Florida flowers and Caribbean cruising THIS SECTION COMPLETED 5/7 - Page 5 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Wow, reading this is really making me want to plan another cruise! Glad you didn't get dud tablemates. Dinner looked great. Off to a good start, but I know there are some troubles to come.
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Wow, reading this is really making me want to plan another cruise! Glad you didn't get dud tablemates. Dinner looked great. Off to a good start, but I know there are some troubles to come.
It makes me want to plan another cruise and we've got one in Alaska at the end of August! I so wish that we could do one of the European cruises next year, but not at the prices Disney are charging... we'd only do that if we win the lottery!
I must admit, when you posted what time you booked your spa appointments for, my first thought was "wonder what time their dinner is????" Can't wait to hear if you got it worked out or not!
I must admit, when you posted what time you booked your spa appointments for, my first thought was "wonder what time their dinner is????" Can't wait to hear if you got it worked out or not!
Let's put it this way - the manager of the spa knew what dining rotation we were on and didn't feel there'd be an issue...
I imagine you were a little shocked when they called you up front before dismissing everyone from the drill! I would have turned quite a few shades of red, as I don't like being singled out.
The asparagus soup looked wonderful! As did Mark's Romaine Wedge. And the chocolate cocktail! Yum!
Just having a chance to read this now. Was happy to see the picture of the sail of the Nathaniel Greene (SSN 636). My dad helped build that boat in the early 60's and I always like to take a picture of it for him.
Glad you weren't causing any "mischief" when you were called to the front after the drill!
Isn't it wonderful when Disney does something totally unexpected such as remembering allergies?
Can't wait for more!
I imagine you were a little shocked when they called you up front before dismissing everyone from the drill! I would have turned quite a few shades of red, as I don't like being singled out.
I must admit my first thought was "what have we done?"
Just having a chance to read this now. Was happy to see the picture of the sail of the Nathaniel Greene (SSN 636). My dad helped build that boat in the early 60's and I always like to take a picture of it for him.
Oh wow, how neat!
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Glad you weren't causing any "mischief" when you were called to the front after the drill!
Isn't it wonderful when Disney does something totally unexpected such as remembering allergies?
Hmmm... as you'll discover as this trip goes on, the answer to that is and let's just say...
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Monday 23 February – part eight: can you move our appointments back?
It was about this time that Mark noticed the time – it was 6:50pm, and we had booked our spa treatments for 7:00pm, and we hadn’t even had our entrees yet! I immediately headed up to Guest Services a deck up, and they called the spa, who had no problem pushing our appointment back by half an hour. Phew!
For entrée, Mark had the marjoram scented roast chicken, served with baked crushed sweet potatoes, buttered baby spinach and a thyme red wine chicken jus.
I got another special created for me, as I wanted the caramelized sea scallops with roasted asparagus, sun dried tomato couscous, caramelized leeks, and red wine veal jus, but for obvious reasons, I didn’t want the red wine veal jus, and they did it without for me, which I was very impressed about, as I thought a lot of the dishes were pre-plated. Obviously not…
For dessert, I had a few issues, as a lot of the dishes contained things I was allergic to, and I wasn’t keen on the other options. In the end, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what was served up for me, as I couldn’t match it to anything on the menu, but it was very nice.
Mark got the warm sticky date pudding served with butterscotch sauce, vanilla ice cream, and philo crunch.
I guess at this point, I should introduce our serving team. Our head server was Ivan, our assistant server was Duarte from Portugal, and our server was Maji from Thailand. Actually, those were only the last four letters of his name, but that’s what he told us to call him, and one way to remember his name is that he actually does magic tricks! We saw him do a couple with the table next to him, then he did a card trick for us…
Both Maji and Duarte seem very nice, and while the meal was paced in a relaxed way, it wasn’t great, given we had appointments, but maybe we should’ve mentioned that when we sat down. I just didn’t think we’d need do. Duarte also did pour me another glass of wine before I could stop him, and I couldn’t face anymore, so I asked him to pour it back into the bottle, so it didn’t go to waste.
We had to leave Maji doing his second trick, otherwise we’d have been late for our appointment, which had already been moved. With some of the tables throwing out from main dining, the elevators on the second deck were insane, so we walked down to the forward ones, and again had no issues there. We signed it, handed our room keys over, in case we wanted to go to the Rainforest later, and we were both taken off for our treatments.
I got changed, then headed to the quiet relaxation area, where I filled in the health questionnaire. I did wonder if I had to, given that they had my allergies already, but figured that I should. Almost as I was done, Amelia turned up to get me. We’d actually already heard from her in the raffle earlier, and she said she was from Manchester, but when I questioned her a bit more, it turns out she comes from a town just 15 miles away from where my parents live, so we had plenty to chat about.
I had the five steps to heaven treatment, which consisted of a silky skin body brush exfoliation, a back, neck and shoulders massage with hot stones, a foot and ankle massage, a European facial, and a scalp massage, but if I had the scalp massage, I really don’t remember, as my bun remained tight in my hair all the time. Perhaps Amelia took that that I didn’t want one? Either way, I wasn’t too concerned. It should have been $239, as it’s a 75 minute treatment, but it was $139, which I thought was great value.
There was a weird moment during it though. Amelia suddenly said “do you mind if I excuse myself for a minute?” and I didn’t feel like I could say anything apart from but it’s the first time that’s ever happened to me in all the treatments I’ve had in a variety of places over the years. It was very strange to be lying there mid-massage, waiting for her to return…
When we were done, I was relieved to have no hard sell on any products, and instead Amelia handed me a magical moments certificate, which was very neat. Apparently Mark got one as well, so we wondered if they’ve been told to have more out?
When I finished my treatment, it was 9:00pm, and Amelia told me I still had an hour to use the Rainforest, so guess where I headed? I was expecting it to be deserted in there at this time of night, but not a bit of it. I sat on one of the heated stone chairs for a few minutes, with only one other woman in there, and it was lovely and quiet… until a couple headed out to use the hot tubs. I could guess what was coming next, and of course we had the shrieks when they discovered how chilly it was out there, as some of it is open to the elements. They got in the tub, but still talked loudly, and I wanted to chill, so I headed for the laconium, where I was alone. I spent ages in there, just enjoying having the place to myself.
Then I went into the hamam. I’d forgotten how hot the floor is in here (that’s obviously why one of the cleaners tried to persuade me to get the plastic slippers earlier on ), so I had to keep my feet off those for as much time as I could, otherwise they’d have burnt. It was the same problem in the caldacium, and boy that was hot, so I didn’t stay there long.
I headed back to the heated stone chairs, and again it was just me and the same woman. The couple had gone, but now there were two couples in the tubs. I really couldn’t believe how popular these were at this time of night!
About 9:45pm, I was just about done, so I headed back and got changed, and walked back to the room, surprising Mark when I entered, as he was fast asleep bless him! I have to be honest, I was tired, so I joined him, and was soon asleep too.
The weather today was hot and sunny in the temperatures in the low 80s. The best thing today was my spa treatment. The worst thing today was how much parking at the cruise terminal was. The funniest thing today was Mark with Stitch at breakfast! Today we tried exploring the area around Rapunzel’s Tower And the result was it’s a beautiful part of the park. The most magical moment today was enjoying my wonderful treatment at the spa.
Next: a sound I never thought I’d hear on the Disney Cruise Line…
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What a long (but magical) day!
I'd almost forgotten you'd spent the morning at the Magic Kingdom!
And to end the day with that wonderful spa treatment sounds very relaxing.
I am not shocked at all that you guys crashed early!! : A very long day and a lovely spa appointment will do that to you!! I hope you guys have sweet dreams!!
That spa treatment sounds heavenly! While I do like the Rainforest room on the newer ships, I don't like the fact that when you're relaxing on the hot stone chairs, you can hear people in the hot tubs.
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Dinner looked great. Off to a good start, but I know there are some troubles to come.
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I so wish that we could do one of the European cruises next year, but not at the prices Disney are charging... we'd only do that if we win the lottery! 
and 
let's just say...
I immediately headed up to Guest Services a deck up, and they called the spa, who had no problem pushing our appointment back by half an hour. Phew! 
Either way, I wasn’t too concerned. It should have been $239, as it’s a 75 minute treatment, but it was $139, which I thought was great value. 
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