Battered, bruised, and a little bit intoxicated - a Transatlantic Crossing updated 02/13/18 - Page 18 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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What a great tour of Lisbon so glad you enjoyed it. We always finish our trips to Portugal in Lisbon usually spending 3 days, and we always drop of the car before enjoying Lisbon as its just to hard to drive around.
The other attraction near the Tower of Belem was the Mounument of Discoveries. The elevator that you saw is actually quite beautiful inside, you can take it up to the other street and then get out and climb up a spiral staircase for a beautiful view of the city.
Yes, Monument of Discoveries - thank you! Portugal is rightfully proud of their history of exploration.
I wish we’d had a chance to do one of the elevators. Sounds like a neat experience.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pris
That looks like a great overview tour of Lisbon, which is generally all you have time for when cruising. With all the hills and Mike's limitations, it was perfect. I'm glad you enjoyed the octopus. I'm not sure I could do it, even if I closed my eyes.
It was perfect. Octopus is like a firm fish. You’d love it, I promise!
Mike only ended up having French Onion soup, as he was still full from lunch. (Sorry no picture - soup isn’t usually such an interesting shot!)
And our requisite lousy shot of the special guests at dinner: DSC03026 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
After dinner, all 6 of us when to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 in 3D. Much better movie than the one we watched in our room last night! The theater was packed, and we did encounter a few grumps. I don’t understand why when someone chooses to sit on the aisle, they then get annoyed when people ask to walk past them?! Honestly.....
When the movie was over I had to rush up to Cove Cafe for Martini Tasting. One of our tablemates also joined me for that. This wasn’t quite as generous as the martini tasting I did on the Wonder in Alaska. This one only had 4 different martinis, and they were in mini glasses, probably only 2-3 ounces each. The one on the Wonder was all full-sized drinks, and we had at least 5. Plus, we got pitchers with the extra at the end. Here, we each had maybe one extra mini-drink if we moved quickly (they pre-made the drinks, and had prepared for more people than actually showed).
The drinks we had tonight were:
Classic martini: gin, vermouth, 3 olives (Yuck - I am NOT a fan of this one) DSC03030 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
Limoncello martini: limoncello, Citron vodka, lime juice DSC03032 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
Washington Apple: Crown Royal, Apple pucker, cranberry juice DSC03033 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
Salted Caramel: vodka, amaretto, Bailey’s, Kahului, salted caramel syrup DSC03034 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
(Yes I realize these are a little blurry….blame it on the libations! )
I got an extra of #3, which was my favorite. Still a fun event, just not as much fun as the one on the Wonder. Part of that was also due to the participants. We had a great group on the Wonder, including these 2 Australian guys at our table, who were a lot of fun - and instigated a lot of the extra drinking. The group tonight was small, and there was this one guy who was THE worst. Mr. Grumpy Gills. This was his first DCL cruise and he had NOTHING good to say about it. He claimed to have had $100 stollen from his room, but my friend and I were both pretty skeptical about his story. He said he had $1000 in cash in his room, and $100 was taken. Obviously he was insinuating that the room attendant had taken it. We found it unlikely that someone would risk their job for $100. They get way more than that just in tips from the cruise. And most of them are working hard to send money back to family. I think more likely is that the guy lost it along the way in Barcelona, and didn’t realize it until he was on the ship.
He was also complaining that he had a toddler on board with him, and there was “nothing for him to do.” And that all he wants to do is stay in the pool all day (the kid) and the dad wasn’t wanting to just sit and watch his kid in the pool. Mind you, the wife and kid weren’t anywhere to be seen now, and over the course of the cruise we continued to see this guy, and he was ALWAYS alone. And always drinking - regardless of time of day. He managed to get an extra of each drink during the class, and then had at least 2 full sized drinks before we left (mostly because we couldn’t stand listening to all his complaining). Why would you bring a toddler on a cruise, and then get mad that you had to spend time with the toddler? He was also annoyed that there wasn’t a casino on the ship. WHAT?! How would you not know that before you got onboard?
I think I’d still do the tasting again, but now I know the experience on the Wonder was probably NOT the norm.
Next: How much can you drink in an hour of open bar?!
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The martini sampling sounded fun, except for Mr. Grumpy Gills who was full of hot air and himself.
I was glad I had a friend with me, as I’m not sure anyone would’ve believed me the next day when I described him. But other wise it was fun and 3 out of 4 drinks were tasty!
First of all your meal looked so good and you don't even realize how jealous I am of this! I mean escargots. lamb and a Grand Marnier souffle. It's like a perfect three course meal for me as three of my faves and love French inspired food as you know from my V & A's experiences! You are just torturing me with this! On my only cruise in 2015 in Western Caribbean, Lumiere's was most definitely my favorite of the three! Glad I got three experiences there on the 7 nights.
Your martini tasting looked like a lot of fun. That one guy was a bit weird with the $100 missing. Seems he was trying to get the sympathy thing going and perhaps get some of you to hang out with him and have some more drinks. May not be a bad guy but glad you were careful with a stranger. Seems like someone who might be fun to hang out with but also could have a drinking problem as you said every time you saw him he was drinking regardless what time of day it was. He was probably just looking for company as he was solo on the cruise! I was solo on mine but don't lie about things when meeting others for first time. I've always been quite honest. I'm sure you know that from my TRs.
I guess your arm wasn't twisted to have an extra martini! One thing I'll mention and you'll find hard to believe. I've had a variety of different beverages in my life but quite surprisingly I've never had a Martini! No reason why and can't figure out why not!
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Wow, your dinner looked superb. Oh my, what a misery that guy was. Boy, I hope that was the first and last time you saw him on this cruise... he was not fun.
Oh my goodness, I don't think I could have tolerated Mr. Grumpy Gills! All the martinis in the world wouldn't make him bearable. I did the martini tasting on the Fantasy, and I'm pretty sure they were full sized drinks at the time. Disney has probably cut back on the size of the tasting drinks, like in many other areas of cutbacks.
Ooh fun, I’d love to do a martini tasting��. Dinner looked yummy as well. Loved all you Lisbon pictures . Such great architecture.
Drink tastings are always I lot of fun, I think. Just need to be careful as it is VERY easy to overdo it (as you’ll see later in this report.....)
Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave
First of all your meal looked so good and you don't even realize how jealous I am of this! I mean escargots. lamb and a Grand Marnier souffle. It's like a perfect three course meal for me as three of my faves and love French inspired food as you know from my V & A's experiences! You are just torturing me with this! On my only cruise in 2015 in Western Caribbean, Lumiere's was most definitely my favorite of the three! Glad I got three experiences there on the 7 nights.
Your martini tasting looked like a lot of fun. That one guy was a bit weird with the $100 missing. Seems he was trying to get the sympathy thing going and perhaps get some of you to hang out with him and have some more drinks. May not be a bad guy but glad you were careful with a stranger. Seems like someone who might be fun to hang out with but also could have a drinking problem as you said every time you saw him he was drinking regardless what time of day it was. He was probably just looking for company as he was solo on the cruise! I was solo on mine but don't lie about things when meeting others for first time. I've always been quite honest. I'm sure you know that from my TRs.
I guess your arm wasn't twisted to have an extra martini! One thing I'll mention and you'll find hard to believe. I've had a variety of different beverages in my life but quite surprisingly I've never had a Martini! No reason why and can't figure out why not!
Didn’t mean to torture you, Dave! Yes, that was a pretty perfect dinner, wasn’t it? I think that may be my favorite menu (although the sea bass last night was my favorite single dish of the cruise). I could eat escargot every day.
I didn’t have the sense that guy was looking for sympathy. I actually got the sense he was trying to let as many people know as possible that he thought DCL was awful, and milk the sympathy of the CM’s to the greatest extent possible. We left before he settled up with the bartender, but my friend and I both wondered if he was given some kind of carte blanche to order whatever he wanted on Disney’s dime. And he wasn’t traveling alone - he had a wife and child with him. He just didn’t seem to spend any time with them. Strange....
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Wow, your dinner looked superb. Oh my, what a misery that guy was. Boy, I hope that was the first and last time you saw him on this cruise... he was not fun.
We did see him several times, but luckily only in passing - not as part of any activity we were doing.
Sea Day - September 20 (Day 10 of the trip, for those wondering)
Mike managed to wake up in time to finally catch the movie he wanted to see - Passengers. That’s the one thing I like better about the Dream class of ships - more of an on demand style of movies. On the Classic ships, you just have to hope you find a movie when it’s starting. They then just repeat the same films over and over and over and over.....so if there’s not something you want to see, or you’ve already seen the 5 or 6 movies showing, you’re then out of luck.
I was much lazier getting up (and I’m sure it had nothing to do with the martini tasting the night before) but finally had to surface given we had 10 am Palo Brunch. We saw our English table mates at the adult pool, preparing for a full day of sun.
DSC03038 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
Menu items - they no longer have these out on display in front of the kitchen as they used to in the past.
Mehmet was of course our waiter again (you always have the same server between dinner and brunch at Palo, unless you hit it on their day off). We started with Kir Royals to drink (I love that you now have options other than just champagne or mimosas - there was also an option of a Bellini). DSC03039 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
I then ordered a single Eggs Benedict and Mike had the salmon Benedict. DSC03052 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr DSC03051 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
They look pretty much the same I guess, don’t they? Probably didn’t warrant two pictures - but I’m making up for the short installment yesterday.
We shared a margharita pizza, although I didn’t even manage to finish my first slice.
Mike had chicken Parmesan (his favorite Palo brunch dish) DSC03055 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
and I had the eggplant rolatini, which was stuffed with prosciutto. DSC03054 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
A little too salty, actually. I think I would have enjoyed it more without the prosciutto. Now completely stuffed, we did manage a few desserts. The vanilla raspberry panna cotta was my favorite. DSC03056 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
Rather than the old style reception with drinks and appetizers and a few officers circulating, they now do a special preview of the show Tangled - which would be the entertainment tonight. The captain spoke VERY briefly. DSC03060 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
Captain Marco is a man of few words. VERY few words. He also has a dry sense of humor, which I always find funny although many do not. It was fun to see some behind the scenes glimpses of the show, and we both left very much looking forward to seeing the full production tonight.
We returned to the room to change out of our brunch clothes, and I ended up napping a little bit (aren’t sea days the best?! I NEVER nap at home!). Mike watched the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie before we both headed back to the theater for the second installment of Jeff Kurdi’s lecture series. Today’s was about the things that inspired Walt Disney in his building of Disneyland.
DSC03063 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
I got a kick out of hearing that Greenfield Village was part of Walt’s inspiration. This is in Michigan, and showcases Henry Ford and his inventions. And I went there on an 8th grade trip (which many of my friends have found hilarious, as the “normal” 8th grade class trip is to Washington DC)
Sea Days are exhausting, as when that was over, we had ANOTHER event to attend.
This was an Open Bar in O’Gills, for members of our Facebook cruise group. This was the first cruise where we’d joined a Facebook group, and I must say it was a lot of fun! When we first came in, they were circulating with trays of wine and prepared cocktails, so I started with a Bahama Mama, but then I switched to mojitos. I’d only had two drinks by 4:30 (the event was 4-5 pm) but then somehow I got 2 more mojitos all at once. Then the table next to us decided to start on lemon drop shots. But the bartender did them in a full sized cocktail glass (highball I think) instead of shot glasses. So my table decided we needed those, too! So if you’re counting, in one hour I had at least 5 drinks - more if you count the “shot” as the 3 shots it equaled, rather than the one glass it was in.
As a result, I don’t remember a lot about dinner....I know I started with chicken liver mousse, which was enough for 3 or 4 people, and then the warm cheddar and bacon tartlet.
DSC03072 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
The no sugar dessert - looks better than it tasted
We had our best post dinner interaction tonight - in the hallway! DSC03073 by Colleen McLain, on Flickr
After dinner it was time for Rapunzel. We were excited as this was a new show for us (so many of the shows are ones we’ve now seen multiple times), and having had the sneak peek this morning we knew it would be good. And it was - excellent in fact. Before and after the show we also went to O’Gills, which had been transformed into the Ugly Duckling for the night.
They even had a show going on there. The early one allowed kids, but the late one was adults only and much funnier. They had a bingo-type game called Thugs going on.
We had planned to go to Fathoms. To see a juggler/comedian afterward, but while we were still in O’Gills they announced that Fathoms was completely full. So they put it on the TV screens in O’Gills and we just stayed put. The performer was named Pete Matthews, and he’s British. He is also VERY funny, and VERY adult humor. We enjoyed him a lot.
We gained back an hour tonight, so we weren’t even that late going to bed!
Very busy at sea day! Palo for breakfast always looks so delicious, though I can't imagine eating everything I'd want to eat and still being mobile afterwards.
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I mean escargots. lamb and a Grand Marnier souffle. 
It's like a perfect three course meal for me as three of my faves and love French inspired food as you know from my V & A's experiences! 
You are just torturing me with this! 
On my only cruise in 2015 in Western Caribbean, Lumiere's was most definitely my favorite of the three! 
He was probably just looking for company as he was solo on the cruise! 
One thing I'll mention and you'll find hard to believe. 
No reason why and can't figure out why not! 
PassPorter Guide Author
Oh my, what a misery that guy was. 
Boy, I hope that was the first and last time you saw him on this cruise... he was not fun. 
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