Soon it was time for the Royal Court Royal Tea.
Back to Royal Court
At least the service was swifter than it had been 90 minutes previous.
We met my friend P and her daughter L (who is also 8, 12 days younger than my eldest DD). The three girls had a blast.
First you are greeted by Lady Chamomile and then each princess is announced.
Lady Chamomile and Chef Brule then go on to have a little 'show' and they also sing before the princesses are introduced. Looking through my photos, turns out I didn't get a photo of Chef Brule! He was quite funny though!
Here are the three girls, wearing the tiara's they were all given upon arrival (notice my DD8 is not looking at the camera, girls girls girls!!!)
But she was more than happy to show off her new doll
A sneaky pic of the princesses
Tasty food
A couple of days before the tea you are to call down to Guest Services and let them know which princess each girl would like on their cupcake. My DD8 chose Tiana (her fave) but before I could get a pic of DD6 and her cupcake, it disappeared into her gob!
There is a LOT of princess interaction with each child; for some reason DD6 was a grump when they first came around
Semi-smile since she still had some cupcake left
DD8 with her fave
And finally more smiles!
Despite the rather substantial price tag - $489USD - for this, I am very glad that I had it booked. The girls both had a blast, they received some awesome gifts and it was a fun time to socialize for P and I with our girls.
We were the last ones to leave the tea (chatting away!) and in the atrium we stumbled right into a Minnie Mouse meet and greet!
Here she is signing the autograph books the girls received at the tea (these books are HUGE!) Forget the anchor FE gift for now, they have more autographs in those books at the moment
When we got back to the cabin DH was back from Dr Strange and the girls animatedly told their dad all about the tea. DH had been quite skeptical about the 'worth' of this tea before we went but seeing how excited they were (and how much loot they received!) he figured it was worth it in the end.
We figured the girls would just want to chill in the room for a while after such a busy day (plus they were going to the club later since DH and I had Palo dinner) but nope, they wanted to go to the clubs NOW! We told them they could go for a bit but that we would pull them out for dinner since we knew they both needed to eat something and DD6 cannot be relied on to always eat food in the clubs
I jumped in the shower and when I got out, we were already pulling out of St. Thomas. Darn. I missed the horns! DH had taken a couple of short videos of us pulling out (since we were in the middle of two ships and he thought it was cool how they pushed out of the middle berth) so I'll post those and any other videos we might have at the end of my TR.
Bye bye St Thomas
And a bit later, how's that for a sunset?
The show that night was some sort of physical comedian. Meh. Not my bag.
We picked the girls up and got them something to eat on the top deck and watched some of The Incredibles on funnel vision
Time was marching on and we had an 8pm reservation at Palo so we dropped the girls off back to the clubs (letting the staff know we had a Palo dinner reserved) and went back to the cabin to change.
Didn't get any photos of us in our fancy duds
We got there right at 8pm but our table was not ready
so we went into Meridian and had a glass of wine each. That's how they get ya
Half way through our bevvies our table was ready and we were escorted into Palo where we were warmly greeted by the lovely Carl again!
This was our first time doing Palo for dinner; I'd looked over the menu online and didn't find it to be that expansive but dh really wanted to try it this time so I relented.
I stand by my earlier statement. While the service was impeccable and the food quality was excellent, I still think (for myself) the menu could be a bit larger.
Beggars and choosers eh? First World Problems
My husband, of course, decided on the $59 wine tasting menu, Esperienza del Vino
Get a load of Mr Money bags
I didn't partake because again, I wasn't fond of many of the choices. And I swear, I'm not normally a picky eater.
I chose one appetizer and one entree but Carl suggested I get a second appetizer, that way I would only be 'without food'
two of the five times my husband was served.
But first up was the Antipasti, Insalantine & Zuppa which I think we both agreed was a fantastic start to the meal. And a good in between. And a good ending. LOL
Carl kept asking throughout the meal if we were 'done' with it but nope....we were taking our time!
One of my appetizers was the tomato and mozarella salad but for the life of me I can't remember what the second one was. I had the Osso Bucco for my entree and that was perfection!
See, I'm not *that* picky!
I think my husband's favourite part of the meal was every course he had, his wine came out with a Sommelier to describe each drink. We felt very posh
And now, some photos (a whole TWO
)
Hubs dessert, rhubarb marscapone
I ordered the chocolate souffle as everyone raves about it and Carl brought that along with the almond souffle because, as he said, two are better than one!
SOOOOOOOOO goooooood. I ate about half of each one.
Full full full.
Now by this time the dining room had really emptied out, there were only a handful of tables left.
The last drink that dh received, which was paired with his dessert, was a grappa.
Guys, this drink was STRONG. Like, I could get drunk just from hubby breathing on me
It took him a long time to finish it!
In fact, I think some of the waiters had a bet to see if he was actually going to finish it
Every so often Carl would come by to make sure we were still doing well and he chuckled at hubs, saying it was ok if he didn't want to finish it.
Ha - my husband has a no-man-left-behind policy when it comes to finishing an alcoholic drink!
He mentioned to us some of the stories of people pouring their grappa into the roses on the table!!! Carl even picked ours up and smelt them
Oh my goodness, who would do that? I mean, if you don't like it then don't finish it. Not as if you are going to offend the Sommelier, he didn't make it!
Finally DH finished it up (I had one tiny sip and nearly passed out!), we thanked Carl profusely for his amazing service for both of our Palo visits and we left. Think it was getting on for 10:30pm so we picked up the girls and all headed to bed. Before retiring we set out the door hanger for room service for 8-8:30am service (thinking they would come early again anyway) for donuts and coffee to sustain us through Jedi training before heading to cabana's afterwards for breakfast.
Next up: Star Wars day starts with a slight hiccup