first port of call... Malta... bright and early the next morning.