We were promised today would be a relaxing day, and they did not disappoint. We were ushered into a bus where we found a souvenir beach towel waiting for us. We then headed to the picturesque beaches of Mykonos for a morning at the beach. Adventures by Disney had the first three rows of beach chairs reserved for us. They even contracted with a neighboring hotel, so that we could use their showers and changing facilities. We took a dip in the Aegean and enjoyed relaxing on the beach. We were there for a few hours, but we got out of dodge just as the crowds began to arrive.
We then were off to a Teta’s house for lunch (I apologize if the spelling is incorrect, I can’t access the internet to confirm). This is legitimately this women’s house. For example, if you went through the door marked men’s room, you went into her guest room and used the toilet that was attached. As we walked in, we were welcomed with a special drink, and then ushered upstairs for a tour of her rooftop guardian. Due to the strong winds, and limited rain in Mykonos, gardening can be quite a challenge, but we were told that the food we would be enjoying came from her own guardian. We were even given a slice of fresh cucumber picked right out of the guardian.
Following our salad course, we were ushered into her living room to see a cooking demonstration. We learned how to make the amazing beet sauce that we had already enjoyed as well as stuffed peppers and tomatoes that we would be served in just a bit. At first my fellow Adventurers were frantically trying to copy the recipe, but Teta offered to email us the recipes so that took the pressure off.
The experience of eating all this amazing food in someone’s house is very “Adventures by Disney” We had the honor of having one of our Adventure Guides, Dusty, sit at our table and he explained how the cruise packages and the land tours are very different. He said that the cruise trips are a quick sampling, whereas the land tours shave more cultural emersion. I am pretty sure he sold everyone at our table on taking a land-package in the near future as the experience was amazing. While I am not a wine-drinker, I was told that the homemade wine was the best we had experienced on our adventure thus far.
Following some Greek dancing, we paid our respects to Teta. I have no doubt, when survey time comes, this experience will be highly rated. As we left, Teta had a final surprise for us. She gave us a “goodie” bag with some of her creations including wine, olive oil, and apricot jam. Of course, she also had our pin of the day.
We returned back to Mykonos town for an optional shopping stop. We elected to peruse the town, famous for it’s windmills. Upon arriving we notice a poster for some Little Mermaid event, but we could not tell if it was a film screening or live performance. It did hit home that Disney is everywhere. The labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways with white cubist architecture of Mykonos town felt very much like a postcard you would expect to see of Greece. Following our brief shopping experience, we hopped on a shuttle bus to return to the Disney Magic.
On the deck stage, the Cruise Staff presented the “Opa! A Celebration of Greece” family deck party. This event featured competitions based on the Greek Gods. There was trivia completion, a door decorating completion, and lots of dancing. It was a nice little addition to the program, but nowhere at the scale of the Sail-Away party of Pirates Night.
The show of the day was “Walt Disney: The Dream Goes On.” I had seen this show last year and felt it was terrible. Somehow they took the topic of Walt and ruined it. The show was made up of parts of other Disney shows, including DCA’s Steps in Time, so it just had terrible pacing and flow. Therefore I elected to skip the show, to go to the gym and relax. The dinner was Mediterranean, but after visiting Teta’s house, dinner was a bit overkill.
Tomorrow, the Disney Magic heads into Santorini for the first time!
