Day 1, Sunday April 23, Embarkation Day, Part III
Music Recommendation: “Life’s Been Good” Joe Walsh
Content that we had stored up enough calories to get us through the 2 hours till late seating, we headed off to the Walt Disney Theatre for the welcome aboard variety show – “Be Our Guest.” This show was a teaser of sorts; a sampling of the entertainment that we could anticipate during the first week of our cruise. It’s designed to get you pumped up for the shows and entertainers that week, and for DW and me, it succeeded wildly. The a cappella singing group Edge Effect was fantastic. We couldn’t wait to see their full show. And of course, the Disney Wonder Dancers (the Dancing Wonders?) were amazing as usual with their rendition of “Be our guest” from “Beauty and the Beast”. One of the pleasant surprises from this opening night show was Hector the magician. Hector is a super talented magician from Spain that we had neither seen nor heard of, but based on his performance in this opening night teaser, and his subsequent performances in the Walt Disney Theatre and Azure, we should be seeing more of him. He is definitely personality plus!!
The program that night also included a performance by the man woman dance instructor team, and although they were up against some stiff competition from the other performers, they held their own and did a really good job. In fact, DW was so impressed that she began to entertain the idea of her and me taking the classes that this dynamic dance duo were offering throughout the cruise. Um, I needed to squash this idea quickly, before it germinated into a full blown Patrick Swayze fantasy. “You know Sweetie, there will probably be a performance on stage in front of everyone at the end of the cruise.” DW suddenly changed her mind and decided we didn’t need to take those classes. Dance dilemma averted, bullet dodged. Bottom line, we loved the “Be Our Guest” show, and it definitely got us excited about the week’s entertainment line-up.
We now had a little bit of time before the 8:15 seating for dinner, so we wandered around the ship and checked out some of the places we hadn’t been to yet. I think this is when we first went to the Senses Spa, and turned in our voucher for 5 days use of the Rain Forrest room. Approximately one week before the cruise, I had gone online and purchased 5 days for each of us. There was a voucher showing our purchase on the desk in our stateroom when we first arrived. When we turned in the voucher at Senses Spa, they put 5 little stickers on the back of each of our KTTW cards. Each time we used our Rain Forrest room privileges throughout the cruise, they would write the date on one of the little stickers, indicating that we had used up one of our days. I’ll talk more about our Rain Forrest room experience in another post.
We also checked out the gym while we were at the Spa. We worked out in the gym on every sea day, and even a couple of the port days. Sometimes we worked out twice a day. I’ve seen debates on other bulletin boards about this being a vacation and, why would one want to work out on vacation. At the end of the day it’s all about personal choice. To DW and me, working out is a vacation. DW, more so than me, feels incomplete if she doesn’t get a daily work out in. For me, it’s more about offsetting the additional calories that I know I’m consuming. I like to eat, so, I better make myself like the work out! Note that we also eschewed elevator use for the entirety of the cruise. I think we only took the elevator 3 times: 1) Once when I was still being pack mule; 2) Once when we were running late to a show we wanted to see, and an elevator presented itself at a very opportune time; 3) And at the end of the cruise, when we did self-debarkation with all of our luggage in tow.
It was time for dinner. We felt very lucky to have the TP, TR, AP rotation. Tiana’s Place has received so many positive reviews and glowing recommendations. We were very excited to finally get to try it out. It did not disappoint. Even though there wasn’t a band playing New Orleans Jazz that evening, Supper Club Tiana did come out and welcome us, and then she visited each table and did private introductions like a good Southern Hostess should. I think Louis the alligator was also making his way around the room, wreaking havoc, dancing with little kids and trying not to knock furniture over. The menu that night was the “Let the Magic Begin” menu. Here's what we had:
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It was all great. The highlight for me was the mint-chip sundae, but DW raved about her espresso creme brulee. I managed to pry a bite away from her and she was right, it was fantastic, but I'll stick with my sundae.
I would be remiss if I didn’t give Abrahim & Patricia a shout-out at this point. Abrahim, from South Africa, was our Server, and Patricia, from Great Britain, was our Assistant Server. I know I sound like every other putz that has ever written about their servers, but these two folks went above and beyond; they contributed significantly to the overall enjoyment quotient of our cruise, and I happily put that in writing on our comments card at the end of the cruise. DW and I learned very early on that one should NEVER ignore Abrahim’s recommendations. They were spot-on. And, on the rare occasion that we did choose to ignore him, he brought us what we ordered, AND what he had recommended. It was uncanny. He was always right! His recommendation was always better. And Patricia – she is so cute and so funny and so personable; you can’t help but to love her. I am confident that she won’t be an assistant server for long.
DW always likes to take a walk around the ship after dinner. And while I’m not a big fan of walking just for walking’s sake, I am a big fan of being outside on a Disney ship at night. As we strolled, we talked about our plans for the next day. We wanted to get an early start. Drinking our morning coffee on the balcony was high on our priority list. We also wanted to put our best foot forward and get an early work-out in at the gym, yet still leave time to get some oatmeal from Cabana’s. Although it was late April and we were off the coast of Florida headed due South, the wind coming off the water had just enough of a chill to it that after 2 laps around deck 10, DW was ready to head to bed.
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Back in our room, I filled out our breakfast room-service door hanger thingy (that’s the technical name) and put it on our door handle. I did this dutifully every night of the cruise. We have found that having coffee brought to our room so we can enjoy it on the balcony before getting dressed for the day, is one of our greatest cruise pleasures. I wound down that night by reviewing the next day’s Navigator. It was going to be another busy day. One of the big events for us tomorrow: Palo Brunch. I looked over at DW and she was already out for the night. I envy that about her; the ability to be deep asleep 2 minutes after lying down. I chuckled to myself. It had been a very full day. I lay there and reflected that we had done so much during the last several days, that it seemed like weeks ago when we were struggling with the decision to drive or not. The stress of that decision was long past. Life these last two days had been very good, and that made me think of the Joe Walsh song above.
It’s always at these twilight moments, just a few seconds before I surrender to sleep, that the ghosts of cruises past haunt me. Try as I may to pretend that I don’t miss our daughters being with us on the cruise, there is something about the onset of slumber that brings a certain brutal honesty: I miss having the girls here with us on the ship. Logically, I know it needs to be this way. They both have wonderful, kind husbands and they are busy carving out lives for themselves, creating families where before there were none. But I still miss them. I remember one cruise to the Caribbean, where DW and our daughters traipsed around the islands in tie-dye t-shirts that they had made for the cruise. I think someone on one of the islands asked if they were triplets. DW loved that! Time to turn out the lights. Goodnight everyone.
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