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

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from Cozumel! That was quite the day, you got to see and do alot!

[rlb38]

PIRATE NIGHT

So I headed on my own back to the ship and discovered that my hair had been turned into a solid mass. I could not get a comb even a quarter inch through my hair. The combination of salt water and dune buggy hair was a site to behold. I just slapped a ton of conditioner in it and sat on my verandah watching people make the LOOOOONG walk back to the ship.

As you may recall I left my dear family shopping in port. They returned about 45 minutes after me with a couple of treasures. Mike found some quality tequilla that sits in our cupboard waiting for a hot summer day.(please Lord, let us have a hot summer day in 2010 ) Rachel had also bought a couple of goodies. One was a little blue and silver clutch purse that is made out of candy wrappers and ...... that's right ...... the bracelet with her name made by the pushy salesman.

Dinner time was approaching fast and we scrambled to have showers (without a Mexican this time ) and get our Pirate wear on. Now for some reason we don't have a nice picture of us in thrift store pirate outfits.



Rachel wasn't wearing her bandana at dinner because (as I was told with a tone of exasperation) her hair was wet and needed to dry. Okaaay then. Our servers were looking stunning in their pirate gear.







I will just say here that not too many adults were dressed as pirates at this dinner but many of the kids were. I did enjoy scouring the thrift shops to find our outfits and thought Mike's shirt was the best of my finds. Just disappointing that we didn't think to have full length group shot together. (another reason to return to a Disney cruise)

Erwin seemed really loose and happy at this service. He brought over a demo of the lit up ice cubes and Tinkerbell light that were up for grabs for about 6 bucks. He quietly said " now I know you folks don't need any lights in your drinks but I need to show them to you ! "
I felt like ordering a drink for the first time with dinner and went with the theme drink of Rusty Anchor. Which I immediately regretted because it's rum based and I'm not found of rum. A lesson I should have learned the first day when I had the Bahama Mama 10 minutes after boarding.

So much time has elasped that I'm unsure exactly what we ordered from my notes. For my meal I wrote "beef again ,chicken salad ,pineapple + banana" Mike had Mahi Mahi, crab cake, pineapple+banana. Rachel was pasta and a Mickey bar. I'm pretty sure pineapple +banana was dessert and I know I had a fabulous banana cake dessert at some point so perhaps that was it. I know it was an enjoyable meal.

Plamen suggested we go to Deck 9 on the starboard side for the party for best viewing. Rachel left dinner to go to club and Mike and I returned to the verandah for a cocktail.



We headed to the deck 9 a half hour before the party was to start. We grabbed the last bit of room at the rail on the starboard side. Right on time the party started with the CM's getting everyone to dance and gradually characters joined in. Mike had the camera but seems to have forgotten to press the exposure button


I thought Minnie was quite adorable in her wench wear. Eventually we were taken over by Pirates but luckily Pirate Mickey swooped in to save the day.

Very soon after behind us the fireworks began.



I did the fireworks so neat to have the sea air blowing in your face and these gorgeous explosions of colour lighting the inky black of night. I will say that while the dancing is cute and hour of it is a little long for me. I do admire the CM's that have to shake their groove thing in the heat for an hour or more steady. They are in phenominal shape.

Rachel went back to club until 11 or so. Mike and I considered staying on and watching Pirates of the Caribbean but we were quite hot. I retreated to the verandah to read and sip wine. Mike chose to stay in the air conditioned room until I assured him there was a nice breeze on the verandah.

Some where around midnight we closed our eyes on what had been a beautiful , fun filled day.

UP NEXT: a busy day at sea

[chezp]

What a fun end to the day!

[lauriep]

Fun evening! The pirate outfits look great. I got a candy-wrapper purse to give to a friend in Mexico on the Panama cruise last year. Wish I'd gotten more of them!

[Kenny]

Sounds like a great Pirate Night!

[iamgrumpy]

What a great Pirate night! Sounds like a lot of fun!

[Big Baloo]

sounds like you had a glorious day! Hurry back with more!!

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update Roberta!

[rlb38]

AT SEA

I was up before anyone else and decided to head to the Rainforest. It was a heavenly way to start the day and I was the only person there for awhile.

I returned to find Mike awake but Rachel was sawing logs so we left her to sleep and headed up to Topsiders. The buffet was okay and Mike had an omelet made for him which he enjoyed. We brought some food back to the room for Rachel and told her we were headed to Stageworks in the Walt Disney Theatre.

2 CM's gave a fairly short explaination on how the shows work. They rehearse the shows in Toronto first. The shows stay for a long stretch on time due to the cost of auditions, rehearsals and costumes. They explained how a few of the special effects work and after answering audience questions we were invited up on stage to have a look around at the scenes and a rack of the costumes. There were 2 costumes you could try on.




This dress was very heavy some where between 10 and 15 pounds if I recall correctly. I look cranky because this is Mike's 3rd attempt at the shot and people are waiting to also try on the dress.





Mike dressed as a courtier and then showing the fairy godfather outfit from Twice Charmed. We took photos of other people in the costumes and spoke to Rachel who is the stage manager from Australia. Our own Rachel is interested in the backstage workings so we asked a bit about her education and how she arrived at Disney. Sadly, I don't remember too many of her answers now but she loved her job and I don't think too many women have the role of stage manager.

Rachel and I headed to meet the princesses. She hadn't met Belle in her yellow dress before. But the line up was loooooooong and she decided to grab a bite to eat and then go to club. I went up a floor to try and get a good photo of Belle from the balcony.




Belle never once looked up , Cinderella did and waved a couple of times but of course I had the camera on Belle. 2 Aussie women in there late 20's joined me and one was just gushing about seeing Snow White and how beautiful she was. She wanted to run down and get her photo taken. I warned her that the line was actually quite long you just couldn't see it since it ran down the hallway side of Lumiere's. She was crushed and really wanted her to look up so I called out "Snow White" and she raised her eyes up and gave a small smile. This delighted the Aussie and she was off. I continued the quest for a good photo to know avail. I noticed that the head mouse himself was checking out the action too.


A few minutes later and Mickey was behind me. A boy of about 7 saw Mickey and ran with all his might yelling Mickeyyyyyyyy. Very sweet. I was totally absorbed in how wonderful this moment was I forgot I was holding a camera.

I headed down and took one ground level photo of Belle inbetween her visitors. This earned me some scowls from the waiting throng but I was soon off.


I returned to the room to find Mike happily reading on the balcony. We headed to Lumiere's for lunch. To his delight we were seated at a table by the water and I let him sit so he could have the view of the blue sea. We were joined by a repeat cruiser from the midwest who decided to have just dessert for lunch and a father and daughter also joined us part way through the meal. They were there as part of a large gathering. He spoke little English but delighted in telling us he was 83 and in fantastic shape!

We then went to the Buena Vista theatre for Disney's Top 10 innovations. This was attended but a large number of people and it seemed all Disney buffs. Mike and I learned a great deal we really don't know all that much about the making of films and Disney lore. I was struck by how I recognized Walt's voice in the clips that we played. I rarely missed the Walt Disney show on Sundays as a kid. I forgot that he used to introduce clips. It was an enjoyable and informative hour.

UP NEXT: fun at tea

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Roberta! Glad you're writing again!

[Kenny]

Yes, a great update, Roberta! I bet you would be quite tired after doing a show in that dress!!

[chezp]

Great to see you writing again!

[B.M.]

Great update!

[rlb38]

AT SEA Cont.

I found one photo from the Disney's Inoventions lecture.




Mike was then off to beer tasting and had the same CM as we had for the tequilla tasting.



I don't believe that Mike tried any beer that was new to him at this tasting but he still enjoyed himself. Another note about beer: Mike bought the beer package where you get a large beer for the price of a regular . It was served in a large glass mug similar to the one with the red printing on the table. You can keep the mug as well. But he found this glass quite heavy and didn't enjoy having to use the handle. A small thing but I just thought I'd mention it.

While Mike was rushing off to beer tasting I noticed that towel folding was about to start. I rushed down and grabbed Rachel out of the club and then headed back to Beat Street just as they were about to start. Rachel and I decided to sit on the floor with our allotment of towels. Our CM host was a housekeeper from Jamaica who was very funny. His towel guru was another CM from I think the Phillipines was hanging out in the background to help. Our host would have everybody say "Niiiiiiice" everytime he showed us an animal. He demonstrated about 5 different animals including a dog, monkey and turtle and then it was our turn to go step by step. He would do a step give us a few seconds and ask "how's everybody" to which we were to answer "Niiiiice" if all was good. Rachel said "Not Nice" once and he quickly showed her the fold again. I think we did 3 animals with him. The Phillipine guru was near us at the end and we commented about how much we admired a small bird he had made. So he ran over got a facecloth and "helped" Rachel recreate it and then told us to keep it.



The trick is that it needs to be a wet face cloth. It's not very photogenic here but it was cute.

Rachel dashed back to class. I had about a half hour to kill before my galley tour so I headed to guest services. Fito had asked if we had time to fill out a report on how the excursion in Cozumel was. So I filled out a card singing Fito's praises but also mentioning the seat belt and the lack of showers. Then it was off to meet Mike at Lumieres. I enjoyed the galley tour but I was a little disappointed that it was completely void of staff except the chefs offering the tours. I realize it makes perfect sense but I wanted to see it in action. The tour starts in Lumieres but it is also connected to Parrot Cay's galley. The galley was sparkling clean and the amount of food it puts out in a week is staggering. The head pastry chef I had encountered at the cake decorating seminar a few days earlier. His speech was pretty much the same. We were offered a chocolate chip cookie on our way out.

Then it was back to the room briefly to meet Rachel and pick up our tickets for tea with Alice. While waiting for the doors to open we got to see 4 little girls in their princess outfits decided that they would be friends since they were all dressed as princesses. Adorable and I noticed their parents let them sit at a table together.

Soon we were allowed in and both Alice and the Madhatter arrived. They then picked 2 girls from the audience one to be the March hare and one to be the White rabbit complete with little hats. Alice and the Madhatter went through the do's and don'ts of having tea like a lady or gentleman. The Madhatter was truly delightful, I think he's so funny.






OOps one photo is in 2x . Rachel enjoyed the Madhatter as well especially when he kept shoving large bites in his mouth when Alice wasn't watching.

We finished with tea strolled the deck towards the cabin stopping to show Mike a few of the things we noticed on our Passporter treasure hunt. Once back in the room we noticed it was time to head to supper at Parrot Cay.

So if you've been paying attention since lunch it was 1pm- Innoventions
2pm -towel folding, guest services, 3pm galley tour 4pm tea
I was scheduled out and pointed out that we had agreed to have buffet dinner one night so we could see the sun set. But both Mike and Rachel wanted to go to Parrot Cay. So I said see you later. I headed up a got some wraps and salad from Goofy's Galley and headed to the seating area outside by Topsiders and had the whole deck to myself since the buffet was open yet. I enjoyed the view and solitude. I then headed off to the Rainforest once again.

The rainforest was as crowded as it got on my visits I think there were 6 people. The chairs were full so I headed into the sauna. It was me and a couple and the wife was giving her husband a big ol lecture. Along the lines of " I don't think you appreciate how much planning and work I did to make this vacation happen for everyone" AWKWARD... and so it continued for a few minutes until finally someone else came in and she decided to end it.

I was heading to the steamroom when I noticed a man about to open the doors to the hotter than the surface of the sun steamroom. He opened the door got half a pace in the door and then looked like he was blown backwards . He quickly closed the door and just stood there for a moment. I headed into the not so hot steamroom and when he came in a little later, I mentioned that I saw him try to head in there. He agreed that it was too hot for humans in there. Turned out he was a CM doing a temporary stint as the port of call shopping expert. We had a nice conversation.

Not long after arriving people slowly made their way out of the Rainforest and I was rewarded with an empty spa so I relaxed for about 30 minutes on the heated chairs. HEAVEN!

I eventually met up at the theatre for Dreams. We enjoyed the show and some kids were really dancing in the aisles to "Under the Sea" which is one of my favourite Disney songs.

Now a tale of caution about drinking wine in the Walt Disney theatre. Very cool that you can have wine but this is what I saw. A couple with a small sleeping baby and 2 glasses of wine. They sit down with the women holding the baby and once she is seated the man puts the wine glasses in the cup holders. A CM recognizes them and they begin chatting away and then the wine glass slowly starts to tip over and lands all over the man. The CM is quick to come and take the glasses and offer a new one. The man accepts but leaves to go change. The theatre begins to fill the CM has returned with another glass of wine and kindly puts it into the holder since the women is holding her sleeping infant. Seats are becoming scarce and a women walks backward down the aisle trying to get her families attention and while I give a cry out I am not heard over the crowd. The lady bumps the wineglass and wine is everywhere for the second time. So I'd advise to keep your wine in your hands.


Rachel went off to club for the Pool and PJ party which she convinced Mike at dinner that she should stay until the end which was 1AM!!!

Mike and I headed to Rockin' D bar a caught the end of a very funny comedy / juggling show. We stayed after the show for line dancing where the gave out cowboy hats but I wasn't fast enough and didn't get one.

We headed back to the room and noticed that the Chocolate Buffet was set up in Lumieres. We walked in a saw a beautiful display of desserts. We had a plate full and then I went down to the club to bring Rachel up to see the desserts they were so lovely. She picked out a few treats and we sat outside the restaurant. She was feeling self conscious in her PJ's.

It was a full and fun day. I never realized that I would be so busy on an at sea day. Now I know why some people prefer the Eastern for the extra at sea day.

UP NEXT CASTWAY CAY

[chezp]

Sounds like a great day.