Day 7 – Sea Day
Ah, a day with very little to do! Excellent! There were several Podcast events scheduled, but really, all we wanted at this point was to veg out in the sun. The live taping of the Podcast was at 9am but there was no way I was going to make that. It was definitely one of the things I really wanted to do, but since I had such a small amount of down time, I opted to bag the taping. And I am glad. It turns out that they have a video of the whole thing, so I’ll just watch that. Much better to spend time in Maine watching it as opposed to wasting my Caribbean time!
The day started out by all of us sleeping in. The kids had been up till midnight every night so far. Well, most of us slept in. I actually woke up early which was a good thing. I immediately went for a run and then to the internet café to get all of that out of the way. Jeff and I learned that if we wanted to maximize our fun time, we had to get work and exercise done and out of the way before breakfast.
We couldn’t DRAG Riley out of bed. OMG, he slept till nearly 10. We took the girls to breakfast in Triton’s. Yummy. Even breakfast is like 4 courses. At least one of them is fruit, so that should count for something, right?
After breakfast, we took the girls to the kids’ club and then I went to get Riley up while Jeff went to get work done. I took Riley up to the buffet just for the sake of time. Then dropped him up on the sports deck where his group was.
We basically had the whole day stretched out in front of us. Heaven. The one thing on the schedule was the Lee Cockerell talk. I got confused. The podcast had actually arranged two different speakers for the trip. One was the Disney Historian. He had all of these amazing stories about the early days of Disney World and Walt, plus just great stories about how to make visits magical for guests. He gave that presentation two times on the day before. We didn’t go thinking that we would catch the presentation on Sea Day (as opposed to taking time out of
Castaway Cay day). But today was a different speaker entirely. This was Lee Cockerell who is a great speaker about leadership and Disney management methods. It was really interesting, but not the speech we thought we had signed up for. It was my mistake entirely. Oh well. I believe the talk given by the historian was also video taped, which would be awesome since Jeff and I both wanted to see him.
After the talk it was time for the Podcast group photo. I opted out. Again, I didn’t want all of this scheduled stuff. I just wanted to crash in the sun. So that is what Jeff and I both did at this point. We decided not to do lunch in a restaurant since it would take so long. We ate pizza and fries poolside instead and were out of our minds happy about it.
We spent the next couple of hours just lounging and reading and eating and napping. After a bit, we went and got the kids so that they could have some pool time. At this point, the Mickey pool was “normal.” It was only that first afternoon where it was awful and chaotic. There was plenty of room and they were happy to do the slide over and over and over again. They also bounced back and forth between the Mickey and Goofy pools. Jeff and I were happy with the Drink of the Day.
We had the kids get some pizza for dinner as this was our night for Palo. So once they were fed, we dropped them back in the club and we got ready for our big night.
Our reservation was for 6pm. I was excited about this. I know most people prefer a later time for Palo, but I wanted to eat while we still had a view. And this was perfect as sunset was at about 7:30, so I knew we would still be there for that. We were seated by a window (yes!) so we had these unbelievable panoramic views of the ocean. It was truly stunning.
Our server was Michael and he was flawless. We told him that we were vegetarians and he didn’t miss a beat. He instantly went into their specials that would be appropriate for us and also explained that the chef would be more than happy to come out to our table and discuss things with us if there was something specific we wanted. That wasn’t necessary as there was more than enough that sounded incredible.
While we were looking over the menu, Michael brought us a bread basket with 4 types of bread and a dish with 3 types of spread, including olive topenade which Jeff loved. We decided to splurge an order a bottle of wine. A lovely Chianti. I don’t even want to think about how much we paid. But we figured that Palo itself was a 5-star meal for free and the whole freaking cruise was free, so we justified the expense. And we are really glad—the meal deserved a good wine.
We then were served a vegetarian antipasto which was incredible. OMG. There was this marinated eggplant that was to. die. for. And we don’t usually care for eggplant, but this was so so so good.
Time to order. Appetizers (keeping in mind that we had already had bread and antipasto)—we decided to share an order of calamari (which is common for us. We adore calamari as do the kids.) Jeff had a really good salad and I had the jumbo shrimp salad. All of it was INCREDIBLE. We have both eaten at really, really high end restaurants. But this was on a different level.
Entrée time. I was conflicted. I really wanted the scallops, but they were served with a weird bean accompaniment. And Michael was sure I would love the lobster-stuffed ravioli (fresh made pasta, of course). In the end, I went with the lobster. Jeff got the ahi seared tuna which I was also very excited about.
Prior to the entrees being served, though, Michael brought out the intermezzo to cleanse our palettes. It was a lime and basil sorbet. Yes, basil…in sorbet. Don’t ask me how, but even that was amazing.
Then came our entrees. Michael arrives with the food and explains, “I know you were having a hard time deciding between the lobster and the scallops, so I brought you both.” OMG, I fell in love with him in that moment!
Everything was beyond description it was so good. The presentation! So beautiful. Surpassed only by taste. We both agreed that, hands down, this was the best meal we had ever had. Ever. We shared everything and there was nothing left over.
We were so full by this point, but there was no way we were going to pass up dessert. Their signature dessert is chocolate soufflé. Made individually to order. Of course, that is what I had to have. Jeff went with traditional Italian and ordered the tiramisu.
Once again, Michael went above and beyond and brought us a third dessert to share. Without question, the best desserts either of us have ever had. Neither of us could finish though. Just too full. Seriously, I don’t know if you have ever experienced this, but I was painfully full. Like my stomach was so full it was pressing against my rib cage and it hurt. But I didn’t care a bit. This was not a time to count calories. It was sheer indulgence and it was magnificent.
As planned, the sun set on the Caribbean as we were served our dessert. Stunning.
This was perfect from beginning to end. But the day was not over yet.
We got the kids and really wanted to go see the show Disney Dreams, but by the time we got out of Palo and signed the kids out, it had already started. We decided to just all spend some time up on Deck 10 enjoying the gorgeous tropical evening. All too soon, though, it was time to start packing. Bags had to be outside of the stateroom by 11pm and it was 9. And the Till we Meet Again Party was at 10:00. So down we went, where I turned into a mad woman…flying around both staterooms just shoving stuff in everywhere I could. I thought we would have plenty of room since we had brought several bottles of wine on board that were now all gone. But those damn fish extender gifts took up a ton of room. So it was shove city.
Also, at the beginning of the cruise, I dropped off white pillow cases at Guest Services so that the characters would sign them. Before leaving, I had each pillow case ready--embroidered with their names and character. Kelly had Pooh (natch). Cammie is all about Aurora so that was hers, and I just did a classic Mikey for Riley. Until about a year ago, he was totally about Buzz. And truth be told, I think he still is, but he knows that Buzz is too babyish so he pretends he isn't into him anymore. So I played it safe and went with Mickey. Anyway, their pillowcases were delivered and waiting for us on that last night.
Fortunately, I managed to get it all done and out in the hallway, and I even managed to remember to leave a change of clothes out for everyone so that we wouldn’t have to get off the ship in our jammies.
We went to the Till We Meet Again show and it was SO nice. Really, one of my favorite parts of the cruise. Since it was late, it was NOT crowded, loud, and chaotic (for once). All of the characters came out and they sang and waved good-bye and all of that. Then there was a 15-minute window for pictures. And since there weren’t that many people there, comparatively, we FINALLY got loads of pics with characters on the ship. We got Captain Mickey (we had been trying to get him all cruise), Minnie, Goofy in his sailor suit, Peter Pan and Anne Marie, and Aladdin. It was a big score and a GREAT way to end things. After photo ops were over, they all got together again, sang again, and it ended with a showering of sparkly pixie dust over us all. The kids LOVED it.
Back to the stateroom to get the last of the luggage settled and the kids showered and in bed.
Meanwhile, the Podcast Farewell Party was up on Deck 9. Jeff asked me to run up to 9 to get some pizza (as the kind he wanted wasn’t on the room service menu). So while waiting for the pizza, I got to say good-bye to the podcasters. (And yes, even though we had just finished an enormous meal at Palo a couple of hours earlier, Jeff had to have his farewell pizza! Ha!)
Learned a lesson here. Next time I will find a better way to have the luggage packed and ready to go. (I will start by bringing far less stuff, too. I way over-packed and that made it that much more time-consuming to get everything pulled together. And for 5 people, that is a lot of work.) It made me sad that I felt like I had “stuff” to do while others were enjoying their last night on board and having drinks and socializing, etc. I definitely blew it here. But still, Jeff and I enjoyed our last bit of wine, and he had his last slice of pizza and we called it a night. It was well after midnight.
Other than racing/panicking to get packed on time, it was a perfect day.