("A picture’s worth a thousand words, just ask a camera man!")
After the kids club/lab graduation we were more than a bit rushed to get ready for semi-formal night, and our favorite of the onboard shows, Disney Dreams. I have already expressed my disdain for the 5:00 graduation time slot. I don’t even know how the 5:45 seating made it to dinner on time. Luckily for us we had an extra half hour to get ready before the 6:15 show, and we needed every second of it. And I cannot say enough about having the extra room and full extra bathroom. As much as I extolled the necessity of the split bath, can I emphasize how much better it is to have a full 2nd bathroom? We could not have existed on this cruise without it (OK we could have, but we would have been late for everything).
As it was this evening we were running way later than I liked. We split up as we headed down to catch the show- Ron went up to grab drinks as is our practice and I took the kids into the theater to grab seats. We were much too late to snag our preferred seats right behind the wide aisle, in fact we were pretty lucky to get seats at all, taking aisle seats on the far left pretty close to the back. The show began right as we were seated, and as I got Sarah out of her seat I noticed she needed a diaper change! In hindsight maybe I should have left her diaper until after the show and waved her butt around a lot...but you know, hindsight is always 20/20.
I ran off to the bathroom and took care of that mess, missing the whole opening to the show (let me just say that fruity drinks + high heels + confined space + rocking boat + wiggly baby + poop= quite a...um…experience). When I returned I noticed that the two seats in front of us (a couple of the only seats in the theater that had still been available) were now taken by a small couple with a large camera. Now let me just say I am an avid picture taker myself (not to be confused with photographer!) and I can turn a blind eye to a smattering of annoyances, including the occasional flash photo or the glare of a camera or cell phone LCD. But the onslaught of what we experienced was far from the occasional shot. Dude with the massive camera lens bigger then my arm started clicking away as if he were paparazzi on the red carpet with Britney Spears. It was that obnoxious. And you know it wouldn’t have been nearly as awful if EVERY SINGLE PHOTO was not with the flash! I mean geez we were waaaaaaay in the back of the theater, there is no way that flash was making any impact on the pictures (which is possibly why he kept looking at the display trying to figure out WHY IN THE WORLD they were fuzzy and out of focus.) Eventually he just kept snapping constantly in apparent hopes that some of the pictures would come out.
Try as much as I did, I had a hard time enjoying the show. In the brief fleeting seconds I did not have spots in front of my eyes from the onslaught of flashes I couldn’t help but be distracted by the huge honkin’ 6 inch LCD on the back of his Nikon. Don’t people know they can turn those things off and use the viewfinder?!?! Ay. As much as I tried to contain myself I did begin to grumble a bit both under and over my breath. Now as I mentioned I have been known to take the occasional flash photo (occasional being the key word here...I am a sucker for the cats, the foot, and the dog in POTC and the cheetah and chick with all the arms in IASW), but I would never dream of the obnoxious constant flashing that we and everyone in the immediate area were enduring. Eventually I sneered rather loudly under my breath to Ron something to the effect of “Someone with a camera that good should know flashes aren’t effective more than 15 feet away”. He did tone it back quite a bit afterwards. And crazy camera dude, if you are reading this, my apologies to calling you out on the internet but it was way over the top.
(We still loved the show and I think it just gets better each time we see it!)
The plan after the show was to get lifestyle portraits in our semi-formal getup. We took full advantage of being at the back of the theater and scrambled among the first out of the doors and hightailed it to the atrium for the picture lines. It was like a reunion of old friends as we were in front of Drea and gang and also saw Val, Denise, Kimberly, Amy, and Melodie among others in various spots throughout the atrium. Drea and her family and Val and hers (in their Steelers jerseys LOL!) were most generous, having to endure a bit of a wait for their photo opportunity as we tried almost in vain to get Sarah to smile. I was yelling, hooting, squawking, shaking keys, jumping up and down, and doing all manner of other things making myself look like a fool smack dab in the middle of the atrium, but hey…look at what a great picture we got! (my avatar) And many thanks to my patient friends, after obnoxious camera man in the show; I so did not want to be “that person” inconveniencing others!
We hung in the area taking more pictures and killing time.
As we made our way aft towards Parrot Cay for dinner, passing the Promenade Lounge, Savannah could not resist the small band playing a rather garish version of “Umbrella” by Rhianna (Ella-ella-eh-eh-eh was all I could think of the rest of the night) and daddy and daughter headed to the dance floor:
I chatted with Amy a bit as we observed the fun. Normally the guitar/singer duo was playing here to an empty lounge, but tonight there were quite a few families (mostly kids) dancing and enjoying the music. And hey, it beat standing in the dinner line.
Speaking of dinner, boy we were hungry! Tonight’s menu was Captain’s Gala…more casually known amongst us Disers as LOBSTER NIGHT! We were quickly seated and as always greeted by Candice who got the kids busy with their menus….
(Important stuff here!)
For appetizers Ron chose the garlic and herb sautéed shrimp though admittedly he doesn’t recall it. I had the fruit cocktail which was drizzled in a creamy honey sauce. For salads we both chose the Garden Fresh salad with tomato chips and balsamic dressing. The salads were good. Entrée selections were no brainers for everyone at the table but me. The kids had the usual; Minnie’s Mini Burger and Ron would be having all-he-can-eat lobster tail. I am not a big lobster aficionado, nor was I enthralled by the other choices: salmon, veal, venison and chicken with fettuccini in an Alfredo sauce which I am not a fan of white sauces. I believe I chose the lighter fare sirloin for my entrée.
Oh sure…so now she smiles….
The kids meals were fine, though the vegetables went untouched as always (geez I didn’t have the heart to make them eat the veggies on vacation!). The lobster tails were small but good enough, Ron had I think two of them. My steak was OK. Normally I am a steak snob…as I hate fat with a passion, so usually I will only have filet or tenderloin cut. This evening I had to settle for sirloin. I’m pretty sure it tasted okay though. It may have been a bit rare for my taste (I like medium well) but I do know it wasn’t as bad as the prime rib I had earlier in the week. I do remember the baked potato was very good, which then again speaks volumes.
Once again, dessert was where it was at this meal. Warm Chocolate Lava Cake was what we decided on hands down. I also had a hankering for cherries jubilee, but the plan was to hit the midnight dessert buffet so I managed to resist the urge to order two dessert selections. And oooh, let me just tell you the lava cake is the second best dessert on
DCL…. (Second to the Palo chocolate soufflé) Accompanied with vanilla ice cream and oozing with creamy hot fudge it was to die for. (I don’t have a picture of it; sorry...it was gone too quick!)
As disappointing as the entrée may have been for me, I still managed to leave the dining room bursting full. Not just satisfied but stuffed. It was already a little after 10:00 and with the dessert buffet a little over an hour away; I was really concerned I would not have the appetite for it.
As we emerged into the atrium, we could not resist the relatively short line for Minnie all decked out in her best: (note Brendan already had his tie off!
)
We then made our usual stop at the Deck 9 drink station before heading back to the rooms to change and relax a bit. On the way we stopped at the club to pick up some artwork or something Savannah did and we never did find it. Back in the rooms, we had some beautiful creatures awaiting our return: on Savannah’s pillow, an angel:
And on ours a gorgeous peacock (or a turkey as we joked it could also possibly be).
Pretty nice, and we didn't even pay for REAS (though we suspect someone on Calvin's route did, explaining the extra rose petals).
As I got Sarah changed, and also as I got myself changed and in bed where I fed Sarah her bottle, it was rather quickly apparent I was too exhausted and still too full to even consider heading down to check out the midnight dessert buffet. When I expressed my desire to not remove myself from bed, Ron decided he would take the kids to see the Midnight showing (opening night) of Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I said I would get Sarah to bed and get the packing started (although all I ended up having the energy to do was pack up the FE gifts, of which I took a snapshot of all of them on the couch for posterity.
I fell asleep watching Nancy Grace (a little re-connection with the real world), and was only slightly disturbed when Ron dragged back in a little while later (after all of them had fallen asleep during the movie).
We had a big day ahead, our second...and sadly last at
Castaway Cay and our first character breakfast at sea.
Coming Up: Back to the Island
I'm sorry to see that you guys changed your cruise dates for next year while I was AWOL this past week.
I feel like I have gotten to know you. Maybe some day we'll meet up on board.
But I know you guys will have a wonderful time! Ron said you guys got our old SV room , that is great! 
(I hope to get it done before you go!)
