Fred and Wilma 'Wonder' Through the Panama Canal - With a Couple of Stowaways

[dixonsontour]

Great start

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Magdalene, I'm glad you've found me. You were defiitely the inspiration for this trip report - I only hope it can live up to the shining example you set, you're a pretty tough act to follow.

You make me blush - but you already totally outshine me by your incredible speed with which you get that trip report going!! I think it took me a month until we arrived in Cozumel! Of course we also stopped at Key West!

Yes, no problems getting on the ship - it all went very smoothly. Hmm, yes the cigarette butts were disgusting - we had other problems with the cleanliness of the room, stay tuned.

Oh - that does not sound too good!!

My only wish is that they would put each one on a different channel as you had to watch each one, in sequence, to get to the one you had missed/wanted to watch.

They did that last year. Maybe people complained then that it took up too many channels. We tried to watch one of his talks one day and both fell asleep. I know Captain Puckett is loved by many, but we were not fans.

We were very surprised to find a bottle of wine on the coffee table in the room. It was from Guest Services, by way of apology (I believe) for the issue we’d had with the room the previous day.

That looks so familiar!! A bottle of wine seems to be their standard apology!

I loved your report on the Secret River! You did not manage to scare me away. For whatever reason I hate all flying bugs, but spiders are totally fine. And it seems that not everyone will get sick on the ride over... So, there is a chance that I make it over to the main land without getting sick!

 

[wilma-bride]

Chapter 8 - A fine bromance

On the ferry, we spotted Tony & Tee sitting downstairs and suggested they join us upstairs. Tony, Terry and I sat at the back of the ferry outside, which was actually much better, although I was covered in spray. Kim still struggled but kept her promise – she was very relieved when we were back on dry land though.



Back at the pier, we took lots of pictures before getting back on board. We accosted a young man and his Mum (who turned out to be part of our cruise group also) and persuaded them to take some pictures for us too, one of which involved lying on the floor to get the angle of us all standing under the bow of the Wonder. Having spent most of the afternoon in Senor Frogs, he was more than game for that.













Back on the ship, we quickly changed into swimming gear and headed up to the pool, where we had an enjoyable couple of hours in the sun. I had a raspberry daiquiri and enjoyed my first chicken strips of the holiday. There was lots of joking about Gary and Terry’s budding ‘bromance’, brought on by the number of times they had posed together for pictures that day.

Reluctantly, we left the pool area to get ready for dinner, which (if you are following) tonight was at Parrot Cay. Service seemed a little slow tonight but we were all being a little awkward over our choices so maybe it was our fault.

A rather blurry picture of our group, which I put down to either a) my crappy camera or b) the poor lighting in Parrot Cay



A picture of Edna (from the Incredibles) off the kids’ menu – Mari’s son Jonathan had said that I reminded him of Edna (apparently because of my hair, not because of any personality similarities ) Kim and I had got into the habit of requesting a kids’ menu at dinner each night – and tonight Kim had decided that she would be ordering dinner from the kids’ menu.



We placed our drinks orders; I had a Cosmo.



Tonight’s bread offering was the banana bread, which I absolutely love. Sadly, there just never seemed to be enough of the speciality bread to go around – we were not hesitant to ask for more though.



Jerk Chicken tenders for Gary



I don’t recall what I ordered for a starter because, to my sheer delight, along with the appetisers, Milan brought these to our table…



That’s right, a HUGE portion of mozzarella sticks for our table to share. Awesome! They were truly delicious.



Kim’s child’s meal of corn dog nuggets, macaroni cheese and fries arrived – on an adult plate. I had told her about our previous cruise, when I ordered the kids’ meal and they brought it on a kids’ sectioned plate and I sulked.



My prime rib and baked potato arrived – I didn’t eat much as I was too full of yummy mozzarella sticks.



I had also (before I knew we were getting mozzarella sticks) asked for the corn dog nuggets off the kids’ menu, which turned up on a…yes, you guessed it…child’s sectioned plate.

I didn’t eat many of them either – I was too full of yummy mozzarella sticks.

I skipped dessert (too full ). At the table next to us, Jack and Liz from our group were celebrating an Anniversary and had been brought the celebration cake. Terry turns to Milan and says “Now, THAT is a chocolate cake. How do I get me one of those?” While we were thinking of things he could celebrate, Milan brings Terry the cake – complete with Mickey head raspberry coulis!





After dinner we all made our way to WaveBands to watch Match Your Mate (for some reason Jim was cut out of the group picture – not sure what happened there).



Couple number 1 was a couple from our group who had got engaged the day we got on the ship. Couple number 3 had been married 60 years – wow! They were such a cute couple and so funny. The parents of the girl from couple number 1 were in the audience so Andy really played on that. Couple number 2 were just a little bit awkward, it sounded like they actually didn’t really like each other at all. Couple number 3 was hysterical. When Andy asked the usual ‘most outrageous place you ever found the magic’ question, the guy from couple 3 responded with “the haybarn” (they’d lived on a farm), then went on to say “of course, when we sold the farm, she realised she’d left the KY jelly behind”. The audience were dying with laughter.

As we were heading off to bed, we bumped into Sally and Scott and Mari and Jeff, who had been sat on the other side of WaveBands. Andy walked past so I took the opportunity to ask him if the pub skit would be performed on this cruise. Andy replied that he could only tell us that DCL’s policy was that the pub skit could only be performed on sailings of 7 nights or longer and confirmed that “the costumes are on board”. Woohoo!

After chatting a little while longer, Mari suggested that it might be nice to have a group picture taken the next night (formal night) and so we agreed to try and get everybody from the group together in the atrium at 7.45pm. Since there was no easy way of letting everybody know, we decided that we would just tell people as we saw them and hope that word of mouth did the job.

It was getting late so we said goodnight and made our way up the stairs to bed.

 

[Jareds_mommy]

Rakesh Was our head server too, our daughter was having trouble finding food she could eat without it having to be allergy checked, he was worried that she was not eating anything but vegetables and asked what food she liked, she said she missed the banana bread on parrot cay night, he made sure she had a loaf every night after that.

 

[bex7583]

those mozzarella sticks look amazing !! i wouldnt have wanted to share

 

[tony64]

KY Jelly left behind in the hay barn, still makes me laugh.

 

[disbride713]

All caught up and what a great report so far, I am missing it so much now. I love so many of your photos so far, looking forward to reading more!

 

[wilma-bride]

great report im enjoying it so much.

you were very brave on the excursion, sounds like my worst nightmare spiders , water and bad seas

Yep, it was pretty daunting - I was glad when it was over and I don't feel the need to have to do it ever again

Great start

Thanks - and welcome

You make me blush - but you already totally outshine me by your incredible speed with which you get that trip report going!! I think it took me a month until we arrived in Cozumel! Of course we also stopped at Key West!

It helps that we just had a long weekend here in the UK so I had 4 days to get some chapters written up.

Oh - that does not sound too good!!

It was nothing major but still concerned me as to how well (or otherwise) our room was being cleaned.

They did that last year. Maybe people complained then that it took up too many channels. We tried to watch one of his talks one day and both fell asleep. I know Captain Puckett is loved by many, but we were not fans.

Interesting that they changed it this year. I went to the first talk but (spoiler alert) that was the only one. Truth be told, I had difficulty tearing myself away from my sun lounger. And I know what you mean - I found his jokes a little tedious, to be honest - he told the same joke every time (and I imagine it would have been the same ones he told on your cruise).

That looks so familiar!! A bottle of wine seems to be their standard apology!

More than likely - completely wasted on us though.

I loved your report on the Secret River! You did not manage to scare me away. For whatever reason I hate all flying bugs, but spiders are totally fine. And it seems that not everyone will get sick on the ride over... So, there is a chance that I make it over to the main land without getting sick!

It wasn't my intention to put anybody off but I wanted to be truthful about it. I didn't actually see anybody getting sick on the ferry ride over or back so I guess the answer is to sit upstairs.

Rakesh Was our head server too, our daughter was having trouble finding food she could eat without it having to be allergy checked, he was worried that she was not eating anything but vegetables and asked what food she liked, she said she missed the banana bread on parrot cay night, he made sure she had a loaf every night after that.

That is awesome, I loved that banana bread

those mozzarella sticks look amazing !! i wouldnt have wanted to share

Don't worry, I had more than my fair share

KY Jelly left behind in the hay barn, still makes me laugh.

Me too - when we ended up sat next to them in the theatre a few nights later, I really worried what else they were going to reveal - let's say they weren't backwards about coming forwards

All caught up and what a great report so far, I am missing it so much now. I love so many of your photos so far, looking forward to reading more!

Hi Sally, we miss you and Scott. Stay tuned as you feature in quite a few of our pictures of Cartagena

 

[Chilly]

Well if I meet my goal Mike has no option but to do what I say. I think he will like the price compared to other cruises and is interested in the ports but doesn't like the idea of so many sea days.

Well done on going into that cave and conquering your fear.

I'm getting a fitbit this weekend.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am on a couple of late shifts and all over sudden I am miles behind. I am all caught up again now though.

What a shame that your sunrise plans were scrapped. Some of the statues at the memorial are somewhat unsettling.

I am glad that we are not the only people who find Miami and how the junctions work rather confusing.

I am feeling a little homesick for the Wonder. I can't believe that it is over a year since I last saw the Wonder and it will probably be another year before I see her again. Hopefully there will be a cruise on the Magic though in the not too distant future.

I can't remember if it was my birthday cruise in 2012 or the back to back cruise in 2013 when we first had the new style Navigators. I still can't get used to them though.

Looks like you had a couple of nice days to start you off. I am glad that it looks like Rakesh worked out better for you than he did for us. He is the only person in 15 cruises that we ever complaint about. We raised a concern with him the first night of our back to back cruise in 2013 and he just laughed at us. What made this worse is that it was a health and safety issue that we raised with him. The next night we had been moved to a different section. An yes, we got a bottle of wine, too.

I was thrilled to see that Clayton was your cruise director. We had him in 2009 and he was fantastic. I thought he was pretty much sticking to the Dream and the Fantasy nowadays.

I have to say reading about the ferry ride, I suddenly remember why we stick to Chankanaab when we are in Cozumel. I think the caves would have freaked me out. I would love to see the ruins at Tulum at some stage though.

Corinna

 

[Linda67]

Wow Joh, you are cracking through the updates!
What a fab idea to do the postcards for the Mixology group, wish I had thought of that, too late now though!
Looks like you had a great cruise group sailing with you. It really makes the cruise fun when you already have lots of friendly faces around you

 

[ShellB8585]

Have just found this thanks to your comment on another TR. Will go back to start reading

 

[Flossbolna]

Looks like you all had a lot of fun at dinner! How nice that you got your cheese sticks!!

I also learned something new: That on can order a cocktail in the dining room that is not on the menu of the day! I had no idea!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Loving this report - I must try that Concrete stuff, it looks amazing . Will be looking for a Shake Shack in New York just to try that. Tours look interesting - I would have freaked at the spiders too. Loving all the photos

 

[wilma-bride]

Chapter 9 – The force (of the sun) is strong

Monday May 4th

Today’s navigator:













I woke up really early again this morning so went up to deck 9 to get some water and write up my journal, as I was getting quite far behind. At 6.50 I dropped my stuff back to the room and went to meet the other Wonder-er ladies – this morning we had Sally, Mari, Wanda, Shelby, Kim and Carol. We walked a few laps but it was really hot and sticky and I needed water so I dropped out early and went back up to deck 9 for a drink. The adult pool was practically empty this early so I grabbed a lounger and sat for a while. It was a little cloudy but there was a nice breeze so I went back to the room to change into my swimsuit. Back up on deck 9, I bagged a couple of loungers – a little while later Gary appeared and then we were joined by Terry. It was still very cloudy but every now and then the sun appeared from behind the clouds and it was glorious.



At one point, I felt a couple of small drops of rain and thought it was going to pour but it didn’t. Gary was going to Captain Puckett’s talk but I really couldn’t be bothered this morning so I stayed put. I realised that, despite the cloud, I was starting to get a bit pink. I had only been using factor 15 but decided I needed something stronger so asked Terry if I could use his ‘man cream’. I slathered it on but I realised later that the damage was probably already done at this point.

Just after Gary had left, our friendly wandering drinks attendant, Martin, came to ask us if we wanted to “put some booze in your cruise”. The sun was over the yardarm so why not? We had a mojito (Terry) and a raspberry daiquiri (me).



When Gary came back from Captain Puckett’s canal talk he went to fetch us some lunch – chicken strips for me and a burger for himself. We sat in the shade to eat as I was starting to go more and more pink. Unfortunately, my food was cold so I took it back and swapped it. The chicken strips were delicious but I hardly ate any of the fries.





While we were chilling by the pool this morning, Tony and Tee had got dolled up and gone to Palo brunch.











When we’d finished lunch, Kim had arrived poolside and so we sat and chatted and I wrote up some more of my notes in between. It was soon time to leave and get ready for the military meet and greet in Diversions, which had been organised by Jan. When I got out of the shower, my chest and legs were bright red and I was in quite a lot of pain. I got dressed, putting on loose fitting, lightweight trousers and we set off for Diversions.

Obscurity trivia was going on again so I decided to take part while the military guys were chatting. After a little while, the military ladies and gents moved through to the Cadillac Lounge and I stayed, with Kim, Gary, Terry and a couple of others, Rochelle and Bill, to finish the quiz. I ended up with a score of 303, which was pretty pants! Once the quiz had finished, we joined the others in the Cadillac Lounge and I chatted for a while to another lady from our group, Elaine, and her friends Mike and Brandon (also from our group).

We left to go and get ready for dinner but had to stop in to the Treasure Ketch to get some Aloe Vera lotion as I’d forgotten to bring ours and was now desperately in need. I also managed to get one of the limited edition Panama Canal pins. Back in the room I had another cool shower, which helped, and covered myself from head to foot in Aloe lotion. It was clear I wouldn’t be able to wear the dress I’d originally planned. I looked ridiculous and felt awful. I told Gary that I didn’t really want to go to dinner, but he was not entirely sympathetic and essentially told me I’d brought it on myself (which, of course, I had). While I was drying my hair, my foot bumped against something under the desk/dresser. It was a cork. Since we don’t drink wine, it had to have been left from the previous occupants which meant that it had already been there at least 4 days. As I bent down to pick it up, I noticed two hair grips on the floor right in front of the drawers – also not belonging to us. I mentioned it to Gary, who told me to leave them there and see if they had been cleaned up later.

I couldn’t decide what to wear instead of my dress. It was formal night so I needed to dress up but all of the other dresses I had looked ridiculous with my bright red chest, arms and legs. For the time being, I just put a pair of casual trousers and a top on to go and watch tonight’s show – The Golden Mickeys. We went down the stairs to the theatre – it is worth saying, at this point, that we really loved our forward room location on deck 6. It was an easy walk down the stairs to the theatre and Route 66 area or up the stairs to the adult only pool area. At the theatre, we made our way towards the front and chose a row. I moved in towards the middle and sat down a couple of seats away from the other people already in the row, since there were two people in the row behind and I didn’t want to sit directly in front of them (I hate when people do that to me, especially when there are a lot of spare seats, which there were). Gary tutted at me. I tried to explain to him why I had sat where I had and he just said “Don’t speak to me”. So I just said “Fine, I’m going back to the room then” and I stood up and left. I went back to the room, put some more Aloe on and took my journal up to deck 9, where I sat at a table on the port side writing up my notes. After a little while, one of the deck cleaners stopped to chat to me. He was very sweet, pointing out an island in the distance and telling me about a small black bird he had seen earlier in the day. He hung around for ages and I got the impression that he was desperate for a bit of company. He was very young and I couldn’t help but think about how far away from home he was. I had run out of things to say and I wasn’t really in the mood for idle chit chat, but I didn’t want to be rude so I just stayed quiet and he just stood looking out of the window beyond me. I spotted Tony & Tee walking towards me. I hadn’t seen them all day, other than when Tony had popped up to deck 9 for coffee earlier that morning, so it was nice to catch up with them.

We chatted for a while and then left to get dressed for dinner. I decided to make the best of a bad situation and just wear a different dress, with a cardigan to cover the burnt bits. I felt like a chef trying to hide a disastrous culinary creation with sauce or cream! As I was just finishing my make-up, Gary came back from the show and we finished getting dressed, leaving the room around 7.40. I had to wear a white cardigan, which didn’t really go with my dress but at least it covered the sunburn. At the atrium, we met up with the rest of our group who had shown up to have the formal picture taken. There was no sign of Tony and Tee and I worried that I had forgotten to tell them but Gary assured me I had told them. We got in line for a picture on the steps outside Tritons. When we got near to the front, I asked the photographer whether they would need a room card from each party in our group and told him there were 60-70 of us. Do you mean 6 or 7, he asked? Joe said “No, put a zero on the end of that!” Joe told the guy it was a family picture as we all gathered on the stairs – and it really did feel like it. Tony and Tee came running up just at the last second and managed to squeeze in for the picture.



Tony and Tee had been having a picture taken outside the side entrance of Tritons, which was why they were a bit late.



After the pictures, we went straight in to Tritons and over to our table. We decided to mix things up a bit tonight so all the ladies sat together at one end of the table and all the gents sat at the other.



I ordered my usual, a Cosmo. Terry had told me earlier in the day that he’d never tried one so I passed it down for him to try and told him not to yam it. I then had to explain what ‘yam it’ meant. Nobody at the table had heard the expression before, but it became one that we would use again and again over the course of the cruise (mainly in Mixology).

Kim ordered the scallops with the tomato risotto for her appetiser. When it came we were all a little surprised at the size of the scallops. They were tiny!



I think I must have skipped the appetiser tonight. For main, I had the duck but asked for it with fries.



I asked Sandro if I could have some vinegar for my fries and, to our amusement, he brought balsamic vinegar to the table. It turns out there was no malt vinegar on the ship. My dinner was very nice – despite Jim teasing me about having duck and chips!

Gary had the turkey dinner, which he said was very nice.



For dessert I had the chocolate mousse cake. Somebody (maybe Jim) had the trio of desserts.





Terry got the celebration cake again! He didn’t gloat – much!



Tony ordered a ‘floating coffee’ – for those who aren’t aware, it’s like an Irish coffee without the ‘Irish’. Basically, it’s a coffee with cream floating on the top. Hardly any place does it – or knows what it is even – but occasionally we get lucky and find somewhere that he can get one and he is a happy bunny. We actually have an unwritten rule that he is not allowed to ask for one unless it is on the menu but Tony broke all the rules tonight and asked Sandro if he could get one. Of course, Sandro had no idea what Tony meant and after an attempt to explain, they brought out...



…something which did NOT resemble a floating coffee at all. Still, Tony was a good sport and drank it up. And Tee and I told him off for making our poor wait staff try to conjure one up. We hardly stopped laughing this evening and, looking around, we realised that none of the other tables seemed to be having half as much fun as us. We really did luck out with our table mates – best table mates.

After dinner, we all decided to go and watch Jeffery Allen, the Elton John tribute act. We made our way to the Walt Disney Theater, only to find the doors closed. A CM told us there was no show in the theatre and that we should be at the Buena Vista Theater. We weren’t convinced that was right but headed there anyway. Of course, it wasn’t at that theatre and, after checking the navigator app, we realised we had just been far too early arriving at the Walt Disney Theater so turned around and walked back. On the way, Tony suggested we have some porthole pictures. He said “Let’s do couples first” and Terry grabbed Gary and pulled him in front of the porthole for their shot.



We had a ladies picture.



And then a group shot.



Back at the theatre, we found some seats towards the front. Jeffery Allen came on stage and the first song he played was ‘Daniel’. I whispered to Kim that our Daniel was named after this song and, before I knew it, I was welling up, realising how much I was missing him. It hadn’t really hit me until that point. The song finished and I quickly recovered, telling myself that he was surely having a great time being spoiled by his grandparents We watched, and enjoyed, the rest of the show. When he played ‘Benny and the Jets’ I leaned forward and told Mari, who was sitting in front of us, that ever since watching 27 Dresses, whenever I heard the song and he sang “electric boots” I could only hear “electric boobs”. All through the song, whenever Jeffery (Elton) sang “electric boots” I could see Mari’s shoulders shaking with laughter.

When the show was over, Jeffery said that he would be heading down to WaveBands, where they would be playing 70s disco hits. I think Julie and Gary would have been keen to go down and continue the party but the rest of us were shattered and so we went our separate ways and headed back to our respective rooms.

Tonight’s towel animal creation was an elephant.



Tony and Tee had a frog – no, I didn’t sneak into their room to take this picture.



Mari had kindly dropped off some Solarcaine spray for me while we were out so, after Gary sprayed me liberally, I took a couple of Tylenol for the pain and climbed into bed. I was asleep before you could say “Wear sunscreen”.

 

[wilma-bride]

Well if I meet my goal Mike has no option but to do what I say. I think he will like the price compared to other cruises and is interested in the ports but doesn't like the idea of so many sea days.

Well, you know I am rooting for you to meet your goal. I so badly want you, Mike and Freya on that cruise with us in 2017.

Well done on going into that cave and conquering your fear.

Thanks - I actually wasn't as scared about going in as I was when he mentioned the damn spiders.

I'm getting a fitbit this weekend.

Let me know when you've got it and I'll add you as a friend.

I am on a couple of late shifts and all over sudden I am miles behind. I am all caught up again now though.

What a shame that your sunrise plans were scrapped. Some of the statues at the memorial are somewhat unsettling.

I really can't put into words how incredibly moving it was. The statues were both touching and disturbing at the same time.

I am feeling a little homesick for the Wonder. I can't believe that it is over a year since I last saw the Wonder and it will probably be another year before I see her again. Hopefully there will be a cruise on the Magic though in the not too distant future.

The Wonder was the first Disney ship we sailed on so will always hold a special place in my heart. She is certainly showing her age now thouhg, and is desperately in need of some tender loving care.

I can't remember if it was my birthday cruise in 2012 or the back to back cruise in 2013 when we first had the new style Navigators. I still can't get used to them though.

I must have a really bad memory then because I swear this is the first cruise we've had them and our last cruise was late 2013

Looks like you had a couple of nice days to start you off. I am glad that it looks like Rakesh worked out better for you than he did for us. He is the only person in 15 cruises that we ever complaint about. We raised a concern with him the first night of our back to back cruise in 2013 and he just laughed at us. What made this worse is that it was a health and safety issue that we raised with him. The next night we had been moved to a different section. An yes, we got a bottle of wine, too.

I was thrilled to see that Clayton was your cruise director. We had him in 2009 and he was fantastic. I thought he was pretty much sticking to the Dream and the Fantasy nowadays.

Sorry you didn't have a great experience with Rakesh - we found him very accommodating. But we had a poor experience with a head server once before who everybody else seemed to love so I guess it is just different experiences.

This was our first cruise with Clayton as CD and I can see why everyone seems to love him. He really is game for a laugh.

I have to say reading about the ferry ride, I suddenly remember why we stick to Chankanaab when we are in Cozumel. I think the caves would have freaked me out. I would love to see the ruins at Tulum at some stage though.

We will be firmly staying in Cozumel on our next trip.

Wow Joh, you are cracking through the updates!
What a fab idea to do the postcards for the Mixology group, wish I had thought of that, too late now though!
Looks like you had a great cruise group sailing with you. It really makes the cruise fun when you already have lots of friendly faces around you

I guess I learned from our last cruise when I was getting a load of people asking me which session they were on. It just seemed easier this way since the ship doesn't give out invitations for the private sessions. I am glad I did it as it really wasn't that expensive and, hopefully, it will prove to be a nice reminder of the cruise for those who took part. I actually gave out some extras to members of our group who weren't taking part in Mixology but still like to have a drink

I know I have said it several times but we really did have a fantastic group and they honestly did all feel like friends and family by the end of the cruise. I am very glad that many of them will be sailiong with us again in 2017.

Have just found this thanks to your comment on another TR. Will go back to start reading

Nice to have you here

Looks like you all had a lot of fun at dinner! How nice that you got your cheese sticks!!

I also learned something new: That on can order a cocktail in the dining room that is not on the menu of the day! I had no idea!

We had a lot of fun at all our dinners, we had fabulous table mates

Wow, I can't believe that you didn't know that you can order any cocktail at dinner. I must admit, I quite often order the cocktails from the dinner menu but I do love a Cosmo and so, when the offerings on teh menu didn't appeal, I would stick with my 'go to'. You can get the drink of the day at dinner as well, did you know that?

Loving this report - I must try that Concrete stuff, it looks amazing . Will be looking for a Shake Shack in New York just to try that. Tours look interesting - I would have freaked at the spiders too. Loving all the photos

You should definitely try Shake Shack in New York. The one up near the museum of natural history does a special 'museum' one which is fabulous. They also have different mix-ins, including red velvet cake.

 

[Flossbolna]

Great picture!!

so I passed it down for him to try and told him not to yam it. I then had to explain what ‘yam it’ meant. Nobody at the table had heard the expression before

I have not heard it either... (that's what I get from hanging out on the UK board without being from there...) Would you be so nice and explain?

I asked Sandro if I could have some vinegar for my fries and, to our amusement, he brought balsamic vinegar to the table. It turns out there was no malt vinegar on the ship.

Did you try the balsamic vinegar with the fries? I am surprised that they don't at least keep a bottle of malt vinegar in the dining room as there seem to be enough British people on the cruises.

Tony ordered a ‘floating coffee’ – for those who aren’t aware, it’s like an Irish coffee without the ‘Irish’. Basically, it’s a coffee with cream floating on the top.

When I grew up in the 80s that was what you got here in Germany when your ordered a cappuccino. No one had heard anything of milk froth then. And there are still places that have it on the menu as "German cappuccino".

Wow, I can't believe that you didn't know that you can order any cocktail at dinner. I must admit, I quite often order the cocktails from the dinner menu but I do love a Cosmo and so, when the offerings on teh menu didn't appeal, I would stick with my 'go to'. You can get the drink of the day at dinner as well, did you know that?

I had no idea!! But that is because here in Germany there are always very extensive drinks menus. It might be a rule that they need to publish all the prices for drinks. So, there exist no drinks that are not printed on the menu. I know that I have been told in American restaurants that they have a full bar, which I understood to mean that I can order any standard cocktail. But nobody ever told me that in a DCL MDR! I love the idea of getting the drink of the day for dinner! Is the same true for the pool bar?

 

[wilma-bride]

Great picture!!

We actually had one which I preferred which had the photographer photobombing at the front - but 'stole' this from a fellow cruiser and this is the one she chose to share with us.

I have not heard it either... (that's what I get from hanging out on the UK board without being from there...) Would you be so nice and explain?

It basically means to down it in one, like you would with a shot of, say, Apfelkorn

Did you try the balsamic vinegar with the fries? I am surprised that they don't at least keep a bottle of malt vinegar in the dining room as there seem to be enough British people on the cruises.

Haha, no I did not, I can't imagine that would have been pleasant. I was very surprised they didn't have malt vinegar on the ship. Kim says we will have to bring our own next time.

I had no idea!! But that is because here in Germany there are always very extensive drinks menus. It might be a rule that they need to publish all the prices for drinks. So, there exist no drinks that are not printed on the menu. I know that I have been told in American restaurants that they have a full bar, which I understood to mean that I can order any standard cocktail. But nobody ever told me that in a DCL MDR! I love the idea of getting the drink of the day for dinner! Is the same true for the pool bar?

I am guessing you can get any drink from the pool bar too, since I was ordering raspberry dacquiris and mojitos that weren't on the regular pool bar drinks menus - certainly any drink which didn't require a special/unusual ingredient.

 

[Tracerr00]

I started reading this last night and I have been sneaking some in at work today and I’m finally caught up! Great job with the reporting (you are so funny) and seeing as I’m leaving for our cruise in a little under two weeks, I’m eating this up. I love it and I love seeing the navigators! And I was very happy to see the Woo Woo recipe as I enjoyed it so much when we went to visit you. Woo Woo! By the way, in case I missed it, which room were you in? We’re going to be in a Forward room on the 6th floor on the Magic.

 

[wilma-bride]

I started reading this last night and I have been sneaking some in at work today and I’m finally caught up! Great job with the reporting (you are so funny) and seeing as I’m leaving for our cruise in a little under two weeks, I’m eating this up. I love it and I love seeing the navigators! And I was very happy to see the Woo Woo recipe as I enjoyed it so much when we went to visit you. Woo Woo! By the way, in case I missed it, which room were you in? We’re going to be in a Forward room on the 6th floor on the Magic.

Hi Tracy, wow less than 2 weeks until your cruise. How exciting. And you get to meet Linda too - lucky you, you are going to love her.

We were in stateroom 6521, one of the sideways rooms. We loved it.