Life Stinks! Season Three! Finalized 11/11

[Mozart]

I have a shocking thing to reveal that happened after we got back on board the ship from Costa Maya. Wait for it. Here it comes….

We took a nap. I know. You’re shocked. But we did. I guess we had just made the decision to sleep right through this vacation because it seemed like that’s all we were doing. Absolutely exhausted all week long. And it’s not like it was one of us, we were both sleeping all morning and crashing in the afternoon. My wife said that we were so excited in the buildup to the cruise that once it started we lost all that excitement and got caught up in the relaxation. Like losing the adrenaline after a big rush of it.

But that night there was something else to look forward to. Always one of the highlights of our trip…Palo’s. Late afternoon came and we decided that it was time to get ready. But it’s only a 7 night cruise. And I’m out of shaving cream. How exactly do you run out of shaving cream on a 7 day cruise? Gotta hurry now. Run down to the Treasure Ketch (or Mickey’s Mates. I can never get straight which one is which) and get some more, really expensive, shaving cream. Run back to the room and shave, shower, and get cleaned up. It’s time for a show.

We generally only go to 1 show on each of our cruises. On our first cruise it was The Golden Mickeys. On our second it was Hercules. For our 7 nighter we picked Twice Charmed. I would rate it second of those three shows. We thought Hercules was a little more entertaining, but Twice Charmed was still really good. As a primer for any people who haven’t seen it, the basic concept is that Cinderella’s stepmother consults an evil godfather who takes her back in time and arranges for Cindy to not meet Prince Charming. Hilarity ensues. The show was really stolen by Franco(the evil godfather), who reminded me a lot of Nathan Lane.

2 observations from the show. 1) At the end of the show, we applauded Cinderella’s actress like you normally do at shows, but I felt bad because it had been obvious that there had been 2 actresses playing Cinderella during the show. They were making costume changes in about 10 seconds, literally. Was the other Cindy standing just offstage going “Why does SHE get all the applause? Just because she gets to wear the nice dress at the end…” 2) My second observation kind of scared me. After all the care about fires and matches and candles that the cruise line gives, did you think it unusual to have fireworks in an enclosed area like that? It made me feel a little nervous thinking about what could happen. Out on deck is one thing, but in an enclosed theater kinda scared me.

Please, please, PLEASE remember that during the show you need to show courtesy towards others with regard to how your children are behaving in the theater. I know that it can be hard dealing with a fussy 4 year old while you’re trying to watch a show, but please take into account that while that 4 year old is crying, he’s preventing everyone sitting anywhere near you from hearing the show.

There was the kid sitting next to DW who wouldn’t shut up and mommy wouldn’t do anything about it other than say “Shhhh1” every now and then. After about 10 minutes of my wife doing her best to make it be known that she was unhappy, Dad finally got up and grabbed the kid, yanking him out of there and saying in that angry parent whisper “YOU WILL SHUT UP NOW.” The guy sitting behind us applauded. We actually got to hear what was going on onstage after that.

 

[anetnmike]

They have these really awesome thing on the cruise ships called KIDS CLUBS
if your kid hates it there they will page you and you can come and get your little darling
I have to agree with you, Mozart, and I have kids!

 

[anewmac]

Glad you didnt say anything about adults passing out and snoring.... just saying. lol

 

[anetnmike]

 

[ededmd]

Mozart,
Where are you?
Starting a new job, hard.
Being abandoned in your trip report, harder!

 

[chepic]

Mozart,
Where are you?
Starting a new job, hard.
Being abandoned in your trip report, harder!

I was thinking the same thing....starting to get withdrawls from not getting the rest of the TR.

Cheryl

 

[anewmac]

I was thinking the same thing....starting to get withdrawls from not getting the rest of the TR.

Cheryl

DITTO!

I need more to read!!!

 

[Tink rules]

He's waiting for me to finish Planky's first...

 

[Mozart]

I admit it. I've been bad. I'm now trying to finish up a trip report for a cruise thats 11 months old. I sort of ran into a problem. The problem is that my computer crashed and I lost alot of stuff, including my trip report notes. So, I finally got around to it and put back together what I could off of memory. So, here he we go. I don't have much time left to go anyway...

Just as a refresher, this is a 7 day Eastern. We're talking Wednesday night right now.

Finally, it’s time for the most exciting elevator ride of the trip. 10th floor please….Palo’s.

We step in and, of course, everything is in perfect order and waiting for us. We take a seat at a twotop and Cecilia comes over to welcome us. As per normal, we have an excellent meal. I had forgotten how much I messed their mushroom polenta. I ordered both the rack of lamb and beef tenderloin, and miraculously finished them both. My wife and I even split a shrimp and asparagus pizza and even enjoyed a nice bottle of wine recommended by the sommelier. Then Cecilia tops off the night be delivering a grape and cheese pizza for us to go. She gets the 6th star we’ve given so far this trip, and the SECOND to go to an actual person and not just a dish of food.

And then it was there. For those of you that have never seen it – below is the life cycle of the Palo’s soufflé.

Finally, it’s time for the most exciting elevator ride of the trip. 10th floor please….Palo’s.



We step in and, of course, everything is in perfect order and waiting for us. We take a seat at a twotop and Cecilia comes over to welcome us. As per normal, we have an excellent meal. I had forgotten how much I messed their mushroom polenta. I ordered both the rack of lamb and beef tenderloin, and miraculously finished them both. My wife and I even split a shrimp and asparagus pizza and even enjoyed a nice bottle of wine recommended by the sommelier. Then Cecilia tops off the night be delivering a grape and cheese pizza for us to go. She gets the 6th star we’ve given so far this trip, and the SECOND to go to an actual person and not just a dish of food.

And then it was there. For those of you that have never seen it – below is the life cycle of the Palo’s soufflé.

Afterwards, we just retired to our verandah and listened to the waves while finishing off our last glasses of wine from Palo’s. My wife wrote her thoughts in her journal while I took notes for this report. Besides, time sprang forward an hour again tonight and we needed to be in bed early if we were going to make breakfast at a decent time the next morning. So we sat there and watched us sail by Cozumel and thought… ”ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ………..”

 

[chepic]

AAAAHHHHHH That should hold me over for another month....what I would give to have a chocolate souffle right now...yummy.

cheryl

 

[anewmac]

oh man my mouth just watered looking at it! An the grape pizza sounds yummy! Definatly next time. OH and no worried on taking a while I know exactly how that goes LO

 

[Mozart]

Thursday, November 13th
You’d never believe it. We actually woke up at a decent time, it was on a sea day, and when the clocks were set forward by an hour. So after the miracle of the trip took place, we headed up to Topsider’s Buffet. I had my first Mickey Waffle here. You have to understand, I’m used to Leggo my Eggos. I thought they were just okay. It’s not the taste of the waffle, just the shape that makes it worthwhile. Like so many other things Disney.

Okay, for those of you who actually enjoy school, feel free to celebrate. We went to a lecture. This one was called Behind the Scenes and was hosted by Alex Wright from Disney animation. I really don’t know exactly what I thought of it, though. On the one hand, Alex didn’t know much about the Disney legacy. He was actually corrected by a class member when he called Jacques Jack as he was talking about Cinderella. (For the record I thought that was a little rude.) On the other hand, the guy may not know how to pronounce Jacques’ name, but he sure could explain the intricacies of the abstract art used to create the castles in each of the movies. Finally, it was obviously a canned presentation he didn’t write, and may not have even looked at more than a couple of times before doing it for us. Overall though, I’d say it was pretty interesting.

Yes, bellman…top deck…Palo’s again. This time for high tea. The tea is good, the treats are okay. If you’re interested in a good tea onboard the ship, try the Masala Black Chai Tea. I had it a couple of times and it was always very good.

Then, it happened. Right at 2:30. Suddenly the ship made a hard turn to port, and everyone on the ship felt it kick into gear. It was obvious something had just happened, and after a few more minutes the captain came on the mike. “We have a medical emergency and will be making an emergency stop at Key West to allow someone to seek hospital treatment.” And believe me whan I say that we were cruising. Fast. Easily the fastest speed we did during that week. I could hardly stand up at the front of the ship the wind was coming over the deck so hard.

But, of course, everyone came up front and jockeyed for position to see the Coast Guard move in. I actually repositioned a few times and ended up with a good view of the transfer. The guy walked across the platform to the Coast Guard boat under his own power so hopefully everything turned out okay.

Thus, we get a star for the trip. To the Coast Guard. Just because they’re them.

 

[Mozart]

Why is it that the longer of a cruise you’re on, the earlier it seems like the tip envelopes come. It’s the first bad sign that things are going to come to an end. One day, we’re going to have to leave this boat and rejoin the harried, chore filled lives that wait for us back home. And the tip envelopes just indicate that day is coming soon. Bummer.

But it was time to fill them out. We had found our dinner service to be okay, but our stateroom host had been fantastic, even leaving us extra H2O products. (Of course, that may have been partially because I simply asked for them.) So, of course, we had to leave a little extra for him.

On to dinner. But we might as well have just shown up an hour late. I swear, that was the slowest dinner I’ve ever seen in my life. Something was obviously wrong because other tables were finished eating before we ever got our food. I didn’t get served my 2 lobsters until almost 10:30 that night. Imagine if we had kids at our table! But in the course of dinner, we had an interesting moment. One of the ladies at our table leans over to me and says “You’re a DIS’er, aren’t you?” To which I feigned ignorance and said “Yes, I like desserts.” That one caught her offguard. We ended up talking about the DIS for a few minutes. She had never read the trip report board, and I don’t know if she ever has since then. She just knew that I was a DIS’er based on my knowledge of the ship. I suddenly felt all smart and stuff.

Even though it was getting late and we had lots to do the next morning, our dinnermates talked us into walking down to the clubs with them. We had not spent much time in the clubs during our first few cruises, and I have to admit one thing…these guys are funny. The second time this week that we’ve spent time in the clubs just dying laughing. But what’s amazing is how much the club changes in 5 minutes.

One minute it’s standing room only, packed house and 5 minutes later country line square dancing has taken over and the club is empty.

I’m still not singing. Even if my song is country and western.

So, once we gave up on that club, we headed over to Sessions to see if the piano guy was playing there. He was on break when we got there, so we sat back and had a drink while waiting for him. Then, after about a 20 minute break, he came back, played two songs and announced he was done for the night. We did see one of the coolest glasses yet. It was angled like the DCL logo. I took it back to my room and tried to figure out how to get it off the ship without the risk of being arrested. My wife convinced me it was wrong. $3,000 for a cruise and I can’t even take a $5 glass home. I feel like I’m getting ripped off.

It’s time to head back to the cabin and get a little sleep before one last magical day at Castaway Cay on Friday. As we begin to get comfortable, I notice the engine vibration. Definitely a difference between the two ships in terms of how much engine vibration there is for our room, and we stayed in the same room on both ships. The Magic is not nearly as smooth of a ride as the Wonder is. Of course, the vibration is just like one of the old 1970's hotel rooms with the vibrating bed that puts you right to sleep. Sort of.

 

[podsnel]

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy you're back!!! Shame on your computer for crashing on you!!!

Looking forward to more of your stuff....

 

[Mozart]

Moving along to Friday, our second day at Castaway Cay:

Our plan is to get up early and be waiting for the ship door to open so we can start enjoying the beach early.

Yeah…we slept until 10. Then we finally headed out and decided to go straight to the snorkeling lagoon. At least this time when we skipped breakfast we didn’t have a 3 hour wait for Cookie’s to open.

We had snorkeled at Serenity Bay before where, to be frank, there isn’t a whole lot to see, so I was looking forward to the snorkeling lagoon which is supposed to be a lot better. Howe ver, you need to understand one thing, I’m out of shape. I’ve put on some weight in the past year, and don’t exercise at all. The snorkeling lagoon is long and deep. I could just see myself getting all the way out and getting exhausted then needing a lifeguard to bring me back to shore. So I swam halfway out, said “Screw this” and headed for Serenity Bay. It wasn’t until later that I found out there is a sandbar out in the lagoon for people to rest. I figure I still wouldn’t have made it back. DW never even bothered. She went in about up to her knees and said it was too crowded for her.

We left the snorkeling lagoon/family beach and headed over to Cookie’s for lunch. Exactly the same food as Sunday. Even down to sitting at the same little tucked away table. It’s like it was our little piece of Castaway Cay that nobody else knew about. (NONE OF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SIT HERE! IT’S OURS!)

Now, I have a really bad pun to make. Serenity Bay is so serene. The lapping of the water is so calm and peaceful Every now and then you hear a tropical bird make a noise off in the distance. So nice. Then you get that one moron who is out snorkeling and starts yelling back to shore to get his wife to come out there whenever he sees something in the water. This is the same guy who is kicking his flippers so hard that everyone in Serenity Bay can hear him and be annoyed by the fact that he’s ruining their peace and quiet despite only being in two feet of water.

Oh yeah, that was me.

 

[chepic]

We are toying with the DVC member cruise...if we are lucky enough to get chosen...and 2 days on Cast-a-Way woud be just perfect.

 

[ededmd]

Shew...glad you are alive and kicking. Was worried for a while.

 

[Mozart]

Friday, November 14th: Castaway Cay
Castaway Cay Part 2. Our plan is to get up early and be waiting for the ship door to open so we can start enjoying the beach early.

Yeah…we slept until 10. Then we finally headed out and decided to go straight to the snorkeling lagoon. At least this time when we skipped breakfast we didn’t have a 3 hour wait for Cookie’s to open.

We had snorkeled at Serenity Bay before where, to be frank, there isn’t a whole lot to see, so I was looking forward to the snorkeling lagoon which is supposed to be a lot better. Howe ver, you need to understand one thing, I’m out of shape. I’ve put on some weight in the past year, and don’t exercise at all. The snorkeling lagoon is long and deep. I could just see myself getting all the way out and getting exhausted then needing a lifeguard to bring me back to shore. So I swam halfway out, said “Screw this” and headed for Serenity Bay. It wasn’t until later that I found out there is a sandbar out in the lagoon for people to rest. I figure I still wouldn’t have made it back. DW never even bothered. She went in about up to her knees and said it was too crowded for her.

We left the snorkeling lagoon/family beach and headed over to Cookie’s for lunch. Exactly the same food as Sunday. Even down to sitting at the same little tucked away table. It’s like it was our little piece of Castaway Cay that nobody else knew about. (NONE OF YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SIT HERE! IT’S OURS!)

Now, I have a really bad pun to make. Serenity Bay is so serene. The lapping of the water is so calm and peaceful Every now and then you hear a tropical bird make a noise off in the distance. So nice. Then you get that one moron who is out snorkeling and starts yelling back to shore to get his wife to come out there whenever he sees something in the water. This is the same guy who is kicking his flippers so hard that everyone in Serenity Bay can hear him and be annoyed by the fact that he’s ruining their peace and quiet.

Oh yeah, that was me.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I seem to be experiencing de ja vu here? Anybody else?

 

[Mozart]

After cleaning up due to a day in salty sea water, we headed back to the secret deck 7 aft verandah for sailway from Castaway Cay. This is a tradition for us, and is one of two times I begin to get a lump in my throat and want to shed a little tear. The first is at the adventures away party when we first leave. It’s because it’s actually getting started. This is the opposite feeling though. As we leave Castaway Cay for the final time of our cruise, I come close to shedding a little tear, just like I have done on every cruise we have taken, because that signifies that the end is nigh. I can’t imagine the real world after a week on the boat. Work is an unfathomable concept right now. Our lives have always been the utter relaxation of this cruise ship and its ports.

Did you notice the difference you have between the first night of the cruise and the last night of the cruise, even though you’re sailing over the same waters? The waters are still the Gulf Stream waters which are a little rough, but you just don’t notice the motion. It basically takes us about one night to get our sea legs and then we’re fine. Other people seem to be the same way. Even the poor lady at our table who got sick the first night was fine within a day or so.

After we get ready for dinner we just spend a little while killing time on our verandah. It’s such a beautiful night. Then, off in the distance, we see this incredible white light going straight up into the air. It looked like a comet rising from the earth into the sky. It was one of the strangest phenomena we had ever seen. We spent probably 20 minutes talking to each other trying to figure out what it was but couldn’t. It was weird.

Oh yeah, never bother to check your stateroom account. Bad idea. It almost makes you want to go that last night without a glass of wine at dinner or an after dinner amaretto.

Almost.