8. Let the Eating Begin in Earnest!
When I last left off, we had sailed away from Seattle and headed back to our staterooms. We were on the early dining rotation, which means that we were scheduled for dinner at 5:45. (They do a full service at 5:45 in all 3 dining rooms and then another service at 8:15.)
I completed the unpacking process and then faced the moment of truth - would our bags fit under the bed?? You might remember that our bags are HUGE and hard-shell. I was quite worried about this little issue - where the heck were we going to put those things if they did not fit??? So, would they fit? They certainly would not! Except that some true genius on these boards had told me that they would likely fit if I lifted up the bed frame. Well, maybe Im a total dunce, but I really dont think that I would have thought to do this if I hadnt have been told!
Anyway, I got down there, hefted up the bed frame, and shoved those giant suitcases under that dang bed. PHEW!!!! Thank you DIS Genius!!!!
And then we got ready for dinner.
Cinderella at sea:
Our first dinner of the cruise was in Parrot Cay for the Taste of Alaska menu. When we entered the restaurant, we were asked our table number by the head server who then had one of the servers (who were lined up waiting to take diners to their tables) take us to Table 71. When we arrived, this was waiting for us:
This sort of thing just made the cruise so amazing - every experience included a special touch to make everyone feel special and important.
The Parrot Cay place setting:
The Parrot Cay setting:
Soon we met our servers - Juni and Assistant Server Doulson. (In case anyone here does not know,
DCL has a rotational dining - you are assigned to a different restaurant on different nights (there are three restaurants), and your serving team goes with you. So that team is your team throughout your cruise.) Juni seemed very nice, and Doulson had the best smile ever. They took excellent care of us, making sure we had everything we could possibly need, etc. We loved them immediately!
Doulson took Willows order for a chocolate milk. And let me tell you, every night from then on, when we arrived at our table, there was a chocolate milk waiting for her.
The adults started the meal with a cocktail - the Cranberry and Cinnamon Spritzer (Absolute vodka, cranberry and apple juice, cinnamon, and club soda). It was very refreshing!
Okay, now, dont judge!
As you probably know, Disney permits you to bring alcohol onto the ship as long as it is stored in your carry-on bags. As you may or may not also know, I happen to enjoy a glass of wine or two or, well, lets leave it at that. Well, we didnt really want to worry about breaking bottles in our carry-ons, so each adult had brought a box of wine (not the nasty kind; they do actually sell some okay box wine now.). Therefore, we had not pre-ordered a wine plan. HOWEVER, as we were sitting at dinner, we realized that we HAD to have a wine plan. I mean, it was going to cost us a fortune to order by the glass, and we couldnt possibly go through dinner without wine!
So we ordered the one-bottle-per-night plan to split among the 3 of us. Dont worry! We also had cocktails to start and the wine back in our staterooms!
Okay, now that the alcohol confessions are out of the way, lets move onto dinner, shall we? (I will mention here that we were all very pleased with the portion sizes - they were on the smaller side compared to the gargantuan portions that you see at many land-based eateries, which allowed us each to order appetizer, entree, and dessert every night and not feel like we were wasting tons of food.
) For appetizer, The Judies and I all had the King crab legs. They were good, although smaller than expected, and I did not get a good pic.
Willow had pineapple and grapes.
Juni and Doulson even managed to score me some gluten-free bread! (I try to keep mostly gluten-free because I discovered - after many, many years - that it is apparently gluten that makes me constantly have a bad tummy
- I dont stress about it too much, but I certainly wont eat a big ol piece of bread or anything. This was the first time I had had bread in at least 6 months!)
Willow ordered the kids mac and cheese (although she did have the option of ordering whatever she wanted on the adult menu too). I asked her what she thought, and she said, It was great. I just liked the macaroni and cheese and the french fries and the peas.
Of course, Doulson made a ketchup Mickey for her. She was quite surprised!
I had the Marinated Sirloin Steak (with thyme-flavored parsnips, potato gratin, and a cognac-peppercorn sauce). It was not my favorite entree of the trip, but it was tasty enough.
I did not take pictures of The Judies food this evening, but I did get better about that after this meal, I think.
DD then surprised me. She did not want dessert.
She just wanted to go to the kids club! So I trucked her off to the kids club and came back to enjoy a nice dessert with no one poking at me or saying she was bored or anything.
I had the Cool-n-Crunch Sundae (chocolate mint ice cream topped with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and crunchy meringue). Actually, I think we all had this. It was GOOD. None of us normally orders dessert, so this cruise was a real treat - especially for Judy 1 who really loves sweets. (I am more of a salty person.
)
We said good-bye to Juni and Doulson and left them to get ready for the second seating. We were already marveling at how hard they work! Willows take on our servers: Great. I wish I could see Doulson again. He was nice. (We are now Facebook friends, so she has at least seen a couple of pictures of him.)
Up next: 9. A Scary Evening at Sea
I love it! We need to start a letter-writing campaign!!!!!
That spritzer sounds terrific!! Dinner looks wonderful! Didn't you just love the level of service they provide? Oh you are making me excited about our trip in May! I bet you were in heaven to enjoy that dessert in peace while Willow enjoyed herself at the club. I know we all love our children more than anything in this world but sometimes it's just nice to get to eat your meal without "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" 
That potato portion is so TINY!!!! 
That steak was the size of a foot! And that tiny potato!!! 
Did lots of other kids dress up too?
