wilma-bride
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- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Thursday 31st October
Today was another (well-deserved) at-sea day and, my goodness, did we need it. We all slept in a bit and, by the time we had surfaced, it was mid morning. After a brief discussion, we decided we would have lunch in one of the dining rooms today (something we had never managed before, despite this being our fourth Disney cruise).
Sian and I went on the hunt for the Port Adventures manager (having missed another couple of calls from him the night before) while Daniel and Gary went to swim. We eventually found the manager and were able to come to an acceptable agreement over the action to be taken over the kids disappointing dolphin encounter. The manager had spoken to staff at Dolphin Discovery, who had acknowledged that, yes, the encounter had been somewhat hurried and Daniel had missed some parts of his experience. With that in mind, he (somewhat begrudgingly, it seemed) agreed to reduce the cost of Daniels encounter to the cost of an observer (or non-swimmer). Unfortunately, the manager refused to acknowledge or accept that no towels had been provided and insisted that they were readily available at the port for people to help themselves. Since Sian was only able to say that she hadnt seen them (and, unfortunately, hadnt asked anyone so couldnt state categorically that they WERE there), we had to accept that maybe this was an error on her part. I repeated my concern that all of our port adventures had been rushed and reiterated that I hoped they would try to improve things for the future but I honestly dont imagine that anything will change.
Having at least got the issues off our chests, Sian and I went down to Royal Court, where we were meeting Gary and Daniel for lunch. We were seated straight away as it was still early. I think this was definitely my favourite restaurant. I particularly loved the murals on the walls.
It felt so refined and a little decadent to be having a sit-down lunch and it was nice to have some time together as a family. We spent some time talking about our favourite parts of the trip so far and, although, we were a little sad at the prospect of getting off the ship in a couple of days, we were all looking forward to spending some time at Universal with Wendy and Rich.
We were brought some water and bread, and our server took our food and drinks orders. I ordered a cocktail (how naughty at lunch!), Gary had diet coke and the kids both had smoothies.
I honestly cant remember what the cocktail was, which is a shame as it was very nice indeed, fruity and refreshing. Daniel and Sian loved their smoothies too.
For appetiser, Daniel and I both chose the calamari. Sian and Gary both had the raspberry soup.
The calamari was absolutely delicious, with a very light breading. It was cooked perfectly and not at all chewy.
I tasted Sians soup and it was also lovely. It tasted just like melted ice-cream but much more creamy.
For main, Daniel had some kind of pasta (cannelloni maybe?). It was from the kids menu so the portion was quite small but it was the perfect size for lunch.
Sian chose the burger. She said it was REALLY good. I have a feeling Gary had the burger too.
I dont recall, for the life of me, what I had for my main but I did have another cocktail a raspberry mojito this time
Daniel was keen to go up to Edge to see if Abby was there, so he excused himself at that point and left the three of us to eat dessert (wow, it must be love if my boy is passing up dessert for a girl!)
Sian and Gary both had of course crème brulee! I believe it was raspberry.
And I had cheesecake.
It was light and fluffy and creamy and very, very nice. A perfect end to a delicious lunch. We will definitely make sure we have lunch in one of the dining rooms again on a future cruise.
Daniel had phoned to say that Abby wasnt at Edge so he wanted Sian to meet him at the pool and go swimming. Gary and I decided to take advantage and spend some time at the adult only pool. It was beautiful up on Deck 13 and we had a wonderful hour lying in the sun. I suddenly remembered that the Cabin Crawl had been scheduled for this afternoon and had a horrible thought that we may have missed the start. I was so relaxed and enjoying the peace and quiet, I couldnt be bothered to get dressed and go down so I sent Char a message to say we werent going to make it. I knew she would understand since she knew how desperate I had been to get some down time and plans sometimes change. A little while later I spotted Wendy over the other side of the falls doing some knitting. When we spoke to her later, she admitted that she and Rich had forgotten all about the crawl too.
We were getting quite warm so decided we would go and find the kids and perhaps try to ride the Aquaduck. I told Gary I was going to use the bathroom first and off I went. I should have put my shoes on as the deck was absolutely boiling and I ended up burning the soles of my feet. It hurt so bad and, when Gary came inside a few minutes later, I was sitting on the steps inside crying. It feels so silly now, looking back, but I was in agony. My knight in shining armour (well, swim shorts) went to fetch my shoes and put on his own, having realised how hot the floor was himself. After we used the bathroom separately, I hasten to add we went back to grab our stuff and go to find the kids. We had mentioned to Wendy and Rich that there was a movie quiz (Famous Movie Quotes) on in OGills later and they quite fancied it, so we had arranged to meet there.
On the way down to Deck 11, I spotted a lady walking away from Luigis Pizza with none other than a Mickey pretzel.
Despite the fact that we had not long ago eaten a 3-course lunch, I just had to get one *hangs head in shame*
I ate less than half of it but it was lovely. Dont judge me, Im on vacation
After another half hour or so of sitting in the sun, Sian and I decided to go and do a little shopping. As we were walking through the ship, we spotted Minnie in her Halloween outfit. There was a short line so we joined it. I had to laugh at the little madam in front of us, who was whining and whining about wanting a drink. Her Mum kept telling her that she couldnt have one but eventually gave in and popped over to the Vista Café and came back with a cup of water for the little girl. She handed it to her, telling her Here, but you can hold it, Im not holding it for you. Of course, just seconds later, the girl no longer wants the drink and hands it to the Mum who takes it and holds on to it
Soon it was our turn to meet Minnie. She was perfectly charming and we did lots of hugging and kissing.
We spent an absolute fortune in the shops and Sian blew the last of her onboard credit on a lovely DCL bead for her Pandora bracelet.
After dropping our shopping back at the room, we set off to meet the others in OGills.
Wendy and Rich bought a round of drinks and then the quiz began. Wow! I was completely impressed with Richs movie knowledge. He totally put the rest of us to shame, I was glad he was on our team - or should I say I was glad that we were on his team
We were Team Tipsy and we managed to achieve 2nd place (well done Rich) with an impressive 75 points (just one point behind the winning team). We all got a DCL keyring for our troubles.
After the quiz, we went our separate ways as it was time to get ready for dinner and semi-formal night.
Today was another (well-deserved) at-sea day and, my goodness, did we need it. We all slept in a bit and, by the time we had surfaced, it was mid morning. After a brief discussion, we decided we would have lunch in one of the dining rooms today (something we had never managed before, despite this being our fourth Disney cruise).
Sian and I went on the hunt for the Port Adventures manager (having missed another couple of calls from him the night before) while Daniel and Gary went to swim. We eventually found the manager and were able to come to an acceptable agreement over the action to be taken over the kids disappointing dolphin encounter. The manager had spoken to staff at Dolphin Discovery, who had acknowledged that, yes, the encounter had been somewhat hurried and Daniel had missed some parts of his experience. With that in mind, he (somewhat begrudgingly, it seemed) agreed to reduce the cost of Daniels encounter to the cost of an observer (or non-swimmer). Unfortunately, the manager refused to acknowledge or accept that no towels had been provided and insisted that they were readily available at the port for people to help themselves. Since Sian was only able to say that she hadnt seen them (and, unfortunately, hadnt asked anyone so couldnt state categorically that they WERE there), we had to accept that maybe this was an error on her part. I repeated my concern that all of our port adventures had been rushed and reiterated that I hoped they would try to improve things for the future but I honestly dont imagine that anything will change.
Having at least got the issues off our chests, Sian and I went down to Royal Court, where we were meeting Gary and Daniel for lunch. We were seated straight away as it was still early. I think this was definitely my favourite restaurant. I particularly loved the murals on the walls.
It felt so refined and a little decadent to be having a sit-down lunch and it was nice to have some time together as a family. We spent some time talking about our favourite parts of the trip so far and, although, we were a little sad at the prospect of getting off the ship in a couple of days, we were all looking forward to spending some time at Universal with Wendy and Rich.
We were brought some water and bread, and our server took our food and drinks orders. I ordered a cocktail (how naughty at lunch!), Gary had diet coke and the kids both had smoothies.
I honestly cant remember what the cocktail was, which is a shame as it was very nice indeed, fruity and refreshing. Daniel and Sian loved their smoothies too.
For appetiser, Daniel and I both chose the calamari. Sian and Gary both had the raspberry soup.
The calamari was absolutely delicious, with a very light breading. It was cooked perfectly and not at all chewy.
I tasted Sians soup and it was also lovely. It tasted just like melted ice-cream but much more creamy.
For main, Daniel had some kind of pasta (cannelloni maybe?). It was from the kids menu so the portion was quite small but it was the perfect size for lunch.
Sian chose the burger. She said it was REALLY good. I have a feeling Gary had the burger too.
I dont recall, for the life of me, what I had for my main but I did have another cocktail a raspberry mojito this time
Daniel was keen to go up to Edge to see if Abby was there, so he excused himself at that point and left the three of us to eat dessert (wow, it must be love if my boy is passing up dessert for a girl!)
Sian and Gary both had of course crème brulee! I believe it was raspberry.
And I had cheesecake.
It was light and fluffy and creamy and very, very nice. A perfect end to a delicious lunch. We will definitely make sure we have lunch in one of the dining rooms again on a future cruise.
Daniel had phoned to say that Abby wasnt at Edge so he wanted Sian to meet him at the pool and go swimming. Gary and I decided to take advantage and spend some time at the adult only pool. It was beautiful up on Deck 13 and we had a wonderful hour lying in the sun. I suddenly remembered that the Cabin Crawl had been scheduled for this afternoon and had a horrible thought that we may have missed the start. I was so relaxed and enjoying the peace and quiet, I couldnt be bothered to get dressed and go down so I sent Char a message to say we werent going to make it. I knew she would understand since she knew how desperate I had been to get some down time and plans sometimes change. A little while later I spotted Wendy over the other side of the falls doing some knitting. When we spoke to her later, she admitted that she and Rich had forgotten all about the crawl too.
We were getting quite warm so decided we would go and find the kids and perhaps try to ride the Aquaduck. I told Gary I was going to use the bathroom first and off I went. I should have put my shoes on as the deck was absolutely boiling and I ended up burning the soles of my feet. It hurt so bad and, when Gary came inside a few minutes later, I was sitting on the steps inside crying. It feels so silly now, looking back, but I was in agony. My knight in shining armour (well, swim shorts) went to fetch my shoes and put on his own, having realised how hot the floor was himself. After we used the bathroom separately, I hasten to add we went back to grab our stuff and go to find the kids. We had mentioned to Wendy and Rich that there was a movie quiz (Famous Movie Quotes) on in OGills later and they quite fancied it, so we had arranged to meet there.
On the way down to Deck 11, I spotted a lady walking away from Luigis Pizza with none other than a Mickey pretzel.
Despite the fact that we had not long ago eaten a 3-course lunch, I just had to get one *hangs head in shame*
I ate less than half of it but it was lovely. Dont judge me, Im on vacation
After another half hour or so of sitting in the sun, Sian and I decided to go and do a little shopping. As we were walking through the ship, we spotted Minnie in her Halloween outfit. There was a short line so we joined it. I had to laugh at the little madam in front of us, who was whining and whining about wanting a drink. Her Mum kept telling her that she couldnt have one but eventually gave in and popped over to the Vista Café and came back with a cup of water for the little girl. She handed it to her, telling her Here, but you can hold it, Im not holding it for you. Of course, just seconds later, the girl no longer wants the drink and hands it to the Mum who takes it and holds on to it
Soon it was our turn to meet Minnie. She was perfectly charming and we did lots of hugging and kissing.
We spent an absolute fortune in the shops and Sian blew the last of her onboard credit on a lovely DCL bead for her Pandora bracelet.
After dropping our shopping back at the room, we set off to meet the others in OGills.
Wendy and Rich bought a round of drinks and then the quiz began. Wow! I was completely impressed with Richs movie knowledge. He totally put the rest of us to shame, I was glad he was on our team - or should I say I was glad that we were on his team
We were Team Tipsy and we managed to achieve 2nd place (well done Rich) with an impressive 75 points (just one point behind the winning team). We all got a DCL keyring for our troubles.After the quiz, we went our separate ways as it was time to get ready for dinner and semi-formal night.
Did you treat yourself to anything nice in the shops ? 
