This guest trip report was written by Rachel, whose family sailed concierge on back-to-back sailings on the Disney Magic – first a 5 night Marvel Day at Sea, followed by a 4 night Bahamian itinerary. You can start the trip report from the beginning here.
Day 3
There were two reasons we booked this cruise – the dates fell during our kids’ spring break AND it included a Marvel Day at Sea and we are huge Marvel fans (especially my oldest son).
I have heard that these special “days at sea” were jam packed with activities and that is absolutely true. We didn’t do everything, but we did a LOT! It was not a normal, relaxing day at sea, that’s for sure. But it was super fun and we all loved it.
First we grabbed a very quick breakfast. My older son and husband hit Cabanas and my younger son and I went to the concierge lounge. We didn’t want to linger because those characters came out early! And my boys were ready to get started! The minute we left our stateroom we noticed the Marvel soundtracks playing in the hallway. They played all day.
The very first character we met was Captain America. Some of the meet and greets had a Shutters photographer and some did not. The ones in the lounges usually did, while the ones in the atrium did not. There were also two scheduled meet and greets that you had to reserve ahead of time. One was for Black Panther and Iron Man and the other was for Groot. We’ll get to those later.
We headed straight to the atrium after Captain America to see the characters there. They were on a constant rotation throughout the day. We hopped in line for Loki and in the meantime, Thor came out in one of the little balcony areas between the elevators. (He later switched with Loki for a regular meet.)
The Fab 5 characters were out on Deck 10 by one of the funnels and they kept rotating all day as well. They were in their Marvel gear – so cute!
Back inside to Deck 5, right outside the kids’ clubs – characters rolled in and out of this spot too. And Captain Marvel was the best character interaction we had all day. She was amazing. She carried on a conversation with us effortlessly and gave a secret message to our boys to deliver to Spiderman if we happened to see him (we did).
Dr. Strange was fun too. He is my younger son’s favorite Marvel character so we were pleased to meet him!
Black Widow and Hawkeye were together for their meet and greets.
After that whirlwind of characters, we had a slight break in the schedule since we’d already met so many of them. Back in our room for a breather, we saw our room attendant had placed a Marvel Day at Sea cover on our bed.
We decided to visit the quick service stations on the pool deck for lunch. The boys all had pizza from Pinocchio’s and the adults had shawarma, which I thought was fitting for a Marvel day! And of course, ice cream.
Up next, our first scheduled/reserved meet and greet with Iron Man and Black Panther. In order to be allowed to enter the room and line we had to show our reservation in the app on one of our phones. There were Shutters photographers taking photos in here (you could use your camera too).
We had another little break before our next reserved meet and greet, so the boys played a very short game of shuffleboard on deck 4. PS – they do not even know how to play, but they had fun!
This scheduled meet and greet was for Groot. I had heard that there *might* be another Guardian meeting with him, but it could be Gamora or Star Lord. If you haven’t noticed, my older son was wearing a Star Lord shirt – that’s his favorite Marvel character. And he was SO excited to see him standing with Groot! And Star Lord loved my son’s shirt – he announced to the whole room that my son was his favorite person that day. Win-win.
Not listed on the meet and greet, but Spiderman was in the room as well. My sons delivered the secret message from Captain Marvel and Spiderman took it in stride. These meets took place in Animator’s Palate restaurant and all the screens had the Marvel Day at Sea graphics on them.
We had another break in our day before some of the shows and entertainment started up later in the afternoon. We headed up on decks 9 and 10 to see what was going on up there. Marvel movies all day on Funnel Vision by the pool.
And we saw Goofy with his Iron Man shirt.
There was a Shutters photographer by the pool taking magic shots. We weren’t sure what they would end up looking like – it was hard to tell just by the poses – but they ended up being really fun!
Next we went to the USO show in one of the lounges. It was really cute! Great songs and dancing, and Captain America made an appearance at the end.
Next we went straight to the Walt Disney Theater for the Dr. Strange Mystical Arts show, and it was excellent – so well done! And some very cool special effects.
From the theater we went straight up to deck 10 to save our spot for the first Deck Party. This one was with Mickey and Friends. My favorite place to watch deck parties is from one deck above the pool and in the center, if possible.
All the friends showed up and it was such a cute little show.
Our dinner that night was in Animator’s Palate again, but everything was Marvel-themed. I liked being in Animator’s Palate for the Marvel Day at Sea because the screens really made everything very festive. Not just on the tables, but the dining room walls too! The boys’ kids’ menus were Thor’s hammers, and the napkins were folded into an “A” for Avengers.
There was a special Marvel-themed menu that night and the paper menus were SO fun. We kept them because they were so cool (we were told we could keep all the paper menus that they gave us each night). They looked like comics!
Highlights that night included the Ricotta Gnocchi (I cannot resist gnocchi anytime I see it on a menu) and the Roasted Pork Tenderloin “Huntsman.” Both were delicious!
We got the Marvel-themed sundae for dessert – it had red velvet brownie bites in it as well as some Marvel printed chocolate squares – very cute and tasty!
Right after dinner my friend and I went and staked out our spot for the nighttime Marvel deck party while the boys played basketball for a while. Even with the ship at half-capacity, we found that we were not wrong to head up there immediately after dinner to get a spot. The earlier deck party catered to the younger crowd (although we all enjoyed it), but this nighttime show was one that everyone wanted to see (it included fireworks) so good spots were at a premium.
The show was billed as Iron Man’s showcase for a new gadget. Of course, things went awry and the gadget got stolen. Spiderman and Captain Marvel soared in (literally) and all the heroes helped save the day.
There was an epic battle with the fireworks doubling as a great show and part of the show (a battle in the sky).
ALL the characters made an appearance, including the Guardians near the end. (The only character pictured here that we did not meet during the day was Gamora and that was because Star Lord was the other guardian meeting with Groot at the time.)
This was the best deck party I’ve ever seen on a Disney cruise. It was so, so good. There are lots of surprises that I didn’t even get to photograph or describe here. It was just non-stop from beginning to end and we were all in awe.
After the deck party we did one more activity – Marvel trivia! My older son really wanted to do it all day and this was the only time we could fit it in. He was really good at it, but we didn’t win.
Thor’s hammer was our towel sculpture (not animal) for the day. The boys got a kick out of it and we kept it on our dining table the whole next day.
What a FULL day of Marvel fun. Like I said, our day was a lot busier than our days at sea usually are, but we definitely recommend these special cruises if you’re a fan of the theme – they go all out and it’s tons of fun.
Up Next: Day 4 – Cozumel
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