The best way to end a cruise is with a day at sea. Packing to go home is always the worst part of a cruise, but it takes a lot of the stress and anxiety out of it when you don’t have to find time to squeeze that in between a port visit, dinner, and the evening show.

On this sea day, we were sailing through parts of British Columbia and the views were incredible (a common theme for this cruise).

We began the day watching a new favorite for the kids on Funnel Vision – Brother Bear. There’s something about watching that movie outside in Alaska that makes it feel more magical.

Around midday, we got to hear the Mickey horn while we were up on deck. Normally I try to anticipate it a little better so I can get a better video, but this one caught me a little off guard.

I have kind of a funny story about this. After it played, I headed back down to the stateroom to spend some time on the verandah and they played the Mickey horn again. It was SO cool because you heard it once from the ship, but then you heard it two or three more times as it echoed off in the distance. I was bummed that I didn’t get it on video. A little while later, I noticed a ferry boat approaching us and I thought for sure they’d play it again as we passed by. I had my video set up to record it and, sure enough, the horn played. I was so excited that I got this on video and was mentally applauding myself for anticipating it. That was until I went to play the video back and realized that I never actually pushed record. Let’s just say I spent more than a couple minutes being upset about this.

I eventually recovered and my wife and I spent much of the afternoon organizing and packing while the kids spent some time at the kids club.

A little later, we headed down to the lobby atrium for the character dance party. I wasn’t really feeling up for it, but I was really glad that we pulled the kids out of the club and brought them down for this. It was awesome.

The characters come down the stairs and perform and dance together on the stage. And then they disburse into the crowd to dance with the guests. This is a great opportunity to get up close with them. Meanwhile, one of the characters stays on stage and performs a choreographed dance to a modern song. After the performance, the characters rotate and a new character comes on stage for their featured dance. All of the characters performed individually before coming back on stage together at the end. It was so much fun and I would definitely say it’s a can’t-miss experience!

I put a recap of it on my Instagram account:

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After the dance party, we headed to the D Lounge for some character drawing. They were drawing Winnie the Pooh, which I thought might not be too challenging for the kids. Turns out I was wrong and there was a lot of frustration, but we still had fun.

Before dinner, we ran into Belle and Ariel around the ship and they were kind enough to take some pictures with us.

Our final dinner was back in Tiana’s Place. I had high expectations for this restaurant because I had heard so many great things about it, but truth be told, I would put Arendelle and Rapunzel’s Royal Table above it for dinner shows.

Our dining team of Brendan (India) and Flavio (Serbia) were excellent and we took our customary family picture with them on the last evening in the dining room.

That evening, we watched Disney Dreams, an Enchanted Classic in the Walt Disney Theater, which remains one of my favorite shows. Afterwards, we got one of the best surprises we’ve ever received on a Disney cruise.

A cast member friend of ours, Mallory, told us to meet outside the D Lounge after the show. We speculated about what it could be, but really we had no idea. They let us in to the D Lounge a little before ten and we waited to find out what was happening. A few minutes later, a cast member came out and told us that we would be getting a private meet-and-greet with the cast from the Walt Disney Theater, along with a bunch of other characters before the public farewell event out in the lobby atrium.

It was such an amazing surprise and something that we will never forget – the perfect way to cap off an amazing cruise to Alaska.

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