Chapter 18 – Secretly look at things through sunglasses
After breakfast I went up to the pool. Gary popped back to the room to get changed and joined me there. Tony and Tee arrived shortly afterwards and then we were joined by Kim. Terry was messaging me to find out if Kim was with us and pretty soon he found us too. We all had a very pleasant time, sitting around the pool chatting. Tee and I had brought our matching bags, which our friend Wendy had made for us before the cruise.
The Drink of the Day was a Cool Breeze, aka a Woo Woo. Kim and I got one each while Tee had a non-alcoholic DOTD. Kim said hers was too strong. I had drunk most of mine so I told her she could pour a little bit into mine and ask Martin to top hers up with cranberry. She poured nearly half of hers in to my glass! It was a really hot day and the drinks went down very nicely.
I’m not quite sure if Gary was actually taking a picture of ME here?!
I wasn’t sure if Tee was aware that Terry was posing behind her.
A little while later, Kim decided she was going to walk down to get a drink. The steps competition was still on so I went with her. Since I was a bit behind, I started spinning around a pole on deck to increase my steps so Kim started marching on the spot. On the way to get soda, we bumped into Christ and Ryan who were just having something to eat before Mixology. I had completely forgotten there was another Mixology class today and I had wanted to go along at the start of each one, to make sure everything was OK. I left Kim and ran back to the room to grab my list and then made my way to Cadillac Lounge. Most people were already there but Pablo told me there were about 7 people missing. A couple of people had decided to take their kids to the Pixar Pals party, which was happening in the lobby at 2 o’clock, instead of coming to Mixology. Pablo said that he would still have to charge the no shows, which I said was fine – everybody had been told in advance that they would be charged if they didn’t show up. Pablo tried to persuade me to stay for the class but I said no. He even told me he had made it so the different classes were tasting and making different drinks, so I wished I could stay. But we already had another Mixology booked for later in the cruise. After telling everybody to enjoy themselves, I left the lounge. As I walked away, I tripped over one of the raised metalwork areas in the doorway and fell forwards, banging my arm on large rough post. It really hurt quite badly. The lady stood nearby, waiting for the lift, was kind enough not to laugh until after she’d made sure I was OK. When I got back to the pool, I showed everybody my war wound and demanded they make a big fuss of me.
A little while later, Kim and I went to sit in the shade for a while. A CM came round with Olaf lollies – strawberry and lemonade flavour – and cold flannels (or wash cloths if you don’t speak the Queen’s English
).
We went back to sit by the pool again and I had another DOTD. Terry came over and told us that Gary was getting a deck massage. I was really annoyed. Having never had a massage before, I had wanted to book the couples massage at the spa but Gary had said he thought it was too expensive so I didn’t book it. So I was fuming that he now thought it was OK for HIM to get a massage. I went over and had a word with him but he was insistent he needed it as he had a really stiff neck. Knowing when not to push it, I went back to my lounger, had another DOTD and caught up with more of my notes.
Sally arrived and sat with us for a little while, then the signal that there would be an announcement sounded and Captain Robert came on the loudspeaker to tell us that we would not be stopping at Puerto Vallarta as originally planned. Nobody could really understand what he was saying and there were lots of confused faces, until Clayton’s voice came on immediately after and clarified that there were troubles and unrest in Puerto Vallarta and
DCL believed it would be unsafe for us to stop there. Tony and Tee were really sad as they had a horse riding excursion booked that they were really looking forward to. Kim and Terry were planning to do the dolphin trainer excursion and Terry was very disappointed Gary and I had planned to go to the Malecon (boardwalk area) with Sally and Scott so we were pretty gutted too. Sally left to go to the gym and Jim arrived and sat with us. Julie had previously told us that the reason Jim was able to show restraint at dinner was because he had been eating plenty of ice cream throughout the day – or maybe he was showing restraint so that he COULD eat plenty of ice cream. Either way, we were joking with him about how many ice creams he’d had so far. Tony and Jim went to get sodas and came back with some cream cheese and cinnamon pretzels for us to share. Gary and I both tried them but didn’t really like them.
At about 5.30 we all parted ways. We went back to the room and I decided I was going to do some laundry while Gary dozed – he still had a really bad headache. In between trips to the laundry room to check on the washing, I watched the Toy Story show on the TV. After I showered, I went to put the clothes in the dryer and then came back to dry my hair. On the way back to the room, I saw Ben-Vos (our room host) and asked him if I could have some more of the H2) body lotion, as I’d used all of ours and it hadn’t been replaced. After I dried my hair, I went back to the laundry room to get the clean clothes.
The dress I was wearing was a little bit low cut so I poked my head out of the door and asked Ben-Vos if he had a safety pin for my dress. He looked at the area where I was pointing, looked incredibly shocked and scurried off down the hallway. 30 seconds later he was back with about 6 safety pins – I don’t know what he was trying to tell me!
We finished getting ready and made our way down to Animators Palate. Kim was stood in the hallway chatting to somebody so we sailed straight past her and ended up being the first form our table to arrive – it had become a bit of a competition to not be last to dinner.
Tonight was the Toy Story 3D menu and we all had a pair of cute little 3D glasses waiting at our place at the table.
The service seemed a bit spotty tonight – we had to ask for more bread a couple of times before we got it. I ordered the flatbread for appetiser but it was very disappointing – there was a huge amount of red onion on it so I didn’t even try it and put it in the middle of the table for everybody else to share. Nobody really liked it except Tony though.
Gary got chicken noodle soup and Kim, I believe, had a seafood cocktail of some kind.
For main, Gary got the ribeye (which he said was a bit dry – serves him right for having it well done!) and I got the veal escalope, which was lovely. It came with green beans and Kim asked if she could also have some green beans. Milan brought her a whole bowl of green beans and she very kindly ate mine as well, since I don’t like them.
For dessert, I think Kim and Terry ordered every single dessert on the menu between them. They had an ice-cream sundae, apple tart and the trio of desserts.
Oh, and Terry had his usual as well!
Gary gave Terry his cherry!
I had ordered the cheesecake but it had a coconut crust, which I hadn’t realised. I really don’t like coconut so Milan asked if I would like something else. I asked if there was any chance that I might be able to get some mint choc chip ice cream, as I’d seen it on a menu earlier in the week. Milan went to check but came back and reported that, unfortunately, they didn’t have any – they only had it for the menu that was offered on the first night. I told him it didn’t matter and a couple of minutes later he surprised me with this!
My very own celebration cake! I was so happy.
Meanwhile, Terry was struggling to eat his own celebration cake (something to do with the gazillion other desserts he’d had maybe?) and told Gary he had to share with him. Gary said “It’s your cake, don’t you be splitting it with me” but he was a good friend and helped Terry out anyway.
After dinner we made our way out of the restaurant and stopped to take a group picture in front of the Animator’s Palate sign. Julie and Jim had disappeared so we had to make do without them.
Kim and Terry wanted to get some more pictures taken and, since we didn’t have any plans, we all decided to tag along. On the way through Shutters, we bumped into Daisy Duck, who took a bit of a liking to Tony.
Down in the lobby, we took some pictures ourselves before posing in front of one of the formal backgrounds back upstairs. We had some real giggles taking these pictures.
We headed off to bed around 10.30, where I examined my war wound in the mirror. It was bruising very nicely. Tonight’s towel animal was a crab! We also had a letter from DCL explaining why the Puerto Vallarta stop had been cancelled.
