(New TR Link) Yo Ho, Yo Ho- Rum and Sharks for Me!An Eastern Fantasy TR May 31-June 7

I am so into Orange is the New Black too! I have stayed up wayyyy to late on many different occasions to follow those crazy women!


Looks like a nice day at sea. I love the laid back feel of the sea days myself, they just scream vacation!
And I can tell when not watching orange, you are a stellar parent!:lmao:

I'm is serious despair that I'm done. How am I going to make it another year before Season 3. I feel....depressed. :rotfl2:

I guess that means it's back to parenting. But man- Chapman and the gang are so much more fun!

I love sea days too- it's a big reason we picked this itinerary- so we got three of them.

I was SOOO far behind in joining your report...but I'm here now!

Loving it so far! It's so crazy to think that we were literally on that boat that same day. :goodvibes

You guys must have had a room down the hall from us...we were 7th floor aft, verandah -- 7186.

And, we had a server named Renaldo from the Phillipines. I wonder if we had the same guy??! Our assistant was a woman named Yuliya though. And I think our Renaldo was spelled differently than yours??

Can't wait for more! :cool1:

We probably passed you since we were there so darn early. :)

I wonder too..... if we had the same server. It's possible they switch up assistant servers with head servers. I have a picture later... you can confirm at that point.

How funny would it be if it were the same?
 
Hawaii, I hope, is in the future. Not Aulani. Aulani is not in my future.

We will have to rent a house from vbro if we can swing the tickets. I found plenty that sleep five for around 1K a week. Even renting points- that can't be beat.... ;)

Oh, I didn't realize you were taking the whole clan. Makes sense then!
 
Oh man, I get to salivate over those Black Truffle pasta things again. YUM!

Also, that opening show was so terrible that I could not get the rest of my family back to the theater for a show the rest of the week. Fortunately, Tyler humored me and we went to whatever one was on Thursday night.

Now that I am caught up, I guess maybe I need to try out the prison show?? No, no, I have already told myself I can't get sucked in until after the Bar!
 
Oh man, I get to salivate over those Black Truffle pasta things again. YUM!

Also, that opening show was so terrible that I could not get the rest of my family back to the theater for a show the rest of the week. Fortunately, Tyler humored me and we went to whatever one was on Thursday night.

Now that I am caught up, I guess maybe I need to try out the prison show?? No, no, I have already told myself I can't get sucked in until after the Bar!

I know- I want some again. They were so, so good!

There were a few quality shows later in the cruise (few, as in 3) I was a wee bit disappointed in that. Wish they kept the Villains and Golden Mickeys of past years... or introduced the Toy Story one they have on the other ships....

Yhea, get through the bar before you attempt Orange. That's my recommendation! Hahahaha!
 


Looks like we had the same dining rotation, we were on late dining though
Having seen most of the shows previously, we decided to skip pretty much all of them. That said, we had never seen the opening night/welcome show before, so we went along .... Urgh, never again!!!!
 


Happy 4th everyone. It has been a rough, rough few days around here with the announcement of two separate immediate family members marriages dissolving followed by my uncle having a massive stroke on the 4th. His stroke is still continuing and it's been agonizing watching my aunt watch her husband of 50 years go this way.... somber reminder to laugh, love & live every second of the day. It's all a gift......

I need some writing therapy. Along with the chance to post about today's great white shark attack off the coast of CA. Yup, I follow it all...... shark obsession.....(he survived!)

Anywho, we last left you with Sarah in the club. Kurt and Charlie still slept and that left mom, me & Becca to our own devices. We decided to try out the "Everyone can cook" series being offered. Remy beckoned us along with the words "Apple Strudel" and I thought 'winner!!! a cute rat telling me how to cook strudel.. what could be bad with this?'. False advertising people. FALSE ADVERTISING. Don't trust rats. In one word this was 'lame!'.

We quickly decided to abandon ship in favor of magical lamps and three wishes. That's right, we decided to gather up the family and go see the 3pm theater musical of Aladdin.

Now this, THIS is what I expect from Disney. This show was amazing. Awesome. Spectacular. We all loved it. Charlie clapped and sang along. The genie was hilarious. Kudos Disney. This one is a keeper!! And I have no pictures cuz... I'm a rule follower (remember, we established that already with shark obsessed!).

After the show, everyone went shopping except me. I went back to the room to start preparing for the worst night on seas. The dreaded... FORMAL NIGHT. I hate, hate, HATE formal night. Myself combined with 3 girls (none of which can do their own hair) make this an excruciatingly long process of getting ready.

When the shoppers came back (with one OLAF pin and one pirate t-shirt).. it was quickly discovered that the good old DH forgot to pack dress socks. (I long ago gave up packing for him because it's enough to pack for 4). The result of this is we paid $30 for black dress socks with Mickey heads that will never be worn again. Yee Haw.

By 5pm we were ready to head downtown for pictures.





(in both these pictures you can see our rooms decorated with magnets- the only picture I have of that!).

While hunting down picture backdrops, imagine my (great) surprise to discover they were handing out free drinks. Uhh.. yes please! I don't know what the mixed drink was (maybe Amaretto Sweet & Sour?) but it was free..and I was taking.

What started out as a quest for pictures instead a quest to hunt down waiters holding free drinks. We managed a few pictures while grabbing drinks...the ones with relatively short lines that allowed us time to drink our free drink, take a picture & move to the next free drink....





(oh how I wish you could see those nice $30 Mickey socks....)

Moving on over... to the atrium statue of Minnie...



Time to find another drink. I was on like 3. That's when I insisted we wait in the ungodly huge line to meet Minnie in her formal attire. The family obliged. Mom & Hubby had about 3 drinks already too and the kids did this while in line....



And finally.... there she was.....



Unfortunately the long wait was not rewarded with any spectacular pictures (thank you Charlie). Oh well. Who's to complain. I was on drink 5 by that time and I hadn't shelled out $40 to drink those 5!





We finally decided to just go wait by the portholes till they opened our dining room. The three adults were not walking very well.. so it was a good plan.

Plus, I love me some porthole pictures.....

So, you are welcome in advance for the next 9 pictures of portholes.

My three cuties:



Eldest-contemplating life:



Middle- contemplating her next scientific inquiry:





Youngest- just smiling away counting the time till her dinner:



These two insisted on a picture together.



Then it was my turn with the DH:



Let's see, are we out of porthole pictures yet? No, no we are not. 2 more.



Everyone ooh and ahh (before saying thank goodness it's over) at the sweetness of my children.



Oooh. Aaah. Ok. Done with porthole pictures.

FINALLY dinner time.

Tonight we ate at Enchanted Garden.



Gilbert asked if we wanted to buy drinks. We laughed in his face. He said 'the type out there is not as superior as in here'. I said "the type out there were free, so unless you are offering that, I think we got the better deal". He didn't ask again tonight.

I ordered my appetizer. Cucumber Garden Roll.



It had too much cilantro for me.

Then I followed it with a Raspberry and Spinach Salad. This was very good.



It was about this time I heard a lot of rustling next to me and discovered the sad results of my husbands French bread obsession.



For dinner I ordered Prime Rib. So did my mom. She said hers was good. I thought mine was fatty. I guess I got a bad piece.



For dessert I tried the Apple Strudel (thank Remy) Sundae. It was only OK despite the cute Mickey Chocolate piece on top.



That wrapped up dinner. And I just turned the pages of my notes to see we actually met Minnie AFTER dinner (blame the drinks people on the fuzzy memory).

I'm too lazy to move the pictures down here. Also, I have noted that my mom made some snarky comment in line & I called her on it. And she got ticked at me and walked out of line. Ahh. Feel the love. FEEL IT!!!

She eventually rejoined us but refused to get in the Minnie picture with us. Yup, that'll show us mom. Perhaps, I dunno, STOP making snarky comments.

But our night was not over. (and the snark did disappear even without the threat of pirate sellage)... but you will have to wait for the rest of our night..... (ooh, ahh.. only I can break a dinner into an entire 25 image post!!!)
 
i'm sorry to hear about your rough weekend. I hope writing some of your TR helped make you feel better.

we saw Aladdin when it came to st Louis a few years ago. it was a-MAZE-ing! i'm glad you all liked it too--loved the genie!!

awww, I love the porthole pics! the girls are super cute and that's a great pic of you and DH!

I can't believe you have no pictures of the $30 socks! they should have their own post at that price, don't you think?

I love the mosaic on the wall behind you in the family picture. that looks so pretty!
 
Sorry to hear about all the family problems. Thoughts and prayers to all, especially your aunt and uncle.

Geez, I know how long it takes DW to get ONE girl ready plus herself. I have recently been tasked with braiding the hair. It doesn't go very well. (This is not a skill to pick up at 44.)

I was trying to think back to what our formal night even was. I think it was at Animator's palette. I completely forgot their was a formal night. Hmmmm.

Glad to hear the Aladdin show was good. Have you seen the one at Disneyland (DCA)? Is it similar? That one is pretty impressive. I didn't know on the Fantasy they had stage shows in the afternoon!
 
i'm sorry to hear about your rough weekend. I hope writing some of your TR helped make you feel better.

we saw Aladdin when it came to st Louis a few years ago. it was a-MAZE-ing! i'm glad you all liked it too--loved the genie!!

awww, I love the porthole pics! the girls are super cute and that's a great pic of you and DH!

I can't believe you have no pictures of the $30 socks! they should have their own post at that price, don't you think?

I love the mosaic on the wall behind you in the family picture. that looks so pretty!

Aladdin was really really good on the ship- I actually had no idea it was a stage show on tour?! It must have gone through Chicago- but I never did see advertisements.

And although I can write about it now with a laugh- I was actually not all that happy we paid so much for socks. I kept telling him to wear his white ones because who would see?! I mean those socks could have been several drinks!! :rotfl2:

That mosaic isn't even a background- it's just the wall right by guest services. They set up pictures on formal & semi-formal night there- but you can really take the pictures anytime.. guessing that's why there was little line for it...

Sorry to hear about all the family problems. Thoughts and prayers to all, especially your aunt and uncle.

Geez, I know how long it takes DW to get ONE girl ready plus herself. I have recently been tasked with braiding the hair. It doesn't go very well. (This is not a skill to pick up at 44.)

I was trying to think back to what our formal night even was. I think it was at Animator's palette. I completely forgot their was a formal night. Hmmmm.

Glad to hear the Aladdin show was good. Have you seen the one at Disneyland (DCA)? Is it similar? That one is pretty impressive. I didn't know on the Fantasy they had stage shows in the afternoon!

Well, kudos to you for even trying to braid hair. That would be a lost cause on Kurt. I have been trying hard to get Becca to do her own hair, but with her frizz- I don't know what to tell her & she doesn't know what to do.

I have not seen Aladdin at DCA. If it's anything like this, then I'm sure it's good. The one here was almost an hour long. And they ran 3pm shows on two of the days. This day & the day they did Dreams.
 
but I thought you liked snark??? :lmao:

Ok, FREE booze?? 5 of them?? I'll F-ing dress up, point me in the direction of fancy-dressy-up-night! :p

I LOVE the porthole pics, I want MORE! I adore them. I might have to book a cruise just to get some of my own...oh wait, no, no I won't. But I thought about it for a millisecond. :rolleyes:

I'm so sorry to hear about the stroke and other family stuff going on. Thinking of you Tweedlefriend. :hug:
 
but I thought you liked snark??? :lmao:

Ok, FREE booze?? 5 of them?? I'll F-ing dress up, point me in the direction of fancy-dressy-up-night! :p

I LOVE the porthole pics, I want MORE! I adore them. I might have to book a cruise just to get some of my own...oh wait, no, no I won't. But I thought about it for a millisecond. :rolleyes:

I'm so sorry to hear about the stroke and other family stuff going on. Thinking of you Tweedlefriend. :hug:

I do like snark when it's appropriately directed. My mother's snark happened to be loud comments regarding other people in line. Which was really just rude. And so I told her to shut it. To which, apparently, caused great offense to her. I swear I could write a book - the sequel to that bestseller called "Sh#t my dad says". Mine will just be "Sh#t my mom says" I really do have a whole book full.

Yhea, the free drinks were a definite unexpected bonus to formal night. I don't remember that happening on our previous 2 Disney cruises- so either I missed them or it didn't happen.

Thanks for the thoughts. Tough decisions were made last night & I expect, most likely, to be heading to Detroit in the next few days for a funeral.

Big hugs Nicole!

Thanks Tammie. Much appreciated.
 
Now that I can really see your pictures and not read from my phone...

I love the dress up night and the family pictures, and I agree the porthole pictures are better than the formal pictures! Captures your girls personalities much better!
 
I am so sorry to hear about your family troubles, it's so hard to watch loved ones suffer almost as hard as doing the suffering yourself. I hope it all gets worked out very soon!

On a brighter note, your family looked so cute for formal night, so it was worth the work:thumbsup2

Two weeks ago we were in Denver for my brothers wedding and my DH did not bring any black socks. He assumed the tux rental place would provide them, they did not. So I go into see if he is ready yet and there is DH sitting there in a tux with way too short pants legs and white athletic socks on!:sad2:
He said what ? No one will notice...um, yes they will! So down the hall to my parents room I went, to see if my dad had an extra pair, which he did. But I had to hear a snarky lecture from my mom about if I had my life together and packed for my husband these things would not happen.:mad: thanks mom! Sock drama don't you just love it?;)

I would have gone with the free drinks too!

I am glad you guys liked the Aladdin show, we too saw it in STL and it was soooo good! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your evening.
 
Sorry to hear about the family health issues - sending hugs
Love the formal night photos, you all look great :-)
 
I am so sorry to hear about your family troubles, it's so hard to watch loved ones suffer almost as hard as doing the suffering yourself. I hope it all gets worked out very soon!

On a brighter note, your family looked so cute for formal night, so it was worth the work:thumbsup2

Two weeks ago we were in Denver for my brothers wedding and my DH did not bring any black socks. He assumed the tux rental place would provide them, they did not. So I go into see if he is ready yet and there is DH sitting there in a tux with way too short pants legs and white athletic socks on!:sad2:
He said what ? No one will notice...um, yes they will! So down the hall to my parents room I went, to see if my dad had an extra pair, which he did. But I had to hear a snarky lecture from my mom about if I had my life together and packed for my husband these things would not happen.:mad: thanks mom! Sock drama don't you just love it?;)

I would have gone with the free drinks too!

I am glad you guys liked the Aladdin show, we too saw it in STL and it was soooo good! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your evening.

Man I would be more mad about your comment than the white socks.

Although it's funny that your DH was ready to do a wedding (with full length pics in white socks and I just wanted my DH to wear white socks to save money!!)

Sorry to hear about the family health issues - sending hugs
Love the formal night photos, you all look great :-)

Thanks chap. (like how I threw that Brittish term in there?!)
 
First, thank you all for your well wishes regarding la famalia. The stroke pretty much has left devastating effects on my uncle. It should have killed him- all the doctors said so..but it didn't. And he is now still alive. But a vegetable. It has been agonizing watching my aunt go through all she has had to go through to be left with what? A man who doesn't remember her, his previous life, can't walk, can't talk, can't read.... sigh! So, so tough.

Anyways, This was not meant to start Debbie downer. After all I named this post "Braids and Fish Eggs". That alone has much promise, right?

So formal night was 'over'. I managed to pi$$ off my mother. And it was only 8pm. Things were looking good. We saw the show earlier so that left a whole evening of spending time with a pi$$ed of mother. Woo.

Miss Sarah wanted to go back to the club (jee, what a huge surprise) and so we took her. The other two wanted to swim. So off we went to a relatively calm, empty Lido deck....except where they ended up-

The girls jumped into the infinity hot tub with 900 other small children and 2 brave dads (said dad of these children retired to his room to watch TV or something).



I sat down to watch the Jumbotron at night....



Can you guess what's playing? Hint: It's a Disney movie. (Hahahahaha!)

It was not long before the lure of the hair braiding station began to sing its siren song to my eldest daughter. You see, EVERY cruise we take she eventually decides she wants her hair braided. And while it's happening she cries and sobs because let's face it.. it IS torture. And she swears never again.... and then.. again happens.

And so she found herself in the chair o' pain. And her hair starting to get braided....



It is hard to tell but those eyes are red. She is death gripping that towel and randomly shoving it in her mouth to stop the screams.. and little tiny tears indeed did fall................

But, just like ear piercing, in the end... all smiles. One happy girl (and one happy mom because people- her hair- CRAZY curly and this makes it SO MUCH EASIER to do for me!)



Braiding typically stays for several weeks and for $28 total, this is a good investment.

By now it was 9pm. Little Miss Char who previously wanted braids and then saw what braids involved, no longer wanted braids. So I took her down and put her to bed. And Rebecca and I went to get Sarah.

Only Sarah wanted to stay- so we granted her another hour...and my girl and I set off to explore the ship. And maybe, get some ice-cream.

Because it was formal night.. and the tail end of late seating... photo opportunities were everywhere- and so what better way to celebrate formal night than a picture with Mickey in his fancy 'attire' and us in our PJ's. I mean if it were up to me, this is how I would have spent ALL of formal night... so...



One for the frames.

We then went to the shops. Bought nothing. Went back up and got more ice-cream. (What? I told you we had like 900 million of those delicious swirly things!) And eventually I yanked Sarah out of the clubs by 10:30 to go to bed. Another day at sea.. Done!!! Next up: Sea Day 2.

Which, since I'm not at my picture limit- I shall start. Lucky you.

Got up at 7:30 and went out and sat on the balcony-



Ahh. A wonderful way to wake up.

We eventually got dressed and took the girlies up for breakfast at the buffet and then the two youngest got deposited at the club.. because we had a 10:45 brunch date here:



We checked in and were directed to wait in the nicely appointed bar called The Merdian. In just a few short hours, my favorite event of the cruise would take place in this same place............

We passed time by taking a few pictures.

El Hub



La madre



(on speaking terms and no longer pi$$ed at me- in case you were all wondering!)

Eventually we were taken to our table, right by the window. Sweet! Introduced to our server of which I apparently forgot to write down his name but noted here that he was from Florence, Italy. So we'll call him Tony. You know, after Tony Soprano. Because that was the first Italian male that came to my mind. Not because our server was mob gangsta.

Anyways, Tony got us our one drink included in the price. We all opted for Mimosas.......



Then Tony gave us a tour of the buffet and said "forgettaboutit"

Cute little pastries and stuff..



Disgusting horrible seafood. I didn't think I took a picture of this but apparently I did...



Apparently failed to get the main dishes but captured the most important table of all. The sweets.



Then we sat down and Tony told us he'd take our order for appetizers, main dishes & pizza. He also told us we were getting mozzarella balls whether we liked it or not. He was very, very pushy with those balls. And come to find out via another fellow cruisers report- her server was also very pushy with those balls. Clearly the balls contain something other than cheese. Perhaps narcotics to induce to book another cruise onboard. That's my theory at least. Bwahahaha, jokes on you Disney. We ate those d#mn balls and STILL didn't rebook on board.

I give you crack balls.



Said balls were not even that great. I mean they were ok. But not great.

I ordered a cold strawberry soup. (Yum. No picture). And Chicken Parm. Then headed off to the tables to load up. First up. Cute little pastries...



Aww, cute little muffin. I love you. Aww, look- I even went 'healthy' and got fruit.

Also. On this plate. Is............. ta da............... fish eggs.

I have never tried caviar. I decided TODAY IS THE DAY!! My mother laughed hard at me. And demanded I hand over my camera.

I am so, so brave. Just like Merida.

Me. And some fish eggs.



Clearly I am still very unsure.

Here I go. I'm doing it. I am.......



Wait. Pause. It's gross. I'm gonna throw up. Make the horribleness stop.



Down Kurt's Mimosa. Chaser. Over. Done. Do not repeat.

Now I have officially tried caviar. I will continue hold fast to my rule of the only seafood I eat comes from a place that has golden arches and fries those fake fish parts together in perfect togetherness with that tiny overprocessed cheese slice and tarter sauce on a soft, squishy bun. Oh Filet o' Fish, you will always be my one and only true fish love. I will even pretend that you are real fish and not fake. Which is probably the reason I love you so in the first place....

Oh, I'm sorry. That was a tangent.

OK. So cavier over. Time for food.

Mom got Salmon.



She said it was fantastic.

Kurt got lasagna.



He is a simple man with simple tastes. And his lasagna needs to come out of a red box labeled Stouffers. This was much, much too fancy for him. (see what I have to work with people?!?!)

I got the chicken parm. I do not have a picture. But it was very good. So there. Also, my cold strawberry soup was very good.

And then dessert. Glorious dessert.



Overall, I was quite satisfied with this meal & the fact that I had to pay extra for it. I think brunch surcharge was $25 a person. I feel I got that money worth out of it. I mean the crack balls alone...........

I would do it again. With someone other than my husband. So, when George Clooney and I cruise Disney together.. we'll go ahead and do this. That will happen in the near future called 'in my dreams'.

We left Palo and headed to get the children and off to the pool for a few hours..



And eat some more ice-cream.



Back down in the room.. the girlies played on the bunk beds...



And I took this picture. Never mind Sarah's weird face in it... I was trying to highlight the constellations above her...where the stars make characters from Peter Pan. I think this is such a VERY neat detail of these staterooms...



And that is my 25 photo limit. And I'm done! You shall wait for the next part.. entitled " You are SO embarrassing Mom" (statement issued from my daughter to me).
 
Ewww, caviar! I'm with you on that one...which I would have to be since I don't eat things with faces or that become faces anymore...but ew! ;) Your priorities are totally on straight though because you included copious shots of desserts, ice cream, and even booze. I'm so proud. AND, I think you must have drank a lot on this cruise or you are totally a closet lush and holding out on me! Drinks for brunch! :thumbsup2

The braiding looks painful, but SO cute! Savannah wouldn't let anyone touch her when she was younger, so we just had to muddle through that frizzy hair stuff until recently when she cut it shorter and it's really easypeasy to straight iron. and when I say it's easy, I know b/c I still have to do it... :rolleyes1

What else? OH! That balcony! How did you ever drag yourself off of it? I might have just sat there the whole trip. I have a thing with balconies. Bring on the giraffes! :goodvibes
 

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