Cast: Me (40), DH (47), DD (12 1/2), DS (11 1/2), 3rd DCL cruise
Our first sea day. I'd really been looking forward to the peace and quiet! Following their normal practice, DCL set the first sea day as formal night. But that wasn't what they'd told us before we left. When we got our welcome aboard navigators, it said that Monday the 20th and Friday Christmas eve would be formal nights, with the next Sunday the 26th as semi-formal. Sunday the 19th was tropical night, and Thursday the 23rd was pirate night. So much for the assurance that we would have one formal, one semi-formal and a pirate night (they said it would be the 22nd), just like the other 7 day cruises! Luckily I had packed enough nice clothes that we were okay.
On to the day. We had shifted one hour east overnight in preparation for our island port calls where they are one hour ahead of EST. I woke up about 7:30 on the new time, so I decided to meet with the 8:30 group of walkers. A smaller but still mighty group of us made the 2 mile journey. The normal morning routine of waking up the family, and bringing trays of breakfast back to the kids followed. I think I logged some pool time with DH next. We tracked down the kids, who had eaten with the lab, and DH and I went to lunch at Lumiere's. It was very nice and relaxing. We were seated with two other couples. One set were considering DVC, so we talked a bit about that. The DW was amazed at what I knew about it, and I pointed them to the DIS boards. The other couple were probably in their late 70s (the DH got picked on quite a bit at one of the adult cabaret shows later in the week - John from Canada), and the DH was quick to tell us about his son who was an accomplished concert pianist. He had been granted a full scholarship to Julliard, and "you know they don't give those out every year". The son in question came to get his parents at the end of lunch, and he was about my age, so that scholarship was almost 20 years ago! It was kind of neat that the man was so proud of his son, but we did get a little chuckle over it.
DH and I finished lunch just in time to find DD and make it to National Treasure which was showing in the Walt theater. DS and DH had seen it before we left, but DD and I had been doing Girl Scout stuff, so we were looking forward to the movie. It was really good, and I'm glad I went. When it was over, DD went with her new friend to pin trade, DH wanted to finish his book, so I decided to hit the adult pool. I looked at my watch and thought "4:15. Isn't there something I'm supposed to do right now? Oh yeah! The DIS photo shoot!" So I ran up to the lobby in my full pool attire with my hair in pigtails, just in time for the picture! I made a nice contrast to Mark and Mary (see wdwlvr report) who were in full formal attire since they had early dining! Since my family was otherwise occupied I headed with the rest of the group to our Sessions wine tasting party. I enjoyed sampling Mrs. Mork (Angie and Doug)'s home made wine, as well as a few others. I think that was where I finally met most of the other DISers I hadn't seen up to that point. Lynda (videogal) and Cash were there (I had met them before too), and Lynda paid me the compliment of asking if I was the tag fairy. I told her 1) I'm not technically competant enough for that job, and 2) I'm not enough of a DIS insider! Thanks for the compliment though! I also met Cary and his wife (Land and Sea Guy), talked a bit to Virgil (WVMD) and his family, the Goose family, Sue and her mom (Dobe Lover), and Tina and DH (tinkfan). I know I met up with Dee 47 and her family sometime too. About the time people were breaking up to get ready for dinner, I finally headed up to the pool until we got ready for the show/dinner.
Tonight was the first time they had a family cabaret show on the navigator, so we got ready for dinner (formal night) before the show. I think DS was in the lab at that time, but we arranged for DH to get him ready for formal night while we were gone. The main show was a variety show where Christy Carlson Ramano gave a concert after Gary Delana did some comedy. It was Christy's first concert, and she did an excellent job. We were right down in front, so we were able to recognize her dancers as part of the normal Magic cast. It's amazing to think that they put together that complete 30 minute routine in basically a day. DH and DS met
DD and I went to the famiy cabaret show with Freddy Fusion where we met up with DH and DS in their formal attire. DS had a pretty rotten attitude because he really didn't want to have his picture taken. He's entered the stage where he really doesn't want to dress up, whereas DD is right into the preening stage. The line for Christmas tree pictures was horrible, so we ended up with the standard ship backdrop. DS's attitude showed in all the pictures, and we never did end up with pictures worth having. We headed to Parrot Cay for dinner (yes, Parrot Cay for formal night, but it was the luck of the draw). This was the night that DD just ate appetizers but I think she had 3 or 4 of them, then she left to change for the lab Pajama party they had. DS carried over his attitude, and since he'd already eaten with the lab, we let him leave to join the boys who were on the sports deck.
I don't remember what I had, but for some reason, the Parrot Cay menu is never our favorite, and DH picked out what was listed as "prime ribeye of beef", thinking that it was a grilled ribeye steak. He ordered it medium. It was actually more of a prime rib than a ribeye, and thus began the comedy of errors with our server trying to please a picky DH. It came out as a typical medium prime rib, which is pretty red. DH ate a few bites, and the server asked "Don't you like it?" I said something like "He usually likes his meat more well done." Alex whisked it away and brought back another serving, more well done. But it was still prime rib. By this time, DH really wasn't that hungry, so he didn't eat it. I see Alex whispering to Alen (our head server), and the next thing you know, there's another plate on our table, with the meat really brown. They had taken the prime rib and thrown it on the grill, but by this time, DH didn't want to eat anymore, and it was getting late. We had to go through the whole "I know it's not your fault, it just isn't what he wants, and he really doesn't want anything else. I'm not going to hold it against you, so can we just drop it!" discussion and we all finally got a good laugh out of it. From that point on, whenever beef was on the menu, Alex and DH talked about exactly what it was before he got it!
DH and I went back to the room to change then headed out for the adult cabaret show. Freddy Fusion had about 50% of his show the same between the family and the adult, so I had seen a lot of it. Teresa (tksbaskets) got picked to be a volunteer, and since she had seen the family show too, she knew to shake the duck's wing (hand) instead of his foot. We stayed for a bit of the 60s party, but DH didn't want to dance, so we went after the kids. DD said that Christy Romano had come to their PJ party, and talked to them for quite a bit. She was very excited and really enjoyed it. DS had done the sports deck thing, followed by pizza and scoops so he was happy too. I truly believe that child ate his weight in scoops over the 10 days!
Off to bed from there.
Our first sea day. I'd really been looking forward to the peace and quiet! Following their normal practice, DCL set the first sea day as formal night. But that wasn't what they'd told us before we left. When we got our welcome aboard navigators, it said that Monday the 20th and Friday Christmas eve would be formal nights, with the next Sunday the 26th as semi-formal. Sunday the 19th was tropical night, and Thursday the 23rd was pirate night. So much for the assurance that we would have one formal, one semi-formal and a pirate night (they said it would be the 22nd), just like the other 7 day cruises! Luckily I had packed enough nice clothes that we were okay.
On to the day. We had shifted one hour east overnight in preparation for our island port calls where they are one hour ahead of EST. I woke up about 7:30 on the new time, so I decided to meet with the 8:30 group of walkers. A smaller but still mighty group of us made the 2 mile journey. The normal morning routine of waking up the family, and bringing trays of breakfast back to the kids followed. I think I logged some pool time with DH next. We tracked down the kids, who had eaten with the lab, and DH and I went to lunch at Lumiere's. It was very nice and relaxing. We were seated with two other couples. One set were considering DVC, so we talked a bit about that. The DW was amazed at what I knew about it, and I pointed them to the DIS boards. The other couple were probably in their late 70s (the DH got picked on quite a bit at one of the adult cabaret shows later in the week - John from Canada), and the DH was quick to tell us about his son who was an accomplished concert pianist. He had been granted a full scholarship to Julliard, and "you know they don't give those out every year". The son in question came to get his parents at the end of lunch, and he was about my age, so that scholarship was almost 20 years ago! It was kind of neat that the man was so proud of his son, but we did get a little chuckle over it.
DH and I finished lunch just in time to find DD and make it to National Treasure which was showing in the Walt theater. DS and DH had seen it before we left, but DD and I had been doing Girl Scout stuff, so we were looking forward to the movie. It was really good, and I'm glad I went. When it was over, DD went with her new friend to pin trade, DH wanted to finish his book, so I decided to hit the adult pool. I looked at my watch and thought "4:15. Isn't there something I'm supposed to do right now? Oh yeah! The DIS photo shoot!" So I ran up to the lobby in my full pool attire with my hair in pigtails, just in time for the picture! I made a nice contrast to Mark and Mary (see wdwlvr report) who were in full formal attire since they had early dining! Since my family was otherwise occupied I headed with the rest of the group to our Sessions wine tasting party. I enjoyed sampling Mrs. Mork (Angie and Doug)'s home made wine, as well as a few others. I think that was where I finally met most of the other DISers I hadn't seen up to that point. Lynda (videogal) and Cash were there (I had met them before too), and Lynda paid me the compliment of asking if I was the tag fairy. I told her 1) I'm not technically competant enough for that job, and 2) I'm not enough of a DIS insider! Thanks for the compliment though! I also met Cary and his wife (Land and Sea Guy), talked a bit to Virgil (WVMD) and his family, the Goose family, Sue and her mom (Dobe Lover), and Tina and DH (tinkfan). I know I met up with Dee 47 and her family sometime too. About the time people were breaking up to get ready for dinner, I finally headed up to the pool until we got ready for the show/dinner.
Tonight was the first time they had a family cabaret show on the navigator, so we got ready for dinner (formal night) before the show. I think DS was in the lab at that time, but we arranged for DH to get him ready for formal night while we were gone. The main show was a variety show where Christy Carlson Ramano gave a concert after Gary Delana did some comedy. It was Christy's first concert, and she did an excellent job. We were right down in front, so we were able to recognize her dancers as part of the normal Magic cast. It's amazing to think that they put together that complete 30 minute routine in basically a day. DH and DS met
DD and I went to the famiy cabaret show with Freddy Fusion where we met up with DH and DS in their formal attire. DS had a pretty rotten attitude because he really didn't want to have his picture taken. He's entered the stage where he really doesn't want to dress up, whereas DD is right into the preening stage. The line for Christmas tree pictures was horrible, so we ended up with the standard ship backdrop. DS's attitude showed in all the pictures, and we never did end up with pictures worth having. We headed to Parrot Cay for dinner (yes, Parrot Cay for formal night, but it was the luck of the draw). This was the night that DD just ate appetizers but I think she had 3 or 4 of them, then she left to change for the lab Pajama party they had. DS carried over his attitude, and since he'd already eaten with the lab, we let him leave to join the boys who were on the sports deck.
I don't remember what I had, but for some reason, the Parrot Cay menu is never our favorite, and DH picked out what was listed as "prime ribeye of beef", thinking that it was a grilled ribeye steak. He ordered it medium. It was actually more of a prime rib than a ribeye, and thus began the comedy of errors with our server trying to please a picky DH. It came out as a typical medium prime rib, which is pretty red. DH ate a few bites, and the server asked "Don't you like it?" I said something like "He usually likes his meat more well done." Alex whisked it away and brought back another serving, more well done. But it was still prime rib. By this time, DH really wasn't that hungry, so he didn't eat it. I see Alex whispering to Alen (our head server), and the next thing you know, there's another plate on our table, with the meat really brown. They had taken the prime rib and thrown it on the grill, but by this time, DH didn't want to eat anymore, and it was getting late. We had to go through the whole "I know it's not your fault, it just isn't what he wants, and he really doesn't want anything else. I'm not going to hold it against you, so can we just drop it!" discussion and we all finally got a good laugh out of it. From that point on, whenever beef was on the menu, Alex and DH talked about exactly what it was before he got it!
DH and I went back to the room to change then headed out for the adult cabaret show. Freddy Fusion had about 50% of his show the same between the family and the adult, so I had seen a lot of it. Teresa (tksbaskets) got picked to be a volunteer, and since she had seen the family show too, she knew to shake the duck's wing (hand) instead of his foot. We stayed for a bit of the 60s party, but DH didn't want to dance, so we went after the kids. DD said that Christy Romano had come to their PJ party, and talked to them for quite a bit. She was very excited and really enjoyed it. DS had done the sports deck thing, followed by pizza and scoops so he was happy too. I truly believe that child ate his weight in scoops over the 10 days!
Off to bed from there.
