A smoking drink, a ghost and a dancing cockatoo: my unusual night time at Princess Cruises' new magic-infused nightspot

“We'll name you Pepe.”

Spanish magician Woody Aragon is teasing me as he works in a hidden room behind Spellbound by the Magic Fort, the brand new magic-infused nightspot on the Solar Princess.

He has referred to as me to assist him with a card trick, and he’s bemoaning my lack of ability to pronounce his non-Spanish identify.

“G-ene? Like gin,” he jokes in a thick Spanish accent.

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Pepe is healthier, he suggests.

They requested me to decide on a card, any card, and present it to the opposite patrons within the small Victorian-themed area.

Someway, after all, he is aware of it with out even seeing it: the 4 of spades.

We’re appropriately amazed and can proceed to be amazed by the fixed stream of card-shuffles over the following half-hour.

With solely a pair dozen of us within the room, it's an extremely intimate expertise, as is every little thing about our night time at Spellbound, the primary non-public leisure venue of its form on Solar Princess, Princess Cruises' latest ship. .

Open to solely 90 folks per night time, the secret-door advanced of rooms is a brief model of the Magic Fort, the distinguished, non-public membership for magicians and their visitors in Los Angeles. And whereas smaller than that mansion-like vacation spot, Spellbound affords a equally quirky attraction, full with ornate Victorian decor, magical artifacts, and classic curiosities.

To get into the venue, you could undergo a secret door right into a small entrance corridor with a pretend hearth, the place certainly one of your group is instructed to say the magic phrases (“open sesame”). The fireside magically opens, and also you stroll into the primary of a sequence of magic-filled, parlor-like rooms.

Within the first room is Isabella, the ship's resident ghost. Not that you simply get a lot of a glimpse of him. She is the “Invisible Isabella”, and also you solely see her when she is within the transferring image on the wall. It's like a scene from “Harry Potter” when she strikes by the image earlier than falling out of the nook.

A couple of moments later, the piano begins to play and it seems that nobody is sitting on it. Isabella is now out for enjoyable.

Isabella's cockatoo, “Professor”, is in a cage above the piano, fluttering when she performs.

Within the subsequent few rooms, magical experiences abound with particular results, from a desk that slowly rotates if you sit down, to a desk that strikes your drink away from you if you least count on it, a Even to the traditional phone that talks to you if you choose it up.

Enchanted, merely put, is an expertise – one by which you compromise in for the night time.

At $149 per particular person, the expertise consists of dinner in an unique nook of the ship's foremost eating room earlier than heading to the venue. When you attain there, you’ll be able to keep so long as you need. This place is your non-public membership for the night time.

Just like the Magic Fort in Los Angeles, you'll see a magic present at Spellbound. It takes place in a again room, which seats solely 30 folks. You may be referred to as in small teams at completely different places through the night.

A bar serving a dozen dramatic and magic-themed cocktails, together with limitless drinks.

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Making my option to the bar shortly after arriving, I first ordered the Escape from Houdini's Chest, an over-the-top Harry Houdini-themed drink made with cinnamon and strawberry-infused vodka, elderflower liqueur, and lemon.

It got here in a treasure field, with smoke and colourful lights billowing out because the bartender opened it in entrance of me. I handed my drink by the sort of previous handcuffs Houdini as soon as escaped from.

For the second spherical, I ordered The Magician, made with tequila, mezcal, Pamplemousse liqueur, lemon, agave, grapefruit, and serrano peppers. It was served with a shot of blue liquid that “magically” turned purple as quickly because it was poured into the drink.

As I used to be consuming the primary of those drinks, one other magician appeared from the bar to carry out card methods.

Three stools down, certainly one of my companions observed that his seat was transferring downwards through the efficiency.

Was this a part of the present? Maybe. You by no means know what's going to occur in Spellbound.

A couple of steps away, alongside the wall, was a “magical porthole” that appeared out onto the ship's promenade deck the place we have been advised different magicians (of the digital form) could be in attendance and performing methods.

Alas, this was one of many few enchanting components that weren’t prepared throughout my go to. Together with many different journey writers, I used to be watching Spellbound throughout a take a look at run this week as its designers put in place and skilled its remaining touches. It’s scheduled to open for passengers on April 8.

Nonetheless, from what I see, Spellbound goes to be a success. Or, to place it one other means, it's one thing magical.

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