Back to the Island-Double Dip Delight!Western COMPLETE~Cruising with a baby w/PICS!

[nenner1]

Originally Posted by anewmac

Im begining to think it was a good thing we werent the 1st cruise after dry dock LOL gonna go search for that podcast now LOL

Its the one that went up while we were still on the cruise.
9/30 or 10/1 would be the date......

[anc22]

Originally Posted by nenner1

LOL! I did eventually go and change out the pictures. Ron wanted me to. It really creeped him out too much! So now the floating thumb will live on in infamy....

Thanks for reading!

Oh, I was hoping that you would start photoshopping random body parts into each picture. It could be our own version of "Where's Waldo?"

[nenner1]

Originally Posted by anc22

Oh, I was hoping that you would start photoshopping random body parts into each picture. It could be our own version of "Where's Waldo?"

I thought about doing it on that pic of Erica & Lionel that was shopped out of it's background...but....

[nenner1]

Finally, a day at sea! We had no grand plans for the day, aside from our Palo brunch reservation at 11:30. My only immediate priority? Continuing to sleep like a winner.




Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!


Apparently extended slumber was not in everyone else’s plans. I vaguely remember brief stirring in the room, and then Ron was gone. He went to wake up the kids and go in search of the sunrise. It would be the last one any of us would see this trip.

From the deck 7 aft overlook:










A sunrise at sea is the most beautiful sight:



By the time they made it back to the room, Sarah and I were both awake. We lazily went about our morning chores, a thousand and one showers (at least it felt like that…it’s a good thing we had two bathrooms, I can’t even imagine only having one anymore with all these spawn running around!)

Both of the kids had activities in the club/lab they wanted to attend…which I guess is a good thing, because they would have been there anyway. Savannah would be making flubber, and have an adventure with Stitch. Brendan would be playing games up on the WWOS deck and then an animation lesson in Animator’s Palate.

Ron rushed Brendan to check into the lab to avoid the deadly transition period. Meanwhile I took the girls up to Topsiders for a late breakfast. I was starving; you have no idea how hard it was to keep my hands off that Mickey waffle.



I instead occupied myself by taking pictures of the Cuban mountain range. You’ll see these same exact pictures in all of my cruise mates’ trip reports:

Look! It’s Cuba!



Look it's Sarah in front of Cuba!



Look it’s the rail of the ship in front of Cuba!




I found a few other things to take pictures of while I waited.



Goodbye cruel world….



Already getting busy down in the Mickey Pool:




After breakfast, we took Savannah to the club, and finally Sarah back to Flounders. Then it was back up to Palo, where we had been just 12 hours prior. Not that I’m complaining. This would be our first time at the Champagne Brunch. We checked in at the desk and were seated on the couch for a few minutes. After a short wait, we were led…..to the same table we had last night. And before we could even wonder if Sebastian came with it, there he was. I don’t know if that was luck, divine intervention, or purposely arranged. In any event, we were pleased.



We were given a short selection of two or maybe three different champagnes to choose as our complementary beverage. We aren’t big champagne or wine drinkers...we’ll pop an Asti Spumanti on New Years, but that's about it from the fermented grape category. Just skip the foo-foo drinks and bring us the hard stuff, thanks! Anyway one champagne was dry and one was sweet, I chose the sweet. Ron followed suit.

It was actually very tasty.
Cheers!





The official hours of brunch at Palo are 10:30-1:30, however things seemed to really be wrapping up when we arrived at 11:30. I am fairly certain nobody was seated after us, nor did I see anybody else getting the tour. I was surprised at that.

After we got settled in at our table, Sebastian took us up to the buffet and showed us around. There was all the good stuff you would expect to find, a whole table devoted to breads, danish, and pastries, a table with crackers, specialty cheeses, etc., a seafood table with crab legs, salmon, caviar and the like. Also there was a selection of pizzas and entrees available cooked to order. And of course, my favorite….the dessert table.

We were anxious to get to the buffet. I hadn’t really paid attention to it when we were getting the tour, but it seemed very picked apart.

We grabbed ourselves some plates and then Ron took some pictures. It was funny, as soon as he went up and began shooting, several others noticed and came up to take pictures of their own. Of course, as I mentioned many items had not been replenished, as you can see in the photos.

Seafood table:



Miscellaneous veggies and sliced meats:



Bread, pastries, and fruits:




The cheese and cracker spread:



And the dessert selection:





(I used to have a ceramic unicorn kind of like the one on the table up there. I probably do still have it in a box in the garage somewhere. We won't get into that.)

Some of the things I selected were a grilled vegetable appetizer, brie, mozzarella and crackers, prosciutto, stollen with fresh cream and berries, a sugar roll, and a sticky bun. Talk about carb city! I pretty much filled up on one plate of it, too. Ron had basically the same selection but with seafood, plus a pizza, and I think chicken parmesan. He also tried the caviar. Me, I‘m not that ambitious. Of course, I had an excuse. I had to leave room for dessert:



Whoops! Looks like I’m busted with two tiramisus!

Look how empty the restaurant is behind me...

The desserts were really good, especially the tiramisu and cappuccino mousse. On Ron’s second trip up, he found a little chocolate mousse ball thing. It tasted like fudge coated chocolate ice cream, and was easily my favorite item on the buffet. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of those, we ate them all up.

Desserts before:



Desserts after:




Sebastian brought us a pizza and a sampling of dessert to take back to the kids. Boy, they are spoiled.

Even though the appearance of the buffet and the selection wasn’t all it could have (should have?) been as some items were obliterated, however we did really enjoy brunch a lot and will be back on the next cruise.

Now that we had full bellies, it was time to relax!



Up Next: Christmas in the Caribbean

[TheDisneyGirl02]

Loved the update, Jen! Love the picture of Sarah sleeping...wish I could be doing that right now! LOL!!!

[anewmac]

love the caption on the Cuba pics LOL

Sunrise was amazing.. I missed it every day got up right after. (NEXT TIME)

Brunch looks amazing we had Sebastion too for dinner he's adorable lol... shhh dont tell E lol. But I hate hearing that it was empty... when they told us it was full.. hmmmm ... oh well NEXT TIME LOL

Cant wait to read about Xmas in the Caribbean????

[lindaso]

Originally Posted by nenner1

Bread, pastries, and fruits:

Mmmmm...I know the warm gooey sticky buns are underneath that cover!!! I'm so glad you didn't open the cover for the picture b/c I would have drooled all over the keyboard.

Loving the report...keep it coming.

[nenner1]

Originally Posted by TheDisneyGirl02

Loved the update, Jen! Love the picture of Sarah sleeping...wish I could be doing that right now! LOL!!!

Yes, I wish I could look over right now and see her doing that!

Originally Posted by anewmac

love the caption on the Cuba pics LOL

Sunrise was amazing.. I missed it every day got up right after. (NEXT TIME)

Brunch looks amazing we had Sebastion too for dinner he's adorable lol... shhh dont tell E lol. But I hate hearing that it was empty... when they told us it was full.. hmmmm ... oh well NEXT TIME LOL

Cant wait to read about Xmas in the Caribbean????

Yeah Palo was empty cause it was over. I don;t know how long we were there...didn't seem like long. I just checked and the last picture was taken at 12:54 PM, so we were there an hour and a half...and I guess since it only runs til 1:30...I guess it was pretty much over by then. But it just seemed to us like we missed the boat showing up so late....

Yup...its Christmas in October.... Actually guess that isn't too unusual, my Walmart has had Xmas stuff up since Sept.

Originally Posted by lindaso

Mmmmm...I know the warm gooey sticky buns are underneath that cover!!! I'm so glad you didn't open the cover for the picture b/c I would have drooled all over the keyboard.

Loving the report...keep it coming.

Oh yes, in fact if you look closely in the pic above of me and the two tiramisus, you'll see one of the sticky buns!!
Thanks for reading!

[LivingtheWDWdream]

Your photos are great sounds like a great cruise! We found Palo to be quiet too when we went in 06 as we had one of the later seatings.

I can't wait to hear more!

[MaryAz]

Great update! Sarah is so cute sleeping away. I miss those pack n play days! Beautiful sunrise pics. Palo looked a little "picked over" except for the deserts. Glad it was yummy!

[zweihund]

What a beautiful sunrise! And love the Cuba pics. I have ten just like them. Well, minus the cute little baby

[ntheory]

You're doing a great job with the report, Jen! Keep it coming.


Wow ... I sure wish I was sailing past those mountains about now .....

[dbxazd]

Thanks for sharing the PALO brunch photos - we're going to have our first brunch at PALO's this December and didn't know what to expect (besides being yummy!!!) so thanks for sharing! :-) Your TR is great (I'm on the Christmas double dip so I can't wait!) Keep up the great TRs!!

Robin

[nenner1]

Originally Posted by LivingtheWDWdream

Your photos are great sounds like a great cruise! We found Palo to be quiet too when we went in 06 as we had one of the later seatings.

I can't wait to hear more!

Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy the report!

Originally Posted by MaryAz

Great update! Sarah is so cute sleeping away. I miss those pack n play days! Beautiful sunrise pics. Palo looked a little "picked over" except for the deserts. Glad it was yummy!

Thank you.....I love the sunrise pics too, but that's the last of them! We were up early enough some of the days actually, but the Navigator was an hour (or two) off fromt he actual sunrise times listed. I guess they didn't account for the time change. Oh well, there is lots more good stuff to come.

Originally Posted by zweihund

What a beautiful sunrise! And love the Cuba pics. I have ten just like them. Well, minus the cute little baby

That's what's so great...our experiences were so much the same...yet so different.

Originally Posted by ntheory

You're doing a great job with the report, Jen! Keep it coming.


Wow ... I sure wish I was sailing past those mountains about now .....

Meee too. (sigh). I just can not believe that A. Its over and B. that's its almost Thanksgiving already...where does the time go!!!

Originally Posted by dbxazd

Thanks for sharing the PALO brunch photos - we're going to have our first brunch at PALO's this December and didn't know what to expect (besides being yummy!!!) so thanks for sharing! :-) Your TR is great (I'm on the Christmas double dip so I can't wait!) Keep up the great TRs!!

Robin

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy it!


Okay everyone....I promise there will be more good stuff to come. I have quite a bit of work to do before I get to the Grand Cayman segments (2 more). I really, really, really want to edit and post my video but it is going to take a lot of work for me to get that done. I had Nero (video ripping and editing software, paid $80 for it last year (on my old laptop) come to find out even though I paid for it, I paid for version 7.09.01.44.325.0.999 which, as you can imagine is impossible to find for download (nope can't just download the new (or older) version it has to be that specific one...so long story short I'm kindof hung up on it, finding another program (preferably free since I already wasted $80)....I have downloaded Wax and I am going to try it out. SO basically how successful I am at that determines the pacing of the next few episodes. I am working diligently so I promise it won't be too long, though!

[anewmac]

let me know how you like WAX... i have microsoft video whatever that comes with XP and its ok but a pain at times