Day 3: Sea Day
Tuesday morning I awoke and felt........much better! Honestly, I think the movement actually helped me sleep more soundly (and I even got used to the creaking sounds of the room, though admittedly we could have done without it). Although I still felt some movement on the ship - and would continue to feel some movement for the rest of the cruise - it never bothered me again. Did I suddenly grow my 'sea legs?' The seabands never made a reappearance and stayed packed in the luggage.
We had left a room service tag on our door the night before as DH and I had a 10am reservation at Palo for brunch, but we wanted the girls obviously to have breakfast before we took them to the kids club (and we figured it was less hassle to get room service than to get them dressed and take them to Parrot Cay for breakfast). We had asked for a delivery window of 8:30-9:00 and breakfast arrived about 8:35.The girls enjoyed having their cereal and pastries in bed while watching Mickey Mouse cartoons for the umpteenth time, while DH and I got dressed for brunch.
Around 9:40 we took the girls to the kids club and then headed up to deck 10. Except we took the wrong elevator and ended up in mid ship instead of aft so we decided to take a nice fresh morning walk on the deck to get around to Palo.
FRACK!!! The weather had changed, now that we truly were 'at sea' - the sun had disappeared, the clouds were thick and man it was chilly outside. And windy. So much for my carefully-arranged hair. Brrrr.....dh laughed as I held my dress down ala Marilyn Monroe over the steam grate. As soon as we reached Palo I bolted into the ladies room to fix my hair
We were early and the first to show up so we just stood in the main waiting area, looking at the books, etc in the glass cabinets. A few other couples arrived in the next few minutes and then the doors opened. Being it was the first block of reservations we received a great table right by a window.
We met our server, a lovely gentleman from Slovakia (of course I forgot his name, apparently I'm pathetic at remembering names!!) We ordered mimosa's and after a nice big sip we were then brought around the buffet and shown all the gloriousness that is the Palo Brunch! Oh my.....where to begin??
Alaskan king crab legs? Yes please! Caviar? Don't mind if I do! Pastries galore and scallops together? You bet!
As for the entrees you can order, I was torn between one of the pizzas or the chicken parm; ended up ordering the chicken upon recommendation of our server and I was not disappointed. Can't remember what DH ordered (and I just asked him and he can't remember either LOL) Oh well, fairly certain he enjoyed it.
We declined ordering a second entry each and instead took yet another crack at the buffet:
Oh I lied, we did order something else each, strawberry soup!! A lovely ending to a fanastic meal!
Oh my oh my......it really was a fantastic meal. And not just because it was child-free
DH later looked at the Palo menu for dinner, thinking maybe we'd try and get a reservation, but we actually vetoed that idea, thinking it didn't look 'special' enough for another upcharge. If anyone HAS done Palo for dinner on Wonder, feel free to chime in and let me know your experiences.
So at this point in the cruise we felt we were really settling in.....enjoying ourselves.....knowing the kids were having fun (both with and without us!)....we took the elevator down to deck 6 (no more walking outside without a jacket thankyouverymuch) and went back to our cabin to change. More FE gifts had been delivered so we brought in any that were for us and left any that were for the kids in their pockets for them to discover.
Looked over our navigators again to see which activities we'd like to do next....when out of the corner of my eye I spotted (not for the first time) the order form for a future cruise. Since I now I had my sea legs and was still glowing from the Palo brunch I seized my opportunity and pounced on dh re:booking onboard
Now I have to say even before we took this cruise I had already approached dh about cruising to Alaska in 2016 to celebrate our 40th birthdays. "but we haven't even taken our FIRST cruise yet!" he said, quite rightly so. I told him all the advantages of booking onboard and was met with "well let's just see how we like the first cruise and take it from there."
Well apparently I am a very persuasive wife because our next stop was the Future Sales desk on deck 4!
And yes, WilmaBride, we DID rebook onboard!
The last Alaskan cruise for August 2016 (Aug 15-22 2016). We booked another inside room to save/cut cost but booked a deluxe inside room instead of standard - an extra 30 sq feet and split bath for only $100 more (total)? Sold. Coincidentally our 12th wedding anniversary happens to fall on the last full day (August 21) of that cruise, too. Oompa! More to celebrate! And Gwen will turn 8 on August 10th! Huzzah!
And then I took DH up to Cove Cafe for a stiff drink because I'm pretty sure he needed it
Oh shoot, no actually I lie (geez I do that a lot!) we went down to Diversions and played a trivia game (but dh did order a drink, no lie there!)
After trivia I think we went up to the kids club and pulled the girls out for a bit, knowing we'd need to put them back in later that afternoon as we had a mixology with our cruise meet group booked for 4pm. We didn't mention the Alaska cruise to them (and still to this day have not told them) because there was still a chance that we might have to cancel it (but hopefully we won't!!!)
It really had not warmed up much so instead of going up to the pool deck or playing some foosball and ping pong up on deck 10 we blew some cash in the arcade for a bit. Then it was all "mommmmmmmm....can we get some ice cream???" Ah, what the heck. So we got cones and quickly scrambled back inside to eat them! Wandered around the ship some more, stopped for some character photos, looked at our photos thus far at Shutters and took a brisk walk around outside.
The sun was now shining, but it was still quite breezy.
Then it was back to kiddie club because mom and dad had some drinkin' to do in the cadillac lounge!!!
We arrived just a few minutes before 4pm and most of our group was already seated so we joined in a couple of empty chairs near one end and struck up a convo with some lovely ladies from California and Alberta.
Our mixology host was a lovely fellow from Mexico, who, will quite informative, did talk on and on....and on......I tried to show interest but honestly I tuned him out a little, especially once all the drinks were in front of us. Less yappin, more drinkin! Because, you know, I'm classy like that.
There were 5 drinks total and for 4 of those drinks, a new group of 3 people was selected to come up to the bar and make their own. DH was called up for one of those groups and he was a very willing participant, let me tell you
All in all it was quite fun and for $20 or $25 it was a good way to get a bit sloshed and make new friends.
Ok I had intended to make Day 3 one entry but it's getting late. So I guess pirate night, etc will have to be left for my next entry!