Memories of the DREAM come true .. 08/09 All 30 days done!

[dizneeat]

Day 18, August 30

DREAM hospitality - Part 4

We both only had a plate each so we could save some room for what else was to come and when Gabriella realized that we were done with our first course and had ordered our hot course, she brought out a Four Cheese Pizza to haul us over until our order would be ready.

Tom had ordered the

Chicken Cacciatore, while I had picked one of my favourites,

the Eggs Florentine. We had not finished our pizza when our main courses were served. They were wonderful and delicious, but it was a lot of food and we really wanted to try the desserts as well. So, once we had finished our main courses and the plates had been cleared we walked over to the dessert section, picked up a plate and started to fill it again. There were SO many yummy treats, it was hard to decide what not to pick.

Once we had finished our treats, we were again in a hurry. We settled our charge and left Gabriella a generous tip before we headed back to our stateroom again.
There were quite a few Fish Extender gifts and we quickly emptied out the Fish Extender pockets and put everything on the beds, grabbed our newly purchased prints and headed down to the shops where Captain Henry was signing whatever guests were handing him.
When it was our turn he commented that the print Tom had picked was his all time favourite. It’s a print of the Disney Dream at Castaway Cay. I had chosen a fireworks print and he commented that he loved the fireworks on board a lot.

Well, so do we, especially when you see all the other cruise ships who are always “so close by” when Disney has its fireworks at sea. We also had our photo taken with him

and when we had accomplished our mission we finally made it back to our stateroom to crash on the beds for a while.
But there was no time to rest for too long as we still had a round of Fish Extender gifts to deliver, so about an hour after we had returned to our stateroom we left again to walk the ship, handing out gifts. Once we were done delivering gifts we got changed and headed to one of the Conference Rooms where Jeff was holding his DISmeet.
We were pretty early and only a few people were present at that time, but the room filled up pretty quickly.

We all got to mix and mingle and introduce ourselves as most of us only knew each others screen names.

Jeff held a raffle and everyone won some fun prices and towards the end we even got a visit from everyone’s favourite dog, Pluto.

When the meet was about to end, Debby and I was still talking when I noticed Debbie’s watch. She was wearing the exact same Disney Wonder watch. We had a good laugh and decided to meet again later at the Skyline Bar.
Once the meet was over we headed back to our stateroom and started packing the first of our items. Soon enough it was time to head to the Skyline bar to meet with Debbie and Ileana.

To be continued ..........

 

[jenseib]

How did they arrange to have Pluto come...that is so cool!

 

[dizneeat]

How did they arrange to have Pluto come...that is so cool!

I don't know if Jeff arranged to have Pluto (or any character) come by or if it was one of those magical Disney moments.
All I can tell you is, that it was AWESOME to have him there!

 

[Teri1]

The pictures of Brunch at Palo look so good. I sure hope we get to experience it in Sept. on the Dream. You had a great DISmeet, how wonderful to have Pluto stop by! Ours was rushed on our Dream cruise due to the safety drill being anounced.

 

[dizneeat]

The pictures of Brunch at Palo look so good. I sure hope we get to experience it in Sept. on the Dream. You had a great DISmeet, how wonderful to have Pluto stop by! Ours was rushed on our Dream cruise due to the safety drill being anounced.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you Teresa. But I think it should be much easier now to get in as they have done away with the tea and have longer hours for brunch.

The DISmeet was awesome, Jeff did such a great job organizing us the room and organizing a raffle and things. It was so fun to finally put faces to the screen names!

 

[HowieHowie]

I don't know if Jeff arranged to have Pluto (or any character) come by or if it was one of those magical Disney moments.
All I can tell you is, that it was AWESOME to have him there!

Hi Karin... It was a Disney magical moment, Pluto just happen to show up...how lucky for us!! It was a great DISmeet. It was wonderful to meet and chat with everyone. The fireworks print is the one we bought too. Thanks to the cast member the night before, Howie & I decided which ones we wanted. It's so nice reliving the cruise with you.

 

[KatMark]

What fun! And what an enormous amount of food (I can't do a cruise...I'd gain 20 pounds just looking at the food!).

Love the photos with Pluto.

 

[dizneeat]

Hi Karin... It was a Disney magical moment, Pluto just happen to show up...how lucky for us!! It was a great DISmeet. It was wonderful to meet and chat with everyone. The fireworks print is the one we bought too. Thanks to the cast member the night before, Howie & I decided which ones we wanted. It's so nice reliving the cruise with you.

I just wasn't sure if it was Jeff's idea or some pixie dust!
I loved that DISmeet. Jeff put so much thought into everything, and we all had so much fun.

I LOVE the fireworks print! And it was all Alejandra's fault - she really "sold" those prints that night. We talked to her when we went to buy ours and she said, they had all had a good laugh that evening. Needless to say, we brought her a bag of sweets too!

What fun! And what an enormous amount of food (I can't do a cruise...I'd gain 20 pounds just looking at the food!).

Love the photos with Pluto.

Oh, Kathy, this is DISNEY .... no calorie land!!! And even though it looks like we were constantly eating, you do a lot of running around on that ship - good exercise.

 

[annmarieda]

What a fun dismeet!!! LOVE pluto!!!

 

[dizneeat]

What a fun dismeet!!! LOVE pluto!!!

It was an awesome day and an awesome DISmeet sprinkled with pixie dust!

 

[dizneeat]

Day 18, August 30

DREAM hospitality - Part 5

Soon enough it was time to head to the Skyline bar to meet with Debbie and Ileana.
We all settled in and ordered our drinks. Tom had

a beer, a 687, and Ileana and I got a cocktail with a glow cube in it.

Debbie was a bit disappointed, because she was the only one without a glow cube, so we all really had a good laugh, when, while she had gone to the restroom the server dropped a glow cube into her glass. There was a lot of laughing when she came back. We sat for far longer than we had expected and when we finally left we knew we had to hurry up for our dinner at Palo.
We signed in and again were asked to wait at Meridian. It didn’t take long and we were led inside the restaurant and Gabriella was right there to welcome us.
She took our order for drinks and we both ordered a glass of wine. After we had been served our drinks, Gabriella brought over the anti pasti cart. She explained everything she had on there and then started to fill a plate with yummy goodness.

There was Parma ham and Brescaola, black and green olives, marinated fennel and marinated red and yellow peppers. Then she piled some pieces of aged parmesan on top and topped everything with aged Balsamic. Next she brought over some

chive and basil infused butter and

a basket full of Palo’s freshly baked bread from their pizza oven,

Grissini sticks, olive and ciabatta rolls, and focaccia bread. We started tasting everything and nibbled our way through the Anti Pasti.
Since we had been eating a lot all day we were not sure if we should not skip the appetizer, but that did not sit well with Gabriella, so I ordered

a Pizza Margherita, Tomato sauce, Sliced Tomatoes and Mozzarella and Gabriella said, she would get Tom a surprise starter. What he got was

a starter sampler. There was some

Fritto Misto di Pesce con Olive all' Ascolana. deep-fried calamari, scallops, and mussels with lemon and deep-fried green olives, with delicious marinara dipping sauce,

some Sicilian Pesto Marinated Grilled Shrimp on a mussel, crab and cherry tomato ragu and

a Grilled Portobello Mushroom and Polenta with a Roasted Shallot Sauce and a parmesan crisp. Appetizer heaven! We took our time and worked through the wonderful food and once Gabriella had cleared our plates she brought out

the Palette Cleanser, a tart lime sorbet, which was really fresh and wonderful. It took a little time until our main courses were served and while we were sipping our wine, George, one of Palo’s sommeliers came over to say hello and chat with us for a while.
We talked about his home country of Romania and how he had come to be a sommelier with Disney Cruise Line. While we were still talking, Ann Marie came over to say hello as well.
She then went on to tell us that she personally had trained Gabriella and knew that she was taking good care of us. They both left when our main courses were served. Tom had ordered

the Osso Bucco di Vitello, slow-roasted center cut veal shank with gremolata and risotto Milanese, which not only looked wonderful but tasted really good as well. I had ordered an old favourite again,

the Beef Tenderloin "Palo" served with gorgonzola sauce. We also got

a small portion of the wonderful Lobster and Mascarpone Ravioli with a light truffle beurre blanc as well.
Our main courses were huge, but we took our time and slowly worked through the delicious food. Gabriella insisted on having dessert and so we both gave in and ordered the Chocolate Soufflé with Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Sauce, as it takes 20 minutes to make and left us a little time to catch our breath after eating so much.
While we sat and enjoyed the restaurant and the view, Andreas, the hotel director, who we knew that he was from Austria, walked through the restaurant and greeted every table. When he walked by our table we answered in German and he stopped instantly, turned back and stayed for a little chat as well. We learned that we were not the only Austrians on board, but that there was another whole group of Austrians on as well and that he had run into them by accident as well.
It was fun getting to know him and he even handed us his business card, just in case we should need something and he would be able to help. On a side note, it was fun to see how people at the other tables looked at us when we got so many visits of Cast Members.
It pays off to cruise for 11 nights. It didn’t take long for our desserts to arrive after Andreas had left us, and Gabriella poured the Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Sauces into the soufflé.

We both did our best but none of us was able to finish dessert. Before we left Gabriella brought out

a shot glass of Prosecco with a small scoop of lime sorbet as a digestive. We settled our bill and rolled back to our stateroom.
When we entered the stateroom we found another surprise.

To be continued ..........

 

[dizneeat]

Day 18, August 30

DREAM hospitality - Part 6

When we entered the stateroom we found another surprise.
There was a paper model of the Cabana we were to experience the next day.

It really made us even more excited for our Castaway Cay day, the next day. We changed into more comfortable clothes and then had to rest on the balcony for a while.
The ship was not moving much and it was very relaxing to just stare into the night. It was pirate’s night that evening and even though we were not too impressed by the pirate party they held, we love to watch the fireworks at sea. So we walked two decks up and found a nice spot to enjoy the party and the fireworks.

The fireworks were awesome as always and you could tell that party guests thoroughly enjoyed them by all the aahs and oohs you could hear. Once the fireworks were over, the shortest way back to our stateroom was through Cabanas where they were ready to welcome guests to the Pirate Buffet after the firworks. We were too stuffed to even look at the buffet and “fled” to our stateroom where we enjoyed a little more time on the balcony before we gave in and went to bed.


To be continued ..........

 

[jenseib]

YUM! I don't know how you ate so much...but it all sounds good. I really want to try one of their famous pizzas too.

 

[dizneeat]

YUM! I don't know how you ate so much...but it all sounds good. I really want to try one of their famous pizzas too.

It was definitely a day of food overload! And since there were quite a few times where we just chilled, it seems like we were constantly eating, but our meals were a bit more "spaced" than it seems on here.

I don't think Palo does the pizzas for dinner any more. But I think they are still there for brunch.

 

[KatMark]

I have to admit that I now skim the food porn...I swear I gain five pounds every time I look at it.

Great firework pictures.

 

[dizneeat]

I have to admit that I now skim the food porn...I swear I gain five pounds every time I look at it.

Great firework pictures.

If you skim the food pics than you will love the next day .... lots of awesome Cabana pics!

 

[pinkxray]

How funny that the Cpt reads the Disboards. I would love to know where DCL will head next. I really wish they would cruise out of NYC to Bermuda. Maybe you can get the inside scoop when you cruise in August?

All of your food looks sooooooooo good. I want to book a cruise just so we can eat at Palo brunch.

I love those little paper cabanas. What a great idea to make you even more excited for the next day

 

[annmarieda]

I too am wondering how you are eating all this food! And... is it just me or do the meals look like they are including more and more food each time?

 

[dizneeat]

How funny that the Cpt reads the Disboards. I would love to know where DCL will head next. I really wish they would cruise out of NYC to Bermuda. Maybe you can get the inside scoop when you cruise in August?

All of your food looks sooooooooo good. I want to book a cruise just so we can eat at Palo brunch.

I love those little paper cabanas. What a great idea to make you even more excited for the next day

I was "shocked" that he knew the DISboards even existed, let alone that he reads them.
He wasn't giving us much information though, he just wanted to "gather ideas".
All the cruise food is so yummy. And Palo brunch is one of the best meals on the ship!
I really hope you get to do it on your next Disney cruise.

I too am wondering how you are eating all this food! And... is it just me or do the meals look like they are including more and more food each time?

Well, the sea air makes you very hungry, Ann.
Looking at all the photos I posted of that day it really looks like a HUGE amount of food, but the portions are not as large as they may seem and it did not mean we finished everything on our plates.
Plus there are still hours in between and we did a lot of running up and down the ship delivering FEgifts and playing the detective games.

 

[annmarieda]

Well, the sea air makes you very hungry, Ann.

I will keep this in mind.