nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
After leisurely relaxing on the balcony watching the sunset, and snacking on some yummy chicken tenders from Plutos (of course!), we actually did not have a lot of time to get ready before the show, the first time we would get to see the relatively new Villains Tonight!
There was a lot more hype surrounding this show after it first debuted last summer in the Med. It was the centerpiece of entirely themed Villains night, with a special menu and what was even more enticing to me: a Villians-exclusive meet and greet in the Atrium in the late evening. Unfortunately after dry dock in early October, things were tweaked a bit and the Villains menu and character meet and greet had been eliminated, left with a rather disjointed pairing of the Villains Tonight show with a regular dinner rotational menu. And that also messed up our dinner rotation speculation, which seems to happen every cruise now.
In any event, we were still anticipating highly enjoying a new Disney production. Once again, we made it to the theater with barely any time to spare. This time the house lights had been turned down already and we had to wait a few minutes to actually find five seats together.
Back in our usual spot off to the far right. We were lucky to get seats, and really needed to work on getting to the theater earlier in the future!
My opinion on the show, it was good, but not great. It starts off well, and ends well, but drags quite a bit in the middle, as each of the 7-8 or so villain characters gets an individual cameo. Great to introduce those to people who arent as familiar with some of the lesser known villains, but a bit redundant to those of us fans who have seen the movies (in my case..multiple times!) and know why theyre bad. I got what must have been a much-needed nap through the mid point of the show.
I did not get very good pictures, but here is a shot from the rather enjoyable Captain Hook/pirates interlude:
Hades, Pain, and Panic are always entertaining (man I miss the old Hercules show!)
And from the finale:
We were among the first folks out of the theater after the show, (sorry Brent!). We were on a mission, dressed and headed to the Atrium for some photos. The girls had super cute Minnie Mouse inspired dresses on, and we had hoped the catch Minnie in her traditional red polka dot dress, although it wasn't meant to be this cruise (she always seemed to be dressed in some other attire, tonight she was Princess Minnie).
When it was our turn, it was the usual, Sarah running around in a circle excitedly:
And caught! Minnie did notice Sarahs dress, with a point and a blush hands-up to her face gesture!
From there, we hopped in Mickeys line, and our color scheme this evening matched him in his Sorceror costume perfectly!
Is this not the best photo ever? Thank goodness for the kiosks, they had actually not printed this one up, presumably because Sarah was not looking at the camera. We had to order it and have it printed out, but we are so thankful for this opportunity, which we did not have on our last cruise!
Dont ask me how, but either we have this show, photos, variety show, dinner routine down pat, or our timing was just good this evening. (Maybe a bit of both). But we now headed to Rockin Bar D to catch the Family Variety show by comedian/singer John Charles. The show hadnt started yet, but we werent early by any means and again it was hard to find four seats together-Sarah would have to sit on our lap-and we were lucky to get that.
The show started almost immediately after we were seated, and I was a little disappointed to hear some of the exact same material as the last time we caught his show. It was still very fun, even though I had heard it all before, and even if he didnt open with Jimmy Buffett. (He still had his trademark line I live in Florida, if you turn on a faucet, Jimmy Buffett comes out hilarious! And sadly, not true! At least not in Tampa, all I ever get is yucky FL water!)
In any event we had fun with the first part of the show, especially when John Charles started taking requests. He did some AC/DC, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Lady GaGa, and was just about to start a rousing rendition of Michael Jacksons Billie Jean when Sarah started to flip out, yet again.
Hey you, shut that kid up! (Just kidding, he was actually just singing a song in this screenshot taken from one of my videos, which are too long to post).
We were too close to the front, and the acoustics in Rockin Bar D were not favorable to stifling the screams in the least, so I had to make an emergency exit, with wailing, thrashing toddler in tow. The worst part was where we were sitting, there was no escape but to come out and around the front row (right in front of the stage) to get to the path to the door. Embarassing. I did it as quickly and as least-disruptively as possible.
Sarah and I took a quick trip to the bathroom (the cruise ship toilets TOTALLY freaked her out), and that was fun, then we headed back to Beat Street where she amused herself running down the hall and pointing at the city lights in the murals that lined the hallway. This allowed me to somewhat watch the show from the doorway. If any moonwalking took place though- I didnt see it.
After that, it was time for dinner, and we sure were hungry. We were back in Lumieres this evening, for the rotational French dinner. We headed back to our table tucked in the corner to find everything ready for us, as we had become accustomed to.
A little posing for the camera, I already look tired in this photo!
Sarah almost immediately became cranky, and we knew we were on the clock counting down to the inevitable meltdown. She was temporarily amused by some menu origami from Passayu:
Meanwhile, service started off quick. We began with our appetizers. Brendan had the Chilled Jumbo Shrimp with Horseradish Cream.
Ron had the Applewood Smoked Bacon and Wild Mushroom Tart with Creamy Leeks, which would normally be right up my alley but for some reason this evening I just had the Market Green Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette.
(I was probably filling myself up on the warm French Country Bread!)
Savannahs and Sarahs kids meals came out promptly after appetizers were served. Passayu made us some creative ketchup creations this evening!
Sarah got this happy-faced (I think) Ketchup MouseO Lantern with her usual Chicken Strips:
And Savannah got a very special ketchup Ariel (which I totally could not figure out what in the world he was making until I saw the finished product):
Not too long after our main courses arrived, the same choice for Ron, Brendan, and myself: Grilled Beef Tenderloin over Olive Oil Smashed Potatoes and Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus. Yummy!
The problem was, Sarah was already finished with all she was going to eat of her food (not much), and commenced yet another ear-piercing tantrum. Our terrific Head Server Godwin heard this happening and rushed to the rescue, bringing her on a tour around the dining room, which made her very happy, and gave us just enough time to finish our entrees.
**Continued in next post**
There was a lot more hype surrounding this show after it first debuted last summer in the Med. It was the centerpiece of entirely themed Villains night, with a special menu and what was even more enticing to me: a Villians-exclusive meet and greet in the Atrium in the late evening. Unfortunately after dry dock in early October, things were tweaked a bit and the Villains menu and character meet and greet had been eliminated, left with a rather disjointed pairing of the Villains Tonight show with a regular dinner rotational menu. And that also messed up our dinner rotation speculation, which seems to happen every cruise now.
In any event, we were still anticipating highly enjoying a new Disney production. Once again, we made it to the theater with barely any time to spare. This time the house lights had been turned down already and we had to wait a few minutes to actually find five seats together.
Back in our usual spot off to the far right. We were lucky to get seats, and really needed to work on getting to the theater earlier in the future!
My opinion on the show, it was good, but not great. It starts off well, and ends well, but drags quite a bit in the middle, as each of the 7-8 or so villain characters gets an individual cameo. Great to introduce those to people who arent as familiar with some of the lesser known villains, but a bit redundant to those of us fans who have seen the movies (in my case..multiple times!) and know why theyre bad. I got what must have been a much-needed nap through the mid point of the show.
I did not get very good pictures, but here is a shot from the rather enjoyable Captain Hook/pirates interlude:
Hades, Pain, and Panic are always entertaining (man I miss the old Hercules show!)
And from the finale:
We were among the first folks out of the theater after the show, (sorry Brent!). We were on a mission, dressed and headed to the Atrium for some photos. The girls had super cute Minnie Mouse inspired dresses on, and we had hoped the catch Minnie in her traditional red polka dot dress, although it wasn't meant to be this cruise (she always seemed to be dressed in some other attire, tonight she was Princess Minnie).
When it was our turn, it was the usual, Sarah running around in a circle excitedly:
And caught! Minnie did notice Sarahs dress, with a point and a blush hands-up to her face gesture!
From there, we hopped in Mickeys line, and our color scheme this evening matched him in his Sorceror costume perfectly!
Is this not the best photo ever? Thank goodness for the kiosks, they had actually not printed this one up, presumably because Sarah was not looking at the camera. We had to order it and have it printed out, but we are so thankful for this opportunity, which we did not have on our last cruise!
Dont ask me how, but either we have this show, photos, variety show, dinner routine down pat, or our timing was just good this evening. (Maybe a bit of both). But we now headed to Rockin Bar D to catch the Family Variety show by comedian/singer John Charles. The show hadnt started yet, but we werent early by any means and again it was hard to find four seats together-Sarah would have to sit on our lap-and we were lucky to get that.
The show started almost immediately after we were seated, and I was a little disappointed to hear some of the exact same material as the last time we caught his show. It was still very fun, even though I had heard it all before, and even if he didnt open with Jimmy Buffett. (He still had his trademark line I live in Florida, if you turn on a faucet, Jimmy Buffett comes out hilarious! And sadly, not true! At least not in Tampa, all I ever get is yucky FL water!)
In any event we had fun with the first part of the show, especially when John Charles started taking requests. He did some AC/DC, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Lady GaGa, and was just about to start a rousing rendition of Michael Jacksons Billie Jean when Sarah started to flip out, yet again.
Hey you, shut that kid up! (Just kidding, he was actually just singing a song in this screenshot taken from one of my videos, which are too long to post).
We were too close to the front, and the acoustics in Rockin Bar D were not favorable to stifling the screams in the least, so I had to make an emergency exit, with wailing, thrashing toddler in tow. The worst part was where we were sitting, there was no escape but to come out and around the front row (right in front of the stage) to get to the path to the door. Embarassing. I did it as quickly and as least-disruptively as possible.
Sarah and I took a quick trip to the bathroom (the cruise ship toilets TOTALLY freaked her out), and that was fun, then we headed back to Beat Street where she amused herself running down the hall and pointing at the city lights in the murals that lined the hallway. This allowed me to somewhat watch the show from the doorway. If any moonwalking took place though- I didnt see it.
After that, it was time for dinner, and we sure were hungry. We were back in Lumieres this evening, for the rotational French dinner. We headed back to our table tucked in the corner to find everything ready for us, as we had become accustomed to.
A little posing for the camera, I already look tired in this photo!
Sarah almost immediately became cranky, and we knew we were on the clock counting down to the inevitable meltdown. She was temporarily amused by some menu origami from Passayu:
Meanwhile, service started off quick. We began with our appetizers. Brendan had the Chilled Jumbo Shrimp with Horseradish Cream.
Ron had the Applewood Smoked Bacon and Wild Mushroom Tart with Creamy Leeks, which would normally be right up my alley but for some reason this evening I just had the Market Green Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette.
(I was probably filling myself up on the warm French Country Bread!)
Savannahs and Sarahs kids meals came out promptly after appetizers were served. Passayu made us some creative ketchup creations this evening!
Sarah got this happy-faced (I think) Ketchup MouseO Lantern with her usual Chicken Strips:
And Savannah got a very special ketchup Ariel (which I totally could not figure out what in the world he was making until I saw the finished product):
Not too long after our main courses arrived, the same choice for Ron, Brendan, and myself: Grilled Beef Tenderloin over Olive Oil Smashed Potatoes and Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus. Yummy!
The problem was, Sarah was already finished with all she was going to eat of her food (not much), and commenced yet another ear-piercing tantrum. Our terrific Head Server Godwin heard this happening and rushed to the rescue, bringing her on a tour around the dining room, which made her very happy, and gave us just enough time to finish our entrees.
**Continued in next post**