Although I'm sure they had a number of interesting panels and Q&As this morning, we missed most of them as we tried to make up the sleep deficit we incurred by deferring our packing to the last moment. We attended brunch at Lumiere's this morning which pretty much extended through the rest of the morning's talks.
This was a chicken and asparagus quiche which was a little bland, perhaps because the taste of chicken is too similar to egg.
Ox enjoyed a fruit salad with Midori liqueur.
After which we tried a smoked duck salad, which proved that most smoked meat tastes pretty much like ham to me.
We finished with a lamb pita, whose meat was tender enough, but not very strongly spiced.
After this enormous amount of food, we staggered out on deck for a few turn-arounds. The weather, which had started out a little foggy and breezy, had cleared up to be a very nice day.
After burning off at least 5 calories with our walking, we retired back to the room to settle into food coma before getting up to attend Tea With Alice. This was a special event which was sparsely described in the Navigator. "Is it for adults too?" I asked the guest service guy, "or is it mainly for children?" "Oh, it's for everyone" he assured me.
He lied.
The tea basically consisted of chocolate chip cookies and a pot of apple juice masquerading as tea. While ingesting those, Alice gave instructions on how to take tea, with such liberated advice as "ladies always pour!" Later, she recounted her adventures through Wonderland, Cliff's Notes style and consented to stay for photos. A cute activity for kids (some of which couldn't identify Alice on sight,) but probably not a must-do for adults.
After this, it was time for our viewing of the Golden Mickeys Award, which is shown on most of the cruise schedules. It seemed as though some of the show numbers had been changed slightly, but the idea is still pretty much unchanged.
Ensign Benson still has difficulties putting on the award show, and is still helped out by a variety of celebrities, all of which probably remember fondly a time when they still looked like they do in the clips.
On return, we find the newest member of our cabin. Ten more days, and we'll have a menagerie. Of course, we won't be able to move around the cabin, either...
Dinner tonight is back in Lumiere's again, where I start with a cheese souffle--nice and light and airy.
Bay scallops and leeks are next. The kitchen seems to do remarkably well with scallops in general, as they are neither dried out nor tough.
I had the roast duckling with cherry sauce which was very good. The carrots seemed peeled a little in haste.
Although the suggested dessert is the Golden Mickey, which has a little chocolate show ticket as garnish, we decide to buck the trend and get a creme brulee with raspberries and honey. If they could only get the top hard, you'd be rockin'.
Later, we go to the Golden Mickey After Party in the Atrium. All the characters come out as it is announced they will drop a jillion balloons currently suspended in nets from the ceiling. I begin to have a feeling of danger, as the CMs begin to whip the crowd into a frenzy as they encourage everyone to pop all the balloons that fall, as fast as they can.
This is pretty much the view you got a second after the balloons fell, as the whole thing degenerated into a mob scene from the movies about the storming of the Bastille. You could literally see arms reaching around your head from the back as people frantically tried to grab any balloon within arm's reach, whether it was inches away from your face or not. The violence increased as people with questionable coordination tried to stomp and jump on seemingly invulnerable balloons and inevitably missed or fell off. I haven't seen instep strikes like that since my last Assailant Defense class.
I soothed my crumpled and broken feet with more chocolate-covered strawberries. What? They were necessary!
Tomorrow: Cabo.
