Four if by Land, Six if by Sea **Updated 2/23**COMPLETED About This Page:

[Jillybean]

Wednesday, January 21 Part Two

We headed back to our room after our Palo brunch feast, but our room steward had just started cleaning it. We had to make ourselves scarce for 30 minutes so Thom and I looked around the shops, bought the rest of our pictures and then decided to sit down with a CM and price a holiday cruise. We only waited a few minutes before it was our turn. We asked the CM to look at a category 3 for the four of us on a 7-night cruise in 2010. She came back with a quote over $15,000. Thom’s jaw about dropped to the floor and he screeched “Fifteen THOUSAND???” The CM reminded him that the holiday cruises were the most expensive and that it was for a 7-night instead of a 4-night. We thanked her quickly and got the heck out of dodge!

We had waited to pick up Maddie until after her “butter making” session was over in the lab, but they were still in the process when we peeked our heads in the door. They were all wearing the cutest little dairy caps (they all looked like soda jerks ) and having a blast shaking their butter concoction. Maddie saw us and immediately decided that she had had enough of butter making (apparently they had been at it for some time ) and came with us.

By this time, we could return to our clean room. Thom talked Maddie into taking a nap with him, so I grabbed my book and took off to find a reading spot. One thing that I have failed to disclose it that it was downright chilly outside. It was in the mid-50’s and, at one point, I had the captain announce “Welcome to Alaska!” Today was meant for indoor activities, so after a bit of browsing in the shops, I found a lounge chair near the lab and tried to read but ended up people watching instead.

After the flubber session, I managed to find Mary Devall in the lab which was not an easy task since this had to be the most popular of all of their activities. She was still riding high from making flubber, but she was ready to go. Our first stop was the gift shop to let her pick out her “treat” for switching sides of the bed with Maddie the night before. She decided on a Webkinz panther which she promptly named Corrina. We also found her a Minnie Mouse pin and some scrapbook supplies for me.

The “graduation” from the kids clubs was this afternoon. I knew that Maddie wouldn’t want to participate and I wasn’t too surprised when Mary Devall told me that she didn’t want to do it either. She said that she had done it before and that was enough. I had to agree with her since I didn’t want to have to fight hundreds of parents to get a decent seat in the theater (those people was absolutely vicious 3 years ago ). I told her that her dad planned to take Maddie to see HSM 3 when they woke from their nap, so we could all go if she was interested. Of course her answer was because can you really see enough HSM 3?

A little after 3 p.m., I peeked in the master bedroom to see if Thom still wanted to go to HSM 3. He was awake, but said that Maddie wanted to sleep a little longer. About that time, her eyes popped open and it was obvious that she was done sleeping. The four of us took off for the theater, bought a bag of popcorn to share and then took our seats just as the movie was starting.

We have learned quickly with Maddie that as long as she has popcorn that she is as good as gold in any type of shows or movies. She immediately took the popcorn as her own (we bought the very last bag that they had), but occasionally she would allow Thom to pass it down to Mary Devall and me. Near the end of the movie, she began to get squirmy when the popcorn ran out. About the time that she started crumpling the empty bag of popcorn, Thom took it from her and she let out a squeal. And that was the end of the movie for Thom and Maddie.

Mary Devall and I enjoyed every last bit of it and she even wanted to stay to watch the credits roll. When we returned to the room, Maddie was chilling out in front of the tv with Finding Nemo and feeling much better about the injustices in life.

Despite the distinct possibility that she would be eating chicken afterwards, Mary Devall really wanted to go to the magic show in the kids club. Thom tried to convince Maddie to go too, but she was done with the kids club for this trip. With the attention of four adults, I had the feeling that she would have good behavior during dinner and she did not disappoint me!

Thom dropped Mary Devall off at the kids club while the rest of us headed for Triton’s. For some reason, he actually beat us there. I started out with a Pomegranate Cosmo which was quite yummy! By now, James knew to immediately ask me for my cocktail selection. Thom was joining in the fun with the drink of the day - - again!



Tonight was a French theme and the night that I had the hardest time making a selection. I finally decided on the Shrimp Medley (Jumbo Shrimp on a Baby Shrimp Salad with Cocktail Sauce) followed by the Bouillabaise Soup (Chunks of Seafood and Vegetables in a flavorful Broth, served with Garlic Mayonnaise Croutons) and the Roasted Beef Tenderloin Provence, Burgundy Wine Sauce (Crusted with Rosemary and Garlic and served with Rutabaga, Sweet Peas Puree and Baby Carrots).

Let’s just say that today was a banner day for food - - first, the Palo brunch and now this gastronomic delight! Everything was simply delicious! For dessert, I chose the Crepes Suzette (Flambeed with Grand Marnier in Orange Caramel Sauce) even though Dragan warned me that they were very sweet. I may occasionally say that something is too rich, but you will rarely hear me saying that it’s too sweet. They were sweet, but oh the flavor!

Maddie was such a good girl during dinner and she was happily rewarded with Mickey ketchup and later her own Mickey Bar! The paint on her face is from her Army boot camp activity earlier in the day - - she refused to let us wash it off.



With Thom handing out the tip envelopes that evening, it was a veritable love fest between us and our servers, so there was happiness all around. We weren’t quite ready to say goodbye to these two wonderful men yet, so we promised them that we would be back for the final breakfast in the morning.

My parents headed back to the room, but Thom and I took Maddie to the gift shop since she hadn’t had a chance to shop yet. Thom had been eyeing t-shirts for the girls. When we showed Maddie the “Toy Story Musical” one since she is such a big “Toy Story” fan, she literally jumped up and down. Mary Devall had already verified for me on our trip here earlier that day that she would agree to be seen in the long sleeve t-shirt that her dad liked, so he was thrilled that he was 2-for-2 on his t-shirt selections. Maddie also picked out a very cute yet plain Chip and Dale pin for her lanyard which tickles me since Mary Devall always goes for the more glitzy ones.

Maddie’s final decision to make was which fluffie she wanted. Oh, how this girl loves her fluffies so this took a bit longer. She pretty much considered every single one in the store until she seemed to limit her search to the Toy Story gang. Imagine my surprise when she picked up Weezie, the squeakless penguin. I think I have me an underdog lover.

With Weezie in hand (and yes, he does squeak ), my baby girl was as happy as could be. We took her back to the room and she and Weezie watched a movie while we began the process of packing. It actually wasn’t too bad since we had used the handy dandy pop-up hamper that I had bought for the trip. We essentially dumped that into a suitcase, packed another suitcase with clothes that we didn’t need for Disney and one for clothes that we did need.

Once we had all of our luggage ready to go, I tagged everything and Thom moved it out into the hallway. With that done, Thom grabbed a nightgown for Mary Devall and took it to the kids club for their pajama party. I did ask him to do me one itsy bitsy favor on his way back - - run by the Cadillac Lounge and bring me back another chocolate martini.

While he was gone, I started working on our customs forms and two surveys. Those surveys really took a lot of time! I also had to hop in the shower since I didn’t want to wake up 30 minutes earlier to do that in the morning. Having a chocolate martini to sip while I did these boring tasks really helped to improve my attitude!

Once we got Maddie to sleep, I crawled in bed myself to watch a little television while Thom and my dad watched a basketball game in the living room. I was asleep by the time that Thom brought Mary Devall back to the room, but I’m pretty sure that this was her latest night of all! She apparently decided to go out with a bang!

Up next . . . our final morning