8/4 Magic--Day 6--Thursday, at sea

[miksicnarf]

Today was our character breakfast, at 9:45 in Parrot Cay. Of course only Alex and I wanted to go Aleksander seemed to be in a much better mood—maybe he’s a morning person, or maybe he’s just elated at two meals in a row without Michael…hehehe. Antonia was missing, and when we asked about her we were upset to learn that she’d fallen in the kitchen the night before and hurt her back, and Aleksander didn’t know if or when she’d be able to return to work He was very impressed with my camera and couldn’t take his eyes off it, said he’d never seen such a professional-looking camera and it put the ship’s photographers’ gear to shame. (It’s a Canon EOS Elan 7e—not really a pro camera but rather impressive looking with the vertical grip and 28-135mm Image Stabilization lens.) Alex ordered the kids’ special, I don’t remember exactly what it was but it included those hockey-puck waffles and liquid scrambled eggs. I had some combo special that was OK—at least my scrambled eggs were cooked properly. The food was brought to the table instantly, and the whole meal had a distinctly rushed feel to it. Truth be told, all the meals were rather rushed. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto in the restaurant. Minnie and Goofy seemed to be working our side of the room, with Mickey and Pluto on the opposite side. Minnie and Goofy came to our table fairly quickly, but it looked doubtful that Mickey and Pluto would make it. Chip and Dale entered the restaurant briefly, greeted a few tables then disappeared and were never seen again. I have to wonder, why is that character breakfast not flooded with characters who make a point of getting to every table? The entire place was filled and emptied in under an hour and a half, could they not spare a few more CMs for that length of time? As quickly as the food was served, we were still eating when an announcement was made: “We hope you enjoyed your breakfast…goodbye.” Alex said she felt like she’d just been named the weakest link. We were determined to get pictures with Mickey and Pluto, though, so we stood our ground until they eventually made it to our table. Overall it was a nice opportunity to see some characters without waiting in the lines at the scheduled meet and greets (even Alex isn’t enthusiastic enough to do that), but there’s plenty of room for improvement.
It was very, VERY hot today. I couldn’t find a lounge chair at the pool, so I went up to deck 10 for a bit. The buffet today was seafood, which Alex and Michael had been looking forward to and they weren’t disappointed—tons of shrimp, crab claws and crawfish. Today was the mini 2-on-2 basketball tournament the boys had been looking forward to, and Michael and I watched them play. Unfortunately they were put up against the two best players in the group, and they lost It was so extremely hot, I was just glad to see they didn’t collapse with heat stroke. Alex had gone to the Lab to make a commercial.
Alex and I went to play bingo for the first time at 4:15 in Rockin’ Bar D. We enjoyed drinks in the cool bar while waiting, and before the games started Michael and Mikey joined us. We didn’t have any luck, but it was fun I noticed the waitress knew Michael and what he wanted to drink, so I got a pretty good idea what he’d been doing with his time. He said that the bartenders and servers he encountered were all excellent and he felt their service was far superior to our dinner servers. Since Andrew wasn’t with us, we had fun scamming him for the rest of the evening, telling him we’d won the jackpot
We all went together to see Disney Dreams at 6:30. I thought it was a nice show, but after all the acclaim I’d read, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
The guys weren’t enthusiastic about going to the semi-formal dinner tonight, but agreed to do so with the understanding that they would be eating in the room tomorrow, our last night. Fine with me. Michael wore a suit and tie, I wore a long white linen dress, Alex wore a long, embroidered powder blue dress and the boys wore dockers with nice shirts. We were in Animator’s Palate, but no light show tonight. We were happy to see Antonia back in business, although she said she was taking some strong medication and didn’t quite seem herself, poor thing. This was the Captain’s Gala menu, featuring twin lobster tails. Michael and Alex ordered them; Mikey and I had beef tenderloin and Andrew had chicken. The garden fresh salad was outstanding, I think the best salad I’ve ever had. It had dried tomato slices and a balsamic dressing that was just excellent. Far and away, though, the culinary highlight of the cruise for me was tonight’s dessert: warm chocolate lava cake. If you’re a dessert lover like me, and/or a chocoholic, DO NOT miss this dessert! Order as many as you can, and request it every night! Hold your breath and threaten to jump overboard if you don’t get it! It’s that good. IMO, there’s no comparison between the chocolate lava cake and Palo’s chocolate soufflé. If I could assemble the ideal meal based on my dining experience onboard, it would be tonight’s salad for starters, the grilled pork tenderloin from formal night and of course the chocolate lava cake for dessert.
After dinner Alex and I went to see the under-18 talent show in Off Beat. The place was packed so we didn’t get great seats. It was cute, a few young people sang and one boy did magic tricks. Michael and Mikey went to Treasure Ketch and bought a beautiful watch for our niece Lizzie. She’s Michael’s Godchild; they live in VA and we’d be seeing them in the FL Keys when we got off the cruise. It’s a numbered, limited edition 2001 DCL watch with helmsman Mickey on the face, and it comes in a great case molded in the shape of a coiled rope, with Mickey on top and Disney Cruise Line 2001 on one side and an anchor on the other. It was originally $125, on sale for $60—an outstanding bargain! He also bought two of the men’s version, one for himself and one for a business associate who’s a Disney buff. Alex really liked the watch, so she and I went to Treasure Ketch and got one for her. Then the boys decided they wanted one too, so Michael went back and bought the last of the men’s watches…I think there were just a few of the women’s left and we were tempted to snatch them all up but since I’d gotten my Rolex I didn’t want to be a watch hog
Michael went to his hangout, ESPN. I’d already seen tonight’s movie, Pearl Harbor, so I spent some time at the Internet Café and then just read in the suite and enjoyed the verandah, knowing all too soon it was coming to an end…