Jessica Johnson - 2006

Today was our second "at sea" day, and for once, I was able to sleep in a bit. The plans for today weren't nearly as busy as the plans for our first sea day, so we slept until about 9:45 am, and then took our time getting ready for the day.

The first thing we had planned was Brunch at Palo, so Chris had been prepared, and borrowed a pair of pants from Steve this time. They were still big on him, but not quite as bad as Vince's had been, so he was able to keep them on for the whole meal. We headed upstairs and met up with the others, except Robin and Vince, outside the restaurant. We waited for about 5 minutes for them, and then Chris went to call them. It turns out they hadn't changed the clocks back, so were thinking it was still 9:30 am. We headed in, to check in, and discovered we were to be seated in the Private Room. After getting settled, our server, Florencia, came in, and took our drink orders while we waited for Robin and Vince to join us.

We had the option to get a glass of Champagne (Fairy Tale Cuvee) or a Champagne Cocktail, which was blue. I went for the regular, I believe Chris got the blue one. Then, Florencia took us on the tour of the food. Our first stop was the breakfast breads table- there was a warming dish full of cinnamon rolls, croissants, and just about every sort of breakfast food you could imagine. Florencia suggested we take a piece of the stollen, top it with some jam and then some whipped cream.

Then she lead us to the Pizza selection, then to the hot food choices, and then to the breakfast options. Then she showed us the dessert buffet, the "regular" buffet, and the bread/cheese table. After checking out all the goodies, we headed back to our Private Room, where we placed our orders.

Chris decided to get the Buttermilk Pancakes and a half order of the Orechiette Pasta. I chose the Eggs Benedict while Pam got the Eggs Juliet and the Eggs Florentine. We also split a half order of the Veal Saltimbuca. Then, we headed out to check out the buffet. There was a lot of seafood options, shrimp, crab, salmon mousse, etc, on the main buffet, and I grabbed a crab claw and some cheese. Then I decided to try the stollen as well.

After we finished our stuff from the buffet, Florencia brought in our pizzas. Because we were such a large group, she brought one of each. There was a tomato pesto one, a pepperoni, a sausage, and a blue cheese and grape one. I tried a bite of the blue cheese, and a few bites of the sausage, and they were both good. I'm not normally a blue cheese fan, but this was pretty good.

Then, we did get our "main" entrees. Chris loves pancakes- so he was thrilled. He said the pasta was really good as well. The eggs benedict were great- though I skipped the muffin part of them. The veal was quite good as well, but I only had a bite of it.

Florencia came back to see if we needed anything, and we started talking to her, and learned that she was a server that brought both the Magic and the Wonder over from Italy. She's been with Disney Cruise Line for 9 years, and works primarily in Palo. Steve asked her if, in all her 9 years, she's ever had anyone lose their pants in the restaurant. She seemed surprised, and said no. Steve informed her that he had, and would be happy to share the picture. Florencia asked for it, and said she'd put it on the wall in the private room. She also told us that in January they will be having various tastings for the Med cruise meals. Apparently they will have all new menus that correspond to the various ports.

It was time for dessert- so we headed back out to the main dining room, where we got in line for the buffet. There were so many wonderful options- I had a hard time choosing what to get. I'm sure I looked strange, since I got desserts for both Chris and I, and had a full plate, plus some things I was carrying. There was a lemon spoon with meringue topping, chocolate pots de crème, tiramisu, chocolate mousse, a cherry trifle, and a white chocolate mousse, and a mocha mousse as well. I took a tiny bit of just about each one and they were all incredible. I think the pots de crème were my favorite though.

Totally stuffed, we made our way out of the restaurant and headed down to the shops. Chris went back to the room to lay down for a bit, and eventually Pam, Robin and I ended up sitting in our usual spot outside the Walt Disney Theatre. We stayed there until it was time for our Galley Tour. Robin and Pam ran up to the Cove Café to get some coffee while I headed back to the room to get Chris and drop off my bag of stuff I'd purchased. We met up with everyone at the side entrance to Lumiere's, and after a few minutes we were let into the restaurant, to start our tour.

We started in Lumiere's, where we were given a short talk about the dining options on the ship, and then we went into the shared Galley between Lumiere's and Parrot Cay. The Galley is huge- but if you've seen a restaurant kitchen, much of the equipment is the same. What is amazing is how quickly they can get the food out for meals. They start prepping about 2 hours before the meal, and get everything done. We saw the huge vats for the soups, and the salad fridges. We also got to see the Pastry kitchen, with the giant mixers, the ovens, and as there were two weddings that day, two wedding cakes. Here we also got to try some fresh cookies!

Then we continued on to see the rest of the Galley, ending in Parrot Cay. The entire tour was about 20 minutes, and well worth the behind the scenes peek.

From there, we headed back to the shops, because they had a Mickey Tiki head shirt on sale, and Steve and Vince had both gotten one, so of course, Chris had to. Plus, we wanted Robin to share her "theory" about pants size with the boys. While we'd been sitting outside the Theatre, Robin had told us that if you put a pair of pants around your neck, then they'd fit around your waist. So, without Steve knowing why, we decided to test it out, and Robin pulled a pair of pants in his size, and it does work! Of course, I took a picture of the process.

After getting his shirt, we were at a loss as to what to do. We ended up going back to Pam and Steve's room to hang out for a while, and figure out what to do next. After about half an hour, we decided to go to Diversions to see if they had Trivial Pursuit. Chris ran his shirt back to the room, while the rest of us went to Diversions, and they did have the Genus version. So, we settled in, and after ordering a chocolate martini, we started our game.

It was kind of a disaster- and it went downhill fast. We were playing as couples, and Chris and I would get questions like "What silent screen cowboy star was killed by his own luggage?" and then Vince and Robin would get easy questions with multiple choice answers! I think they got 4 pie pieces before we gave up on the game altogether and just declared them the default winners!

After Trivial Pursuit, Chris and I had the Exotic Rhassoul booked at the spa. So, we headed upstairs and checked in at the desk. We were each presented with a bathrobe, some shoes, and a locker key, and then escorted off to the locker rooms. After we changed and put on our robes, we were to hang out in the lounge area until our therapist called us.

When our therapist did come to collect us, we headed back down the hall to the Exotic Rhassoul room. It's sort of an odd therapy room. The door is in the middle of the suite- when you first enter, you're in a small room that's sort of rectangular. Directly across from the door is a long, tiled bench built right into the wall. The bench was covered in towels, and on a few rolled up towels sat two big bowels, one of the Elemis Exotic Lime-Ginger Body Scrub, and one of seaweed mud. To the left of the room was a shower alcove. To the right was a glass door, through which you'd enter into the steam room. In the steamroom, there were three alcove seats, each with it's own shower head system, both overhead, and on the sides. These were controlled by the buttons built into the walls, but only 1 of them worked completely. Back in the main room, there was another small table with a basket full of various other Elemis products. Exfoliators, Body Wash, and all sorts of facial products.

The therapist explained the room, and gave us the info we needed to know about the treatment. We would be on our own, inside the room with the door locked from the inside, for about an hour. About 10 minutes before the time was up, someone would knock on the door, and they asked that we say something to let them know that we heard it. There was water outside, and if we needed anything, to just push the red button on the wall.

So- I won't go into details ;o) but Chris and I had fun trying out the variety of products, and moving from room to room. We did cause a bit of a stir, though, because I realized there was no shampoo or conditioner in the room. Since they'd said to push the red button- we did. Turns out it was more of an emergency alarm, so the therapist came running. Chris explained what we were after, and she soon returned with some shampoo and conditioner. A few minutes later, there was another knock, this time asking to see if everything was alright. Apparently the button triggered an alarm, which was still going off, as they hadn't reset it.

Other than that commotion, the treatment was wonderful- a perfect way to relax and enjoy our day at sea. Following our treatment, we headed back to the changing rooms to get dressed, and then made our way back to the room. I blow dried my hair, and got dressed for dinner, and then we headed upstairs. Tonight was semi-formal night, but, we didn't really dress for it. Chris, Steve and Vince all wore khaki shorts with their new shirts. We met up in the Promenade Lounge, where we hung out for a bit before heading in to dinner.

Tonight we had dinner at Parrot Cay, it was the Captain's Dinner. It had a seafood theme, and somehow we ended up with too many Garlic and Herb Sauteed Shrimp- on Saffron Rice drizzled with Pink Grapefruit Vinaigrette appetizers. Since I don't like shrimp, I opted for the Fresh Fruit Cocktail- with Orange Blossom Honey.

For the main course, I went for the Grilled Venison Medallions in Stilton and Red Currant Jus- with Roasted Turned Potatoes and sautéed Baby Cabbage. Chris, and mostly everyone else ordered the Baked Lobster Tail- served in the shell with Lemon Butter, young Green Beans, and Oven-baked Rice. I loved the venison, and everyone else seemed to love their lobster.

When it was time for dessert, I chose the Warm Chocolate Lava Cake- with a double Chocolate Sauce. Chris got the Amaretto Cheesecake- served with Raspberry Sauce. The cheesecake was amazing! The chocolate cake was quite good, but it was too much chocolate. We told Phillip that it needed something- either a vanilla sauce, or some ice cream. I discovered that if you paired a bit of the cheesecake with the chocolate cake, it was perfect. Phillip said he'd pass it on to the chef.

After making sure that we knew that the Dessert Buffet was that night, we left the dining room. We decided to go to the lobby and get a group picture taken, as there was a really cool sunset ship background. As it turns out, we're all about the same height. Pam, Robin and I are within an inch of each other- and the boys are all just about the same as well. Since the girls were all wearing heels, all 6 of us were the same height. So, we ended up barefoot, with the boys on boxes- and the picture turned out ok. Robin nearly wet herself though, because we all ended up laughing at the poor photographer who was trying to tactfully figure out how to hand over the boxes. Unfortunately, I made her worse when she said she was about to wet herself, by asking for advance notice, because, after all, I was barefoot. She managed to contain herself- but did have to leave the picture for a minute. Then we headed over to the all white background, and made the boys take a group picture, since they had the same shirt. The end results were fantastic, because all the tiki heads are in a row.

After that, we had some time to kill, so we started wandering the ship. We went to Shutters to look at our pictures. We went to outside to show Pam and Steve the weld on the ship. After that, we headed back in, and wandered back to the shops. Chris, Steve and Vince decided to go out and play shuffleboard, so Pam, Robin and I found our usual spot outside the Theatre to wait for them. They came back eventually, and we decided to head to the atrium to get into the Dessert Buffet early.

The Dessert Buffet is held at Lumiere's- and you DO need to get there early. We were 10-15 minutes early and there was already a line. There are two separate lines, each of which split into two. The desserts are the same on either line, but the decorations are different. Most of the cakes were labeled with the type, but it was hard to see what was what. I ended up grabbing a spoonful of this and a tiny slice of that, and then heading off to find a table. Chris hit the chocolate fountain though. There was also a bar set up, where Steve and Robin each got a chocolate martini.

To be honest- the buffet itself was beautiful. It was amazing what they were able to do and have it be edible. Unfortunately, things just didn't taste as good as it looked. I tried a few bites of a bunch of different stuff, and just didn't find anything worth eating :o(

After we finished at the buffet, we decided it was time to take a walk. We went up to Deck 10 to wander around and take a few pictures, in the wind. For some reason, everyone decided to go up to the very front of the ship- in front of the windscreen around the basketball court. I don't do well with railings, so I stayed behind while they all plastered themselves to the front of the ship. Eventually they decided to get out of the wind, so we wandered back downstairs, and headed to our staterooms to get ready for bed.

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