So this day was kind of blur for me but I was congested with a cold at this point. So I got some rest today so I could enjoy
castaway cay the following day. It was still a packed day though!
My sister and I went to Enchanted Gardens for breakfast. This is a buffet breakfast and yes they had Mickey Waffles. Couldnt resist those! The buffet was really good and as I mentioned before, I really like the theme of this restaurant. It just feels very relaxing to me.
After breakfast, we went to satellite falls for a bit but soon I returned to the room and back to sleep! At some point my sister woke me up with some goodies from the concierge lounge and from Tow Mater's Grill. I still like the chicken fingers better than the fancier and healthier sandwiches from the concierge lounge : )
We ate lunch on our verandah which was so nice and relaxing.
My sister and I headed to a lecture at the Buena Vista Theater on future plans at Disney Parks. But the cast member only could share the information that has already been released publicly. Since I follow Disney news closely I didnt get much out of it, except more excitement to visit cars land next year and dreams of visiting Tokyo
Disneyland someday. I learned something from someone in the audience actually that the new castle at Shanghai is not going to have a specific princess (they probably cant have it be Mulan) but it is just going to storybook castle and have a ride inside it. Kind of a copout if you ask me.
At 3:00 we went to a demonstration of the lobster ravioli from two chefs from Remy (the head chef and one of the sous chefs). The two were very amusing together. I can see in my workplace and in others that attitude really trickles down from the boss. And this head chef had a great personality. He teased his sous chef about cutting himself at the last demo so he was giving him a blunt knife this time. The sous chef shot back that the head chef last injury was a paper cut since the head chef spends more time in the office than the kitchen : ) The back and forth between the two had everyone laughing.
My mom caught an error on the recipe card which called for a whisked egg in the ravioli mix. She asked if they skipped a step because she missed seeing them put the egg in and the chef responded that he wouldnt recommend egg in this but my mom pointed out that it was on the recipe card. The head chef seemed embarrassed and said that was the first person in 8 times to point that out.
The set up of the demo worked really well. I am used to seeing demos where above the cooking surface there is a mirror for the audience to see. But in this case they actually used a video camera above to send live images to large screen to the side. This was better than the mirror set up since they could zoom in on the techniques.
We had to leave early because we had tea reservations at Palo. I really enjoy the tea at Palo and am sorry they are doing this anymore. We had a nice table looking out to the water and our server was so nice!
While we were at tea, dad went to a mixology class at Sky Line Bar where he learned to make one of those awful cocktails. It turns out that they keep the drinks flowing so much during the demonstration that by the time he tasted the cocktail he made he couldnt really taste if it was good or bad. So maybe that is the secret to enjoying the cocktails at Skyline drink a lot before you go in : )
After the tea we stopped by the concierge lounge for the Character meet and greet. It was Minnie in her cruise casual outfit! So much fun.
We then planned to meet up at aquaduck at 5pm. My sister changed for it but since I wasnt feeling 100% I stayed in my dry cloths to snap pictures. When we got to the Aquaduck we couldnt find our dad. We looked all around and tried his wave phone but no luck. We were standing on deck when suddenly above us dad goes by waving at us! We both shouted "theres dad" and made everyone laugh around us. That would make a good advertisement for the cruise actually. So our Dad was really enjoying the aquaduck : )
My sister got back in line with our dad which really wasnt long and I tried to take photos of them going by.
It was soon time to get ready for the evening. It was semi-formal night. My sister decided to stay back to watch the show on tv. There is a channel that plays the performances live. But I went to the show with my mom and dad that night it was Believe. Another good show but I liked Wishes better. Something struck a chord with my dad maybe it was the story line of the father who works too much and doesnt spend enough time with his daughter. At any rate after the show my dad announced that he wanted to join us on the panama cruise! Yay!
So we were off to the onboard booking desk. There was a line that took 45 minutes! More than enough time for my sister to get a picture with Mademoiselle Minnie. Once we got through the line we didnt get the same helpful cast member that worked with us the first time but the other less experienced cast member. Apparently she was new and messed up a lot of peoples bookings. Anyway , she put us in a two bedroom suite but didnt add my dad which was the whole point us trying to change our reservation.
(When we got home on Saturday. My sister looked at the layout of the 2 bedroom suite and realized this wouldnt work for us at all. My sister and I would have a lot less space and we would have a small room with no window. Weve become accustomed to more space and a verandah so this just wont work especially for a two week cruise. Plus it isnt fair to split the cost of the 2 bedroom suite evenly if my parents get such a nicer room and bathroom. So my Mom called Disney that Saturday and it turned out that the one bedroom suite we originally booked had a connecting stateroom which would be same configuration that we had on the Fantasy. The only difference is that the connecting stateroom was not concierge. But that doesnt matter as much on the Wonder since they dont have the concierge lounge and sundeck on the Wonder. Anyway this was the perfect set up. Since the cast member onboard should have booked us this way when we wanted to add our Dad, Disney honored the 10% discount and onboard credit over the phone for the connecting stateroom for my sister and me. Somehow we overpaid the deposit too so they didnt need anymore deposit money for us. This is why I love traveling with Disney. They seem to really go out of their way to make things right.)
Okay back to the trip report.
After the attempt to add my dad to the rebooking, we had dinner at Royal Court back at the main Royal Court table. This time we had two lords at the table with my dad being there also. We also filled the table better since now there were 9 of us. The table seats 10. It was another wonderful dinner. Lobster was on the menu but I think I went with the venison instead sharing some of mine for a bite of lobster from my sister. I was very happy with my choice as I thought the lobster was a bit salty.
That night was the first and only night I noticed kids acting up at several tables. Not sure why they seemed to have more energy that night. Maybe it was the day at sea. But there were extra cast members (maybe servers in training?) that went directly over to the kids to entertain them with magic tricks and toys. I wish restaurants in my neighborhood did that!
After dinner I went to Ohh La La with our friends while my sister and parents headed to bed. I slept so much that morning that I still had some energy. We had so many good laughs! As I sit here at work I really miss that night!