CABO, part dos
Inside, we first watched the glassblowers at work. We tried to guess what this young man was making.
It soon became obvious it was a turtle, but he was no ordinary turtle. He was a turtle in a hat, drinking tequila!
A piece of newspaper held up to him quickly caught fire, demonstrating the incredible heat these glass blowers worked in, and a reminder shortly after that tips were appreciated was met pretty generously by the crowd.
From there we filed into the shop to make a few purchases. This little pitcher caught my eye first, then we found the matching glasses. In the background is our plate from Cozumel.
I swear to you, this is the truth: they were wrapped in an English-language newspaper called The Gringo Gazette!
There was a small shrine in one corner of the showroom, all done in glass, and a Christmas tree made from glass globes. They had beautiful things, in addition to drunken turtles, and many of us were lined up at the registers.
On the bus ride back to the harbor, Mel talked a little about the history of Cabo, and how they desalinate sea water to have enough drinking water. As we neared the end of our tour he passed out evaluation forms and pencils. On passing around an envelope to collect the evaluations, he told us that Charlie, our driver, had a basket up front if we cared to tip, and Mel’s tips were to go in the envelope. “The envelope is for me; the basket is for Charlie…” I swear we heard it three times. I consider myself a good tipper, and I realize tipping is not common in all parts of the world, so sometimes we must delicately be reminded that a tip is appreciated. But not three times. It left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Overall, I would not recommend this tour, especially since our new friend Sandra from our group brunch later shared her photos taken right up there at the arch. Where did she book that great tour? – from a guy at the dock. For TEN DOLLARS!!! We were kicking ourselves…ours was a fifty dollar tour.
Our little family of four walked back to the tender area, pausing to appreciate the ice water and icy cold wash cloths Disney had provided for us. We saw more of our Facebook friends at the tender, and on the ride back enjoyed seeing a sea lion hop up on the back of a small boat for some free fishies!
Getting back out of the tender and on to the ship WAS as creepy as I had feared, for some reason, but I did okay. We were all starving on returning to the ship, so, after saying goodbye to our friends, Mark and I went up to the pool deck for sandwiches at Pete’s - grilled salmon for him and a cheeseburger for me. Ice cream sounded like a nice dessert, but the middle machine had the special flavors, and one of today’s was mango. I sheepishly got chocolate from the machine next to it – I wasn’t willing to spend a day on benedryl again!
Back in the room, with some time on my hands before dinner, I wanted to get a jump on the real packing. I asked Mark to give me a few pieces from the closet that he knew he would not be wearing again. As he did so he finally admitted that he had overpacked… I was able to fully pack one of our rolling garment bags, including putting the luggage strap on. I rolled it back under the bed and felt very full of myself for being so far ahead of everyone else. Or so I thought…
We went to Shutters when they opened at five to buy the photo of ourselves at the rail on Canal transit day, with the
DCL border. I recall on the Fantasy being able to access the Shutters terminals any time of day, but here on the Wonder they were only unlocked when the desk was staffed. Anyway, I was having trouble with the screen while I was making the purchase and someone came up to help us. He said digital downloads were only available to the iPhone, and I was happier having the digital copy than another paper photo to keep flat, so we bought the digital one. Please enjoy it again, since we paid $20 for it.
Next, we went to Guest Services to (finally) increase the gratuities for our service team. The gratuity sheets would be delivered tonight, so they just gave us a new one and told us to destroy the other one.
Back in the room, we dressed for dinner. Tonight was the Big Show in Tiana’s Place, and my chance to see one of my favorite characters: the elusive Louis the Alligator! He was still pretty elusive, because he was so big he could only fit in the main aisles, and he moved very quickly – I got one half-decent photo of him.
Luckily, I remembered that this was the menu featuring kids’ drinks with a clip-on Raymond the Firefly! Deb bought the drink, which she described as “seven dollar purple kool aid,” but I just wanted ol’ Ray the Firefly. I tried to wear him as a hair clip, but he was flying upside down.
He was happier on my water glass. There is a way to make him flash in different colors, but I like him green, like in the movie.
We had a tense moment before dessert when I noticed Fred’s menu lighting up, but min did not – I had gotten a defective menu! Pouting soon followed…
However, my wonderful husband and my table mates showed me how to press the magic button on the front to make it light up. All was right in the world again.
My dinner tonight was the Shrimp and Grits appetizer
And the Roasted Creole Half Chicken with Toasted Corn & Pecan Bread Pudding (the corn is IN the bread pudding...)
We all got the featured bread again – Herbed Brioche, with a Roasted Onion dip.
Look at Fred’s appetizer! This is the Charcuterie Board
I loved my dessert – Mama Odie’s White Chocolate Bread Pudding
Mark had the Pecan Tart
And of course, we had to share some of those man-catchin’ beignets!!
Back in the room, we found a bunny lounging on our bed, with tomorrow’s Navigator and our gratuity envelopes – how sad that this wonderful trip was coming to an end!
But honestly, I was ready to go home. Every jingle of Agung’s keys in the hallway made me think of our dog Karma, and I missed her more and more, along with my memory foam mattress, the water softener, and a shower head that didn’t hit me in the throat. It will be hard to do a seven-night cruise again after this.
We dropped Ray off and went to the Walt Disney Theater to see the PremEAR of Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Mark had difficulty seeing the screen, so we did some seat trading, but he ended up sleeping through part of it. He later complained about the sound system not being set up for movies, and mentioned it on our comment card as well, but I enjoyed myself, and Baby Groot was adorable! We went straight to bed after the movie – that was a long day!