Chapter 13 – Cartagena, coffee shops, cocktails and casual dining
The next stop on our Cartagena tour was Las Bovedas, a series of shops in the converted cells of an old dungeon.
Each shop had pretty much the same stuff and some of the store owners were quite pushy. Tony and Tee bought some coffee, while Gary and I tried to find a fridge magnet we liked. After two or three shops we’d had enough and made our way back to the cool, air conditioned safety of the bus. The final stop of the day was Old Town, the El Centro area within the inner walls of the city. This was a much nicer area; although it still had some vendors they didn’t appear to be as pushy.
I love how this guy’s reflection in the window makes it look like he is wearing Mickey ears!
Martin walked us through the streets and pointed out the old houses. We stopped where a man was making incredible tile paintings using just his fingers. He offered us 2 for $20 but, when we said we would come back, he told us the offer was only good right now. Fine by us. I won’t be pressured into buying something so he missed out on a sale there.
As we were walking, we passed by a coffee shop and agreed that we were all in desperate need of refreshment so would be coming back there. Martin led us to an area which was to be our rendezvous point after our 30 minutes of free time in El Centro. We immediately made our way back to the little coffee shop. There was a bit of a language barrier but, thanks to a lady who spoke a little English, we managed to order some drinks. I ordered lemonade, which was $3. I only had a $10 and she only had $3 in change so I ordered a mango lemonade as well, for Gary, and told her to keep the extra dollar as a tip. They had some very tempting looking cakes but I managed to resist – I was thirsty more than anything else.
We all split up to enjoy the rest of our free time and explored the shops and surrounding area a little more.
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Sally and I had a look in the Pandora shop, which really wasn’t much cheaper than here or the US. We didn’t see anything we really liked in the emerald shop either, much to the relief of Gary and Scott. We walked back to the meeting point and Martin pointed us in the direction of a parking lot, where the bus was waiting. As we were walking to the bus, we bumped into Christa and told her where the bus was. I think Christa beckoned her husband, Ryan, or something and next thing this old lady ran over with a whole load of fans, thinking Christa had called her over. Christa tried to tell the lady she didn’t want to buy a fan but she was very persistent and followed us all the way up the street. Eventually Christa said very firmly “No, gracias” and the lady muttered something very un-Disney and walked away. We were soon on the bus and heading back to the ship. Gary and I agreed that, as nice as it was to say we had been to South America, we would not hurry back to Cartagena.
Back on the ship, the four of us (Gary and I, Tony and Tee) went straight up to Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch (I think this was one of the two times we used the lift during the cruise since we went straight from deck 1 to deck 9). Today it was a seafood buffet (it actually seemed to be a seafood buffet nearly every time we went into BBB) so I played it safe (picky eater that I am) with corn dog nuggets, veal schnitzel, chicken and rosemary potatoes. It was all very nice. We found Kim sitting alone (Terry had just left) and briefly chatted about our respective excursions. She also took a picture of us, looking all hot and sweaty form our morning in Cartagena.
Next stop was the pool. The water was a little cool, which was really nice. I made sure to put plenty of sunscreen on, so as not to burn again. Tee had been feeling a little unwell earlier in the day so she and Tony went back to their room. Later, Tony came up and joined us at the pool. He ordered a round of drinks – Bud light for Gary, raspberry dacquiri for me, a pint of something for Terry (it was some kind of dark beer) and a pina colada for Tony.
Tony said that he and Tee were probably not going to go to dinner that night as Tee was still feeling poorly. Gary had been suffering with a headache all day, so we decided we would skip the dining room too, and see what we felt like doing later. After a little while, Kim and Terry left to get ready for dinner as they were dining at Palo tonight. Tony went to check on Tee and Gary said he wanted to lie down for a while. I decided we ought to let Julie and Jim know that none of us would be eating in the dining room tonight, so I popped to their room to let them know and also to return their umbrella. There was no answer when I knocked so I left the umbrella in their fish extender and went back to our room, where Gary was dozing. A little while later, I called Julie and Jim’s room and spoke to Julie. I told her we hadn’t decided what we were doing, but that we might go to Beach Blanket Buffet if Gary was feeling a little better later.
While Gary dozed, I watched Captain Puckett’s presentation on transiting the Panama Canal on the television. I wanted to be prepared for the next day. A little while later, I jumped in the shower and then Gary had a shower too. He felt a bit better so we decided to go up to Beach Blanket Buffet and get some dinner. We weren’t entirely sure what to expect, all we knew was that it wasn’t a buffet at dinner and that there was no set dining time. We made our way up about 6.15 and were seated in the central area, right by the server.
Our server was Freizer (pronounced Fraser) and he was very friendly. He explained that they were serving the Prince and Princess menu from the main dining room, with the addition of a couple of extra dishes and that they also have a salad bar, from which you can help yourself. He bought us a basket of bread and some water and took our drinks orders. We both opted for diet coke, knowing we probably hadn’t taken on enough fluids today.
For appetiser, Gary ordered the salad with walnuts and blue cheese and I chose the jambalaya with sautéed shrimp. For main, we both opted for the rib eye steak (available as an addition to the regular menu) with mash (Gary) and fries (me).
The jambalaya was a little spicy for me but the shrimp were delicious. Gary loved his salad. When the main course came out, I was beside myself. The steak was huge – and it was hot! The food in the main dining rooms was nearly always on the cold side by the time it came out but, with the food being prepared right here, it was fresh and piping hot. It was so good, the best steak I’d had so far on the cruise.
Christa and Ryan came in while we were eating and were seated a little way from us. It looked as though a few people had the same idea this evening as there was a steady stream of diners. Gary and I were talking about how great Freizer was and wondering how we would go about tipping him. I knew that during the day, the staff who worked at Beach Blanket were the main dining room staff on a rotation, however the staff tonight were obviously not and I didn’t want Freizer to miss out on a tip, as he really was excellent. Gary was shocked that I didn’t know how we should tip “You mean to say there’s something about Disney you don’t know”? I went to ask Christa but she wasn’t sure either. So, in the end, when Freizer came back I asked him. He told me that it was not necessary to leave a tip, that he and the other staff here were training to be restaurant servers and this was their practice. I felt really bad and we decided that we would mention him on our comment card at the end of the cruise, which would hopefully assist with getting him moved to the main dining room. He really was a great server.
I considered skipping dessert but they had lemon cheesecake – my favourite flavour and my favourite dessert rolled into one. Gary ordered a Mickey bar. He told Freizer that it was his first Mickey bar. When Freizer brought the desserts, he included an extra Mickey bar and told Gary “this is your second Mickey bar too”.
After we finished dinner, we went out onto deck 9. It was a beautifully warm evening. We spotted Kathleen, Ron,Vicky and Jif so had a chat with them for a while, then found some chairs to watch Enchanted on the Dumbotron. I was feeling really tired so decided to head to bed. Gary came down after about an hour and we finished watching Enchanted on the television. Tonight’s towel animal was a bear.
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Enjoy the cruise, when your time comes, we absolutely loved it! Who knows, maybe you'll enjoy it so much you'll be on the 2017 cruise with us 
