The Adventures of Mom's Booty - 10/4 Wonder..... NEW UPDATE 7/7! See Ya Real Soon!

[nenner1]

Part 1: Introduction

Hello and welcome everyone!

We have just returned from our second cruise on the Disney Wonder, and here is the play-by-play of our glorious three days. If you haven't read my other trip report, well then here is what you can expect: Details. (Lots of Details). And pictures. (BIG ones. I don't like to resize. And besides you can see all of the little-what?-DETAILS! that way.) So if that sounds like your cup of tea, you're in the right place. And if you DID read my other trip report, and you already know all there is to know about the 4-night Wonder cruise, then stick around and find out what happens the other 3 nights! (If you want to read the other report from my Very Merry Unbirthday cruise in March, you can find it right here.)

I won't go back through all of the background info on my family again. By the time you finish this report you'll know more than you probably ever wanted to about us anyway. (Hee hee) But if you're interested, it's the first post in the last TR. To refresh everyone on the cast of characters…

Me (Jen) - 33
DH Ron - 33
DS Brendan - (now) 8
DD Savannah - 6

There might be a bit more to that than I just divulged, but I’ll get into that later. As I mentioned we just cruised on the Wonder in March, our first Disney cruise – in fact our first cruise period. We had a fantastic time, and shortly after returning re-booked a 7-night Double Dip in September of ’08. At first that didn’t seem too far off, but as time went slowly by we wondered how we would make it that long without getting a DCL fix. Financially and otherwise however, this summer proved very challenging for us. It was the most difficult time our family has had in many years – if ever- for a host of personal reasons. I won’t get into all stuff since it’s a big downer, but suffice it to say when it was all over, a little voice popped in my head that said, “Fredericks family, you’ve just been to hell and back. What are you going to do now?”

You know the answer was “We’re going on a Disney Cruise!”

Ron began pricing the cruises, and some Florida Resident rates were announced for several weeks at the end of September/early October. This was only a couple of weeks away. Since I was starting training on a new position at work on October 15th, we decided to make it sooner rather than later. After a lot of hemming and hawing about the financial implications of this impulse decision, we finally decided to call up and book for the October 4-7th 3 –Night cruise to the Bahamas. When we initially called they had a lot of availability and a lot of options. We were quoted a cost of $1300 for a category 8 room. For some strange reason we decided to just wait one more day before booking. Don’t ask me why. But of course when we called up-literally first thing in the morning the very next day, we were told there were no more 8’s and that the highest (read: cheapest) category available to us would be a cat. 5, for $1700 and change. Though we found that to still be a phenomenal deal, we were hesitant for a few reasons. The additional cost for one thing, and also the fear that we would spoil ourselves into not being able to tolerate a higher category room. I’ve heard once you go verandah you never go back. That said, we finally gave in to temptation and booked the room. We got to choose our location, and very happily selected a port side aft room, 7098. (I will go ahead and say now, IMO this is the *perfect* location on the boat. Right around the corner from the not-as-busy aft lifts, just two flights up to Beach Blanket Buffet (BBB), the drink station, and the Mickey Pool.) Sweet. We requested our desired dinner rotation of APT, and our dinner time of 8:15. It was too late to make Palo reservations online, as it showed fully booked, but I was fairly confident we could snag a ressie on the boat. We began to research shore excursions. We had really wanted to check out Atlantis last time, but it was between that and the Dolphin Encounter and I’ll tell you Flipper won hands down! Now we had an opportunity though, and we were extremely intrigued to discover DCL had added a new Atlantis Excursion – Atlantis Aquaventure.

When we cruised in March and were trying to decide on excursions, they only had the “Discover Atlantis” which consisted of transportation to Paradise Island and a tour of the Aquariums and access to the hotel grounds and casino. It did not include access to the beaches, pools, or waterslides. They also had the “Atlantis Beach Day” which encompassed all of the above including access to the beaches. No pools or waterslides. Now they also offer the “Atlantis Aquaventure” which is full access to the hotel grounds, casino, aquariums, beaches, pools, and waterslides, including the new water park “Aquaventure”. We checked this place out online and it is just incredible. The water park has this new feature where you get in a tube and coast down a lazy river, which then gets rough and has waves of up to four feet. Then – without even exiting your tube- you are swept up a conveyor belt and down thrilling water coasters where jets of water propel you down and up! How amazingly awesome does that sound? Needless to say we were hooked immediately and – even though it is a really expensive excursion to do through DCL, we gave in to temptation and booked it. The kids were so excited. They searched YouTube for videos of people going down the waterslides, and watched them nonstop. I was a bit concerned that Savannah was only 47 ½ inches tall in shoes on a good day, and the minimum height for the slides was 48”, but we were hopeful it wouldn’t be an issue.

With less than two weeks to sail when we booked, things went really fast. We got our documents in a couple of days. There was a lot of shopping to do…not as much as last time, thank goodness.I quickly requested some magnet designs from our great DISigners, and I spent a whole lot of time at work making magnets of my own. In fact I made way too many. I probably had close to 40 (yes – FORTY) designs personalized and ready to print….and I ran out of magnet paper. So I had to make do with what I already printed. (It turns out that we had more than enough!)Oh, and here’s an amusing story. So I am at work, and I’m supposed to be working. Thankfully I am pretty good at multitasking and toggling between windows! Anyway I put my Castaway Club CD-Rom into the DVD drive of my BRAND SPANKING NEW Gateway Laptop, and then swiveled back to my work computer. When I came back to the laptop and my file window had not opened I clicked on the DVD-ROM drive start menu item. Nothing happened. I look in Windows Explorer. Nothing. So I open up the drive again….and no disk! I look up inside the lapotop innards…nothing. Nada. Guess what gang? It ATE my CC CD Rom. And it’s still in there. Somewhere.

I also had to wrack my brain trying to come up with a name for this cruise. Since we sorely needed an attitude adjustment (and as many of you know, we have a Jimmy Buffett thing going on) I decided on the “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes Cruise”. I thought I should rename it though-at least for the trip report purposes, since there is another trippie out there right now named after a Buffett tune. So I opted for this title instead. The story behind it? Savannah wrote me a cute little picture book a few days before we left on the cruise, and this is what she called it. Now I was never one to allow my bootie to have adventures in the past, but there’s a first time for everything. Besides…booty…bootie? It fits.

As sail date approached, we became a bit concerned about the weather. After a totally dead tropical season with virtually no threat of hurricanes, the tropics finally started heating up right after we booked the cruise. In the days before we sailed a low pressure system developed over the Bahamas. A stationary high pressure out over the Atlantic held the disturbance over the islands, and it threatened to develop. I stayed glued to The Weather Channel, but it didn’t look too good. In fact, the National Hurricane Center was sending reconnaissance planes into it the very day we were to depart. Still we were determined to not let the threat of inclement weather bring us down.

Next thing you know, sail day had arrived. Somehow we had managed to be neatly packed and ready to go in short order this time around. Where last time we had departed with eight full size pieces of checked luggage, this time we wisely thinned down to the essentials, and were only checking five bags. It made a big difference. Everything was going so smoothly I could hardly believe it (and secretly dreaded that it was too good to be true). We excitedly loaded up the car and by 7:30 am were heading east on I-4 towards the happiest boat on earth!

Next up: Déjà vu? (including some visual aids)

 

[debnkay]

This sounds like fun....keep it coming!

 

[lunsusie]

Great cruise report! Thanks for sharing your experiences. Looking forward to your next instalment!

 

[nenner1]

It is the butt crack of dawn. The day is Thursday October 4, 2007. The time is 7:30 AM. The destination? Where dreams come true. We couldn’t be more excited as we tear across the interstate on our way to Port Canaveral. It’s still pretty dark , but the sky is clear and the air is warm. As is now our tradition, we decided to stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It’s okay to do this, since we are officially on vacation, and as I’m sure *everybody* knows, it’s illegal to eat at Cracker Barrel unless you are on vacation.

As we got out of the car, we thought back to how cold it was when we were doing this exact same thing in March. Today it’s warm and muggy. But that’s a good thing. Inside we are efficiently treated to a yummy breakfast of pecan, blueberry, and buttermilk pancakes with biscuits and sausage gravy. YUM. And I love it when they load me up with extra little maple syrup bottles to take home! Here are the kids enjoying their pre-cruise entertainment (the peg game and coloring the menu? They are SO easy!)

Back on the road, and traffic is surprisingly light. We arrived at Port Canaveral a little after 9:30. We were so excited to see the beautiful Wonder again, we missed the exit for the terminal. We got off at the exit for the “B” terminals and drove around for a bit down Mullet Rd which looks like it will take you to the terminal, but…nope. You can’t get there from here.
So we had to get back on the turnpike and backtrack to the exit for the “A” terminals. Once we got to the DCL terminal building, there was no lineup to go in, only us and two other cars. We were all promptly sent to wait in the Day Lot, where we were assured they would come fetch us at 10:00.

It was actually a few minutes after ten when we were waved across the street. Just us three cars. We checked in, dropped our luggage off with the porter, and headed back into the parking area. Since there was not a big crowd gathering, we all walked together across from the parking lot, through security and up into the terminal. As we came up the elevators, I was pretty surprised to see the huge expanse of the *EMPTY* terminal. It was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. We headed straight over to the check in lines, and gleefully strode up to the front of the Castaway Club queue. And stood there. For. A. While. Apparently we like, got there before opening or something. It was weird. As Ron stood in the line, I walked around looking for a CM to make sure we did not overlook whoever was handing out the boarding passes. I found the lone terminal employee, and she cheerfully informed me not to worry, that we would be receiving our BP card at check in. “And,” she added, “It will be a number two”. Number TWO? Awesome. So I meandered back to our spot heading the lines. Eventually a few other parties joined us in the queue to wait. It wasn’t too long before we heard some music begin to pipe in. As you may expect, the first song they played was “Hi Ho, Hi Ho It’s off to work we go”, as all of the CM’s came out of the back and took their places at the check in windows. I thought that was hilarious.
We were called right up to check in (but not before the first person in the regular line. What’s up with that?? ) The first thing we got our paws on was that BP- number 2- just as promised. Then we got our first Castaway Club gifts- lanyards and pins for everyone. I was slightly disappointed to see our chosen room number 7098 on our card. That means no upgrade. Of course there really isn’t far up to go from Cat. 5, so I never really expected one. Oh well. We got our KTTW cards, the pewter CC ones, and were delighted to see that we did in fact get the dining rotation and time we had requested, ATP at 8:15. After check in was complete, we just hung out in the terminal. Relaxing and taking pictures.

We have arrived!

It got busy pretty quick, and before you know it the OC/OL and Check in lines were insane. Everybody seemed to arrive at once. Pluto came out for another cool photo op:

We spent the rest of our time people watching. It seemed like there were an awful lot of repeat cruisers (many CC lanyards about). Before we knew it, everyone was gathering at the embarkation ears. We didn’t wait for the announcements to begin, this time we headed over to the group at the ropes and lined up. We were shocked to see how many other BP# 2’s were up there with us. On our last cruise there were virtually no 1 and 2’s and a ton of 3’s. This time there were way too many 2’s. I guess it’s pretty arbitrary how they decide to do that. But HECK, who cares because here comes my favorite voice over the loudspeaker ….“Ladies and Gentlemen…. Girls and Boys!” WOOOO HOOO! Time to get on the boat!!! The Dream family was announced (meh…not us. Maybe next cruise), and into the giant orange mouse ears we went. We stopped for the embarkation pics, which turned out pretty bad this time. We didn’t end up buying it (although I wanted to, even though I looked like crap).

In the blink of an eye we were being welcomed on board, this time to a smattering of applause.

(click on image below to watch video)




We went straight for Parrot Cay and the buffet. We weren’t really too hungry yet, but we have a system down on how we do these first few hours on the boat. We managed to get a porthole seat, although our view was just the parking lot.

After stuffing our faces with chicken strips and desserts (what? ), we headed up to the Deck 9. Like last time, we played some ping pong until it was time to go down and attempt to secure Palo reservations. I was sure we’d have no problem getting what we wanted, until we arrived. I was shocked to see the HUGE line of folks extending from Wavebands out into the stairs/elevator area. Yikes. Thankfully it moved fairly fast and we were soon inside. Lucky for us, most of the folks there were trying to change seatings. As I sat nearby and heard the few choices available for Palo, I began to grow increasingly concerned. When we finally got up to the front, we were able to get the night we wanted (Friday, the Nassau night) but the only time available was 6:00. That’s actually right when Palo opens. It’s pretty early for us, but as it turns out, it was perfect. The kids wanted to make sure they were in the OC for Flubber, and sure enough it was scheduled for 5:45 on Friday. How perfect is that? After getting our Palo business squared away, we bounded back above board to wait for our stateroom to be ready. As you can see, the ship was still pretty much deserted.

After all how, often do you see that many empty chairs by the Mickey pool?

The weather was beautiful for the time being. Bright, sunny, and warm. It looked like it was going to be pretty nice after all. Before too long, it was 1:30 and we ran down the stairs to check out our room. When we arrived we found our side of Deck 7 ready, but the poor folks Starboard side were still waiting. Our room was right around the corner from the elevator lobby. We opened the door and squealed with delight! It was big, roomy, and beautiful! And it was so great to have the natural light streaming through the glass doors! It had so much storage. I thought I had read in the passporter that we would not have the big storage trunk, but we did. I *LOVE* that thing. It holds SO MUCH STUFF! And OMG, the split bathrooms were a Godsend! I don’t know how we did without it before.
Here are some pics:

As you can see we found a second Castaway Club gift on the bed. A tote bag filled with other little goodies like drawstring net bags for beach supplies, kiddie cups with straws, flags, a bath toy and a CC magnet among other things. Very cool. But I wonder if you get the same gift on your third cruise?

Check out the cool wall art in our room. A map of Castaway Cay. We also had a nice picture of Walt and Lillian Disney too, over our vanity chest.

Our luggage had not arrived yet, so you know what time that makes it. Yep. Mickey pool time. Last cruise, Savannah was terrified to go on the slide. She promised this time she would, and sure enough she headed straight up there: (video)



Ahhh. Finally time to chill out with some Bahama Mama’s. I have *so* waited six months for this!

After a while, the Mickey Pool became insanely crowded. Ron walked over by the Goofy Pool and found it nearly deserted, so we relocated over there for a bit.

Uh-oh. Look at those clouds looming….

It wouldn’t be long now before we headed down for the drill, and then to the Adventures Away Party, where our voyage would begin!!

Next Installment: And the rain rain rain came down down down…..

 

[Babs417]

Great job thank you I cant wait

 

[kors]

Can't wait to read the rest!!!

 

[granmaz]

I recognised your lovely children straight away! Thanks for the report. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[KimmyDisneyNerd]

Yeah! I'm here for the ride. The pictures are just wonderful! I will be on my first cruise in December!!

 

[LuvtheEars]

Hi Jen

Reading this makes me feel like we are all back on the boat! Great report - Can't wait to read more!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Brilliant report with loads of detail - and fantastic photos - your children are very photogenic! Looking forward to the next installment!

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Great pics. A family member of mine is in one of your pics. We were right down the hall from you. I'll keep a look out for us in more of your pics. My son played with your daughter in the kids club.

 

[nenner1]

Great pics. A family member of mine is in one of your pics. We were right down the hall from you. I'll keep a look out for us in more of your pics. My son played with your daughter in the kids club.

Wow, very cool!

Hi Jen

Reading this makes me feel like we are all back on the boat! Great report - Can't wait to read more!

I *wish* we were all back on the boat! You should check my pics too Tiffany and see if you are in any of them!

 

[mickeyluv]

Jen...where are ya? I read your first trip report from your first cruise and have been so waiting for you second cruise to end so that I could read this TR!! (I've been almost as excited about your 10/07 cruise trip report as I have been about my own cruise in 11/07!)

So with that being said...come on now girl!! Dont' keep us hanging too long!

I love your pictures and Love your new video installments!!!

 

[nenner1]

I'm going to try to get a post up today......at latest tomorrow evening.
I forgot to drop off my waterproof cameras to get them devoloped.....ugh.
And you wouldn't believe the amount of laundry I have waiting for me!

It will be in the next day or so I promise!

 

[momof2disprincesses]

Oh reading this is getting me so excited for our cruise in Feb. I was glad to hear about the Castaway Club gifts as this will be our 3rd cruise and our friend's 2nd.

Can't wait to hear more, especially about the Atlantis!

 

[anewmac]

Oh I cant wait to read more. Love the video addition. And the kids look like they have grown just from the few months from the last cruise! Great start!

 

[nenner1]

As the afternoon sped along at a pace far too fast for my liking, we enjoyed the atmosphere up on Deck 9. It was all too soon before the ship started clearing out for the evacuation drill. We stalled as long as we could and finally trudged back to our room. Last time, we arrived early to the drill and spent what seemed was a ridiculous amount of time squashed like lines of sardines in the sweltering heat. I was hoping this time we would be lucky enough to have a muster area somewhere inside, one of the restaurants or the theater. Once again, no such luck. I’ll give you this tip though…..Don’t head down to the drill any earlier than you have to. Stay in your cabin until you hear the announcement . We suited up in our jackets and waited in the cool, comfortable cabin as long as we could before going down. When we arrived out at our spot on Deck 4, most all of the cabins had already assembled. We smushed into our place in line, with everyone arranged from shortest to tallest. We only had to stand there miserably for about 5 minutes, however. What a big difference arriving fashionably late made. The Drill team did their thing and in no time we were dismissed. It was *much* more tolerable this time, though If I could’ve got a nickel for every “Titanic” reference I heard, I’d be rich.
You can’t have a lifeboat drill without lifejacket pics.. (can you tell I was miserable? Whoever wore that lifejacket before me was wearing some pretty strong cologne and it was giving me quite a headache!)

We trudged very slowly back up very crowded stairs, it seemed to take much longer to get back upstairs this time. When we arrived back at the cabin we took a few minutes to begin unpacking some of the luggage, which had arrived before we left for the drill. I also took the opportunity to pimp out our door, putting up my magnets and fish extender. (We only saw two other doors decorated, another one on 7 and fellow Dis’ers Tiffany and Doug on deck 2.)

With those things accomplished, we headed up to deck 9 for the Adventures Away sail-away party. It didn’t seem as crowded as our last cruise, to me(though we did hear this cruise was fully booked). The party itself is essentially the same as its’ predecessor. Same music, same dancing and such. We headed to our usual spot, on the deck next to the Goofy pool on the port side. There weren’t too many folks crowding down there, like I said less than last cruise. It looked like there were more folks up on deck 10 this time, though so that makes sense. The party was in full swing when we arrived and we had some lively dancers around us …

(video)



Before too long though the skies suddenly opened up. It wasn’t *pouring* per se, but raining hard enough for me to have to take cover. (Hey I had the camera, so I have an excuse. Besides, I wasn’t planning on taking another shower before dinner, so I had to go into damage control mode). Eventually Ron and most everybody else on Deck 9 took refuge under the overhang with me. Not the kids though. They stayed out in the rain and had a blast.

After a little while, the rain subsided enough for us to emerge back into the center of the deck, and for the characters to come back out onstage. Right after they did, the countdown began: (video)



(I was disappointed the music from the party was so loud it overwhelmed the ship’s horn sounding. You can still hear it if you listen carefully, though!)

As the ship began to pull out of dock and head down the channel, we decided to watch the departure from our verandah (since we’ll probably not be able to do that again!) It was nice to do that in semi-privacy, as many of the families in the cabins surrounding us were doing the same. We grabbed some Bahama Mama refills on our way down. (Tip- there is a convenient little bar setup right outside of BBB in the aft elevator lobby of Deck 9. We found it so convenient to stop there for drinks , as it was always on our way up or down, whatever the case may be. Oh, and another tip, the souvenir glasses are refillable. Just bring your empty along, and the CM’s trade it for a filled glass. I think it only costs $3.95 for a refill on the drink of the day!)

The S.S. Booze & Gamble (AKA the Carnival Sensation) followed us out to sea, the first of many times in the next few days we would run into them. The kids were really fond of their Christmas-type lights they have strung all over their top deck. It doesn’t do anything for me, though! After we got out into open sea, we finished unpacking- completely…which is something we did not even attempt last time. It was so this time, to be so organized and have extra room after being able to stow away the luggage. The room had *so* much storage room, the “desk” area contained at least 11 drawers, the storage trunk held the equivalent of the same (it had several open shelves), and there was another small vanity dresser by the closet with about six more drawers. It was great.

Once we all got freshened up and dressed, we decided to go down and catch the show. Hercules the Muse-ical was tonight. I enjoyed it very much last time (ok, I admit I like it for the pyro). No, really it is a very funny show. Some of the performers were the same, some were different. Some of the jokes had changed, too. They were more current. There was still a jab at Britney in there, though. We arrived just a few minutes before showtime and had no problem finding a good seat (another indication the ship wasn’t quite as full as DCL claimed). While we were in the show, the boat began rocking pretty good. It didn’t seem as bad as the last cruise, but the curtain was swaying back & forth and it was hard to walk up the steps on the way out.
Before heading to dinner, we stopped in the atrium. I was a bit disappointed to see the only photo backdrop up that night was the white one. We decided to not even stop and have any taken (makes it easier to not have to buy them later that way!). Needing to waste a little bit of time before dinner, we headed into Studio Sea just in time to catch the end of one of the game shows. I had wanted to play bingo, but it had already begun in Wavebands. We spent the rest of the time walking the decks and hanging out in the atrium.

Next thing you know, it was finally dinner time. Our seating was 8:15 at Animator’s Palate. AP was our favorite rotation restaurant last cruise, the food was absolutely outstanding. We had already found our table while we were at lunch, and were happy to discover it was a four-top. That meant no table mates, which, considering how these kids can be at dinner sometimes, is a good thing. It is my personal opinion also that I can just relax and enjoy my dinner more without having to make idle conversation, or worry about the lack thereof. I’ll probably catch a lot of flames for that, but it’s just our personal preference. As a matter of fact, we observed several of the large tables where the parties seemed uncomfortable together (one was right next to us). By dinner the last evening none of these groups seemed to be there, and we had empty tables all around us. Don’t know if that was due to the seating arrangements, or other issues..
Anyway, it seemed right as we joined the queue building outside the restaurant, it began to move and we were seated quickly. Soon afterwards, we were greeted by our main server, Fortune. He had brought us our basket of bread (a task usually reserved for the assistant server), but he had introduced himself and we knew he was our actual server. After a while, our assistant server, Luis came by and asked for our drink order. We obliged, and he disappeared into the bowels of the ship. We had anticipated this meal highly the last few weeks, and knew what our selections would be. We placed our orders with Fortune and anxiously awaited the delicious food.
Our appetizers came out quickly, before our drinks I might note. Ron and I had both ordered the Wild Garlic Mushrooms, as we had enjoyed it so much last time. They were just as delicious as we remembered, a creamy garlic sauce with mushrooms over phyllo (puff) pastry. We were licking our plates! (The sauce on this mushroom appetizer is the same sauce on the Portobello mushroom at Palo!) Our salads came out right on top of the appetizers. We quickly noted the dining room service did not seem so carefully choreographed this time. We noted several tables around us running either a course ahead or a course behind us. Last time, all of the tables were served the same course at the same time. It seemed a bit haphazard this time around (this did not seem limited tour our servers, we noticed the same thing occurring all over the dining room). Our salads had arrived, and our drinks soon after. There was a mistake on our drink order that was easily fixed since we were the first table served. One of the kids had ordered sprite, the other coke, and two sprites were brought. Luis just handed over a coke from the tray and took back the sprite. That was fine until he got to the next table and the guy who ordered coke at that table didn’t want the sprite! Oh well…
The salad I had ordered was the Confetti Tomato Salad. Once again I had expected whole cherry and teardrop tomatoes , but I had forgotten how this is served. It is a bed of shredded lettuce and cucumber (not mentioned in the description) with a few (literally like 3) slices of cherry tomatoes. It tasted fine, it just wasn’t “tomato” salad as it is described. Some of the lettuce in the bottom was very bitter, also. Ron had the Caesar Salad, and he said it was good. (Not great, just good). Our dinners came promptly afterwards. Fortune asked us if the timing of the courses suited us, and since we are fast eaters, we agreed that the pace was good for us.
Savannah had grown tired and cranky from almost the minute we walked in the door of the restaurant. In fact, she didn’t even make it to dinner before falling asleep in her chair…

Since we weren’t straying from what we had known to be good, both Ron and I ordered identical entrée’s. We both ordered the Bacon-Wrapped Filet with Seafood Pastry Shell. Like I had described in my last TR, the “pastry shell” is very good, almost like a phyllo consistency. Flaky and surprisingly tasty. This time around, my fish-shaped pastry shell was too dry, almost too tough to “cut” with a fork. I also got a bite of shrimp that still had shell on it (or casing, or whatever you want to call it. Something crunchy. Our steaks were a bit substandard also. I had ordered mine medium well, and it came out very well-done (not burnt or charred, but dry). Ron had ordered his medium and it came out medium well- to well done. So, needless to say, we were both a bit underwhelmed by the food. Also, Luis had gone missing and our beverages were empty. At least we still had water. Fortune took our dessert order and it was about this time we noticed, the “show” did not seem to be going on this time. We discussed it amongst ourselves, figuring maybe they don’t play the color show on the 3 night cruise. Right after we started talking about it, though we noticed the music come on and the colors began. It was a bit surreal how it began right as we noticed its’ absence. I don’t know if someone forgot to “turn it on” (the music and the lights that is!) or what.
For dessert, we both again ordered the same thing as on our last cruise. Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie for Ron and Boston Cream Pie for me. They were served promptly (still no Luis!), and might I add, right at the same time as our neighbors at the next table got their entrées. The Peanut butter pie was awesome, although tooth hurting sweet. The Boston Cream Pie was suffering from the same ailments as our steaks, too dry. Plus there was too little chocolate ganache on top. I didn’t even finish it.
All in all, the whole experience this evening was disappointing. Brendan wasn’t upset with his delicious dessert choice , however:

(You can see in this photo the light display had not started yet, but by the time I snapped this photo of Ron, it had begun)

After our dessert, we sat through the “reveal” part of the show, which took way too long. Actually it just too too long for Fortune to get back to our table to give us the breakfast spiel. For some reason we were the last table he stopped at. Still no Luis, and we never met our head server during this meal either. There definetly seemed to be some bugs to work out for the food service staff both out front and in the kitchen.

It was a long and wonderful day,and we were all very tired. We went up to Deck 9 to get some drinks, and retired to our room. A beautiful swan perched on the bed to greet us.

The kids jumped happily into their bunks. All of a sudden NOW Savannah is wide awake! They watched Shrek 3 for a little while, and Ron and I enjoyed the beautiful evening sea breeze from our verandah. The perfect end to an almost perfect day!

Next up: Discovering the Hidden City

 

[anewmac]

aww im bumbed the food wasnt up to par Hopefully the next day is! cant wait to read more!

 

[CruisinEars]

Yay! I found you again. I just recently read your other trippie. The Cracker Barrel pics were making me envious. We don't have those up here but I did eat at some when we were on an extended stay in Georgia. Yummo! I also noticed the Captain Underpants and the Ben 10 watch. My ds has those too.
Can't wait to read more. Also, loved the video clips, especially the horn.

 

[LITTLEKID58]

TFS pics are great