Chris and I decided to take in presentation by Don ‘Ducky’ Williams who is the senior character artist for the Walt Disney Attractions Marketing Division in Florida. Do you have one of the infamous characters on your ticket?  He drew it. Did you get a flyer advertising a Disney package and it had a character on it?  He created it.  He shared his personal story of how he dreamed of turning in his banking job to become a artist with Disney. It took several years, a move to Florida without a job in his back pocket, then working in off site hotels and eventually into cast member status in merchandise and other tasks, and of course a lot of persistence, but he made it!  Many of his creations where on display on the stage and he drew others freehand while talking to the audience. He drew 26 sketches of various characters including, Belle, Stitch, Bambi, Cinderella, Goofy, Sorcerer Mickey and many others that they gave away in a raffle at the talk.

This man is amazing and touches your life with his story. He is walking proof that sometimes dreams just don’t happen, but with a lot of work and faith, you can accomplish anything you set you heart on, It was truly inspirational and I hope to someday have a chance to talk to him in more depth.

Tonight we have decided to abandon our servers in the dining room  (sorry guys..) and enjoy a night in Palo, the adults only specialty restaurant on deck 10. Our group was seated in the private room and had a wonderful meal with a taste of almost everything on the menu.

Of course… my favorite was the chocolate souflee

But of course our server didn’t feel we had had enough sugar yet (see why I spend so much time on the gym?) so Cecilia added more plates to create a line of sugar that would wake up anyone for days!

oh ya… and did I mention they had chocolate souflees?

Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

And if you couldn’t get close enough for the view, the Disney cruise folks had a camera on the bow, displaying the pics on the jumbo screen.

Luckily Sandy woke up before dawn to secure a spot and happily shared with Deb & me.

and while you could get a fantastic view of entering or in this case, exiting, the locks from up high….

Then there was plenty of room on deck 4 – which actually allowed you some stunning views of what little room the ship had between the wall of the lock and the ship exterior…….

or from your balcony…

Can you tell Chris was kinda excited??

Even if you weren’t on the ship,  you could join those at the visitors center.  I will never forget when the ships’ horn blew and the place erupted in cheers, including several kids voices yelling..  MICKEY!!

an amazing day indeed.