A smoking drink, a ghost and a dancing cockatoo: My strange night out at Princess Cruises' new magic-infused nightspot
Editor's Note
"We'll call you Pepe."
Spanish magician Woody Aragon is teasing me as he works a hidden room at the back of Spellbound by Magic Castle, the new magic-infused nightspot on Sun Princess.
He's called on me to help with a card trick, and he is feigning the inability to say my non-Spanish name.
"Ge-eene? Like gin," he jokes in a thick Spanish accent.
Pepe is better, he suggests.
He has me pick a card, any card, and show it to the other patrons in the small Victorian-themed space.
Somehow, of course, he knows it without looking: A four of spades.
We are appropriately amazed and continue to be wowed by a steady stream of card-shuffling hijinks over the next 30 minutes.
With just two dozen of us in the room, it is an incredibly intimate experience, as is everything about our night at Spellbound, a first-of-its-kind private entertainment venue on Sun Princess, the newest ship from Princess Cruises.
Open to just 90 people per night, the hidden-behind-a-secret-door complex of rooms is a floating version of Magic Castle, the iconic, private club for magicians and their guests in Los Angeles. And while smaller than that mansionlike destination, Spellbound offers a similarly quirky charm, complete with ornate Victorian decor, magical artifacts and vintage curiosities.
Just to get into the venue, you have to pass through that secret door into a small antechamber with a faux fireplace, where one of your group is instructed to say the magic words ("open sesame"). The fireplace magically slides open, and you walk into the first of a series of magic-infused, parlorlike rooms.
In the first of the rooms is Isabella, the ship's resident ghost. Not that you get much of a glimpse of her. She's "invisible Isabella," and you only see her when she's in the moving portrait on the wall. It's like a scene from "Harry Potter" as she moves through the portrait before walking out the side.
Moments later, the piano begins to play with seemingly nobody sitting at it. Isabella is now out to entertain.
So is Isabella's cockatoo, "the Professor," in a cage above the piano, swaying as she plays.
Throughout the next couple of rooms, special effects-laden magical experiences abound, from a table that slowly rotates as you sit at it, such that your drink moves away from you when you least expect it, to an antique telephone that talks back to you when you pick it up.
Spellbound is, to put it simply, an experience — one that you settle into for the night.
At $149 per person, the experience includes a dinner in an exclusive corner of the ship's main dining room before you head to the venue. Once at Spellbound, you can stay as long as you like. The venue is your private club for the night.
Like at Magic Castle in Los Angeles, you'll see a magic show while at Spellbound. It takes place in the back room, which has seats for just 30 people. You'll be called into it in small groups at various points during the evening.
A bar serves up a dozen theatrical and magic-themed cocktails, with unlimited drinks included.
Related: New Princess ship is now serving breakfast for dinner — in a fancy dining room
Cozying up to the bar soon 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 lime.
It came in a treasure chestlike box that spilled out smoke and colored light as the bartender opened it in front of me. I pulled my drink out from between vintage handcuffs of the sort Houdini once escaped.
For round two, I ordered The Magician, made with tequila, mezcal, pamplemousse liqueur, lime, agave, grapefruit and serrano peppers. It was served with a shot of blue liquid that "magically" turned purple once it was poured into the drink.
As I was sipping the first of these drinks, another magician appeared to do card tricks from the bar.
Three stools down, one of my companions noticed that his seat was sliding downwards during the performance.
Was this part of the show? Maybe. You never know what's going to happen in Spellbound.
A few steps away, along the wall, was a "magical porthole" overlooking the ship's promenade deck where we're told other magicians (of the digital kind) will make appearances and do tricks.
Alas, it was one of a few Spellbound elements that weren't ready during my visit. Along with several other travel writers, I was seeing Spellbound during a test run this week as its designers gave the venue and experience its finishing touches. It's scheduled to open to passengers April 8.
Still, from what I saw, Spellbound is going to be a hit. Or, to put it another way, it's something magical.
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