3/20/04 Eastern, 10th anniversary cruise,2nd day at sea, DAY FOUR

[strawberryblonde]

3/22/04, Monday, second day at sea

I awoke before everyone again. Last night I had crawled into the bottom bunk and slept with my head by the verandah door that I left open a crack. That was nice. I brought breakfast down from Topsiders for the kids. They loved the rice krispies in a bowl, just add soymilk from our fridge. As they aren't allowed things like rice krispies at home, this was a real treat. DH and I were saving our appetites for Palo brunch this morning.

We dropped off the kids a little after 10am for their activities. DD got to be a mouseketeer in training while DS was up on the sports deck. I reminded the club about the kids being vegetarian, we went over what they would have to eat. I was a little nervous about them eating with the club, but I wasn't able to schedule the Palo brunch in a way that wouldn't have them in the club over lunch. Our Palo ressie was for 10:30am and we had Annie-Marie. Very nice and she advised the sweet bread with berries and cream. She wasn't wrong, this was the one thing I had seconds on. I tried a sweet pizza and a savory one, I think mushroom. We had the sparkling cider instead of champange. DH was not charged for his second glass as I thought he would be. We enjoyed the view from our window table and lingered over everything.

As we were leaving Palo we got beeped, DD wanted to be picked up. Lunch at the club wasn't over yet and I didn't know you could pick them up during but off we went to get them. It seems the kids had been served pasta and meatballs by mistake. DS didn't eat the meatballs but it looked as though DD had tried a bite. I think it is too hard for them to make sure of food allergies and/or restrictions in the group setting. If it is important to you, I wouldn't have them eat in the club. We made double sure to never have them stay for meal times the rest of the week and if snacks were listed for a party I asked what would be served.

We got back to the room and it hadn't been made up yet. DH wanted to rest some more, he ended up sleeping in our room the rest of the afternoon so no clean room for me. I took the kids up to the Mickey pool around noon and fed them pizza, fries and fruit from the stands. It is so convienient up there. It was a bit too windy but we still had fun. Kids both loved the slide. We got back to the room around 3pm to get ready for Tea with Wendy.
DH felt better after his nap and wanted to take DS to play shuffle board. I gave DS the choice to go to Tea with DD and me or he could go play. He decided to skip Tea, oh well. I had a secret hope he would be picked to be one of Wendy's brothers. They planned to go to see the movie Haunted Mansion at 4pm so I said DD and I would meet up with them there but we would be late as Tea started at 3:45pm. DD chose her dress, a long pink sleeping beauty costume. I went to grab the camera and realized that DH had taken both the camera and video camera to capture every bit of their shuffle board play! At least I still had my DS's disposible camera to take. DD and I showed up a bit early, around 3:30 and chose one of the tables close to the front so DD would have a good view. We were about the 8th family there. No other child ended up sitting down with DD so I sat with her and let her pour me tea. She enjoyed Wendy's story and loved the tea party. She didn't however, want to wait to get her photo taken. They had started on the oppostie side of the room from us, so it was taking a long while. We got to the movie around 4:15pm and found our family near the very front, there were a few empty seats in front of them so we sat there and watched the movie. Many scary, frightening parts to this movie. I covered DD's eyes more times than she would have liked. There were free HM buttons to take on your way out, kids thought that was very cool and have each saved one.

Dinner was at AP tonight. DD could have stayed in her SB dress but decided to change into her minnie mouse dress. DS enjoyed watching the pictures change color. We had a great view for this from our table. DD wanted to go to "her club" as soon as she was done eating. I dropped her off and they made picture frames and got their picture taken with Daisy Duck. The framed picture was ready for taking the next day for free. Back at AP I enjoyed watching DS try to figure out how the vests changed colors. DS stayed with us through dinner and went to the show Hercules with us. He liked it much more than I thought he would. Pain and Panic cracked him up. This was my DH's favorite show for the entire week, over Dreams even. I enjoyed it very much as well!

We picked up DD and went back to our room to find a puppy dog towel animal. Kids loved these ! Ordered more room service and watched a little TV, we are so predictable.

 

[lotsofboys]

Great report so far. Who were your servers? Did I miss that earlier?

 

[strawberryblonde]

<font color=periwinkle>I didn't mention who they were because I think they were having an "off week" our week. Our server really tried there at the end and they were nice. I was disapointed but it wasn't bad and it didn't spoil our vacation. Hope this makes sense. </font>

 

[CRSNDSNY]

I am so sorry to hear your kids were fed meat even after you spoke with the counselors regarding their allergies and meat-free diet. That is a fear DH and I have. We don't have kids yet, but being vegetarians ourselves we are fearful of our (future) kids accidentally being fed animal products when we aren't around. Did you say anything to the counselors?

Also, did you bring your own soy milk onboard? I know they've had it onboard whenever we've asked for it.

 

[strawberryblonde]

<font color=darkviolet>I'm glad you are enjoying my reports, thanks for the kind words.

When we got the beep to pick up DD, I went to Topsiders thinking thats where they were while DH went to the Lab to see if DS was there. Turns out both kids were at AP and DH made it there first (I was wearing heels and got alittle turned around ). My DH had already collected DD from her seat and so he was the one who saw the nibble out of the meatball on her plate. He called it to the attention of the staff and asked why there was meat on her plate. He was told that she was mistakenly given the meat plate and that she hadn't eaten any of the meatballs, that one had just been cut up for her. He asked what was the bite then and they acted (to him) unconcerned. My DH told them this would be a very big deal to me as I do not want the children to have any meat (up until now, they have not had any, I'm quite diligent and have always provided their meals if I am to not be with them). Meanwhile, a head manager type approached me and said he was sorry that there was a mixup with my DD's meal but that it had been caught and she had been given a new plate without meat before she had eaten any. He just wanted me to know in case she mentioned to me that she had had meatballs, this way I would know what she was talking about. This was before I talked with my DH so I was concerned but calm. I also didn't know that DS had also been given a meat plate but it was a comfort to me that he hadn't eaten them when DH told me about it on our way out. I wasn't sure if I had been told the truth by the manager but I decided to not talk to anyone because I didn't want to stress on my vacation. They seemed sorry and concerned to me and I knew I would not be having them eat with the club again.

I had read on the DIS two years ago about a vegetarian child eating a corn dog at the club because she thought it was a soya dog. I consider myself warned and I was worried something like this might happen. I fed them right before hand in our room so they wouldn't be that hungry also as a precaution. I was hoping things would go well because I talked with the staff while dropping off, but there are many staff members and many children. Bottom line is, there is no sure way to make sure food restictions are followed and I wanted parents to be aware of that so they could plan accordingly. I put myself before my kids so I could enjoy Palo brunch and for that I feel alittle guilty. DD didn't have any stomach distress and perhaps she didn't consume any, just played around with her fork. I choose to put it behind me for my own sanity, if that makes any sense.

We brought 3 boxes of soymilk on board because I couldn't get clear info on if it was available through room service. I loved the ease of having it right there in our room whenever the kids wanted a drink or some cereal. We never did end up wanting any for dinner, but had been told it would be available if we wanted it. I didn't see any at Topsiders, perhaps if you ask they have it. Easier for us to just bring it along. The boxes don't have to be chilled until open, so it was just one box in our fridge at a time, didn't take up much room.</font>

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Sounds like you handled it very well. We are so fearful of situations like this and the fact that you took your time to let the counselors know about their vegetarianism beforehand only to be ignored or forgotten is disheartening. I think your plan to feed them beforehand is a good one, too. You shouldn't feel guilty, though. You took all the necessary precautions and can't blame yourself. Kids don't always know...just look at all of the substitute food that we as veggies eat --- they look so much like the real things. Children their ages wouldn't know the difference or probably even think of questioning it. I am glad someone apologized to you and your husband, but still so sad to think that this happens and happened to you and your family. Thank you for sharing this with us. SO many people will just never understand how this hurts us in a very deep way to be almost tricked into eating meat. Some of my favorites are when people tell me to pick out the meat. Eeew. That turns my stomach...some people just don't get it.

I never asked for soymilk at Topsiders but had no problem getting soymilk for my coffee or cereal at any of the rotational dining rooms. I've also never asked for it through room service. But taking your own on is a great idea.