Thursday, July 24, 2008

Thursday, July 25, 2008

OK so this is our last port. Today was Thursday. Our excursion which was to replace the Canopy Adventure was the Dolphin Signature Swim – they only had 3 spots so Steve and I signed on as observers for $35 each. The actual signature swim (which we signed up for on Tuesday) was $199. They supposedly don’t allow cameras but our experience was in the observation desk they do – you just cannot take them to the actual swim area.
So, Steve and I get off and do some terminal shopping and return back by 1:30. We picked up the girls and got to Rocking Bar D with all the rest. Our original departure time was for 2 pm. At 2:30 we were told that we were waiting on 2 people for the signature swim. So Steve, being Steve, decided to ask the DCL employee if the couple didn’t show up if we could take their place. Her response? No. The rep from the Dolphin Adventure – sure.

So we get on the bus, and to the place. It takes about 20 minutes to get out as its on the outskirts or in the area known as Nuevo Vallerta. So we sit down and they take the “swimmers” right away. Steve gets up and asks one of the reps if we can take the place of the people that did not show up (turns out we were later told that they were already there from an earlier excursion. Pay attn folks, if DCL doesn’t accommodate your whole party, this is what we did. Disney seems to capping out the party at 5 for the signature swim. The Dolphin Encounter however, had no problem accommodating two extra swimmers. We had luckily brought our swimsuits under our clothes so they hurried us off the observation deck and we caught up to the girls. They did ask me what I had paid on the observer ticket which was $35. So then they just charged us the difference. An additional $114. That’s right folks, we ended up paying less than what DCL charges us although they used my DCL room key to forward the charges to the ship – this because they did not want to delay the swimmers. So I gave them the card and we went the swimmers area and joined the girls.

We got assigned to a group of 8 – us 5 and 3 young girls. We had Nacho and Aqua which was a rescued dolphin who beached herself. She was rather shy and took a liking to me. The trainers noticed it and when it came time for the kiss, yours truly got not one dolphin – but the only double kiss with both Aqua and Nacho. The little girls were too squealy for her and I put it off to just having a squimmish dog (Chloe) and not moving fast. I also got to ride Aqua which was a thrill. I ended up getting about $200 worth of pictures from there. Folks, if you thought the excursion price was expensive, the pictures were even more and that is where they sock it to you. However, since I don’t like a lot of pictures of me, I did not like and therefore got them. We ran out of time for the buffet which was supposed to be provided for and for those of you planning on doing this, don’t miss it – the food was actually very good for being a buffet. My downfall to this excursion? The girls handling the pictures were very misinformed and due to one other lady buying pictures and monopolizing the one informed person, there was a big mix-up at the counter – which they only had one register. But the experience and the trainers and the dolphins were worth it for me. They do have a big tip jar for the trainers which they do ask for but not in a pushy way. If you send your kids without you, don’t forget to give them something to drop in the jar. The time they spend on us is small but I got more touching time than I would have in the Bahamas. Course its been about 10 years since I did it there. Here we did not get pushed from behind from the dolphins, we got to “ride” the dolphins, a la boogie board. I’ll post pictures when I get home.

So we get back by 5:30 and we head to the shopping terminal by the Royal Caribbean ship. We managed to spend the rest of the time –all aboard time was at 8 and we needed to souvenir shop. Along the way I managed to snag a couple of “Coach” bags that I liked. They ended up going down to $50 for all the bags (each) but 4 of the 5 were good replicas. Strong zippers, cloth interiors, accompanying paperwork and bag, imprinting bag numbers etc. One was an ok one but I just realized that any decent bag in the states runs about $50 anyway and I really liked them. Megan says that they are either stolen or damn good replicas. Who knows, I’m ok with it for now. Bad Laura – Bad Laura

I did however, leave away feeling good since I made one lady’s day. She was almost in tears and blessed me for spending my money there. She said (and it was almost 7:30 when we left her space) she’d only made about $50 the whole day –for those that have not been there yet – the shops by the ships are all little stalls with nearly identical items in each stall so you really have a great opportunity to haggle – if you don’t like the price – you move on till you find one who will bargain. This lady, I had been in her stall in the morning but didn’t want to carry anything that early in the morning. Well, remember the line that you are meant to be exactly where you are supposed to be? Yeah, well, I was. Turns out that I was standing in front of another man’s stall thinking it was her shop, for some reason, I hesitated to buy it and wandered away looking for Megan and Yesenia. Found them and was returning to buy what I wanted from the man when the lady from the morning came out of her shop and I recognized her. Needless to say she was very happy to see me back. We did our business and she was more than happy to hear that I was returning in August. Her name by the way is Inez and her stall is number 69. She was a very nice lady and gave me a bit of good news.

She was listening to my excuse of not buying any silver (I was buying some pottery) because it turns me green when she told me that was good news. I asked her why. She said that in this region, most ladies and men will adorn themselves with silver. It brings good luck is their belief. So, she told me that the local belief is that if your skin turns green or black it’s because your are envied or jealous. Someone else is envious of you – so that explains all those green necklaces. OK - all you haters out there – stop hating! ROTFL

So we head back to the ship after getting 4 bathing suits – cute – about $25 each – very cute by the way, 5 “Coach” bags and several large fruit bowls and we get back on at about 7:45. We all rush to get dressed as its Pirate night. Not many people dressed. A lot of kids but not a lot of adults. We dressed and when Andrew saw us all dressing – he split. LOL – that’s ok – we were well-prepared for him.

We were not prepared however, for the Gosh-for-saken, demon heathens that ended up on the table next to us. I mentioned a bit on the DIS about the demons. Folks, they really were all that bad.

It started when we showed up and our tablemates looked at me like – thank God. Turns out we were about 8 minutes later. I had to take a shower, the salt water was gross. Anyway, at a table of 8 were 10 kids. Seems there is this big party of 3 tables. I was told they are a large Lebanese Family that is traveling together. Well, the adults all decided to go to Palos and guess who were the lucky recipeients of their demons? Yup – all those around us.

It started with several smaller demons banging the table and getting up and lifting and swaying the draperies covering the windows in Parrot Cay. We were sitting on table 9 they were on table 8, 6, 5 and another one. Well, the kids were all noisy, jumping up and down, climbing the partition wall and circle and jumping from the circle to the floor. Meanwhile, our table is staring at the older girls sitting with the younger ones and they just stare back at us. They never once said anything to the kids. Then the food starting appearing on the table – not theirs – the ones around them. They were getting louder and louder. Our food service team were trying their best but who in tarnation goes to dinner and leaves little ones on their own? I understand one or two but 10 of them? Then the final straw for me was when some of their friends (from the ship) came and started sitting on the table with them, the little ones are getting up and jumping and bumping everyone around. Then, they start leaning up against the other table’s chairs – while people were sitting there. Then I look over at the partition wall and its crawling with 5 kids attempting to sit there. YES FOLKS, there were about 15 kids at this one table. That was it for me, I asked to speak to Javeem and he went over to try and talk with them. Remember, this whole time they are still chattering, throwing stuff and just plain not listening. When I got back, my tablemate tried to ask the older girls to please look after the kids and try to quiet them down. They did not – just got the blank stare. So we started to talk about going up to Palo’s if they didn’t settle down. Remember , we’ve said something, the head server has said something and nothing has happened. Then all of a sudden, the family at table 7 – the father turns around and yells at the little boy who has continued to throw things to knock it off. They don’t. The dinner pirate show comes on and they leave to dance. So I calm down thinking – yeah – they’ll leave now! No such luck, the come back to the table and start back to the same old bedlam. Then all of a sudden, Vern tells me that they have broken the Salt shaker. I thought he was joking. No such thing. They had been slamming their silverware against anything, glasses, table, plates, walls, anything to make noise and this one little heathen just would not stop. He was jumping from the chair to the floor and roughhousing with all the other. His sister, not to be outdone was doing the same thing. When I looked over and saw the mound of salt and broken chards of salt shaker – you all know the one – the yellow thick pottery ones in Parrot Cay. Yeah well, the kids had tried to hid it.

Well, that was it for me. I look at Vern and excused myself and headed off to Palos. When I got there, I had to explain the situation since I didn’t have a room number but once the girl saw how upset I was, she knew exactly who the parents were. So I sat down and waited for one parent to come out. When she did – she looked me up and down and you all read what I wrote on the DIS - she tried the how do you know they were my kids? (1 - I said because they were sitting at the table you were sitting a – I had asked for the parents of those sitting at table 8) , then I tried to find out if she was the adult sitting there and I got the – Why is this important to you? Question and look. I could see where this was going so I tried to explain but I was getting the – not my kids. Along this time, an older gentleman came along and said something in their language. They spoke for a few minutes, and then he tried the same thing. There are several of us – I said, ok – then you’re the parent of the group of kids sitting downstairs on table 8 that range in age from about 15 to 6-7? He nodded and I said. I hope that if anyone came to me and told me that my kids were acting up, I would be mortified to hear that. I was simply acting as a concerned parent because they were extremely rowdy. He then asked which ones and I told him, unfortunately, all of them. By this time, I was getting the cools stares and I can’t rightly blame them, - they are enjoying themselves, they did pay lots of money for them to enjoy themselves and darn it if their kids can’t enjoy themselves too. The problem is that others around them also want to enjoy themselves too. LOL – Vern even took a picture of the floor for proof. I am today really just glossing over their behavior so can you all imagine what it felt like to be going through it?
Friday morning was our character breakfast and Vern and Karen (we couldn’t get up in time) talked to the family that left early. We were all in agreement that we should have spoken up early but were all trying to be Disney about it. However, once yours truly got up to speak with the head server, the dam was broken and we all took panes to try and fix it – I do like the suggestion to kill them with kindness but these heathens would not have understood that and probably would have turned it into some kind of rock concert. LOL

I felt so bad for Jana and Mario when after I returned and explained what happened ( they were not aware of the broken salt peper and glasses) and they looked under the table. It was heartbreaking to see Jana’s face break. She looked like she wanted to cry. Both Mario and Jana apologized for that and we tried to assure them that it wasn’t their fault. But I don’t think they believe us. This morning – for character breakfast – which the characters now come back around to the tables if anyone didn’t know by now, they were again very apologetic according to Vern and Karen.

So that folks was my excitement for the night. Javeem too apologized saying this has been the first cruise that has been sooooo crazy. He has a long time married couple that in the middle of the cruise decided they would not eat together – they fought and now Javeem has to serve the man on deck 9. He said its really weird. The man ordered him to bring the food to him so he’s been playing server to him for the last 2 nights. Some people – demanding! Well I never! ROTFL!!!!!!!!! Ok – I’m not quite there. I did however, feel so much better when he confirmed that this is the strangest cruise of the summer. Very strange were his words. I wholeheartedly agreed with him. LOL I did ask him to please get it straightened out for our August cruise. He said he’ll try.

So today, was our first sea day – semi-formal and also a nice surprise – which some of you might have heard about – they did a BBQ – like they have done on PC day. Turns out they have been doing it for about 3-4 cruises and its always a highlight. I loved the steak that was great. The pineapple upside down cake was good and I got to sit outside for a while. However, the bad things continue to add up – Quiet Cove was open and hot – AC was down and I was regulated to deck 5 to type all this up. I am however done for the moment so off I go to post.

Will update later this evening – I think that Andrew has grown accustomed to his mom and sister dancing and even introduced me to his friends (that are girls) parents last night and so he actually invited me over to introduce me – probably because they wanted to meet me LOL – but then quickly uninvited me to go back to my seat. Becky’s (his friend that’s a girl) dad and I exchanged ideas on how to get Andrew’s lip ring off him but I told “Bob” I preferred that to the tongue ring and would welcome any ideas on how to persuade him to not have one. I just said I settled for the lesser of two evils at the time. It was between an eyebrow piercing or a tattoo and the lip won. Come to find out that his younger daughter – Liz – has one tattoo. So talk about opening mouth and inserting foot. Boy was my face red! ROTFL. Oh well, that’s me for you – little schlep rock.

So folks, that it for now – I will talk to you later.

Laura