IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE YOUR MONEY - a Delightful Westbound Panama Canal Adventure for Kids of All Ages

GLUTTONY, REVISITED – a day at sea – May 6





Today was the last full day of our fabulous two-week cruise, and it was another day at sea. I woke up at 6:30 and started thinking about packing, so when Mark’s alarm went off at seven I got up too. The glassware from Cabo was proving to be a packing nightmare, along with a very fragile sand castle ornament Deb had given us. My hard-sided Mickey Mouse carry-on would house all the fragile souvenirs, and I wrapped the glassware in the fabric from the fat quarter exchange! With one rolling garment bag already stuffed to the gills, I knew Mark’s soft-sided carry-on would need to house all the things we needed to wear on Monday morning for the drive home from the airport hotel, as well as our pajamas and toilet kit. That meant everything else had to fit in the remaining garment bag; it would be tight, but I was pretty confident it was doable. I started packing it, but would need to wait to finish until this afternoon or this evening – we had big plans for the day!

Mark took down the Fish Extender and door magnets for me and I sent him upstairs for his coffee. As he opened the door to leave there were more FE gifts, hanging from the door knob! There were some very generous people on this cruise! While I worked I wanted to watch the live broadcast of Captain Puckett’s 9:15 talk on the Japanese Plans to Destroy the Canal, but it wasn’t on.

Showered and dressed (and caffeinated, in Mark’s case), we returned to Palo for another brunch at ten o’clock, again with Hristo as our server. We vowed after our group brunch last week that we would only eat from the buffet this time, and not order from the menu, thinking it would prevent that miserable feeling our full tummies had given us. Hristo, of course, offered us the menu anyway, asking if we were sure there wasn’t something we might like…and I remembered the rum raisin pancakes they have since taken off the menu. It didn’t hurt to ask if the chef could make them (just a half order, please), and Mark decided to have Eggs Benedict as well. The pancakes were as delicious as I remembered.

Here are my pancakes, and my plates from the buffet.











I had asked Hristo about buying a bottle of the Lasseter wine we had tasted in the chocolate and liquor tasting; he set a bottle aside for me and sent the sommelier over to answer my questions about how to buy more. We bought it as a thank-you gift for our younger son and his wonderful fiance who kept the house together, the lawn mowed and the dog happy while we were gone. They both loved it, and I’m thinking of getting some for their wedding. I cradled that $77 bottle of wine (plus 15% autogratuity!) like a baby, carrying it back to the room! They even bubble wrapped and boxed it for us!

Some of our new friends were at the next table and when we got up to leave they were shocked to see we were leaving so soon – we explained how Hristo fed us too well last time, so we were showing restraint today.

We left Palo at 11:30, and as we walked forward on deck five toward our room we saw the Buena Vista Theater would be showing Guardians 2 in fifteen minutes. Mark wanted to see it again, since he had slept through part of it, but a few minutes later as we were changing our clothes Darren came on the overhead speaker to announce that once again, we had wonderful conditions for spotting sea life, and dolphins and whales had already been spotted. Naturally, Mark quickly changed his mind about the movie, and set out for deck four to read and look for critters. I watched more Pixar movies and worked on packing – the wine presented a new and very critical problem. The artwork from Disney Springs could no longer go where I had put it, so I opened yesterday’s fully-packed bag to remove it and snuggle the wine into the garment bag’s plastic pouch, in case the unthinkable happened. (My younger nephew works for the airlines, and refers to baggage handlers as “throwers.”) I was using my late mother’s Vera Bradley backpack as my purse; the main body of it would contain only my travel wallet and our toilet kit, as I had no other place to put it!

We have a tradition of wearing home on the airplane the same clothes we wear to dinner on the last night (it makes packing easier, and they’re only worn for a few hours on the last evening), so with those items set aside the packing was done by 1:45. I had a flaming headache from the effort, so I laid down to rest for a few minutes before Martini Tasting at two o’clock.


Mark had decided not to go to Martini class, but whether it was because of a full stomach, whale watching or the thought of more alcohol, I don’t recall. But I went to Martini class alone, and sat with a group of three young ladies from Michigan. Now, I went to this class to learn more about martinis and broaden my horizons; some people were apparently just there to get five martinis for twenty bucks. I actually *tasted* mine…

We learned that James Bond took his martinis “shaken, not stirred” because he was on the clock – shaking the martini with ice waters the drink down. Thrifty martini drinkers should order their ‘tinis stirred, with a glass of ice water on the side; it gives you more booze for your buck. We tasted five different drinks: a gin and raspberry martini (I’m the only person in the group who admitted to liking gin), a Cosmopolitan, a Washington Apple, a Chocolatini with amaretto that was very yummy, and a mint martini. I got the giggles when the college-age girl next to me told me that in shot form this is called a Dirty Girl Scout. After the fifth drink, the crowd was pretty noisy, and someone told me they had an open bar event in a few hours; both of these events were organized in our Facebook group.

Here are the martinis:





I couldn’t help but notice that one of the women I sat with was eating a soft pretzel – I had not seen these yet on the cruise, and they brought them out on the last day?! She said they were at Pinocchio’s Pizza, and that they may have run out already because people were getting more than one. Mark sent me a text about then to see what my plans were, and I asked him to grab us some pretzels on his way down to the room.

Back in the room where I was writing some additional comments to include with the comment card we would receive that night, Mark arrived with one pretzel, telling me “you got the last pretzel on the ship.”





Actually, he had gotten the last TWO pretzels, but as the girl at the counter handed them to Mark, a woman came up to order one and was of course disappointed to hear there were no more. So Mark gave her one of his. That’s my hubster…! This led to us discussing how tired we were of seeing people waste food, especially at the buffet where you control how much food you take. It was especially hard, knowing that the food we saw wasted was very much needed in some of the countries the ship’s staff come from.


At 3:45 Mark wanted to go see the afternoon showing of Guardians 2, but when I checked the Navigator we saw it had actually started at 3:15. I told him to go anyway, because he had stayed awake through at least the first half hour last night. I continued writing my comments as I tried to watch Pinocchio (I’ve never seen it…and still haven’t. I hated it. The poor little puppet gets to become a real boy and the first thing Geppetto does is send him to school…). Thankfully, Captain Puckett’s talk was just beginning on another channel! I really enjoyed the way he ended his presentation, with his farewell wish for us:







From our window I could see the seas beginning to pick up a little.


In the meantime, Mark was down in the gift shops looking for the plaques we had exchanged with the Panamanian officials on Canal day. They're in a small glass display at the end of an aisle, facing the cashiers.







Our dinner rotation took us back to Triton’s tonight, for the Land and Sea menu.














Duran greeted us, saying “We’re beginning to see Alaska weather.” By now the seas were really picking up!

My starter tonight was the Serrano Ham, Spicy Tomato and Kalamata Olive Bruschetta, which had good flavor but was hard as a rock!





It was followed by the Beefsteak Tomatoes and Sliced Mozzarella. Why do they use so much arugula?! It’s bitter – that’s going on the comment card!!




I chose a dinner salad as my entrée tonight: the Cobb Salad, from the Lighter Offerings menu





Mark started with the Double Baked Gruyere Souffle




This is Tim’s Marinated Shrimp (with feta cheese, cilantro and tomato)





Mark’s entrée was the Pan-Seared Scallop and Asparagus Linguine



For dessert I chose the Triple Chocolate Terrine, which I loved.







After giving our service team their gratuity envelopes and our sincere thanks for an amazing cruise, we took some group photos and made arrangements with our head server to be seated at the late breakfast tomorrow, since we had an afternoon flight (no point in waking up earlier than needed!) We had to leave Triton’s through the rear door because there was a special concert in the atrium – it was a complete zoo, and I couldn’t stand the noise or the number of people! I wanted to get back to the room, but we ran into Joh and Gary (who we were never able to get together with for dinner) just long enough to say goodbye. Perhaps we will sail together again – many of the people in our Facebook group had done this same cruise together in 2015, and planned this reunion cruise together. There are already rumblings of sailing together in 2019...

Back in the room, we found Agung had brought more things for me to pack! – he left a beautiful commemorative lithograph, which I tucked safely in with the other artwork. This little guy held our comment card.





I was happy to see were setting the clocks back one more time tonight - I can always use some extra sleep! Mark completed the comment card and wrote a couple of extra pages himself. I tidied up and sorted out what would go in Mark’s messenger bag tomorrow and what would stay with me in the limited room I still had in my backpack. We emptied the safe, being certain to leave the drawer open as requested. We put the luggage tags Agung had left us on our three bags and had them in the hall at 9:30; I was shocked to see we weren’t the first ones. Technically, I was ready in the afternoon, but I didn’t want to show off. Or get a bag stolen…






I thought I might like some ice cream before bed, but just standing up in the room was difficult because of the strong seas; I decided it was safer to just stay put because we were really in the thick of it now! Later, in bed, we would feel the ship’s movement not only side-to-side, but pitching forward and aft as well. We would be in San Diego soon.

 
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HAILSTONES BURST MY DISNEY BUBBLE (or, why you should buy trip insurance) – disembarkation day – May 7


The day we had been dreading for two weeks had finally come; it was time to leave the Disney bubble and go home. The pain was lessened only slightly knowing we had booked a placeholder, and would cruise again sometime.





Our head server Levant had kindly accommodated our request for late breakfast, so we were in no huge hurry to leave the room. Mark went up to deck ten for some photos while I threw the last few things in our carry-on bag. Here are a few of those dizzying panoramic photos.












Breakfast was at 8:15 so we left our room at 8:00. Agung caught us in the hallway with our final account statement, apologizing for being late with it due to his being with Immigration. We said very quick goodbyes and glanced at the bill – not bad! Our room was right around the corner from the forward elevator, but there were so many people all trying to get to the same place that we knew we just needed to take the stairs to breakfast, and we lugged our twenty-plus pound carry-on bag. When we got down to deck three the atrium was crammed full of people waiting for Express Walk-off; these people had early flights to catch, so they had all of their luggage with them, making the crowded space even more cramped. We decided to go up to deck four via the aft stairs and walk forward to the staircase by Shutters and right into the back door of Triton’s…which was a great plan, except for all the people lined up for the late breakfast seating at Tiana’s.

Like salmon swimming upstream, we made our way down the stairs to deck three again, and walked forward to Triton’s, arriving only a few minutes late. It had taken us twenty minutes to get there! Somewhere in the midst of all that, there was an overhead announcement calling out two people, by name, who did not report to the non-US citizens’ Immigration assembly as they had been directed. All those Express Walk-off people were waiting on these two ladies. Immigration would not clear the ship without them checking in.

We were seated right next to our regular table, with Duran and Rijesh serving us one last time. Even the pastry looked sad this morning.





The “Gray Daisy” group was cleared to debark while we were eating, so as soon as we finished breakfast we would be free to leave, although there was no huge hurry; our flight didn’t leave until 2:20. But before we left the dining room we took the opportunity to say goodbye to some more of our new friends; we met so many amazing people on this cruise, and I do hope our paths cross again!

After depositing our comment card and four pages of additional comments into the box at the exit, we made a quick potty stop before swiping ourselves off the ship one last time. The sky was gray, and it was sprinkling rain – the weather matched everyone’s mood.

Our baggage zone was the first one inside the warehouse door, and we quickly had our bags and joined the line snaking “conga line” style toward the Customs Officers and the exit. Once outside, our Key to the World cards were checked one more time, for the “DV” designation which tells the staff we paid for Disney transfers to the airport. The bus was comfortable, and the trip to the airport was short…like ripping off a band-aid. It was nothing like that hour-long trip from Port Canaveral to MCO…





We arrived at the airport around ten o’clock and collected our bags from under the bus. Once inside the terminal we were surprised to see the Southwest check-in being done through a large number of self-serve kiosks. We, of course, had trouble with the darn thing and needed help, but once we had our bags tagged and dropped off with an agent we looked for the TSA Pre-check line. I think it was right around this time that things started to fall apart.

There was a very long line of people that we had to walk around to find the line to go through security; we soon found out that it WAS the line for security. At one point we gave up our place in what we thought was the “regular” line and went outside to go further upstream to come back inside and find the Pre-check line, only to find that one of the two scanners in this terminal was down, and they were beginning a process of ushering to the front of the line those passengers who were in danger of missing their flights. The line crawled forward…

First the Sacramento people, then Dallas…as they were beginning to call the Chicago people a Southwest employee who was directing traffic into the secure area noticed that several of us had been at the front of the line for a long time; she felt sorry for us and moved us through. We finally cleared security at 12:30, grateful that we had time to get lunch before we flew. The pickings were pretty slim, but there was a sit-down restaurant and we were able to get a substantial lunch.





We were flying back to Indy through Denver, to break the trip roughly in half. We boarded a little late, but taxied to the runway and the captain announced we had been cleared for takeoff. Almost immediately, he came back on the loudspeaker to announce that Denver had just declared a ground stoppage due to storms in the area, and we would be returning to the terminal. It was three o’clock. On arriving to the terminal, an announcement was made that we could deplane if we wished, to get snacks or to use the facilities, but to stay in the gate area. Mark and I chose to stay where we were; we were fed and watered and would just wait it out. Around 3:20 we saw the “throwers” outside in the rain taking some of the luggage off the plane, our included (our red luggage is easy to spot…). There was a thin tarp over the top of the baggage dolly, but it helped very little – our bags were getting wet.

At four o’clock the gate agent came onto the plane to ask if there was anyone still aboard whose final destination was NOT Denver or Louisville. That, of course, was us – and we were told we would not make our connection to Indy tonight. We gathered our things and walked up the jet way and into the terminal, which was full of people trying to make other arrangements. The noise was overwhelming, but we waited at the customer service desk for our turn to be rerouted. We were shocked to learn that we had no option but to return tomorrow for a 1:05pm flight through Chicago Midway. Surely they would offer some sort of compensation, right? Wrong. They were under no obligation to offer compensation for delays due to weather, but they DID have a “distressed traveler” discount on a hotel room.

I took the paper the agent offered and got online to arrange a room, only to learn the only room they were offering was almost $200! And, yes, that was the discounted price. Mark stays at the LaQuinta properties frequently, so I went to their website and held us a room at a property about fifteen minutes away, for half the price. Now all we had to do was find our bags, which we realized had been in the rain all this time. And Southwest apparently knew at 3:20 that we weren’t leaving San Diego any time soon.

At baggage claim, we had to wait for two flights to be unloaded before someone could go get our (sopping wet) bags to us. When we tried to contact the LaQuinta to arrange a shuttle bus pick-up, their phone lines were dead. It just kept getting better…

Eventually, we found a taxi and arrived at the LaQuinta. I had enough presence of mind to ask the desk clerk to recommend a good pizza place that delivered. She came through for us, big time, as the smell of garlic soon permeated our room! We had some noisy neighbors we worried about for a while, but they settled down later in the evening, and we got a decent night’s sleep.

In the morning, we had breakfast in the hotel’s breakfast room – it wasn’t anything fancy, but it was free, and filling. We took their shuttle back to the airport, ready to try it again! On checking in, we asked the agent if there was an earlier flight we could take, but he said our best option really was the flight through Chicago. Although we didn’t know it then, the storms that diverted us yesterday were today dumping baseball-size hail on Denver – here’s a screenshot of those storms on the weather radar.




We made a bathroom stop before going through security, thankfully NOT into the same terminal as yesterday. I had the most thorough TSA pat down of my life, but for a change the little Mickey Mouse bag was not a troublemaker!

We ate some snacks; I bought a bagel and magazine, and eventually it was our turn to finally get in the air. The only thing worse than leaving that wonderful Disney “bubble” of amazing service is being caught in travel hell twice as long as we should have been. Our son at home had to go back to college, so the dog was back in boarding today. That extra expense, along with the room, the meals and the taxi, would be turned into our trip insurance carrier. I’m still waiting for my check, which is equal to about half of the premium we paid for the policy.

Back in Indy around 9:45 pm, we caught the shuttle bus (with the same surly coffee-spilling driver as before) back to our car, and we were home by midnight. Back to our memory foam mattress, our water softener, and a showerhead that didn’t hit us in the throat.

The following night, after getting her from boarding, Karma’s gentle snoring would complete the cozy picture.
 
Great Trippie, Linda! I'm sad that the day I sit down to read the entire thing all at once was the day Photobucket decided not to show ANY of your pics!

Looks like you had an amazing cruise though and I'll be back to see all the pictures soon. :flower1:
 


FOOD BRINGS “INVISIBLE FRIENDS” TOGETHER – sea day, April 26

This is a great time to talk about the “mystery lady.” There was a beautiful Oriental woman, thirty-ish, with an older woman I assume was her mother. Mystery Lady had very elaborate clothing to match the characters’ clothes, and we watched her having pictures made with Stitch after Pluto left. She literally had at least five pictures on his left side, then went to his right side, then they held their arms differently, THEN they used her camera! Of course, they repeated this with Mom, and then had to take the same photos together! Later in the trip, when I saw her in line for a character meet, I just kept walking. Ain’t nobody got time for that…

She and her sister must have been on our Alaskan cruise last year, and we always seemed to get right behind them or within a few people behind them. They'd each do a 7 minute separate "photo shoot' with 50 different poses each by themselves and then together. We thought we'd die of frost bite before we ever got our pictures made with Alaskan gear Mickey!
 
We had 2 Japanese girls on our Alaska cruise that dressed like Minnie in all her outfits. We had a good time looking for them just to see what outfits they were wearing. Minnie's Alaska outfit in her fur lined parka and boots was my favorite one they wore!
Were you on the May 30-June 6, 2016 Alaska? That's the one we were on and I'm near positive those are the same 2 girls we were behind in line almost every character line.
 
Thank you so much for the great menu photo and explaining what all the food was. I'm really hoping they can leave the peas off the halibut dish as I'm really keen to eat more seafood this trip but even the smell of peas makes me ill. I've never been a fan of DCL cheesecake so I don't blame Mark one bit. Just two more months until we sail away!

YOU’LL MEET LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS – Embarkation day, Sunday April 23


We must have been excited, because we woke up before our alarms. After showering, we put our cruise tags on the three bags we would be sending ahead to the ship and headed out to breakfast around 7:30. I need protein in the morning, so I had biscuits and gravy with sausages,



and Mark had a vegetable omelette.



We shared some beignets, but I dropped the chocolate dipping sauce on the ground…they were just fine without it.




The cruise line letter left in our room the previous evening said our bags would need to be ready to be picked up at eight, and we should meet in the front lobby at 11:45 for the noon bus. Sure enough, as Mark was enjoying his second coffee around 8:30 our bags rolled by on a luggage cart! We sat outside the food court for a while, reading and checking all the messages on social media from our cruise group friends. Eventually Mark left for a walk by the river while I went back to the room to reread our camera’s instruction manual. Check-out time came around, but Mark was still walking. I decided to just stay where I was until he returned but I gathered up our things and moved outside when I saw a housekeeper looking in the window to see if we were gone yet.

After Mark returned we went to the gift shop for a bottle of water for the bus ride, then set out to find a chair by an electrical outlet so he could charge his phone. A young family I recognized from our cruise group was there, so we chatted for awhile. We were on the bus and on the road promptly at noon, arriving at the port just a little after one o’clock. At the port, my Mickey Mouse carry-on was a troublemaker again, this time because they thought my luggage scale was a taser. After we got that straightened out, check-in was a breeze, and we were on the ship and in our room in no time!

Let’s talk about this room for a moment – we chose a category 10A deluxe inside stateroom, better known as a secret porthole room. It was originally sold as an ocean view room, but because it has an obstructed view it was reclassified as an inside room. There are only a handful of them, and they are quite a bargain; we saved almost $100 a day by having this room rather than a verandah room.









Anyway, we took our things up to our room, number 5022, and immediately met our stateroom host, Agung. He was a sweet young man from Indonesia, and by the end of the cruise I just wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home with me. Anyway, he said if we needed anything to let him know…and soon after, we did – the lights wouldn’t turn on! He said there was some kind of temporary outage going on, and the lights did indeed come on shortly afterward. We checked out our Castaway Club gifts and the items we had preordered through DCL’s Gifts & Amenities page, then decided we would get some lunch at Cabana’s.

Cabana’s has hand washing sinks outside the doors, and I was surprised to see two of our tablemates there washing up for lunch! Deb & Tim would be joining us and another couple from our cruise group every night at dinner. I, of course, knew who they were, but when I said “Hey, look who’s here!’” poor Mark didn’t have a clue, because the wives had arranged it all! We all got our food, and found a nice table outside on the stern, in the sunshine. After lunch, Mark and I walked around decks 9 and 10 for a while before heading to the Crown and Fin for our group’s meet & greet event. It was from 2:30 to 3:30, but I don’t like crowds or noise, so I thought if we went at three it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. As we got off the elevator on deck three, I could already hear them – and I wondered if all four hundred of us had shown up for the event! As we walked into the room, it was literally filled with people – every seat seemed to be taken, and people were standing shoulder-to-shoulder…and I knew I probably wouldn’t last very long there.

But there were some people I really wanted to make sure I met: Bart and Hym, Joh and Gary, Kimmy, Wendy, Elaine, Daniel & Adam, and so many more!… so we plunged in. Despite the noise level, I had a good time meeting all the people I had come to know through our computers over the past year – many, many hugs were given! Wendy had made lime green Mickey heads for us to hang from our lanyards to identify each other, and Bart & Hym had name labels for them – they came in very handy! Wendy even pixie dusted us with a Sorcerer Mickey head for Mark, and Wall-E and Ellie Badge Mickey heads for me. I was able to relax a bit after I met Robert and his service dog Barnaby, but we left early nonetheless. Our luggage had arrived, so we did some unpacking before Muster Drill, and we hung our fish extender and put up our door magnets – at least, the ones that would stick. Our door had apparently been repainted many, many times! So most of the magnets came inside and decorated the door connecting us to 5024. We also had our first "visitor" on our "verandah" - the little platform outside our porthole!




Afterward we went up to deck 10 where Mark tried to identify the Space X buildings.






As he was looking off the port bow I noticed we were moving already – and it was only about 4:25! I texted the kids to tell them where to find us on the webcam, then headed over to the starboard side to our usual spot. I wasn’t sure we would even be on camera because the Oasis of the Seas looked to be in the way, but we were. There was a tour boat accompanying us for awhile, with all the people aboard waving big white Mickey hands!




I think we were way down by Jetty Park before the Mickey whistle sounded – it would have been nice to have a little horn war with the Oasis… After sail away we went back to the room to finish unpacking, but it was soon time to leave for our 5:45 dinner. I had the big stuff all put away, but the desktop was a huge mess; I had to trust Agung not to move anything, or I would never find it!

Our dinner rotation was TP-TR-AP, which meant Tiana’s Place, Triton’s, and Animator’s Palate. We chose early dinner because there is no 7:00 dinner – seriously. 8:15 is just too stinking late for us to eat, so early dining it was! We were assigned to table 40, which is near the door in all three dining rooms, and it was a different shaped table in each dining room, which I liked. We got acquainted with our other table mates Kathy & Fred as we looked over the menu.





Tonight we were enjoying the “Let the Magic Begin” menu, which was the same in each of the three dining rooms. I had to laugh at myself because everything I chose started with the letter “C” –

The Fried Spiced Calamari, served with a lemon-garlic mayonnaise




Couscous Salad

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Mesquite Grilled Chicken Breast, on wilted spinach and crushed sweet potatoes served with Cream of Corn and Bacon sauce -- that creamed corn and bacon was one of the best things I ate on this cruise!



And dessert was the Dark Chocolate Bombe, which was basically a chocolate mousse with a swoopy decoration.






Mark eats a mostly vegetarian diet, but he eats seafood as well; his dinner was

Smoked Salmon Carpaccio



Arugula and Baby Spinach Salad



And Pan-Seared Halibut



He had the mango cheesecake for dessert but I didn’t get a picture of it. I don’t think he was overly impressed by it, but overall I think we all enjoyed our dinner.

Mark is not a “show” person, and especially doesn’t like the welcome-aboard show on the first night. So while he walked out on deck after dinner I went back to the room and found homes for all the stuff on the desk. Our first towel animal of our cruise was a dachshund! – you’ve set the bar high, Agung!!




A blister on my heel I had developed earlier in the week was now bleeding, so I stayed off my feet and worked on prepping fish extender gifts for delivering later. After Mark returned to the room he pulled the privacy curtain so I could sleep while he watched a movie, but we were really moving by then (as we always do on the first night) so I got up and took two benedryl to ensure some good sleep.
 
The leek and potato soup is my youngest daughter's favorite thing on the ship to eat. She'll be so excited to see it again. I was thinking I should probably have a salad as my main course as I plan to have the deep fried brie and the French onion soup and then I saw your steak. :drool: I have to try that!

CELEBRATE THE THINGS YOU HAVE IN COMMON! – April 24, a day at sea


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Today would be our first full day, and it was a day at sea. I love sea days! I love waking up when I want to, doing whatever I want, whenever I want… But today was a rather structured sea day!


Mark’s alarm went off at 6:30. I snoozed while he showered and I eventually got up around seven, because we had a breakfast date with Mickey and pals!! Mark went to the Cove Café for his cappuccino(s?) while I showered and dressed, then we made our way down to Animator’s Palate for our Mickey and Pals Character Breakfast. This is a ticketed event, and we signed up for it when we did our online check-in 105 days before sailing. We were meeting Fred and Kathy and their friends Susan & Tom. We were taken to a table for eight, and shortly thereafter two young ladies arrived to complete the table.



This is a limited breakfast menu, but you’re not really here for the food, are you? You’re here for the characters.






But I have to admit, it was kind of a love-‘em-and-shove-‘em kind of character experience. We were advised to have our cameras on and ready to go when the characters arrived, and while they did sign autographs the whole experience was kind of a letdown, compared to the awesome, random character interactions you have onboard. Mickey left our table so quickly Susan and Tom didn’t get autographs, so they had to have him brought back out! But we did get some cute pictures! – you’ll note Mark couldn’t stand his hat and he ditched it pretty quickly!



After breakfast I went back to the room to catch up my journal notes while Mark went walking. We agreed to meet in the Walt Disney Theater for Captain Ken Puckett’s 11:00 lecture on the Panama Canal. Cpt. Puckett is a retired Panama Canal pilot, and has taken almost 1500 ships through the Canal. (A ship’s captain relinquishes control of his vessel to a trained Canal pilot for the transit – the Canal pilot tells the ship’s captain what to do and he carries out those commands.) Today’s talk was about the Age of Exploration, and the need to have a shortcut through Central America to prevent ships having to go around the tip of South America to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Again, I’m not a history fan, but this background was important to understanding the bigger story behind the Canal, and I thought he did a great job trying to pack a lot of information into a forty-five minute presentation. He is also a very entertaining speaker, and I enjoyed all of his lectures, which were also shown on TV for those unable to see him live. He estimated that our fee to make the transit was in the five to six hundred thousand dollar range!



After Captain Puckett’s presentation it was time to eat again – really! Deb is an avid quilter and she had organized a fabric exchange. Eighteen of us signed up to exchange a “fat quarter” of batik fabric with a beach or ocean theme. We would then take those pieces home and make a special piece to remind us of our cruise. Lunch was at noon in Triton’s, and I was surprised to see the lunch menus now on a horizontal card, with small plate offerings. Maybe they finally realized we don’t all want a three-course lunch. Didn’t stop me, though…



Lunch was Mexican Tortilla Soup

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Tomato Glazed Meatloaf (not near as good as MY meatloaf!)





And the Italian Style Ice Cream Sundae

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Kathy was at the luncheon too, and she said our husbands were meeting up for lunch at Cabanas. Afterward, I took my fabric back to the room and took a good look at it; I think the colors all go great together!



There were so many fish extender gifts on the bed when I returned! I didn’t know if Mark or Agung brought them in, but my poor fish extender must have been bulging at the seams!!



I tied up a few more FE gifts (we gave a fabric grocery bag with the bow of the ship and the dates on the front – Mark designed it!) before heading upstairs to see Pixar Short Films on Funnel Vision at 2:45. But they never showed it! 2:45 came and went and they didn’t show it; after a while they showed a little cartoon with Pumbaa and Timon teaching pool safety. Bummer… Mark eventually caught up with me there, and we went up to deck ten to admire the ocean. We found two loungers in the shade and turned them around, toward the water. We had just commented that a drink would be nice when Bert the bar waiter walked by. Mark had a beer and I had the second-best Pina Colada I’ve ever had in my life!




Soon enough, it was time to dress for dinner – tonight was Formal Night and the Captain’s Welcome Reception!

I was still having big troubles with that darned blister, and my dress shoes were killing me, but we slowly made our way through the reception in the atrium on our way to Triton’s for dinner. The reception offers free cocktails, and Bert the waiter called me by name to offer me a drink. Now, I know I’m a pretty generous tipper, but I didn’t expect him to remember my name!

We had a lovely dinner at Triton’s. The roving photographers took our photographs, but frankly the ones on our camera were just as good.




Some of my food photos from tonight were a little fuzzy. I had to borrow the menu photos from the Disney Cruise Line Blog.






We both started with the Breaded and Deep-Fried Brie



And while he had the Potage Parmentier (leek and potato soup)…



I had the Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp as my second course.



My entrée was the Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak



And Mark had the Conchiglie Pasta (with roasted lobster)



He chose the Classic Opera Gateau for dessert, which didn’t seem to wow him.



I chose my favorite dish from Triton’s: the Grand Marnier Souffle!



We had asked our service team to speed up dinner a little bit tonight, because one of our prearrange group activities was a group photo in front of Triton’s at 7:30. We left dinner with ten minutes to spare, and taking the photo was a hoot! We had one person in the line as our placeholder and the rest of us were milling around in the atrium. When she got to the front of the line the rest of us ran up, fanning out around the steps and halfway up the stairs! It’s a wonderful way to remember the group – and look at the poor entertainers in the back left! They probably wondered what the heck was going on!



As the group broke up after the photo, we were walking back toward our room when another member of the group walked up to us and asked “Isn’t there supposed to be a photo tonight?”…. Oh no!! - You literally just missed it!

Tomorrow we would be in Cozumel and we had an excursion planned, so despite the Cruise Director’s promise that the comedy show tonight was not to be missed I decided my sore feet and I needed to stay in this evening. Mark took some gift cards and rewards points to Guest Services to put on our account, and I had asked him to increase the gratuities for our service team. He said they couldn’t do it yet; it wasn’t in the system yet. That seems like a very un-Disney thing. The answer is always yes! And how unlike them to refuse to take our money… Anyway, I watched the last half of Beauty and the Beast on TV, and the beginning of Toy Story 3. Bart texted me to arrange to meet in the morning to share a cab for our excursion. Mr. Turtle was our towelie tonight, and he reminded us to turn our clocks back before we turned in.



Ah!...extra sleep! I set a timer for X amount of hours, in addition to turning back the clocks on our phones. Mark tried to turn back the room clock but decided it was impossible. The ship’s gentle rocking lulled us off to sleep.
 

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