***Continued from Part 1***
Watching the air show practice above was fascinating as well. The planes would soar by, and then dip down as if in a free fall only to pull up right above the surface of the ocean. You can see in the picture below how the smoke trails dive down to the water level. Amazing!
We spent a half hour or so enjoying the beach, chasing after Sarah who didnt understand the concept that all of the sand toys and such lying around on the beach werent all hers (a theme to be repeated often in the coming week, unfortunately).
About the beach itself, the sand is soft and plush and the facilities nearby are good (restrooms in the pier available), however the water on the east coast of FL isn't as nice as on the West Coast. Its' greener and more dingy. I've also heard there can be a sharp drop off here but we did not swim so I can't verify that. The surf and waves are what the draw is on the East coast though, for sure!
We then headed up to the pier. It isnt a fishing pier, more of a retail shopping and dining tourist trap. Although again, had we not had kids with us and more time to kill, we would have loved to waste some hours relaxing at the pier tiki bar with some drinks and watching the surfers and planes.
Then, just like that it was already time to head back to the hotel to get cleaned up before heading to the pre-cruise meet at Grills.
Grills Restaurant at the Port:
(as viewed from the Magic the next day!)
We arrived at Grills fashionably late at about 3:50. As we approached the hostess stand we informed them we were with a large party that had the 3:45 reservation and gave them the name of our cruise mate Joanie who had organized the meet. We were met with basically blank stares and a declaration that there was no such reservation, that they dont do reservations. I was pretty sure that Joanie didnt just make everything up, so upon our insistence they checked the book again (if they didnt do reservations, now WHY did they have a book?!?!?!) Then we heard mention of a party of 11. I knew we were supposed to be 18, but one of our group is a family of 7 and they were driving down and were not positive they would make it in time. So the mention of a group of 11 did click for a second with me, but apparently not with them. Then they finally realized they had the book on the wrong day and voila! -they found the reservation which had in fact been changed from 18 to 11. Well now we were halfway to figuring out what was going on. Then another lady joined the conversation and supposedly tried to call the phone number they had for Joanie to inquire when they would be arriving, which they told me was disconnected. So now all the red flags were flying high, I knew something here just wasnt right. Are you sure youre at the right restaurant they asked me? Yes, we were. It was in fact the right date, right time, and the right reservation (of which you guys claimed you dont do), but since they did not make any offer to seat us or anything I waited off to the side frantically scrolling through my PMs on the DIS on my phone looking for the one with Joanies phone number (as it turns out was the only one of many phone numbers exchanged pre-cruise that I forgot to put in my contacts). Meanwhile Ron and the kids decided to walk around the restaurant and deck outside in hopes of if everyone else was there they would spot him.
Then, magically I was approached by Judy (TJBaggott). Wouldnt you know, the entire group was there, they had been for a while. They had been seated and were already enjoying appetizers and drinks. We didnt see them because the foyer/entrance is at a higher level than some parts of the dining room, including down where they were seated. They had in fact seen Ron and the kids milling about outside and wondered what they were up to, but figured maybe we wanted to just check the place out or that one of us was still in the car or something. So at least 15 minutes later and absolutely no thanks at all to the hostess staff at Grills we had finally met at the meet!
The restaurant was fairly busy for being such an early hour, although the main show is definitely the parade of ships sailing by, and that happened shortly after we were finally able to find our party and get seated.
Bon Voyage to Royal Caribbeans Monarch of the Seas!
We were happy to finally meet two wonderful families, Judys family and Joanie and Sam (sssteele). They were wonderful! What great folks, we really enjoyed getting the opportunity to relax and enjoy everybodys company before the chaos that would be the cruise for us. We were sad (especially Savannah) that our other cruisemate Vickis (mvlimmex) family was still in north GA and did not make it in time for the meet.
Happy DIS Families!
The company was fantastic. The restaurant was very casual and the food was OK, but a bit pricey for what it was. You are definitely paying for the view and atmosphere if you eat here. Our service was very good as well. Food, like I said, decent but pricey. We had an appetizer of cheese sticks and peel & eat shrimp. The cheese sticks were good but in hindsight the peel & eat shrimp was an impulsive purchase that was regrettable since we would have all the free peel & eat shrimp we could eat just the very next day.
For entrées both Ron and I chose grilled fish sandwiches, which were good but not amazing. They were rather small, and were more thick roll than juicy fish. But the flavor was good. Brendan had a HUGE cheeseburger in paradise, and the girls had chicken and cheese stick kids meals respectively. For drinks we all had sodas/tea and Ron had a couple of beers and I had a specialty drink (Lazy Pelican, which was supposed to be more like a fruity martini but tasted more like a margarita). We also got a chocolatey cake dessert which was just OK (the cake was frozen and had an aftertaste). In the end our bill was around $80 which we thought was very pricey at the time. In retrospect with appetizers and drinks, and dessert, we actually did have a lot of food and drink. The company was just the best, though!
The plan afterward was to head over to the Radisson where Joanie and Sam were staying and enjoy the fabulous pool there. Unfortunately they reported that the Radisson resort had become ground zero for a biker cruise departing the next day and that the pool area had literally been swarmed with bikers, some with rather questionable taste in garments and tattoos. (Joanie and Sams favorite was the bald guy with an entire face tattooed on the back of his head so it looked like someone was staring at you if you were behind him.) Instead we just headed back to the CIS to chill at the pool there. The kids had such a blast, and finally really started to get to know eachother.
Fellow cruiser Jonathan (Fastpaks) and his family were also going to meet us at the Radisson, but I texted him the change in plans. They would eventually end up meeting us and Judys family at CIS where we enjoyed talking cruise a bit by the pool and recounting their adventures over the last week (and boy did they have some adventures!!!!)
After night fell, Jonathan, Amy and Adam headed to their hotel (which I hear was also, um
interesting) and Judy and I retired inside to do some laundry. I also had some packing adjustments to make, including separating all of the chocolate out of the MNSSHP candy to bring along with us, since it would melt (or freeze, as it turned out) in the van had we left it. I also had to cut out and assemble all of our door magnets for the cruise. I had ran out of time right before we left and had hurriedly just started printing magnet designs willy-nilly, not paying much attention to which ones I had printed and which ones I hadnt. In the end I ran out of ink about halfway through the printing so I did not have nearly as many magnets as I would have liked, nor did I end up having some of the designs I had hoped to have displayed. In any event, cutting them out of cardstock and sticking the magnet strips took a good couple of hours.
When we finally retired for the night well after midnight we were exhausted, but yet, still too excited to sleep. After all the day we had awaited for two years had finally arrived and in just hours we would be sailing away to paradise!
Up Next: Where The Boat Leaves From!!!
I hope the crud is improving.
I am STILL doing laundry- how about you??
but they had moved along by then. Right by the castle though we ran into fellow cruisers Janice and Linda, which was a nice surprise! We didnt expect to see them at 
It looks like such fun and I KNOW he would love it if he would just give it a chance. We also have a beach day planned for Saturday before our cruise leaves, so I can't wait to see how this day went for you!
I would have liked to see more characters in their costumes, and to have seen the Villains show, but you really need at least 2 nights to do it all. The kids wanted to ride too, of course, so ride we did!!!
