Loyd Have Mercy - Escape from Mos Eisley (to the Death Star) - Stick a fork in me, I think I am done.

Interrupting this report to explain my long absence from September to April… Unfortunately, several unplanned, time-consuming projects hit at the same time. One project (fun but time consuming) was a set of classes I was taking in preparation of moving from a full-time “professional” career to a part-time “retirement” career. About fifteen years ago I started taking classes to become a travel agent. One of the perks at my college is free tuition for faculty. Life was busy, Sarah was young, and I did not finish the classes. Over the years I have met several folks who are travel agents and I have always been so envious of their career choice. I love being a professor, but I am ready to do something different. Last year I jumped back into taking travel related classes and finally “graduated” this winter. The classes were awesome and fun, but also time consuming. I found a host agency to join while working my way through the course and it has been a great experience. I plan to retire from my full-time professor role this August and even though no one is traveling now, I am excited to have this gig for a retirement “fun” job. I also will continue working with the college as an adjunct so I will still be involved with my students. :lovestruc

Also, as I mentioned earlier, a good friend and co-worker had a concussion over the summer. When it became obvious that she was not going to be back at the start of fall classes, I volunteered to take on several of her classes for a couple of weeks and we found subs for the classes I could not do. We assumed she would be back at work within a couple of weeks. She actually ended up being out the entire semester. Assuming she would be back by January, my co-workers and I all pitched in and did what needed to be done. She would have done the same for us. Then… a few days before the start of winter semester, we were talking, and she told me she really did not know if she could handle being in the class again, she was still having daily headaches and other issues from her concussion. She said she was considering retiring and I fully supported her decision. However, this meant that we were still short a staff member so again I agreed to take over part of her class load. Considering what has been occurring these past couple of months, I am so glad she retired. I cannot imagine how she would have handled the extra workload that has happened due to our moving all classes online (because of Covid-19), mentoring faculty who have never taught online, and all the other issues that have popped up.

It has been a “kick-in-de-tush” school year but we are finally at the end. Yea! Now maybe I will be able to finish this report before I forget what we did and when we did it.

Thanks for staying with me.
 
Finally the day we have all been waiting for, Star Wars! And Palo! And a Martini tasting class! But first, a bit of a walk about and a wee breakfast followed by some detective work.

Our special door of the day, honoring the lady, whose name is ??? ummm, Carrie Fisher.

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Up to the Cove for Star Wars coffee. Rob's coffee.
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And my coffee.

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We shared a couple of hash browns and bacon. I like my bacon crispy so I let Rob have the wimpy ones.

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After breakfast, we walked around the ship. I always pick up our pastries from the Cove but on the larger ships, there is also the option of getting drinks and pastries from the Vista Cafe. Folks under age eighteen are not allowed in the Cove but younger kids are allowed in the Vista Cafe area.

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The pastries are about the same as in the Cove.

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We also became detectives.

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Took a walk-about trying to solve our mystery.

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While we were doing our walk-about we came across Pepe's door on the 5th floor. Whoever decided to put this door here was brilliant! I wonder if anything is actually behind the door.

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Then back to the room to get spiffed up for our fancy dinner.

Up next - Palo!
 
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All dolled up, we went to enjoy one of the finest buffets available anywhere, or at least that is my opinion.

This wonderful person is Susana who used to be a server in Palo on the Wonder. She has been promoted and now is on the Fantasy.

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Palo is an adults only restaurant. This policy is strictly enforced. There is also a dress code but it has relaxed over the years. Personally, I have no problem with a dress code or age requirement.

Palo is named after the pole to which the gondoliers in Italy tie up the gondola when docking. This is one of the two specialty dining restaurants available on the Dream and the Fantasy. Palo is available on all of Disney's ships and currently has an upcharge of $40 for both dinner or brunch. The other specialty dining found only on the Dream and Fantasy is Remy, the charge for Remy is now: for dinner $125, Brunch $60, per person. We have not eaten at Remy. It used to be $95 for dinner but within the last year or so did a massive jump in price.

In the olden days, before we started cruising, Palo offered an afternoon tea. I wish it was still available. I would love to attend a tea on the sea.

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The cuisine is Italian and starts with an all you can eat buffet followed by a made-to-order entree (or two or three or four) from the kitchen. I assume you may order as many entrees as you wish but we tend to just order one each and sometimes will split a flatbread or calzone. You may eat all you wish, however, you may not carry out a doggie bag. Which makes me sad since I can never eat as much as I wish.

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Beautiful place settings. Most of the time the plate will disappear before I have a chance to snap a photo of it.

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The buffet is quite extensive with many, many tables loaded with delicious items. Antipasti, cheeses, seafood, fruits, pastries, and more!

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Yummy seafood. If you ask your server, they will bring you drawn butter.

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When you sit down, you are brought a menu to look through, and asked if you would like a complimentry Prosecco or Mimosa or a sparkling cider type of drink. We always choose the Prosecco. The server will then give you a few minutes to look through the menu, bring you your drink and ask if you wish to go ahead and order your entree or wait. We tend to go ahead and order just to get things moving along.

I like to go through the buffet once and collect all I plan to eat. But even so, this plate (my plate) is a lot fuller than I usually have. I think I was trying to make up for the crappy MDR meals we had been having. I did eat every bite though of what was on my plate.

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This was Rob's plate, but he made two trips so his plate was a lot neater than mine. :rolleyes1 That's my story and I am sticking to it.

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I always order the Chicken parmesan but this time I tried something new. I remember telling Rob, "Remind me next time that this was not my favorite." Artichoke Ravioli, I love artichokes but this one did not do it for me. I still ate it...

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This was brought out of us to share and sample. Sadly, I do not remember what it was but I think it was a sample of the Lasagna. I think we liked it.

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We had the most awesome server, Sasa. This was our second time having him for a server. We learned all about his family, his wee ones, wife and all. He was very excited that he would soon be going home for a break and being with his family. He was hamming it up for me to take the photo.

Rob's entree was better. I believe he had the Rollatini Melanzane (but I could be wrong).

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And then we had dessert, or should I say, desserts...

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Oh how I wish I had four stomachs!

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By the time desserts roll around I am usually so full I cannot really enjoy the flavors.

My group, I love the strawberries. The others are good but not as good as a chocolate covered strawberry.

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And Rob's plate of yummies.

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As if we had not eaten enough, Sasa brought out a special dessert for us, one that is not on the buffet and that you cannot order. It has to be "pixie-dusted". Oh my, this melt in your mouth cake was worth the calories plus some!

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--Your door decoration is so cute.
--Bacon HAS to be crispy for my taste, almost burned...
--Palo brunch looks good.
 
--Your door decoration is so cute.
--Bacon HAS to be crispy for my taste, almost burned...
--Palo brunch looks good.

Ahhh, thanks. Since the quarantine, I have only been out to shop twice, each time at Costco. Both times, they have been out of bacon. They have pork items but no bacon... I miss bacon. Oh well, at least my missing bacon is minor in the big picture.
 
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Even though my knowledge of Star Wars is miNUTE, today was a lot of fun. There were so many actives planned that the day flew by.

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We went poking our noses in the various theaters checking out the activities.

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Saw this guy in one of the bars waiting for the space travelers to stop by for a drink or two.

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We had one character meeting reserved. Since we were late in signing up for this cruise, most of the character meets were not available. We did not try to sign up for any additional meetings once onboard but that was a possibility. Mr. DV was completely in character and harassed Rob.

Someday, I will break down and actually buy the photo package but we tend to have only a couple of professional photos taken while on the ship so it has not been worth the cost thus far.

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One of the CMs was offering to take photos with personal cameras so we took her up on her offer.

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We continued walking about the ship, checking out the movies for the day. Odd that they were playing Star Wars movies on Star Wars day (just kidding).

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Every where you turned the ship was decorated for Star Wars.

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Lots of good photo ops areas.

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And even a scavenger hunt.

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Rob skipped this one but I grabbed a Porg and went searching by myself.

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I have already posted several of these photos earlier in the report but to be consistent in keeping the Star Wars activities together, I will repost them here.

The force was out being forceful and bossing folks about.


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They wanted to know why this woman was taking their photo and what did she plan to do with said photo?

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They took their job very seriously.

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At one point we saw them guarding the elevators. I assume a bribe was needed in order to ride the lift.

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However, once they saw Miss "Carrie Fisher", they left their post to question her.

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If you really want to get into the spirit of these special events, bring costumes, it adds to everyone's enjoyment.

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These guys were roaming the halls and looking for people to interrogate. One spotted Rob.

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And wanted an explanation as to why he was walking around the ship.

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They also zeroed in on this young man walking below us.

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Sadly, here is another character that I do not know but I liked the way he looked.

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These guys were my favorites. I thought they were called sandmen but someone enlightened me that they are Jawas.

One child tried to trade something she had bought in the gift store, something that probably cost over $10, they refused it but did take her cheapie hair tie. Bring cheap, interesting stuff to trade! They will jabber and show their excitement over unique items.

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I followed them around for some time watching them trade things with kids and adults alike.

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This kid tried to trade a short pencil, which they took, and then, after digging in their bag, traded his pencil for their identical pencil.

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Around 4 pm we had a martini tasting/class to attend so up next, cocktail hour. YUM.
 
We schedule a Martini tasting every cruise and always enjoy them. I often take a sip or two from the glass and then pass it on to Rob but when we go to the Tequila tastings, the reverse happens so we are ok with paying for both of us to attend since we are there for fun and not necessarily because we like the drink.

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When we arrived, the bar was still being set up for the presentation.

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Our "professor" did a good job of explaining the different drinks and their ingredients.

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We started out with a traditional martini. This is one of Rob's favorites and one of my least favorites. I am editing because, TaDA, I found my notes with the names of the drinks. The bartender said this was a Straight-up martini, or dirty Martini.

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Next up was a aqua colored drink. I was not fond the aqua drink. I can't remember what Rob thought about it. I will ask him later and edit with his comments. This next one, aqua colored drink was called, I think, To Paris 75 or 2 Paris 75, I have no idea why.


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Next up was a martini that they always seem to offer in one version or another and which, in my opinion, tastes like cough syrup... This one was called a Chambord mojito martini.

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I don't think anyone liked this drink. In the last photo you can see that most of the folks at our table did not drink it. This one was call La Margarita with tequila, grand mariner, and Bergamot puree.

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The best martini though is the chocolate one that they always use to finish the seminar.

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Most Martini tastings we sit by ourselves but this time, two females sat down with us, even though there were other empty tables. We thought it a bit odd but found out one was a vloger or whatever you call them and wanted to sit where she could be in front and video tape the session. She was SO annoying, constantly running a commentary for her followers while we were trying to listen to the bartender. UGH!

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After enjoying our drinks, we left to walk around a bit more before dinner.
 
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I love green olives, just not in my martinis.
I definitely will pick a Gin martini over a vodka one.
I see the Chambord on the bar...definitely cough syrupy!
Wonder what's in the yellow drink??
 
The Star Wars character interactions look like lots of fun!

I think I might have to pick up some chocolate martini ingredients for pandemic experimenting.
 
The food was awesome and (we thought) plentiful. Until one family of five walked through and loaded up everything that was sweet or fried on to their plates, leaving empty platters for the rest of us

Oh, my! How rude!


After we returned to the ship, we cleaned up a bit and got ready for a DVC members gathering, this was not the same thing as the promotion to sell DVC but something you had to sign up for in order to attend. We have been on seven cruises and this was the only time I have experienced this. It was fun and promoted as a chance to get to know other DVC members.

We went to this last April and it was our first time, as well. I really enjoyed it and will be back again!


Our special door of the day, honoring the lady, whose name is ??? ummm, Carrie Fisher.

Princess Leia:-)

I love seeing all of your PALO pics
😋 Next time I'm going for both brunch and dinner!
 
Yea! I found my notes so went back and labeled the drinks from the Martini tasting.

I love green olives, just not in my martinis.
I definitely will pick a Gin martini over a vodka one.
I see the Chambord on the bar...definitely cough syrupy!
Wonder what's in the yellow drink??

I am a black olive fan but green olives make my mouth pucker.

Every cruise we go on, Rob writes on the evaluation form that they need to have a "Gin Tasting". He does like his gin.

I think it was the Bergamot puree that was giving the off taste.

Wow. I suddenly want to take a Star Wars cruise!
I should watch the movies.

Me too, I should watch the movies... The only reason we went on the Star Wars cruise was that the dates worked for my spring break. But I had a blast and now have a Marvel cruise reserved. Thus far though, I only have seen two Marvel movies. I need to get busy.

The Star Wars character interactions look like lots of fun!

I think I might have to pick up some chocolate martini ingredients for pandemic experimenting.

It was fun! Now is a great time to start "becoming a bartender".

Princess Leia:-)

I love seeing all of your PALO pics
😋 Next time I'm going for both brunch and dinner!

Princess Leia, got it. We have done both, I like both, I like brunch a wee bit better than dinner but I will gladly reserve either... or both.
 
Today is crazy windy here in the mid-west but tomorrow it is supposed to be rain and we have seeds that need to be planted, oats and barley. Rob is out with the broadcaster spreading the seeds while I am supposed to be inputting grades (I am taking a break :rolleyes1 ). Hopefully, the wind does not distribute our expensive, organic seeds onto the neighboring fields. Since we both work full time, weekends are the only time for this type of all-day project.

Walking back to our room Rob snapped this photo of the stair rail. Rob's photos are great, mine, not so much but he runs a small photography business and takes the time to actually look for photo ops whereas I use the point, shoot and hope method.

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When we returned to our room, this was waiting for us. You can take these banners home with you. I pulled it out recently, planning to use it in making Covid masks but sadly it is made of polyester so it will not do for masks. Disney needs to get their act together and really be environmentally friendly and stop selling/providing items that are made from petroleum products.

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We decided we had not had enough alcohol for the day and headed up to the Meridian so I could see if there were any leftovers available in the Sommelier's Bin. The Sommelier's Bin is kind of like a mystery drink, you never know if it will be available and if it is, what you will receive. The way it works is when one of the bars has left over champagne/wine that needs to be drunk asap, they will "put it in the bin" and you can buy it for $10 a glass. You cannot choose what you are getting, it is a mystery, until after you have your glass. I think it is fun and a great way to buy an expensive glass of bubbly/whatever at a reduction of cost.

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So what did I receive? And did I like it?

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I received the Taittinger Prestige Rose Reims, from France, original cost per glass, $19.25. I was pleased.

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Rob just wanted a cocktail and ordered his favorite, a Bombay Sapphire.

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The first time we cruised, I forgot to tell Rob that gratuity is included on drinks. Rob having worked as a bartender during college, tends to be extremely generous with bartender tips . Meaning that by the end of that trip, the bartenders all loved him. We laughed about it once he figured it out, but the total tips the bartenders received were probably as much as the cost of the drinks.

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We stopped by the room on the way down to our Star Wars dinner and found this spaceship.

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Rob also modeled the banner for me.

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We debated skipping the main dining room and going to Cabanas. Last night, I again was given the wrong entrée and Rob was given cold fish. He sent the fish back for a redo. The redo was a bit warmer but also very dry. We have cruised seven times and this was the only cruise that we have had the issues with our food and/or waiters.

Last night was a bust but hey, it was a new day and a Star Wars menu so we gave the MDR another try.

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Considering we had many drinks during the day, we skipped the speciality drinks.

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I apologize for how hard it is to read these menus, the lightening in the dining room reflected off the menus and I was unable to get clear photos.

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As you can tell, it was a special menu that focused on Star Wars dishes/ er, names. The food was fairly normal food just called something spacey sounding.

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I find the lighter offerings often have better flavor than the traditional foods.

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Our bread service, Marbled Bread with red pepper dip.

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This night, instead of the usual apps and salad/soup courses, there were appetizers from Planet Tatooine and Appetizers from Planet Naboo.

My salad was a Sand People Salad, not what I ordered but it was good.... but I could eat salad every meal, including breakfast.

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Rob's Bantha Steak Empanadas. They were not bad at all.

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Below are our appetizers from Planet Naboo.

My Marinated Opee Sea Killer. Not bad.

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I believe this one was the Padme Amidala soufflé.
Must have been Rob's.

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At this point, we stopped taking photos. And since we had eaten so much during the day, we skipped dessert. Actually, we left before the desert menu came out because we were simply fed up with the servers and underwhelming food.

I fully want to experience another Star Wars themed cruise, but next time, I will probably choose a different ship for our cruise.

Tomorrow is our last day, Castaway Cay day.
 
I fully want to experience another Star Wars themed cruise, but next time, I will probably choose a different ship for our cruise.

I've Sailed on the Fantasy, Dream and Magic and I have to say that the Fantasy was the only one I had issues with the food on. Everyone else seems to love the ship but every meal there was an issue with something.

We were fortunate to have excellent servers on board the Fantasy. Thankfully that made up for some of the food problems and helped us to be a bit more proactive about sending food back. Like you, I try not to make a fuss about food and will pretty much eat whatever is in front of me.
 
Maybe it was the tequila :P
Tequila is my favorite drink. Maybe it was the tequila, mixed with the Bergamot puree. :) Compromise. :drinking1
I've Sailed on the Fantasy, Dream and Magic and I have to say that the Fantasy was the only one I had issues with the food on. Everyone else seems to love the ship but every meal there was an issue with something.

We were fortunate to have excellent servers on board the Fantasy. Thankfully that made up for some of the food problems and helped us to be a bit more proactive about sending food back. Like you, I try not to make a fuss about food and will pretty much eat whatever is in front of me.

I think we could have handled one or the other (inept servers or underwhelming food) but for both to be lacking... Oh well, a good excuse to sail again someday and see if we have a different experience.
 

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