PLEASE! Whistle while you work Update Day 6 - 06/16

[dizneeat]

Checked out the menu on allears and I see a couple of things I would like , so feeling more at ease now !!

I am glad you found it, Rosie and found something you like. The menu is not bad, but just our least favourite.

 

[Mom&RN]

Even though the pirate dinner isn't your favorite it sounds like you got lots of extra time with Ana! The desserts off the buffet later that night looked delicious

 

[annmarieda]

Between dinner and then the buffet... you must have been stuffed!!! I have to say though the pirate menu doesn't seem quite as impressive...

Fireworks look very pretty.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Just learned you had started a new TR. I signed on as soon as possible!
I have been in Florida for 5 weeks, just returned & am now trying to get caught up before I start on my TR.

 

[dizneeat]

Even though the pirate dinner isn't your favorite it sounds like you got lots of extra time with Ana! The desserts off the buffet later that night looked delicious

It's not that the Pirate dinner is not a nice one as well, it is just the one that appeals the least to us. But for the chance of spending more time with Ana we even could "find" something on that menu.
We always want to do the buffet, but usually are just too stuffed as we usually have late dinner seating. This time we were lucky, since we had early seating and there had been more than 4 hours between meals.
The desserts were really yummy btw.

Between dinner and then the buffet... you must have been stuffed!!! I have to say though the pirate menu doesn't seem quite as impressive...

Fireworks look very pretty.

Ann, since we had early dinner seating (5.45!! ) and the buffet were about 5 hours, so time to "digest".

About the menu - it is just that I am not very keen on some of the combinations. And being European I am still hesitant about asking for substitutions. (Here, you order what's on the menu and that's it - no swapping around of items, well maybe fries for mash or something )

The fireworks on board are so neat! They cannot be compared to the ones in the park, but for fireworks out at sea they are just absolutely awesome.

Just learned you had started a new TR. I signed on as soon as possible!
I have been in Florida for 5 weeks, just returned & am now trying to get caught up before I start on my TR.

I am glad to have you back, Doris. But I have to say, that your vacation went by soooooooo fast. Hope you had a lot of fun ..... can't wait for your TR.

 

[dizneeat]

Half term vacation 2013, Feb 16 - Feb 24

Day 5, February 20

“See you in Austria” - part 1

We slept in a little because we had had a late night the day before and did not need to be anywhere until 10.30.
So around 8.30 we finally got up, showered and got dressed. Our fish extender was full again, so we took our gifts inside and opened them together.
I started putting away things and in no time it was 10am and we needed to get ready for brunch at Palo. We changed into our Palo clothes and at 10.20 we made our way up to the restaurant. Since it is only two decks up we arrived there in ample time.
Signing in we were greeted with “Oh, you dined with us before and we have made sure you got the same server!” Yeah, well, lady we have dined here before, just not on this trip and having good connections helps as well. We were asked to take a seat in Meridian and so we did. It did not take long until we were asked to follow a greeter inside the restaurant, which seemed pretty empty.
Only the tables by the window were filled with guests and it made for a quiet low key atmosphere. Our table was in one of the booths and the greeter suggested I’d slide through, so I was to have a better view of the ocean and we would not have to communicate across the table. I did, but what a mistake, it made “crawling” in and out to get to the buffet such a pain. We were left to enjoy the view and pretty soon a familiar face walked over to our table, Matija.
It was so nice to see Ana’s husband again and to chat a little before we started our tour of the buffet. Not that we have not been a few times and know what to expect, but it is nice to hear all the recommendations again. At the end Matija asked what we would like to drink and Tom got some coffee,

while I stuck with water

as I didn’t feel like their tea. We were also asked if we wanted a glass of sparkling wine or a Mimosa and we both went with the Mimosa.
Matija had pointed out some nice sweet continental breakfast treats, so we decided to taste a few of them first. Tom picked

some Muesli with fresh berries and a bit of freshly whipped cream on top,

a strudel,

a brioche type, cream filled pastry and hot sticky bun, while I went for

some fresh berries and cream, a slice of pineapple,

a hot sticky bun and

a fruity Danish pastry. Everything was very good and once we had finished our first plate we went to pick up some savoury stuff.
There were so many wonderful things to choose from and we really filled our plates.

Tom had some crab legs, a Bloody Mary shrimp shooter, Prosciutto and melon, grilled vegetables and Mozzarella and tomatoes, some nice round breads topped with spices and olives, seared tuna, scallops, green asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and topped with Hollandaise, some Boursin cheese and some smoked salmon. On my plate

there was

some of the wonderful walnut and blue cheese bread, some fresh Mozzarella and tomato, grilled vegetables,

marinated mushrooms, gorgonzola and Boursin cheese, smoked salmon, some shrimp and cocktail sauce, marinated artichokes, seared tuna and

green asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, topped with Hollandaise. Matija stopped by whenever he had time to chat about the restaurant they are planning to open in their home town of Dubrovnic and about his top secret plans of taking Ana to Austria either late this year or the next.
Our plates were pretty full and it took us some time to empty them again. When we finally ordered one of Palo’s famous pizzas we knew there was no way we could fit any of their other wonderful warm courses in. Thankfully it took a few minutes until our “half and half” pizza arrived at the table. We had ordered

half a goats cheese and sun dried tomato pizza and

half a gorgonzola and red grape pizza with red wine reduction swirls. Both halves were really tasty, but we were getting full already and only were able to sample one slice of each pizza. Since we still had two slices of pizza sitting on the plate we were not immediately asked if we wanted something else, but after a few minutes Matija asked if we intended on finishing off the pizza or were thinking about dessert.
Yes, there was still dessert to conquer.
We told him that we had finished the pizza and were now heading to pick up some desserts. Tom chose

some berries, which, if I am not mistaken, were soaked in some kind of alcohol, a bite size tasting of “Sacher” Torte, a chocolate covered strawberry, Matija’s favourite chewy brownie and some chocolate mousse. Desserts are my favourite and I could not pass up

the Tiramisu, chewy brownie, “Sacher” Torte and a chocolate covered strawberry. All the desserts were absolutely heavenly, but it was soon time to ask for the bill. Matija brought it round and he brought something else, a plate. He put down a napkin, so it would stand up and when he put the plate on the table he said, that he promised to fulfil what was written on the plate. “See you in Austria”.

We were blown away, what a wonderful and cute idea and we could not even tell Ana about it, as he still kept his travel plans a secret from her. And after applying a hefty tip we said goodbye to Matija and Palo for that trip. We wobbled back to our stateroom and changed into some more comfortable clothes and rested for a while out on the balcony.

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

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Wow, how wonderful they will visit you in Austria!! Who cares about Palo when news like that comes along!

Beautiful photos, Karin!

 

[jenseib]

wonderful looking meal. I did try the pizza and wow, it was great!

I am so excited that your friends are planning to visit you.

 

[englishrose47]

The Blue cheese Pizza is definitely calling my name !! The tiramusu too !!! Those wonderful plates you both had !!! Just yummy !! What a wonderful surprise about the Visit !!! When will they be coming ???

 

[Teri1]

I love the Palo brunch. I sure hope we get to eat there on our next trip.

 

[annmarieda]

Your meal looks amazing!

How fun to know Matija's "secret plans".

 

[NorCalGal]

Hi Karin:
Just wanted to say Hi! I've lurked on your reports before , but wanted to say that I love how you post pictures of ALL your food (where were the pictures of your breakfast from home - I love those.)

Sorry to interrupt, on with the show!

 

[scottny]

Ooh! Jack walking down the beach. Nice.
I love the chairs in the water.
What a nice day. Cabana, dinner and fireworks. Seems perfect.
That meal looked good at Palo and how nice what the plate said.
Great updates and pics.

 

[dizneeat]

Wow, how wonderful they will visit you in Austria!! Who cares about Palo when news like that comes along!

Beautiful photos, Karin!

They still have one more contract on the DREAM (they are on vacation at the moment) before they start their own business in Croatia. But their visit is something to look forward to.

wonderful looking meal. I did try the pizza and wow, it was great!

I am so excited that your friends are planning to visit you.

Cruising will not be the same without them, but at least we have their promise to come and see us. And once they have started their restaurant, we will go visit them too!
Palo brunch is just awesome. Sooooo many wonderful choices. Their pizza is really nice too and it is awesome that they offer you to make it a half and half pizza. Two great choices for the price of one.

The Blue cheese Pizza is definitely calling my name !! The tiramusu too !!! Those wonderful plates you both had !!! Just yummy !! What a wonderful surprise about the Visit !!! When will they be coming ???

This pizza is awesome, Rosie. I wish they had it on a menu in the dining room too - I would have it every night.
Palo brunch has so many awesome choices. We really really enjoy eating there.

I love the Palo brunch. I sure hope we get to eat there on our next trip.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a perfect reservation time, Teresa. With three sea days you should have a good chance of getting the date and time you want!

 

[dizneeat]

Your meal looks amazing!

How fun to know Matija's "secret plans".

Ann, the food offerings they have are amazing! And not just mousse for dessert!
Ana has talked about wanting to come and visit Upper Austria, but she had NO idea, Matija is already planning the trip!

Hi Karin:
Just wanted to say Hi! I've lurked on your reports before , but wanted to say that I love how you post pictures of ALL your food (where were the pictures of your breakfast from home - I love those.)

Sorry to interrupt, on with the show!

Hi!
I am so glad you came out of lurkdom and are in on the fun!

It's nice to hear that you enjoy all my food pics, I guess you can tell that I started out on the restaurant boards here.

More coming up shortly!

Ooh! Jack walking down the beach. Nice.
I love the chairs in the water.
What a nice day. Cabana, dinner and fireworks. Seems perfect.
That meal looked good at Palo and how nice what the plate said.
Great updates and pics.

We have seen Captain Jack walking along the beach a few times. So fun! Makes for a very special island paradise feeling.
It really was a perfect day.

Palo brunch is always great. We try not to miss it on a cruise!

 

[dizneeat]

Half term vacation 2013, Feb 16 - Feb 24

Day 5, February 20

“See you in Austria” - part 2

We wobbled back to our stateroom and changed into some more comfortable clothes and rested for a while out on the balcony. And after that we went down to browse the shops one more time. I did not intend to buy any more stuff, since we already had done our shopping, but we had another look at the Dooney and Bourke bags they sold and one last look at the Chamilia charms. I had bought all the DCL ones on the first day after booking our Med cruise and we were just having another look. This time a very nice cast member engaged us in a conversation and told us that they had several more charms and had we seen those. She picked them out and low and behold they were either some we had not seen before or ones I had wanted to order online at home. We thought for a while about which to buy, but then they were exactly the same in Dollars as they were in Euro so we decided to get them all.
6 Chamilia charms later we headed over to the other shop where Oxana worked and we said goodbye to her and handed her more chocolates. Again, hugs were in order before we left the store. We very quickly headed back to our stateroom to drop off our new purchases before we hotfooted it down to D-Lounge for the cooking presentation.



Again, this was something that we had done before, but it is fun to watch and when we arrived the lounge was already pretty full. We found a table towards the side and in the back, were able to exchange the pretty uncomfortable chairs to regular ones and within a few minutes we were listening to the presentation of how to make Lobster Ravioli.





They hand out samples of



the Ravioli and



a glass of wine to go with it and who would be serving the wine other than Diago, the cast member who had served us our drinks on Castaway Cay.
I asked if he enjoyed this “office” as much as Castaway Cay and we all shared a laugh. Once the presentation was over we walked over to the art shop and took a picture of our favourite Stitch artwork.



Then we walked outside to the promenade deck




to enjoy the early afternoon. We sat down on the lounge chairs and just enjoyed the day. It was awesome to see how clean and neat the ship looked. Even looking up there was not one spec of dirt to be seen. After a while we decided to try and find the Outlook bar.
Up we went to deck 12 and looking for the correct funnel where it should be located. Funnel found we did not see an elevator going up, so we walked outside again to look if there was another entrance, but since there was not, we went back and gave the elevators a closer look and low and behold one of the elevators goes up to Outlook.
We took the elevator up and found out it was closed, tried the door and yip, it opened. It is a beautiful room and view is just awesome. We looked around, took quite some photos, and enjoyed the comfy chairs and view for a while.





















Our next stop was the Cove Café. We both felt like trying another coffee treat. Tom got an actual coffee Martini,



the Espresso Martini - Absolut Vanilla, Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Frangelico and Espresso, while I then decided to try



a Toblerontini - Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Frangelico, Baileys, Kahlua and Honey. Both were delicious and we enjoyed them a lot while people watching from our table. We sat for about half an hour enjoying our drinks and then finally left walking towards our stateroom.
Tom had not had a Hot Dog yet and I tried hard to talk him into one, but he just didn’t feel like one.
Instead we picked up



a few wraps to enjoy on our veranda. Once back in our stateroom we picked up some drinks from the fridge, and sat outside on the veranda,



enjoying



the Chicken Caesar Wrap and



a Tuna Salad Wrap. Since there was still time to do so, I continued to pack some more things until it was time to get dressed for dinner.

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

 

[englishrose47]

I am HOME!!! The update was awesome as ever !!!The Outlook seems very quieth tright it was closed

 

[dizneeat]

I am HOME!!! The update was awesome as ever !!!The Outlook seems very quieth tright it was closed

Welcome home, Rosie!
I am glad you liked the update! Outlook is awesome, we are going to try it for sunset on our next cruise (this is when they are supposed to be open )

 

[ChristinaDK]

Can you remember what the price for the stitch painting.

 

[dizneeat]

Can you remember what the price for the stitch painting.

I think it was around $500,-