December 22nd, 2018 Part 1
We all slept in today having stayed up quite late the night before. We skipped breakfast because Rob and I had Palo Brunch scheduled for noon for we just got up and showered and then it was time to go!
Honestly, I can't remember what Kira did but I'm pretty sure she grabbed two apples from Cabanas and brought them back to the room and watched TV.
We showed up to Palo a little early but were seated in a few minutes.
Our server took this shot for us.
The menu looks the same as it did a few months ago...
We don't drink for medical reasons so we skipped the drinks and went straight for the food once we ordered from the main menu.
This is Rob's plate from the buffet...he said this was the freshest croissant he's ever had. I almost grabbed one myself to try it but then I remembered that I am supposed to avoid all nuts with my braces
Once he got back from the buffet, I went up myself and by the time I got back to my seat, my pancakes were sitting there.
They usually give you more time to enjoy the buffet foods before bringing you the food you ordered.
And here's the stuff I grabbed from the buffet. I normally don't get anything so you should all be proud of me because I was branching out and trying new stuff.
It was okay but the only thing that I really enjoyed was the boursin cheese that is actually hiding behind the meats. They didn't seem to have any crackers other than those massively long breadstick things so I didn't get much.
It was the first time I had ordered pancakes. Everyone seems to rave about them so I thought I would try but they were just pancakes..meh.
Rob got the blueberry ones and enjoyed those.
He also got the tomato soup, after I suggested that he might like it and because it would be easy for him to eat.
I got the chicken parm, which was very delicious!
Rob loved his soup so much that he requested another bowl
Then I got some desserts...which I didn't care for. Even my fave, the chocolate dipped strawberries were lacking. Strawberries weren't very fresh
Rob got some desserts for himself...
Since I didn't care for mine, I ended up trying his tiramisu, which I normally don't like and it ended up being my favourite! I should have gone up and got my own but he was glad to share with me.
We left a large tip as the meal was free due to my CC status and then headed back to the room.
Rob seemed to enjoy the food more than I and ended up eating way too much.
I enjoyed the chicken parm but not much else. I didn't like how they paced our food and our server, while really great at the beginning, seemed to all but disappear near the end and it took a very long time to get the bill.
Having said that though, I am a picky eater with simple tastes so Palo really wasn't made for someone like me
Here's my Christmas tree thing that I made. Even though I put on some pretty strong magnets on this sucker, they weren't strong enough to hold it up on the outside door. It had pretty white lights in behind so I ended up just standing it up on that middle chest of drawers.
Rob was full and content and wanted to nap
Kira was watching TV, qu'elle surprise!
We had hoped that she would text her friend or head up to the Edge while we were gone, not only to have some fun but also to vacate the room long enough for our room host, Darcy to clean it. We ran into Darcy in the hall and he was asking our plans so we told him we would all leave the room so he could do his magic
Rob and Kira ended up going to watch a movie while I just walked around the ship...
Where I spied these two lovely pieces of art work. I swear I could easily take home all of that art that hangs in the Gallery if only it didn't cost six billion dollars to ship it home to Canada.
The atrium was mostly empty so good time to grab a pic of the beautiful decorations!
And then I explored the store a little. I loved this shirt...didn't care for the colour but I could definitely relate
I walked up to Cove Cafe, reminiscing about mine and Nancy's time spent there on the Dream
I took a pic of the food offerings and then sat in the wonderfully quiet, child-free environment for about 20 minutes, perusing the navigator app on my phone.
It's just not the same
After giving Darcy long enough to clean it, I returned to a lovely, clean, quiet room all to myself
But the silence wouldn't last as my family shortly returned. Kira took over the TV and Rob went on the verandah to read his book. It was too hot and sunny out there for me and I was getting hungry anyway, as was Kira.
I asked her if she wanted to head up to Pete's and Daisy's with me and she said yes. I went out to ask Rob if he wanted some fruit or something and I found this...
He was sound asleep
Kira and I headed up and got some food for all of us. Looks like someone had an accident
Hello, beautiful!
And back to her natural environment, right in front of the TV, with food.
Rob was up by the time we got back or maybe we woke him up with the noise?
We all ate and then watched another gorgeous sunset from our verandah.
It was gorgeous but certainly not quiet or peaceful, thanks to our neighbours. They seemed to constantly be on their verandah (or at least every single time we were on ours) and they didn't seem to have much consideration for anyone but themselves
They were travelling with extended family (probably with no verandah) so their room was always filled with several additional family members and they always left their verandah door open and half were inside and half were outside and they were constantly talking/yelling/screaming/crying with/to each other from inside to out and from outside in.
They left their verandah lights on almost every single night, (both our neighbours did actually) which made it harder to enjoy the nighttime scenery which irked me because they were never on the balcony late at night, they just never turned it off before going in for the night. I don't mind the lights on if they were actually using them but they weren't!
This happens sometimes because people don't know where the light is, it is rather kind of hidden on all ships but considering the light was off during the day, we knew that they knew where that switch was.
So every dang evening we would try to enjoy the sunset or the view but instead we got a play by play of every single second of it as well as a weather report, wind report, wave report, ship log and plane, ship and bird spotting.
We knew what they were eating, drinking and watching on the TV. We knew what they did all day and what they planned for the rest of the day. We knew what excursions they took and didn't take and why.
Oh. My. Dog.
Please don't get me wrong...we're not opposed to people enjoying their verandah...we get it, you're on vacation. Have fun, enjoy. Please just realize that there are people just inches away from you that can hear everything you say and maybe they don't need to know every single detail of your lives.
Here's a lovely quiet, muted version of what we saw that night.
I just love that last one! I love the light, the contrast, the colour of the ocean matching the clouds above, so gorgeous!
It's the first thing I do when I get to my room, find my room host and ask them for extras 
I love the helpful hints and tips!
Love those waffle pics too!
