Happy New Year to all of my fellow DISers! 2014 was definitely ... interesting for our household. Here's hoping 2015 is even better!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I was pretty wary of our at sea day. DH and I are incredibly active vacationers, and he had already made it pretty clear on this trip that he didn't want to just sit around and relax at any point. So how would we fill a whole day on the ship?
We had a Palo brunch scheduled for noon during this day, but we knew we wouldn't survive that long without food, and DH had been promised a second sit-down breakfast at Royal Palace to order the second of his two favorite options. So, we woke up a little after 8:30 and headed to RP around 9. I had been incredibly envious of DH's Waffle Sandwich from Day 2 ever since he had only allowed me one bite of it, so that's what I ordered. DH opted for the Pineapple Stack. He's a big pineapple fan, and we don't get too many of those in Missouri, so he wanted to take advantage of it. He ended up being mostly disappointed with it. It was good, but not as good as the Waffle Sandwich, and it was actually presented in a very unDisney messy way:
My waffle sandwich, on the other hand, was glorious. After breakfast we meandered through the lobby, where the Princess Gathering was happening again. The princesses were obviously mobbed, but over in the corner, Peter Pan was just sitting on the ground and no one even seemed to notice him. Then, this one little girl with a stuffed Peter Pan walked right up to him and they had such a cute interaction! This, I think, is Disney magic at its best. I'm sure it made that little girl's day!
We eventually decided that we wanted to become Midship Detectives even though we're 26 and 30, and it's obviously meant for kids. We're both pretty big technology geeks, and the technology behind this is admittedly awesome. Plus, it gave us a great chance to explore some parts of the ships that we wouldn't have otherwise visited. I loved all of the artwork in the stairwell landings! We got about half-way through our mystery (the case of the missing puppies) before it was time for an activity that we had found on the navigator and thought would be fun.
We headed to 687 Pub for "Craft: Tile Coasters". That was just about all of the information that was available, but we think a hands-on activity that ends in a free souvenir is a no-brainer, no matter what the actual craft is. So away we went. There were about 20 adults there making tile coasters, so it was a little crowded in the line for supplies. And, the time allotted wasn't nearly enough in my opinion. We arrived 10 minutes early and were allowed to start right away, but were still shoo-ed out sooner than we would've liked. Lots of people didn't even finish their coasters. DH and I decided to coordinate and make some 8-bit-style Mickey/Minnie coasters. DH was waaaaayyyy overzealous with the glue holding the tiles down, and since we had colored the back of our coasters with black magic marker (we're going to paint the rest of the coaster black when we get home), the black magic marker bled everywhere as he pressed his tiles down. He managed to clean it up alright, but Minnie is admittedly a bit of a mess compared to Mickey. Ha.
Once coaster-making was over, it was time to head back to our room and clean ourselves up before Palo brunch. Our brunch was at noon, but "baby-racing" (Jack Jack's Diaper Dash) was at 11:30, and that sounded like a funny spectator sport, so we wanted to be ready and out of our room in time to nab a spot in the lobby.
We got to the Deck 4 balcony of the lobby just in time for the first heat to take off. Boy, this was one of our favorite parts of the cruise. It's just so funny to hear the Rocky-esque battle music, and then have the babies announced - "In lane 1, we've got Tommy from Miami, FL! Tommy is 16 months old and weighs in at 22 pounds!" I think we giggled the whole 30 minutes we were watching. DH got really into it - picking his favorites, and even booing one kid that he though was a cheater. *shakes head*
Up we went to Deck 12 for Palo, and we were seated and awaited the arrival of our friend Luis! We were again seated facing the windows, but since the sun was out this time, we were perfectly happy with that placement. Luis came and welcomed us, got us our drinks (no alcohol for DH, so Luis kindly let me know he would bring me a mimosa AND a prosecco for no charge. Yay!), then led us on the grand tour of the buffet and ordering options. Here are the pictures of my first plate (first) and DH's first plate (second):
For some reason, I've been on a big brie kick for the past 2 or 3 months, so I couldn't pass up the brie. Also, since we're from Missouri, fresh seafood is a must any time we're close to the ocean or gulf, so I went pretty seafood heavy. The highlight of my plate was the smoked salmon mousse. I could've eaten 4 or 5 of those, but I knew I needed to save room. Up next was our 'pizza course' - we ordered half Gorgonzola/Grape and half tomato/goat cheese. I have to admit that I wasn't a fan of the goat cheese side, which is weird because I really like goat cheese. I think the flavor of the sundried tomatoes overwhelmed the goat cheese. The gorgonzola/grape though .... mmm. My belly is growling right now just thinking about it. Whoever came up with that flavor combo is a genius, and deserves a raise.
Finally it was time for our main course. DH wanted to get the Chicken Parm, and I always discourage us ordering the same thing, even if it's what Palo is famous for. That way when we order two separate things we can share and experience more flavors! So, I ordered the Veal Saltimbocca. I love veal, so it seemed like a good fit. DH and I were both pleased with our entrees, so other than sharing one or two bites of the other's plate, we mostly stuck with our choices.
Next came the inspiration for the post title of the day - the dessert round. Palo is nice and they provide you with a wide array of mini-desserts, so that you don't feel bad sampling a couple of them. For DH and I, that turned into a plate of 8 (eight!!!!) desserts to share. Mine were chocolate-focused, and his were more fruit-based, but we finished off every single one of them. And, of course, no Palo meal is complete without souffle, so we ordered the Peach Almond Souffle to top things off. I have to say, even though I'm a huge choco-holic, this souffle was better than the infamous Palo chocolate souffle for me. It has an overwhelming almond flavor, which isn't for everyone, but I thought it was to die for.
Overall, Palo brunch was a hit, but we both agreed that dinner was our favorite of the two meals we had there. That was shocking to me, after all of my research I figured brunch would be the stand-out. But, if we ever sail
DCL again, we'll likely only schedule a Palo dinner and skip out on the brunch. Feeling the need to work off some of those 9 Palo desserts, we decided to finish up our case of the missing puppies. We scaled a few more flights of stairs and eventually nabbed our perpetrator - Captain Hook!
Then, we made our way back down to Deck 4 for games 4, 5, and 6 of our cruise-long shuffleboard challenge. I again won two out of three games, so I ended the week with a 4-2 advantage. On Day 2 when we played the crew was an audience because of their crew muster drill. Today they had a man overboard drill, so we were again treated to an audience of willing puck-go-getters! It was also fun to see them lower the speedboat to go rescue "Mr. Mop" and then raise it back up again.
Bellies still full from Palo brunch, we nonetheless decided to stop by the "Anyone Can Cook" demonstration in the D Lounge since they were showing how to make Lobster Ravioli. I took one for the team and managed to squeeze in just one more ravioli into my already-protesting stomach. On the whole, I wasn't impressed with the demonstration, but I did learn a couple of handy tips. The ravioli that they served was pretty terrible when compared to what we had in Palo, but I did get another free glass of wine! I'm admittedly a lightweight when it comes to alcohol because DH doesn't drink at all, and I tend to not drink when we're alone together because there's not really any point. So, after a mimosa, prosecco, and wine, I was having a good ole time!
After the cooking demo, it was already almost 3:30, and we wanted to see Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at 4. So we made our way over to the Buena Vista Theatre and sat around digesting until the show. We both enjoyed the movie, although DH said with all of the bad things happening throughout the course of the movie, it made him a little uncomfortable. Apparently he's too sympathetic!
Movie over, we headed out of the theater and noticed that the sun was setting on the port side of the ship. One of our favorite memories of our anniversary trip to New Zealand earlier in the year was spending the night on the west coast of New Zealand watching the sun set over the ocean, so we knew we wanted to park ourselves at the railing and enjoy the moment. We had decided to not change out of our brunch clothing since that night we were dining at the slightly-fancy Royal Palace anyway, so it was fun to be dressed up and sailing in the ocean and seeing the sunset. Definitely one of my favorite moments onboard.
After sunset, we headed back to our stateroom to start packing up all of our things before the show and dinner. Packing the night before disembarkation was a bit odd to both of us. Looking back on it, since we're just two adults and we only had one suitcase each, I think we should've just kept our bags and taken them off the ship ourselves. The benefit of not lugging off the luggage was overweighed by the hassle of packing the night before for us. Nevertheless, we got about 75% packed and headed off to the evening's show - Believe.
I had heard so many great things about this show that I went into it expecting to be blown away. Then, the first 10 or 15 minutes felt pretty disappointing. I wasn't connecting to the characters or the story, and everything felt forced. But, after that point it got a lot better and it ended up being my favorite show of the cruise. I even teared up a little bit! After the show was more last-minute packing - we got about 90% done and headed to dinner, figuring we would finished up when we got back and still meet the deadline.
The menu at Royal Palace ended up being my favorite of any of the MDRs. There were about 4 items in every section of the menu that I wanted to try! And of course, I was definitely tempted to steal this beauty of a bread basket for my enjoyment at home.
For our appetizer round, I had the duck confit and DH ordered the fried brie. Obviously this is one of the times where I was really conflicted as to what to order, given my love for all things brie. However, my love for all things duck won out this time because I can buy brie at the grocery store, but eating duck is a rarity in our house. Both were very delicious, though.
For the soup/salad course, I decided to order another appetizer that I really wanted to try - the escargot. I've only eaten escargot one other time in my life, when I was in Paris. I love eating unique things, and remembered really enjoyed those escargot. I have to say - Disney escargot blew Paris escargot out of the water. The Parisian escargot were cooked in white wine, but these were cooked in good American garlic butter. Garlic and butter have to be two of my favorite flavors, so I totally inhaled these poor snails and proceeded to soak up all of the garlic-buttery goodness left in the dish with the mini-baguette. DH just ordered a salad. Ho-hum.
For our entrees, I ordered the lobster mac and cheese, and DH ordered the lamb. The lobster mac and cheese was incredible - DH put it best when he tried a bite and declared that it tasted like they had made it with sweetened condensed milk! So rich and sweet and creamy ... I could only finish half of it, even after spending the whole cruise expanding my stomach with ever-larger meals! DH really loved his lamb too - we were happy campers.
Finally, we had to go out with a bang. 9 desserts already that day just didn't cut it. So, we both ordered two desserts each after dinner! I knew I had to get the Grand Marnier souffle, but I'm also a creme brulee aficionado, so I opted to order both. And I'm happy to say that both were delicious, and I finished them off. DH ordered the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae and the Peanut Butter Mousse - I didn't try either of them (too obsessed with my own to care, apparently) - but he says they were great.
For those keeping track at home, that meant that between the two of us, we had enjoyed 13 desserts in one day!! 13 is my favorite number, so that seemed perfect to me. Can't ever have too much dessert, right? After dinner we dashed back to our stateroom and had just enough time to pack away our fancy outfits and change into the clothes we would be wearing for disembarkation, and then scoot the suitcases out of the door. They were promptly whisked away from us, and we headed up to Evolution. The stunt comedian that had performed at the main show on Day 3 had an adults-only show at Evolution that night, and we had loved him so much that we decided to stop by. I'm so glad that we did! He was again hilarious, and he's very talented. The ceilings in Evolution are pretty stinking short, but he still did some incredible juggling among other tricks.
After the show we were both worn out and headed back to our room. We had stayed very busy all day! There was no boredom, no unwanted relaxing (on DH's part), and lots of fun activity and food. Much to our surprise, this was probably our second-favorite day of the cruise (can't beat
Castaway Cay and parasailing). As we lay in bed waiting for sleep to visit, we both remarked that we were sad we were disembarking the next morning - we both wanted at least one more sea day to explore and have fun.
Only one more post to go - how was the disembarkation process? Did the trip home go smoothly? Are we already booked on another cruise? What were our overall impressions? Stay tuned!
). Just before we left the secure area, DH realized he had dropped his phone on the plane. Good start to our day! Thankfully, the kind folks at the gate let him back onto the plane to grab his phone. Crisis averted. Just as we showed up to baggage claim, our bags came onto the belt and we grabbed them and headed to the Magical Express.
) and then walking to the Boardwalk. The walk from HS to BW was amazing - almost no people, and so peaceful walking along the waterway! One of my new favorite Disney spots. We hopped onto the Boardwalk and made it to Beaches and Cream with 3 minutes to spare 
When she came back, she brought bother desserts and said she got one for free since it was Jeff's birthday! Yay! Both were delicious, but I preferred the samosas.
I don't know if there's some rule about not using the metallic ones? Oh well, it was a good plan in my head. Ha.
Our bags were delivered to the old stateroom (we went up to find them later in the afternoon), our Palo tickets were all delivered to the old stateroom (we found them on a second trip to the old stateroom), and our Port Adventure tickets and MDR tickets never showed up at either stateroom, requiring another visit to Guest Services. This was the one part of the trip I was disappointed by. Another hurdle was our Fish Extender Exchange. We didn't have a meet or any way of contacting the other members, so I was worried they wouldn't find our new room! Thankfully, I had made luggage handle wraps for our gift and printed out a tag for each of them that had our name and stateroom on them. So once our bags arrived I quickly changed all of the stateroom numbers on each of the tags and we handed out our gifts that evening (we had planned on doing it the last night of the cruise). That ended up working well as only one family didn't catch the change, and they ended up calling guest services and asking where we were.
The CMs did a good job of trying to keep everything organized, but there were too many people and too little knowledge of where they were supposed to be going or what they were supposed to be doing. It felt a bit like mass chaos and I was starting to regret not going out on our own. That being said, we managed to get through the line quickly and were the first two people out of the Lounge and off of the ship. Phew!
