Get Off The Ship - we are running out of towel animals! Update 10/25 Day 31

[Linda67]

Great FE gifts
People are just so creative. On our Alaska cruise there was one family that left us a gift every day and we were blown away at how wonderful each gift was and how much effort had gone into them
I'm sadly not that crafty!

 

[KatMark]

I'm behind yet again.

Love all the FE gifts.

Beautiful sunrise pictures.

You made me hungry...again!

 

[jenseib]

You got some great FE gifts. I was impressed on my last cruise with some of the gifts we got too. Each time we have gotten nice stuff, but it seemed this last cruise we really got some good usable stuff! And we got a ton of stuff too!!!!

 

[scottny]

Silly question. If you cannot sleep can you just walk around the ship and take pics or do they close down areas at night? I know bars and restaurants close but I mean decks.
Love the palm tree glass. Did you keep it? Senor Frogs was very different in Aruba. I did not go in but I can tell it was different and it was always PACKED.
The jalapeno chips sounds good and so does the drink of the day.
All caught up.

 

[melissajx3]

Loving your trip report! Back to back on the Fantasy would be amazing! Also, where did you find the design for the stitch door magnet or did you make it yourself?

 

[dizneeat]

Cool FE gifts!!!

We got so many great gifts on that cruise! Very generous!

Beautiful pictures from sail away.

I love those shot glasses. How cute!

Watching the ship dock and sail away is a great experience, we really love to watch it.
We got so many awesome gifts - we would empty out the FE and ooh and aah over our gifts and the next time we walked past the FE it would be filled with more beautiful things.

Could not actually see us, but we were part of the late comers coming back to the ship. Thank Goodness we were on a Disney sponsored excursion. There were probably 8 busses of us and we all got back late from the Mayan ruin excursion.

We joked that all those people must have been on a Disney excursion, otherwise the ship might have sailed out!
Oh, I forgot about the Mayan ruin excursion. Some of our friends had booked that as well.

The FE gifts look great!!! Wondering what was for supper ??????

Great gifts all around on that cruise! We really loved them all. I guess we went home with more than we had brought.

Dinner coming up shortly.

 

[dizneeat]

Great FE gifts
People are just so creative. On our Alaska cruise there was one family that left us a gift every day and we were blown away at how wonderful each gift was and how much effort had gone into them
I'm sadly not that crafty!

Agree with you completely, Linda!
Some people had put so much thought and effort into their gifts, made me feel bad for the gifts we gave. Ours were small, practical, some sweets and some Austria related.
Tom does an awesome job turning our ideas into actual gifts.

I'm behind yet again.

Love all the FE gifts.

Beautiful sunrise pictures.

You made me hungry...again!

Falling behind ...... happens to me all the time, Kathy.

Sorry for making you hungry again - be warned though - more food coming up.

You got some great FE gifts. I was impressed on my last cruise with some of the gifts we got too. Each time we have gotten nice stuff, but it seemed this last cruise we really got some good usable stuff! And we got a ton of stuff too!!!!

We were so impressed with the gifts we got on this cruise, Jen. Don't get me wrong, we got nice gifts on both cruises, but these were over the top. Some people handed out daily and their gifts got more awesome as time went by.

Silly question. If you cannot sleep can you just walk around the ship and take pics or do they close down areas at night? I know bars and restaurants close but I mean decks.
Love the palm tree glass. Did you keep it? Senor Frogs was very different in Aruba. I did not go in but I can tell it was different and it was always PACKED.
The jalapeno chips sounds good and so does the drink of the day.
All caught up.

Yes, you can walk around the ship at night. I think they close all the bars and stuff, but the general areas are open.
No, we did not keep the "glass" - it was a plastic container and as much as I love souvenirs, there is only so much we can take home with being limited to one suitase each.
The Jalapeno chips were really yummy, but they were HOT too! You would not realize it at first, but once you had eaten a few, you really could feel the heat.

Loving your trip report! Back to back on the Fantasy would be amazing! Also, where did you find the design for the stitch door magnet or did you make it yourself?

Great! I am happy to hear that you enjoy our vacation.
Back to back is awesome! We are doing the same next summer and I cannot wait to go on a Fantasy b2b, even though we have a 12 night Med cruise and a 7 night Western Caribbean (both on the Magic) coming up.

Tom designed all the magnets for the door. He is pretty good at it and has really fun ideas.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 14, August 20

A once in a lifetime experience – Costa Maya - Part 6

Neither of us was very hungry after all the snacking and the lunch we had had, but we wanted to try and see what was for dinner that day.
So we headed to the Royal Palace.
We quickly found our table and our assistant server brought our Diet Cokes and some



Fig and Date Ciabatta Rolls and some



Mint Yogurt Dip, which none of us really cared about. Today it was the Prince and Princess menu and we ordered our starters, which were soon brought out. Tom ordered the



Princess Madeleine’s Salmon Royal, marinated slices of salmon, served with honey mustard sauce. It reminded me a lot of the salmon I had had for lunch and it indeed was the same. Our server had recommended the



Belle’s Blue Cheese Polenta Cakes, with caramelized onions and walnuts and since I like blue cheese I went with his recommendation. And he was right, it was really nice.
As my next course I had chosen the



Radicchio and Endive Caesar Salad with Ciabatta croutons and garlic and was pleasantly surprised as I had had my doubts because both salads are usually rather bitter. Tom had ordered the



Saffron Mussel soup, with mussels and clams and a hint of fresh pepper courtesy of our dining room server.
I have to admit that I was somewhat full already but we had ordered a main course and it was about to come out. This time Tom had gone for the



Oven Roasted Tom Turkey Breast, with green beans, sweet mashed potatoes, Rosemary stuffing, giblet gravy and cranberry relish, that I had tried on the first one of our Fantasy cruises. My choice for the day was the



Rosemary-scented Medallions of Lamb, with grilled Red Peppers, Yellow Squash and Zucchini on a Polenta Cake with Lamb Jus. Both were really nice dishes and generous portions and we both could not finish it. Tom was determined not to order dessert and ordered “Nothing” but a cup of coffee, while there was something on the menu I could not resist ordering,



Princess Jasmine’s Banana Bread Pudding. Brioche Bread Pudding, Caramel Sauce and toasted Macadamia Nuts were something that needed to be tasted. Tom got his coffee right away



but the desserts took a little longer than usual to come out. When they came out, we knew why. Tom got a plate that actually spelled out “Nothing”



and we all had a good laugh about it. I received the bread pudding and it was to die for. I had a hard time finishing it, but I did. At around 10pm we rolled back to our stateroom where a fun towel dinosaur



was waiting for us. We rested for a little while as we still had one more thing to go to that day. At quarter to 11 we had another tasting. Today it was a Whiskey tasting. Shortly before it was about to begin we headed upstairs to Meridian, found two seats at a nice table with another couple and waited for the tasting to start.





The girl holding the tasting was very knowledgeable and very nice, but you could tell that some of the people enjoying the tasting had had more than one drink that day and it turned out to be real funny. So after tasting all the different kinds of Whiskey we were happy that we did not have to go far to reach our stateroom. We were both so tired and literally fell into bed.

To be continued ............ ​

 

[MEK]

When they came out, we knew why. Tom got a plate that actually spelled out “Nothing”



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OK That's funny!

The rest of your meal looks wonderful! I just have to ask - Did Tom lick the plate? ​

 

[KatMark]

That is a hoot!

Luckily I had finished dinner before I read your latest update so I wasn't hungry.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Too bad Costa Maya was a little underwhelming, but you two always manage to have a nice day, anyway! Dinner looks wonderful! I guess Tom's dessert wasn't too filling!

 

[Linda67]

Great update!
I'm not a fan of Whisky so have never tried that session but Meridian is such a lovely location for an after dinner drink

 

[franandaj]

I've been remiss in posting on your TR! Costa Maya always sounded like such an exciting and exotic part, but not so much from your description! Glad you found a way to make servers stop pressuring you for shots.

Nothing for dessert was really cute!

 

[JKSWonder]

We did the whiskey tasting. It consisted of me taking the tiniest sip, pulling a face, handing my glass to Mike who then drank his and mine. No idea how he was able to walk after!

 

[dizneeat]

I'll need to do replies later.
Just wanted to let you all know that we will be gone for the weekend ..........







is calling our names.
We will leave here in the early morning tomorrow and arrive before noon, so I guess this



will be lunch tomorrow.

Going to have a similar apartment





with a view like this




Can't wait for some rest and relaxation, we'll do some walks





along the beach and have lots of















this yummy stuff!

If the weather stays dry (they DO predict some rain) we might even pop over to













and no visit to Venice would be complete without







wait for it .......





wait for it ..........









just a little longer ..........











a visit to the Disney store!!! Now, what did YOU think?

There will be some shopping to be done, so we can stock up on yummy Italian food items to keep the holiday spirit alive once we return home.



I don't know if we will be able to have internet - if so, I will give you a few updates, but if we don't, I'll see ya all again on Sunday night and stay tuned for yet another European TR. ​

 

[RGirl]

Hi Karin! Catching up over here too…..

Ahh - another Royal Court lunch - love those!!!

What awesome pictures you got of Dumbo on the ship!

Your pics of Costa Maya are beautiful - fun to see since we didn’t get off the ship! Too bad everything interesting was closed. And Senor Frog’s does NOT sound fun.

Your dinner looks great - too bad you were too full to really enjoy it. Common problem on DCL, right?!

I have just GOT to make the time to do at least one tasting the next time we sail. They always look and sound so fun. I always forget about signing up for one on the first day.

When are you doing your 2015 summer vacation? I can’t see the bottom of your ticker. I’m curious whether we will be there at the same time again.

 

[perfectmatch300]

Karin, I hope you and Tom have a great time in Italy!


Don't worry about us, we will be fine for a few days. We will be right here waiting for you when you get back.

 

[JulieODC]

Have a fabulous trip to Italy!!

Your meal actually looked quite delicious! The blue cheese polenta looked yum! Reminds me of something at last year's F&W festival at Epcot actually...

And a whiskey tasting right before bed sounds fun -- and like the perfect recipe for a good night's sleep!

 

[Linda67]

Have a wonderful trip to Italy!

 

[annmarieda]

I have been trying to get caught back up on dis and opened your report to see you had an update. THEN I realized you had an update with food pics. I had to close it. I had yet to have dinner... it would have been torture.

I ate my dinner (which ended up on only filling me but completely got rid of my appetite because it was HORRID food - we ordered a pizza with ground beef on it and I got an oversized chunk of meat on it that was completely raw and mooshy. ) Now I was able to get through your update without feeling hungry.

Although... that bread pudding actually still might tempt me if it were here. YUM!!

And as for Tom getting NOTHING...