We had dinner with Warner & Vivian again. This time we went to Metro 8, an Argentinian-style steakhouse. I think it would be more accurate to say though that the chefs are Argentines and so is their cooking style. We ate there 2 years ago after our first trip to Argentina and we enjoyed it. W&V had not been before but it was one of V's suggestions this week so we were happy to return. I ordered the only dessert, the dulce de leche crepes and had to share. It may have been everyone's favorite dish. Though Clay's empanadas and Warner's steak were well loved too.
It finally occurs to me that Blogger's spell check is broken and I realize now it wasn't working last week either. I hope these posts are going to embarrass me!
Last night we saw Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Clay claims he has seen the company before. I don't remember it, though I was familiar with the name from 1979-1980 or so when they were a tap/jazz company. Now, I would say they are primarily ballet dancers. The first 2 pieces of the evening had strong ballet influences. The second piece was a little more Broadway style. The 3rd pieces was firmly and extraordinarily Modern dance. The company was a joy to watch. They were strong and energetic and skilled. The vocabulary was strongly rooted in ballet with strong feet and fully extended limbs. It was a long night, but we really enjoyed it. They mostly danced in socks! I find myself amazed by this ongoing trend. The first time I remember seeing a modern company dance in socks was Shen Wei. Now that wasn't too surprising since their thing is painting the floor with their feet. You need socks to hold the paint. OK, I get that. But, we have been seeing more and more modern companies dancing in socks. This was not around in my time, you either wore specific shoes to the dancing, or you had bare feet. Now, you are just as likely to see socks. I mean are these special dance socks? Do they sell them with leotards and dance shoes? I don't know.
The really bad news of the evening was that we were surrounded by what smelled like a natural disaster like an earthquake or tornado in a department store's perfume area. It gave us both headaches. What is wrong with grown women? They must have an impaired sense of smell... and no wonder!
The night started with a 20- minute or so long Scripps Award presentation to choreographer William Forsythe. That was new. We've been coming for more than 20 years without ever opting to attend this presentation. I guess maybe when they got rid of the Thursday night performance that we inherited this. It made the night even longer since the performance got pushed back from an 8pm start. It was a touching presentation and we appreciated it, but it was not something we would have knowingly agreed to pay to sit through and we didn't. In years past, you could request tickets to this awards ceremony as a season subscriber, and we have always opted out. I guess we'll find out next year if this new format is here to stay. Obviously, it guarantees a large turnout that would otherwise not show up for an award presentation as well as saves the money from another night's facility fees. We'll see.
Can I just say, it is HOT here! I know, it's summer it should be hot. But this is crazy hot! It was 107 degrees F when we went into the DPAC and when we got back to the car at about 20 of 11pm, it was still 98 degrees F. Our new HVAC system is facing a serious and almost nonstop test! So far, so good!
Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
ADF Week 2
Here we are again, week 2. It's really summer. It's been hotter than blazes here this week. Awful humidity and no breeze. You could smell the wood fire from the coastal Croatan Forest burning. That is some stale air! In good news, gas prices are really dropping.
Clay studied menus all week and found himself overwhelmed and by Friday he had still not chosen a restaurant for Saturday night. I told him to just make a reservation at Rue Cler and it was decided. They changed their online menu literally hours before we arrived. He was still moaning about what he would eat at 4pm. At 5:35pm, sitting in the restaurant, he had to go online again with his phone to show me that they had changed the menu. It really doesn't matter, because the menu they hand us in the restaurant at the moment is the one we have to work with! As it happened (and was still not online!) we ordered the same meal we ordered last summer. Steak frites for me (the price went up by $7 both online and in reality after 4pm yesterday!) and for Clay a green salad and moules frites. We shared a half dozen small beignets for dessert. I think we both enjoyed it, but it may be our only trip this season, with the enormous markup on the steak in a day, much less in a year.
This week at ADF was Scottish Dance Theatre. It was OK. It was long. A 20+ minute intermission after an overly long 40 minute opening piece that was the weakest offering, followed by 2 much better and much shorter pieces separated by a pause. The first piece was "Lay Me Down Safe". It may have been ironically titled. I'm not sure. I hope! It began with the song " Too Drunk to F**k" (I am quoting from the program.) and really where can you go from there. It began with a stage of men in dresses. Given it is a Scottish company, I didn't let that really say much. But, the piece was, well, too young. I thought it was because I am too old. But I overheard the couple behind me discussing it afterward and they were with me that it was trying too hard and failing to communicate something, something we didn't get. I stood and stretched to see them at intermission and they were young men in their early 20's perhaps. So, it wasn't me. The piece ended with gunfire and all the dancers dropping to the stage except one startled one. That was just about too literal. It was almost wish fulfillment. I know I wasn't the only one thinking, what will it take to end this dance? Geez! I almost laughed out loud. I am fairly sure the choreographer did not mean it to be humorous though. Maybe. See?
The other 2 pieces were quite good and enjoyable and showed off the dancers' skill. I left happy and satisfied. They had a post performance discussion again. We skipped it again. We got home around 11pm. So, a late night for us. The real good news of the night according to Clay was that he had woken up before the gunfire! Right, there is a measure of success for you.
Next week is Hubbard Street Dance Company of Chicago.
Clay studied menus all week and found himself overwhelmed and by Friday he had still not chosen a restaurant for Saturday night. I told him to just make a reservation at Rue Cler and it was decided. They changed their online menu literally hours before we arrived. He was still moaning about what he would eat at 4pm. At 5:35pm, sitting in the restaurant, he had to go online again with his phone to show me that they had changed the menu. It really doesn't matter, because the menu they hand us in the restaurant at the moment is the one we have to work with! As it happened (and was still not online!) we ordered the same meal we ordered last summer. Steak frites for me (the price went up by $7 both online and in reality after 4pm yesterday!) and for Clay a green salad and moules frites. We shared a half dozen small beignets for dessert. I think we both enjoyed it, but it may be our only trip this season, with the enormous markup on the steak in a day, much less in a year.
This week at ADF was Scottish Dance Theatre. It was OK. It was long. A 20+ minute intermission after an overly long 40 minute opening piece that was the weakest offering, followed by 2 much better and much shorter pieces separated by a pause. The first piece was "Lay Me Down Safe". It may have been ironically titled. I'm not sure. I hope! It began with the song " Too Drunk to F**k" (I am quoting from the program.) and really where can you go from there. It began with a stage of men in dresses. Given it is a Scottish company, I didn't let that really say much. But, the piece was, well, too young. I thought it was because I am too old. But I overheard the couple behind me discussing it afterward and they were with me that it was trying too hard and failing to communicate something, something we didn't get. I stood and stretched to see them at intermission and they were young men in their early 20's perhaps. So, it wasn't me. The piece ended with gunfire and all the dancers dropping to the stage except one startled one. That was just about too literal. It was almost wish fulfillment. I know I wasn't the only one thinking, what will it take to end this dance? Geez! I almost laughed out loud. I am fairly sure the choreographer did not mean it to be humorous though. Maybe. See?
The other 2 pieces were quite good and enjoyable and showed off the dancers' skill. I left happy and satisfied. They had a post performance discussion again. We skipped it again. We got home around 11pm. So, a late night for us. The real good news of the night according to Clay was that he had woken up before the gunfire! Right, there is a measure of success for you.
Next week is Hubbard Street Dance Company of Chicago.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
ADF Week 1
We met Warner & Vivian in downtown Durham. We had dinner at Pop's. We didn't need a reservation, though we had one. Clay and Warner had pizzas and both left a slice. I had milk-braised pork with spaetzle and it was delicious. Vivian had baked pasta, which seemed too heavy and she only ate half. I finished Clay's pizza and left him a chunk of pork and apples and cabbage, but I ate all the spaetzle! Warner and Vivian had takeout boxes for tomorrow. Pop's was out of gelato, so we didn't stay for dessert. It was a good meal and good to catch up.
Stephen Petronio Company was the first company to perform this year on the Saturday night series. They were fantastic. We were very impressed and enjoyed the evening very much. Stephen Petronio had been the first male dancer in Trisha Brown's company, so our expectations were low. Clay particularly hates Trisha Brown's choreography. I find some of it annoying, but in the whole, I enjoy it or find it fascinating and impressive. But, Petronio's work while containing the signature back-flung arms and some of Brown's recognizable gestural movement vocabulary, was much more on the side of athleticism and dancerly movement. They performed "Underland," an hour-long single piece without intermission. It made for a perfect evening. They did have a post-performance discussion, but we did not stay.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
ADF starts this week
Summer is officially here for us with the start of 7 weeks of American Dance Festival. It is like a vacation without leaving home. We both look forward to it. Clay for the restaurant dinners, me for a little of both. I used to love the drive home late at night with the top down on the SLK, but since Clay got his new Hyundai last year, we didn't do that. Hopefully, we'll do it at least once this summer. Anyway, getting in the mood. I made a strawberry cake. One of our favorite restaurants, Tosca, went out of business last year. My favorite meal there was gnocchi and strawberry cake. I haven't found a substitute for the gnocchi, but I did find a recipe that substitutes for that cake. Hit the link and enjoy, but I'll warn you it's a lot of work for a cake! Another of our favorite restaurants went out of business last month, Magnolia Grill. The good news is that I didn't have any favorite dishes there, they just always changed the menu around too frequently for that. Clay's sister-in-law has been in touch with him and we plan to eat out with them this first ADF night. I'll be back with a report!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Yes, I made a change...
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| Bob Garner and Little Bob |
May 14, 2012 - Disembarking Disney Wonder
Here are scanned copies of the final handouts that we received delivered to our bed before disembarkation.
We only docked on the starboard side 3 times, both times here at San Pedro and once in Honolulu, HI. All the rest of the times we docked on the port side. Just in case anyone wanting to do this cruise has a preference. Of course, I guess it could vary every time!
We were tying up at Berth 93 in San Pedro, CA at 6:45am. We could see a lot of Prime Time Shuttles lined up out in the parking lot, so no worries there. We got our shipboard accounting and they credited $3.87 back to our Disney Rewards Card, which works out because it is reloadable with our Chase Disney Visa rebates.
We were out of our 7:15am Triton's breakfast by 8am. This was actually a nice touch having a sit down breakfast from a menu with our usual servers. They were calm and unrushed and very gracious with their farewells. I liked it. After breakfast, we took our carryon bags and went out the back door. We sat by a big round window in the Promenade Lounge near the back door of Triton's for about 45 minutes. They called gray Daisy Duck (2nd one after Ariel) to leave the ship by 8:45am. We were on Prime Time Shuttle by 9:15am and at LAX by 10am. (I think we paid $32 for both of us from San Pedro to LAX. So, not too bad, but a lot more than public transit. I guess that is the price you pay for speed and convenience.) As I recall, we cleared immigration, then found the room with our luggage and had to split up and really search to find all 4 pieces, then we walked through customs. Everything went smoothly except the crowded chaos of finding all of our bags which were not together anymore! After customs, I believe people with DCL transport went straight out and people going to cabs and shuttles went left. Interestingly, DCL had a lost and found station set up along there! We didn't think we'd lost anything and went on outside. Clay asked a uniformed person where to find Prime Time Shuttles and they pointed us to a podium with a Prime Time sign on it in the median across the first traffic lanes. We headed over there but the girl working at the Prime Time podium was actually with Super Shuttle. She loaded us into one of her SS vans before realizing that our reservation was with Prime Time. This was after Clay told her at least 3 times we had a Prime Time reservation. Anyway, a big kerfuffle there. If you are taking a shuttle here, pay close attention! Don't just go by signs or expect the person directing you has listened to a word you said. Yes, we did get in a blue van instead of a red one. It did get worked out, no harm done, we all apologized to one another and we got in the next Prime Time van off to LAX.
Our AA First Class award tickets got us through TSA Priority Screening but did not get us Lounge Access. Too bad. We decided not to walk down Sepulveda to In n Out after checking in our luggage. If AA had ever clearly stated anywhere that we would not get access to their lounge with our tickets, we wouldn't have gone on through security. But, they did not tell us clearly that First Class award tickets would only grant lounge access on International flights until we presented ourselves at the desk. Clay was shocked and sure that everything he had read and the Priority Access printed in all capital, bold letters on our boarding passes meant that we had lounge access. I thought it was 50/50 chance either way and if AA meant it to definitely be one way or the other, they would have written it clearly on their website or their travel terms, conditions and documents to us and instead it was very vaguely written. That meant to me, they were giving themselves the flexibility to go either way and we wouldn't know until we tried. Even with the TSA Priority security screening, we didn't want to go through that again, so once through it, we stayed in our little terminal area near gate 40.
I am sorry to report that the remainder of my day's notes were lost! I suspect the sheet I was writing on got left aboard the last plane, but in any event my notes of the day are gone and I am sad about it since it was my only experience in First Class air. What can I tell you that I remember almost a month later? It was similar to Business Class on past International flights, but without the footrest. With the extra legroom, that meant I could not use my carryon as a footrest which meant either my legs dangled, or I had to slouch down to stretch my legs to reach something to rest my feet upon. So, sadly First Class was mostly lost on me. All our flights were on time. It was nice to be able to board and deplane first! The first flight to DFW was twice as nice as the flight from DFW to RDU. It had twice the leg room and attendants were twice as attentive and pleasant. There seems no accounting for that, I would have called it the difference between business class and first class but all of our boarding passes and flight information called both segments First. I would have hated to pay First fares for that second segment! They did not show a movie on either segment on these flights home, but earbuds were free in First anyway. They offered us warm mixed nuts on each segment and then a choice of what they called snacks. We called hot, plated food served with cutlery meals. Really, the leg room on the first segment and the meals were the only thing separating it from the outbound coach flight experience. Well, that and the 5 inches between seats in a row and getting on and off first. But, man what a premium to pay!
We got home after midnight as I recall. We were pretty exhausted as it seemed like it had been a very long day. Clay took off work the following day and that was a good idea as we recovered from jet lag and a short night last night.
So, this completes my Disney Wonder Hawaii trip journal. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was actually a very relaxing vacation. That's a good thing!
I just located Clay's videos! Sorry! Rather than go back and place them in the appropriate day of the blog, I will just link them here together as a finale treat.
From Pirate night, here are ziplining Mickey Mouse and the fireworks.
From Animator's Palate Show Night.
Leaping dolphins or something else... sailing from Ensenada to Los Angeles.
Sea lions at dock at Ensenada.
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| We're back! |
We were tying up at Berth 93 in San Pedro, CA at 6:45am. We could see a lot of Prime Time Shuttles lined up out in the parking lot, so no worries there. We got our shipboard accounting and they credited $3.87 back to our Disney Rewards Card, which works out because it is reloadable with our Chase Disney Visa rebates.
We were out of our 7:15am Triton's breakfast by 8am. This was actually a nice touch having a sit down breakfast from a menu with our usual servers. They were calm and unrushed and very gracious with their farewells. I liked it. After breakfast, we took our carryon bags and went out the back door. We sat by a big round window in the Promenade Lounge near the back door of Triton's for about 45 minutes. They called gray Daisy Duck (2nd one after Ariel) to leave the ship by 8:45am. We were on Prime Time Shuttle by 9:15am and at LAX by 10am. (I think we paid $32 for both of us from San Pedro to LAX. So, not too bad, but a lot more than public transit. I guess that is the price you pay for speed and convenience.) As I recall, we cleared immigration, then found the room with our luggage and had to split up and really search to find all 4 pieces, then we walked through customs. Everything went smoothly except the crowded chaos of finding all of our bags which were not together anymore! After customs, I believe people with DCL transport went straight out and people going to cabs and shuttles went left. Interestingly, DCL had a lost and found station set up along there! We didn't think we'd lost anything and went on outside. Clay asked a uniformed person where to find Prime Time Shuttles and they pointed us to a podium with a Prime Time sign on it in the median across the first traffic lanes. We headed over there but the girl working at the Prime Time podium was actually with Super Shuttle. She loaded us into one of her SS vans before realizing that our reservation was with Prime Time. This was after Clay told her at least 3 times we had a Prime Time reservation. Anyway, a big kerfuffle there. If you are taking a shuttle here, pay close attention! Don't just go by signs or expect the person directing you has listened to a word you said. Yes, we did get in a blue van instead of a red one. It did get worked out, no harm done, we all apologized to one another and we got in the next Prime Time van off to LAX.
Our AA First Class award tickets got us through TSA Priority Screening but did not get us Lounge Access. Too bad. We decided not to walk down Sepulveda to In n Out after checking in our luggage. If AA had ever clearly stated anywhere that we would not get access to their lounge with our tickets, we wouldn't have gone on through security. But, they did not tell us clearly that First Class award tickets would only grant lounge access on International flights until we presented ourselves at the desk. Clay was shocked and sure that everything he had read and the Priority Access printed in all capital, bold letters on our boarding passes meant that we had lounge access. I thought it was 50/50 chance either way and if AA meant it to definitely be one way or the other, they would have written it clearly on their website or their travel terms, conditions and documents to us and instead it was very vaguely written. That meant to me, they were giving themselves the flexibility to go either way and we wouldn't know until we tried. Even with the TSA Priority security screening, we didn't want to go through that again, so once through it, we stayed in our little terminal area near gate 40.
I am sorry to report that the remainder of my day's notes were lost! I suspect the sheet I was writing on got left aboard the last plane, but in any event my notes of the day are gone and I am sad about it since it was my only experience in First Class air. What can I tell you that I remember almost a month later? It was similar to Business Class on past International flights, but without the footrest. With the extra legroom, that meant I could not use my carryon as a footrest which meant either my legs dangled, or I had to slouch down to stretch my legs to reach something to rest my feet upon. So, sadly First Class was mostly lost on me. All our flights were on time. It was nice to be able to board and deplane first! The first flight to DFW was twice as nice as the flight from DFW to RDU. It had twice the leg room and attendants were twice as attentive and pleasant. There seems no accounting for that, I would have called it the difference between business class and first class but all of our boarding passes and flight information called both segments First. I would have hated to pay First fares for that second segment! They did not show a movie on either segment on these flights home, but earbuds were free in First anyway. They offered us warm mixed nuts on each segment and then a choice of what they called snacks. We called hot, plated food served with cutlery meals. Really, the leg room on the first segment and the meals were the only thing separating it from the outbound coach flight experience. Well, that and the 5 inches between seats in a row and getting on and off first. But, man what a premium to pay!
We got home after midnight as I recall. We were pretty exhausted as it seemed like it had been a very long day. Clay took off work the following day and that was a good idea as we recovered from jet lag and a short night last night.
So, this completes my Disney Wonder Hawaii trip journal. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was actually a very relaxing vacation. That's a good thing!
I just located Clay's videos! Sorry! Rather than go back and place them in the appropriate day of the blog, I will just link them here together as a finale treat.
From Pirate night, here are ziplining Mickey Mouse and the fireworks.
From Animator's Palate Show Night.
Leaping dolphins or something else... sailing from Ensenada to Los Angeles.
Sea lions at dock at Ensenada.
Monday, June 11, 2012
May 13, 2012 - Day 15 Disney Wonder IN Ensenada
Photos
The photos are not in order again, because PhotoBucket. Rrrrr!
Here is today's Personal Navigator as well as the Ensenada Shopping Map and the Port Adventures sheet which I picked up at their desk.
The seas were pretty calm overnight. We had breakfast out back at BBB at 7:15am as we were docking. We saw lots of seals or sea lions and lots of birds. It looks like a quiet Sunday morning in Ensenada. All ashore is supposed to be 8am and all aboard is 4:30pm. It's 10 past 8am and we still haven't heard an announcement that the ship is cleared.
We were some of the first people off the ship right after it cleared, as we had walked down to the gangway and were standing there in line waiting for the announcement. As we exited the terminal building, a man was offering shuttle rides to town and back every 5 to 10 minutes for $3pp roundtrip. We got on his shuttle. After about 15 to 20 minutes, it still wasn't full. He decided no one else was coming off the ship and we left. As we left the port, we found the streets were closed for a marathon. We sat and watched for about 20 minutes, then wove around Ensenada for about another 20 minutes trying to find open streets to get to their terminal building. On the way, we saw nothing open. The man gave a sales spiel about how we could take his bus on out to La Bufadora (the blowhole) with shops, restaurants, and a ride back for $15pp. We both wanted to see the blowhole and there didn't seem to be anything open downtown anyway, so we did it. We got off the shuttle, bought tickets and boarded bus 41 and sat on it for another 20 minutes or so while they waited to fill that boat. (You may be noticing a pattern here and obviously our first mistake was boarding the first shuttle instead of walking into town! Or maybe not, we still don't know if we'd have found anything open or to do all Sunday morning that would have been better than how we did spend our time.)
On the bus, we got orange stickers that said Dunas Tour Company and our guide's name Alfredo, along with Habana Banana for the best cocktails. Alfredo also gave us each a coupon for a free margarita at Habana Banana. (We still have the coupons and did not drink anything other than the bottled water we carried.) The drive to La Bufadora took about an hour. It was only supposed to have been 20 or so miles south of Ensenada. Because of roads closed due to the marathon and roads under construction, it took a long time. We were glad we didn't try to rent a car here to do this as we would never have found it down the long and as far as we could see unmarked dirt road we had to navigate to get there. Our first stop was a 2nd story restroom at a restaurant. Alfredo had explained that there is no running water out here and they have to truck it in, so restrooms were a big deal. But, his company Dunas had a deal with the place he would escort us and we could use the restrooms free of charge. Needless to say, everyone took him up on the offer!
We walked through a gauntlet of shopping stalls to La Bufadora. It was a disappointment. If there was an actual blowhole here, it would only have been visible from the sea. This was more like a crevice. It appeared to be low tide, so maybe it would have been more impressive at high tide. In any event, everything was open here and there were a lot of locals strolling, lounging about and visiting La Bufadora. There did not appear to be very many ship people out here. We watched La Bufadora for a while, and walked all the way around, to study it from every possible angle.
We walked back through the gauntlet and got 2 t-shirts on the way for $10 each. They wouldn't take $8. Then we got 3 carne asada tacos. I can't explain why. Clay asked for 2 in 2 languages and sign language and every time the reply was in English, 3 tacos. OK, then. Sorry I don't recall the cost, but they were inexpensive and they accepted US Dollars. We went to the little open air cafe off the main drag behind the lot where the bus parked. We were hoping to get a little off the beaten path and avoid the people trying to sell us everything from churros to pharmaceuticals. That was a mission accomplished, no one bothered us as we ate and then sat and people-watched to wait for the bus to reopen. The tacos were freshly made the the hand made corn tortillas were very good. We reloaded the bus about 12:15pm and got back to the ship about 1:30pm.
We finally got to walk to a place at a port where we could get a partial view of Donald Duck hanging off the back of Wonder!
I can't really recommend what we did here. If I came here again, I still don't know what would be a good thing to do here. I had seen where Fox movie studios had a facility nearby and we'd have enjoyed that but it looked like a tight time fit and DCL did not offer it, so I thought that we shouldn't try it. We enjoyed watching the Mexican sea lions at the pier from the front of the ship as much as anything.
We ate lunch from the pool deck quick service places as all restaurant lunch service ended at 2pm. Nothing to do now but pack! We have dinner in Triton's tonight with the Till We Meet Again menu. The show tonight in WDT is Remember the Magic. Bags in the hall by 10pm. Out of the cabin for good by 7:15am for breakfast in Triton's. And, it looks like they expect to call our Daisy Duck luggage tag by 8:30am for us to disembark.
Some comments on our wines: Vendage & Bota Box Pinot Grigio we found undrinkable. We routinely drive a $3 a bottle Oak Creek Pinot Grigio at home, so our standards are NOT high. It would be a serious fail for us to find a wine undrinkable. But, we did and poured these out! The Bandit Riesling and Pinot Grigio were both drinkable. We are not wine snobs, but we usually have a glass with dinner and generally only drink white, so we have pretty low standards and your mileage may vary! We had just never purchased wine in cartons like these and the selection was very limited and we didn't have any idea what to expect. That said, we did not expect to find any so bad that we would dump it down the sink!
I found nothing I liked on tonight's menu again. For me, it seemed like the last 2 nights had too many weird meats and fish dishes. It was like someone looked in the freezer halfway back across the Pacific and thought, oh geez, we've gotta clear out all this pheasant, duck, lamb and crab... We'd already eaten all the normal stuff! Clay had cranberry salad and lamb. I had potato & warm goat cheese followed by the plain chicken breast with steamed veggies and rice. It was like hospital food. For dessert, Clay had the apple and cranberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. I was having trouble deciding and finally went with Baked Alaska. It was OK, but they also brought a Chocolate Decadence since I asked about it first. I had a similar cake thing earlier and didn't like it then either, but Clay did like it and he ate it. He ate most of my Baked Alaska too. They put on a big International flags parade with flaming Baked Alaskas. It was special.
The WDT show was a combo production and variety show in the same style as the first night's show with the Christiaan talking alot. Dreams was the best show followed by Toy Story. The rest I could skip. I think maybe our expectations were too high for Disney entertainment, but yet that seems unlikely doesn't it? Anyway, I think we were both rather disappointed with the offerings.
We have to get up early tomorrow to be out of the cabin and in Triton's at 7:15am for our assigned seating at table 22 for breakfast. It is definitely working out as one of those hurry up and get on your way cruise endings. Bags were picked up between 9:30 and 10:30pm. So, one sleep, one breakfast and it's over; 2 "Wonder"ful weeks!
Photos
The photos are not in order again, because PhotoBucket. Rrrrr!
Here is today's Personal Navigator as well as the Ensenada Shopping Map and the Port Adventures sheet which I picked up at their desk.
The seas were pretty calm overnight. We had breakfast out back at BBB at 7:15am as we were docking. We saw lots of seals or sea lions and lots of birds. It looks like a quiet Sunday morning in Ensenada. All ashore is supposed to be 8am and all aboard is 4:30pm. It's 10 past 8am and we still haven't heard an announcement that the ship is cleared.
We were some of the first people off the ship right after it cleared, as we had walked down to the gangway and were standing there in line waiting for the announcement. As we exited the terminal building, a man was offering shuttle rides to town and back every 5 to 10 minutes for $3pp roundtrip. We got on his shuttle. After about 15 to 20 minutes, it still wasn't full. He decided no one else was coming off the ship and we left. As we left the port, we found the streets were closed for a marathon. We sat and watched for about 20 minutes, then wove around Ensenada for about another 20 minutes trying to find open streets to get to their terminal building. On the way, we saw nothing open. The man gave a sales spiel about how we could take his bus on out to La Bufadora (the blowhole) with shops, restaurants, and a ride back for $15pp. We both wanted to see the blowhole and there didn't seem to be anything open downtown anyway, so we did it. We got off the shuttle, bought tickets and boarded bus 41 and sat on it for another 20 minutes or so while they waited to fill that boat. (You may be noticing a pattern here and obviously our first mistake was boarding the first shuttle instead of walking into town! Or maybe not, we still don't know if we'd have found anything open or to do all Sunday morning that would have been better than how we did spend our time.)
I can't really recommend what we did here. If I came here again, I still don't know what would be a good thing to do here. I had seen where Fox movie studios had a facility nearby and we'd have enjoyed that but it looked like a tight time fit and DCL did not offer it, so I thought that we shouldn't try it. We enjoyed watching the Mexican sea lions at the pier from the front of the ship as much as anything.
I found nothing I liked on tonight's menu again. For me, it seemed like the last 2 nights had too many weird meats and fish dishes. It was like someone looked in the freezer halfway back across the Pacific and thought, oh geez, we've gotta clear out all this pheasant, duck, lamb and crab... We'd already eaten all the normal stuff! Clay had cranberry salad and lamb. I had potato & warm goat cheese followed by the plain chicken breast with steamed veggies and rice. It was like hospital food. For dessert, Clay had the apple and cranberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. I was having trouble deciding and finally went with Baked Alaska. It was OK, but they also brought a Chocolate Decadence since I asked about it first. I had a similar cake thing earlier and didn't like it then either, but Clay did like it and he ate it. He ate most of my Baked Alaska too. They put on a big International flags parade with flaming Baked Alaskas. It was special.
We have to get up early tomorrow to be out of the cabin and in Triton's at 7:15am for our assigned seating at table 22 for breakfast. It is definitely working out as one of those hurry up and get on your way cruise endings. Bags were picked up between 9:30 and 10:30pm. So, one sleep, one breakfast and it's over; 2 "Wonder"ful weeks!
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