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

[rentayenta]

Hope you and Fran had a nice Christmas.

The buffet from the first update looks so so good. Crab legs and lamb chops? Two of my favorites. I'd be skipping the salads too.

Animator's looks so neat. Love the art and the walls and the whole look of it. The pirate menu looks good but I can't wait to read about Palo.

I'm sad that Disney got rid of the Mexico cruise. That was the one I was thinking I could talk DH into. That or Alaska. But Alaska sounds terrible to me. I know it's gorgeous but I am SO not a cool weather person. But to be able to take a Disney cruise, I'd go anywhere.

[ACDSNY]

Nice pic with Capt. Mickey! I love Animator's on both the old and new ships.

[Linda67]

Great updates

Is it just me or does it seem really sad that someone discarded their gingerbread house by the door - Someone put a lot of work into that

We've dined in AP on the Fantasy and the Dream but we are looking forward to the Wonder next year

I'm loving your TR, it's getting me very excited for our cruise

[PrincessInOz]

Looks like I missed a couple of updates! Wonder how that happened??? Maybe Christmas got in the way.


Love the FEs and the recipes. I might need to try some of them myself. And your food looks amazing. Seems like you're all having a great time on the cruise.

[HermanTriplets+1]

Originally Posted by franandaj

Fran on the other hand really wanted to go back to the jewelry store. You see, because we did not bring our Passports with us, we could not legally prove that we were US citizens and therefore did not need to pay the Mexican Sales Tax on our purchases. All we had to do was show a passport and then they could submit paperwork to the government so that the taxes will be refunded to our credit card. It was worth $600 so while she motored on back over there, I decided to go to the pool.
On my way to the pool, I looked over to the Flea Market next to the ship and saw Fran on her scooter going from the jewelry store into the shops. As I was leaving the pool, I saw her going through the security check to get back on the boat. She had a bag of some sort that she was carrying. Turns out she found a nice brown leather backpack for a good price in the flea market.

Great she could scooter around the flea market! Wonder what she bought at the jewelry store??? Christmas presents?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[Pinkocto]

Loved the update. AP looks so cool.

Much to my surprise we both really enjoyed the pirate menu. Definitely worth trying at least once. I can't wait to hear about Palo dinner though.

I hope you and Fran had a fabulous Christmas! I too wished I could have eaten more. Leftovers were thoroughly enjoyed though.

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by dolphingirl47

Merry Christmas.

I love your Fish Extender gifts. This was quite a spread at the reception. I would have loved the Jalapeno Poppers and the Coconut Shrimp. It was nice that you got the chance to have some photos with Captain Mickey.

We try to escape to Palo on Pirate night as well. There are some nice things on the Pirate Night menu, but we don't like the noise in the dining room that night.

Corinna

That's funny! You picked the two items I didn't eat! I was glad to have some Captain Mickey pictures without a long line.

I suppose some time we will try the Pirate Night Menu, Fran was actually disappointed that we weren't going to eat some of the things, so I'll have to make some choices in April!

Originally Posted by QuiltTeddy

The Magic is our favorite ship, with the Wonder closely following. We just cruised on the Dream in March this year and, while they have some huge improvements, there were major flaws -- at least in our opinion.

The ship is huge, but the adult pool and lounging area is extremely small. On a sea day, if you didn't get to the pool VERY early, you had to find a lounger on another deck and then walk down to the pool if you wanted to swim. With the pool being so small, it was wall to wall people on the sea days in the pool. Absolutely not enjoyable in the least bit!

The "swim up" bar attached to the pool also led to some extremely unruly patrons in the pool.

The hot tub was very cool in that you could see down to the deck below, but, again, it was very small and a limited number of people could utilize it.

The "adult only area" had a constant stream of children and family walking through as the foreward elevator dumped out at the pool.

Service suffered in many areas -- the wait staff, cleanliness, food quality, etc. Throughout the cruise we kept saying "it's just not the typical Disney quality". One curtain was actually falling down in one of the restaurants.

One really fabulous addition was the inter-active art that was displayed throughout the ship. You could sign up for a detective game and work to solve the mystery and while doing so, you visited various artwork displayed throughout the ship. When you stood on a marker and displayed your detective badge the artwork came to life. VERY COOL!!! We loved this and while participating saw many areas of the ship that we would not otherwise have seen.

The other unbelievable addition was Animators Palate. On the two new ships it is now interactive. I won't say more because it's just something that needs to be experienced. All I'll say is AWESOME DUDE!

Dispensing our FE gifts was lengthy with the size of the ship. We basically had to do one deck a day in order to be able to cover all the rooms. We had a lot of rooms who were participating.

We didn't dine at Remy (since I'm such a picky eater), but choose to have dinner at Palo (can't miss out on the chocolate souffle!) and then had brunch there another day.

While I'd love to be able to say I've been on each and every ship in the Disney fleet, I don't think I will make it a point to hit the Fantasy since it's basically the same design as the Dream......although we are considering a Christmas and/or New Year's cruise in 2013 if they don't offer the pacific cruise again in 2014. We are waiting anxiously for any word.

Loving your TR and each update. It's making me want to cruise again long before the end of 2013 or beginniing of 2014.

Thanks! At the D23 Expo last year we went to the "Imagineering the Dream and Fantasy" seminar, so I know all about Animator's Palate and the Artwork games. That's too bad about the adult pool area and stuff. I actually spent a little time at the Family pool (coming in an update soon) and it wasn't so bad.

I'm not at all a picky eater, the only things I don't really like are coconut, super hot food and salmon. Other than that, I'm a pretty adventurous eater so Remy would be just up my alley!

Originally Posted by rentayenta

Hope you and Fran had a nice Christmas.

The buffet from the first update looks so so good. Crab legs and lamb chops? Two of my favorites. I'd be skipping the salads too.

Animator's looks so neat. Love the art and the walls and the whole look of it. The pirate menu looks good but I can't wait to read about Palo.

I'm sad that Disney got rid of the Mexico cruise. That was the one I was thinking I could talk DH into. That or Alaska. But Alaska sounds terrible to me. I know it's gorgeous but I am SO not a cool weather person. But to be able to take a Disney cruise, I'd go anywhere.

I was pretty impressed with that lunch buffet, it was the only one that we did, but it was really good. I'm looking forward to more of that on our cruise from Galveston. It's really a bummer about the Mexico Cruises, but I guess Disney really didn't feel it was safe any more. I hope that they come up with more cruises out of San Pedro, that was just so darned easy!

I think an Alaskan one is in our future. We did it on Celebrity in 1998 and it was just fabulous. Only one day was really really cold and that was the day at Glacier Bay. And it was nothing like the pictures you've been posting of your house right now!

Originally Posted by ACDSNY

Nice pic with Capt. Mickey! I love Animator's on both the old and new ships.

Thanks! I can't wait to try the other version too!

Originally Posted by Linda67

Great updates

Is it just me or does it seem really sad that someone discarded their gingerbread house by the door - Someone put a lot of work into that

We've dined in AP on the Fantasy and the Dream but we are looking forward to the Wonder next year

I'm loving your TR, it's getting me very excited for our cruise

It is sad about the gingerbread house, but the one who discarded it is the one who made it, so I guess they were OK with it. We saw other kids taking them off the ship with them as souvenirs to take home.

Yay for your upcoming cruise!

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Looks like I missed a couple of updates! Wonder how that happened??? Maybe Christmas got in the way.


Love the FEs and the recipes. I might need to try some of them myself. And your food looks amazing. Seems like you're all having a great time on the cruise.

I think your Christmas got in the way. You were MIA for a while once I posted them, but you're all caught up!

We have extended our stay at my parents for another couple days, but I can't wait to get home and have the lamb burger again. I still have one more serving of meat in the freezer. I just make Fran a beef burger and I have the lamb, that way we are both happy.

Originally Posted by HermanTriplets+1

Great she could scooter around the flea market! Wonder what she bought at the jewelry store??? Christmas presents?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Actually we visited the jewelry store together, I posted pictures of the purchases a couple of pages back. I got a necklace, and we both got rings. Yesterday at Macy's I picked up a pair of Tanzanite earrings on half price, I hope they match the color of the stones we got in Mexico. If not I can always take them back to a Macy's near my house.

Happy New Year! To you too!

Originally Posted by Pinkocto

Loved the update. AP looks so cool.

Much to my surprise we both really enjoyed the pirate menu. Definitely worth trying at least once. I can't wait to hear about Palo dinner though.

I hope you and Fran had a fabulous Christmas! I too wished I could have eaten more. Leftovers were thoroughly enjoyed though.

I just looked it over again and found at least one thing on each course that I could eat, so perhaps we will do it April and Fran will feel good enough to get dressed up. I'll have to start thinking about my pirate wench costume!

[franandaj]

When I woke on Thursday morning, I was still remembering the discussion that Fran and I had regarding Cabo the night before. She was willing to try going into town.

I took some pictures of the town out on the balcony as we pulled into the bay of Cabo.









I got online and did a little bit of DISing before she awoke with cries of pain. Her arthritis flared up so bad, and her wrists hurt so much she could barely push herself up out of bed. At that point we decided going into Cabo was not going to be an option.

I convinced her that we should go out and at least get some breakfast so that the host could clean our room. It was about 9:15 and Tritons was going to close in 15 minutes. She hates going into a restaurant just before closing, so we didn’t pick that. Our choices were BBB or Parrot Cay, both of which were serving buffets. I guess she didn’t like the idea of going topside, so we ended up at Parrot Cay.

It was really nice because that is where our regular dinner server was working that morning, so he was very helpful getting Fran and her tray back to the table. It was very welcome especially since her wrists hurt so badly. Here was the offering on the buffet.

Various fruits:



More cold cuts, cheese, lox and other fixins



Yogurt, cottage cheese and not sure what the one in the foreground is.



Topping for yogurt and oatmeal



Donuts and other breads



Milk and stuff



Now we’re getting to breakfast! Potatoes, Hash, eggs and meats







I was bummed that they didn’t have an eggs made to order station down here. I don’t like eggs that have been sitting around for a while, so I wasn’t going to be having any eggs today. Here is my plate.



Fran’s plate



I went back for seconds, and Fran did about the same for her second plate too.



[Continued in Next Post]

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

After breakfast, she just wanted to lay down, the pain was so bad. Tonight was the night that we had reservations for Palo, and she promised that she would make it to dinner, but needed to rest if she was going to be up to dinner. I took some pictures of the tender boat approaching from our verandah.























I decided to walk around the ship while she rested, I took some pics of the Christmas decorations.





I also went inside this lounge. I can’t remember the name, Diversions? I think it was mostly a teenage hangout. This was the only time that I was in there.





I also wanted to figure out how difficult the whole tendering process would be.



That looks like a pretty big distance to jump to me!



At the other end of the ship, you can really see the rise and fall of the current.





[Continued in Next Post]

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

After running around the ship, I was hungry for lunch. Fran would have rathered to continue to sleep, so I decided to head to Triton’s for lunch.









I also realized that I had not taken any pictures of the wine list. With the exception of Palo, all the sit down restaurants shared the same wine list.





















No sooner than had I ordered and they brought the bread service out to me, the lady at the table next to me went running off frantically with her small child in her arms. The husband stuck around for a few moments, and then he left too. From what happened next, I assume that the kid threw up. I really wished that they had moved me to a new table, but I’m guessing that they didn’t want to bring attention to the event or some other garbage. Here is the bread service



I ordered the Lobster Ravioli in light tomato broth with Arugula Foam. In hindsight, these were probably frozen raviolis similar to the ones that you can buy at Costco, but they were still good.



And even better doused in Parmesan Cheese!



I followed it up the Tomato & Mozzarella Salad with Balsamic dressed Arugula. There was a little too much Arugula for me but it was still rather tasty.



I had told the waiter that I would eat the first two courses and decide if I had room for a third. I suspected that I wouldn’t and was right. For some reason he seemed annoyed that I was only ordering two courses. Had I ordered and entrée it would have been the Orecchiette Pasta with the Clams in the Riesling Wine Sauce.

What I found amusing was the treatment of the table next to me. All through lunch, no one touched the table, everything was left just as the patrons did when they rushed off. After I completed my meal, this gentleman showed up and he put on the “hazmat” suit complete with beanie and face mask.



He folded up the table cloth and all the dishes and contents and placed them inside this box, and as quick as he showed up, he disappeared. The wait staff then came and completely disinfected the table and redressed it for dinner.



After lunch I returned to the cabin. Wreck It Ralph was going to be shown in the Walt Disney Theater that evening at 5PM and 8PM. Originally we had a 6PM Palo reservation, but we changed it to 8PM so that we could make the 5 o’clock showing for Ralph. Fran was still in too much pain to go, but she let me watch it on my own. It was a very cute movie and afterwards, I came back to the room to dress for Palo.

[PrincessInOz]

Alison - sorry that Fran was in pain. I hope that the pain eased up for her during the day.

I loved the food porn and I'm with you. I would have asked to be moved from that table.

Sounds like you had a nice relaxing day. A shame about Cabo - but Fran does come first .


ps. Nice selection of wines. Looks like a great list.

[Linda67]

What a shame Fran was unwell, hope she felt better after she had rested

I would HAVE to move table if someone threw up anywhere near me

Thanks for posting the wine list

[dolphingirl47]

What a shame that Fran was not feeling well. I loved the photo of the Christmas decorations. One year I will get to see them for myself. What a shame about the "protein spill" at lunch. I would have asked to be moved, too.

Corinna

[ACDSNY]

Count me in as another one that wouldn't have made too long after someone threw up or I'd be doing the same thing.

Love the sign on the box...

[rentayenta]

I for sure would have puked if a kid at the next table puked. The hazmat box is hilarious.

I'm sorry Fran wasn't feeling well but it looks like you made the best of it. Thank you for sharing all of the pics.

I love Cabo and have been a few times but I am not a fan of the port and shopping. I prefer the real part of town where more locals are. Is Mexico that dangerous? Last time we went was 2010 to Cabo in fact.

Hope you both made it to Palo. I thought Wreck it Ralph was adorable. Cute message but I couldn't stand Fix it Felix' voice/twang.