A Veritable Explosion of Pixie Dust:Our Land and Sea Extravaganza--Update(6/12)

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We stepped outside and waited about ten minutes for a bus.

On the drive back, we went through some of the less tourist-friendly parts of town.

Soon, we were back at the straw market, which you have to walk through to get back on the ship.

And then it was back to our home away from home!

Up next: Room service and sunset at sea

 

[wiigirl]

Love the pics!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Love the pics!

Thank you!!

 

[fnrsgrl]

A Beautiful Sunset at Sea
Monday, May 21: Part Three​

When we arrived back to our room, we had FE gifts waiting. Here is some of what we got:

Candy from New Zealand and some beautiful homemade cards

A bookmark with my favorite character

Some bath salts

A set of bubble toys

A colorful photo holder and some magnets and bookmarks

And a lovely embroidered handkerchief

We were still pretty hungry since the conch fritters were mostly inedible, so we decided to order room service. I absolutely love the 24-hour room service on the ship. It's nice to be able to eat whenever you are hungry! While we were waiting, we showered and changed clothes. The food came very quickly. We ordered:

A club sandwich, which was average.

A steak sandwich and some wings, neither of which we liked.

And the All Hands on Deck cheese plate, which was delicious!

Here is how the ketchup came:

After we ate, we had just enough time for a short nap before we had to get ready for the evening's show. Before we left, I took a pic from the verandah of Nassau off in the distance.

I also took this quick video, which shows Nassau in the distance and the view of the bridge from our verandah.

We headed down to the Walt Disney Theater for the show, which was Villains Tonight.

I know a lot of people don't care for this show, but we loved it! It was really funny and different; it had a good bit of humor that, while clean, appealed more to adults than children. We thought it was nice to have a show that was a little more geared toward people our age.

After the show, we decided to use the free time before dinner to explore a bit. First, we checked out the Buena Vista Theater while it was empty.

They were all prepared for the big 3D movie showing that night, which you will hear about a little later.

We took a quick stroll past the lobby on our way to check out the adult area. There was a live jazz singer in the lobby, and Minnie was all dressed up and signing autographs one deck up.

Continued in next post

 

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Next, we walked thorugh the adult area, checking out the different clubs and lounges, which actually did have a few people in them. This is Skyline:

Evolution:

There was a little snack area back there as well.

It had chips and dips and wings.

This is the sports bar, 687:

And, lastly, we wandered into Pink, where a lovely CM offered to take our picture.

I apologize for the blurriness of the photos. It was very dim back there, and I didn't want to disturb the customers, so I took them very quickly and without flash. We wandered back out of that area and past the D Lounge, making our way into an adorable little art gallery that had the most amazing things.

Most of the pieces were on silent auction, but a few were just for regular sale. I seriously wish I had the kind of money necessary to purchase something. It was all just so cool!

Continued in next post

 

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As we walked out of the gallery and headed back toward the lobby, we stumbled upon something that ended up being my absolute favorite experience of the trip. We noticed that quite a few people we going through a door out onto the promenade deck, and wondered what in the world they were all doing out there, so we took a peek. Lo and behold, the sun was setting, and it was absolutely stunning--truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We took a ton of pictures, and a thoughtful passenger even took one for us.

Here's a shot back toward Nassau:

And a couple of the deck area:

Seriously pictues do not do that sunset justice, nor can words even begin to describe how spectacular it was! The ambience out on the deck was lovely, too. Here is a short video I took that attempts to capture both. I don't think I will ever forget that moment as long as I live!

Up next: A royal dinner

 

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A Magnificent Meal and a "Marvel"-ous Movie
Monday, May 21: Part Four​

After our view of the sunset, we headed down to our dinner at the Royal Palace.

It was definitely the prettiest of the rotation restaurants. My favorite decoration was the Cinderella shoe chandelier.

We began with the bread service, which was warm Herb Brioche with an olive spread. I don't like olives, so I just put butter on it, but the bread was really good.

The menus were gorgeous!

I ordered the Princess Delight, which was passion fruit juice with mango puree. It was absolutely fantastic! It was very tart, but in a refreshing way.

We ordered, and soon the appetizers came up. Beth ordered the Double Baked Spinach Souffle. I don't remember how she liked it, but I'm pretty sure she ate it all!

Dad and I had the Pomegranate Glazed Duck Breast. I loved it, but hated the "gelee" cubes. I have no idea what is in them, but they were gross! Dad did not care for the duck at all--it just wasn't his thing.

Mom had the Royal Market Green Salad, which she enjoyed.

Josh had the Iced Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp, and he loved it!

We all decided to be adventurous and tried the Escargots Gratinees. These actually weren't bad. They tasted like slightly chewy, garlicky mushrooms. I would eat them again.

Next, I had Avocado-Citrus Salad. This was very tasty, but the avocado had a lot of browning. I'm not sure if this was bruising or oxidation or if they had gone bad, but I didn't want to risk getting sick, so I ate around them. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the salad.

Next were the entrees. I think this is the Mushroom Pasta in a Vegetable Broth. I don't remember who had it or how good it was.

Mom had the Double Cut Rack of Lamb. She liked it.

I had the Roasted Wild Boar Tenderloin. It was okay, definitely not my favorite thing I ate on the trip.

Josh had the Royal Palace Aged Beef Tenderloin. He enjoyed it.

This is how the dessert menu came out:

Several of us(including me) had the Sweet Temptations trio, which was Peanut Butter Mousse, Mango Cheesecake and Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee. I loved the Peanut Butter Mousse, and thought the others were good but not great.

I also had the Grand Marnier Souffle, which was incredible!

Continued in next post

 

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Josh had the full-size Creme Brulee, which he really liked.

Mom had the Strawberry Short Cake Sundae, which she enjoyed.

After dinner, the big activity that everyone was excited about on the ship was a screening of The Avengers, which was brand-new at the time. Everyone else was really looking forward to it, but I'm not into superhero movies, so I was just going along for the sake of togetherness. We were cutting it a little close time-wise and Josh and I hadn't given out our FE gifts for the night yet, so we decided I would go give them out while everyone else went to the theater and I could catch up later. I went back to the room to pick up the gifts and found this on the bed.

On this night we were giving everyone pirate gift bags in preparation for Pirate Day the next day. Each bag contained an eyepatch, a plastic skull ring and two gold chocolate coins. We gave these to everyone except for one very small child because I was worried he might choke. We gave him Goldfish crackers.

During this time, I had another IBS emergency and went back to the room to take care of that. By the time I headed over to the theater, the movie had started 30 minutes previously. When I got there, there was a family outside talking about how there were no seats available. No way I was fighting for a seat to see a movie I didn't care about! I decided just to walk around and check out the ship at night.

Remember the Titans was on Funnelvision.

The lobby was totally empty!

My little walk was really nice and peaceful and, when I was done, I went back to the room, took a shower and sat down on the verandah to watch the ocean. Waiting for me were a few more FE gifts. A tote bag:

And some candy in a Disney popcorn bag.

Eventually, Josh came back and he was thrilled! He loved the movie! We both went to bed pretty quickly as it was quite late!

Up nextirate Day!

 

[fnrsgrl]

So Many Choices!
Tuesday, May 22: Part One​

Tuesday was our day at sea, and we actually slept in! We had known we would need some sleep by this point in our vacation, so we didn't schedule our day to start until late morning. Once we got up and dressed, I went and took some pictures of our big, blue surroundings from the verandah.

No land in sight!

We had a reservation for brunch at Palo, so we headed to the main lobby area to switch elevators. On our way through, we saw CM's setting up for "Jack-Jack's Diaper Dash", where they put babies on this rug and see who crawls to the end first. If we weren't eating, we would have stayed and watched--it sounds hilarious!

We got into the appropriate elevator and rode up to Deck 12, where we quickly checked in to Palo.

Here's the gorgeous light fixture, which is supposed to resemble spaghetti.

The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous, and we were seated immediately, right next to the line of windows!

The brunch was amazing! There were so many choices, and everything was unique and beautiful.

Here are the items that you can order:

And the dessert buffet:

Our server was wonderful! He was actually friends with Kruno, our regular server, and they had roomed together when they first started out. He was really friendly, but also really efficient. He took our drink orders, and led us through the buffet, and then we grabbed our plates and started in.

Here is my first plate, which has(clockwise from top): a cream puff, cherry almond bread, muesli, melon wrapped in prosciutto, crackers with smoked gouda and herb cheeses, blue cheese and walnut bread, and some watermelon and pineapple. I didn't care for the melon and prosciutto or the walnut bread, everything else was delicious, and the cheeses and the muesli were spectacular. I couldn't get enought of that muesli!

Josh's first plate had something I can't identify, some scallops, mozzarella and tomatoes, toast point with caviar, melon wrapped in prosciutto, blue cheese and walnut bread, crackers with herb cheese and port wine cheese, peel and eat shrimp and crab legs. It was his first time trying caviar, and he didn't really care for it. He also didn't like the blue cheese bread or melon, but everything else he loved.

The blue cheese bread was supposed to be a house specialty, so we kind of felt bad that neither of us liked it. My second plate had mozzarella and tomatoes, salad and toast points with hummus. Everything was very tasty.

I ordered some Eggs Benedict. It was delicious.

Josh ordered the frittata, which he enjoyed.

He also ordered the tilapia, and he was a huge fan!

I also had another plate of just the muesli, but I didn't take a picture. After that, we went up for dessert. Josh had two plates. The first had tiramisu, a fruit salad , a fruit tart and a chocolate-covered strawberry and the second had a chocolate parfait, some other kind of parfait and two more strawberries. He liked everything.

I had a mango parfait, a chocolate parfait, fruit salad, Sacher torte, a chocolate-covered strawberry and a fruit tart. They were all wonderful.

Overall, we really enjoyed this brunch and can't wait to do it again. The atmosphere was beautiful and elegant, but not stuffy, the service was excellent and the food was terrific. We had a great time!

Up next: the rest of our morning and afternoon.

 

[Mom2m&k]

Such a great report! It looks like you guys had a great time and lots of yummy food!!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Such a great report! It looks like you guys had a great time and lots of yummy food!!

Thank you! We really did, and it's been neat so far to sort of relive the memories!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, An Afternoon at Sea
Tuesday, May 22: Part Two

After our brunch, we made a quick pit stop in the gorgeous restrooms on that deck.

Then, we headed back to our room for a catnap. Rian had left us some goodies--our pirate night bandanas, the event schedule for the night and a note telling us to stay off of our verandah during the fireworks. He also left us some stationery since we were out.

We also had this beautiful homemade scrapbook in our fish extender.

When we woke up, we were running a little late, so we just threw on whatever clothes were available and ran down to meet our friends Lilo and Stitch on the pool deck.

They had strawberry-banana ice cream in the machine, so I grabbed a cone.

After that, we went back to the room and I changed clothes for pirate night, but Josh decided to wait until later. We wandered around a bit, and when we passed a laundry room, I decided to snap some pics so that some of you could get an idea of what the laundry facilities are like.

There was a very special character doing meet and greets in the family night club, so we went down there to say hello.

It was Captain Jack Sparrow!

He also signed Josh's pocket on our FE, so that they were now both signed. Notice also, my parrot, which I named Joe. He was my favorite part of my pirate outfit.

Continued in next post
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Next, we went back to the room again so Josh could change, and then we walked around doing fish extenders. Here is what we gave out:

For the kids, candy bags

For the men, Mickey cuff links

For the women(and we also had one room with no ladies in it, so we just left them one, too), bottles for bringing home sand from Castaway Cay. These were what had broken in our suitcase earlier in the trip.

For that night, we just lumped the teens in with the kids. Everyone likes candy!

Next, we decided to do the Midship Detective Agency. We wern't sure if this would be too much for kids to be any fun for us, but we were glad we gave it a shot. It was really cute!

We did, however, run out of time. We would have to finish later. After, a quick stop in our room, where we found this in our FE:

We hurried to the pool deck. It was time for the Pirates IN the Caribbean show.

Continued in next post

 

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Unfortunately, we were too late to secure a good spot, so my pictures are not very good, and a lot of them are of the screen rather than the stage. However, just like during the Sail Away party, as people left, we were able to scoot forward a little bit.

There was a juggler for the preshow.

Then, this guy came on to let us know it was almost time.

The show began with the introduction of Pirate Captain Mickey and his gang, one at a time.

Next, we all learned(through song)how to be good pirates.

Continued in next post

 

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Donald wishes he was the Captain!

Suddenly, Captain Hook and his crew appeared and began trying to take over the ship!

They challenged us to a good pirate contest.

Hook was very surprised when we won, and Captain Mickey got to keep the ship!

We had a little celebration, and then we had to move quickly to avoid being late for dinner!

Up nextirate Food and Fireworks at Sea

 

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The Only Fireworks at Sea
Tuesday, May 22: Part Three
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The pirate show just barely let out in time to make a run for dinner, which was the Pirate Menu, but at Animator's Palette. All of the screens were showing pirate images and the servers had awesome pirate uniforms. We started out with Johnny Cake and Pigeon Pea Relish.

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This was really good. It was different to basically have beans on bread, but I liked it.

Here's a shot of the menu:

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For appetizers, I had the Buccaneer's Sun-Ripened Pineapple, which was delicious! The coconut and orange flavors really added to the fruit.

I also had the Pirates Golden Pot-Stickers, which were lovely as well, but not as good as the pineapple.

Josh had the Black Beard's Jumbo Crab Cake, which he really liked.

He also had the Pearls of the Caribbean, which was just okay.

Since those are all of the appetizer options, I didn't feel the need to take more pics, so I don't remember what everyone else got.

For soups and salads, I had both the Caribbean style Conch Chowder and the Chilled-to-the-Bone Honeydew Melon and Watermelon Soup. These were both amazing, my absolute favorites of the entire cruise. The conch chowder had a wonderful sweet red pepper taste and wasn't fishy at all, and the melon soup was like a thin, delightful smoothie. I loved them!

Mom had Mr. Smee's Bibb Lettuce Salad, which was pretty basic, but good.

My drink came out at roughly the same time as my soups. They didn't have a non-alcoholic specialty on the Pirate Menu, so I asked Natasha to surprise me, and she brought me a virgin strawberry pina colada. It was delicious!

For the entree course, I had Jack Sparrow's Barbecue Marinated Beef Short Ribs. These were terrific--a little fatty, but very tasty.

Mom had the Dutchmen's Dijon-Crusted Sirloin of Beef, which she really liked.

Josh had the Treasure of the Seas Grilled Shrimp and Seared Scallops. He wasn't really a fan. The seafood was okay, but the red sauce was a little overpowering.

He also had Captain Hook's Macadamia Nut Dusted Mahi-Mahi, which he really like a lot.

Everyone else also ordered one of those four dishes.

Next was dessert. Here is the menu:

Most of us had either the trio, which was Fruit Cobbler, Floating Island and Rum-Soaked Chocolate Cake or just the full-size chocolate cake.

Both of these were excellent.

Dad had the Angel Food Cake, which was okay.

Here is a pic of Kruno and Natasha:

I rarely ever see reviews of the Pirate meal on here, but, honestly, it was my favorite of the trip. I would choose a four-night cruise over a three-night just to have that meal again!

Up next: The Fireworks!

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We rushed upstairs to stand on the upper deck and watch Buccaneer Blast, the fireworks show. It was great, and we really enjoyed it.

There was little dance party after called Club Pirate as well.

Here, here and here are some video of the shows.

After the show, we stopped in our room:

The, we headed up to check out the buffet, but it was winding down and we weren't really hungry, so we didn't actually eat anything.

After that, we just wandered around the ship until we settled in for bed.

Up next: Our Castaway Cay day

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[fnrsgrl]

Great update!

Thank you!