Better late than..later?Western Sept 05/09 **Completed 02/17** About This Page:

[Kenny]

You got Palo Brunch! Way to go!!
Hey! You had "Our Cruise Director, Brent", too! He's just great!
Great sunrise shot!
Looks like you two had a nice time at the Character Breakfast!
I knew you would love the brunch at Palo... and, yeah! Gotta have whipped cream on dessert! How cool that Laci fixed up Rachel a treat, too!
I'm sorry Rachel had a time with the KTTW cards, but it sounds like it all got worked out.

[chezp]

Oh poor Rachel with the key. I can't wait t read about Key West.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about all the missing keys! Glad you had a great time at the character breakfast, and a great time at Palo (I remember Laci)! I loved that stolen bread as well! They had some up in Topsiders too! More please!!

[dsnytina]

Some might say, "Only a kid could do something like that". Except I know that I, for one, have had some moments like that as well!
Can't wait to read how it was resolved.

[rlb38]

Key West

So finally with the Key issue solved ( by guest services in an instant)we head out to find Mike. I didn't plan any excursions and in hindsight I wish we would have just hopped on the trolley. I don't know why I was hesitant to give it a try but I was.

It was fry an egg on the sidewalk HOT so we decided to hop in a cab and go to the Butterfly Consveratory. It cost $7 before tip. It cost $34 to get into see the butterflies. It was slightly cooler than outside but more humid . There is a small room at the begining that has some charts that show the different kinds of butterflies and perhaps a history of the conservatory. I say perhaps because we didn't stick around to read .We could hear that there was tour group coming in behind us and wanted to get ahead of that. I would say we wandered for about 15 minutes the conservatory is not very large. There were certainly tons of butterflies in all sizes and colours. Far more than at Epcot. The gift shop had some very nice treasures in all price ranges. I do feel that $34 for the 3 of us (including a $1 off/ person coupon from the Magic) was more expensive than I'd like but having all these butterflies flying around you was . One little girl described to her grandma this way " it's like being inside a fairy tale". Mike took the photos here and he never seems to zoom in on anything.



kind of like trying to find a hidden Mickey


There were loads of beautiful tropical plants that were quite foreign to this Canadian Gardner. There was a fish pond with several turtles.




We bought a few souvenirs including a lovely butterfly necklace for Rachel and headed out. I wanted to go a garden that is looked after by the Key West garden society that is an old civil war fort. When I looked on the map on the computer I thought the butterfly place and the garden were only a block apart. The gentleman at the gift shop showed me a map and described how to get there and it was further than I thought. So we took the map outside and Mike was trying to orient me because I was going to go on my own while they headed back to the ship. He and I had opposing thoughts on which direction I needed to go. It was so hot and I was nervous about getting lost that I decided to just walk back with my family. If I ever return to Key West I'll just taxi to the gardens I want to tour while Mike rides the trolley. My guess is Rachel would stay aboard the Magic.

We wandered back ,taking our time wondering into shops. We got a piece of key lime pie at the Blonde Giraffe. It was a little too sweet for my taste. Also stopped at a liquor store to pick up some wine. We stopped at Del Sol to pick up our free lanyard with the coupon we got from Disney also a tshirt and nail polish that turns a different colour in the sun. Oh and they also gave away one plastic ring per person that turns from clear to a colour in the sun . I also bought a few of those for my nieces a bargain at a quarter each. We thought about stopping for lunch but most places were quite crowded. I knew when Rachel didn't want anything at the Blonde Giraffe she was likely overheated. So we just headed back to the boat for a late lunch. Oh and we made one more stop to get free pearl earrings using you guessed it ... a coupon from Disney. Mike also purchased a single pearl necklace for 5 bucks. Quality stuff I'm sure

Here are some more pics taken during the walk back.


a church




We were back on the boat around 3:30. Rachel was still too hot to eat and I was still digesting brunch (& key lime pie) so we decided to swim. The Incredibles was playing on Ariel vision so we watched most of that while soaking in the Goofy pool.

Dinner was at Parrot Cay and I wrote in my notes that it went much faster than the night before. The first night we didn't get our entrees until sometime after 7. Rachel quickly ate spaghetti and meatballs and left us to go to club.

Mike had the Parrot Cay salad that had a very yummy bacon dressing. I had the Caribbean chicken satay appetizer that was good. I had a salad with romaine lettuce that I did not enjoy. My main was a braised jerk pork chop that was excellent.

Mike had tuna tartare which was good and the mixed grill for his main. I made no notes about his reaction to the mixed grill but I think it was fine.

Plaman brought us the steak from the menu since I said I was having trouble deciding between the steak and pork chop. Now I read someone's trip report and they were not impressed with the Parrot Cay steak at all, especially since it was supposed to be known for steak. I would have to agree that if you were expecting a great steak this was not it. It was very thin and just okay tasting. The beef tenderloin from AP the night before was the best beef of the cruise.

I think for dessert we had a fabulous banana cake.


Rachel being co-operative!

Dinner was done so quickly that I hadn't missed the Key West sunset. We were still in port and had a direct view of the sun from the balcony. Have I mentioned how much I loved the balcony




And then just after this photo was taken we were off the boat seemed to do a circle moving me away from the sunset and facing into town . NOOOOOOOO !


I was amazed at the bleachers filled with people watching the sunset on shore. I can't find the picture I took but check out Marnie's (colexis mom )report for a great shot of the crowds a couple of weeks earlier . (she also has great shots of Brunch at Palo)

I did some laundry on the 7th deck. For some reason I thought there was a laundry on every deck. Really I should have brought my passporter for some quick references while on board but it was keeping my licence company It was great to be able to use the room card for the washer, dryer and soap. I only ran into men doing laundry that night. One was ironing shirts when I arrived and was still ironing when I returned a half hour later ! I did help a British guy who wasn't sure which was the washer and which was the dryer. There all front loaders so I assured him I needed to double check too.
Mike sat on the balcony and read the latest Jack Reacher escapade . I wondered the shops and deck 4 while the laundry was on the go and then joined him on the balcony. I just love sitting there with the warm breeze and that wonderful calming swishing sound the boat makes as it passes through the water. Ahhhh. There was also some lightning off in the distance that was delightful to watch too. I think we all turned in around midnight.

Fermin left us a swan as our towel animal the first night and this was the first time I'd seen this towel creature.


UP NEXT an interesting sight at sea

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Roberta! Well, it's nice to know that we just didn't have a HOT day in Key West, that apparently that is the norm! And I was laughing reading your TR and seeing your pictures about the sunset! It was so great from the verandah, wasn't it, until the boat started to turn around! Fermin was great, wasn't he?

More please!

[dsnytina]

Looks like Dumbo was your towel animal! The conservatory was beautiful, sorry you didn't get to see the Garden. Parrot Cay was our least favorite of the onboard restaurants.
Can't wait to read more!

[chezp]

Great update from Key West! All this talk of Key West is getting me really excited for our visit there in December.

[Kenny]

Great update, Roberta! You got some good sunset pics, too. That is what we missed. In October, we were having dinner foe all the sunsets! The trolley would have been HOT, too. They are not air conditioned!

[rlb38]

Marnie ! wasn't the sunset view so perfect from "our" verandah? Just 5 more minutes and the sun would have been all the way down. Fermin was super sweet and such a hard worker.

Kenny, I did see some very hot people in the trolley trying to stay cool with paper fans they'd been provided with, they looked HOT too. But at least there was shade over their heads .

Cheryl, I saw in another post where you were thinking of taking a sunset cruise while you were in Key West. I saw 2 cruise boats going out while I was taking those pictures. One was a booze cruise that had an announcer basically talking non stop while dance music was playing in the background. While I was standing there all I could think was just shut up for 2 minutes or even 20 seconds. I think I would want to jump overboard if I was on that cruise. The second looked like pirate ship with the sails up that I was so hoping would sail into my camera shots as the sun went down . I would chose the pirate ship in heartbeat over the other. Sorry ,I didn't spot any cruise names on the boats.

Updates will have to wait until Monday. Thanks for reading along.

[rlb38]

DAY AT SEA

So I woke up around 7:30 and was going to roll over and go back to sleep but I thought I'd just take go to the verandah to have a quick peek. I'd missed the sunrise but it was warm and the water such a gorgeous blue that I just sat down to enjoy the scenery.

I heard a rather large splash off to my left and got up to see what was making the noise. I couldn't see anything but a large circular splash mark like someone had just done a cannonball. I stood there staring at the blue ocean and suddenly I noticed under the surface there were dolphins. I ran back in and whispered to Mike that there were dolphins and quickly headed out. The dolphins were now level with the verandah and I could make out about 10 or so just below the surface. Then I was treated to 2 dolphins jumping up out of the water side by side. Mike missed this and was trying to pick a setting on the camera and missed the dolphins entirely. It was a great way to start the day if only the dolphins would have hung out a little longer.

I was also captivated by how blue the water was I had never seen anything like it. So both Mike and I took many photos trying to capture the blues of the water.



Now we were wide awake and decided to head down to Lumieres for breakfast since Plaman said he would be serving there this morning.
Rachel opted to stay in the room to sleep a little longer .

Mike was enthralled with this restaurant. Not for the decor but the huge porthole windows that are so close to the sea. Plaman's section was full and we were seated at a table for 4. Mike ordered an omelet and I ordered the Beast's big breakfast which is an omelet with baked beans and bacon wrapped in it sitting on toast. The waiter looked at me and said that's big, I assured him I could get help with making it disappear if I needed to. Both of us enjoyed our meals but Mike's toast wasn't toasted very much and a little on the cold side. We decided that making toast for such huge numbers was unlikely to be a success. Now the wait staff we had were very nice but while we were waiting for our meal to come we were spotted by Plaman. We told him his area was full and we were seated here. Next thing we know he swoops by the table with a plate of fruit , a mango,yogurt granola type drink and a strawberry drink. A minute goes by and he is filling our coffee and tea cups up.

Plaman also explains that we are Lumieres tonight for the Golden Mickeys menu and names a few things on the menu. I tell him that we are not coming to dinner since we decided to leave our dressy clothes at home. He starts insisting that we should not worry about that . He assures us that what we have been wearing to dinner is just fine.

We head back to the room to find Rachel up and watching TV. Mike says he'll go to Topsiders to get her breakfast while he gets another coffee for himself. I noticed that there is an animation class in AP but Rachel doesn't want to to join me.

There are a half dozen tables set up with yellow table cloths by a huge screen in Animator's Palate. There were less than 20 people there and only about half were kids. A family of four joined me. The kids were likely 4 and 6 years old. We watched a clip of Walt Disney speaking a little bit about animation and then a CM took us step by step to draw Goofy. So to draw Goofy you start with a big circle, then draw a line through the middle of the circle then you draw a little half circle at the bottom of the circle. The little girl at my table says "are we drawing a ladybug ?" We progress through the drawing and near the end the little boy says "this is actually fun! " My drawing turned out reasonably well. We were then handed this sheet of paper that had circles and retangles on it . We were supposed to draw a person into these shapes. Well I can copy well enough to draw the character but left on my own it was an embarrassing stick figure. Then I looked at what my table mates had done and was blown away. The dad had drawn a pirate, the daughter a chef, the mom a sailor and son went for an abstract monster that was fabulous too. It was fun and I would have like drawn a second character too.

Back to the room and Rachel decided to go to the kids club. Mike and I decided to read but it was quite hot on the verandah so we decided to find a more open spot hoping for a breeze. I took him to the secret deck on 8 but the door was locked.( It was locked the 3 or 4 times we tried on the cruise.) So we tried the deck on 7. We were the only ones there but the wall is rather high and so it was quite hot even in the shade. So down to deck 4 into the lovely teak loungers and settled in for awhile.

We went to Topsiders for lunch and ate inside but I have no notes or recollection about what we ate. I then headed to Studio Sea for the cake and plate decorating seminar. The head pastry chef gave us a demonstration on how to make different shapes (hearts, flowers, spider web) in vanilla cream using fruit purees and a knife. He also decorated 2 cakes. He was British & quite amusing and gave us some interesting facts about baking for the ship. They bake between 4 and 6000 cookies a day !

After that I met up with Mike in the Walt Disney Theater to watch Earth. Rachel didn't want to join us she is not good with any animals being hurt. I have to say that I was a little antsy at times watching the plight of some of the animals.

At four we had a tasting seminar at Diversions. When we arrived there were several tables already full and we were seated with a young couple. A man at the next table began asking Mike where we were from, Canada apparently ruined the trend. Everyone in the room for the tasting so far had been from Florida. The gentleman was quite loud and boisterous and so were his companions. The couple we were seated with told us they were doing a tour of tastings today. The tequila and margarita tasting we were about to do was their 4th seminar of the day.

We were given 3 different shots of tequila that were 3 different levels of quality. Our CM explained how tequila is made and the differences between the qualities and what to look for on a bottle. We also had a small traditional margarita and a pomegranite marg. It was informative and well as tasty. Mike and I both thought it was worth the $15 each.

We head back to the room and meet up with Rachel to discuss dinner plans. I'm thinking room service vs Topsiders but Mike doesn't want to miss out on the Golden Mickeys dinner. I'm annoyed because we had several discussions at home about not wanting to bother dressing up for dinner and how it would be nice to do dinner on our own time and watch a sunset. I can see I'm out numbered so I put on the Palo outfit.(skirt and top) Mike puts on his black pants and a button shirt and Rachel has a little sundress to wear.

I will just say that the majority of the people were dressed much nicer than we were but I wasn't too uncomfortable. Plaman seemed very pleased to see us and assured us we looked great as he escorted us to our table. I have to say that I found the Golden Mickey menu a bit disappointing.


Rachel had pizza & an apple blueberry dessert in a cider sauce that was tasty. I believe she left again as soon as possible.
I had cheese souffle and beef wellington both were good but not outstanding.

Mike had scallops & tomato risotto and rack of lamb.
Here's some pics of our wait staff looking very smart in their tuxes.
Silvio wanted us to take a picture to see whether or not he should have shaved.

ERWIN
PLAMAN

Plaman also brought us a cake for our anniversary which was a week later.


The little girl at the next table was quite fascinated with the cake and came over to talk to us. She said it's my birthday on Thursday and I'll be 5. I already knew this because Rachel and I heard her tell every character and handler at the character breakfast. So we had a little chat with her and then she graced us with an anniversary dance. Then she was after Plaman to hurry up with dessert since she didn't want to miss the red carpet.

We headed back to the room to change and laze on the verandah until it was time to go to the Golden Mickeys. Most people stayed dressed up for the show. The red carpet part wasn't what I was expecting at all ! It was adorable and very funny. And yes, our table neighbour was featured on the red carpet. There were also several Canadian kids featured and a fair sized cheer went up when someone said they were from Canada !




I managed to figure out how to turn the flash and the display off of my camera to take a shot of the show.

After the show Mike and I read out on the verandah enjoying a drink and some cake. The cake was so much better than I expected. I thought it would be like a supermarket cake. But it was delicious Rachel went back to club until 10:30. It was lights out by 11 since we had meet for our excursion at 7:40.



UP NEXT: will my first snorkel experience be a good one ?

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update! I wasn't impressed with the Golden's Mickey dinner either! Glad you got to see some dolphins! More please!

[chezp]

What a great day at sea - how beautiful and blue that sea looked.

[lauriep]

Love those sea days! The blue, blue water is gorgeous, and seeing the dolphins must have been magical.

[Kenny]

Dolphins!! When we get to go again, I'll have to look over the side more often to see what I'm missing!
Plaman must have been quite special!

Great update!