I was excited about dinner that night, since we'd be seeing the normal "show" with dinner in Animator's Palate. Unfortunately, our table was no where near the screens ... so having our own talk with Crush wasn't going to happen.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure where Crush and Nemo fit in thematically with the subject of this dining room. It's basically Turtle Talk with Crush on a cruise ship. When we were seated, the screens showed concept art and storyboard designs for
Finding Nemo. By the time we ordered our meals, the show "started" with great fanfare of the screens switching into "live" mode of the characters swimming in and out of view. Then Crush appears and calls for everyone to participate in shouting out answers to questions or pep rally calls, etc. This is great and cute if you're 8 years old. It's amusing if you're an adult, at least at first. Crush then disappears and several minutes later you can see him visiting the tables (which typically were at least 6 top) next to the larger screens. He'd then disappear for several minutes again, which would then be occupied by yelling Nemo characters asking you to guess what shape the minnows are in, and so on.
Therefore? Dinner was
loud.
I loved all the details in this dining room!
Dad and Simon, the head waiter (?) He only appeared to ask us how we were and chat a bit during the last 2 nights. He was really nice, though.
Dad with Craig and Darmika
Don't plan on having a conversation in this dining room. This menu, also, was my least favorite. It was hard to eat light, too, since I was still not feeling to great. I ended up choosing the shrimp "cheesecake" ... which Craig had warned me wasn't too good but I didn't listen. Mom liked it, though, so she was the rare person who felt differently. Other than that, I can't remember what else I had--so it was either sufficiently good or otherwise unremarkable. But my mother? The butternut squash soup blew her out of the water (or off the ship?) ... she
raved about this soup for WEEKS. I couldn't remember if it was this night or pirate night she had it, but it was the best thing she had for the whole trip. We've since bought every type of butternut squash soup we can find, and only managed to find a fitting comparison at a health food counter in a local mall food court.
So, remember when I had mentioned how awkward Craig was sometimes? One of his other faults was his
constant reminders about giving him specifically "
excellent" ratings on our comment card. Our general response for everything, no matter how good it is, is to tell our waiters "very good" ... and Craig did not like this. He wanted to know why it wasn't "excellent". Most of the time we'd correct ourselves, and he'd get excited and remind us about making sure to put that down on the survey. One night Mom mentioned that she didn't care for the pasta, for it was dry. He was horrified that she didn't tell him at the time and he would have gotten her something else. He went on at length at how
everything in the dining room, from food to service, was reflected on his performance. When we assured him we knew he had no control over the food, he was adamant that he was and OH MY GOSH, LET ME KNOW NEXT TIME, EVERYTHING MUST BE PERFECT FOR YOU MUST RATE ME "EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT" BY THE WAY, HAVE I ASKED YOU WHAT YOU THINK YET? WAS IT EXCELLENT? PLEASE MAKE SURE IT'S EXCELLENT. REMEMBER.
EXCELLENT! YOU MUST RATE ME EXCELLENT! WAS THE FOOD EXCELLENT? IT BETTER BE EXCELLENT!
We had taken care of the tips earlier in the day, and so handed out the receipts to the customary people. We didn't tip any higher than what was recommended. We liked our servers, really. But they weren't "excellent". But we felt bad, and so we elected "excellent" on the survey card ... but also selected "yes" when asked if we were "pressured into electing 'excellent' on the survey". We didn't like that. On our past cruises, yes, the waiters would "butter us up" toward the end of the trip but they wouldn't borderline bully us into giving them a good review.
We gave them their envelopes, thanked them, and said our goodbyes. They reminded us that breakfast was at 6:30 sharp in the same dining room ... but we knew that wasn't going to happen. Take heart, non-morning people like us: You can just grab breakfast in Cabana's with no hassle until 8:30, then leave the ship when you're done.
A last comment about Craig: He'd pretend to walk by us with our food and call everything we ordered "chicken". On formal night, he also did a mind teaser with crayons for us to solve; I noticed he did stuff like this for the kids every night, but this was the only time he took for us. It was cute.
So, as for rebooking? We talked about over dinner, and Mom agreed to go ahead and rebook for a Fantasy eastern sailing next summer, despite the astronomical quote we got the previous day (I totally forgot to mention that I went to see the rebooking desk while still docked at CC while my parents cat napped in the room). We went up to the desk and noticed that they were both occupied. With no visible line, we just hovered around like carrion birds until one opened up.
We weren't the only ones watching. Two guys went to sit down just as I was, and the poor rebooking CM looked startled. We all laughed, and one guy decided to challenge me to a coin toss to see who went next since no one could tell who was first. The CM was really bemused. I ended up winning the coin toss, and the guys laughed and threatened the CM that they were next. The CM didn't know quite what to think.
We asked for the lowest category verandah to help cut down on the cost. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the concept of a "dummy date" ... picking a lowest cost cruise and then changing it to what we want later when we know more/have actual money/etc. Instead, we went with what we expected to work, with the anticipation I'd have a teaching job next school year, which unfortunately means I can only sail during peak times. In less than 10 minutes, we were $5K poorer.
Mom was in shock. The pixie dust proved too powerful for her. She was conflicted between loving the cruise too much and knowing how crazy it was to spend that much on 3 people for a Caribbean cruise.
We wandered deck 4 while she recovered, then made our way to see "Believe". Meanwhile, I didn't quite process that we were booked for a second
Disney cruise. It was just too impossible to believe. With Mom reiterating how we could cancel for a full refund, I knew it was not going to happen. It's incredibly frustrating to be financially dependent on someone else. It was frustrating that I couldn't help out with the cost. I hoped that if we could just pay off the deposit little by little, I'd be back on my feet and be able to at least pay for my fare in full.
Anyway, on to "Believe". We sat in the balcony this time, just for something different. There's no "bad seat" in the theatre, but I preferred stage level. As everyone had said before, this show was amazing and the best on the ship. I tell you what, there wasn't a dry eye in that theatre when it got to the father/daughter dance and EMOTIONAL DISNEY MOMENTS MONTAGE. I kept telling myself I wasn't going to cry, I wasn't going to cry... AW DANGIT, DISNEY! MY EMOTIONS! YOU JUST HAD TO USE "BABY OF MINE" AND OH GOD, AND BAMBI'S MOM'S
DEAD AND ALL MY CREYS.
Sorry for all the GIFS, but they're accurate. Mom and I were both using my scarf as a tissue. We were all very impressed. It was easily my favorite show of the trip.
After the show, we took some photos with the Mouse:
It amazed me that if you wait a while? You could have whole areas of the ship to yourself. Honestly, folks, you're going to meet the crowds at leading up to the shows, just out of the shows, whatever event is going on in the atrium, and by the pools. That's it. We never had any issue. Once the show crowd was gone, the area was empty. From there, the realization that this dream cruise was almost over was hitting. We wandered up to the top decks, hung out in our favorite forward haunts, then traveled back through Cabana's for a good-bye with Nigel:
We took Dad into Evolution to catch what was left of the ventriloquist's adult show. We ended up having to take the stools to the far, far right of the stage practically abreast of him. I'm surprised he didn't call us out. He was just as hilarious as he was before. We ended up staying for some sort of adult suggestive variety show with the entertainment crew, which was amusing but I didn't quite understand the point. Then Dad grew tired and we made our way back to our stateroom. I had already rushed back to the room to put out our luggage before 10:30 earlier; at that time, I could see all the people panicking with last-minute packing and getting everything out.
Our secret? We put dirty laundry back in our suitcases as we wore them. We didn't pack a lot, either. We also didn't re-pack neatly, either. It was all going in the wash when we got home, anyway. I don't get the people who do laundry on the ship.
WHY? You're on vacation! Of course, don't make the mistake I did by packing your pajamas for the last night.
We had a lobster!
Then Mom asked me if I wanted to finish the detective game. Willpower won out once again, and we both went back out to a mostly empty ship to finish what was left. Pro tip for adult players: Play late at night when most of the kids are in bed. You'll have the portraits to yourself, and since all of them are in common areas, you won't wake anyone.
When we turned in for the night, we did our survey and mostly rated everything "excellent". Very few things were rated any less. Of course, pajama-less, I opted to sleep in my clothes. Not feeling well, and wearing corduroy pants to bed does not make for sweet dreams ... not to mention the vacation of my dreams was coming to a swift end.
In my last post, I shall go over our experience disembarking, the woe of reality, and my closing thoughts.