Nothing special for the morning, so we slept in till almost 9am. We headed up to Topsiders for breakfast. From there Madison was all for trying out the Oceaneers Club.
Now let me back track a bit here. I was unable to score Palo reservations online before we left. So when we got on the ship Saturday, I went to the Rockin D Bar to see if we could get some. No Problem!!!
So I got reservations for us at 7:00PM Tuesday night. Well, lo n behold they changed Pirate Party to Tuesday night for our cruise. We all had costumes (which I am still deciding whether I should scare, I mean share with you!). This has been one of the big pre-highlights for Madison. We all sort of have costumes. I cannot send her to kids club and totally miss the pirate dinner for a bit of selfishness on my part. Could I? No
.I am all about being the best Nana on board. So I went to Guest Relations to cancel and they said they would have someone from Palo call to see if there would be something else available.
Back to our day; Papa and I were walking around and noticed we were pulling into Key West.
We decided to go up to deck 10 to get a better look. Off to the port side we saw two very small islands. The first is our dream island;
we most definitely could not afford a house. But maybe island number 2?
As we walked around we noticed people including Pppiglets son coming out from the Palo Brunch. While were here, maybe we should check to see if they got our message. The young man at the counter said he had just hung up from trying to call us. Well can we find another day? How about Friday? No, we are booked. They had Monday, but that is formal night and Madison had such a beautiful dress.. do you see a pattern here? The cruise is all about Madison. He could fit us in at 7pm tonight! Should we, could we? What if Madison doesnt like kids club? Oh, lets take it. So we were on for tonight. We walked out on the starboard side and took in some more of Key West. At that moment the pager went off. Madison would like to be picked up from kids club. Yikes, shes only been there an hour! What could that mean for tonight? So picked up Madison, she said she had fun, but she was done for now. So we decided to head off the ship for a little trek around Key West.
Why do we have to get off the ship? Cant we just stay here and go swimming or something else? I cant see, the sun is too bright, its not this bright on the ship. At this point we are about 10feet from the gangplank. We had only planned on a short trek, so Nana and Papa prevail in this and off we go.
Little Madison Big Ship
Men, I am sure you might want to skip this paragraph. Have I mentioned I have been glistening since we landed in Orlando? Within 25 ft of the pier, you could wring my clothes out. Now here I might interject there might be a small bit of peri-menopause involved. WHAT? Youve never heard of peri-menopause? This is the time before menopause, when you are still dealing with all the other things you feel a woman of your age doesnt deserve to be dealing with. Im sure by now all my eggs are way too rotten to be birthin any babies. Then to this you add hot flashes, night sweats, day and afternoon sweats and facial hair. Sounds fun, doesnt it!
So I am sweating, I mean I am walking with my family into Key West. We really didnt have any plans beyond finding the Blonde Giraffe to have a Key Lime Pie dipped in chocolate on a stick!
We walked a couple of blocks and came upon the Shipwreck Historeum. This was an interesting place but I think the price was rather high. It was $11 for adults and $5 for kids. We had to wait a bit for the next show, so I tried a key limeade. I needed to replace fluids! The show was the employees acting out a little skit on how Mr. Tift would hire divers. They needed to stay underwater for 6 minutes. There was more to the skit and then you go inside and see things that were brought up from wrecks and the history of divers. It was interesting, but $11 was a bit too high. You then get to climb the 65 ft high tower. The views of Key West from there were wonderful.
We went down to a souvenir shop across the way, spent a bit and were on our way.
We came upon the Pirate Soul museum and gift shop. We shopped, we didnt muse. Next door was the Rum Barrel Restaurant. I can highly recommend it. I had the crab cake sandwich, it was fantastic. Papa had the Coconut shrimp (on the appetizer menu) and he too enjoyed them immensely. Madison ordered the Octopus hot dog. Now why I did not take a picture of this, I will never know. They cut into the hot dog about ¾ of the way through with slits. Then when they grilled the hot dog, the sections curled up. The look on Madisons face was priceless. Yeah, I didnt even take a picture of her!
We continued around the corner and found the Blonde Giraffe. WoooooHoooo, Key Lime Pie dipped in chocolate on a stick was wonderful. We made a loop and headed back to the ship. Papa, I mean Madison needed a nap!
Since Madison was overtired, she began the whining about how she wasnt tired and really didnt want to go to kids club any way. (WHAT?? NO PALA?) So being the grown up that I am, I say Well fine, Papa and I really didnt want to go out to dinner by ourselves, but you still have to lay down! That showed her! Not happy, she lay down but never did go to sleep. Could it be Papas snoring that kept her awake? I asked her if she wanted to take a shower and grateful for a reprieve, she jumped up right away. As I was helping her in the shower, I told her it was her last chance to decide if she wanted to go out to dinner with the kids club and then stay around and play. Of course she wanted to go! So I got her over there minutes before they were leaving for dinner. Im going to Pala!!
Papa got up to Palo about 4 minutes before our reservation, where we read the sign dress shirts or jackets required. Now I must say, Papa looked quite nice, but he was wearing neither of the requirements. So in his best imitation of Speedy Gonzales, he hurried on down to change. We were escorted to our table which was right next to a table for 4 in which two dh were not in dress shirts or jackets! Oh well!
Our waiter was Rishi. He was a bit stiff at first but then loosened up and we really enjoyed his service. We started out with a Bellini, a sparkling white wine with white peaches, quite yummie and bread with 3 different dipping sauces. I enjoyed them all. I d like to give a hint here, taste everything, but you probably dont want to eat it all. Well, maybe you do, but dont. There is still way more to come. Initially we were going to drink iced tea with dinner. But Rishi said since we enjoyed sparkling wines, we might want to try the red sparkling wine from Italy. (Note here: If anyone is going on the cruise soon and is going to Palo, I believe this was the 3 wine down on the left side of the list, could you please get the name of it for us?) We drank the whole bottle easily! Now there are the chefs choices, the waiters choice and your own. Papa had the lightly breaded fried calamari and I had the grilled Portobello mushroom on polenta. And Rishi thought we should try the Margherita Pizza. The crust is very light and crispy. All were wonderful. (Dont forget, nibbling is good!) I was starting to feel a bit stuffed and the entrée was still to come. For dinner I had the Filet Mignon with a Chianti reduction. Papa had salmon and of course Rishi thought we should taste the Gnocchi! Yikes!! My filet melts in the mouth. I have ONE gnocchi and continue with my filet. Okay, maybe just one more gnocchi and then I finish my filet. OOOOffff. I am stuffed right about now.
Rishi is back, how about dessert? I can barely breathe. I had to have the infamous chocolate soufflé. Papa ordered the Crème Brule cheesecake. I am having difficulty breathing and here comes Rishi, with the cheesecake and 2 chocolate soufflé. This brought tears to my eyes. Was I choked up at Rishis kindness? Was it total bliss and happiness? Oh no, these were tears of complete sadness and heartbreak. I watched as Rishi broke into the two hot, steamy soufflés. In one he poured vanilla sauce and in the other chocolate sauce. I literally had to force myself to take a bite of each I was so full. But from that one taste, I highly recommend the chocolate sauce. Oh did I mention, mid way through dinner a man came in wearing the same exact shirt Papa went down to change out of?
About this time we notice it is almost time for the infamous Key West sunset. Luckily we are sitting on the right side of the ship. But it is starting to get quite crowded with other passengers parking themselves in front of my view!!! It is at this moment that the Magic sets sail and after backing up a bit proceeds to turn around and we didnt get to see it any way.
As we are waddling, I mean walking out of Palo we realize that Madison has been at kids club for over 3 hours! We head over and can see that the kids are having a great time. Madison and the others were coloring pillowcases from the Goofy party and she was not done. She wanted us to come back a little later! We walked around the deck for awhile, looked at some of the art that was to be auctioned and just tried to get rid of the overeating feeling.
We came back in a half hour and headed up to the room to see what critter Laurel left us.
We slept late again, but it is a sea day, so no problem. We headed up to Topsiders for the late sleepers breakfast
..
Next up, our first sea day.
Time to stop thinking of frozen drinks in Cancun... 
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