Disney Destiny - Day 4: Sea Day / Lunar New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Horse, or, credits to Gemini, more specifically the year of the Fire Horse - a rare, high-energy, and transformative year. Symbolizing freedom, speed, and passion, this year favors decisive, fast-moving action. It is a time for taking risks, pursuing ambitions, and adapting to rapid changes, but also requires careful management to avoid burnout. 

Because I am always trying to maximize the Chinese heritage connections for the twins, I set up a red envelope exchange with a few other cabins on board who were celebrating as well. Oh my gosh the kids were so cute in their traditional garb! 

After we handed out all of our envelopes, it was almost time for our lunch reservation at adults-only Enchante. The twins had a plan to catch a showing of Zootopia 2, so the four adults headed up to the 13th floor. The entrance is actually the adults only Rose bar/lounge.

It's very quiet, nice chairs, kind of overpriced drinks but I guess that's the cost for the serenity and view!

I'll run through all the food photos because someone might find our review helpful if you go on the Destiny. Or I figure enough folks just like food photos. 😊 

Starts off with these little starters - one was creamy and the other was chickpea based. I think I liked the chickpea one more. High presentation points:

What's a French restaurant without some good bread and butter:

Laoye actually says he prefers his butter pre-salted because he's not very good at using the little salt spoon. They claimed the butter came from 57 different sources? Is that like 57 different...cows? 😆 

Then a second palate cleanser, little radish rolls sitting in a green tomato sauce. Did the job as a palate cleanser I suppose?

Next up was the scallops, which came as three parts - a cerviche:

And an actual scallop along with a foamy soupy thing with bits of charred shrimp and scallop inside. 

Here is the second tasting course, langoustine (had no idea they were this long when fully unshelled!), which was well prepared...but the sauce was a little too salty for us. 

We ordered one tasting per couple and then the second person would supplement with some a la carte off menu items. Here's the chicken dish that Baba picked as one supplement. He said the highlight was the butter foam that he applied liberally to each bite. 

The tasting menu seafood item was some kind of white fish. This was my least favorite dish of the meal. Pretty bland, texture felt a little rubbery, not my thing. 

By contrast, the pigeon pie was really really good. Maybe my favorite item of the cruise -- though I'm always a sucker for foie gras. 

LaoLao chose the lobster supplement here - it was, as expected, quite nice. But when is lobster ever not good, eh? Again, beautiful presentation.

Baba got another add on dish -- Wagyu (which I was surprised wasn't on the main tasting menu). It actually wasn't as memorable to me as the Pigeon Pie. Also, I feel like we've had some very nicely done steaks in the main dining rooms. But Baba seemed to enjoy it. 

And to move towards the end, we had a cheese plate with 5-6 different cheeses (I forgot to take a photo of, but my favorite was the goat cheese with honey and LaoLao and LaoYe preferred the blue cheese. 

And finally, dessert, which was this chocolate thing that was WAY too much chocolate. Even for me. 

And of course a number of little bites that we decided to largely pack up and bring to the kids. They were pretty bummed that they couldn't come to Enchante -- maybe this is how Disney gets the kids to come back after 18! 

After our lunch (which, I think because of our half tasting menu, half a la carte selection left us not OVER stuffed), we caught the Maleficent mini show. These shows aren't in and of themselves that impressive...but for people who like theatre and Disney character improv, help the whole cruise feel more immersive in the Villain and Hero stories. 

After that it was time for pin trading. This is when I felt like L & R don't fully appreciate monetary value of things yet. I silently cringed a little everytime they just gave away a pin or traded away a pin we actually bought from a Disney Park - but I guess they can stay innocent and naive kids of privilege a little longer before the real world comes for them eventually!

At this point I was getting a little tired too so Baba and I headed up to the adult only pool area for some quiet reading and resting time. I would have stayed longer except I didn't want to miss today's stretch class. Laolao already went once on the first sea day and said she came out sweating and feeling very challenged. I am proud to say my splits were the closest to the ground. 😁 

After stretch class we were headed to dinner, back to 1923. L got the beef with sweet potato mash. 

R got a really lovely chicken and tagliatelle mushroom sauce entree (she added salt, but after that it was very good -- would recommend!).

I opted for the duck breast salad -- the vegetable in the salad and the dressing sauce were actually really nice..but the duck wasn't for me. A little too thicky sliced and gamey for me. 

Our server came by to show us another card trick (the first one last night I was a little meh on but this one was very impressive!)

In honor of New Year, we all helped Baba with his wine package (he bought a 3 bottle package, which we weren't sure would be a good deal at first but we are now already into the last bottle). 

Classic family shot! I am glad all the outfits worked out so well.

Some more food shots from dinner - here is the apple pie. Laolao and Laoye liked it better than the lava cake because it wasn't as sweet.

Sweetness not a problem for R! She thoroughly enjoyed the lava cake. 

L opted for the mint chocolate chip sundae today. And she finished it all before I could turn back from phototaking to ask for another bite. 

This was the sugar free option -- a chocolate mousse thing I believe? I actually liked this more than the lava cake. Perhaps my taste buds are losing their sweetness tolerance - horrors!

Moving backwards -- here's the chilled dill marinated shrimp - not bad but I think I've concluded Disney does shrimps pretty well so they're all starting to blend taste wise. 

Baked oysters! Low on oysters, heavy on breading. But overall decent. Would recommend if you like oysters.

Baba went for the three cheese souffle - he liked it, he describes it as cheese on cheesy shortbread.

Since we got all dolled up, we had to get some more backdrop photos.  Nighttime Destiny:

And lucky gates:

The twins liked their dresses enough that they kept them on all evening. The rest of us swapped back to normal clothes.  Tonight was an encore performance by Bradley and Hiba for adults only - Baba actually though Hiba was better - both quite impressive still.  

The towel animal today - Wall-E (Baba originally thought this was Baby Yoda 😆):

L really wanted to go to the silent dance party...I think she underestimated how embarrassing Baba and Mama could be:

I would have stayed longer except I didn't know most of the songs (you'd think they would have one channel that only does Disney tunes or something!)

So after 10 minutes or so we called it quits to catch the second half of Hercules again. I do really like that show. Except for the Phil parts, those are both musically not as interesting and hard to understand. 

After the show we decided to check out the Family Game Show (alas, we did not get picked). Maybe next cruise! 

At this point it's 11pm and time for bed. Tomorrow is Castaway!

Disney Destiny - Day 3: Dolphins in Cozumel

Today is our first port stop of the cruise -- Cozumel. We've been to Cozumel once before on a Fantasy cruise - I recall we did a chocolate tour because things were just opening again for covid and shore excursion options were limited. Fast forward to 2026...there were SO many different fun things to choose from! I forgot to mention that when we left Port Everglades, there were actually 7-8 different ships all leaving that day - no wonder so many people got stuck in traffic. Even here in Cozumel, I think there were at least 3 ships around -- we disembarked right next to another cruise line and I almost stopped for pictures before Baba pointed out they were not for our cruise. 

We got a close up of the Norwegian ship (the ship to the right of this photo) -- it had a twisty water slide going from like deck 13 or something ALL the way down to like deck 5. The twins were a little jealous. They kept bringing up the Princess cruise this trip as well...I hope this is just their cruise repertoire broadening...and not a sign of Disney fatigue!

The excursion we booked today was at Dolphinaris; we got the "swim with dolphins" package. None of us have ever done a dolphin encounter before so this was sure to be memorable.

We booked LaoLao as an observer because she wasn't so keen to interact with dolphins...and also this way she could take photos of the rest of us. I had heard that the photo packages for Dolphinaris is where they really make their money. The fee for the excursion itself actually seemed reasonable -- but I was told photos would cost like, $500 or something crazy like that -- also they don't let you pick like just a couple photos, you have to buy the whole lot. So we equipped LaoLao with Baba's new Pixel 10 in hopes that the more powerful optic zoom would be sufficient.  

We were in a group of 10 or so, luckily we were standing on the side that was more likely to get front-facing photos from LaoLao.  First the dolphin did various tricks, making noises, rising high out of the water, waving its tail, etc.  

We then each got some individual time to hold the dolphin, stroking it's stomach and back. I wasn't really sure what I was expecting but the smoothness and the "I'm holding a large rubber barrel" feel was not what I imagined. I think I thought there would be some hairy parts...or more uneven texture somehow. But it truly felt like it could have been a very large plastic/rubber toy!

Then each person ran through this routine where they would get kissed by two dolphins and then "dance" with the dolphin holding their flippers. 

 

Then we formed a large circle for the dolphin to pass in front of us, but there was an older woman who kept breaking formation and getting too far forward, so this just turned into the dolphin circling us like sharks waiting for a meal. 😆 

Here's the last part where the trainer told us to splash the dolphin as a joke...which Maddie (our dolphin) responded to by hugely splashing us. Don't engage a dolphin in a splash fest. You will absolutely lose. 

Some thoughts about how the dolphins are treated. I think it's clear they're working for their food. Every trick or so the trainer threw a fish down their throats. Some of their dolphins were rescues and others were born onsite. One of the dolphins we interacted with only had one eye and there it was clear that she'd run into a motor or two out in the ocean.  Long story short, they get mixed reviews on the animal rights front... but it can't be worse than petting a tiger.

We did not have a ton of time before the shuttles were going back (the encounter probably lasted 30 minutes or so but there was a good bit of waiting time beforehand and briefing etc) so we didn't do any snorkeling or kayaking (we didn't feel too bad about that because the snorkel area didn't seem like it would be that interesting - being so close to land and cut off from the ocean).

We did have time for lunch (ordered from a menu, included in the excursion price) -- it was decent, nothing amazing, but this will be our only "Mexican" food outing of the entire cruise, so it seemed appropriate. Nice view of the ocean at least!

After getting back on the ship, I decided to do a load of laundry with all our wet clothes and then also get our fish extenders together to distribute. Delivering things up and down the ship apparently makes pirates tired. 

But no rest for the busy! Soon enough it was time for dinner again, this time at Pridelands (Lion King themed). This is the equivalent to Tiana's on the Wonder where there is an actual show as part of the dinner. They ran through some of the Lion King songs but then also had a few African-inspired songs that I hadn't heard of before. The singers were really impressive!

I had read a lot of reports about the food being a bit blah...but we actually thought it was pretty good! And this was after I had an afternoon brisket/ribs snack too. R's prime rib was very juicy.

L went for the shrimp curry - she really really enjoyed it. Like maybe favorite dish of the cruise level good. 

Other things we tried: shrimp and grits appetizer -- I liked this - very flavorful. The roasted chicken was also flavorful, but not as impressive because Costco makes a great roast chicken. 😆 Baba got a coconut soup appetizer that he said was pretty bland. 

After dinner we decided to finish up the interactive ghost hunt. Photo proof of our success!

Sorry forgot dessert photos -- more sundaes...

My coffee sugar-free dome. This is a great choice for someone who doesn't want anything too sweet.

I think R got the creamsicle cheesecake, which everyone agreed was a little too saccharine sweet.

We also passed out some of our Lion King gifts during dinner -- glad others will enjoy those bags and books more than us!

In case you hadn't noticed already, today is pirate night. So even the towel animals got into the spirit -- this towel monkey is pretty impressive!

Tonight was the flagship broadway-level production of Hercules. 

Excited for the show to begin!

After the show, which I thoroughly enjoyed, Hercules being one of my favorites from the 90s Golden Era (L and R concur, they particularly liked the muses and the double casting joke by Hades 😆), we went back to the staterooms to get sweaters (turns out unnecessary, Bahamas in February is much warmer than January in Ensenada) and headed back out for the Pirate Parlay Party. As with all Pirate shows, Captain Hook swung in for an appearance:

Hook helped kick off the fireworks. The show seemed similar to other Disney cruises but the photos of the fireworks actually came out very clearly. The red and blue tube here at the bottom is part of the Aqua Mouse track. 

As you can see, there were lots of people, but it wasn't like sardine packed, which I feel like previous Pirate Night crowds have been. Not sure if it's because the ship is bigger so more viewing areas, or if people on this cruise are just not as participatory in the classic Disney Cruise experiences?

Shot of the grand finale:

And the cruise is now officially more than halfway over. *Tear* -- tomorrow is our second (and last) sea day...and also Lunar New Year!

Disney Destiny - Day 2: First Sea Day

So update on staterooms: we booked both a balcony and an inside this cruise -- obviously the balcony is more expensive, but a few other observances on the difference. For sleeping in, inside can't be beat. The ability to fully shut out all light meant that we slept until 9am this morning. Though I think tomorrow might be more difficult as they might be announcing our arrival in Cozumel (estimated for 7/7:30). The inside stateroom also has less people running by, less doors slamming by you, etc. But the balcony, besides the natural light making the room brighter, I'm happy to report DOES have the split bathroom still. So we are now sending L&R over to the second stateroom for morning get ready time. 

Since it was such a late morning start, we barely had enough time to get dressed to make it to the Avatar: Fire and Ash showing at 9:30. 

I think one plus of not seeing movies in theaters much anymore is that almost all the movies showing on this cruise are ones I haven't seen yet. There was the new Avatar, the new Tron, the new Fantastic Four, the new Zootopia, and the new Lilo & Stitch. I guess it is true all we have are remakes and sequels these days... They are much smaller than the ones on the other ships, but I like it because that means they split one theatre into two and can show twice the number of movies, variety wise!

Since today was a sea day, it was also our first opportunity to try out the huge Incredibles themed obstacle course. Baba and I raced each other (both twins actually wanted to race me because they knew they'd both beat me...).

It was actually a lot of fun! And I don't say that just because I won. 😆 

I think we proved that being smaller is a huge benefit when doing anything that involves crawling through smallish spaces. There was special session later in the day for only tweens and then only teens too, but R and L decided to skip it for more animation classes. 

This photo is slightly out of order, but what's a sea day without a ton of soft serve?

At least we paired it with some food. I have to say the brisket and ribs from the bbq quick service is probably the best food I've had on the Destiny so far. The buffet has variety, but for pure taste, the BBQ meat was so tender and well flavored! Baba also approved of the mac n cheese. 

After lunch we caught the diaper dash -- for a ship with so many more families, I was surprised that entrants in the diaper dash were almost half the volume of our previous ships. Spectators weren't as plentiful either. I think part of it might be the renaming. I don't know why they didn't just reuse Jack Jack Diaper Dash, instead they called it Little Hero Dash, which I bet confused some people. It was a great entertainment piece though! Watching some babies be told to crawl toward mama...and then they just sit there being confused. You're disqualified if you already can walk...and you wouldn't believe how many families try to sidestep that (haha, get it?). Disney cruises create miracles I guess! So many first steps! 😆 

After watching that, most of us went back to the rooms for a quick afternoon siesta. We woke up in time to go to the theatre for the last third of the Avatar movie (it was too long so we had to leave early the first time to catch other activities). By the time the movie was over, it was time to get slightly dressed up and head to dinner again -- the displays on the walls are actually running though this Marvel themed trivia show that kept going throughout the dinner. I commented to Baba that I think the servers try a little less on these big ships (ie, less magic, less crayon brain teasers, etc) because they rely on the built-in entertainment mode. I feel like those screens were much better used for the Crush encounters in some of the smaller ships. But back to the food, here's R enjoying her steak: 

L ordered the scallops and pasta;

L&R had like four pieces of pizza each while watching the last bit avatar though so they ended up sharing a lot of their food. Best thing tonight might have been the scallop pasta. The steak entree wasn't as good as yesterday's. The appetizers we tried included chilled shrimp (not bad, but not as good as the sauteed version at the buffet), broccoli soup (Laolao and Laoye thought it was too salty), orange flavored bao buns (just okay, but we might be spoiled by all the Bao places in the bay area), sauteed mushrooms (this was a highlight! Would recommend!) and an "heirloom salad" that literally was just a bunch of arugula with 3 cherry tomatoes. That one was really disappointing.  For entree, I had the lamb schwarma salad (not that great), Baba got the gnocchi and the udon soup (both were okay, but not amazing). No one took the recommendation for the chicken schnitzel, we just didn't feel fried food...but I'm told it's very popular!

Since we got all dollied up, we took our Grand staircase portraits today:

I bought the photo package -- I imagine the lighting with their professional cameras is much nicer. Though because of limited wifi signals, I also didn't have time/bandwidth to adjust brightness/coloring/etc, so maybe mine would be just as good given some AI-assisted lighting modifications. 

Baba and I caught the "comedy show" before tonight's theatre show -- I was expecting a stand up comedian...this was more like a variety improv show. I also didn't get at all why it was adults only, maybe to have kids hooked so they want to come back to Disney cruises to see more things when they become adults?

The theatre show tonight was actually a pair of Broadway stars singing their favorite Broadway melodies. Between them, Bradley Gibson and Hiba Elchikhe have played Simba,  Hercules, and Jasmine on Broadway, along with a bunch of non-Disney starring roles, so their vocal pipes were STRONG. 

After the show, we were getting tired, so Baba headed to bed while L and R and I went around collecting some ghosts from the Destiny version of shipboard detectives. Using magic bands to activate the screens and mirrors around the ship is kind of fun, plus I get more steps in. 😆 

We called it quit around 10:30, time for bed because tomorrow is our Cozumel dolphin adventure day!