Day 4 - Last night - Animator's Palate & Our Grand Packing Finale
(Eek! Running out of time to finish before the 1 year mark. Onward!)
Our last MDR visit was at Animator's Palate - which worked well all around, since the kidlets (and, ahem, parents) were running low on patience, so the free show helps immensely with waiting for food, etc.
It was actually a pretty typical last night. Just about everyone was somewhat grumpy from a day at the beach, packing, and being away from usual routines for too long. No, we were not in mourning because it was the last night on the ship - honest! It was just a low-grade general disgruntlement.
Our "regular" assistant server was back for the first time since night one. He was nice, but we actually missed our trainee server, who just had a much more genuine smile and approach.
Food was greeted with some joy, in the interest of getting out of the MDR sooner vs. later, and then, part-way through things, the Crush show came on. This was reasonably entertaining, until we sped past entertaining into the land of (6 year old) mind-blowing excitement because ... CRUSH CAME TO OUR TABLE.
And, he wanted to talk to the turtle with the blue & white striped shell - much to Conor's astonishment!
Here is Crush striking a pose as he noted that DH was filming the interaction.
OK. Disney cynic I might be, but even I will admit this is pretty awesome. I may even be able to figure out how they do this, but it's still amazing when it happens. Conor had a ball chatting with Crush, and suddenly, our moods improved dramatically.
Here is a sample of how hard it was to get the kiddos to sit down and eat supper after Crush visited.
After finishing up a meh supper, we dutifully tipped (the suggested amount only, if you're wondering- we decided not to cut it down, because they didn't really do anything wrong ... they were just, meh, and well, we're just like that).
We finally corralled the boy, and strategically dropped him off at the Kids Club one last time, while we got some more packing done. We retrieved him, persuaded him to leave his magic band with the nice people at the club, and said good-bye to his friends. He was quite amused to encounter this ... towel whatever, when we got back to the room. Penguin??? I am still confused.
In my last TR, I explained the perils of packing on the last night- the need to constantly monitor the weight of your bags, to plan to have appropriate clothing to wear off the ship the next night, and to not forget things that are hanging up (foreshadowing here - hear the scary music?). I was totally on the ball this night, and DH and I packed efficiently, with no ... OK not much disagreement.
We plunked Conor in the bath, and finished up 1 of our bags, and got it and the poster (that had cruised in an enjoyable fashion under the bed) out into the hall, appropriately tagged. We also made use of one of the best Disboards tips ever- ordered a bunch of breakfast-y foods from room service, which we stashed (where appropriate) in the fridge, so that we didn't have to deal with the masses at breakfast in the morning. (The thought has me breaking out in hives...)
I think we got half-way through one book before Conor fell asleep. We waited, oh, 5 minutes, and then thanks to magical black-out curtain, kept packing. (He has slept through the smoke-alarm going off at 3:00 a.m. due to a short-circuit at our house... he will not wake, on a ship, after a day at the beach, etc.)
We prepped the tip for our (virtually invisible) cabin attendant (again, suggested amount, no more) and filled out our cards. We did not give "excellent", but we were kind otherwise, with constructive feedback. We did note our lovely trainee server. DH noted his favourite bartender. We plugged in all electronics (which we are able to do without an official power cord.. though we have a multi-charging gizmo thing we use).
Finally, well before the 10:00 p.m. deadline, all the bags were out and tagged and no, we didn't go to that show that everyone goes on about. Those who are paying attention will note that we didn't go to any shows or any movies. At all. We're wild.
I went to bed, and DH headed off to visit his preferred bar (Meridian, if you're wondering) to get his preferred drink (Side Car) one last time.
And with that, we're truly almost done. I might get one last post in tonight - depends on how the writing gods are feeling.
Up next: Debarking and a bit of an oops.