akasleepingbeauty
My favorite place to run is Disney!!
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2000
Our Happy Group:
Me, 36, compulsive planner, hoping all goes perfect
DH, 44, good sport, in need of a good vacation
Teen DD, 15, excited but in a cool way
Youngest DD, 13 months, oblivious to goings-on, just her generally happy self
My parents and sister (25) were traveling in our group as well. This is the first time we have all traveled as a group and it went surprisingly well!!
I will warn you now - these daily reports are going to be long - really really really long. So, if you don't like detailed reports go ahead and hit that back button now!!
I wrote this information as much for me as for all of you. I want to remember as much of it as possible - hence the ad nauseum detail.
Read, skim, or skip completely - whatever works for you!! I will post these by days and then add some general overviews on certain subjects. Please ask questions if you have them!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
5/31 Thursday Day at Sea
Oh thank goodness we can all sleep in well some of us can. We have our Character Breakfast this morning but only DH, youngest DD and I are going. No one else thinks it is worth getting up early for. So, we get up and out by 8:10 and head for our 8:15 breakfast at Parrot Cay.
The breakfast turned out to be fun for all of us. Our DD had not had much previous exposure to the characters so I wasnt sure how she would react to them up close and personal. First around to the table was Chip. She smiled and laughed at him were off to a good start. Next came Minnie. DD LOVED Minnie and Minnie was sweet enough to spend several minutes with her. We then had a break for eating and watching the characters dance before Dale and Mickey came by.
I had eggs over easy with bacon and hash browns with a side order of hash browns and a couple of pancakes. DH had the same except he had sausage instead of bacon. The eggs were cooked appropriately and the other items were fine. This food was not as good as the other food wed had in the dining rooms but it was certainly satisfactory. DD had the kids plate with fruit, scrambled eggs, etc. She ate plenty and was happy just to watch all the activity around her. Our server did tell us that Goofy does not generally make it to any tables near the walls, as his feet are too big to fit between tables. So, Goofy spent most of his time near the front of Parrot Cay signing autographs and meeting kids.
We returned to our room to find teen DD still asleep no surprise considering the late hours shed kept for the week. She actually slept until we forced her out of bed at 11:00. We discussed the fact that she needed to come in earlier tonight so that she would be in a good mood for our day on Castaway Cay tomorrow (unlike the lovely mood she was in while at Trunk Bay lol!).
My mom and sister went to the final Art of Entertaining Series (they made it to all but one of these) and enjoyed it as much as the others. I hope that I have the opportunity to attend this series next time as the one presentation I did see was very well done.
Once my mom and sister had returned, DH and my sister and I got ready to return to Palo for our second brunch. My parents decided not to go and watch DD instead. We headed up to Palo via the aft elevators to deck 10 this way you come out of the elevator right in front of Palo and do not have to go outside first (it is very windy on deck 10). Our brunch reservation was for 11:45 and we were seated right away. Louise from England was our server and she was very fun and an excellent server.
We all sampled the cold buffet (shrimp, etc.) again as well as the extraordinary baked goods, antipastos, and cheese. For hot entrees, I chose the garlic beef tenderloin, while DH had a pepperoni pizza and my sister had eggs Julianne (sort of like eggs benedict but with salmon). All of it was perfectly cooked and very delicious!! We once again enjoyed the fresh-squeezed orange juice and champagne. We had the sweet pizza once again for dessert along with a sampling of the other desserts that Louise brought for us. Once again, a memorable and delicious dining experience.
During brunch, the Captain made the exciting announcement about the new western Caribbean itinerary. This made for some fun talk during brunch and I could hardly wait to make sure the news had made it to the boards. Later that day I stopped by the Internet Café (my one and only stop I was proud of myself!!) and checked email and the boards. I looked for an announcement about the new itinerary but somehow missed Daves post. So, I went ahead and posted only to see Daves post as soon as mine was posted. I felt kind of silly but was glad to know that the news had been shared!!
We finished brunch about 1:15 and headed back to our staterooms. My parents had taken DD with them while eating lunch and for a walk around deck. Teen DD had gone to lunch with her friends and was out and about the ship. DH and DD were ready for a nap, which I also briefly considered. I ended up deciding to go get some errands done around the ship and left them to sleep in peace.
First, I headed to Guest Services to drop off the tee shirts wed bought for DDs and me in Mickey Mates to have the characters autograph them. I brought some cute multi-colored fabric markers but the CM said they could only use their own markers (turns out this is not completely true guess Ill have to be more insistent next time). I wrote our stateroom number on the tags in the shirts and was told theyd be ready later that day.
I then headed up to the shopping area when I ran in to Caroline on the stairs. Her youngest DS had run down the stairs ahead of her and was now lost. We ended up on a 30-minute search with the help of many CMs and other passengers before he was finally found. Luckily, he was just fine. He had managed to find his way back to the door of their stateroom and was waiting there when his mom found him. Such a relief to know all was okay. The CMs were great using walkie talkies to communicate with each other and staying calm and positive.
Back on course, I headed to the gift shop for one more round of shopping. I got some very nice luggage tags in Treasure Ketch for only $4.00 each along with a Palo pin and some more postcards. Not a big shopping trip but it was nice to have a chance to shop alone.
After leaving the shops, I passed the atrium and noticed my sister in line with Cindy (cyndilou01) and Kathy (maycruiser) for the kitchen galley tour. I decided to join them and ended up really enjoying the tour. You get to see the whole kitchen area for both Lumieres and Parrot Cay including drink areas (this is where I verified my suspicion that the iced tea is indeed the fountain version rather than brewed), pastry areas (where we got a fresh hot cookie to eat) and storage areas. This area is unbelievably clean you really could eat off the floor shining stainless steel everywhere you look!! It was fun to hear some of the facts about the amount of food served, seating capacities of the restaurants, etc. We also learned a bit about the crews dining areas and menus.
After the tour, which lasted about 25 minutes, I headed back to the room to see if DH and DD were still napping. They were just waking up once again good timing!!
Since this was another formal night and we wanted to have pictures taken before dinner this time, we needed to start the getting ready process fairly early. I was especially hoping for good pictures tonight, as we did not care for the ones taken on the first formal night. Teen DD returned about 5:00 at which point DH and I were mostly ready and only had youngest DD to dress.
We left the room about 5:30 and headed to the picture background of our choice (once again the ship at night). This time there was no line at all. We had a variety of pictures taken (large group, our family only, dh and I only, etc.) While my sister was having her picture taken alone, my mother decided to get one on her own camera. Unfortunately, she leaned against what she thought was a railing and discovered too late it was only a rope blocking off the stairway. She fell down and hit her head on the railing and very narrowly missed going all the way down the stairs. We all immediately ran to her aid and we were much relieved to discover she was a bit sore and embarrassed but not seriously injured.
After the near-miss accident and the rest of our pictures, we headed to Animators Palate for dinner. Since this was our second visit, there was no show tonight. It was a formal night however and the theme of the dinner was Captains Gala or otherwise known as Lobster Night. For appetizers tonight I had the baked clams with tomato garlic butter (something Id never had before and very tasty) and the wild forest mushroom soup (very rich and earthy tasting), for an entrée I had the twin lobster tails served in the shell with lemon butter, young green beans, and oven-baked rice (absolutely wonderful!), and for dessert I had the warm chocolate lava cake (good but not nearly as good as the Palo soufflé). Others in our group had the garden fresh salad served with tomato chips and balsamic dressing and the grilled vegetables and beef prosciutto drizzled with green tomato sauce for appetizers, the fettuccine with seared sea scallops for an entrée (all but one of us had the delicious lobster tails), and the fresh fruit pie and amaretto cheesecake with raspberry sauce for desserts. It was, once again, a very good meal and we were all satisfied with our choices.
Tonights show was Disney Dreams and we all had been looking forward to it. So my sister and teen DD waited for seats while we took DD to put on pajamas and then onto Flounders. My parents had gone to the Disney Dreams matinee at 3:15 today so that they could see the evening presentation of the movie Pearl Harbor tonight.
When we returned to our room, we found an elephant towel animal once again so cute we had to take pictures!! I admit it is a bit childish to get such a kick out of towel animals but we could not help ourselves and eagerly anticipated each nights creature!!
Back to the theatre where we find great seats and eagerly anticipate the beginning of the show. We really enjoyed seeing so many of the different characters in Disney Dreams. Our favorite scenes were the Under the Sea number and the Lion King scene (the lead singer was so unbelievably talented). Everyone enjoyed the show and well go see it on any return cruises I am sure.
We briefly considered going to Karaoke again but decided to pass. Instead, we headed to Guest Services to pick up our shirts and to take care of our gratuities. The shirts turned out so much cuter than I expected with lots and lots of autographs on them. I will make sure to do this on each cruise what a great service this is. You can take autograph books and get signatures that way also.
DH and I had already discussed how much our gratuities would be and filled out the forms so it was a fairly quick process. Luckily, there was no one in line so we were finished in less than 5 minutes. I know that many people tip the suggested amount but we really felt everyone deserved more so we tipped accordingly. We handed the tip envelope to our Room Steward that evening when we saw him to make sure we had a chance to deliver it personally.
We decided to go to bed early since we had an early morning planned for Castaway Cay the next day. So, we got a few things ready for the morning and then went to pick up DD from Flounders. Teen DD came in about 12:30 and she was very quiet as usual.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Links to other days' trip reports
Day 1: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45110
Day 2: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45111
Day 3: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45112
Day 4: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45114
Day 5: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45116
Day 6: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45117
Day 7: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45119
Day 9: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45122
Day 10: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45123
Me, 36, compulsive planner, hoping all goes perfect
DH, 44, good sport, in need of a good vacation
Teen DD, 15, excited but in a cool way
Youngest DD, 13 months, oblivious to goings-on, just her generally happy self
My parents and sister (25) were traveling in our group as well. This is the first time we have all traveled as a group and it went surprisingly well!!
I will warn you now - these daily reports are going to be long - really really really long. So, if you don't like detailed reports go ahead and hit that back button now!!
I wrote this information as much for me as for all of you. I want to remember as much of it as possible - hence the ad nauseum detail.
Read, skim, or skip completely - whatever works for you!! I will post these by days and then add some general overviews on certain subjects. Please ask questions if you have them!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
5/31 Thursday Day at Sea
Oh thank goodness we can all sleep in well some of us can. We have our Character Breakfast this morning but only DH, youngest DD and I are going. No one else thinks it is worth getting up early for. So, we get up and out by 8:10 and head for our 8:15 breakfast at Parrot Cay.
The breakfast turned out to be fun for all of us. Our DD had not had much previous exposure to the characters so I wasnt sure how she would react to them up close and personal. First around to the table was Chip. She smiled and laughed at him were off to a good start. Next came Minnie. DD LOVED Minnie and Minnie was sweet enough to spend several minutes with her. We then had a break for eating and watching the characters dance before Dale and Mickey came by.
I had eggs over easy with bacon and hash browns with a side order of hash browns and a couple of pancakes. DH had the same except he had sausage instead of bacon. The eggs were cooked appropriately and the other items were fine. This food was not as good as the other food wed had in the dining rooms but it was certainly satisfactory. DD had the kids plate with fruit, scrambled eggs, etc. She ate plenty and was happy just to watch all the activity around her. Our server did tell us that Goofy does not generally make it to any tables near the walls, as his feet are too big to fit between tables. So, Goofy spent most of his time near the front of Parrot Cay signing autographs and meeting kids.
We returned to our room to find teen DD still asleep no surprise considering the late hours shed kept for the week. She actually slept until we forced her out of bed at 11:00. We discussed the fact that she needed to come in earlier tonight so that she would be in a good mood for our day on Castaway Cay tomorrow (unlike the lovely mood she was in while at Trunk Bay lol!).
My mom and sister went to the final Art of Entertaining Series (they made it to all but one of these) and enjoyed it as much as the others. I hope that I have the opportunity to attend this series next time as the one presentation I did see was very well done.
Once my mom and sister had returned, DH and my sister and I got ready to return to Palo for our second brunch. My parents decided not to go and watch DD instead. We headed up to Palo via the aft elevators to deck 10 this way you come out of the elevator right in front of Palo and do not have to go outside first (it is very windy on deck 10). Our brunch reservation was for 11:45 and we were seated right away. Louise from England was our server and she was very fun and an excellent server.
We all sampled the cold buffet (shrimp, etc.) again as well as the extraordinary baked goods, antipastos, and cheese. For hot entrees, I chose the garlic beef tenderloin, while DH had a pepperoni pizza and my sister had eggs Julianne (sort of like eggs benedict but with salmon). All of it was perfectly cooked and very delicious!! We once again enjoyed the fresh-squeezed orange juice and champagne. We had the sweet pizza once again for dessert along with a sampling of the other desserts that Louise brought for us. Once again, a memorable and delicious dining experience.
During brunch, the Captain made the exciting announcement about the new western Caribbean itinerary. This made for some fun talk during brunch and I could hardly wait to make sure the news had made it to the boards. Later that day I stopped by the Internet Café (my one and only stop I was proud of myself!!) and checked email and the boards. I looked for an announcement about the new itinerary but somehow missed Daves post. So, I went ahead and posted only to see Daves post as soon as mine was posted. I felt kind of silly but was glad to know that the news had been shared!!
We finished brunch about 1:15 and headed back to our staterooms. My parents had taken DD with them while eating lunch and for a walk around deck. Teen DD had gone to lunch with her friends and was out and about the ship. DH and DD were ready for a nap, which I also briefly considered. I ended up deciding to go get some errands done around the ship and left them to sleep in peace.
First, I headed to Guest Services to drop off the tee shirts wed bought for DDs and me in Mickey Mates to have the characters autograph them. I brought some cute multi-colored fabric markers but the CM said they could only use their own markers (turns out this is not completely true guess Ill have to be more insistent next time). I wrote our stateroom number on the tags in the shirts and was told theyd be ready later that day.
I then headed up to the shopping area when I ran in to Caroline on the stairs. Her youngest DS had run down the stairs ahead of her and was now lost. We ended up on a 30-minute search with the help of many CMs and other passengers before he was finally found. Luckily, he was just fine. He had managed to find his way back to the door of their stateroom and was waiting there when his mom found him. Such a relief to know all was okay. The CMs were great using walkie talkies to communicate with each other and staying calm and positive.
Back on course, I headed to the gift shop for one more round of shopping. I got some very nice luggage tags in Treasure Ketch for only $4.00 each along with a Palo pin and some more postcards. Not a big shopping trip but it was nice to have a chance to shop alone.
After leaving the shops, I passed the atrium and noticed my sister in line with Cindy (cyndilou01) and Kathy (maycruiser) for the kitchen galley tour. I decided to join them and ended up really enjoying the tour. You get to see the whole kitchen area for both Lumieres and Parrot Cay including drink areas (this is where I verified my suspicion that the iced tea is indeed the fountain version rather than brewed), pastry areas (where we got a fresh hot cookie to eat) and storage areas. This area is unbelievably clean you really could eat off the floor shining stainless steel everywhere you look!! It was fun to hear some of the facts about the amount of food served, seating capacities of the restaurants, etc. We also learned a bit about the crews dining areas and menus.
After the tour, which lasted about 25 minutes, I headed back to the room to see if DH and DD were still napping. They were just waking up once again good timing!!
Since this was another formal night and we wanted to have pictures taken before dinner this time, we needed to start the getting ready process fairly early. I was especially hoping for good pictures tonight, as we did not care for the ones taken on the first formal night. Teen DD returned about 5:00 at which point DH and I were mostly ready and only had youngest DD to dress.
We left the room about 5:30 and headed to the picture background of our choice (once again the ship at night). This time there was no line at all. We had a variety of pictures taken (large group, our family only, dh and I only, etc.) While my sister was having her picture taken alone, my mother decided to get one on her own camera. Unfortunately, she leaned against what she thought was a railing and discovered too late it was only a rope blocking off the stairway. She fell down and hit her head on the railing and very narrowly missed going all the way down the stairs. We all immediately ran to her aid and we were much relieved to discover she was a bit sore and embarrassed but not seriously injured.
After the near-miss accident and the rest of our pictures, we headed to Animators Palate for dinner. Since this was our second visit, there was no show tonight. It was a formal night however and the theme of the dinner was Captains Gala or otherwise known as Lobster Night. For appetizers tonight I had the baked clams with tomato garlic butter (something Id never had before and very tasty) and the wild forest mushroom soup (very rich and earthy tasting), for an entrée I had the twin lobster tails served in the shell with lemon butter, young green beans, and oven-baked rice (absolutely wonderful!), and for dessert I had the warm chocolate lava cake (good but not nearly as good as the Palo soufflé). Others in our group had the garden fresh salad served with tomato chips and balsamic dressing and the grilled vegetables and beef prosciutto drizzled with green tomato sauce for appetizers, the fettuccine with seared sea scallops for an entrée (all but one of us had the delicious lobster tails), and the fresh fruit pie and amaretto cheesecake with raspberry sauce for desserts. It was, once again, a very good meal and we were all satisfied with our choices.
Tonights show was Disney Dreams and we all had been looking forward to it. So my sister and teen DD waited for seats while we took DD to put on pajamas and then onto Flounders. My parents had gone to the Disney Dreams matinee at 3:15 today so that they could see the evening presentation of the movie Pearl Harbor tonight.
When we returned to our room, we found an elephant towel animal once again so cute we had to take pictures!! I admit it is a bit childish to get such a kick out of towel animals but we could not help ourselves and eagerly anticipated each nights creature!!
Back to the theatre where we find great seats and eagerly anticipate the beginning of the show. We really enjoyed seeing so many of the different characters in Disney Dreams. Our favorite scenes were the Under the Sea number and the Lion King scene (the lead singer was so unbelievably talented). Everyone enjoyed the show and well go see it on any return cruises I am sure.
We briefly considered going to Karaoke again but decided to pass. Instead, we headed to Guest Services to pick up our shirts and to take care of our gratuities. The shirts turned out so much cuter than I expected with lots and lots of autographs on them. I will make sure to do this on each cruise what a great service this is. You can take autograph books and get signatures that way also.
DH and I had already discussed how much our gratuities would be and filled out the forms so it was a fairly quick process. Luckily, there was no one in line so we were finished in less than 5 minutes. I know that many people tip the suggested amount but we really felt everyone deserved more so we tipped accordingly. We handed the tip envelope to our Room Steward that evening when we saw him to make sure we had a chance to deliver it personally.
We decided to go to bed early since we had an early morning planned for Castaway Cay the next day. So, we got a few things ready for the morning and then went to pick up DD from Flounders. Teen DD came in about 12:30 and she was very quiet as usual.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Links to other days' trip reports
Day 1: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45110
Day 2: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45111
Day 3: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45112
Day 4: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45114
Day 5: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45116
Day 6: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45117
Day 7: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45119
Day 9: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45122
Day 10: http://www.disboards.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45123
