Slowhand
22-10-2008, 03:00 PM
Day 14 ~ Thursday October 2nd
Today was going to be another of those lazy days at sea. After breakfast [again at Lumiere`s], my DW decided to top up her tan on deck 10 and I settled down with my book on a comfy lounger on deck 4.
We had all been advised that Brent [the Cruise Director] was to be giving a talk in the Walt Disney Theatre to outline the debarkation process for when we arrived back at Port Canaveral on Saturday and it had been suggested that at least one family member should attend…..naturally I drew the short straw! :([The talk was also repeated on the tv in the room, but I preferred to see it “live”].
On our earlier cruises, we “aliens” had to present ourselves to the US Immigration Officials at some unearthly hour in the morning on debarkation day but I had been told that this process had now changed, so I went along to the talk to get the latest information. Brent went through the process very well, explaining what to do with our luggage, where we were to take breakfast and at what time on debarkation day etc. etc., but the best news was that now, we “aliens” were to clear Immigration along with everyone else in the terminal building on arrival at the port and this came as music to my ears! :thumbs_up:
At the end of his talk, Brent mentioned that due to the time zone change tonight, a premier showing of the new Disney film was to take place at 11.01pm …ie one minute after midnight EST which was the time that the official launch was to take place .
On returning to our stateroom to collect my camera I noticed that Javier had serviced the room and left the “tip envelopes” on the bed which we were to hand out the following day.
So far I haven`t said much about Javier, but he [like all of the stateroom host/hostesses] do a tremendous job. It`s almost as though they sleep under your bed and pop out to service the room the minute that you leave! I`ve never returned to our room immediately after breakfast to find the room untidy or finding that the bed needed to be made…full marks here. :thumbs_up:
I went up to Palo`s to try to get an earlier dinner seating for tonight as our reservation made on embarkation day was for 9.00pm, this being the earliest time we could make the reservation for at the time. The CM at the podium gave me a more convenient time of 7.30pm which was great news.
Chores over, I went to seek out my DW and we then went for a seafood buffet lunch at Topsider`s.
On offer were loads of tempting seafood items, crab, lobster, shrimp, fish etc.etc. and the meat eaters were also well catered for. As soon as the containers were down to their last few offerings, they were instantly replaced by the chefs so there certainly was no food shortage here and everything was delicious.
Following my DW`s spa treatment the other day, she had made another appointment to see a specialist there who was to “wire” her up and try to find out the root cause of her IBS problems she has been experiencing for a while now.
While she was being attended to I went to see [B]my “specialist” [Pio] at Signals Bar :lol:, before spending some time wandering around the ship on another photography mission! :camera:
Passing by the Quiet Cove adult pool I saw that some of the entertainment CM`s had organised a competition between some of the bathers. Basically it was a ladies v gents diving competition (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2607325360049486169KyYGKg) where the competitors had to retrieve as many “gold” coins as they could which had been randomly thrown into the pool by one of the CM`s.
This was followed by an under water balloon inflating competition.
Quite a change from the typical “knobbly knees” competition at certain holiday camps in the UK and very entertaining to watch. :p015:
At around 7.15pm we went up to Palo`s in time for our revised dinner reservation. We were greeted at the podium by Marco, the maitre `d who I have heard so much about from other cruisers who rated him very highly when he was a server at this restaurant. I don`t know how it came about but we soon got into a lengthy discussion about Formula 1. As he originally came from Italy, naturally Marco was one of the “Tifosi” [Ferrari supporter], and as I am a McLaren fan, much good natured banter was there to be had! :drive2:
Dining at Palo`s is a “must do” for any adults taking a DCL cruise as the food, service and atmosphere of the place is amazing. You really feel as though you are in a top notch restaurant [in reality you are ] and you have to pinch yourself as a reminder that it is all for free….apart from the $15 reservation fee.
Our server insisted that we had a lobster tail in addition to the meal we had ordered and he went on to say that he had already put in an order for the chocolate soufflé which takes a while to prepare and is one of the speciality desserts on the menu here.
One issue though. Despite everyone being well aware that there is a dress code at the restaurant calling for gentlemen to wear a jacket, we did notice a couple of guys who ignored this and entered the restaurant wearing sweatshirts and no jacket. They weren`t turned away, but you would have thought that they should have made an effort to conform for just this one night! :mad:
Returning to our stateroom after the customary few laps around deck 4, we saw that in addition to the [also customary] towel animal (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2720037840049486169oJJKQt), Javier had left our copy of the Personal Navigator on our bed together with a reminder to turn our clocks back 1 hour tonight.
Darn it….an hour`s less sleep tonight! :(
Tomorrow it`s Castaway Cay again. :smiley4:
Today was going to be another of those lazy days at sea. After breakfast [again at Lumiere`s], my DW decided to top up her tan on deck 10 and I settled down with my book on a comfy lounger on deck 4.
We had all been advised that Brent [the Cruise Director] was to be giving a talk in the Walt Disney Theatre to outline the debarkation process for when we arrived back at Port Canaveral on Saturday and it had been suggested that at least one family member should attend…..naturally I drew the short straw! :([The talk was also repeated on the tv in the room, but I preferred to see it “live”].
On our earlier cruises, we “aliens” had to present ourselves to the US Immigration Officials at some unearthly hour in the morning on debarkation day but I had been told that this process had now changed, so I went along to the talk to get the latest information. Brent went through the process very well, explaining what to do with our luggage, where we were to take breakfast and at what time on debarkation day etc. etc., but the best news was that now, we “aliens” were to clear Immigration along with everyone else in the terminal building on arrival at the port and this came as music to my ears! :thumbs_up:
At the end of his talk, Brent mentioned that due to the time zone change tonight, a premier showing of the new Disney film was to take place at 11.01pm …ie one minute after midnight EST which was the time that the official launch was to take place .
On returning to our stateroom to collect my camera I noticed that Javier had serviced the room and left the “tip envelopes” on the bed which we were to hand out the following day.
So far I haven`t said much about Javier, but he [like all of the stateroom host/hostesses] do a tremendous job. It`s almost as though they sleep under your bed and pop out to service the room the minute that you leave! I`ve never returned to our room immediately after breakfast to find the room untidy or finding that the bed needed to be made…full marks here. :thumbs_up:
I went up to Palo`s to try to get an earlier dinner seating for tonight as our reservation made on embarkation day was for 9.00pm, this being the earliest time we could make the reservation for at the time. The CM at the podium gave me a more convenient time of 7.30pm which was great news.
Chores over, I went to seek out my DW and we then went for a seafood buffet lunch at Topsider`s.
On offer were loads of tempting seafood items, crab, lobster, shrimp, fish etc.etc. and the meat eaters were also well catered for. As soon as the containers were down to their last few offerings, they were instantly replaced by the chefs so there certainly was no food shortage here and everything was delicious.
Following my DW`s spa treatment the other day, she had made another appointment to see a specialist there who was to “wire” her up and try to find out the root cause of her IBS problems she has been experiencing for a while now.
While she was being attended to I went to see [B]my “specialist” [Pio] at Signals Bar :lol:, before spending some time wandering around the ship on another photography mission! :camera:
Passing by the Quiet Cove adult pool I saw that some of the entertainment CM`s had organised a competition between some of the bathers. Basically it was a ladies v gents diving competition (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2607325360049486169KyYGKg) where the competitors had to retrieve as many “gold” coins as they could which had been randomly thrown into the pool by one of the CM`s.
This was followed by an under water balloon inflating competition.
Quite a change from the typical “knobbly knees” competition at certain holiday camps in the UK and very entertaining to watch. :p015:
At around 7.15pm we went up to Palo`s in time for our revised dinner reservation. We were greeted at the podium by Marco, the maitre `d who I have heard so much about from other cruisers who rated him very highly when he was a server at this restaurant. I don`t know how it came about but we soon got into a lengthy discussion about Formula 1. As he originally came from Italy, naturally Marco was one of the “Tifosi” [Ferrari supporter], and as I am a McLaren fan, much good natured banter was there to be had! :drive2:
Dining at Palo`s is a “must do” for any adults taking a DCL cruise as the food, service and atmosphere of the place is amazing. You really feel as though you are in a top notch restaurant [in reality you are ] and you have to pinch yourself as a reminder that it is all for free….apart from the $15 reservation fee.
Our server insisted that we had a lobster tail in addition to the meal we had ordered and he went on to say that he had already put in an order for the chocolate soufflé which takes a while to prepare and is one of the speciality desserts on the menu here.
One issue though. Despite everyone being well aware that there is a dress code at the restaurant calling for gentlemen to wear a jacket, we did notice a couple of guys who ignored this and entered the restaurant wearing sweatshirts and no jacket. They weren`t turned away, but you would have thought that they should have made an effort to conform for just this one night! :mad:
Returning to our stateroom after the customary few laps around deck 4, we saw that in addition to the [also customary] towel animal (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2720037840049486169oJJKQt), Javier had left our copy of the Personal Navigator on our bed together with a reminder to turn our clocks back 1 hour tonight.
Darn it….an hour`s less sleep tonight! :(
Tomorrow it`s Castaway Cay again. :smiley4: