If You See It: Eat It! Via Panama to Disneyland - Completed and Link to New Trip Report 2/24

[Flossbolna]

Awesome

-em

Hi Emily!

Looks good!

Here we have the first really cool days that let you know that summer is over an I would love to sit on a ship in the warm weather having that breakfast...

If I got this on cable I'd probably watch it!

You can be a fan of Jimmy all you want...I'm a fan of Ashley.

She was great! I am also a fan of Ashley - but maybe for totally different reasons than you!

I grew up on that stuff! Judy buys Redi-whip though, which is real cream. I have no idea what Cool Whip is made out of, probably petroleum (just kidding), but I still love it.

I think cool-whip seems to be fluffed up and sweetened margarine. We all have bad taste in some aspects...

I've read about when he changed water into wine, but this is a new one for me.

It has a very obvious explanation...

 

[Flossbolna]

I really should not read your report right before lunch. Yum. Everything looked great!

Thanks for posting the menu. I enjoy reading them.

We plan a Panama cruise in, oh about five years. I have to retire first since they always happen during the our spring and fall semesters. Oh well, something to look forward to after retirement.

I know what you mean - I cannot write my own updates when I am hungry either!

I do value being able to take vacation any time during the year (unfortunately not all year). There are so many jobs where people are restricted to certain times. But I am sure you will enjoy the Panama Canal cruise once you are retired - you will never be able to feel so young in comparison on a Disney ship again!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Most people seem to be very happy with the way they are treated, but I remember Corinna (dolphingirl47) mentioning that her allergy was not always taken into account, but then I think it was just one thing that she could not eat and I think she did not do the whole ordering the night before thing as her thing could usually be easily avoided.

I was close to murdering our server on the night on which the Parrot Cay rotational menu was served. I have a very unusual allergy as I am allergic to bananas. Usually this is pretty easily avoided as I do not have a sweet tooth and this is something I usually encounter in desserts. I had one cruise on the Magic in 2012 where we did the whole ordering the night before thing, but the irony was that I pre-ordered the appetizer, soup/ salad and entree, but not the dessert, which is the potentially most dangerous for me. For the first cruises I did not even let them know, but before our Hawaii cruise and after doing some research on Hawaiian cuisine, I thought I better had let them know as they were advertising that they would offer some traditional Hawaiian cuisine on some nights. My first experience was not magical as shoreside had not passed the information to the ship and I raised this with our server on the first night. Our agreement was that he would give me a heads up if something was not safe for me. This worked really well. I am lucky that cross-contamination is not an issue. For me to get an reaction, I either have to touch the flesh of a banana and then touch my lips or actually ingest some banana. So for a number a cruises we got away swimmingly with me giving the server a quiet heads up and they equally as quietly warned me if there was a potential issue. Fast forward to the last cruise. There are two menus that are potentially dangerous for me that are served on the longer cruises: The Taste of the Caribbean menu and the rotational menu at Parrot Cay. I got through The Taste of the Caribbean menu without a hitch and was not worried about the Parrot Cay menu as I have had it so often and know what is safe for me - or so I thought. My go to appetizer suddenly had fried plantains with it, which was not on the menu. When I pointed this out to our server, he took this back and got me a new plate minus the plantains. I was not too worried. Everybody can drop the ball once in a while and there was no harm done. I declined dessert, but he was not going to take no for an answer and brought me a dessert anyway ... some kind of banana cream pie. That was the point where I wanted to commit murder. After he realised what he had done, he was very apologetic and for the rest of the cruise he was extremely careful, but I did wonder what would have happened if I was allergic to something less obvious.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

You had a very busy day. I have never made it to the morning show even though they have offered this on a couple of cruises that I have been on. It sounds like fun and maybe I should check this out when it is on offer again.

I was so happy for you when you won a prize at the DVC Member celebration especially after you told me beforehand that you never win anything. It also gave me a certain amount of satisfaction after they completely failed to acknowledge that there may be members present from outside the USA, three people from abroad won something.

I was not aware that they had a different lunch menu at Triton's every day. Normally they just have three menus that they rotate. We only ended up there twice during the cruise.

Corinna

 

[annichan]

Hi Magdalene,

wow, I finally thought to check in here again whether you had updated, and now I'm so glad to have caught all your new updates before I am off on the Transatlantic and first Southern Caribbean! We are flying out to Barcelona in less than two days' time and I am in the middle of frantic packing and last-minute planning, but still wanted to send some comments quickly:

As part of the show we were introduced to our Cruise Director: Jimmy!! Yes, you will hear more about him as the cruise goes on. I found him very entertaining and there were nasty people onboard who kept teasing me about being the biggest Jimmy fan. I can tell you that this totally untrue and unfounded!

Ooh, you also had Jimmy and Captain Fabian together, just like we did on our WPBC last year. I love them!! (Plus, Capt. Fabian is definitely the most handsome of the Captains )
Can't wait to hear whether they did a cooking contest against each other again! Or if the Captain, ahem, starred in the Crew Talent Show ...

First I encountered the “foggy lense syndrome”

Boy, did we encounter that! And Panama Canal morning was the worst ...

And this is from the gift shop:

I am pretty sure the cats are not for sale!!

So cuuute! I love how they let the cats roam the place anyway they want!

Yes, there were six toed cats. There were quite a few other visitors who were constantly counting toes and taking pictures of cat feet!

Yep. Able to confirm that.

With the talk with the hotel director out of the way, we headed to Parrot Cay for the dinner where we were led to our new table 14! Just for the two of us! I think this was the point on the cruise when we started to really relax. We had our own table now and we felt confident that the room situation would get resolved.

Great, I am so glad to hear that you managed to get your own private table at last, especially considering the circumstances you are describing a bit further down!
I have heard that a few times, about DCL not being able to accommodate all your requests in case you make more than one. That is why, even though I have been tempted to do so, I never request a specific serving team. I just don't want to jeopardize the table for two

With my drink I had the first event of the day to go to: The Cruise Director’s Morning Show!

Hah, you went there! I only ever watched it on TV, lazy me. But if they have it on this upcoming WBTA, I fully intend to make it there at least once or twice!

Next we headed to the Port Adventures Desk to see if Lisa was working there. And there she was. She was really surprised to meet someone from Germany who was seeking her out as “THE” German cast member. We chatted with her a little. She was from Hamburg and had been working on the Wonder for 3 years now.

Wow, there was a fellow Hamburger at the Port Adventures desk and we never went there so never found there! Tsk tsk, that's what you miss out on when booking everything online in advance


Anyway, like I said I will be off on my B2B soon, but am looking forward to new updates when we return!

 

[jedijill]

Hi Magdalene,

wow, I finally thought to check in here again whether you had updated, and now I'm so glad to have caught all your new updates before I am off on the Transatlantic and first Southern Caribbean! We are flying out to Barcelona in less than two days' time and I am in the middle of frantic packing and last-minute planning, but still wanted to send some comments quickly:



Anyway, like I said I will be off on my B2B soon, but am looking forward to new updates when we return!

Hi Annichan! I'll be on the first Southern cruise. I hope I run into you onboard! Enjoy the TA.

Jill in CO

 

[annichan]

Hi Annichan! I'll be on the first Southern cruise. I hope I run into you onboard! Enjoy the TA.

Jill in CO

Hi Jill,

cool! If you recognize me onboard, do say hi!

Annika

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

we were led to our new table 14! Just for the two of us! I think this was the point on the cruise when we started to really relax. We had our own table now and we felt confident that the room situation would get resolved.

Yay! Vacation can now begin.

This was really good! I am not a huge fan of rib eye steak as I don’t like the “eye”. I knew that when I ordered it, so I just left over the pieces that I did not like. But the rest of the meat was good, the sides were very good, too!

I love ribeyes, so just give me the parts you don't want. Except for the gristle.

This was ok, but I would have liked more pineapple to go with it, it was a bit dry.

More pineapple would never be a bad thing.

BBB has some lovely outdoor seating all the way in the back of the ship. I loved sitting out there eating breakfast.

I remember really enjoying eating outdoors on the back of the ship at breakfast as well.

Since there was someone sleeping in my cabin who would not have appreciated if I had switched on the TV in the cabin, I had to go to Studio Sea.

And then you could make funny faces at the TV camera for him to enjoy when he woke up.

Somehow they kept coming around with the mimosas during the whole show and I ended up having three! Yes, I was very happy after that event and not only because I had won something.

NOW we understand why the event is popular.

Nxt we headed to the Port Adventures Desk to see if Lisa was working there. And there she was. She was really surprised to meet someone from Germany who was seeking her out as “THE” German cast member. We chatted with her a little. She was from Hamburg and had been working on the Wonder for 3 years now.

Glad you found her!

I do have the suspicion that this was the stuff that fascinated me so much last year when I visited the supermarket: Cool Whip.

Looks like you're becoming less fascinated with it.

Up Next: Martinis with Jesus

 

[Flossbolna]

I was close to murdering our server on the night on which the Parrot Cay rotational menu was served. I have a very unusual allergy as I am allergic to bananas. Usually this is pretty easily avoided as I do not have a sweet tooth and this is something I usually encounter in desserts. I had one cruise on the Magic in 2012 where we did the whole ordering the night before thing, but the irony was that I pre-ordered the appetizer, soup/ salad and entree, but not the dessert, which is the potentially most dangerous for me. For the first cruises I did not even let them know, but before our Hawaii cruise and after doing some research on Hawaiian cuisine, I thought I better had let them know as they were advertising that they would offer some traditional Hawaiian cuisine on some nights. My first experience was not magical as shoreside had not passed the information to the ship and I raised this with our server on the first night. Our agreement was that he would give me a heads up if something was not safe for me. This worked really well. I am lucky that cross-contamination is not an issue. For me to get an reaction, I either have to touch the flesh of a banana and then touch my lips or actually ingest some banana. So for a number a cruises we got away swimmingly with me giving the server a quiet heads up and they equally as quietly warned me if there was a potential issue. Fast forward to the last cruise. There are two menus that are potentially dangerous for me that are served on the longer cruises: The Taste of the Caribbean menu and the rotational menu at Parrot Cay. I got through The Taste of the Caribbean menu without a hitch and was not worried about the Parrot Cay menu as I have had it so often and know what is safe for me - or so I thought. My go to appetizer suddenly had fried plantains with it, which was not on the menu. When I pointed this out to our server, he took this back and got me a new plate minus the plantains. I was not too worried. Everybody can drop the ball once in a while and there was no harm done. I declined dessert, but he was not going to take no for an answer and brought me a dessert anyway ... some kind of banana cream pie. That was the point where I wanted to commit murder. After he realised what he had done, he was very apologetic and for the rest of the cruise he was extremely careful, but I did wonder what would have happened if I was allergic to something less obvious.

Corinna

This is really odd that they could get something like that so wrong! Maybe it is because you were an "unofficial" allergy?

Somehow, I think bananas are not as unusual an allergy as you think. I have read from a few DISers who had banana problems.

You had a very busy day. I have never made it to the morning show even though they have offered this on a couple of cruises that I have been on. It sounds like fun and maybe I should check this out when it is on offer again.

I think you would like it - especially if Jimmy is the morning show host! And even if you don't make it there in the morning, it is nice to put on the TV as a background noise. They highlight all the upcoming events and that is always good information to get.

I was so happy for you when you won a prize at the DVC Member celebration especially after you told me beforehand that you never win anything. It also gave me a certain amount of satisfaction after they completely failed to acknowledge that there may be members present from outside the USA, three people from abroad won something.

I don't remember telling you that I never win anything, but it is true! This cruise was a real exception in that regard...

And I remember you mentioning in your TR how you were annoyed that they failed to mention any DVC members from outside the US. I remember being surprised as well when they went through were people were from and never asked whether there was anyone outside the US. I think there would have been quite a few!

I was not aware that they had a different lunch menu at Triton's every day. Normally they just have three menus that they rotate. We only ended up there twice during the cruise.

Corinna

I am pretty sure it was different every day. Maybe that's new? When we did the galley tour, they had the lunch menus for the whole cruise all up on a wall and I looked at them and they seemed to be all different. We ate there quite a bit and often checked what they had on days when we did not eat there and I never saw a repetition.

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Magdalene,

wow, I finally thought to check in here again whether you had updated, and now I'm so glad to have caught all your new updates before I am off on the Transatlantic and first Southern Caribbean! We are flying out to Barcelona in less than two days' time and I am in the middle of frantic packing and last-minute planning, but still wanted to send some comments quickly:

I know all about fluffing around on the DIS instead of packing... But thanks for the comments, I love to hear from my readers!

Ooh, you also had Jimmy and Captain Fabian together, just like we did on our WPBC last year. I love them!! (Plus, Capt. Fabian is definitely the most handsome of the Captains )
Can't wait to hear whether they did a cooking contest against each other again! Or if the Captain, ahem, starred in the Crew Talent Show ...

I can only compare Captain Fabian to Captain Thord - and there he is certainly the more handsome one. I hope it is not too much of a spoiler that there was a cooking contest - but I did not attend. And with regard to the Crew Talent Show you will just have to wait...

Boy, did we encounter that! And Panama Canal morning was the worst ...

For us Panama Canal Day was not too bad with humidity actually. Also, I have a very small point and shoot camera and found out that if I put it into my pocket as soon as I left the room, it helped to warm it up enough to quickly get rid of the foggy lens.

So cuuute! I love how they let the cats roam the place anyway they want!

Yes, it was quite amazing. As if the cats own the place and we people are just visitors.

Yep. Able to confirm that.

I hope all the cat lovers will now be happy!

Great, I am so glad to hear that you managed to get your own private table at last, especially considering the circumstances you are describing a bit further down!
I have heard that a few times, about DCL not being able to accommodate all your requests in case you make more than one. That is why, even though I have been tempted to do so, I never request a specific serving team. I just don't want to jeopardize the table for two

I can relate to that now! The first cruise we had requested a specific rotation and a table for two and that had worked out, so I was maybe a bit too bold. But I also thought that with requesting a head waiter there would still be enough wiggle room for them to make it work.

Hah, you went there! I only ever watched it on TV, lazy me. But if they have it on this upcoming WBTA, I fully intend to make it there at least once or twice!

It's fun to go there. Even though I was not the most participating audience member and it does not really involve the audience that much. But if you watch it from your cabin, make sure to call in during the show! They were always so happy when that happened!

Wow, there was a fellow Hamburger at the Port Adventures desk and we never went there so never found there! Tsk tsk, that's what you miss out on when booking everything online in advance

I am not sure she was on the Wonder during the last WBPC, she mentioned something about the canal which made me think this was her first time going through.

And that is something I really learned this cruise: It is much more fun when you actually start talking to the cast members as you find out all kind of things.

Anyway, like I said I will be off on my B2B soon, but am looking forward to new updates when we return!

Have a magical cruise!! I wish I was on that ship as well!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi Annichan! I'll be on the first Southern cruise. I hope I run into you onboard! Enjoy the TA.

Jill in CO

Hi Jill,

cool! If you recognize me onboard, do say hi!

Annika

It would be cool if the two of you meet up with Cynthia as well and send me a picture of the three of you! To have three readers of my trip report on the same cruise seems such a fun coincidence!!

I hope you all have a fantastic cruise!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Yay! Vacation can now begin.

Exactly!!

I love ribeyes, so just give me the parts you don't want. Except for the gristle.

Oh, next time you are around when I order a ribeye, I will gladly share with you. I promise!

More pineapple would never be a bad thing.

That's true! Even though on this cruise, mango became a thing for us...

I remember really enjoying eating outdoors on the back of the ship at breakfast as well.

It is such a nice place!

And then you could make funny faces at the TV camera for him to enjoy when he woke up.

The good thing about going to that show was that the set up was rather simple, so there were no audience shots! You could only hear the large audience applauding very loudly!

NOW we understand why the event is popular.

Who says no to free mimosas?

Glad you found her!

We met her a few more times actually.

Looks like you're becoming less fascinated with it.

I am afraid so.

You will all be disappointed, but it was such an easy attention grabbing title!

 

[Poolrat]

I have to say, I found the whole "your floor is uneven" story a bit disconcerting. What was going on with that floor??? Considering that this floor is one of the barriers between me and the ocean, I want it to be as perfect as possible!

Yes I agree, this was no time to discover the floor has a problem...

I have no personal experience on this, but I have read about it a lot on the cruise board and observed it while on the ship. DCL has a great system for allergy dining. First, you can submit all your allergies beforehand to DCL. So the servers and the kitchen staff will be aware that they have a guest with special dietary needs. The process is that you will get the menus for the next night at the end of the dinner and you will be able to pick what you want to eat and they will prepare it in a way that is safe for you. Buffets are going to be more tricky, but the table service dining rooms will also prepare things just for you, I think there you can also order ahead the day before. I am not sure what your allergies are, but I seem to remember that there were a bunch of really unusual ones. So it seems like you really need special food being prepared for you. Most people seem to be very happy with the way they are treated, but I remember Corinna (dolphingirl47) mentioning that her allergy was not always taken into account, but then I think it was just one thing that she could not eat and I think she did not do the whole ordering the night before thing as her thing could usually be easily avoided. For you it really sounds like they need to make something special for you or seriously adjust their recipes.

That makes me feel better. I do have a long list ( that keeps getting longer) and quite a few items that are strange. Like Pomegranate. Which I see a lot now. The soy is a rough one too. Mustard is usually the culprit in dressings as well as soy. Then the vegetables...

I am happy if I can amuse people! But you will be disappointed that I don't really use horribly bad words in German. And isn't your mother German? She never used some bad language that you could have picked up? I find that even if I am totally immersed in an English speaking environment, that's where I would still use German as it just comes more naturally.

My mother used bad language in English... If she did do it in German it must have been when I was little and didn't know or don't remember the words.
My Dad being Bolivian and my Mom being German you would think they would go all "Ricky Ricardo" and spout off in their native language once in a while. They were very much, very "Pro English" and unless they were speaking to their relatives, only spoke English.

True, a ship ON land is never a good thing, unless it is a scheduled dry dock of course.

When that happens the ending usually isn't very happy.

Exactly. That is one of the reasons why I so enjoy cruising. I just love to watch the water. And to me there is a difference in watching water from a moving ship and sitting stationary on a beach. The first is far more entertaining. Don't ask why though!!

On the ship you are moving, even if you are not doing the driving.
Gives the illusion of doing something, as opposed to being still on the beach.

That's cruising! They do have mimosas on the menu for the breakfast in the dining rooms, too. There they are not free, but for 3,95 still a pretty good deal! I hope to convince my sister to have a mimosa breakfast with me one day of our Norway cruise next year!

That is a pretty good deal...

I was close to murdering our server on the night on which the Parrot Cay rotational menu was served. I have a very unusual allergy as I am allergic to bananas. Usually this is pretty easily avoided as I do not have a sweet tooth and this is something I usually encounter in desserts. I had one cruise on the Magic in 2012 where we did the whole ordering the night before thing, but the irony was that I pre-ordered the appetizer, soup/ salad and entree, but not the dessert, which is the potentially most dangerous for me. For the first cruises I did not even let them know, but before our Hawaii cruise and after doing some research on Hawaiian cuisine, I thought I better had let them know as they were advertising that they would offer some traditional Hawaiian cuisine on some nights. My first experience was not magical as shoreside had not passed the information to the ship and I raised this with our server on the first night. Our agreement was that he would give me a heads up if something was not safe for me. This worked really well. I am lucky that cross-contamination is not an issue. For me to get an reaction, I either have to touch the flesh of a banana and then touch my lips or actually ingest some banana. So for a number a cruises we got away swimmingly with me giving the server a quiet heads up and they equally as quietly warned me if there was a potential issue. Fast forward to the last cruise. There are two menus that are potentially dangerous for me that are served on the longer cruises: The Taste of the Caribbean menu and the rotational menu at Parrot Cay. I got through The Taste of the Caribbean menu without a hitch and was not worried about the Parrot Cay menu as I have had it so often and know what is safe for me - or so I thought. My go to appetizer suddenly had fried plantains with it, which was not on the menu. When I pointed this out to our server, he took this back and got me a new plate minus the plantains. I was not too worried. Everybody can drop the ball once in a while and there was no harm done. I declined dessert, but he was not going to take no for an answer and brought me a dessert anyway ... some kind of banana cream pie. That was the point where I wanted to commit murder. After he realised what he had done, he was very apologetic and for the rest of the cruise he was extremely careful, but I did wonder what would have happened if I was allergic to something less obvious.

Corinna

I always feel like I am a PITA when I have the list. Most Chefs at Disney have been great and sometimes I have to convince then I can actually eat small amounts of something , I just need to know it is in there.

I made a card with all the offenders on it and labeled them red, yellow and green.
Red is no, yellow is sometimes but rarely and need to watch it and the green are the ones that I tested positive to but really continue to eat in moderation with no ill effects but if I am having reactions or just need to "clean out" I will eliminate all the allergens those included.

I like submitting it early and it being shared easily. I can probably pre-order and be good.

Thanks for all the advice to the procedure and what to expect should I go on a cruise.

 

[Flossbolna]

Our 2pm event was actually a DISboards event. I was not so sure about those cruise meet threads, but our cruise had one going that was fairly active and had not all conversation transferred over to facebook (for my next cruise the thread only consisits of posts on how to sign into the facebook group). Since I am not on facebook, I was happy to see some activity here on the DIS and got to chat a little with the people. At the very last moment I decided to sign us up for one of the tastings that were planned and I chose the Martini tasting.

It took place in the Cadillac Lounge and there were already drinks set up on the tables, so I started taking pictures of the drinks:

But then, more drinks were added and we had to do more documenting of the event:

Our “martini professor” was Jesus. That was his name. You can see him here standing at the end of the long row of cocktail glasses:

He was very entertaining and told us all about martinis, what they are, how they are made etc. We got to taste a nice variety made with different spirits. I loved the blue one and one which was called Cable Car that had lemon and cognac in it. But I liked all of them at least to some degree. Michael was not so fond of two of them (the real martini and one with whisky in it) and so I ended up with bonus drinks! Yummy!

I left the martini tasting in a very good mood and we saw that the weather was now beautiful. It had been rather overcast in the morning and at 12 o’clock the Captain made his announcement as every day telling us where the ship was and how the weather was going to be. He said something about the weather going to improve in the afternoon and he was just right! Those noon announcements were rather nice as they also played the horn then. The DCL ships have very magical horns and it is fun to hear them!

We were happy and the sun was shining, so it was a good time to head to the pool! It was rather busy there when we got there, but it started to clear quite a bit around 4pm when people started to get ready for dinner. This worked very well for us!

While sitting in the hot tub we started chatting with two ladies. They were about our age (a bit younger) and were two friends (they knew each other since middle school) travelling together. We really enjoyed talking to them and ended up seeing a lot of them during our daily pool time. For a long time we just called them our “hot tub friends”, but later we found out their names. This was one of the things I really liked about the longer cruise. We did end up making some acquaintances that we would meet again and again and it was nice chatting with them. With our hot tub friends we are still in touch.

After some time it was time to get ready for the evening and when we returned to our cabin we found this:

A bottle of wine with a nice card from Guest Services saying sorry for our inconvenience.

Today was formal night, but we did our usual routine of me taking a shower before the show and then heading to the show in casual clothes before returning to the cabin to get dressed for dinner. However, when we arrived at the Walt Disney Theater to see the Golden Mickey, nearly everyone else was already in their formal clothes. I felt seriously underdressed!

The show was nice. It is set up like an award show and the award, the Golden Mickey gets presented to all kind of Disney films. So there is a story going through it and in between are all kind of musical numbers from the various films. I did not really like the storyline last time. But this time, I liked it much better. I think it had a lot to do with the actor playing the main role for the story line. I think she was much better this time around and that made a huge difference.

Once we were pretty after the show I wanted to head to the atrium to go and people watch – and to find another free drink. I had read that on the first formal night is the Captain’s reception and there would be servers with drinks. We had totally missed that on my first cruise. When we got to the atrium it was filled with people getting their pictures taken by the professional photographers. And people just standing around. There were also all the officers in their gala uniforms. It all looked very festive! A lot of people had really dressed up, there were even quite a few full ball gowns going around. But in general it was interesting to see how different people interpreted “formal” for formal night. Nearly everyone definitely made some effort to look nice, but still there were huge differences in how people dressed. We talked a few sentences with Ashley again and then I was in search of a free drink (no, I did not have enough to drink that day, obviously…. ).

Once we had located a server (there were plenty of them actually), he told us that he had two alcoholic drinks and two non-alcoholic ones. The options with alcohol were a Cosmopolitan or a Bahama Mama. I got the Cosmopolitan, Michael got the Bahama Mama. He made the better choice. So, once I had finished my not so great Cosmopolitan and another server walked past, I could not resist having one of those delicious Bahama Mamas as well. And then another server came around and talked me into getting a third drink once that was finished…

We just walked around in the atrium, watched people and thought about getting our picture taken. But the lines were so long that we did not want to stand and wait for such a long time. At some point we were standing on deck 4 looking down into the atrium and saw a lady had collapsed in the middle of the atrium at the bottom of the grand staircase. There were people standing around her and I was surprised how long it took for some medical person to appear to take care of her. We very much hoped that she was going to be fine!

And then it was time for dinner at Triton’s. This was my favourite restaurant during the last cruise and it still was this time. It is themed to have kind of an underwater atmosphere with lovely coloured glass on the windows, blue-ish lights on the ceiling, a green carpet with wavy pattern and a beautiful large Little Mermaid mosaic. I find the whole colour scheme that is complimented with wood very soothing. I also found it to be the quietest dining room of them all. Her we had a table just to the left of the entrance and it was more or less directly next to the table of six which had the nice couple from yesterday. We did chat a little with them and the other people on that table. With that we kind of got semi-table mates. We could easily just talk between the two of us when we felt like not talking to others, but now and then we would chat with our neighbours a little and we ended up seeing them around the ship quite regularly as well. More cruise friends!

The evening before Renato had asked after the meal if the speed of the meal had been good for us, or whether we wanted changes. I appreciated him being proactive in asking for our preference and we told him that we would like to eat a bit quicker. From then on he tried to process us quicker, but it did not work out every day.

Renato welcomed us by name when we came in and Shervonne asked us whether we would want the same drinks as yesterday and when we said yes, she produced them very quickly. I had read about people loving to get their drink already on the table when they came in. I never liked this idea as there might be days when I want something else. However, I thought Shervonne had just the right approach by asking first. After a few days with the same choices, she did come over with the drinks prepared already.

Just after we sat down Josip appared at our table with a bottle of white wine and bow on it saying that this was with compliments from Guest Services. We were a bit surprised as we had just gotten exactly the same bottle in our cabin a little earlier. But we said thank you very much. He offered to exchange it for a chilled bottle if we wanted to drink it that night. But I think Michael made an executive decision that that day was not a good day for me to have wine with dinner (I had to agree with that though).

Today’s menu was the Golden Mickey menu, you can find it here: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/the-golden-mickeys-dinner-menu/

It came in the very pretty Triton’s menu folder:

The bread for the night was Freshly Baked Rosemary Potato Loaf with a Rosemary and Garlic Oil Dip:

We both got the Crispy Cheese Ravioli – Breaded envelopes served with Tomato Concassé and Lemon Zest:

We got this and thought: Huh? Where is the tomato that we were promised. After further inspection, we found it. It was hiding under the ravioli:

We were not overly impressed by these ravioli. I thought I had read quite a few trip reports where people really loved them, but to me they seemed to be like fried cheese inside a noodle. Rather bland.

I think we also had the same salad: Salad of Mixed Baby Greens with sliced Pears, Pistachios and Apple Cider Vinaigrette

Once again a failure to deliver the description. This was iceberg lettuce, not mixed baby greens. Also, the vinaigrette was very oily and did not taste of much. However, I later got the suspicion that this was due to the way these salads are being served. They come out without the dressing and then your server comes over with a gravy-boat-like dish which has the dressing and he spoons it over your salad. With a vinaigrette it might have separated a bit and if he just takes some of the top, you mainly get oil and non of the vinegar.

Michael had difficulty finding something on the menu that he wanted and he decided to try the basic steak from the menu. Every evening there is one section on the menu called “Lighter Note Offerings”. It is always an entrée salad or a choice of sirloin steak, chicken breast or salmon with steamed vegetables and rice or potato. He got the steak with the potato:

I got steak as well, but form the main menu. It was described as Yachtsman Steakhouse Grilled NY Strip Hand Selected from USDA Choice Angus Beef with marinated Green Asparagus, Oven-Baked Potato, topped with Herb-Garlic Butter

I really liked my steak, but Michael’s was a bit dry (he orders his steaks well-done), so he asked for Worcester Sauce to go with it. Renato was very apologetic that they did not have it, they only had A1 sauce (comment for my European readers: I never really found out what A1 sauce is, but it seems to be similar to Worcester sauce, it comes in a small bottle and is brownish. It is not barbecue sauce. It appears to be commonly eaten with steak, don’t ask me why. My suspicion is that it is the American version of the British brown sauce). Well, Michael said that he had seen a bottle of Worcester Sauce being carried through the dining room that day while we were having lunch. This started the big quest for the Worcester Sauce! It felt like half the dining room servers were looking for that bottle. In the end someone who I think was the dining room manager disappeared to find one for Michael. And he was successful. I had been wondering whether he had to climb all the way down into the belly of the ship to search in some crates for it. More likely is that he went to the bar storage area and got one from the bar supplies as they need it for Bloody Marys obviously.

A picture of the art work on the dessert menu:

Michael had the Sweet Temptations. This is available every day and consists of three mini desserts. Today it was a trio of Crème Brúlée, The Golden Chocolate Award and Raspberry Cheesecake.

I just got one spoon of ice cream. The flavour of the day was dulce de leche and this was very tasty!

During dinner a photographer was walking through the room taking pictures of people. Michael does not like his picture being taken and when she came he was so nice to humour me to pose for a picture with me. We did not expect much of the picture and when she said that she got a really nice one of the two of us, Michael did not believe her, but she showed it to us and yes, it was a really lovely picture of the two of us! So far we had posed for two pictures on this cruise and they had both turned out really good.

So once we were done with dinner we saw that our photographer from earlier was in front of a back ground which showed the ship sailing through the night and she did hot have any line at all. So we jumped in and got some pictures, some with our bottle of wine from guest services. However, these did not turn out so well…. But we were very amused when we went to look at them!

Afterwards we changed back into something more casual stopped at the shops to see if there was a change in merchandise. Last year it was as if they came out with new things daily during our cruise. This time the merchandise did not change at all. That was a bit disappointing. We ended up chatting with a nice CM, Hoang, from Australia about watches. She loved watches and we talked about whether people really buy those expensive watches while on a cruise. And she said people did, especially if they ended talking to her. I could understand that she was great to sell watches as you could tell how passionate she was about them.

We then continued on to the adult show this evening which was Lynn Trefzger, the tummy speaker whom we had seen the day before. She was very funny again, it was a great show!

Then we walked our one mile around the ship, checked out tomorrows dinner menu and headed back to our stateroom to pack our things for the next day.

There we found not only a towel shirt, but also a nice little gift:

This was a print done by a Disney artist to commemorate our Panama Canal crossing. It was really nice! I am still thinking about getting it framed and have it in my office. I think it would be a great memory of the cruise to see on a daily basis!

Up next: Off to the Beach

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I left the martini tasting in a very good mood

After downing all of those drinks? I should say so!

We did end up making some acquaintances that we would meet again and again and it was nice chatting with them. With our hot tub friends we are still in touch.

That's very cool. Nice that you can keep relationships going!

A bottle of wine with a nice card from Guest Services saying sorry for our inconvenience.

Glad to see they're taking care of you!

(no, I did not have enough to drink that day, obviously…. ).

And then another server came around and talked me into getting a third drink once that was finished…

Three mimosas, several martinis, 3 drinks here...how were you still standing?!

I got steak as well, but form the main menu. It was described as Yachtsman Steakhouse Grilled NY Strip Hand Selected from USDA Choice Angus Beef with marinated Green Asparagus, Oven-Baked Potato, topped with Herb-Garlic Butter

Looks tasty!

I never really found out what A1 sauce is, but it seems to be similar to Worcester sauce, it comes in a small bottle and is brownish. It is not barbecue sauce. It appears to be commonly eaten with steak, don’t ask me why. My suspicion is that it is the American version of the British brown sauce.

I think you're basically right. It's marketed here as "steak sauce".

So far we had posed for two pictures on this cruise and they had both turned out really good.

This was a print done by a Disney artist to commemorate our Panama Canal crossing. It was really nice! I am still thinking about getting it framed and have it in my office. I think it would be a great memory of the cruise to see on a daily basis!

Very unique! I love the special touches like this.

 

[dolphingirl47]

While we were at dinner, we could feel the ship slow down and turn and then we could here the helicopter come in. Fortunately the family was able to rejoin the ship in Cozumel and I saw them around a fair bit for the rest of the cruise. I think they may actually have been one of our DIS families.

That wine is probably our favourite ever wine. How nice that you got two bottles of that.

I really enjoyed the Martini tasting. I loved the Whiskey one.

Corinna

 

[glennbo123]

I was afraid that the woman collapsed in the atrium was going to be you, after the martini tasting and all of those free drinks!

That's great that they went on a ship-wide search for worcester sauce for Michael -- just shows how much they aim to please!

 

[kid-at-heart]

I left the martini tasting in a very good mood

We went to a martini tasting class on our Wonder cruise last April. I found out I do not like martinis very much but I had a ball trying the various flavors. I did like the chocolate one though and after the lesson, the “teacher” gave me a couple of chocolate ones to make up for the other flavors I did not drink. I gave Rob (spouse) most of my drinks after I tasted them – until he told me “no more”. We also left in a very good mood. It was fun. We plan to go again on our next cruise.

Kate

 

[kid-at-heart]

Double post. Sorry.

Kate

 

[Flossbolna]

Yes I agree, this was no time to discover the floor has a problem...

Since the ship made it safely to San Diego (I guess that is not too much of a spoiler...) the floor was not in too bad a shape!

That makes me feel better. I do have a long list ( that keeps getting longer) and quite a few items that are strange. Like Pomegranate. Which I see a lot now. The soy is a rough one too. Mustard is usually the culprit in dressings as well as soy. Then the vegetables...

Katharina has some problems with mustard, too. Therefore I know how difficult it is to avoid. Pomegranates are delicious, so sorry that you are allergic against them! And soy is a real problem. I guess you must be really good at reading labels since it is an ingredient in so many things now!

My mother used bad language in English... If she did do it in German it must have been when I was little and didn't know or don't remember the words.
My Dad being Bolivian and my Mom being German you would think they would go all "Ricky Ricardo" and spout off in their native language once in a while. They were very much, very "Pro English" and unless they were speaking to their relatives, only spoke English.

It sounds like they really wanted be become a part of their new home country. That's a good thing!

When that happens the ending usually isn't very happy.

Yes, think of the Costa Concordia...

On the ship you are moving, even if you are not doing the driving.
Gives the illusion of doing something, as opposed to being still on the beach.

That's a great explanation!

That is a pretty good deal...

I found most alcohol on the ship to be a pretty good deal. Those drinks of the day are 5 $.

I always feel like I am a PITA when I have the list. Most Chefs at Disney have been great and sometimes I have to convince then I can actually eat small amounts of something , I just need to know it is in there.

I made a card with all the offenders on it and labeled them red, yellow and green.
Red is no, yellow is sometimes but rarely and need to watch it and the green are the ones that I tested positive to but really continue to eat in moderation with no ill effects but if I am having reactions or just need to "clean out" I will eliminate all the allergens those included.

I like submitting it early and it being shared easily. I can probably pre-order and be good.

Thanks for all the advice to the procedure and what to expect should I go on a cruise.

I guess they want to be safe and when they hear allergy they have all kind of warning lights going on. Your card sounds like a perfect solution and the great thing is that on a cruise (especially a longer one), you will be dealing with the same people multiple times. So you should be able to work with them very well.