It's a WONDER we have any money left after the Cruise! - All done!

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by Leshaface

Agh! Isn't that Chicken Parm THE BEST!!! I could eat that weekly! So you'll try Palo Brunch again??

Glad you're back safe and can't wait for the next update!

OMG, it was sooooooo good. When you got it on your trip I was like.... but when I looked at the choices, I decided perhaps you had something there, not that the others were bad, but I liked my chicken parm and now I have to rethink mine! It was awesome, and yes we will definitely try Palo again!

[franandaj]

So before I proceed with any updates, I just thought I would share with you. Our first challenge when arriving home today was getting into the house. There was 3ftx3ft boxes extending almost all the way to the ceiling blocking the door from opening all the way. In addition, there were other big boxes and at least two dozen smaller boxes.

These are some pictures AFTER I opened the 4ft tall box and the one that was 4x1x3 containing the blue and yellow bag on the floor, plus all the stuff, that I have now put inside it.



Plus I consolidated all these boxes into two stacks (the bankers boxes were there before we left, all filled with sheet music that we're trying to sell on eBay, but the three or so feet of small packages all arrived in our absense). There were another half a dozen packages all around the house, but basically, we couldn't even get the suitcases inside the house until all the bigger boxes were either opened/unpacked, moved or both.



Darcy arrived around 1PM and we worked for about 4 hours with a lunch break and finally got all the suitcases unloaded, clean clothes back in the closet, dirty clothes in the hamper. First we had to move all the big boxes out to the garage and clear a walking space into the house to fit the suitcases. Then we had to deal with a whole bunch of Disney loot that had been sitting on the spare bed for months from our last couple shopping trips. About 2 1/2 hours later we could finally work on the suitcases!

So we're back to normal. Fran is taking a nap in her chair with our disabled kitty sleeping with her, and I am DISing. So sit back and I'll put in a couple updates before I have dinner and crash!

[rentayenta]

You're back.

What in good gravy is in all of the packages?

[franandaj]

We left off at Brunch at Palo. This was absolutely an amazing experience that we were very eager to repeat again. However with a reservation for the character buffet on Saturday, and we were not sure about going the next day I ran off to my next experience!

As much as I wanted to sit around and linger over the table, I had to run because I was signed up for the Old World Wine Tasting.



Here are some shots of the Cadillac Lounge. I would end up here a few times.







Here is our host



Our first wine was a Pinot Grigio (obviously from Italy), our second was a Louis Jadot, it was a Chardonnay, but of course the French don’t label it that way. The third was a Chianti, and the last one was a Chateau Neuf du Pape. I hate to say it, I am a California Wine girl. As nice as the last wine was, our Sommelier talked about how good it was with Rack of Lamb. However, I am used to the meaty California Cabernets which you can almost chew. We finished off the tasting with an Asti Spumante. I prefer a more dry sparkling wine, but I didn’t turn it down!



Following the tasting, I went upstairs to the shopping district, I found Fran there! We decided to head back to the stateroom for some rest. We went out on the balcony for a bit and she took some photos of me.



She was a little hungry, it had been about 3 hours since we finished brunch, so I went up to Pluto’s and got her a Cheeseburger.




As part of our Concierge perk, they bring us a snack every day. Here was our snack for the first day. I ate most of this instead of a snack from Pluto’s.

[Leshaface]

Woot woot for wine tasting! WHat?! We only had 4 wines at our tasting Please say you did more tastings!

[eandesmom]

Holy cats, what is in all of those boxes?

Lovely necklace, ouch on the price tag though. Really lovely bag, I eyed one of the baguette styles over the summer but refrained but still kind of wish I'd bought it. I worried how much I'd use it outside of Disney.

Love the Cat T. I don't think back of the boat had much to do with the creaking. We were midship, deck 6 on the Wonder and our first night had a ton of creaking as well. I kind of liked it once i got used to it, which is odd I know, but it had to do with what we were passing through. Didn't notice it again after the first night.

Mmmn Palo Brunch! How nice you were able to get a Bloody Mary. The two times we've been, no one has ever asked if we wanted another mimosa or anything else which always seemed like a lost sale to me.

With you on the wine tasting selections, nothing super wow there but still a fun event.

Sorry it was such a stressful morning before Palo, glad you were able to relax at brunch and then enjoy your tasting, you earned it!

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by Leshaface

Woot woot for wine tasting! WHat?! We only had 4 wines at our tasting Please say you did more tastings!

Of course! I didn't want to do more than one a day, so I had to make some tough choices.

Originally Posted by rentayenta

You're back.

What in good gravy is in all of the packages?

But seriously, I have no idea until I open them. The one blocking the door was a bari saxophone case. There was a bag full of auto detailing supplies, a big fig of Donald Duck, another one had the complete whatever season of Zorro on DVD and yet another piece of cat furniture. I guess the 10 we have set up in our house, and the six or so we have in storage aren't enough. Oh yeah it was on super Black Friday sale.

Then there were the two 8 bottle wine chillers, because when we add the second story on to 1st street we will need one downstairs for the living room and one upstairs for the movie/family room.

A few others had jeans, tools from Sears, some must be books because they went Media Mail. The funny thing is that I opened a couple because we are looking for a computer and a Cougar side mirror. Both were evidently delivered here, the POD online says so but we can't find either. Our house eats packages.

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Holy cats, what is in all of those boxes?

Lovely necklace, ouch on the price tag though. Really lovely bag, I eyed one of the baguette styles over the summer but refrained but still kind of wish I'd bought it. I worried how much I'd use it outside of Disney.

Love the Cat T. I don't think back of the boat had much to do with the creaking. We were midship, deck 6 on the Wonder and our first night had a ton of creaking as well. I kind of liked it once i got used to it, which is odd I know, but it had to do with what we were passing through. Didn't notice it again after the first night.

Mmmn Palo Brunch! How nice you were able to get a Bloody Mary. The two times we've been, no one has ever asked if we wanted another mimosa or anything else which always seemed like a lost sale to me.

With you on the wine tasting selections, nothing super wow there but still a fun event.

Sorry it was such a stressful morning before Palo, glad you were able to relax at brunch and then enjoy your tasting, you earned it!

See above for speculation on package contents, I'll open some more this afternoon. I love my Disney necklaces! Thanks!

It creaked at the same place on the way home. Our waiter at Palo was excellent, we had him each time we dined there.

[Hawleys]

Originally Posted by franandaj

Holy packages Batman! Glad you are home safe and things are sorted out.

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by Hawleys

Holy packages Batman! Glad you are home safe and things are sorted out.

Thanks, she has appointments all day, but I'm staying home for the afternoon infusion so maybe I'll open a few more.

[franandaj]

So normally I like to report on events chronologically, but I figure I better spill the beans on this one before the end of the trip since you will all notice a change in my signature in the next couple days.

As you all know, Disney is quite keen to get you to book your next cruise before you get off the ship. Now I know that Corinna got a great rate on a cruise out of Galveston, and on our cruise they were offering 20% off all cruises leaving out of Galveston. Not sure if that means they will discontinue that port, but we figured it's several hours shorter than a flight to Port Canaveral. I stopped by the Future Cruise Desk a number of times during the cruise to get quotes and my first few choices were not that great or not available, so I picked another round of dates.

We stopped by the desk on our way home from shopping the last night, and were able to speak to the gentleman. He had quoted us for another Cat T room, and because there was no discount on that level of room, the price wasn't that great. However, we asked him to quote us for a Cat 6A, HA room. I had looked at DCL's website (they let you surf that without being connected to the internet while onboard), and noticed that our room was 600 sq ft. The Cat 6A was 400 sq ft, which still seemed spacious to me.

The thing is, the 6A room price was 38% of the Cat T price for 2/3 the room! So we ended up booking the 6 night Western Caribbean Cruise out of Galveston for April 20, 2013! The ports are Grand Cayman and Cozumel, with three sea days. We'll probably spend the night before the cruise in Galveston and fly home the afternoon we get into port, however, I'm going to wait until after Fran has received at least two more arthritis drug infusions before I start to discuss our itinerary. It's possible I might get a couple extra days out of it, if I ask her when she is feeling better.

[dolphingirl47]

Originally Posted by franandaj

OMG, it was sooooooo good. When you got it on your trip I was like.... but when I looked at the choices, I decided perhaps you had something there, not that the others were bad, but I liked my chicken parm and now I have to rethink mine! It was awesome, and yes we will definitely try Palo again!

I love the Chicken Parmigiana at Palo. If they served nothing on the ship, but this, I would be happy.

Originally Posted by franandaj

So before I proceed with any updates, I just thought I would share with you. There are a few folks who aren't familiar with Fran and her spending habits, so our first challenge when arriving home today was getting into the house. There was 3ftx3ft boxes extending almost all the way to the ceiling blocking the door from opening all the way. In addition, there were other big boxes and at least two dozen smaller boxes.

These are some pictures AFTER I opened the 4ft tall box and the one that was 4x1x3 containing the blue and white bag on the floor, plus all the stuff, that I have now put inside it.



Plus I consolidated all these boxes into two stacks (the bankers boxes were there before we left, all filled with sheet music that we're trying to sell on eBay, but the three or so feet of small packages all arrived in our absense). There were another half a dozen packages all around the house, but basically, we couldn't even get the suitcases inside the house until all the bigger boxes were either opened/unpacked, moved or both.



Darcy arrived around 1PM and we worked for about 4 hours with a lunch break and finally got all the suitcases unloaded, clean clothes back in the closet, dirty clothes in the hamper. First we had to move all the big boxes out to the garage and clear a walking space into the house to fit the suitcases. Then we had to deal with a whole bunch of Disney loot that had been sitting on the spare bed for months from our last couple shopping trips. About 2 1/2 hours later we could finally work on the suitcases!

So we're back to normal. Fran is asleep in her chair with our disabled kitty sleeping with her, and I am DISing. So sit back and I'll put in a couple updates before I have dinner and crash!

And there was me thinking that I got a lot of packages while I was gone. By the way, did you get my reply to your PM. I can't quite seem to figure out PMs on the DIS iPad app.

Originally Posted by franandaj

So normally I like to report on events chronologically, but I figure I better spill the beans on this one before the end of the trip since you will all notice a change in my signature in the next couple days.

As you all know, Disney is quite keen to get you to book your next cruise before you get off the ship. Now I know that Corinna got a great rate on a cruise out of Galveston, and on our cruise they were offering 20% off all cruises leaving out of Galveston. Not sure if that means they will discontinue that port, but we figured it's several hours shorter than a flight to Port Canaveral. I stopped by the Future Cruise Desk a number of times during the cruise to get quotes and my first few choices were not that great or not available, so I picked another round of dates.

We stopped by the desk on our way home from shopping the last night, and were able to speak to the gentleman. He had quoted us for another Cat T room, and because there was no discount on that level of room, the price wasn't that great. However, we asked him to quote us for a Cat 6A, HA room. I had looked at DCL's website (they let you surf that without being connected to the internet while onboard), and noticed that our room was 600 sq ft. The Cat 6A was 400 sq ft, which still seemed spacious to me.

The thing is, the 6A room price was 38% of the Cat T price for 2/3 the room! So we ended up booking the 6 night Western Caribbean Cruise out of Galveston for April 20, 2013! The ports are Grand Cayman and Cozumel, with three sea days. We'll probably spend the night before the cruise in Galveston and fly home the afternoon we get into port, however, I'm going to wait until after Fran has received at least two more arthritis drug infusions before I start to discuss our itinerary. It's possible I might get a couple extra days out of it, if I ask her when she is feeling better.

Congratulations on getting another cruise booked. We loved Galveston and think we need to give this some more time at some point in the future.

Corinna

[Leshaface]

Yay i'm so glad you guys booked another cruise!

We've been looking for things out of Galveston too. We booked a dummy cruise before getting off of the trip so we'll be researching where to go for probably next year. However, DH wants to be on the Fantasy and i'm not sure if the Fantasy leaves out of Galveston.

But how awesome! I guess this means both you and Fran loved this past cruise!

[PrincessInOz]

MORE boxes?
Happy unpacking.


Congrats on the new cruise booking. Hope things are well with you.

[dgbg100106]

so happy you booked your next cruise, and wow, that is a lot of packages!

[QuiltTeddy]

Absoltely loving your cruise report and pictures. Looks like you had a wonderful time! Hope her RA pain wasn't too bad during the trip. (I know how that is.)

We are cruiseaholics, so while we don't have another planned, I spend my time reading cruise reports.

Love your bag!