When we emerged from our room to head for Palo, Fermin was in the hallway. He was very excited to meet Nick, and they chatted about the movie for a few minutes. Then we were on our way.
We got to Palo a few minutes early, but we were seated right away, at a table right next to a window. Our server, Roberto, appeared almost immediately. One bubbly beverage is offered per person. We were offered a mimosa, a peach bellini, or non-alcoholic sparkling cider. I ordered a mimosa, and Nick requested the sparkling cider. Still drying out from Mixology hun?
After taking our drink orders, Roberto took us for a tour of the buffet. All I can say is wow. Nick and I each put together a plate of assorted pastries, arancini, meats, cheeses, and other random things like salmon mousse and Nick probably had some shrimp.
We returned to our table just in time for our drinks to arrive. We ordered our entrees (chicken parm for both of us), and then toasted before digging in. Nick has a rule about what drinks he’ll toast with, so I gave him crap about toasting with a non-alcoholic drink.
I didn’t take a picture of this plate of food, but it was delicious. My personal favorite parts were the arancini, and prosciutto wrapped parmesan and honey. The parm and honey were Roberto’s recommendation. I added the prosciutto. It was good! The salmon mousse was surprisingly tasty, but not something I’d eat in mass quantities. Nick enjoyed everything on his plate.
Our chicken parm arrived pretty quickly, and we both loved it! The chicken was so incredibly tender, and the risotto it was served with was amazing. We both cleaned our plates.
As we were eating, we were chatting about future vacations. We’d been working hard at deciding what to do for next April vacation. We were tossing around a few ideas, and knew we needed to act on them soon. But what we really knew was, as pricey as another Disney cruise would be Easter week, it was what we wanted to do, particularly in light of the summer and school year I’ve got coming up at work. They’re not conducive to planning a productive trip to Arizona for example. We decided to go to the Future Vacations desk when it opened that afternoon.
Once we had finished our chicken parm, it was back to the buffet, for the most important part of any meal: dessert! We had no issues putting together good looking plates!
Roberto re-appeared to clear plates right after we finished eating. He had this really impressive presence. He didn’t hover and half the time he wasn’t really visible. But he continually appeared at exactly the right moment. Very personable too. It was very obvious to us how he had gotten a role in Palo.
Brunch complete, we took a few pictures of the entry and from deck 10, before heading back to the room.
Once there, we got ready, and then about 10 minutes later, we were headed for the deck 1 gangway. Kim and John had gone on an excursion to Ardastra Gardens, but we had really wanted to experience Palo as it’s intended to be experienced. So we had the afternoon to ourselves. We decided we might as well go wander the main street and see if there was any interesting shopping.
I think we were off the ship less than an hour. It was long enough for Fermin to clean our room, Nick to look at (but thankfully not buy) several different watches, and for me to buy a Bahamas charm for my Pandora bracelet. Figured it was fitting, since we’ve been to the Bahamas twice now.
Once we returned to the ship, we headed straight for deck 9. It was time to try some Dole Whip with vanilla rum. We found a comfy spot in the quiet cove area to consume those. Sadly, they weren’t as good as they sounded.
From there, we went back to the room for a brief nap. Thankfully, I set an alarm when I laid down, because I did fall asleep. I woke up to the alarm and it was nearly time for the Future Vacations desk to open, so we headed there to get in line. Thankfully, the lady ahead of us was quick, and pretty soon we were sitting down for pricing. Nick was leaving the decision up to me, because he was cool with either option, he knew I needed to wrap my head around the idea of sea days, and I deal with the bulk of the financial stuff in our relationship. I ended up making the decision quickly between the two options we were considering (Bahamas 4 night on the Dream, or an Eastern Caribbean 7 night on the Fantasy), and within minutes we were booked for next April on the Fantasy. Nick looked a bit surprised that I chose that option, as I’m not known for agreeing to spend THAT much money that quickly, but hey, go big or go home, right? And I knew if we booked the trip on the Dream, we’d end up tacking on extra things to the vacation like we did with this one, and the trip would end up costing just as much. And Disney Cruises aren’t going to get any cheaper. So let’s go big now. And Nick didn’t seem to be complaining!
Next vacation booked, we walked a super long distance, outside, where we watched the happenings on the pier for a bit, and then settled into some of the comfy cushioned lounge chairs, where we stared at the Carnival maintenance guys who were still staring at our ship. We were surprised by how quiet this deck really was. We hung out here for quite awhile, alternating between just chilling in those chairs, chatting about this vacation and our next vacation, enjoying each other’s company, and watching the action on the pier. Another Disney difference that we noticed was that as the masses were returning, Disney had set up a table with 4 different types of infused cold water, and cold towels for those returning. We knew when it was almost time to leave, when they started hauling all of that back on board.
The Carnival ship right next to ours left first, followed almost immediately by the other Carnival ship in port, and all kinds of horns between the ships sounded. I was honestly a little surprised that we didn’t sound the “Mickey horn”. We then watched the pier runners for a bit, including one family being laced out by our assistant cruise director (Carly?), for being late.
We headed back to the room before we actually sailed away. It was time to get ready for pirate night! Unlike on our previous cruise, we had received bandanas in our room, so we didn’t have to resort to the ones we had purchased on the Wonder. Although that one might have fit Nick slightly better. He had to wear this one differently.
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