Gearing up for our afternoon Mixology class we stopped off at my favorite place for some coffee.
We had noticed something the day before but were hoping that it was just a one time thing, weirdly the ship was only using generic "Disney Parks" napkins.
I thought it was particularly strange because on cruise last year we were in a bar one time and an officer came in and told the bartender to not use the
DCL napkins but to put out nicer ones, so they clearly take napkins seriously. Napkins aren't going to ruin my vacation but just one of those odd things.
Anyway we arrived in the Meridian Bar about 15 minutes early because I keep forgetting that it only takes 3 minutes to walk everywhere. Two gentlemen were getting the class ready and didn't seem particularly thrilled to see us early so we walked around the sports deck for a bit.
Closer to the proper start time we returned and the class began promptly. This was the third time we have taken a Mixology class, one of which was just a few days prior, so we've got a pretty decent idea of how they work. This one was very different and not in a particularly good way.
We all stood in front of the bar where half of most of the drinks were already made. There were 5 different set ups. Our host gave a little introduction then passed around a rum runner to everyone that was already made. Somehow there was a discussion about the little martini glass drink which I can't even remember and we got to try that. He then let everyone come behind the bar one at a time to prepare one drink for themselves and if they chose one that he hadn't explained then he would talk about it for a minute.
The organization of this made little sense to us because the other drinks that we didn't ourselves make we didn't try so most of us ended up having only tried 3 of the 5 drinks.
I can't recall a time when we have ever complained about anything before. There have been times when we'll get food in a restaurant thats completely cold but we are too sheepish to tell anyone. But we love our
Disney Cruise Line and don't want to see quality slip like this. So we went straight from the class down to guest services. The woman at the desk went in the back and called the assistant beverage manager. When she returned she relayed his comments about how sometimes if there are too many people the class needs to be altered a bit to accommodate it yada yada yada. For what it's worth there were more people in the class on the Magic. Anyway she said that he would get in touch with us later in the day.
We spent more of the day on our verandah and I was wondering if the guy was going to call our room. We started to forget about the whole thing and just enjoy the sunshine. We weren't trying to get something for free anyway, we just wanted to make sure that the quality maintains.
Dinner was in Enchanted Garden and it was formal night. Few people took advantage of "Optional Dress up Night" on the Magic but Formal night on the Fantasy was a very fancy affair. We spent some time in the lobby before dinner watching people have pictures taken. We were also delighted to find waiters handing out complimentary wine and beer roaming the lobby. Two of our dinner partners were at Palo that night so it was just us and one other couple.
I had a fear in the back of my head since we had gone to Guest Services earlier in the day and it was realized about 5 minutes after we got to dinner. Our Head Server walked over and said that she had heard that we had a bad Mixology class earlier in the day and we had to tell the whole story. Then she left and the Assistant Beverage Manager came over and we repeated the story again. If we were just sitting at a table of our family this wouldn't have been a big deal but in front of two people that we just met the day before it was Super Duper Awkward. Anyway he asked if we'd like to take another Mixology class to make up for it and we said ok but then he started racking his brain about other things that were available and suggested the chocolate and beverage tasting. That sure did sound exciting so we graciously accepted and he was off. Then just for good measure the Head Server came back to check in once more and we were finally done with that whole exchange. We apologized to our table mates who assured us it was fine but we did feel like a pair of lushes.
The rest of dinner was thankfully uneventful and lovely.
Jenna and I both work in entertainment and have a hard time sitting through any of the shows but a simple good comedian is just what we were looking for and thankfully this night there was one. He was a comedian/ventriloquist whose name escapes me but his stand up was very funny, the ventriloquism started off rocky but he finished strong. We had some good laughs and went to bed happy.